into his bed.'
'He did, yes. As did I.' Noting Bak's surprise, Amethu gave a wry smile. 'It's difficult to imagine, I know, but I had hair then…' He patted his bald pate and his paunch… and the lithe body of one who spends his days at sports and hunting.'
Bak tried to picture a well-built and handsome Amethu; the task was formidable.
'She was cold even then.' Amethu surprised Bak with another smile, this filled with humor. 'I thank the lord Khnum she held no warmth. I was young and ardent at the time, tempted by lust and a dream of home and family. If she'd offered the slightest encouragement…' He shuddered. 'It was my good fortune that she remained aloof. I soon wed another, a good-hearted, gentle woman who showed me the true meaning of love and marriage. She filled my life to the brim, and she's with me yet.'
Bak had to give credit where credit was due. Not many men would admit so freely to their youthful delusions, nor confess their gratitude for so narrow an escape. 'I've heard Hatnofer harbored jealousy in her heart for Djehuty. Was that as true the day she died as when she was young?'
'You've been talking to Ineni, I see. He's told you of his mother.' Amethu noticed the cat sleeping in the basket, scowled. 'No, she hadn't shown him any special affection for some years, not since..' His voice tailed off and a new thought registered on his face, a memory come to life.
'Tell me, Amethu, what've you recalled?'
'Something I once heard…' The steward's eyes darted toward Bak and he hesitated. 'A rumor. But even whispers in the wind ofttimes contain some truth.'
'Tell me.'
'I heard…' Amethu paused again, shrugged. 'Exactly how long ago I don't remember, but I was told by a man I knew at the time, the garrison quartermaster, that one of the survivors of the sandstorm was whispered to be her lover. A man named Min, a sergeant. He sailed north soon after the incident, which made me doubt the tale. Would he not have taken her with him if they were close? Or did the lord Khnurn smile on him, as he did me, and allow him to escape a free man?'
'You will pay for your transgression!' Djehuty's voice thundered across the audience hall. 'You've taken four men from my fields north of Abu, men whose task it was to clean the irrigation channels and rebuild the dikes, and you've set them to work on your own fields. You must free them today and send them back to me, and you must reimburse me for the time they've been within your power.'
'But sir!' The man on his knees before the governor's dais, his body bent until his head touched the floor, was so frightened he trembled from head to foot. Bak, standing at the back of the columned hall beyond the reach of long shafts of midafternoon sunlight, could clearly see his fear.
'Silence!' the guard commanded, stepping forward to prod the offender with his foot.
Djehuty glared down at the prisoner, his expression dark and unforgiving. 'In addition, you'll receive two hundred blows and five open wounds.'
Someone gasped, then quiet descended upon those in attendance, thirty or so men scattered throughout the hall. The judgment far exceeded the norm. The kneeling man whimpered. As if released by his cries, shocked murmurs traveled through the room, rising in volume until Djehuty could not help but hear. His mouth set in a thin, hard line. Bak was as stunned as the rest. If the offense had been committed against the estate of a god, the punishment might be fitting, but this was a private matter.
'So be it,' Djehuty said, rising from his chair, signaling the end of his audience.
The murmurs dwindled, the men standing among the columns stared. Djehuty stepped down off the dais and strode ' from the room. Lieutenant Amonhotep, looking unhappy but at a loss as to what he could do, hurried after him. The guard collected his wits, jerked the sobbing prisoner to his feet, and hustled him from the hall. The men who remained looked at one another, surprised, shocked. Voices rose in consternation.
'This is the third day in a row I've come in search of justice,' Bak heard someone complain. 'Each day the governor has left early, ignoring six or eight of us whose pleas have yet to be heard. We've no choice but to leave, our business unfinished, and come again another time.'
'Justice?' someone asked. 'I'd not call his judgment of Ahmose justice.'
'Who does he think he is anyway?' someone else muttered.
'Not half the man his father was, let me tell you.'
Bak stared at the door through which the prisoner had been taken. Amonhotep had had no opportunity to intercede before Djehuty's judgment, and the governor was too stubborn to alter his decision after the fact. By punishing the man far beyond his due, Djehuty was poisoning the hearts of the people of Abu.
He hurried from the hall, leaving through the same door the governor and his aide had taken. He hoped he would find Amonhotep alone. If so, maybe he could lure him away from the villa. Freed of Djehuty and the weight of responsibility, freed of the many tasks that fell on his shoulders, the young officer might let down his guard and be more forthcoming.
He found himself in a short, windowless corridor lit by a narrow strip of light reaching in from the room beyond. A guard stood midway, looking in the direction the governor had gone, rubbing an elbow. He heard Bak's step and swung around. Though difficult to see in the dimly lit passage, Bak recognized Nenu, the none-tbo-bright young man who had helped him search for the archer after the first attack. 'Lieutenant Bak. Sir!'
'What're you doing here? Don't you usually guard Nebmose's villa?'
'My sergeant sent me with a message for Lieutenant Amonhotep. I tried to deliver it just now, but didn't get the chance.' Nenu, sounding aggrieved, walked with Bak up the odor, rubbing his elbow all the while. 'The governor brushed me out of his way as he would a fly, shoving me hard against the wall.'
In the brightly lit room beyond, Bak got a better look at the young guard. His right temple was skinned, his eye black, his lip swollen and cracked. An ugly and no doubt painful abrasion ran down his arm from shoulder to hand, and the knuckles of both hands were swollen and red. The strong scent of fleabane emanated from a cloth covering some type of injury to his leg.
Bak stared.', By the lord Amon, Nenu! What happened to you!'
The guard shuffled from one foot to the other, gave a halfhearted smile. 'A fight, sir.'
'Dare I ask who won?'
'I would've, sir, except…' Nenu refused to meet Bak's eyes. 'Well, he hit me in the stomach and knocked me down. My head struck a rock. I must've lost my wits for a while, and when I came to my senses, I had these.' He gingerly touched his arm and motioned toward his leg. 'I guess he kicked me when I couldn't fight back and dragged me along the ground. Only the lord Set knows what else he did.'
Noting how reluctant the guard was to speak of his defeat, how embarrassed, Bak promised to tell Amonhotep of the message, should he find him, and walked on.
With the help of a shy and very skittish female servant, Bak found the young aide in Djehuty's private reception room, located on the second floor. High windows admitted light and air, making the space bright and at the same time pleasantly cool. Yet instead of offering comfort and ease, the room was a disaster. It was cluttered with tables and stools, baskets brimming with scrolls, chests with lids askew, and drawers standing open. A line of ants marched across the floormats, carrying off bread crumbs. Scrolls were strewn around the dais on which the governor's armchair stood as if, of no importance, they had been flung aside. The bright, spotted skin of a leopard lay crumpled beside the chair, partially covering an elaborately embroidered pillow stained with wine. The sweetish smell emanating from a bowl of perfumed oil failed to smother the odors of stale beer and dog.
Amonhotep, his face pale and strained, knelt beside a pile of clothing and jewelry that had been thrown into a corner. He glanced up, gave Bak a forced smile. 'Lieutenant. I saw you in the audience hall and wondered who you might seek out next.'
'You surely guessed I'd come here. What was Djehuty thinking of? Is he trying to alienate every man and woman in the province?'
Amonhotep let out a bitter laugh. 'I tried to get him to change his judgment and I failed. All I managed to do was anger him further. Ahmose will be beaten until he's a broken man, and I can do nothing to stop it.'
Bak could see how upset the aide was, how greatly he blamed himself for his failure. Further talk would not console him, but a distraction might help. 'I thought I might persuade you to go sailing with me.'
'I can think of nothing I'd like better, but…' The aide glanced around the room, shook his head.
'I've beer in my skiff, fishing poles, and harpoons. If you've not had your midday meal, we can stop in the kitchen on our way to the landingplace.'
