'So he left you between the time you fell asleep and the next morning when you woke. Would anyone else have seen him go?'
'There's no one else except Grandmother, and she doesn't see or hear very well.'
'When did you wake, Sheftu?'
'The sun was up, lord. We drank more than usual, and I had a terrible ache of the head.'
'Then my brother left you before sunrise.'
'I suppose so, lord.'
'And my brother's friends?'
Tabes said, 'Two live not far upriver. They stayed the night in the tavern and left that morning. The third? He's still here. He sampled Sheftu's preparations that night and has been using them ever since.' She pointed to the man who still snored on his pallet across the room.
Meren got up and went over to the prone figure. Turning him over, Meren straightened, put his fists on his hips, and shook his head. He didn't want to deal with this fool now.
'Antefoker, Antefoker, wake up.'
The man smiled in his sleep until Meren kicked him. Then he snorted himself awake and looked up at Meren with a slack-lipped leer.
' 'SMeren. How're you? Howas th' feast last night?'
'You seem to have lost a day, Antefoker. You'd better go home.'
'Lost a day? What day?' Antefoker yawned, smacked his lips, and began to snore again.
Meren threw up his hands and went back to Tabes and her friends. Feigning a casualness he didn't feel, he said, 'Sheftu, I'm curious about your grandmother's preparations, especially the ones my brother might have obtained. You will take me there at once.' To Tabes and Aset he said, 'You've been helpful. I'll have my steward send the three of you a length of cloth. However, I expect your mouths to remain closed about my visit. If I hear differently, I will be displeased.'
He and Reia followed Sheftu out of the tavern after fending off the entreaties of its keeper. The woman lived down the street and off an alley formed by the walls of two-story houses. At the end of the narrow lane, Sheftu's house clung to a much larger structure. Its walls were cracked, and the roof sagged as if it was about to fall in. The grandmother was asleep in the front room on a pallet. As he passed her, Meren paused and clapped his hands several times, causing Sheftu to start. The old woman slept on.
The young woman led them through the sparsely furnished chamber to the kitchen in the back. From a rickety frame suspended from the ceiling hung bundles of roots, leaves, flowers, and berries. Dozens of pottery jars covered the only table and much of the floor. There was a stone mortar and pestle, along with wooden spoons, strainers, and stirring sticks. Meren gestured to Reia, who began opening jars and inspecting their contents.
Touching a bundle of feathery dried leaves, Meren asked, 'What are these?'
'Dill, my lord,' said Sheftu. 'And those are acacia pods, and these are chervil seeds. This is celery. Grandmother crushes it and applies it to burns.'
He picked up a bowl of hard kernels. 'Balanos?'
'Aye, lord.'
Reia left the kitchen to search the rest of the house while Meren opened a square basket. In it were more dried leaves, rough, with five lobes.
'Those are white byrony, lord. To purge the stomach or to relieve an ache of the head, but it mustn't be used more than once.'
'Poisonous?'
'It can be, lord.'
Reia reappeared. Meren raised his brows, but the charioteer shook his head.
Meren set down the basket of white byrony. 'Now, can you show me the preparation my brother took?'
Sheftu plucked a small bag from a pile on the table and handed it to Meren. It contained a quantity of finely ground powder that smelled slightly of black pepper.
Meren touched his finger to the powder and was about to taste it when Reia lunged and caught his hand.
'No, lord!'
Meren pulled free but wiped his fingers on a cloth taken from a pile on a shelf.
Sheftu was eyeing them, her brow sweating. 'You fear that our preparations are harmful?' She found a cup and poured water into it. Dumping the powder into the cup, she stirred it with a stick, then gulped it down.
'You see? I'm unharmed.'
Sighing, Meren said, 'We're looking for tekau.'
'Oh, you should have asked, my lord.'
Sheftu found a stool, mounted it, and reached up among the herbs. Her hand came out with a bundle of dried, ovate leaves and flowers that might once have been violet. This she handed to Meren. Then she found a round clay pot with a wavy red pattern painted on it. Shriveled brownish-black berries filled the vessel.
'Grandmother says the stems can be used to treat bad breathing, catarrh, and aching bones.'
Meren took the pot from Sheftu. His hands had grown cold, and he felt as if he were in a waking dream.
'Demons and fiends,' he muttered. Reia took the pot from him, and he collected the leaves as well. 'Sheftu, I must take these.'
The woman picked up a tall jar and hugged it to her breast as if it would lend her protection. 'Have I done something wrong, lord?'
Meren looked around the dark, cramped little kitchen, at the sparse quantity of grain for bread and wood for fires. A few shriveled onions rested in a bowl.
'Did you give my brother some of these berries or leaves?' he asked.
'No, lord. Your brother was quite healthy except for sickness from drinking.'
'You know this plant can be dangerous.'
'Of course, but everyone knows better than to put more than a little in a potion. Who would be so foolish as to-' Sheftu wet her lips. 'Oh, by all the gods, lord. I've done nothing!'
The woman crumpled to the floor at Meren's feet and babbled protestations of innocence.
Meren backed away. 'Be calm. Sheftu, listen to me. Be calm. I have no reason to think ill of you. At the moment. But I must ask you if any tekau is missing.'
Sheftu straightened. Using the table for leverage, she stood and looked at the herbs Reia was holding. Biting her lower lip, she shook her head.
'I don't know, lord. We haven't used it for a while, not during the whole Drought season.'
'Very well,' Meren said. 'I will send my steward with payment for the herb. You will remain in the village, Sheftu.'
'Of course, lord. Where would I go?'
Meren left Sheftu's house scowling and muttering to himself, with Reia striding behind him. The charioteer knew better than to ask questions, and Meren was left to deal with his agitation without interference.
At first he'd been pleased to know that Ra had been indulging in his usual excesses. But Sheftu had ruined his pleasure. Ra could have left the girl in her beer stupor, taken some of the herb, and stolen back to the estate to poison Sennefer's pomegranate wine. He then could have returned to meet his friends at Green Palm. There he could have feigned sickness so that they would offer to bring him home. When questioned, his friends had said they met Ra at the riverbank the morning after the feast. They had assumed he'd come from Sheftu's house. He might have, but if Meren couldn't find someone who saw him there..
In a nasty mood, Meren reached the skiff that had brought them to Green Palm. He got into the boat and snapped at Reia.
'Hurry. I've done an excellent job of implicating my brother in murder, and now I'm going home to threaten a woman with the whip and the brand. Sometimes I disgust myself, Reia.'
Back at the main house, Meren went directly to the servants' block to the rear of the compound. It was here that the charioteers had been housed, and it was here that he'd ordered Bentanta brought before dawn. She had been waiting for him there in a narrow, dark room with no windows and no lamp. The building consisted of a row of similar rooms meant for storage, and one long common chamber with half a dozen beds. In the common chamber
