Suzanne Robinson (12 page)

“That’s why you sent for me?” Anqet asked. Her great dark eyes bore into his own—searching, questioning.

Seth squeezed Anqet’s hand and brought it to his lips. He sighed when she pulled it away. “Yes, to apologize and to talk. I would like to know something about you. Something besides the fact that you are more beautiful than Isis and that your voice could charm a man’s ka out of his body.” He leaned back on the stool so that he could see her face. She was staring at her clasped hands. “Do you have family in Thebes?”

“No, my lord.”

“Where is your home?”

“In the North.”

Seth persisted. “Where in the North?”

“It is many days’ sail from here.”

Seth looked at the girl’s tense body and guarded face.
There was more to her reticence than virgin shyness. She was concealing something. Probably she had run away from an overbearing father, or she might be a thief. Impossible. A girl this beautiful would have no need to steal. Still, her reluctance to speak about her home was intriguing. Most Egyptians were quick to tell you their family, their lineage, clan, village, nome. They were enthusiastic visitors and exchangers of genealogical information. Yes, Anqet had something to hide. He would find out what it was.

“Pharaoh tells me you can read. Not many singers can read. How did you learn?” Anqet paled. Seth watched her slim fingers press together “Be at ease. I only asked because, now that I think of it, you do not act much like a singer You are quiet, and when you speak, your words are those of a girl trained in manners and propriety. Yet you sing for strangers, as any common woman. Tell me, have you and your family come upon misfortune?”

Seth placed his hand over Anqet’s, and she let it rest there. “My father died several months ago, my lord. I earn my keep as I can, for although he was a loving man, he was not a wise one in the ways of evil. My home and possessions have been taken from me.” Her voice faltered. “But I would give the whole estate and more to have him back, to see him laugh and smile with my mother, to see them together and happy. May I go now?”

“Do you really want to leave?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Please don’t. I can see you’re unhappy. I know what it is to lose a father The world loses its underpinnings. One is a barge adrift on rapids.” Seth leaned toward Anqet. He slid a hand up her arm and rested it on her shoulder “You have lost much, and you seem so frightened. I chastise myself for adding to your fears.”

Seth pulled her firmly toward him. “My sweet one, let me ease your fears. I would give you pleasure and care for you. If you would let me. Let me.” He held those earth-black eyes with his own and let his words soothe the girl while he drew her to him. He slipped his other arm
behind her and brought her lips down on his. He could feel her trembling. Was it only out of fear? He would make her tremble for a better reason. Seth gently forced Anqet’s mouth open with his own and lost himself in warm moistness.

A shadow blocked the lamplight. Seth opened his eyes and twisted, his hand already reaching for the dagger at his belt.

“Sennefer, you fool, I could have killed you. Get out.”

“I knocked. You didn’t hear me.”

Seth turned back to Anqet. The girl had risen and was edging toward the door. He placed a hand on her arm. She jumped and uttered a small cry.

“Please, Anqet, don’t go.”

“Seth!” Sennefer moved his tall body between them and brushed Seth’s hand from Anqet’s arm. Imprisoning the offending arm, he faced his younger brother. “Do you still pursue this child? Look at her. She’s quivering. What have you done to her?”

As always, Sennefer’s presence set a pack of howling jackals loose in Seth’s heart. The anger and bewildered hurt of eleven years ago lay buried until he was forced to deal with his brother. And as always, Seth sought to conceal his desperation and the pain.

“I’ve done nothing to her Yet. Do you want to watch, brother?”

Sennefer’s reply was interrupted by Anqet’s gasp. The singer turned and ran out of the room. Seth muttered an obscenity. He jerked his arm free of his brother’s restraining hold. He turned his back on Sennefer and went to a table against the wall where he poured a goblet of wine.

“Get out.”

“I’m sorry, Seth.”

“It’s nothing. One more night without sleep. She’s like an infestation in the blood.”

Seth looked over his shoulder. Sennefer was watching him with that sad, forgive-me look. Seth turned away. Beside the winejar lay a jewel box of polished, red-brown
wood. Its top was carved with the figure of a warrior on a leaping stallion. His grandfather, the chief. Where was that other family now, his barbarian blood? Did their women raise brothers to hate each other as Seth’s and Sennefer’s mothers had tried to do?

“Go away, Sennefer. I have an itch in my loins that will drive me into a rage now that you’ve taken my satisfaction from me.”

“Drink some more wine. Better still, visit Gasantra.”

“I don’t want Gasantra. Bareka! Can’t you leave me alone? Go play with your priest friends. Sacrifice a lamb or whatever it is you do with all those sheep at the temple. Priests seem to have an unhealthy liking for woolly pets.”

“Seth.” Sennefer’s tone was hard, a stem older-brother warning. “You can leave off the insults. I’m used to them. You forget I watched you grow up. You’ll have to do more than spout heresies to shock me. Now sit down. I’m going to talk to you, whether you want it or not.”

Seth gave an elaborate sigh. He took the chair Anqet had vacated. Unfortunately, Sennefer chose to occupy the stool at his feet. Seth curled his lips. “Afraid I’ll bolt like she did?”

“Yes. Hold your tongue and listen to me.” Sennefer linked his hands together and rested them on the white pleats of his robe. He wore thick gold bracelets and anklets engraved with the falcon emblem of their family. His brown skin caught the burnished light of the metal. “Seth, are you involved in this tomb-robbing obscenity?”

Jewel-green eyes widened in amusement. A rapturous laugh bubbled forth. “Oh, thank you Sennefer That was lovely. You’re so worried.”

“Stop it,” Sennefer said, a flush creeping into his face. “If you have desecrated houses of eternity, you will ruin our whole family. Pharaoh will bum every house and field we own, and you’ll be lucky if he takes your head instead of letting the priests have you. And what of the rest of us? Have you no care for what happens to Khet or our stepmother—or me?”

“Calm your frenzy. I’m always careful in what I do.”

Sennefer regarded his brother in silence. “Have you sinned in this horrible fashion, little brother?”

“The transgressions of my ka are not your concern. I told you that long ago.”

“I’m the one who first instructed you in religion. Should you die, I will have responsibility for the care and feeding of your soul.” Sennefer’s voice rang out in the quiet chamber. “I ask you again. Have you sought to destroy the harmony arid balance of the Two Lands to feed your sick cravings?”

Seth stared at the man at his feet. He let the quiet soothe his urge to kick his solicitous brother. He bent down to Sennefer so that his face was a finger’s width from the other’s ear.

“Hypocrite,” he said. “You’re worried about your own devout skin. Don’t try to convince me you’d mind becoming nomarch if I died.”

“Will you never forget that?” Sennefer said. He backed away from Seth. “I was young. Mother taught me to hate you. You don’t know how it felt to see Father come back with that foreign usurper. He forgot us and took her to wife. Later, you would look at me with her eyes, witch’s eyes, and want to be friends. I was trying to hate you. You nearly drove me mad, following me around, trying to do the things I did. I didn’t want you.”

“So you decided to kill me.”

Swift as a cobra’s strike, Sennefer’s blow gave Seth no time to duck. The older man’s hand struck him across the mouth and drew blood. Seth’s head snapped to one side. The yellow glow of the room brightened to silver for a moment. He waited for the floor to stop chasing the walls and settle back under his feet. Then he brushed a strand of auburn hair from his eyes, sat up, and wiped the blood from his mouth.

Sennefer was on his feet and bending over him. “Falcon, I’m sorry.” He tried to turn Seth’s head, to look at the damage he’d done. His hand paused as it touched his brother’s chin. “Are you trying to make me hate you all over again? Don’t do it, brother.”

They engaged in wordless combat until something in Seth’s face made his brother sigh and drop his hands. “Inundation approaches. Will you be here for the festival of Opet?”

“I don’t know,” Seth said. He relaxed now that they spoke of impersonal things. “Pharaoh wants me to stay, but I haven’t been home yet.”

Sennefer inclined his head and moved away. He went to the door and stopped outside for a moment. When he returned, he was followed by a black shadow. It was a hunting dog, a purebred hound. All bone, sinew, and muscle, the creature had long, soft hair as dark as Sennefer’s own and a narrow, aristocratic head dominated by enormous eyes. The hound walked into the room as if he were master and sat down beside Sennefer next to Seth’s chair.

“His name is Meki, protector. He’s a hunter and will make a good friend, I think. He’s young, but then so are you.”

Seth eyed the dog. The animal cocked its head to one side and sniffed. Then he moved closer to Seth, put one paw on his knee, and stared straight into Seth’s eyes. Seth couldn’t help stroking the sleek head.

“Did you teach him to do that?” he asked.

“I haven’t taught him anything. I didn’t think you’d take him if I did.”

Meki shifted his weight and rested his other paw on Seth’s knee.

Sennefer laughed. “I don’t know where he got that from. Will you accept him?”

Seth nodded. He followed his brother to the door. “You deprived me of my evening’s companion. It’s only fair that you provide me with another, although I’d rather—”

“Enough, Falcon. I don’t want to hear your plans for that poor child.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make her happy. For a while, anyway.” Seth’s grin faded into one of his infrequent expressions of solemnity. “My thanks, Panther.”

Sennefer threw back his head and laughed. “You
haven’t called me that in over ten years. I should have bribed you long ago.”

Seth smiled back at his brother. He watched the older man walk down the hall. He shut the door and leaned against it

Panther and Falcon. Cat and bird of prey. Could they exist together without enmity, two such unnatural companions?

He returned to his chair Meki set a paw on his knee again. Seth stroked the dog’s head absently and let his thoughts drift back to Anqet, the mysterious, learned, and beautiful Anqet. He had to find a way to be with her She needed someone to look after her Seth’s hand froze on Meki’s head. A warm, rushing feeling came over him. Anqet was a lady, and she needed protection. What was she doing in this city alone? An unaccompanied woman in Thebes was prey to all the cutthroats and perverts that any great capital attracted.

Bareka! What was wrong with him? The agitation in his heart was like the frenzy of a feeding crocodile. That settled it. He would take the girl to his town house near the palace. She would be safe there; he could have her whenever he wished. And he wouldn’t worry about some other warrior or noble getting his hands on her.

Having decided Anqet’s future for her, Seth turned his thoughts to his impending encounter with Lord Merab.

Not long after she fled Count Seth, Anqet sat beneath a palm tree in one of the gardens on the palace grounds. She hugged her knees to her chest, rested her cheek on her knees, and shivered with anger, anger at herself. She had let Count Seth make love to her.

You were frightened. You were sure he knew that you’d discovered his secret. By the time you figured out that he had not, it was too late. He tricked you by being nice. It isn’t fair. He’s a criminal. You know he’s vicious, yet he still makes your blood turn to hot wine.

She heard the rustling of leaves and feared that Count Seth had followed her but as the man came closer, she saw
that it was Lord Sennefer It was annoying that the count, his brother, Dega, and General Horemheb were all of similar height and build. At a distance she could hardly distinguish between them.

When she realized that her visitor was Lord Sennefer, Anqet felt secure To her, Seth’s brother carried with him the aura of a priest of Osiris, the god of hope and renewed life. He was a gentle and devout man, a mature and sane version of his cruel brother.

“Ah, dear child, my servant said you ran off in this direction.” Lord Sennefer motioned for her to remain seated and gave her a smile that radiated peace. “I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find you.”

Sennefer sat beside her He rested his weight on one arm and looked at her with worried eyes. Anqet noted the hair-thin lines at the corners of his mouth, but it was the same wide, sensual mouth that had invaded her own so devastatingly not long ago. Its corners turned up in a deceptive way that implied good humor where often there was none. Anqet tore her eyes from Lord Sennefer’s lips and concentrated on his words.

“I know how shattering my brother’s attentions can be. I fear he has developed a craving for you.” Sennefer shook his head. “I can not influence him, but I can offer you my protection.”

“You are kind, my lord, but you don’t know me. Why should you bother?”

Sennefer averted his gaze Anqet saw his shoulders hunch, as if some unpleasant demon had settled on them.

“I’m to blame for much of what my brother does. If I had been kinder to him when we were growing up, perhaps he wouldn’t be so vicious now. After I married, I saw to it that my wife knew my feelings for Seth, and she adopted them. She avoids him as a Bedouin avoids cities.” Sennefer turned back to her with a sad smile. “In the last years I’ve tried to repair the bright jewel I crushed beneath my heel.”

Lifting her brows, Anqet tilted her head to one side. “He doesn’t appear crushed to me.”

“He isn’t your brother,” Sennefer said. “In any case, the honor of my ka demands that I help you. I have a daughter She is younger than you, but I wouldn’t like to see her corrupted. I could have someone take you home. You don’t belong here, Anqet. At least, you don’t belong here alone. Seth isn’t the only man who wants you. He’s just the most dangerous of them.”