diversions and antics. Have you seen my father or not?'
'Earlier this afternoon, but fear not. He left me in good health. Why are you so agitated, boy? Your father needs no band of armed governesses trailing after him.'
'Meren is missing, and you hate him enough for me to come to you first now that I'm trying to find him.' Kysen dropped his voice. 'And if he's harmed and you're to blame, I'll find you, hack you into chunks, and feed your carcass to the crocodiles.'
Ebana met his gaze steadily, then smiled. The scar on his face stretched as the muscles in his face moved.
'You truly fear for him. Tell me, plain-blooded cousin, is it because of me, or because you're afraid that pharaoh has turned away from him and had him done to death?'
'I'm going to reach down your throat and pull out your heart,' Kysen replied. He almost jumped at the bark of laughter that answered him.
'By the good god, you're a fierce whelp.' Ebana raked his glance over Kysen. 'I don't know where Meren is, but Tanefer mentioned him just now.'
'Why?'
Ebana shrugged. 'He had much to say to me, and part of it concerned the quarrel between your father and pharaoh. Where are you going?'
'To find Tanefer,' Kysen said over his shoulder. 'He might know where my father has gone.'
'May the good will of Amun be with you. You may need it if your father has run afoul of one of his enemies.'
Kysen wasted no effort in replying to the taunt. He left Ebana standing in the avenue staring after him and raced away through the streets in the direction Tanefer had taken.
Ebana's voice called after him. 'Tanefer was going home, down the Street of the Golden Lion.'
Kysen dodged around carts, donkeys, priests, and women carrying water. The charioteers ran in his wake. He hurtled down zigzagging alleys and streets, knowing that Tanefer's chariot wouldn't be able to go quickly in the narrow streets and crowds. He reached the Street of the Golden Lion and glimpsed Tanefer's chariot as it passed through the gateway-and he stopped. Abu plowed into him, and he careened into the wall of a house.
'Stay back.'
'Lord?'
Kysen pointed at Tanefer's house. 'Look.'
Servants were trudging back and forth from the house to carts laden with boxes. Several chariots drove away from the house bearing women. Kysen shrank into a doorway, then motioned for his men to follow him. He edged along the street until he found an exterior stair. Abu waylaid a perplexed householder, and Kysen slipped upstairs to the roof.
As Abu joined him, he knelt behind the front wall and gazed out at Tanefer's house. Why was Tanefer vacating his house? Had he been ordered afield? If there had been some word of trouble at one of the frontiers, his friend might be sent to handle it. Still, the move was sudden.
'Abu, have you heard of this move?'
'No, lord, but events are happening swiftly at court.'
Kysen scolded himself silently. He'd grown too suspicious, and he'd allowed his concern for Meren to override his good judgment. He stood up. All he need do was go to Tanefer and ask him what he was about. Then his eye caught the gleam of red jasper set in gold.
Tanefer was leaving the house by a side door, alone. He kept his back to one of the walls surrounding the house until he slipped through a small gate that let out into an alley. Once outside, Tanefer walked swiftly down the alley and into a crooked path that wound away from the Street of the Golden Lion. Without a word, Kysen left the roof, raced to the alley, and dodged along the path until he caught sight of Tanefer again.
Abu appeared at his side as he peered around a corner at Tanefer's retreating back.
'Lord, what are you doing?'
'It's not like Tanefer to skulk around the streets like a starved hyena. I don't like it. There's something wrong.'
'But Prince Tanefer and your father are old friends.'
'Shhh! I know that, but there's something wrong, and I'm going to find out what it is. If it's nothing, we'll go back and take a whip to Ebana.'
They flitted after Tanefer like a shadow after a hawk in flight. Soon Kysen began to recognize streets and houses. His conjecture turned to certainty when, after surveying a deserted street, Tanefer walked quickly to the entry way of the house of Prince Ahiram. Kysen flattened himself against the wall beside the gate and looked toward the house.
'Why has he come here?' Abu asked. Kysen shook his head as the charioteers who had been following them arrived to conceal themselves in doorways and against the wall. It was growing dark. Kysen waited for a few moments, but Tanefer failed to reappear. Then from behind the house came a man, a soldier by his appearance, leading a chariot. He tethered the team to a stone on the ground near the door and disappeared behind the house again.
'Abu,' Kysen said. 'Remain here with the others.'
'Lord, this is foolish. You know what your father said.'
'He's in a dead murderer's house, Abu. I have to know what's going on, and I can't sneak in with all of you stumbling after me. Stay here.'
Kysen raced across the street and planted himself against the wall that ringed Ahiram's house. He ran around it to the side wall, only to find that Abu had followed him.
'Forgive me, but the lord Meren gave me orders.'
'Damn you. Very well, then boost me over the wall.'
He sailed up and onto the top of the wall. Lying flat, he peered into a front garden in the fading light. It was deserted, so he lowered himself to the ground and darted behind a sycamore. He heard a slapping sound and a grunt. Abu's head appeared over the wall. The charioteer struggled atop the wall, then dropped over the side and joined him.
'Gods, you're tenacious as a goose after a fly.'
'Thank you, lord.'
Kysen watched the front door, but it was growing dark. He and Abu moved to the concealment of Ahiram's chapel. Looking around the corner of the building, he saw Tanefer come out the front door.
'He's coming. I think we're close enough to hear- gods!'
Kysen fell silent, then drew his dagger, for behind Tanefer, flanked by two men carrying spears, came his father.
Chapter 19
Meren allowed the two guards to shove him out of the house after Tanefer. If he was forced to fight, he'd rather do it in the open, and Tanefer didn't fully believe his professed decision to join him in treason. He had tried to be convincing, seeming to waver between loyalty to pharaoh and Tanefer's passionate ambitions for Egypt. Yet his hands were still bound.
He had tried to accustom himself to what must be done, but most of his time had been spent wondering at the mysteries men kept hidden in their souls. He had known Tanefer for so long. He'd trusted him in battle with his life, caroused in beer taverns with him, even been with the same woman. Yet each of them reserved a part of himself-a part rich in secret wounds and corruptions-sheltered in the depths of the ka.
It was that time between dusk and darkness when pale objects seemed to brighten with the last vestiges of the heat of Ra. Meren glanced around the forecourt as he was pushed toward a chariot. He'd been gone long enough for Kysen to miss him. He could only hope the boy was trying to find him, but he couldn't think of any signs he'd left that would make Kysen search at Ahiram's house.
Then he heard a wiry screech, and another-the sound of two cats fighting. Meren fought hard not to relief.
