Wah went still as he felt the point of the dagger. His kilt and chest were caked with mud.
'Get up,' Kysen said.
Meren pulled Bener behind him. 'Slowly, if you value your life.'
'What madness is this?' Wah asked as he complied. On the dock, charioteers had jumped from Wings of Horns and were running toward them. Sailors were fishing Paser from the river. Women who had come to the river to do laundry, fishermen, and travelers began to gather at a discreet distance and stare.
Bener poked her head around Meren's bulk and beamed at him. 'You see, Kysen. I knew it. I knew I'd discover who the murderer was if I was vigilant.'
'Be quiet!' Meren turned on her. 'What madness possessed you to take such a risk? You should have come to me, not chased after him yourself. He tried to kill you, you lackwitted goose.' Bener pointed at the skiff. 'He might have escaped if I hadn't followed him.'
'Father,' Kysen said with a nod toward the curious onlookers. 'Shall we retire to the ship?'
Meren glanced at the fishermen and the women with their laundry, then glared at Bener. 'Go home, daughter. I'll speak to you later.' Without waiting to see if he was obeyed, Meren turned and marched toward the dock.
Kysen shoved Wah in front of him, and soon they were on board and surrounded by charioteers and sailors. Kysen held his dagger on the prisoner while Meren went over to the soaked heap of flesh and linen being guarded by several men. He bent over Paser for a moment, then returned to confront Wah. 'He's dead.'
Meren turned and walked to the deckhouse awning. He took a seat in a folding chair of carved cedar. Kysen pushed Wah over to kneel in front of his father. Then he signaled the charioteers. They lined themselves around the perimeter of the awning so that neither Meren,
Kysen, nor Wah could be seen. Wah glanced at the wall of soldiers as he wiped mud from his face and chest.
'What folly is this, my lord?' he asked. 'I but wished to take a bit of respite on the cool water after being cooped up inside those walls for so long.'
'And murder Paser along the way?' Kysen asked as he sheathed his dagger.
'Oh, that was an accident. Idut told me you'd captured him for some reason. I thought he was trying to escape when he cried out, so I tried to stop him.' Wah gave Meren an uneasy glance, but when his captor remained silent, he went on. 'And then-and then your daughter startled me by hitting me with a dirt clod. I–I reacted without thinking.'
Kysen gave me an impatient laugh. 'Wah, you're a fool if you think we're going to believe that tale.'
Wah gushed with a deluge of protests, but as he babbled, Kysen was distracted by Meren. His father had remained silent far longer than expected, and he was sitting there absently rubbing his sun-disk scar. Kysen could tell from his distant expression that Meren wasn't listening to Wah at all. Then he caught a glimpse of something in Meren's eyes, a haunted look of dread that appeared and vanished in less than the space of a breath. Finally Meren stirred and beckoned Kysen. Kysen went to his father and bent down to hear his whisper. 'We must question him alone. No guards, no one else except us.'
In moments Kysen had snatched Wah and thrust him into the deckhouse. Charioteers and sailors alike responded to Meren's command and left the ship. Only Reia remained on board, standing guard at a distance from the awning so that he wouldn't hear anything said inside the cabin.
Once the ship was almost deserted, Kysen followed his father inside the deckhouse. They hadn't brought a lamp, and the only light filtered in from the high, rectangular windows. Wah was facing the door, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and looking from Meren to Kysen and back,
'I don't understand this rough treatment, my lord. I swear by the feather of truth that I-'
'Wah.'
Meren had spoken barely above a whisper, but Wah broke off with a cry and backed away from him. Kysen almost felt sympathy, for Meren's manner was disturbing.
'You've been under a great strain for a long time, haven't you? Keeping unspeakable secrets, fearing retribution, in terror of discovery. And finally, when you were beginning to think yourself safe again, my garrulous sister told you about seeing Paser,' Meren said calmly. 'That's why you lost your sense and ran. You knew I had him, and that I'd force him to talk. You were afraid of what he'd say.'
'Paser had the wits of a goat!' Wah cried. 'He was trying to ingratiate himself with Prince Hunefer by spying on you. The ass was stumbling around and keeping you alert and wary when I was trying to gain your favor. That's all there is to this matter.'
'Keep quiet for a moment,' Meren said in that same calm, pitying tone. 'There will be no more dissembling, Wah. I know there's more to this than Paser's blundering. Do you understand what I'm saying? Ah, I see that you do. Then you know I cannot allow you to continue. I hope you understand that well enough to abandon this absurd pretense.'
Kysen was growing more and more uneasy. He knew Meren had discovered that Wah killed Sennefer, but that didn't account for his father's gravity, or his carefully concealed fear. Meren was frightened, and that made apprehension crawl down Kysen's spine on scorpion's legs. Wah was mumbling more protests, but they faltered
Z
when Meren continued to look at the man as if he were already dead and lying in a sarcophagus.
At last Wah stumbled against the back cabin wall and asked in a weak voice, 'You know?' He swallowed hard as if he might vomit at any moment. 'How did you find out?'
'I remembered the conversation between Anhai, Sennefer, and you at the feast of rejoicing.' Meren glanced at Kysen. 'But I haven't had a chance to tell my son, who doubtless already has concluded that you murdered my cousin.'
'But why?' Kysen asked.
Meren walked back and forth in front of Wah. 'You weren't there when Wah arrived at the feast, but Anhai and Sennefer were, and Anhai remembered Wah from the days when they both served in the household of the Great Royal Wife Nefertiti.'
'But what has that to do with Sennefer or Anhai?'
Meren's path took him back to Kysen, where he paused and asked, 'Do you remember how Sennefer died? The fever, the mad visions, the loud voice of his heart, and then the stupor that ended in death? He died so unexpectedly that I failed to relate the features of his illness with any other event. Anhai's death was different from his. And Paser's spy was killed by a crocodile in a seemingly unrelated matter. But I am suspicious, as you have pointed out, and when Paser and his men appeared, I couldn't help suspecting some common influence might be responsible for the other deaths. I began to go over what had happened at the feast, but I found nothing odd until I remembered Wah speaking to Sennefer and Anhai.'
Meren glanced at Wah, who was looking at his captor in horror. 'You see, Ky, they had been making conversation about Nefertiti and mentioned her death. But it wasn't until just before you came to my office that I realized that the queen's plague closely resembled Sennefer's poisoning.'
Wah whimpered, and Kysen turned a wide-eyed stare on him. The kohl around the man's eyes had smeared yet again and streaked his face. In spite of his lankiness, he seemed to be shrinking.
'It was Anhai who made the mistake, wasn't it?' Meren asked. Wah nodded, his bony knees seeming to turn to paste. 'You see, Ky, Anhai said that she hated to think of the queen as she'd been while suffering from her last illness-her skin red and dry, the voice of her heart so loud, and the visions. All of these Sennefer suffered, and his body convulsed as well. But Sennefer had been poisoned and died quickly. Not like the queen, who died over the course of days. I would have seen the similarities sooner, but the two deaths were separated by many years, and the queen died when others were succumbing to the plague.'
Meren approached Wah and said, 'One died slowly, the other much more quickly, yet they suffered the same complaints. If Sennefer was poisoned, then the queen must have been poisoned too.' Meren paused, but Wah said nothing and avoided his gaze. 'You thought Sennefer was threatening you when he said his wife had mentioned you many times, didn't you, Wah? You had carried your secret for so long without anyone suspecting, and then without warning, Sennefer and Anhai appeared and began to speak of Nefertiti's death and of how they'd talked about you together. You were terrified, weren't you? You expected to be exposed or forced to pay for their silence.'
Wah paled, even to the folds of skin beside his mouth and over his eyes. He licked his lips, tried to speak, then simply nodded.
