Murder in the Palace: A Nikolas of Kydonia Mystery

by Iain Campbell

  It was mid-afternoon on a typically clear and sunny winter day; the weather was warm but not hot. The transports pulled into the stone quay to quickly disembark the troops. The supplies and stores remained loaded as in two or three days they would be sailing further south after the Aswan garrison had been readied to depart.

  Kahun stood on the dock to greet Nikolas and Kiya as they arrived, resplendent in the grand new headdress that showed his newly promoted rank; Kahun was to be General Minnakht’s idnw n mSa, the deputy-commander on the expedition south. There was usually a garrison of 1,000 troops at Aswan, rotated to relieve the smaller garrisons of the fortresses at the towns that hugged the river on the southern border region.

  “Welcome back!” shouted Kahun as he embraced first Nikolas and then, more lingeringly, Kiya.

  Nikolas saw Umtau hanging back and strode over to greet him, clasping his forearm and giving him a buffet on the shoulder. “Well, if it isn’t our best spy!” exclaimed Nikolas. Umtau beamed happily to see Nikolas and Kiya and kept bobbing his head in delight. Kiya stepped forward and gave Umtau a hug, the top of her head barely reaching the chest of the Nubian giant. Nikolas asked, “Umtau, we’re heading south with the army. We want to finish what we’ve started and Kiya and I can be of help with the injured. Will you come with us and help?” Umtau nodded happily, his white teeth showing like pearls in his black face as he grinned.

  Kahun quickly put the Aswan garrison on war footing, ordering most of the troops to be ready to embark the morning after next.

  Three other transport ships at the docks were requisitioned and food, weapons and other supplies from the garrison’s storehouses were hurriedly loaded. Some of the soldiers disembarked from the ships and marched to the barracks, others set up a tent encampment just outside the city walls. As the troops had been cooped up in the ships for several days their officers took the opportunity to drill them and to have weapon-practice. Soon the barracks drill-square was full of pairs of men swinging wooden practice-swords at each other, shouting and stamping their feet as they did so. In the archery butts bowmen carefully aimed and loosed at the targets a hundred paces away. Dust and noise filled the city as 2,500 soldiers moved quickly hither and thither like a disturbed ants nest.

  Nikolas and Kiya claimed rooms at the Nomarch’s palace, taking over Khui’s former apartment there. Nomarch Hapimen and his wife Nebetah were interviewed that afternoon by Kahun, with Nikolas and Kiya looking on. They denied any knowledge of a plot against Pharaoh and expressed surprise at Padiamun’s actions.

  The several secret-policemen who had accompanied the army south rigorously questioned some of the Nomarch’s staff, as well as those of Padiamun’s staff who had not fled. Kahun had forbidden them to question the middle-ranking officers who remained; they were unlikely to have been involved in the plot and their presence was essential for morale and command as the army marched south.

  They soon came to the conclusion that Nomarch Hapimen was either a skilled liar or was innocent of anything but incompetence. Kahun ordered Hapimen and his family to be confined on their nearby country estate and sent a message to Ramesses that he needed to appoint a strong and competent governor as soon as possible. Kahun then spent the rest of the afternoon sending messages calling in the supervisors of the various mines in the area and reviewing the records of mine production and supply allocation.

  After returning to the privacy of Khui’s vacant apartment Nikolas and Kiya dismissed the body-slaves who wanted to attend to them and then bathed away the dirt and sweat accumulated in several days on the river transport. “Why have slaves to look after you, when you can do this better yourself?” asked Nikolas rhetorically as he carefully soaped Kiya’s pert breasts before progressing to her stomach and then further down. Kiya’s hands were also busy, and as her mouth was full she didn’t reply. After leaving the water-soaked bathroom they spent the rest of the night enjoying each other.

  T T T T

  Early next morning a tired but happy Nikolas met with Sinhue, the expedition doctor.

  “Kiya and myself will be going this morning to a mining village just south of the city; it’s called Shallal,” said Nikolas. “The village has been deprived of proper food and medicines until recently and has a colony of lepers. Last time we were here we worked with one of the women of the village, Henut, and were able to give her some knowledge, but if you aren’t doing anything else today you may like to come with us and pass on your knowledge.”

  Sinhue readily agreed. After first checking the market to make sure that Henut wasn’t in the city, Nikolas requisitioned a few supplies from the medical transport, bought other herbs and remedies from a local apothecary and hired some donkeys. It was mid-morning as they left the city through the south gate, waving an acknowledgement to the salutes of the half-dozen soldiers standing guard at the gate. Nikolas had ensured that this time he had a well-filled purse with him, not needing to pretend to be a poor itinerant healer on this journey. Nikolas and Kiya wore long enveloping robes and cloths to protect their heads and faces from the sun. In Nikolas’ case this was because his fair skin was sensitive to the sun – he still had scars on his shoulders from the sunburn he’d suffered at Kharga; Kiya because the Egyptians, like many peoples, associated a person with light skin to be noble or well-to-do and a person with skin darkened by exposure to the sun to be a poor field-worker.

  They quickly covered the two miles through the dry sun-blasted hills and crested the last hill to see the village a short distance ahead; once again the village men could be seen toiling in the quarry cut into the next hillside beyond the village; the small group of old men sat under shade of an awning repairing tools, and smoke rose from several cooking fires. A small herd of goats, several with kids and in milk, could be seen grazing on the leaves of a few stunted bushes behind the houses, supervised by two of the older children; other younger children were naked and playing a ball game happily in the dirt near the stone wall of the village well.

  As Nikolas and the others rode the donkeys down the hill, leading the donkey that carried the supplies, shouts of welcome came from below as they were recognized. When they approached the edge of the village a chattering mob of happy laughing children surrounded them. Most of the women, led by Henut and Ashait, left the huts and approached smiling. Several men, including the village headman Siptah, hurried down the hill from the quarry. Ashait and Henut gravely embraced both Nikolas and Kiya and the other women gathered around Kiya, holding her hands and touching her clothes.

  The villagers looked much more healthy than when they had last seen them. In a scant few days the nursing-mothers had gone from having dry flat and wrinkled dugs to rounded breasts – the change was obvious as like most villagers the women wore only brief skirts about their waists. The children were no longer listless and showed little sign of the endemic eye infections that had been previously present. Nikolas felt that the evident change to the health of the villagers was little less than miraculous. He turned to Sinhue, and said, “Only a few weeks ago these people were slowly starving. You can still see some sign of the swollen bellies that malnutrition gave the very young. It’s amazing what a little extra food and some medical care will do.”

  “What happened?” asked Sinhue.

  “The village rations provided by Pharaoh for working in the granite quarry were being stolen by the mine supervisor and the quarry quotas were increased. There just simply wasn’t enough food, particularly with the villagers sharing with the leper colony over there,” here Nikolas pointed to the other group of huts. “We came across them a few weeks ago, gave them some medical attention and showed one of their young women how to use the common remedies; they have no skilled Wise-Woman. We left them what deben we could spare. Pharaoh now knows what’s been happening and Kahun has been given free rein to take what action he sees fit. I expect that in the next few days there will be a number of former supervisors who are missing their right hands and looking for new employment!”

  Sinhue nod
ded his agreement. Siptah strode up and embraced both Nikolas and Kiya, and then grasped Sinhue’s forearm when introduced.

  “Greetings, friends! Greetings!” said Siptah enthusiastically. “As you can see we’ve used the metal you left with us and have bought food and these goats; three are with young at foot, two are in kid, and also a billy. We give the milk to the young children. Henut works to heal our people as you taught and goes to the city three days a decan to work with the Wise-Woman as you arranged.”

  Nikolas nodded happily, certain that the small fees that Henut earned from her work in the city had also been used for the benefit of the village.

  Sinhue was looking a little impatient at this orgy of welcome and congratulation and suggested that they get to work. The baskets were quickly taken off the pack-donkey and carried to Siptah’s house, where the medical work was still carried out. Kiya suggested that the village consider erecting a large hut in which Henut could live and work. As Henut was an attractive young woman, and as she now had her own trade, Kiya was sure that she would soon attract the eye of a suitable young bachelor.

  In Siptah’s house the previous patients, mainly young children, were quickly examined. Sinhue, Nikolas and Kiya each dealt with a small line of patients and took turns to show Henut where treatment had been successful, or more treatment was needed. There were two pregnant women very close to their time and Sinhue carefully examined them, reassuring both that all was well and the babies in proper position with heads engaged; their labours should be easy.

  Nikolas was surprised that a battlefield surgeon should have such knowledge of obstetrics.

  “Most of my time is spent in camp,” said Sinhue, washing his hands before moving to the next patient. “I spend much of my time dealing with injuries caused by accidents, or the needs of the camp-followers. Battlefield injuries come rarely, but then in great numbers. Pity we don’t have any broken bones, so I could show Henut how to set them. The needs of the camp-followers include the women who follow their men, and the whores.”

  As they worked Kiya chatted with Siptah, telling him that Pharaoh was now aware of the depredations wrought on his village and that justice was at hand. “Ptah be praised!” exclaimed Siptah. “All will now be well!” He paused and then asked in awe “Do you really have access to the ear of Pharaoh in this way?”

  Nikolas nodded in a nonchalant way and said, “Yes, Kiya and I saw him and told him about the problem ourselves about a week ago at Thebes. Ramesses’ justice is swift and the plunderers will meet their fate at his hands in the next day or so. They’ll trouble you no more.”

  Siptah was so overcome that two people with access to the Divine Pharaoh would visit his poor village that he went to prostrate himself before them, until Nikolas stayed his movement with one hand before continuing his examination of the eyes of a young child of about three years of age. Even the hard-bitten Sinhue looked impressed at the news. Nikolas took this opportunity to press on Siptah the purse that he had brought with him.

  With Sinhue, Nikolas, Kiya and Henut working together the examination of the sick of the village proceeded quickly. When finished they approached the task for which Nikolas had really invited Sinhue – the visit to the lepers’ huts. Accompanied by Henut they walked the short distance to the huts which stood a little apart from the rest of the village. Once again Nikolas’ heart went out to the poor unfortunates scarred and disfigured by their terrible illness. By the fresh dressings on the sores of the lepers Nikolas could tell that Henut had been taking her duties seriously and attending to them regularly. For people with so little to share, the generosity of the villagers to the lepers was extraordinary.

  As Nikolas had hoped, Sinhue had treated lepers previously, when he was stationed with the garrison at Jerusalem. He prescribed a soothing antiseptic and antibacterial unguent based on aloe, garlic-oil and thyme-oil in a goose-fat base, the ingredients for which he had brought, as he’d known he would be visiting the leper colony. He showed Henut how to prepare the unguent and how to first bathe the sores with a strong decoction of willow-bark as an antiseptic before applying the unguent. Unfortunately, like all other medical people, he could only seek to alleviate the symptoms, not cure the disease.

  It was late afternoon when they packed up their implements. Nikolas again left a basket of herbs and remedies with Henut, as well as a large bundle of bandages he had purloined from Pharaoh’s medical supplies for her to use with the lepers. Siptah instructed two of the village men to walk the visitors back to the city in the gathering dusk.

  Before they left Siptah called them over to a patch of sparse shrubs behind his house. Under the shade cast by a large piece of torn cloth was a kennel with four dogs tied to leashes attached to posts. They were large, as tall as a man’s thigh, long of leg and lean of flank, with short hair and alert intelligent faces with large turned-down ears. “Royal hunting dogs!” exclaimed Sinhue softly. “These are rare indeed!”

  Siptah approached the dogs and untied the leash of one of them from the post, a large golden-coloured male. The others were another male and two bitches. “These are one of the riches of our village; the other is its people,” he said. “In the bad times, hopefully now gone, we’ve been able to sell the pups to provide for the village.

  This one is yours; his name is Pepi,” he said, handing the rope to Nikolas. Appreciative of the honour done to him, Nikolas embraced Siptah, who then squatted next to the dog and whispered in his ear.

  Nikolas approached Pepi confidently. He was used to dealing with large dogs from his family home in Crete and moved his hand to the dog’s nose, palm downwards. The dog sniffed the back of his hand and looked him in the eye. Nikolas called softly to Kiya. “Come! Be confident! The dog won’t hurt you. He must know that you’re his master’s mate and one of the leaders of the pack.”

  As with all things, Kiya was not afraid despite her lack of experience with dogs. After all, a woman who had killed a man in what their group referred to as the ‘Night of the Knives’ at Thebes feared little. But in her unfamiliarity she was a little abrupt in the movement of her hand and the dog jerked his head backwards.

  Nikolas whispered words of reassurance in Cretan to the dog, instinctively doing as he had in his youth. Pepi didn’t understand the words but he understood the tone and settled. He allowed Nikolas after another sniff of the hand to fondle behind his ears, and Kiya to again approach. This time he sniffed Kiya’s hand and gave it a small lick.

  Siptah sighed happily. “Done!”

  As they mounted the donkeys Nikolas gave a soft whistle and clicked the fingers of his right hand. Pepi came willingly and trotted happily alongside Nikolas’ donkey as they rode off. The four donkeys were less happy with the presence of the dog, turning their heads to keep an eye on him and shying whenever he got too close.

  Pepi appeared to enjoy teasing the donkeys by making little dashes towards their heels and then backing off.

  T T T T

  The army embarked next morning before dawn, the transports coming two by two to the quay for the troops to swarm aboard. The warships had spent the last several days just upstream of Aswan preventing any boats from sailing south and carrying word of the approach of the army. The chariots and horses had been ferried across the river the previous day and were now on the west bank, rolling quickly along the dirt road just to the west of the irrigated farmland. The last of the rich farmland closest to the river was now clear of the floodwaters and was being ploughed and sown, an activity that had been underway for over a month and was now nearing completion.

  In the early afternoon the boats approached the First Cataract. This was a fast-moving, shallow and rocky stretch of water which rendered movement by boat on the river itself impossible. The boats slowed as they approached the canal that had been dug around the cataract several hundred years before, yet another of the great engineering feats of the ancients. Six of the ten warships pressed ahead through the canal to secure the far side and the chariots positioned themselves to
protect the canal itself as the transports began to enter the canal one by one after the soldiers had disembarked. The canal was narrow and the water flowed fast towards the north, against the direction the transports wished to go. Teams of oxen, provided by Pharaoh to allow ships to travel against the water flow, were harnessed to the boats. There was a team on each side of the narrow canal and the boats were dragged one by one the short distance through the canal to the river on the other side of the cataract, while the disembarked troops marched alongside; the operation took two days.

  With the army now re-embarked on the flotilla of transports, they and the warships pressed on southward, passing several towns and many villages on both banks of the river; the warships were still moving ahead to prevent other boats preceding them to give warning of the army’s advance. After passing through a section of river where the cliffs, through which the river had cut its bed, formed a narrow gorge and reached down to the river itself, they approached the large town of Amada, where Pamose was now stationed.

  The warships had seized control of all shipping in the town, putting troops on each boat to ensure they did not sail south. The troops quickly disembarked from the transports, the first two hundred men formed up and moved towards the fort. As they approached the gate of the fort it swung open. Pamose, several other officers and a squad of soldiers marched out of the fort all in-step. Pamose and the other officers were wearing scale armour of boiled leather, close-fitting helmets also of leather and the blue kilts of their regiment. Their soldiers wore blue loincloths and klafta head-cloths and carried large wooden shields and spears.

  The soldiers from the boats who had been advancing on the gate opened a path for Pamose and the others, and then moved up to take control of the gate. The troops on guard at the gate dropped back into the courtyard beyond, weapons held at rest but the manner of the soldiers alert and wary. Pamose’s face lit up with relief as he saw Kahun approaching, the latter resplendent in the headdress of his new rank with its tall green plumes swaying as he walked. The brothers clasped forearms and then embraced. As they did so the tension went out of the watching soldiers, who began to mingle and chat.