The Assassins of Isis

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by P. C. Doherty


  Valu: the ‘Eyes and Ears’ of Pharaoh: royal prosecutor

  Omendap: Commander-in-Chief of Egypt’s armies

  THE HALL OF TWO TRUTHS

  Amerotke: Chief Judge of Egypt

  Prenhoe: Amerotke’s kinsman, a scribe in the Hall of Two Truths

  Asural: Captain of the Temple Guard of the Temple of Ma’at in which the Hall of Two Truths stands

  Shufoy: a dwarf, Amerotke’s manservant and confidant

  Norfret: Amerotke’s wife

  Ahmase and

  Curfay: Amerotke’s sons

  THE TEMPLE OF ISIS

  Impuki: High Priest and Principal Physician

  Lady Thena: Impuki’s wife

  Paser: Impuki’s deputy

  Mafdet: Captain of the Temple Guard

  THE HOUSE OF GENERAL SUTEN

  Suten: retired senior general

  Lupherna: Suten’s wife

  Menna: Chief Scribe

  Heby: Suten’s valet

  OTHER CHARACTERS

  Nadif: officer in the Medjay, desert police

  The Shardanna: a former member of the Sebaus

  Djed: a member of the Sebaus

  Hefau and Apep: snake men

  Sithia: a courtesan, member of the Sebaus

  Nethba: a Theban noble woman

  Sese: father of Nethba, former royal architect

  Rahimere: disgraced former Grand Vizier of Egypt

  Also by Paul Doherty and available from Headline

  The Rose Demon

  The Soul Slayer

  The Haunting

  Domina

  The Plague Lord

  Murder Imperial

  An Evil Spirit Out of the West

  Ancient Egyptian mysteries

  The Mask of Ra

  The Horus Killings

  The Anubis Slayings

  The Slayers of Seth

  The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan

  The Nightingale Gallery

  The House of the Red Slayer

  Murder Most Holy

  The Anger of God

  By Murder’s Bright Light

  The House of Crows

  The Assassin’s Riddle

  The Devil’s Domain

  The Field of Blood

  The House of Shadows

  Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries

  Satan in St Mary’s

  Crown in Darkness

  Spy in Chancery

  The Angel of Death

  The Prince of Darkness

  Murder Wears a Cowl

  The Assassin in the Greenwood

  The Song of a Dark Angel

  Satan’s Fire

  The Devil’s Hunt

  The Demon Archer

  The Treason of the Ghosts

  Corpse Candle

  The Magician’s Death

  The Canterbury Tales of murder and mystery

  An Ancient Evil

  Being the Knight’s Tale

  A Tapestry of Murders

  Being the Man of Law’s Tale

  A Tournament of Murders

  Being the Franklin’s Tale

  Ghostly Murders

  Being the Priest’s Tale

  The Hangman’s Hymn

  Being the Carpenter’s Tale

  A Haunt of Murder

  Being the Clerk of Oxford’s Tale

  The Journals of Sir Roger Shallot

  The White Rose Murders

  Poisoned Chalice

  The Grail Murders

  Brood of Vipers

  The Gallows Murders

  The Relic Murders

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This novel contains many strands of life in Egypt as it approached the zenith of its glory during the Eighteenth Dynasty. I have referred to the royal Necropolis as the Valley of the Kings, though that was a name given to it by later generations. However, what is a definite fact is that the robbery of royal tombs became ancient Egypt’s second oldest profession. The robberies were often highly organised and led by nobles and officials who had access to secret information. Some of these robberies were breathtaking in their daring. For example, during the Twenty-first Dynasty, the princess Henttawy, daughter of a high priest, was robbed even before she was buried. A very interesting source is the Papyrus Salt 124 (formerly known as British Library Manuscript 10055), which gives a vivid description of a gang like the Sebaus robbing tombs during the reign of Sety II. The organising genius behind this was a high-ranking official called Paneb who received a great deal of help from a very corrupt vizier. Surviving records known as the Tomb Robbery Papyri describe similar robberies during the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Rameses III. The target of these robberies was no less than the burial place of Egypt’s greatest king, Rameses II, and his magnificent House of a Million Years in the Valley of the Kings.

  Sometimes important documents were buried with Pharaohs. In the 1920s, when Howard Carter first discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, he thought he would find highly confidential manuscripts buried with the boy king. In his search for them, Carter unearthed a dual mystery. Tutankhamun’s tomb contained two guardian statues, and it looked as if manuscripts had been hidden there but then taken out and the holes in the statue carefully gessoed over. More surprisingly, Carter also discovered evidence that, shortly after Tutankhamun was buried, the tomb was opened again. The first opening was a robbery which was undoubtedly discovered, but the second was the work of a high-ranking official known as Maya. It would seem from my researches that Maya did not only restore certain goods to Tutankhamun’s tomb but may have taken specific items out.

  The relationship between Hatusu and Senenmut was very close. Graffiti dating from shortly after Hatusu’s reign depicted this relationship in very crude and explicit terms. Hatusu may have had a daughter by Senenmut, although this child never succeeded her. For some strange reason Hatusu also had a special devotion to that rather ancient god of Egypt, Khnum. Her memorial temple at Deir-el-bahri possesses a drawing of the god Khnum creating the Pharaoh Queen on his potter’s wheel!

  The temple life described in this novel reflects the reality of the early years of Hatusu’s reign. The great temples of ancient Egypt were like the cathedral abbeys of the Middle Ages; they were not only centres of worship but businesses possessing their own academies and schools.

  There is no clear source which proves that the Egyptians dissected corpses, but sometimes the medical knowledge of Egyptian physicians is truly astonishing, particularly the treatment of wounds and some quite sophisticated internal complaints. Specialist physicians took rather strange titles such as ‘Guardian of the Ear’ or ‘Guardian of the Anus’. The only conclusion I can draw from their expertise and perceptive comments about certain diseases and illnesses is that dissection was carried out but never discussed. One example of their knowledge will suffice: the Egyptians were very careful to clean wounds. They possessed the herbs to accomplish this and were very careful about how wounds were bandaged, deliberately keeping dressings loose to allow the wound to breathe and clear itself of any pus, a practice the British Army ignored to its cost until after the First World War!

  THE ASSASSINS OF ISIS.

  Copyright © 2004 by P. C. Doherty

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  eISBN 9781429937344

  First eBook Edition : October 2011

  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35960-7

  ISBN-10: 0-312-35960-8

  First published in Great Britain by Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline

  First St. Martin’s Minotaur Edition: November 2006

 

 


 


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