driven him to suspect that every event had a hidden meaning, every person a secret design. Sennefer had never been important at court. No one at the feast had been influential.
It was true that Anhai had once served the Great Royal Wife Nefertiti, as had Bentanta, but neither was high in the favor of Tutankhamun's queen, Ankhesenamun. Wah had been Nefertiti's steward for a brief time before her death, but Wah had no place at court. He had no power, and Meren didn't think Wah even knew Paser.
But still, he didn't like it that Paser and his spies appeared at the same time he was hunting a murderer. And there was something bothering him, something about the night of the feast, about his relatives, all gathered around him talking, talking, talking. Ra talking to Anhai. Bentanta whispering with Sennefer. Wah whining at him. Hepu moralizing. Meren was certain he'd missed something, something important.
Bending over his ebony chair, Meren fished beneath it to grab a juggling ball. He was feeling sorry for himself when Sennefer was the one to be pitied. Sennefer had lived in fear of having his impotence exposed. At the feast, he must have been terrified when Anhai threatened him. No wonder he drank so much pomegranate wine, both before and after her death. And when he'd been poisoned, Meren had assumed he was only drunk or ill… only drunk or ill. Holding the one juggling ball, Meren suddenly sat down in the ebony chair.
'By all the gods of Egypt,' he murmured. After a long silence, he began to toss the ball in one hand, slowly, as he cast his thoughts back to the feast of rejoicing one final time.
Chapter 18
Kysen hurtled upstairs to his father's office and burst through the door. He started talking at the same time Meren thrust himself out of his chair and spoke.
'Paser's awake, and he says he'll only talk to you.'
'Ky, I was wrong about the poison.'
'What?' Kysen stared at Meren, breathless.
Meren hurled a juggling ball into its casket and brushed past Kysen. 'There's no time. Curse of the gods, I hope I haven't endangered anyone else.'
Kysen ran down the stairs after Meren. 'Wrong about the poison! How wrong? Father, wait.'
Meren vanished around a turn in the stairs, and Kysen didn't catch up with him until they ran down the hall to stop before Ra's chamber door. At the threshold squatted a doorkeeper who cradled his head in his hands.
'Where is my brother?' Meren snapped.
The man groaned. Suddenly cries issued from the central hall. This time Kysen was right behind his father as they ran into the chamber. The family was supposed to be partaking of a morning meal. Now they and several servants had gathered in a huddle around Aunt Cherit's carrying chair like geese around bread crumbs. At the rear door of the long chamber an ovoid wine jar had been tipped from its stand. Its shards littered the floor, and wine stained the mats.
'What's happened?' Meren asked as they reached the group. 'Ra is missing.'
Cherit was patting Nebetta's hand as she wept. 'He came charging through here like a netherworld fiend, and he would have escaped except that your men blocked his way when he tried to go through to the front.'
'He went out the back?' Kysen asked.
Cherit nodded. 'Simut and the other guard ran after him.'
Kysen moved toward the rear entrance, but Meren put a hand on his arm. He glanced around the group. Cherit was muttering imprecations against foolish young men who ruined good wine. Isis was calmly munching on a slice of melon while Nebetta snuffled.
'Where are the rest?' Meren said.
'Why aren't you chasing that murderous brother of yours?' sobbed Nebetta.
Kysen grew alarmed at the killing look Meren gave her.
'Isis, where are the others?' Meren asked.
'Uncle Hepu is working on a tribute to Sennefer in his chamber. Aunt Idut and Wah left before Uncle Ra came, and Bener followed them.' She finished the last bite of her melon and continued. 'She was going to spy on them. I told her not to, but she never listens to me.'
'The guards let them go?' Kysen asked.
'They were only going to the garden for a moment, and they promised to come back quickly,' Isis said. 'You know how Aunt can be. She wouldn't leave poor Simut alone until he consented. Then, when Simut and the other guard chased Uncle Ra, Bener stole away.'
Kysen heard a lurid curse from Meren, who was already through the door. Kysen ran after him, calling over his shoulder, 'All of you, stay here.'
Racing out of the house, he caught up with Meren as he shoved open the garden gate. They charged inside only to come up short at the sight of Idut screaming at an acacia tree that grew next to the side wall.
'Bener, you contentious, wretched girl, come back here at once!'
They sprinted over to Idut.
'Where are they?' Meren asked.
Idut threw up her hands. 'This is what comes of your soft discipline, Meren. That girl has been sneaking around the house for days, spying on everyone, asking impertinent questions, implying things.'
'Idut!'
Even Kysen jumped at Meren's roar. Idut cried out, then glared at her brother, but she stopped babbling.
'Where did they go?' Meren demanded.
'He said the walls of the house were crowding in on him. He's sensitive, you know, what with all this death. They'll be back in a moment.'
'Idut,' Meren said as he jumped up to catch a limb of the acacia, 'you have the wits of an oryx.'
Kysen swung himself up into the tree after Meren and joined him on top of the wall. This section of the wall was also the outer privacy wall for the compound. From it they looked past a couple of sycamores and a vegetable garden. Beyond them ran the canal that fed water from the Nile to fields that marched past the house. Meren pointed to a leaping figure in a shift. Bener flew across a field at a diagonal to the canal. Her course would allow her to intercept a skiff being paddled rapidly toward the river.
'We have to catch her before she reaches him.'
'Who?' Kysen asked, but Meren had already leaped from the wall.
Kysen measured the distance to the ground, then lowered himself over the side of the wall before dropping. His caution put him behind Meren and forced him to put on a burst of speed to catch up. For the second time in less than a day, Kysen found himself hurtling across a field littered with stubble and hard clods of earth baking in the sun.
As he ran, he saw the skiff reach the junction with the river and turn toward the dock and Wings of Horus. Bener reached the bank while the occupant of the skiff paused, then stood up, balancing with the long pole used to shove the little boat along in the water. Kysen got his first good look at the man and nearly tripped over his own feet.
Without warning, there was a shriek from the deck of the ship. Paser stood at the railing, one hand on his injured head, the other pointing at the intruder in the water below. At the sound, the intruder hefted the pole, swung it, and bashed Paser in the head. Paser dropped like a fishing weight over the side. At the same time Bener stooped, picked up a clod of earth, and hurled it at the attacker. It hit the man square in the back.
Both Meren and Kysen cried out a warning as the man was thrown off balance and almost fell into the water. Meren hurled himself at Bener at the same time the attacker turned on her. Kysen shouted a warning as the pole swung at Bener's head. Meren pushed his daughter out of the way, ducked under the stone-crushing blow, and grabbed the pole. He jerked it toward himself, then jammed the end into the attacker's chest.
'Huh!' The man doubled over, still gripping the pole. Meren jerked on it again and pulled the assailant off his feet. He landed half in the water and half on the bank, where he scrambled for footing. He thrust his upper body up out of the mud. Kysen palmed his dagger and stuck the tip of it under the man's dirty chin.
'Quitting our hospitality so soon, Wah?'
