‘Have an almond. They’re delicious.’
‘Oh, no, thank you.’
How would I get this man to open up? He looked at me like a wary and not particularly bright dog. I wished Tjenry were here instead. He seemed to have more of an appetite for life.
‘Khety, we face an impossible task. Has your charming boss explained to you the nature of the mystery?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Well, I am going to tell you. And in doing so it will make us equal in one crucial respect, and one respect only. We are both under the same fate: if we fail to solve the mystery, we will suffer the same consequences. Do you understand?’
He nodded.
‘Good. This is the mystery.’ I paused for dramatic effect. ‘The Queen has disappeared and my task is to find her and restore her to Akhenaten in time for the opening of the Festival.’
His eyes widened and his mouth stayed open. ‘Disappeared? Do you mean…?’
It was the worst acting I had seen in some time. He knew. Everybody knew, apparently, except me.
‘For heaven’s sake, stop pretending. Apparently her absence is the talk of the town.’
His face cast about for a way out of his dilemma, but he quickly realized he was discovered. He put up his hands and shrugged with a frank little smile.
‘Good. Now, perhaps we can start again.’
He looked at me, interested now.
‘What’s been going on in this city?’
‘What do you need to know?’
‘The politics.’
He shrugged. ‘Dirty.’
‘So, nothing new in the portal to the eternal, then.’
‘What?’
‘Just something Akhenaten said to me.’
I sipped my fine wine and pushed the rare almonds towards him. He took one, reluctantly.
‘I’m just a middle-ranking Medjay officer,’ Khety said, ‘so what do I know? But if you’re asking me, here’s what I think.’ He moved closer. ‘Everyone who’s come to the city is on the make. Most people are here because they’re investing in the future-their own, their family’s. They realize they can rise within the new administrations and authorities. It’s a chance to rise above their stations. And there’s so much wealth here. It’s being siphoned off from the rest of the country, and for all I know from the whole Empire. A friend told me the garrisons in the north-east are hardly manned now, even though there is serious trouble brewing up there. Everyone here is from somewhere else, somewhere where they couldn’t even scrape a living any longer. The preparations for the Festival have put enormous pressure on everyone; the craftsmen are charging five times as much for their work because of the conditions and the hurry, and their bosses are taking a cut. They’ve drafted in thousands of immigrant workers but I’m sure the budget isn’t all being spent on food and wages. The wealth’s disappearing, the Treasury can’t keep up with the overspending, the cutbacks are hurting the rest of the country…I think it’s a disaster already happening.’
The sun had now disappeared over the river, over the Red Land.
‘So what has all this to do with her vanishing?’
Khety went quiet.
‘Don’t be enigmatic, it’s annoying.’
‘Sometimes it’s dangerous to speak.’
I waited.
‘Two reasons. One, timing. The Festival is pointless without her. Two, she’s far more loved and admired than him. I sometimes think the only reason everyone goes along with the new religion is because they believe in her far more than they believe in the worship of the Aten. Even people who have nothing but negative things to say about everything that’s happening have to admit that she’s an astonishing person. There’s never been anyone like her. But that in itself is a problem. Some people see her as a threat.’
I took a sip of wine. ‘Who?’
‘People who have something to lose by her power, and something to gain by her death.’
‘Disappearance. Why did you say death?’
He looked disconcerted. ‘Sorry, disappearance. Everyone thinks she’s been murdered.’
‘Rule one: assume nothing. Just look at what is and isn’t there. Deduce accordingly. Who would profit from such a situation, from the uncertainty?’
‘There’s not just one candidate, there are many. In the new military, in the old Priesthoods of Karnak and Heliopolis, in the Harem, within the new bureaucracy, even’-he moved closer-‘in the royal family itself. Apparently the inner circles of the court are rife with people saying even the Queen Mother has resented her beauty and her influence-things she herself lost a long time ago.’
We paused and looked at the suddenly darkening sky. He had spoken well, and everything he said had confirmed my worst fear: that indeed I was now caught up at the centre of a mystery as delicately complex as a spider’s web that could destroy not only my life, but the life of the country. I suddenly felt a dark nest of serpents stir inside my stomach, and a voice in my head told me it was impossible, that I would never find her, that I could perish here and never see Tanefert and the children again. I tried to breathe myself calmly back to the task in hand. Concentrate. Concentrate. Use what you know. Do the job. Think. Think it through.
‘Remember, Khety, there is no body. A murderer wishes only to hurt, punish and kill. A death is a death. It is an accomplished fact. This situation is different. A disappearance is far more complex. Its achievement is instability. Whoever has done this has introduced tremendous uncertainty and turbulence into a settled equation. And there is nothing worse for those in authority. They find themselves fighting illusions. And illusions are very powerful.’
Khety looked impressed. ‘So how do we proceed?’
‘There is a pattern to all this; we just have to learn to read its signs, to connect the clues. Her disappearance is our starting point. It is what we know we know. We do not know why, or how. We do not know where she is, or whether she lives. We must find out. And how do you think we should do that?’
‘Umm…’
‘For heaven’s sake, have they given me a monkey as an assistant?’
He flushed with embarrassment, but his eyes glittered with anger. Good. A reaction.
‘If you have lost something, what is the first question you ask yourself?’
‘Where was the last place I had it?’
‘So…’
‘So we must discover the last place, the last time, the last person. And trace her backwards and forwards from there. So you want me to-’
‘Exactly.’
‘A name will be on your desk first thing in the morning.’
After a while I smiled. ‘Khety, you are becoming a wiser man with every passing drop of this fine wine.’
His anger dissipated a little. I refilled his cup.
‘No-one ever just disappears,’ I continued, ‘as if they had stepped out of their sandals and up into thin air. There are always clues. Human beings cannot help but leave traces. We will find and read these traces. We will track her footsteps in the dust of this world, and discover her and bring her safely home. We have no choice.’
We bade farewell at the crossroads where the Royal Road met the way back to my office. Khety saluted, then stepped towards the Medjay headquarters, no doubt to report everything to Mahu with the confident fluency of the inexperienced drinker. But perhaps I was too harsh. He had been candid with me, more than was strictly required. I could not trust him, nevertheless I liked him well enough. And he would be a useful guide to this strange world.
10
I woke early like a condemned man to the naivety of birdsong. I could not believe I was still here, and that I had committed myself and my family to this madness. I wanted Tanefert lying next to me. I wanted to hear the girls talking to each other next door, in their room. But the room was an empty box. Would that I could turn back the river that carried me here.
Khety and Tjenry arrived together. Tjenry carried breakfast, a jug of beer and a basket of bread rolls which he put down in front of me. Khety looked pleased with himself. He carefully placed a papyrus document on my desk. On it was written a girl’s name: Senet.