His aide insisted upon an escort, so Meren arrived at the palace with Abu, four other charioteers, and several personal servants, as befitted a man of great consequence. From the moment he neared the royal residence, he noted the presence of more guards than usual.
A troop of charioteers raced by him as his chariot clattered down the long, wide avenue leading up to the palace walls. Growing more and more uneasy, Meren snapped his whip above the heads of his thoroughbreds. They galloped between arching palm trees and swung the chariot around in front of a line of royal guards.
Leaving his men and servants before the palace gates, he sought out the king in the chamber next to the privy apartments where Tutankhamun conducted many of his day-to-day government affairs. Rahotep stood outside the room talking to the chief of the city police and an officer of archers who served under Prince Tanefer. They stopped talking as Meren entered the king's office and stared at him.
Inside, Tanefer was gazing out at the city from a balcony. A great map of the delta was spread out on a table. Maya and Ay were pointing out survey lines to the king when Meren entered and bowed.
'Ah, Meren.' The king left the map, motioned for the men to follow, and joined Tanefer on the balcony. 'Tell him,' he said to Tanefer.
'Ahiram failed to come to guard duty at the palace this morn,' Tanefer said.
So this was the reason for the additional guards. He began to feel stabs of apprehension. Raising a brow, he noted the lack of expression on Tanefer's face. 'His wound has festered perhaps?'
'He's not at home,' Tanefer said.
The king rushed on. 'He's not anywhere in the city.
Tanefer searched and found that he sailed north before dawn.'
Meren tried to read Tanefer's expression, but his friend had resumed his perusal of the flat rooftops of the city with his back to the room. Princes did not flee the capital without reason.
'Damnation, Meren,' said the king.
'Yes, majesty.'
'What has he done that he runs away in fear?' the king asked.
'Aye, majesty,' Meren said. 'This is a question that must be answered.'
Tanefer looked at Meren at last, his face still blank. 'I've asked to be allowed to pursue Ahiram, but the divine one's word was to send for you.'
The king began to pace back and forth on the balcony and bang his fist into his thigh. 'He's done something, and he fears to remain in my presence. Which means I can't trust his men.'
'Thy majesty speaks well,' Meren said. 'You've dismissed them?'
The king nodded. 'I've called Tanefer's men and my whole war band to duty. You know what I want, Meren.'
'Aye, majesty,' Meren said, even as he turned to leave. 'I will try to capture him alive.'
Suddenly, Tanefer knelt before the king. 'Please, divine one, allow me to go with Meren. I know Ahiram well, and might be able to persuade him to surrender.'
The king met Meren's gaze over Tanefer's head. 'No. There's too much strife here at court, and I need men here I can trust. This act of recklessness requires Meren's particular skill. Indeed, I'd be willing to wager some secret machination of his may have caused Ahiram to run. Am I right?'
Meren wasn't about to admit how confused he really was, so he merely bowed to the king. 'Thy majesty's perception is divine, as always.'
'Farewell, Meren. Next time, before you scare one of my guards into fleeing, you might consider telling my majesty about it.'
Chapter 13
Kysen strode around Ahiram's bedchamber while Meren questioned the only servant left behind by the prince, a porter. Their men were searching other parts of the house. Ahiram's family, a wife, her three small sons, and a daughter, had been sent to the country several days ago, while the prince remained in Thebes. The trip had been sudden, and one for which his wife had been unprepared. Ahiram had insisted that most of the servants go as well. In less than a week, Ahiram had emptied his house of nearly anyone who might have observed his activities.
This knowledge had roused Meren's suspicions to even greater heights, so much so that he'd delayed his departure. There wasn't much time before he would have to sail. Tanefer had questioned the man earlier, but Meren was doing it again. As he walked across a finely woven mat, Kysen watched the man shake his head, bow, and leave. Tanefer hadn't mentioned those abrupt departures, but then, Tanefer wasn't accustomed to making inquiries for pharaoh.
Ahiram's house wasn't as large as Meren's, but it was richly furnished. Kysen paused by the bed of polished cedar. Its lion's-paw legs and footboard were trimmed with gold. The chamber itself bore a frieze of lotus flowers around the top of the walls and along the bottom as well. Clothing chests lay open, their contents strewn over the floor, chairs, and bed. Ahiram had packed and left so hastily there had been no time for his servants to put the house in order.
A box had been overturned near a recess in the wall opposite the bed. Within the recess sat a small statue of the foreign goddess Ishtar. Someone had picked up the belts, bracelets, and other contents of the box and set them in the recess and in the lid of the box.
Kysen picked up a belt of gold and turquoise, then replaced it in the niche near the statue, alongside a reed pen holder shaped like a papyrus-bundle column. His hand strayed to a bracelet, a wide, hinged band of gold upon which had been applied a decoration in the form of a stylized boat. Within the boat rested the round, blue disk of the moon, which sailed across the sky each night. Meren interrupted his inspection by dismissing the porter and joining him.
'The porter knows little, since his post offers him no intimacy with his master,' Meren said as he picked up the moon bracelet. 'He says Ahiram sent his family away before Qenamun was murdered. Only three servants were left in the house, including the porter.
'After the royal physician tended to him yesterday morning he came home much disturbed. What interests me is that he ordered the house guarded the moment he came home. All three servants were set to keeping watch, although he didn't say what they were supposed to guard against.'
'He was frightened,' Kysen said.
'From the moment he came home, and I can't divine a reason for it.' Meren lay the moon bracelet aside and propped his back against the wall beside the shrine. 'You've found nothing?'
'It's as Tanefer says. He left hurriedly, without putting the house in order. Food is still in the kitchen, although all of it has been put away.' Kysen swept his arm around. 'And if there was ever anything to find here, he took it with him. There aren't any papers.'
Meren's gaze darted around the chamber, taking in the discarded clothing and other personal possessions. Disorder, but a disorder that arose from haste rather than violence. He rubbed his chin and gave Kysen a sideways glance.
'I asked the porter if he'd noticed any cobras about the house.'
'Well?'
'No,' Meren said. He folded his arms and studied the frieze of lotus flowers. 'It's just that I can think of no other happening of import which might cause Ahiram to flee, and he was acquainted with Qenamun.'
'If you'd caught a bunch of snakes, where would you keep them and how?' Kysen asked.
'I'd keep them in baskets somewhere isolated,' Meren said. 'But not for long. They'd be hard to conceal because they would need feeding… rodents.'
'And in a prince's house, there are few places of concealment because of the number of servants.'
Meren shoved away from the wall and began walking toward the chamber door, with Kysen close behind him. 'Aye, so if I wished to conceal my collection of cobras, I would want to find a deserted place, something hard to find in a city like Thebes. Therefore I'd catch them quickly and get rid of them quickly. And the need for haste would mean I would have to find a convenient nearby hiding place.'
'One of the storage rooms,' Kysen said as his father led him to the kitchen.
