'Be at ease, majesty-'
'Ease? You of all my advisers know what might Suppiluliumas can summon. He conquered the Mitanni Empire, didn't he?'
'I beg thy majesty to listen,' Meren said. 'Prince Mugallu isn't the only one to have been killed in this same fashion. He's only the latest.'
Closing his mouth on a protest, Tutankhamun dropped to the ground beside Meren. 'Go on.'
'From what I've been able to discover, there have been others, majesty. A farmer visiting from his village, a tavern woman. There may be others. Kysen has gone to the prince's residence to see what happened there and perhaps find out why Mugallu left the house alone at night.'
Meren handed the king one of the porous jars sitting in stands by the mat. Tutankhamun accepted it, but the jar hung suspended by the neck in his hand as the king struggled to comprehend the implications of what he'd been told. All at once the youth tipped the jar over his mouth and drank long gulps of cool water. Then he let it splash over his face and neck. Wiping his eyes, he held out the jar for Meren to take.
'In the
'Yes, majesty.'
'How many dead, do you think?'
Meren shook his head. 'I know not, divine one. The chief of watchmen of the city is a lazy fool who seems to think a death important only if it involves a great one.'
'There can be no harmony and balance in my kingdom if the farmer, the perfume maker, and the fisherman are slain!'
'Thy majesty is wise.' Meren held out his hands, palms upward. 'I am sure the wife and children of that farmer suffer.'
The king's gaze began to shift from Meren to the fig tree, to a dish of bread and dates, back to Meren. 'So you think there is one killer and many dead. And the streets boil with rumor that Eater of Souls has been sent from the netherworld to prey upon the living.'
'Majesty, it may be that the evil one but hides himself behind the guise of the Devouress.'
'And Mugallu?'
'I don't know, divine one. Perhaps he stumbled upon the evildoer.' Meren felt a muscle in his jaw twitch. 'The other explanation is that he was meant to die all along.'
'Why? Who would want to force a war between my majesty and the Hittite king?'
They lapsed into silence, then met each other's gaze.
'Who at court is dissatisfied?' the king asked.
'Perhaps, majesty, we should ask who would gain if pharaoh and the army were drawn out of Egypt to campaign in the north.'
'Those who have been forced to give up office and rank,' Tutankhamun said. 'My brother's old ministers, corrupt officials who have lost their positions by my reforms, the priests of Amun, who won't be satisfied until they rule instead of my majesty, any royal prince who thinks he should be pharaoh in my place.' The king sighed. 'I don't want to go on.'
Meren forced himself to continue. 'And if I discover that the killings are the work of Eater of Souls…'
'Would that mean the gods are angry with me? With Egypt? Have I done something so terrible that they seek to punish my people, and through them, me?'
He heard the strain in the king's voice. 'Majesty, you have worked to undo the damage wrought by your royal brother, to restore the old gods, repair their temples, cast out evil and incompetent judges, tax collectors, overseers, and priests. No. If Eater of Souls truly walks the earth, someone worked evil magic to summon her and set her loose among the living.'
'Then we must fight the dark magic,' Tutankhamun said. 'I will gather magician priests from the temples of Ptah, Sekhmet, and Isis.'
'Yes, majesty. They must perform divinations in order to discover the true nature of this killer.'
Tutankhamun picked up a bread loaf, tore a piece from it, and tossed it to a duck. 'If the killer is only a man, he must still be possessed by some evil fiend to have done these things.' More ducks came waddling over in search of bread.
'Of course, majesty, but at least it would be an ordinary evil, and not Eater of Souls.'
'I suppose that would be a comfort.' The king tossed more bread to the ducks.
Meren sighed. 'I think an ordinary demon would be much easier to banish than the Devouress.'
'Perhaps the magician priests can divine the hiding place of this evil one.'
'Thy majesty must not be disappointed if they cannot. If divination produced solutions to such mysteries, my tasks as the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh would be much easier.'
'True, but I will still put the question to the priests.'
Meren bowed. There was nothing he could say, for he wasn't certain of the kind of evil with which he was dealing.
The king tossed the last of the bread to the ducks and looked across the garden. 'Ah, I thought it wouldn't be long before Ay came to us.'
The vizier was walking slowly toward them on a gravel path. Slaves bore a palanquin over him to protect him from the sun's rays.
'I have thy majesty's permission to increase the guards on the city walls and the docks?'
The king stood. 'Yes, and double the men on watch. I'll summon the mayor and make certain he understands that the city police are to make themselves vigilant. My majesty will have no more of this laziness and failure to report evil.'
Meren rose at the king's signal and bowed.
'And Meren, don't think I'm not aware of your attempts to delay taking me on a raid.'
Doing his best to look innocent, Meren said, 'Delays, golden one?'
'My majesty will remedy the matter as soon as possible. Neither of us has a choice anymore, do we?'
The king had discerned a consequence of this disaster Meren hadn't considered. He gave pharaoh a reluctant smile.
'I fear thy majesty is correct.'
It was dusk. High clouds drifted over Memphis, white, flat-bottomed, their undersides bursting into hues of pink and rose as the solar orb dipped below the horizon. Satet paused in the street beside the stall of a pottery vendor. Shading her eyes, she gazed up at the clouds. She had always nourished her ka on the precious and brief beauty of clouds. This pleasure was even more necessary now that she had to endure Lord Meren's silly questions about Hunero.
Who remembered what daft old Hunero said so long ago? On the farm Satet had more important concerns than the whereabouts of her sister. But now that she was in the city, she might as well find Hunero and go to live with her. It would be better than living at Lord Meren's house. His daughter, Lady Bener, was an exacting mistress of the house. She wouldn't let Satet instruct the cooks unhindered, and the girl insisted on making Satet rest at night when she wasn't sleepy.
Satet trotted down a street, passed through a gate formed by two old stelae, flat, round-topped stones carved with the decrees of viziers who had died before Egypt acquired her empire. It was good that Lady Bener allowed Satet to cook as well as instruct. A few days of the work had ordered her thoughts a bit, and it had occurred to her that the way to find Hunero was to find the best vendors of ingredients her sister loved to include in her cooking. She had been exploring the stalls in different parts of the city, and at last she'd located one whose owner had dealt with Hunero.
The spice dealer had been a close-lipped man with eyes that seldom fastened directly on her own. Satet hadn't liked him, but she understood him. Gain governed his character. If he could enrich himself by opening his mouth, he would, though doing so was contrary to his nature. Satet had simply given him a small faience bowl from the room Lady Bener had assigned to her.
The bargain had produced directions to Hunero's new house in the dock district. In the midst of the houses of ship carpenters and dock officials and buildings used to house offices and storage for temple traders, she found it.
