The Assassins of Isis (8 page)

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Authors: P. C. Doherty

BOOK: The Assassins of Isis
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‘For many years.'
‘And you were happy in his service?'
‘Oh yes, my lord.'
‘And he was happy with you?'
‘I believe so. He rewarded me lavishly with new robes.' Heby held up his hand. ‘A ring. I have my own chamber, more than enough to eat and drink.'
‘And his wife?'
Valu's question cut like a lash through the court. Lady Lupherna put her face in her hands and started to sob quietly.
‘What is this?' Amerotke straightened in his chair. ‘Lord Valu, what path are you taking now?'
‘Lady Lupherna,' Valu grasped the bar of the court and peered down at the general's wife, who knelt on a cushion between Heby and Menna, ‘you have nothing to fear.' Valu's voice was sickly smooth. ‘Lady Lupherna, tell the court.'
Lupherna raised a tear-streaked face, coughing and spluttering as she tried to clear her throat.
‘Tell my lord judge precisely what happened,' Valu urged.
The court waited in delicious silence at the prospect of some savoury sex scandal which would be discussed in houses, shops and beer tents throughout the city. Lady Lupherna, small and ripe as any plum, with her smooth skin and pretty mouth and gentle doe-like eyes! Amerotke, like the rest, guessed what was going to happen next. Lupherna did not disappoint the court. She confessed in halting phrases how, over the last few months, Heby had pestered her with his attentions, buying her presents, gazing all moon-eyed at her, accosting her when she was alone, even coming into her bedchamber. She gave her evidence reluctantly; she confessed she liked Heby, and always had, until he began his pestering. Throughout her evidence Chief Scribe Menna knelt, head down. Valu next turned on him, and Menna had to confess that two weeks earlier Lady Lupherna had eventually confessed all to her husband. At length, the general had summoned Heby to his
presence and lashed him with his tongue, threatening that any further harassment would lead to him being flogged and thrown out of the house to fend for himself.
Valu, a born practitioner of the art of questioning, gently teased out the truth. Both Menna and Lupherna were reluctant to betray a member of their household, but the more they chattered, the more obviously Heby's guilt unfolded. Valu prompted them, a question here, a question there, backwards and forwards, until eventually he turned on Heby, reminding him he was on oath, and asked him two important questions. Had he pestered the Lady Lupherna? And had he been severely reprimanded by General Suten? At first Heby refused to answer. Amerotke intervened, warning the valet that if he didn't answer the prosecutor's questions he would be taken to the House of Chains below. Heby, sobbing uncontrollably, whispered yes to both questions. The sigh from the spectators was audible.
‘You see, my lord judge,' Valu raised a hand, ‘we have the motive and we have the means.' He would have continued, but Amerotke gestured for silence.
‘My lord prosecutor, we do have a further problem.' Valu's head snapped up quickly, and the spectators at the back fell silent. ‘Picture in your mind,' Amerotke raised his hands, ‘the good general on the roof terrace. He has eaten and drunk well; a hero of Egypt, he sits writing his memoirs. His wife is busy in her chamber, Chief Scribe Menna goes about his duties, the hall of audience is empty, only Heby guards the stairs. Now, if I follow your line of argument, Lord Valu, Heby has decided to murder his master, out of either revenge or lust for his lady wife, or possibly both. He climbs the stairs with a leather bag in which these horned vipers swarm and curl. He goes on to the roof and scatters these serpents about. Wouldn't General Suten object, wouldn't he cry out and raise the alarm?'
‘Ah!' Valu clapped his hands together and bowed towards the judge. ‘My lord, I was going to mention that!'
‘What?'
Amerotke was cross at having walked into one of Valu's traps.
‘The poppy seed! General Suten's wine had been mixed with an infusion of poppy seed. The general became sleepy and lay down on his bed. Heby had hidden away his leather sack containing the horned vipers. At the appropriate time he creeps up the stairs, sees his master asleep and goes back down to fetch the sack. He takes this up, stealing through the darkness, and empties the contents on and around the general.' Valu spread his hands as his voice rose. ‘Can you imagine, my lord, this great hero of Egypt awakening to find he is suffering his worst nightmare. Yet this nightmare is no phantasm but the horrid work of a son of Seth. The general cries out and the vipers strike. The general falls to the ground, arms and legs flailing; such movements would only excite the snakes even more. He is bitten time and time again. He screams and perishes. Such an unworthy death for such a worthy man!'
Amerotke nodded in agreement.
‘Then, my lord Valu, I have one further question, or rather two. First, was General Suten accustomed to mixing poppy seed with his wine?'
‘He was.' Lady Lupherna spoke out strongly. ‘My lord judge, I must tell you this, something we have only learnt since his death: my husband was suffering from pains in his stomach. He had visited the Temple of Isis and been examined. Such pains always came after he had eaten, especially at night. The Chief Physician, High Priest Impuki, prescribed a few grains of poppy seed to be taken late in the evening.'
‘Good.' Amerotke glanced at Lord Valu, who didn't disagree. ‘My second question,' Amerotke continued, ‘is even more important. If Heby murdered his master, surely he would have known he would be caught? After all, he has openly confessed that whilst he was on duty no one climbed
those steps, that he never left his post, while you, Lord Valu, have clearly demonstrated that those snakes must have been brought on to the roof. I find it difficult to accept that a man in his right senses would murder his master in such a public way when the only conclusion to be reached was that he was responsible.'
Valu stared stonily back.
‘Look.' Amerotke gestured at Heby. ‘He protests his innocence. Why should he kill his master so openly and thus entrap himself?'
‘Perhaps he didn't realise he would be caught.' Valu couldn't keep the spite out of his voice.
‘Not so.' Amerotke shook his head. ‘My lord prosecutor, if Heby was going to kill General Suten, he would plan, he would have to go out into the Red Lands to collect the vipers, hide them away in his master's house and seize his opportunity. If I follow your argument, Lord Valu, Heby is not irrational or impetuous but a single-minded cold-blooded killer, so I return to my original question. If he was going to kill his master, why didn't he take more care to look after himself? Moreover,' Amerotke pointed to Lady Lupherna, ‘we have the question of the poppy seed. It could be argued that Heby placed an opiate in his master's drink, but we do have the evidence of his wife, which can be corroborated by Lord Impuki at the Temple of Isis, that General Suten needed such poppy juice to ease the cramps in his belly as well as relax his heart.'
Amerotke paused and stared out of the window. The sky was turning a fiery red, the sun sinking fast, the shadows lengthening; the breeze had shifted, bringing in the smells from the river. I should be going home, Amerotke thought wistfully, to play with my children and sit on my own roof terrace.
‘My lord, will there be a judgement?'
Amerotke watched a wood pigeon, its thick, heavy wings fluttering slowly, glide over the lawn.
‘My lord?' Valu repeated.
‘The case will be deferred,' Amerotke replied. ‘Heby is to be placed under house arrest at General Suten's mansion. If he tries to leave he will be taken to the House of Chains. He will stay there whilst I investigate further. The case will be brought back to me within two days.' He raised his hand at the clamour which had broken out at the back of the court. Shufoy and Asural immediately left, and Amerotke realised a court usher must have brought an urgent message. ‘The business of this court is done,' he declared swiftly, then he rose and left the Chair of Judgement.
 
‘You'd best come down to the House of Chains.' Valu had followed Amerotke back into his chamber. ‘You heard the clamour in the court, which is why your retainers left. Those two women you sentenced to life in a prison oasis, one has murdered the other, strangled her with chains.'
‘What?' Amerotke put the flail and rod down on the cedar-wood table.
‘I know.' Valu rubbed his bald head. ‘One trouble after another, my lord judge. Oh, by the way, I still think Heby is a murderer.'
Amerotke didn't reply, but went to the door and called for Shufoy and Asural. He told them to guard his chamber and followed Valu out along the corridors to the rear of the temple, down flights of stairs and into a gloomy narrow passageway. This was lit here and there by a dancing torch which revealed heavy doors on either side, securely bolted, with small grilles high up. The stone floor had been washed with crushed herbs but the place still smelt rank and fetid. Leading off the passageway were small chambers where the guards gathered.
The appearance of Amerotke and Valu immediately brought everyone to attention. The Keeper of the Chains came hurrying up, glistening with sweat which dampened the black leather jerkin he wore. He grasped a torch from the wall
sconce and led them further down a set of steps into what he called the Am-duat, the Underworld. It was hot and stinking like some animal cage. Halfway down an ill-lit tunnel, the Keeper of the Chains paused and unlocked a door, ushering Valu and Amerotke into the blackness. Torches were hastily lit to illuminate what was nothing more than a stone box which reeked like a latrine pit. It contained earthenware pots, bowls and two cot beds. On one of these sprawled the corpse of a woman, her dirty face almost masked by thick black hair; another woman in a soiled scanty linen robe slouched sullenly on the floor. She kept her head down. Amerotke glimpsed gleaming eyes in the tangled mess of her hair.
Valu found the stench offensive; he would have leaned against the wall but hastily withdrew his hand in disgust at the slime there. ‘I cannot talk here,' he protested. ‘Bring the prisoner to the place of questioning.' He swept out of the cell.
Amerotke crossed to the bed, pulled back the hair of the corpse and touched the gruesome marks around the throat. He turned the body over, flinching at the stench. The dead woman's face was an ugly mask contorted by her death throes. Amerotke raised his hand and touched the chains fastened to the wall which had been used to strangle her.
‘You did this?'
The woman sitting in the corner nodded. ‘I had to.' Her voice was soft and girlish. She pushed back her hair; bruises marked her cheeks and lips, evidence of how the gaolers had used her for their own pleasure. ‘I had to,' she repeated. ‘She said if she was freed she would go back to the Sebaus, silly bitch!' She spat the words out. ‘They would have killed me and her.'
Amerotke snapped his fingers at the Keeper of the Chains. ‘Bring her up.'
A short while later Amerotke and Valu, seated behind a table in the place of questioning, stared across at the
prisoner. She had tied her hair back and been given a filthy wrap to cover her nakedness. She squatted on a stool and gazed stony-eyed at them. Amerotke found it hard to imagine that once she'd been a beautiful prostitute in a famous house of pleasure in western Thebes.
‘What is your name?'
‘You know my name, judge. It is Sithia.' The woman gazed round the room. The guards had been told to leave. Only the bloody table in the corner, as well as the chains and implements of torture hanging from hooks on the wall, gave
any
indication of what happened here.
Amerotke was distracted by the dire warnings some scribe of the stake had painted on the plastered walls:
This is a place where the Flame of Truth burns all lies,
followed by
True terror is not the judgement of man but the work of the Devourers of the Underworld.
Finally, above the door,
In the Place of Annihilation, no criminal survives.
He did not like this chamber or what happened here. His task was to sift the evidence, find the truth, give judgement, and, wherever possible, act as compassionately as circumstances would allow. This was truly a place of terror where the questioners and torturers interrogated Pharaoh's enemies and those brought here for judgement.
‘Why did you kill your friend?' Valu asked.
‘She was not my friend. She was my enemy. Anyone who offers to betray me cannot be my friend.'
‘We could send you to the wood.' Valu used the word for execution.
‘If she had lived, the Sebaus would have done the job for you.'
‘Sithia,' Amerotke leaned across the table, ‘let's start from the beginning. The tombs of Pharaohs and their Queens, the sacred Houses of a Million Years, were cruelly plundered in the Valley of Kings. The Eternal Mansions of nobles were violated, the mummies in their caskets were used as torches to help the plunderers in their work. The treasure they
stole cannot be assessed. The Divine One asked me to investigate. I uncovered a web of conspiracy and deceit, one name leading to another. I discovered a coven, a gang, plundering the glories of Egypt. I captured one, a merchant, selling such plunder in the marketplace of Memphis. He was brought here to the House of Chains.' Amerotke gestured round. ‘In time he confessed and one name led to another, including yours, Sithia, you and your former friend. What was her name?'

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