Soldier of Sidon

Thotmaktef nodded. "I knew it already, but I saw them too. The big one in which he is shown with Anubis wrapping the mummy of a dead general is very fine."

That surprised me and I said so, adding that I had not seen him there. "I forget," I said, "but not as quickly as that."

"Neither did I see you. Shall I tell him more, Noble Qanju?"

Qanju said he should, smiling as he had before.

"The chief priest of that temple sent a lesser priest to us, asking that the Noble Qanju come to him. This priest did not know what the chief priest wanted. Or perhaps he did, but if he did, he would not reveal it. In any event, the Noble Qanju asked me to return to the temple with him to find out. I myself am a priest, a priest of the temple of Thoth in Me

I shook my head.

"It is so. I was taken to the chief priest and explained, adding that the Noble Qanju certainly would not come now, as the wind was rising and he was eager to put out. The chief priest then gave me this." Thotmaktef held up a small scroll and coughed apologetically. "It fell from a rack in the House of Life this morning. There are scribes there, as in every House of Life. Perhaps you know. None of them had ever examined it, or so he told me."

I shrugged. "No doubt there are many scrolls there."

"Nothing like as many as we have in Me

Qanju nodded and smiled. "The chief priest then asked Thotmaktef the same question I asked you a moment ago. In reply Thotmaktef relayed to him what Captain Muslak had told him of your city."

"About the wolf standard your armies carry into battle," Thotmaktef said. "Even as Hathor was wet nurse to Osiris, a she-wolf was wet nurse to the brothers who founded your city. When I told the chief priest that, he was satisfied and gave me the scroll. He would have told me what was in it as well, but I was anxious to get back to the ship and promised that the Noble Qanju and I would read it at once."

Qanju said, "As we now have. It contains a prophecy. Anubis is the god of death here. They must have told you that when they showed you the picture Thotmaktef described."

"Myt-ser'eu and Aahmes did," I said.

"A hero of Anubis who had forgotten Anubis would visit the temple, according to the prophecy. He would offer a black lamb."

Qanju waited for me to speak, so I said, "If I'm death's hero I don't know it, but I did indeed offer a black lamb, as I told you."

"This hero is to have the shield of Hemuset," Qanju continued. "The priests at the temple in Asyut, where the prophecy was apparently made, are to inform him of this and tell him how to find it. If you feel this doesn't pertain to you, I won't trouble you with any more of it."

Behind me Uraeus whispered, "My master wishes to hear more." I had not known he had followed me until then.

"Do you, Lucius?"

I nodded. "If you care to tell me, Noble Qanju."

"That is well. Here is what you are to do. You must find the temple beyond the last temple. There you shall find the shield. If I were to speak further, I would be repeating things I myself learned from Thotmaktef only moments ago."

The scribe cleared his throat. He is young, with honest eyes. His head is shaved. He said, "Hemuset is the goddess of fate. She's a minor goddess." He coughed. "By which I mean only that there's no great cult attached to her. When a child is born, she attends its birth, unseen, and decrees the fate of the child. She carries a shield with an arrow on it-in pictures, I mean. It's the way artists show her. Sometimes the shield is small, and she wears it on her head. It symbolizes the protection a man receives from his fate. He can't be killed until he's fated to die, in other words."

Qanju murmured, "Continue."

"The arrow symbolizes his death. Fated to die, he perishes."

Uraeus whispered, "No one sees her shield or her arrow, master."

"I understand," I said.

"If a man meets her," Thotmaktef continued, "and looks at her shield, he sees his entire life reflected there. Or so it's said." He coughed again. "None of this about Hemuset is in the scroll, it's just background. The scroll says Ra will guide you-guide the hero-to the temple beyond the last temple. Whatever that means."

Qanju sighed. "What it actually says is that a scarab will lead you to it. The scarab is a beetle found in this region. It is one of the signs of their sun god."

Now I wonder whether my scarab is meant. I ca

"I have said that we require your help," Qanju continued, "and we do. I must ask the obvious question first, however. Do you know yourself to be the hero mentioned in the prophecy?"

"I doubt that I am," I said. "I do not think myself a hero at all."

Behind me, Uraeus whispered, "You have been dead, master. Surely that is meant."

"If I have been dead," I told Qanju, "I have forgotten it."

"You were," Thotmaktef told me.

Qanju smiled. "If not dead, you were near enough to death to deceive me. Sahuset restored you-perhaps only to consciousness. Do you feel gratitude to him?"

"Certainly," I said, "if he saved me from death."

Thotmaktef said, "You should not have told him, Noble Qanju."

"I disagree. Suppose that we had kept it from him. Would he not have reason to distrust us after that?"

"He would forget it."

"He would write it in his scroll, as he writes so much. If he did not, his slave would tell him. What is gained by a lie is only a loss in disguise, Thotmaktef."

"I beg pardon," Thotmaktef said.

"Granted. Lucius, you have a woman with you. Do you know it?"

"Myt-ser'eu? Certainly. She went to the temple of the wolf-god with us."

"That is well. There are three women on this ship. Will you name them, please?"

I shook my head. "I have seen a woman taller than Myt-ser'eu but not as beautiful. She wears much jewelry, but less than Myt-ser'eu. Her right hand bleeds. I don't know her name."

"She ca

"I don't want her. I have Myt-ser'eu. We shared a bed in an i

"That is well." Qanju smiled. "All matters involving women are fraught with difficulty, and when the women are young and handsome, with great difficulty. Thotmaktef, I ask a favor. Will you bring Neht-nefret here?"

16

THOTMAKTEF ROSE. "WE'LL have to get him before long, I think."

Behind me, Uraeus whispered, "I will go, if my master wishes."

Qanju shook his head. When Thotmaktef had left us, Qanju stared across the gunwale and fingered his beard. "He is a good young man, Lucius; but he has learned a great deal already and is learning more. Learning often turns good to evil."

I said, "In that case, learning itself must be evil."

"It is not. Everything depends upon what one learns, and the great thing-the thing to learn best-is that learning must serve us. If it does, we continue to serve Ahura Mazda, assuming that we served him when we began to learn. But if we serve learning, we learn too late that the dark god has do

"I can sit on the deck like everybody else," the young woman called Neht-nefret said, and seated herself swiftly and gracefully. She has fine eyes, made finer still with kohl, a hard mouth, and a bandaged hand. "Is this about what I think it's about, Noble Qanju?"

He nodded. "Are you and Myt-ser'eu friends, Neht-nefret?"