Dagger

The seated kings looked at one another. Samlor wondered if he ought to clear his knife, but the others were uncomfortable rather than hostile. Osorkon was perspiring freely. He hadn't moved from his chair, but tension was working his muscles hard.

Khamwas turned and stood, holding a child by either hand. His foot thrust out behind him to slam the door closed.

The sound of the door thumping against its jamb-and the fact that it had been closed physically-relaxed the atmosphere within the chamber. Patjenfi looked toward Osorkon and said peevishly, "Well, does that mean he'H be joining us?"

"Don't act like a greater fool than the gods made you," Pentweret snapped from across the table. "If he comes to us this way-" his eyes flicked toward Khamwas and were forced back by conscious effort of will " – he comes as our king."

The only sound in the room was the murmuring of the children as they hugged themselves closer to Khamwas coarse robe. The three seated men held their breath while they waited for their brother to speak.

Khamwas fluffed his daughter's hair. His fingers paused briefly at the comb of gold filigree at Serpot's temple, then dropped back to her upraised palm. "You saved your lives," he said calmly, "by the way you cared for these while I was-gone."

Samlor could see that Pemu and Serpot didn't understand what was happening, but the tenseness of the situation was clear enough to silence them. Pemu braced himself, threw his chest out toward his uncles and tried to look as much a man as his age permitted.

"And you saved your throne, my brothers," Khamwas continued, "by the way you've ruled Napata since our father died. Together and for the country's good, as you claimed when you sold me into slavery. You've done well. I'm sure you'll continue to do so."

Pentweret's hands began to tremble as his lips stammered through the prayer which his mind had silently rehearsed. Patjenfi tried to jump up, babbling thankfulness, but his legs caught between his chair and the table. Osorkon stared at him disdainfully, until the rabbit-faced man subsided.

"How can you say that," asked Osorkon slowly, "after the way we treated you six years ago?"

Khamwas smiled. "Because you were correct, my brother. I would have been a disastrous king-but I would have demanded my rights as eldest son, because then I would have all the resources of Napata to aid me in my search."

"We never knew just what it was you were looking for," said Pentweret, being as careful as he could to avoid a negative co

His eyes begged Khamwas for understanding.

"I was looking for the source of all power," Khamwas replied with a smile that made sense only to Samlor, who had also been Nanefer in another age. "I found it at last."

Khamwas touched the bulge over his heart where the crystal book lay bound, but before he resumed speaking, he gripped Pemu's hand. "I also found that the only power I really wanted, the power of bringing the dead to life. . is beyond the ability even of the gods."

Again there was silence.

"Well," said Patjenfi at last, "you'll have to live somewhere, if you're back. I think-"

"You'll move into my apartments here in the palace at once," Osorkon interrupted. "I'll leave my servants in place until you can arrange matters to your own satisfaction, elder brother."

"I'll send over clothing from my suite," added Pent-weret. "It will fit you, I think." He glanced at the massive Osorkon and gri

"The children will need their things, too," said Patjenfi with a frown. "I do hope that-" He paused, pursing his lips, and finally continued, "Well, if you want to separate them, of course, that's your right, whatever you want. But they've grown up with my three, haven't you, darlings?"

Serpot nodded determinedly. Pemu, less convinced of the question's simplicity, looked from his uncle to his father- who was smiling-and nodded agreement himself.

Khamwas leaned down, kissed each child on his forehead, and said, "Go back and get your things together, darlings," he said as he hugged them. "My brothers and I have one more thing to discuss."

The children went out into the corridor. Before the door closed behind them, Samlor heard Pemu saying in a clear, princely voice, "Take us back to our rooms, Tery. We'll be-"

"One more piece of business," Khamwas paraphrased. As he eyed his brothers, his expression reverted to the icy hardness with which he had first entered the i

"Six years ago, my brothers," said Khamwas, "one of you-let's pretend that I don't remember who-said that if I were killed instead of being sold into slavery, I wouldn't come back later to make trouble."

Samlor now understood the look and the tone.

Patjenfi looked down at his hands, making attempts to smile that each time lapsed into terror. Osorkon met Khamwas' eyes as stolidly as a mirror, but sweat glittered on his high forehead.

Pentweret was looking up also. His eyes were blank and the angle of his chin suggested that he was offering his throat to a slaughterer's blade. His larynx hobbled as he tried to swallow, and hobbled again.

"You didn't take that advice," Khamwas continued, "and perhaps you think you made a mistake."

There had been a tone of playful banter, cat and mouse rather than cat and kitten, in Khamwas' voice. Even that false humor dropped away as he continued, "Don't be certain that I wouldn't have returned, my brothers. I was a scholar even then, though I hadn't a fraction of the powers I have now."

He paused before he concluded, "Believe me, you would be even less pleased to see me now if you had chosen murder."

"Then we can all rejoice to be the men we are," said Osorkon calmly. He stood up and reached across the table to clasp the hand which Khamwas slowly extended to him.

"Welcome home, my brother," Osorkon said. "It's good to have you with us again."

CHAPTER 25

THE WALL OF the terraced garden overlooked the river, but from inside even the enclosure was screened by lush greenery. Expert tending preserved the appearance of untrammeled nature without the dankness and the impossible tangles which «natural» implied in reality. /A fountain played in the near distance, noticeable for its babble and the sheen of mist in the air beyond a border of straight-stemmed bushes with flowers of glowing magenta.

Broad-leafed vines-gourds rather than grapes-had been trained to cover the arbor in which Samlor sat with Khamwas, watching the flock of royal children playing a game with bats and a feather-filled ball on the lawn. Servants stood nearby with refreshments and in case of accident, but the arbor's narrow doorway and curved walls gave it the privacy of a camera obscura.

"I can't offer you more than you've earned already, Samlor," Khamwas said. Both men found it easier to speak when their eyes were on the squealing children than they did while searching each other's expressions. "You'll leave here a rich man-"

"I do all right," Samlor interrupted. "I never doubted you'd keep our bargain-and I've never asked anybody for more 'n that."

Khamwas laid two fingers on Samlor's knee and brought the other man's eyes to meet his.

"You have helped me gain the cosmos," Khamwas said softly. He patted the crystal book beneath his sash, using the same touch with which he had demanded Samlor's attention. "To an extent, I'm wondering what I'll do with the power now that it's mine. . but don't ever doubt that the power is at your service, or that you've earned that service."

"If I need your help, I know it's here," said Samlor as he turned his head again. "You know. .," he added.