House of Illusions (29 page)

It was customary for the senior staff, Pa-Bast, Setau, the other body servants, and myself, to eat with the family. The meal should have been a joyous occasion, but though Takhuru did her best to talk to Mutemheb and feign an interest in Tamit’s artless chatter, her glance kept straying to the doorway and she ate nothing. Shesira watched her, and Men, though he fed with gusto, watched Kamen. The atmosphere of strain spread until even Tamit fell silent, and in the end the soft footfalls of the servants and the polite clink of the dishes on the trays they bore could be clearly heard.

The sound of voices and brisk steps in the entrance hall came as a relief. At once Takhuru pushed away her table and fled. With an exclamation Shesira made as if to follow her but Men stayed her with a sharp gesture. “Later,” he said. “Kamen, Kaha, come with me.” We went out. Nesiamun stood just within the entrance, his arms around his daughter, and when he saw Kamen his eyes widened.

“What is this, Men?” he said. For answer Men bowed and held open the office door.

“We can talk in here,” he offered. “Pa-Bast, go and eat now.”

Telling my part of the story to Nesiamun was far more daunting than recounting it to my employer. The Overseer of the Faience Factories was no kindly merchant. Of a high lineage and cold intelligence he stopped me frequently to ask a blunt question or challenge me with a contradiction. He could not weaken my account, of course, for I was laying the truth before him, but he gave me no quarter. When he turned at last to Kamen, his attitude was little different, but Kamen was free to answer him as his equal.

To and fro they went until at last Nesiamun said, “Paiis and I have been friends for years. I know him very well but I am under no illusions about him. He’s a military genius, or would be if there were any wars to fight, but he is also a greedy and devious man. Is he treasonous and murderous also? You tell me that he is. I’ve known you as honest, Kamen, so I must conclude that you are either completely correct or utterly deluded by the concubine who bore you. Will you swear by your totem that you killed and buried an assassin at Aswat in order to save your own life and that of Thu?”

“Yes, I will,” Kamen answered promptly. “And will you request an audience with the Prince? You are an important man, Nesiamun. He will not make you wait. The longer we hesitate, the more likely it is that the General will find my mother. If you make your submission on the grounds of your daughter’s possible kidnapping, the Prince will see you at once. The city police are still searching for her, are they not?” Nesiamun nodded. “Then word of her disappearance has surely already reached the Prince’s ears.”

“You have thought of everything, haven’t you?” Nesiamun retorted. “Did you bring her here to force my hand?”

“No, Father,” Takhuru broke in. “Kamen would not do that. If you will not help, I will go to Ramses myself. He is the only one with the authority to protect us.” Nesiamun turned and glared at her in surprise.

“You may not speak to me in that fashion,” he rebuked her. “You are not married yet.” He swung back to Men. “Surely we should approach Paiis and his brother and give them a chance to defend themselves before placing them under the eye of the palace,” he said, but Takhuru grabbed his arm.

“No!” she blurted. “Father, I am afraid. You have not had time to ponder it all or you would understand. Am I not a sensible girl? Is Kamen not a truthful and upright man? You cannot believe that we would be gullible enough to be deceived by a fanciful story. Besides, there is Kaha. No one will hire a scribe with the reputation of a liar. Send to Ramses now, within the hour! Please!” For answer he rose.

“I want you to come home with me, Takhuru,” he said. “I will deliberate, and give my response in the morning. Our guards can certainly protect you, if such protection is necessary.” Quickly and smoothly Kamen interposed himself between them.

“Either Takhuru stays here,” he said evenly, “or I will indeed kidnap her. She is right. You don’t understand how vulnerable we all are. My mother is out there somewhere, sleeping in an alley or in the bottom of a boat or huddled in a doorway with the beggars. Do you think she broke her exile for no reason at all after nearly seventeen years? Will you help us or not?” Their gaze met and locked. Nesiamun did not give way, but his body loosened.

“Your sheer determination is a powerful persuasion,” he said resignedly. “Very well. I will send a request for audience at once with the excuse you suggested. If you are lying or mislead, I will not be responsible for the consequences. Think of your mother tonight, Takhuru, and the pain you are putting her through, for I suppose I can tell her nothing of this conversation yet. Good night, Men.” He did not wait to acknowledge Men’s bow but left the room abruptly. We looked at each other.

“Do not worry,” Takhuru said. Her voice was shaking. “He is angry and puzzled but if he did not believe us, he would have refused us outright and dragged me home by force. He will keep his word.”

I doubt if any of us slept much that night. Kamen lay on a mattress in the passage outside Shesira’s room. Shesira had asked no questions when her husband had told her that Takhuru would be sharing her quarters. Mutemheb had raised her eyebrows and cast her brother an amused look before wandering off to her own domain and Tamit, tired and fretful after a long day on the river, had gone to bed without protest. Men commanded Pa-Bast to send two of the gardeners to the main entrance of the estate with orders to turn away all callers but a messenger from Nesiamun, and he himself settled down beside the entrance to the house. He did not say so, but I could see that he was regretting the fact that he kept no soldiers in his employ. I retired to my own room where I tossed restlessly, my thoughts revolving once more around Thu.

There was no word from Nesiamun in the morning. With the return of the family the house shook off its somnolence. Men was in his office shortly after dawn, and I was with him in my usual place at his feet beside the desk. Even with the door closed and my master’s strong voice dictating, I could hear the wonderfully reassuring sounds of everyday life. Tamit’s high childish treble echoed down the stairs as she poured out a torrent of unintelligible protest that gradually faded under her mother’s calming tones. A little later Mutemheb’s musical cadences interwove with a flurry of chatter and the shushing of sandalled feet in the hall and I presumed that she had lost no time in inviting her friends to catch up on their news. Pa-Bast rebuked a servant. Someone far away in the depths of the house dropped something with a muffled crash and a curse. Life coursed through the rooms once more, a river of sanity and normality, but I knew that its cheerful flow was superficial. Beneath it was blind uncertainty.

It was hard to concentrate on my Master’s words and difficult for him to keep his mind on his business. Once he stopped dictating in the middle of a sentence and looked down on me. “He kept calling that woman his mother,” he said. “Did you notice? No matter how this tragedy is played out, nothing will be the same again. I must tell Shesira something soon. Kamen and Takhuru are upstairs, closeted together like two cornered animals. Why has Nesiamun sent no message?” I laid my pen on the palette.

“She is his mother, Master,” I replied. “You should have told him his lineage before he found it out for himself. He is full of a protective anger on her behalf and a different kind of anger at you for lying to him. But one day he will rediscover his love for Shesira. She is in his memories, not Thu.” He ran a bemused hand up the back of his neck and absently drew his fingers through the tufts of sparse grey hair.

“I suppose you are right,” he agreed. “I wanted to keep him from growing up full of arrogant fantasies, but it seems I was wrong. I cannot abide this waiting! Where was I?” We continued with the dictation but he had lost the thread of his instruction and finally he dismissed me and vanished into the bowels of the house.

I did not attend the noon meal, nor did I go to my couch for the afternoon rest. I went out into the garden and lay on my back, watching birds dart by overhead against the limitless blue of the sky. I could not abide the waiting either. I wanted to rush to the palace, elbow my way past guards and courtiers, and babble out my story at the Prince’s feet and so make a swift end. I was destroying my career as a scribe more surely than Kamen had risked his military future in taking the chances he did at Aswat. If he was vindicated, he would be in high favour with his half-brother, the Prince, but a scribe’s career was built on trust and I had betrayed my previous Master. My motives would not matter to a future employer. Would Men continue to use me? And if not, would Kamen take me into his new household as I had secretly hoped? Such thoughts, unworthy though they might be, seemed to be reflected in the world around me so that the grass beneath me began to prick my skin and the flutter of leaves hurt my eyes. I had no family into whose bosom I might retreat, no wife in whom to confide. I was entirely dependent upon this family’s good graces and therefore ultimately alone.

But towards evening a message did come from Nesiamun. The Prince had consented to see him regarding his daughter’s disappearance, and he was expected to present himself at the palace the following morning. I waylaid the messenger as he was leaving. “Does anyone else know of this summons?” I asked him. He looked puzzled.

“Only my Lord’s scribe and the Assistant Overseer of the Faience Factories,” he told me. “They were present when the Herald arrived from the palace. Oh and, of course, the General Paiis was there also. He has been spending much time with my Master. He is very concerned with the family’s troubles.”

“Did he have anything to say regarding the message from the Prince?”

“Only that he was pleased my Master had wasted no time in approaching the court. He is a good friend to my Master. He has put many of his soldiers abroad to aid in the search for the Lady Takhuru.” I thanked him and allowed him to go. There was no point in fretting about such a piece of bad luck. I could only pray that upon reflection Nesiamun had not taken our story more lightly than he should and had not allowed Paiis’s smooth tongue to seduce him into an indiscreet word. Nesiamun was a forthright man, impatient with subterfuge, and Paiis was observant. It was possible that even if Nesiamun kept his counsel, the General might have sensed a hesitation, a discomfort, in his old friend. If so, what would Paiis do? Would he deduce the truth?

The answer came with brutal speed. The family was just finishing the evening meal when there was a commotion in the entrance hall. We rushed out to find the room full of soldiers and one of the gardeners Men had set at the front gate holding his hand to a bleeding temple. Men took one look and turned to the girls. “Tamit, Mutemheb, go upstairs,” he ordered. “At once!” I caught a glimpse of their frightened faces as they did as they were told.

“I am sorry, Master,” the gardener gasped. “I tried to keep them out.” Blood was coursing down his cheek and soaking into the neck of his tunic.

“You did well,” Men said evenly. “I thank you. Shesira, take him away and tend his wound.” His wife stepped forward in protest.

“But Men …” she began. He cut her short.

“Now please, Shesira,” he said, still in that steady, quiet tone that the members of his household recognized as a symptom of extreme anger. Shesira closed her mouth. Putting her arm about the gardener, she led him away. Pa-Bast and I drew together. “State your business,” Men demanded. The officer came forward, holding out a scroll. Men nodded coldly to me and I took it.

“I am here to arrest your son, Kamen, on a charge of kidnapping,” the man said uncomfortably. “And before you ask, my authority comes from Prince Ramses himself.”

“Impossible!” Men shouted, but I was unrolling the scroll and reading it quickly. It was sealed with the royal imprint.

“He is correct, Master,” I said, passing him the offending papyrus. He skimmed it. His hands shook.

“Who has brought this charge?” Men demanded. “It is completely ridiculous! What is Nesiamun thinking of?”

“It was not the Noble Nesiamun who pressed the complaint,” the officer said. “The General Paiis had words with His Highness after visiting the house of Nesiamun. The General has the strong suspicion that the Lady Takhuru is being held here.”

“Where is your evidence?” Men cut in. “You cannot arrest on suspicion alone!”

“We do not need evidence in order to search your house,” the man said obstinately. “If you do not turn your son over to us we will seek him here ourselves.”

“No, you certainly will not,” Men snapped. “Are you aware that Nesiamun has already been granted an audience with the Prince regarding this matter and is to appear before His Highness tomorrow? He does not suspect his own future son-in-law. Besides, Kamen himself is missing. I arrived home to find him gone and my staff in a desperate quandary. Did not Paiis himself send here because Kamen did not appear to take his watch, Pa-Bast?” Grim-lipped the Steward nodded. “You see? I do not know what arguments the General used to persuade the Prince to commit this outrage and I do not care. Kamen is not here. Get out of my house.”

For answer the officer gestured to his men and they began to spread out. One put his hand on the office door. Two strode towards the stairs. With a cry Men sprang at them and Pa-Bast moved to bar their way. The officer drew his sword.

At that moment Kamen’s voice rang out. He was standing at the top of the stairs. “No, Father, no! You cannot fight them! This is madness!” He ran down and came to a halt before the officer. “You know me, Amunmose,” he said. “It is I, Kamen, your fellow. Can you really believe that I would kidnap the woman I love?” The man flushed.

“I am sorry, Kamen,” he muttered. “I am simply carrying out my orders. I could make some excuse to the General, but this is a palace matter. I dare not disobey. Where have you been anyway? Where is Takhuru?”

“I am here.” She came stepping regally down the stairs, every inch the affronted noblewoman. “What is this talk of kidnapping? I am staying here as an invited guest. My father knows this. Has he been notified of your intent to drag Kamen from his own home? I suggest that you return to the General and explain his mistake and I hope he receives a severe censure from the Prince.” It was a brave effort and for a second I believed it might work. Amunmose hesitated, clearly nonplussed. Then his shoulders straightened.