Curse of the Kings (30 page)

ow did she die? Why?

he was taken away.

y whom?

He was struggling to understand me and to convey his meaning. It was difficult for him.

loved Yasmin,he said.

ou work on the site?I said. ou work for Sir Tybalt Travers?

He nodded.

ery good master with very good lady. Very secret.

I said: ou can trust me to keep your secret. What is your name.

ussein.

ell, Hussein, tell me what you know of Yasmin disappearance and you can rely on me to say nothing if it is advisable not to.

ady we love. But her father say No. She is for the old man who keeps many goats and sells much leather.

see.

ut love is too strong, Lady, and we meet. Oh, this I dare not say. We have offended the Pharaohs.

h come, Hussein, the dead Pharaohs wouldn be offended by two lovers. I daresay they had a few love affairs in their time.

here can we meet? There is no place. But I work. I am trusted workman. I work inside the old tomb. I am one of Sir Travers best workmen. I knew when there will be workings and when there will not; and when there are not we meet there, in the tomb.

ou are bold, Hussein. Few people would wish to meet in such a place.

t is the only place and love is strong, Lady. Nowhere else could we be safe and if her father know he would marry her at once to the man of many goats.

understand, but where is Yasmin?

t is the night the great Pasha comes. We are to meet. Together we go to the tomb. But Sir Travers says to me, ussein, you are to take a message to Ali Moussa.He is a man who makes tools they use. nd you are to bring back what I ask. I will give you paper.So I must obey and then I cannot go to the tomb. Yasmin went alone and it was the night of the Pasha coming. I never saw her again.

ut you talk of her as though she is dead.

he is dead. She was thrown into the river on the day of the feast.

I drew a deep breath. feared it,I said. ut Hussein why?

He lifted his eyes to my face. lease tell me, Lady. You are wise. Why is Yasmin thrown to the crocodiles?

rocodiles!I cried.

He bowed his head. acred crocodiles. I have seen sacred crocodiles with jewels in their ears and bracelets of precious stones on their paws.He looked over his shoulder as though he feared he would be struck dead.

ho could have done this?I cried. ho could have thrown Yasmin into the river.

ig men, Lady. Big strong men of power. She has offended in some way. It is because she is in the tomb, the sacred tomb. It is the Curse of the Pharaohs.

ut Hussein, the Pharaohs couldn have done this. Someone else has done it and there must be a reason.

see not Yasmin since the day I am sent to Ali Moussa; but I think she goes to the tomb, alone.

he is a brave girl.

or love one is brave, Lady.

ou think she was discovered there by someone?

do not know.

nd when she was thrown into the river she gave no sign of life. She was like a life-size doll.

erhaps she is dead already, Lady. Perhaps she is drugged. I do not know. All I know is that she is dead.

ut why do this? If anyone wanted to kill her why go to this elaborate method of disposing of her?

ady, you see pictures on these walls. You have seen the prisoners the Pharaohs bring in from their wars. Have you seen, Lady?

have wondered who the people were. I have seen men tied upside down to the prows of ships on these pictures; and others without a hand or an arm or leg.

ou have seen, Lady, what happen to those who offend the Pharaoh. They are given to the crocodile. Sometimes they take an arm, a leg and the captive lives on. It shows him and others what happens to him who offends. Sometimes they are thrown to crocodiles. You understand?

can understand how Yasmin could have offended.

he went into the tomb, the forbidden place, Lady.

nd what about the rest of us?

He shivered.

ussein,I said, re you sure the figure that was thrown into the river was Yasmin?

oes the lover not know his beloved?

I said: knew her but slightly but I thought I recognized her.

t was Yasmin, Lady. And I was in the tomb, though not on the night she disappeared.

ou are afraid that they will take you, too?

He nodded.

don think so, Hussein. They would surely have done so by now. I think somebody was there on the night she went there alone and whoever that was killed her. You should say nothing to anyone of your relationship with her.

o, I do not. It was our secret. It is for this reason we choose such a place for our love.

ou must be clever, Hussein. Do not speak of Yasmin! Do not show your sorrow.

He nodded, his dark eyes on my face. I was touched and a little afraid by the obvious faith he had in me.

his,he pointed to his hand, othing. I come to see wise lady.

I wanted to protest at such a description but I could see that the only way I could comfort him was by allowing him to believe it fitted.

am glad you came to me,I said. ome again if you learn anything.

He nodded.

knew you wise lady,he said. ou have magic in jar.

I could scarcely wait to see Tybalt alone. I wanted to tell him what the boy had told me and ask what could be done about it.

But how difficult it was to see my husband alone! I chafed against the delay. It was late afternoon when I saw him come into the palace. He looked dejected. He went straight up to our room and I hurried after him. He was sitting in a chair, staring at the tips of his boots.

ybalt,I cried. have something to tell you.

He looked up rather vaguely as though he scarcely heard what I said.

I burst out: asmin is dead.

asmin?he repeated.

h, of course, you won know her. She a girl who made leather slippers in the souk. She was thrown into the river at the Feast of the Nile.

h?he said.

his was murder,I said.

He looked at me in a puzzled way and I realized that he was not giving me his attention.

I cried out angrily: girl has died has been killed and you don seem to care. This Yasmin was in the tomb that night when the Pasha came and

hat?he said. I thought in exasperation: One only has to mention the tomb and he is all attention! That she had trespassed there was of more importance to him than that she had met her death.

I said: ne of your workmen has been to see me. He is terrified so please don be hard on him. They had a meeting place in the tomb and the girl has died.

meeting place in the tomb! They wouldn dare.

am sure he was not lying, but the point is the girl is dead. She was thrown into the river on the day of the Feast.

Tybalt said: hey throw a doll into the river nowadays.his time they threw in Yasmin. I thought I recognized her. So did Theodosia. And now we know. Tybalt, what are you going to do about it?

y dear Judith, you are getting excited about something which is no concern of yours.

ou mean to say we look on calmly while someone is murdered!

his is just a tale someone has told you. Who was it?e was one of the workmen. I don want you to be hard on him. He has suffered enough. He loved Yasmin and now he has lost her.

think you have been the victim of a hoax, Judith. Some of these people love a drama. The storyteller in the souk always tells stories which are supposed to be true of lovers who die for love and they make up the stories themselves. sure he wasn making this up. What can we do about it?

recisely nothing even if it true.ou mean we stand by and countenance murder!He looked at me warily. e are not these people judges. The first thing one has to learn is not to interfere. Some of their customs seem strange to us even barbaric but we come here as archaeologists and consider ourselves lucky that we are allowed to do so. One of the cardinal laws is No interference.

n the ordinary way yes but this t sounds absurd to me. Even in the old days when a girl was thrown into the river as part of the ceremony it had to be a virgin. It seems to me that your Yasmin was not likely to be that since she had been meeting her lover in such an extraordinary place.

t was someone who wanted to get rid of her.

here are many ways of disposing of bodies other than such an elaborately public one.

think it was a warning.

He passed his hand wearily over his forehead.

ybalt, I don think you are really paying attention.

He looked at me steadily and said: e have completed the excavation on which our hopes rested. And it has led us to a chamber which is a blind alley. It goes no farther. It must have been put there to trick robbers. Well, we have been thoroughly tricked.

ybalt!

es, all our work of the last months has led to this. You may say that our efforts and all the money we have put into this have been wasted.

I wanted to comfort him; I wanted to put my arms about him and rock him as though he were a disappointed child. It was then that I realized that we were not really as close as the passion we shared had led me to believe.

He was aloof; there was nothing I could say which would not seem banal. I realized in that moment that this work was more important to him than anything else on earth.

o,I said coolly, practically, for my emotions were held completely in check, his is the end.

his is the ultimate failure,he said.

To say I was sorry seemed foolish. So I just sat silent.

He shrugged his shoulders and that terrible silence continued.

I knew that he had completely forgotten Yasmin, indeed that he had scarcely given her a thought. I knew that he was scarcely aware of me.

There was nothing in his mind but Failure.

VIII Tragedy on the Bridge

All next day everyone was talking about going home. It had been one of the most expensive expeditions ever made and it had led to nothing blind alley in an already depleted tomb!

Tybalt had made a great mistake. He had been deluded by his father words before his death. It all came back to that. Because his father had died mysteriouslynd it was mysteriously whatever anyone said about itybalt had believed he was on the verge of a great discovery. So had others. And now they had learned through bitter disillusion, the destruction of hope, and the squandering of a great deal of money that they had been deluded.

Theodosia was unfeignedly delighted. The thought of going home was a tonic to her.

f course I sorry for Tybalt,she said. t a great disappointment to him. But after all itl be wonderful to be home.

Hadrian said: ell, so it all off. We shall soon be home and our great adventure at an end. Has it cured you, Judith? You were so crazy to come out here, weren you? And it wasn quite what it seemed. Oh, I know our Judith. You saw yourself leading us all on to victory. Playing the Mother Superior to the party and finally breaking your way through and discovering the undisturbed tomb of a mighty Pharaoh. And this is the reality.

have found it fascinating.

nd you haven minded being an archaeological widow? Do you think I haven seen you gnashing your teeth! Who wants to take second place to a lot of dead bones?

soon became reconciled to my position and although it has ended like this, a fact which we must all deplore, I can truthfully say it has been a wonderful experience.

hus spake the good and loyal wife.

knew this was what to expect,I said, nd I have always understood that Tybalt would have to be working most of the time.

He came closer to me and said: shouldn have neglected you like that, Judith. And all for nothing!

I turned on him angrily. loyal supporter of your leader, I see,I said.

He grinned at me. ou and I were always good friends, weren we?

ntil this moment,I snapped.

That turned the grin into a laugh. Then he was serious suddenly. on you believe that. We always were and always will be. If ever you needed me

eeded you!

es, my dear cousin. Even the most self-sufficient of us need others at times.

re you hinting something?

He shrugged his shoulders and gave me that crooked smile which I had always found rather endearing. It was there in his serious moments when he was pretending to be lighthearted over something which affected him deeply.

I thought then: He knows something. He is warning me. What about? Tybalt!

I said sharply: ou had better explain yourself.

He seemed then to decide that he had gone too far.

here nothing to explain.

ut you implied

just being my nonsensical self once again.

But he had succeeded in planting seeds of uneasiness in my mind.

A few days later there was great excitement throughout the palace. Tybalt was jubilant. He had been following a false clue for months but he had picked up another trail.

He talked to me excitedly about it.

have this notion that we have been working in the wrong place. There something behind the wall which we have yet to probe.

hat if it another blind alley?

don think there could be two.

hy not?

h for Heaven sake, Judith, why should there be?

don know, but there was this one.

e got to try it,he said. won give up until Ie tried it.

nd that means that we shall stay here for how long?

ho can say? But wee going to try.

The effect on everyone was startling.

People like Terence Gelding and the senior members of the party were delighted. So was Tabitha. Poor Theodosia! She was so disappointed. So was Evan I believed, but solely on Theodosia account. He was so kind and tender to her husband first, I thought, archaeologist second.

And I knew that in my secret thoughts I was making comparisons.

Theodosia was melancholy. Her hopes of going home were dashed.

Tabitha said: he upsetting Evan. Tybalt is quite concerned. He says Evan is not concentrating on his work because he is continually worrying about his wife.

I felt resentful. Why should Tybalt talk to Tabitha about Evan? I suspected he talked to her about a great deal. I had come upon them more than once in earnest conversation. I remembered that scene with Hadrian and wondered whether others had noticed these things as I did.