Andre Norton - Shadow Hawk (21 page)

"Not so. It is in my mind that when these princes eat up the Hyksos, then will they turn their eyes southward. Were I in Nubia, I must bend knee to Teti—"

"Yet have I not heard you in the past speak of the Prince Teti as a mighty man in battle and a good leader of men?"

"However, since that hour I have seen mightier men who shall someday lay their whips about Teti's shoulders should he sit upon some high seat and call himself king before their faces! This new Pharaoh is great enough, brother, but in his shadow stands another man I would follow willingly—"

"The Prince Ahmose!"

"The Prince Ahmose." Kheti agreed. "Those who trail bow or spear in
his
service shall have their fill of action. And if there are those in this strong-smelling city who believe they can drive him with a rope about his nose as they drive their horses, then let them look upon him again with more knowing eyes, for they are no judges of men!"

"For which judgment do I render thanks, O archer of Nubia!"

Rahotep stiffened, and Kheti, his eyes wide with surprise, sat up abruptly. But when they would have made proper obeisance to the cloaked figure, he waved them up impatiently.

"Tell off four of your men who can keep their tongues quiet behind their teeth and let them bring the prisoners," the prince ordered swiftly. "Do you come with me. Bearing your arms—"

"Kheti, Hori, Mahu, Sahare." Rahotep rattled off the names. His underofficer was already moving purposefully toward the captives' corner. As he cut the thongs about their anldes, the captain turned the command of the rest over to Kakaw.

They followed Ahmose through a gate into the garden and then on a path winding between rare shrubs to the center building. The sentry on duty there did not salute, did not apparently notice them, but he stood aside nimbly to let them pass.

Rahotep was able to orient himself now. They were in an outer corridor of Pharaoh's private rooms, heading toward the small hall where Sekenenre had received the Vizier and the highest officials of his court. There were lamps aplenty, and in the corridor outside the curtained doorway were drawn up a double line of veterans of the guard who wore, not the insignia of Pharaoh, but that of the Prince Ahmose.

"Pharaoh sits in judgment," the prince said quietly to Rahotep. "Do you and those with you stand behind this curtain until you are summoned."

They faced an expanse of matting hung as a screen. Ahmose sidled around this to the right, and Rahotep, finding a slit through which he could see the room, signed his men and their captives back against the wall and planted himself before it.

Lamps on small tables and brackets about the chamber gave light for the three scribes who sat ready with writing materials. One of those scribes was Pepinecht; the other two Rahotep knew were attached to the service of the High Judges.

Seated a little to one side was Kamose. He did not wear the double crown of ceremony; a circlet with the
uraeus
proclaimed his rank. It was obvious that he was not present in his person as Ruler of the Two Lands, the dispenser of all justice. The stools of those who faced the rest of the company were occupied by three men who together made a strangely assorted company, though Rahotep did not doubt that they were firmly united in allegiance and purpose.

Sa-Nekluft, Treasurer of the North, Holder of the Gold Seal, was on the right. On the left General Amony sat almost sleepily, his officer's flail resting across his bare knees, for he wore the field dress of an active warrior, rather than the double sldrts of a courtier. Between the administrator and the warrior was a third man the southern-born captain had never seen before, older than either of his companions, with a grave but untroubled face of serene self-confidence and authority. He was robed as a high priest, and on his breast was a beautiful pectoral of Amon-Re. This must be the Voice of Amon at
Thebes,
head of the far-flung priesthood of Amon-Re, Nefer-Rohu, the Beloved of Re, He-Who-Speaks-for-the- Great-One.

Facing these three was another trio, outwardly as confident and sure of themselves, untroubled by what might lie ahead. Zau, the Vizier, had the middle seat, and he was flanked by Tothotep and General Sheshang.

Rahotep had been so busy identifying the company that he almost missed the quiet speech of the Amon priest. Now he listened to it intently, hoping to gain some hint of his own part in any action for tonight.

"Since the Son of Re believes that this too nearly touches his own temper and emotions and that his judgment might be colored so that he would act not as the Voice of Re in giving verdict, but as a man whose anger or sorrow can make him weigh the scales of Maat unequally, we serve in this inquiry under His decree and He will listen but judge not—"

"There is naught to judge!" Zau spoke sharply, but with that inner note that suggested that the former speaker had presumed beyond all rights. "We ask of you why we have been so summoned, secretly, and not before all men? Of what are we accused? Of what can we be accused? We are loyal servants to the Most High One. To Pharaoh shall we appeal for a hearing—"

He was looking beyond the tribunal of three to the young Pharaoh, intently, angrily, willing Kamose to face him and agree with his words. And the new king did turn his head to look at the Vizier, but his face was as remote as the face of the ancient king of the frontier fort on the Kush border. His delicate, almost too refined features—so different from his brother's—mirrored no emotion, only detachment. He met Zau stare for stare, and the second of silence lengthened. It was as if those two fought a silent duel of their own, will against will as it might otherwise be mace against mace. Nor did the younger man flinch from meeting the power of the elder.

It was Sheshang, perhaps the weakest of the rebel three, who broke through that quiet. A man of action, it seemed he could not endure the wait for direct accusation, the chance to defend himself.

"The Lord Zau speaks for all of us," he growled. "Let us be accused openly that we may defend ourselves against lies—"

Tothotep cut in, his very calmness of tone dampening to the soldier's call for action.

"The time grows short. Now that our Lord Sekenenre— with him abide ever the Peace of Re—has departed to the horizon, there must be decisions made for the preservation of the Two Lands. Not only do we know that Nubia has turned against us under that traitor Teti, threatening our southern border, but also a general of Apophis is on his way to Thebes. His party draws near to Neferusi. These Hyksos are fat with easy living; no longer do they yearn for warfare. If we meet them weaponless, they will accept a token payment of tribute and leave us in peace. Is this not a time to unite to face them rather than indulge in quarrels among ourselves?" He was the reasonable man trying to restore friendship among foolish children, and so well did that part become him at that moment that had Rahotep not known that just the reverse was true, he might have been won to the priest's support.

Amony brought his flail down in a slap across his knees. "As the Voice of Anubis says, time grows short. If we are to receive Apophis's general in a fitting manner, we must close ranks. But it appears that we differ as to the manner of the greeting we prepare for the sons of Set!"

Ahmose had taken his stand beside his brother, a little apart from the judges. Now he stirred as if he would heartily endorse that statement. But he said nothing.

"To bring down the wrath of the Hyksos upon Thebes is the act of one courting destruction and darkness." Zau took up the argument with a fanatic's fire. "Pay tribute, lest we be crushed between two shields—Nubia and the invaders! How dare we take the field against such a double set of enemies? Only two, perhaps three, of the southern nomes will support us, in part. Such an army as we can put into the field would be vanquished in its first battle, leaving us to be utterly swept away by an aroused Apophis. Perhaps then Thebes would cease to be—" His voice grew shriller and shriller as he spoke, and now he was on his feet, hammering his fists together to emphasize his points. Where Tothotep had argued with suave reasonableness, the Vizier strove to overwhelm his opposition with the force of his own fears.

It was Sa-Nekluft who replied. "It seems we have been drawn from the path we are gathered here to follow. We are not here to debate the manner in which we are to greet the general of the Hyksos—whom after all these years Apophis has seen fit to dispatch to Thebes—rather are we in judgment upon traitors. Let us now consider the case of Nakh-hof, second commander of the guard, who did with his own hand slay the Son of Re!"

Zau still stood, glaring at the Treasurer of the North as if

Sa-Nekluft had swept away from him the power of speech. The General Sheshang stirred uneasily on his stool and was provoked into answering.

"What proof have we of the treason of Nakh-hof?"

General Amony became brisk. "Let the Commander Nereb stand forth and speak—"

"Knowing," Nefer-Rohu added sternly, "that he is under the Eye of Horus-Re and that his words will be measured against the Feather of Maat, here now, and also in the day when he goes to face the Judges of the Florizon—"

The young officer came out of the far end of the hall and took the Oath of Maat readily. In colorless, formal words he told of what had happened in the Valley of the Lizard.

Sheshang plucked at his lower lip as he listened, and when Nereb was done, he demanded harshly, "So it would seem that this vile Nakh-hof was indeed cursed of the Great Ones and lifted his hand against our departed lord, along with a renegade priest. But what have we here to do with a wickedness that must have been born of disordered wits?"

"Not all the attackers were slain in the valley," said Amony. To Rahotep he now had the look of Bis when the leopard cub had been particularly clever and knew it well. "Let the prisoners be brought forth!"

Ahmose snapped his fingers in the direction of the curtain, and the captain took his cue, marching out his small party. He did not look at Pharaoh, but made his salute to the three judges.

"Rahotep, Captain of Desert Scouts in the service of the Royal Son Ahmose, with captives taken on the field of battle."

General Amony leaned forward to inspect the prisoners. "Senti"—he named the Egyptian among them—"you are far from your command it would seem. When were you relieved from guard duty at the Well of Wali-heti?"

The man stiffened but made no reply.

"And three Hyksos. Yet you also wear their dress, Senti.

And I have heard a tale of false beards, which is indeed a strange thing. Why does a Commander of Spears under the Son of Re lead an attack upon his overlord wearing the dress of the enemy?" From the purr of a great cat, his voice became that of a grim avenger. "Guard!"

There was a stir by the door. The men wearing Ahmose's badge came around the curtain.

"Let this one be taken forth and questioned as is lawful."

Rahotep, remembering his own ordeal under the inquisitor's lash, could have felt pity had he not known that this man was truly guilty.

"Let the Hyksos be set aside and questioned by one of the scribes who can speak their tongue," the general continued. "But"—his attention moved to the captain—"here is another who has, I believe, something of importance to say—"

"This man is under the sentence of death as a traitor." Tothotep cut in. "Those with him are runaway slaves. He and they cannot testify in any court."

For the first time Kamose moved. He stood up and plucked from his brother's belt the officer's baton-flail.

"Let Rahotep of Nubia approach—" he said quietly, and something in his tone produced a silence throughout the hall.

The Scout captain moved forward and went down on his knees to "kiss earth" in the full royal salute. Kamose's sandaled foot slid forward, and Rahotep was startled as he realized the meaning of that gesture. Only a nomarch, or the heir of a nome, was allowed to touch the Son of Re's person in homage. As his lips brushed the gemmed strap of the sandal, he felt the soft flick of the baton thongs across his scarred shoulders and knew that in the sight of all from this hour forward his scars of infamy were erased, turned into the marks any warrior might bear from honorable battle.

"We greet the Hawk, the Friend-Who-Stands-on-the- Right-Hand-of-One, who commands Pharaoh's Scouts in war and is among the Shields of the Royal Person!"

Not only was his earlier sentence erased, but also he had been publicly welcomed into the ranks of those permitted to follow the Pharaoh closely on the field, with a grant of nobility equal to that of his vanished inheritance.

"Life! Prosperity! Health! May the Son of Re live forever! " Plis fervent thanks were echoed by the others, even the accused, for the pardon of the Pharaoh, given directly, was a great honor, even to those standing as witnesses.

"Now"—Amony brought them firmly back to the matter at hand—"let the Lord Rahotep give evidence of what he knows of this matter."

So the captain told all his tale, beginning with the tempestuous night on which he had been on guard in the palace, describing all that had followed—the attempt on Sekenenre's life, the meeting he had witnessed in the temple, and his own abortive attempt to save the doomed Pharaoh. He strove to avoid anything but the bare recital of facts for which he, himself, could vouch. And when he was done, it was the Voice of Amon who addressed him.

"And to this you will swear, knowing that now and on the day you journey to the horizon, your heart shall be weighed against the Feather of Maat and only the truth will prevail?"