“Very well.” She signalled that he might rise. Huy stood, taking the graceful hand extended to him and kissing it lightly. “Go and mollify Their Majesties before you embark for the north. I wish you success in the culmination of your quest. Send me scrolls of your progress, and may the soles of your feet be firm. I love you, dear friend.”
I love you also, Huy thought as he bowed and walked into the dazzling heat of mid-morning. There is no one whose advice I value more, but I have a growing suspicion that no advice will be able to save me from the solution Atum expects. I thank the gods that I need not ponder the matter for weeks to come.
To Huy’s surprise and relief, his interview with Amunhotep and Tiye did not take long. Both of them seemed to have accepted the necessity of his absence. Amunhotep, entirely sober, grudgingly agreed to attend the morning audiences and make decisions together with Chief Royal Treasurer Sobekhmose and Seal Bearer and Chief Scribe Nebmerut. “Everything will be sent on to you, though,” he said. “It’s a nuisance, Uncle, to tie up the majority of my heralds in running to the Delta and back, but there’s no choice. Why don’t you just ask that the scroll be brought to you here? I’ll provide an escort for it of as many soldiers as you like.”
“It may be in a very fragile condition, Majesty,” Huy replied. “Having it carried south, no matter how carefully, might irreparably damage it. Besides, I doubt if Ptah’s archivist will allow it to leave his care.” He spread his hands. “You own Egypt, Amunhotep,” he pressed. “All of it is yours under Ma’at. You’re entirely capable of taking the reins of government from my hands for a few months, even though—”
“Even though your hunting dogs and concubines will have to amuse themselves,” Tiye broke in firmly. “Huy has had no rest from the demands of government since you made him your mer kat. What emergency could possibly arise that can’t be dealt with by you and Huy’s advisers, my love? Anyway, when was the last time Huy made a personal request of you? Let him go.” Her kohled eyes met Huy’s then slid away.
You see this as an opportunity to sample the taste of real power, don’t you, my Empress? Amunhotep will quickly tire of morning audiences and long meetings with the ministers, but you will not.
“Well, what if you die of some accident or disease?” Amunhotep grumbled. “Then Tiye and I will never know the substance of the vision regarding my little Prince.”
“It resides with my scribe Paneb. If I die, you may immediately request it from him.”
“The gods will not allow you to die, mer kat. Not yet.” Tiye was leaning forward. “Now acquaint His Majesty with any current business in which you are engaged, then go with our blessing.”
The brief exchange was over. Huy, bowing himself out, felt a pang of possessiveness towards the many complex duties he was relinquishing into the Empress’s greedy hands, but the emotion was quickly submerged under a flood of anticipation. He was temporarily free.
HIS BARGE PULLED AWAY from his watersteps just before sunset, followed by the two vessels carrying his servants and belongings. He intended to sail downriver until he had rounded the bend that took a leisurely sweep eastward before the water returned to its northerly flow and the bustle and noise of the city was behind him. The month of Phamenoth was almost over. Egypt’s fields lay carpeted with newly sprouted green crops, its canals still largely full. The river below Huy flowed gently toward the north. Huy, leaning on the rail, watched the sky gradually darken and the stars appear. Nasha’s perfume drifted up to him. She was sitting on a stool by his side, stirring occasionally, hands folded in her lap. Huy had rightly assumed that she would want to travel as far as Thothmes’ home at Iunu. He was eager to see his old friend but did not regret the fact that he would be disembarking at Mennofer, a full day’s journey south of that city. Ramose had also begged to be included in the flotilla. He was returning to the Aten’s temple at Iunu, where he would perform his overt duties as a steward and prepare his customary private report for Queen Mutemwia. He and Nasha will be good company on the long journey, Huy reflected. They will prevent me from becoming too preoccupied with the task facing me. How good it is to be away from the demands of the court!
By the time Huy stood beside his litter on the palace’s water-steps at Mennofer and watched his barge continue north, the Inundation had begun. It was the middle of Pharmuthi. A full month had slid by since Weset had sunk below the horizon. His other boats were being tethered to the posts sunk at the foot of the steps. In a moment the ramps would be run out and servants and goods would begin to file along the edge of the guarded canal, across the vast concourse, and into the emptiness of the labyrinthine residence.
Huy had decided to occupy whatever quarters lay closest to the Temple of Ptah, in the southern palace apartments, so he could easily reach the temple without his litter. The Fine District of Pharaoh was surrounded by a high and sturdy wall and bisected north to south by another wall sealing off the palace from the ancient White Walls, the Citadel, and the large District of Ptah. Two canals met the outer main wall. The northern waterway ended at the edge of the stone forecourt leading to the palace’s main reception hall. The second, farther south, ended at the bisecting interior wall, and was intended to accommodate those privileged worshippers arriving by skiff. There was a gate and a short paved avenue leading directly under Ptah’s entrance pylon and into the wide outer court. All Huy had to do was walk to the head of the canal, go through the gate, and take the few steps to reach the towering pylon. He neither knew nor cared whose rooms were filling with the chaos of unloading under Amunmose’s sharp eye. They were larger than his previous apartment, with a garden between the outer doors of his reception room and the inner wall cutting through the precincts, and a massive cedar door that protected him from the reverential comings and goings along the god’s canal. Even though the King was not in residence, soldiers guarded every entrance and exit. The palace at Mennofer was ancient and sacred.
Quelling the urge to send a message to the temple immediately, Huy took Perti with him and escaped from the temporary chaos in the apartment to find the captain of the guards. He did not hurry. The huge building was blessedly quiet, the corridors dim, the air untainted by the scents of human occupation. No distasteful aroma of jasmine carrying its weight of unhappy memories, Huy thought, listening to the echoes of his and Perti’s sandalled feet against the walls they were passing. No need to thread my way through a constant press of servants and courtiers, acknowledging bows and greetings, my mind full of a dozen tasks to be accomplished before I can retreat to the cramped quarters that were assigned to me here. My full attention will go to the scroll. The baby Prince’s Seeing will be relegated to the verge of my consciousness. But his spurt of exhilaration was short-lived. He was midway along a wide, dusky passage when he thought he heard the sound of a faint scrabble behind him, and his nostrils filled with the acrid whiff of a wild animal. Gripping Perti’s arm, he came to an abrupt halt.
“There’s something following us,” he said. “Some kind of a dog. I caught its odour briefly. Listen.” He wanted to turn around, to see one of the greyhounds the King used for hunting emerge from the gloom at the far end, but he did not dare.
Perti was scanning their surroundings. Finally he shook his head. “I smell nothing, and if an animal was trailing us, we would have known about it sooner. I can walk back, Master, but I think it’s just the sheer emptiness of this place distorting the noise of our feet and our breathing.”
Huy did not answer him. They set off again at a brisker pace. Huy’s spine prickled. So even here, where I’ve come in obedience to the will of Atum, I am to be shadowed, he thought with an anger tinged in fear. He was very glad to emerge from the palace into bright sunlight and the tug of a hot wind.
Perti escorted him back to the apartment before leaving to order the necessary new duties for the soldiers now under his command, and closing the wide doors behind him with a moment of inner relief, Huy beckoned Amunmose. Much of the disorder had disappeared and the reception roo
m was quiet.
“Rakhaka and his staff have gone to the kitchens to prepare a meal,” Amunmose said in answer to Huy’s question. “He’s grumbling about the distance he and the food must travel, but then he always finds something to complain about. Your couch is dressed and your chests unpacked. Amun and Khenti-kheti have been placed in their shrines. I’ve spread the servants out in the other apartments along this corridor. Kenofer’s gone to see that the nearest bathhouse is ready for you. I don’t know what happened to the wine jars, but I dare say someone will appear to tell me before long.” He grinned. “I’m going to enjoy being the only chief steward in residence, Huy. Do you need anything?”
“Yes. Find Paneb and Ba-en-Ra.” He went to the nearest chair and sat.
Amunmose sketched a bow. “I gave them separate quarters. Paneb already has a pile of papyrus from Weset for you to deal with.” He hurried away.
The doors to the little garden were open and guarded. Huy looked past the two broad-shouldered soldiers to the dazzle of sun-drenched growth beyond. The grass was yellowing. Amunmose must find a couple of men to water it each evening, Huy thought, but behind the thought was a sudden anxiety. A hyena could easily slip past my guards and come in if I don’t keep the doors shut. It could pad through the reception room, find my bedchamber, be squatting on my couch and waiting for me. He stirred. But no. Doors open or closed mean nothing to the creature Anubis controls and Imhotep caresses, the emissary whose message I’m unable to comprehend. He was glad when his scribe and his herald came purposefully towards him over the blue and white tiled floor.
He dictated a polite letter to the archivist of Ptah’s House of Life, warning him that he would be present to examine the scroll the following morning, and gave it to Ba-en-Ra to deliver at once. Then with a lighter heart he turned his attention to the number of scrolls Paneb had placed on the table beside him. Tomorrow I will see the end of a long and troubling journey, he told himself, listening to Paneb read while his excitement mounted. High Priest Ptahhotep is in residence at Weset. As one of Amunhotep’s Fanbearers he has little time to spare for his duties to Ptah here in Mennofer. A good thing—I have no desire to discharge what would have been a necessary obligation to acquaint him with my findings, seeing that the scroll belongs to his temple. Dealing with the archivist will be annoying enough.
He slept poorly that night, waking often on the unfamiliar couch to lie and listen to the deep silence of empty corridors and dark, untenanted rooms. He half expected to hear the scrabble of animal claws against the tiling of his floor before feeling the weight of a lean body settle beside his knees, but the shadows remained still. Each time he returned to consciousness the ache for more poppy woke with him, but he was used to this particular demand, a craving that had now become constant, and he was able to cocoon it within thoughts of the scroll. When he heard Kenofer cough and rustle as he rose from his pallet outside the door, Huy got up, wrapped himself in a sheet, and went to greet his bleary-eyed body servant. The sun had not yet risen.
Huy was tempted to order a larger dose of poppy than usual, but refrained from doing so for fear it would make him sluggish and blunt his faculties when the scroll was placed in his hands. I should not be allowing myself this extreme anticipation, he thought as later he made his way to the nearest bathhouse, where Kenofer waited. The only evidence I have that the last words of the Book of Thoth will unroll before me is the fact that Imhotep is rumoured to have served as High Priest in Ptah’s temple. I should be cautious, doubting, ready for disappointment. But he was unable to stem the flow of euphoria quickening his heartbeat.
Returning to the apartment, he forced himself to eat a small amount of bread and cheese, had Kenofer dress him in the sumptuous kilt, sandals, and jewellery he would have worn to any New Year’s celebration under the King’s gaze, and taking Perti and a small contingent of soldiers he walked across the garden and out through the gate, and turned left to where Ptah’s short canal lay glittering in the morning sunlight. He had declined Paneb’s offer to accompany him and had left his own scribe’s palette behind. “If the scroll is a part of the Book of Thoth, I won’t need the contents written down, thank you, Paneb,” he had said, “and if it isn’t, I have no interest in whatever it might contain.”
He did not open a conversation with Perti, who according to protocol had to wait for his master to speak first, but Perti seemed to sense his preoccupied mood and simply matched his stride as they accompanied the canal and were soon walking through the pylon and into the temple’s vast outer court. Here Huy paused. A flow of white-sheathed young women carrying sistra was emerging from the inner court and hurrying to where an untidy heap of sandals lay. Behind them came the three musicians who had joined the dancers in welcoming the god to the advent of a new day, and a priest stood just within the smaller court and watched them. A flood of chatter had broken out, but as the girls became aware of Huy and his escort it died away. One by one they slipped past Huy with bows and were gone. The priest was already striding towards him with a smile of welcome.
“Mer kat! I received your message and passed it on to our archivist, but there was little time to send a reply, and besides, we are all at your immediate service for as long as you are studying the scroll.” He halted and bowed. “I am Neb-Ra, Second Prophet of Ptah. My father was Second Prophet before me. I was little more than a child, but I remember your illustrious brother the noble Heby on his frequent visits to the temple during his years as Mennofer’s Mayor.” He had begun to shepherd Huy and the soldiers towards the entrance to the inner court. “If you will wait here, I will fetch Archivist Penbui, and also bring the servant I have assigned to see to your needs. Your personal guard is not really necessary—the temple guards are all well-seasoned men. But of course if you want them to attend you outside the House of Life, they will be cared for. No, do not remove your sandals. The doorway you see just this side of the inner court leads to the passage that will take you past the priests’ cells and on to the House of Life. Stand in the shadow—the morning is becoming hot.” With another bow, he disappeared.
Huy turned to Perti. “I don’t think there’s much to fear from the temple’s staff. All the same, I’d like familiar faces outside the House. I may be here all day, or you and I may be straggling back to the palace in a matter of moments.” His stomach gave a sudden lurch, and he could feel his heart throbbing against the soft linen of his shirt. Very soon, his mind whispered. Very soon …
The man who had already performed several deep bows before he came up to Huy was clad in a voluminous white gown. The brown leather sandals on his wide feet had obviously been mended several times. His only piece of jewellery appeared to be a tiny golden ankh earring no larger than the lobe where it rested. His scalp was shaved. Extending both naked arms, he gave Huy a final reverence, and lifted a face seamed with age but dominated by a pair of merry brown eyes.
“Keeper, I think I know you,” Huy said. “Have we met before?”
“No, mer kat, but my brother Khanun was Keeper of the House of Life at Thoth’s temple in Khmun. He spoke of you often when we met. He was pleased to receive your letters.”
“Of course. I became fond of him on the occasions when I was forced to read the portions of the Book stored at Khmun. He was very kind to an unhappy boy. I promised to impart the meaning of the Book to him, but as yet I have not solved the riddle. Is Khanun still alive?”
“Unfortunately not, noble one. If the scroll in my care belongs to the Book, perhaps you will tell me the meaning so that I can include it in my prayers to Khanun.”
They had approached the door, gone through it, and were walking side by side along the open-roofed passage, Perti and the soldiers behind. Suddenly, on a wave of nostalgia, Huy missed his old friend, Khenti-kheti’s priest Methen, and his little cell in the god’s modest precinct at Hut-herib. A grand new temple to Huy’s first totem was rising on the foundations of that original shrine. Huy had personally chosen the architects and stonemasons who were to bring
his vision to life, and construction had begun four years ago. It was a tribute to the god’s priest as much as to Khenti-kheti himself, but Methen was dead, and most of Huy’s devotion to the project had died with him. I need you beside me now, Huy said silently to the man who had carried him home from the House of the Dead and been his protector and mentor from then on. You of all people deserve to be the first to receive Thoth’s wisdom. Nothing and no one can replace you.
“The scroll,” he said abruptly. “You’ve unrolled it, Keeper Penbui?”
“Of course.” A group of acolytes had appeared and were pressing themselves against the rough wall of the passage in order to let Huy and his entourage pass by. They managed to bow, and Huy nodded to them, remembering his days as a boy at Ra’s temple school. “As Chief Archivist I am expert at the handling and restoration of ancient papyrus.”
“So the scroll is indeed ancient? Is it in need of restoration?” The question was vital and in asking it Huy felt his throat go dry. The previous scrolls the Book comprised had been in perfect condition.
Penbui smiled across at him. “The papyrus has darkened with age but is not in the least brittle, mer kat. I was able to unroll it easily.”
A dozen more questions sprang to Huy’s mind. What of the hieroglyphs? Are they as ancient as the papyrus? Could you decipher any of them? How thick is the scroll? Instead he said, “Is it proven that Imhotep was once a High Priest of Ptah here in Mennofer?”
“But of course.” Penbui had come to a halt before the closed doors of a long stone building that seemed to stretch all the way back to the high wall sheltering and surrounding the whole precinct of the temple. “We treasure several of his works to do with the use of magic, and a couple of his original plans for his King’s monuments. You didn’t know this?”
The King's Man Page 35
