Soldier of Sidon

"I pray Great Ra excuse me, though he is no friend of mine. I am accustomed to the night. Possibly you fear that I have some weapon concealed on my person?"

"You may keep it if you do," I told her.

"Thank you. In the same spirit of friendship, you may search me for a dagger." Her hand found mine; it was warm, smooth, and soft. "Wouldn't you like to look under my skirt?"

"No," I said. "By your own account, you belong to Sahuset. He has done me much good."

"He risked your life to make himself great. Shall I tell you?"

"If you wish."

Uraeus whispered, "You speak of what you ca

"Oh, but I do! He told me. Everyone must have someone to boast to." The wax woman's voice was low, dull, and throbbing, but strangely distinct. "Your master boasts to his singing girl, I'm sure. Sahuset boasts to me, and I to your new master. To whom do you boast, Serpent of Sesostris?"

Uraeus only hissed in reply.

"I do not fear you. Latro will not harm me, and you ca

"Do you breathe?" I asked.

"I must, to speak. Kiss me, and you will feel it."

I shook my head.

"I will tell you more. Then you will send your slave away, giving him no tales to bear to-whom? Your singing girl? She would thank me for saving her so much night labor."

That was untrue, and I knew it.

"You and she sat beneath a tree on the green hillside before a temple. My master came to you with wooden cups and a skin of wine. He gave you cups and filled them. The drug was smeared on the bottom of your cup alone."

I sat in silence, considering what she had said.

"You do not credit me."

I shook myself. "I don't know what to believe. I have to think."

"You are still young, and the strongest man on this ship, yet you lay down to sleep. And died? No sword, no arrow, no fever, not even a cobra's bite. If you will not accept my explanation, how do you explain it?"

"I don't," I said. "Even the gods are not required to explain everything. What is it you want?"

"Your love, to begin."

"It isn't mine to give." I tried to soften my words. "Love can't be handed over like a stone. I owe you friendship, and I'll try to be your friend because you've been mine."

"If you are my friend, will you get me what I want? And need? What I must have?"

Frightened again, I only shrugged.

"Myt-ser'eu's blood. Or Neht-nefret's. It doesn't matter which. But quite a lot of it, not just a few drops."

Uraeus hissed softly. I suppose it was meant as a warning to me, although I did not require it.

"No." I struggled to sound firm. "I won't get anyone's blood for you unless you'll take the blood of beasts."

"Latro, I ca

"You spoke of love," I told her. "I love Myt-ser'eu. Neht-nefret is her friend, and my friend Muslak loves her."

"He does not."

"So you say." I shuddered. "No! I won't do it."

"I know all Sahuset's secrets. I can make you great among the xu, and will if only you will get me the blood I need. Myt-ser'eu ca

I laughed to hide my fear. "My greatness is to begin with betrayal? Will they set up a statue in the forum for that? Well, I suppose they might."

"You'll do it?" She squeezed my hand.

I shook my head. "If betrayal is the price of greatness among the xu, it's too high."

"Then give me back my roof."

I picked up the lid and handed it to her.

"I am a good friend, Latro, but a terrible foe. In days to come you shall learn the truth of that."

Uraeus whispered, "Kill her, master!"

"How do you kill something that isn't alive to begin with?" I asked him. "Burning her would sink us."

"Cut off her head. Now!"

She laughed at him.

"I don't have my sword," I told Uraeus, "and I wouldn't do it if I did. She isn't mine."

"Yet you will be mine someday." Holding the lid above her head, she lowered herself gracefully into her box. Now I write of that, and the other things, because I know I forget. Sometimes it is good to forget and feel no fear. Yet the time may come when I will have to know these things. If Uraeus does not tell me of them, this papyrus will.

13

AP-UAT IS THE god of soldiers. So says Aahmes and all the soldiers of Kemet. We went to the Magi and explained that we wished to make offerings to this god at his city, Asyut. He shook his head. He is under strict orders to make haste, and would not order our captain to stop there. We protested and he said that we would be free to make any offering we wished if we tied up there tonight. We asked for gold, which we might offer or use to buy a suitable offering. He said what gold he has was not his own but the satrap's, which he could use only for the satrap's purposes.

We went to the captain. He is a Crimson Man, and Myt-ser'eu says he is Muslak, our friend and Neht-nefret's special friend. He said we would pass Asyut about noon. My soldiers grumble at this. I have a little money and would use some of it to buy an offering, but of what use is that if we ca

"I understand," he said, and sighed deeply. "You forget, Latro. Because you do, I am going to tell you something. You must tell no one today, and tomorrow it will be gone and others will have to tell you who I am."

"I understand," I said. "I wouldn't have known you for a healer and my friend Sahuset if she had not told me."

"Just as you have Myt-ser'eu, so I have a certain woman. She comes to me when I wake her. We are lovers then, and talk, kiss, and embrace."

I nodded.

"It does not surprise you? It would surprise everyone else on the ship, I think."

"I have Myt-ser'eu," I explained, "and the chief Crimson Man has Neht-nefret. Both are beautiful. Why should you not have a woman also if you wish one?"

"When I do not wake her, my lover sleeps," the healer said, and it seemed to me that he spoke to himself alone, and would say nothing more unless I spoke. Thus I asked whether she slept by day as I had that morning.

"By day and by night." He clasped my shoulder. He is thin, but as tall as I and taller. "And yet, Latro, there was a night not long ago when she woke without my waking her and came to me."

He sighed again. "We were camped on the shore in tents, for there was no i

He clapped his hands, loud as a shout. "My door-curtain was thrown back. It was she, and she kissed and embraced me. I was happier that night than I had ever been, and that happiness has been repeated. There is an enchantment, Latro, on this ship, a spell I never wove. Perhaps it is Qanju's. I do not know. What was it you wished to ask me about?"

"My dream," I said. "Myt-ser'eu says I never sleep by day, but I died once by day while I was sitting with her beneath a tree."

The healer nodded to that, so it must be true.

"She thought I had died again and was terribly frightened. She woke me, but I remember my dream, or part of it."