and warfare limited to desert skirmishes, with a powerful girdle wall in place, the spur had lost its value and had been allowed to crumble. Bak had demanded privacy, and he could think of no place more private in this or any other garrison.
'According to Puemre's personal record, he spent much of his youth on his father's estate near Gebtu.' Huy spat a seed over the parapet and popped another date into his mouth. 'One servant taught him to read and write. With another he learned to hunt and fish. A brave and respected veteran, a man I once knew, passed on the arts of war. The estate manager, of course, taught him the business of farming.'
The tall, slender infantry officer was close to fifty. His eyes were a startling blue, his gray hair cropped even shorter than Bak's. He spoke in a wry voice, not quite poking fun at the dead man's upbringing, but letting Bak know the contempt he held for those who thrived on advantage and privilege. A long, ugly scar on his right shoulder left no doubt that he had earned his position, second only to Woser in the garrison hierarchy.
A breeze not yet heated by the sun rustled their hair. Swallows darted away, soon to return to their twittering young hidden in nests bored in the weathered mudbrick. The view wts glorious-and enlightening-showing clearly the tactical significance of the fortress and its island outlier.
In the hazy distance, the river made a sweeping bend through the desert, flowing broad and relatively free of obstacles. Below the bend, Iken's two white stone quays reached into the water to shelter the surprisingly large number of vessels that plied the hazardous waters of the Belly of Stones. The fortress loomed over the harbor and, a short walk north, the crucial point where the river literally broke apart, torn asunder by rocks and islands to form a multitude of swift-flowing, foam-shrouded rapids. A calm, smooth channel dammed downstream by a rocky cascade separated the lower city from a long tear-shaped island that supported only the most tenacious and water-tolerant brush and trees. Beyond, rising from the rocks of a second, higher island, a smaller fortress gave a second important advantage over an attacking army.
With no time to linger on details, he turned his attention back to Huy. He shared the troop captain's conviction that a man should earn his way, but he kept the thought to himself. 'You've just described a life of bucolic gentility. That doesn't explain how Puemre qualified for service in the regiment of Amon.'
Huy gave him a cool glance. 'The trouble with the army these days is boredom. And boredom leads to impatience. You young officers have never had to face another army. All you do is sit in the garrison day in and day out, wearing calluses on your backsides, maneuvering for promotion.'
Bak wanted to shake the man for his condescending attitude and at the same time he silently thanked him for the opening he had offered. 'Are you suggesting we slay Amon-Psaro so the other Kushite kings will join forces and march against our army, giving our officers an honest opportunity to gain experience?'
Huy snorted. 'You'd not make jokes if you'd ever faced them in battle as I have.' He ran a finger down the scar. 'The man who gave me this was outnumbered four to one, yet his courage never flagged. They're worthy foes. More than worthy. Fearsome and deadly.'
Bak was impressed by his sincerity, or at least the appearance of sincerity. 'Until ten months ago, I was an officer in the regiment of Amon. I knew my fellow officers. Lieutenant Puemre was not among them.'
Huy eyed him with interest. 'You were infantry?'
'No, chariotry.'
'Humph.' Huy's interest flickered out, and he stared across the lower city, hiding his thoughts in a frown. 'When barely a man, Puemre was sent by his father to Iunu, where he labored as a scribe in the great mansion of the lord Ptah. He later moved on to Byblos to serve as chief scribe to our royal envoy there. Upon his return to Kemet, he joined the regiment of Ptah as an officer. Two years later-soon after you came to Buhen, I assume-he moved to Waset and the regiment of Amon. There he stayed a mere three months before coming south.'
'His life was filled to the brim, it would seem.' Bak's voice was as wry as Huy's had been. 'Was he born a wanderer, I wonder, or did he go from one task to another for a reason?'
Huy seemed about to speak, but changed his mind and answered with a shrug.
'Troop Captain Huy!' Bak spoke slowly and deliberately, leaving no room for misunderstanding. 'What you don't offer voluntarily, I'll read for myself in Puemre's personal record. Or learn from another source. Preferably not from his father, Chancellor Nihisy, when we're all standing before the viceroy, charged with dereliction of duty-or worse.'
Huy swung away, his back rigid, his hands balled tight. He strode a few paces along the parapet, stopping at a place where a tall, heavy tower had fallen away from the wall and crumbled. A wasp flew past his head unseen. A swallow dived and scolded, protecting its nest from a man unaware of its Troximity. Two sentries patrolling the battlements atop the main wall met at a distant tower. They paused to stare at the officers on the spur wall-and probably to gossip about Puemre's death and the mission of the man talking so privately with their troop captain.
'Puemre was a highly respected scribe, you'll read in his record, and he was a good officer: brave, talented in the arts of war, a creative tactician. So we found him here in Iken.' Huy pivoted, showing a face dark with suppressed anger. 'He knew few men had his ability, and the knowledge gave him an arrogance that knew no bounds. He wanted the moon and the stars and the sun for himself, and anything he wanted he got, no matter what the cost to those around him.'
'He used people?' 'He trod on us.' 'What exactly did he want? Your position?'
'Mine. Commander Woser's.' Huy laughed bitterly. 'I've no doubt Commandant Thuty would've been in his way, for he made no secret of his desire to sit in the viceroy's chair.'
Bak whistled. 'Few men set their sights so high.' 'The men in his company believed he would one day walk with the gods. His fellow officers, I among them, thought him a demon.'
Bak parked his rear against the parapet and studied the older officer. Huy's aversion to Puemre was palpable. Not many men harbored so intense a dislike without a particular reason. 'What specifically did he do to you?'
The older officer's mouth tightened. 'I didn't like his attitude, that's all.'
Bak expelled a long, irritated sigh. 'I didn't like the fact that he wore a belt clasp of the regiment of Amon. A clasp entitled only to those who helped rebuild the regiment, not upstarts like him. Yet I don't despise him the way you do.' 'I didn't slay him!'
'Have I accused you? No! I'm merely trying to identify the man who did.'
Huy picked up a mudbrick clod and hurled it at the main wall. The missile slammed into the white-plastered surface, shattering. A patrolling sentry gave a little start and swung around, looking for the source of the sudden noise. Recognizing his superior officer, he raised his spear in salute and marched on.
'Puemre's first skirmish was with a band of desert tribesmen who'd been stealing cattle from the riverside villages.' Huy brushed his hands together, dislodging bits of dirt. 'When I assigned him the task, I advised him to waylay them where they'd least expect it, take them captive, and bring them back to Iken.' The officer shook his head in disgust. 'Naturally he knew more than anyone else. He felt it wasn't manly for one army to ambush another, so he marched across the desert, raising a dust cloud that could be seen as far away as Semna. Instead of him waylaying the tribesmen, they ambushed him among the dunes and a pitched battle resulted. Five lives were lost on our side, and twice as many of the enemy, who were poorly armed as usual. If he'd done as I told him, none would've died on either side.'
Bak noted the angry flush on Huy's face, a failure to forgive a mistake any newly arrived officer might make. 'There it should've ended, but it didn't, I assume.'
'How right you are!' Huy picked up another clod and heaved it, this time well away from the sentry. 'When taken to task for losing so many unnecessary lives and, worse yet, risking the loss of his entire company, he laid the blame at my feet.'
'He surely didn't get away with it!'
'Fortunately, the gods smiled on me. I'd given him his orders in front of other men, men who could and did pass the truth to Commander Woser.'
A valid reason to hate a man, Bak thought, but is it reason enough to kill? 'What happened the night of Woser's meeting? The night Puemre disappeared?'
'Nothing out of the ordinary.' Huy almost smiled. 'Other than our reason for the meeting, of course. It's not often the lord Amon honors us with his presence.'
'When did you meet and for how long?'
'We entered the commander's residence soon after dusk, the five of us together. I remember seeing a servant lighting the torches in the courtyard. We discussed for over an hour the duties we had to perform during the
