dagger from its sheath to slash loose the leather thongs from her wrists. Gently he drew her out of the stinking cage and held her to his chest. He was weeping as he carried her into the tent.
'Merykara!' she whispered, through cracked and swollen lips.
Taita will see to her, but I fear it is too late.' Mintaka looked back over his shoulder and saw that Taita and Meren between them had cut Merykara free from the wheel and drawn the blood-clotted weapon from her body. Now they were spreading a clean white linen sheet over her body, covering the terrible mutilations.
Mintaka shut her eyes. 'I am exhausted by sorrow and grief but, my darling, your face is the most beautiful and welcome sight I have ever beheld. Now I will rest awhile.' And she slumped into unconsciousness.
--
Mintaka came awake slowly as though she were rising up from the depths of that dark and terrible pit where demons live. When she opened her eyes the demons that had haunted her dreams fled away, and she saw with immense relief the two most beloved faces in her world. Taita sat at one side of her couch and Nefer at the other.
'How long?' she asked. 'How long was I gone?'
'A day and a night,' Taita answered her. 'I gave you of the Red Shepenn flower.' She raised her hand to her face and found a thick coating of salve upon it. She rolled her head towards Nefer, and whispered, 'I am ugly.'
'No!' he replied, 'You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon, and I love you past the counting of it.'
'You are not angry with me for disobeying you.'
'You have given me a crown and a land.' He shook his head and one of his tears fell upon her face. 'Above that you have given me your love, which is more precious to me than all of that. How could I ever be angry with you?'
Taita rose softly and left the tent, and they stayed together all the rest of that day, speaking softly to each other.
In the evening Nefer sent for the others. When they had gathered around Mintaka's couch, Nefer looked at their faces gravely and saw that all of them were there: Taita and Meren, Prenn, Socco and Shabako moving stiffly from the pain of his wounds garnered on the battlefield of Ismailiya.
'You have come to see justice done,' he told them, then turned to the guards at the door.
'Bring in the woman named Heseret,' he ordered.
Mintaka started and tried to sit up, but he pushed her gently back upon the bolster.
'Where? How did you find her?'
'Our pickets found her wandering in the desert on the road back to Ismailiya,' Nefer explained. 'At first they did not recognize her or believe her claims to be a queen. They thought her a mad woman.'
Heseret came into the tent. Nefer had allowed her to bathe and provided her with fresh raiment, and Taita had treated the cuts and grazes on her face and body. Now she shrugged off the hands of her guards and looked around her with a regal lift of her chin. 'Prostrate yourselves before me,' she ordered the men who faced her. 'I am a queen.'
No one moved, and Nefer said, 'Bring her a stool.' When she was seated upon it, he stared at her so coldly that Heseret covered her face and started to weep. 'You hate me,' she blubbered.
'Why do you hate me?'
'Mintaka shall tell you why,' he answered, and turned to the girl on the couch. 'Please describe to us the manner of the death of Princess Merykara.'
Mintaka spoke for almost an hour, and during all that time one in the tent moved or uttered a sound, except to gasp and exclaim in horror at the most dreadful parts of what they were hearing. At the end Nefer looked at Heseret. 'Do you deny any part of this testimony?'
Heseret returned his cold stare. 'She was a whore, and she brought shame on my husband, the Pharaoh of Egypt. She deserved death. I am pleased and proud that I was able to be the instrument of justice.'
'Even now I might have forgiven you,' Nefer said softly, 'if you had shown a grain of remorse,'
'I am a queen. I am above your petty laws.'
'You are a queen no longer,' Nefer replied, and she looked confused.
'I am your own sister. You would not harm me.'
'Merykara was your sister also. Did you spare her?'
'I know you well, Nefer Seti. You will not harm me.'
'You are right, Heseret. I will not harm you. But there is one who will not scruple.' He turned to his assembled captains. 'It is the ancient law of the rights of the one most injured. Stand forth, Meren Cambyses.'
Meren rose and stepped forward, 'Pharaoh, I am your man.'
'You were betrothed to the Princess Merykara. Yours is the greatest injury. I give into your keeping the body and the life of Heseret Tamose, who was a princess of the royal house of Egypt.'
Heseret began to scream as Meren placed a golden chain around her neck: 'I am a queen and a goddess, you dare not harm me.'
No one took notice of her cries, and Meren looked at Nefer. 'Your Majesty, do you place any restriction upon me? Do you urge or order me to show mercy and compassion?'
'I give her to you without reservation. Her life is yours.' Meren loosened the sword in its sheath on his hip, and pulled Heseret to her feet with the chain. He dragged her blubbering and wailing from the tent. Nobody followed
