Soldier of Sidon

I laughed as fear makes men laugh.

"You have power over me," Beteshu said. "I have power over you. I could destroy you if I wished, yet I am your friend. You have nothing to fear from me."

"I am a friend," I told him, "to those who are friends to me."

"I must speak about your slave. He is a cobra taken from the crown of a certain one. You must not kill him. He may kill you if you try."

I said, "I will not try. What sort of man kills his own slaves?"

"Every sort of man."

We sat in silence for a time. Now and then, faint voices came through the hatch. Now and then, feet pattered on the deck above our heads. I felt then that we had been sitting so for years, side by side, and might continue so until the Golden Age returned, though the ship rotted around us.

"One man works his slave to death," Beteshu told me. "Another turns drunkard and beats his. You must strike to kill. A slave owns no slaves. Circle that too."

He was gone; and I sat in the stinking hold alone, sweating in the heat. I have told Uraeus what was said, and written the truth at his urging. I must believe it.

23

THE CANAL AROUND the cataract is long and tedious. So says Kha, the man the governor is sending to the Nubian king. Qanju does not think it so long in truth, only that we will be long there.

Kha came aboard today, soon after the scribe and the scribe's wife. Alala is taller than Kha, slender, young, and silent. Her skin is a ripe olive's. My wife says we have not seen her before. Alala brings with her a baboon, very large but quiet and well behaved. Thotmaktef the scribe is young and two hands below his wife in stature. His shaven head shows that he is a priest. (His wife says of Thoth, but I do not know this god.) Now he smiles much and speaks much, too; but this may be because he has a new wife. I like him and her, but wonder whether I could trust either. Those we like best are not always to be relied upon.

Kha is a man of middle years, thick at the waist. Like Qanju, he has dignity. Although a man of Kemet, he is a sagan. Muslak says this, and explains that these are men whose counsel and probity have earned the governor's ear.

When he came, Qanju was speaking to Thotmaktef and Alala. He invited Kha to join him, but did not send Thotmaktef and Alala away. These four wished to confer unheard, but though this ship is larger than most, it is crowded. I saw that Neht-nefret and Myt-ser'eu were standing nearby, and had little trouble drawing near enough to listen too. Muslak did the same.

Qanju introduced himself and explained that he is our leader and a sagan of the satrap's. Kha bowed and named himself. Qanju introduced his scribe Thotmaktef, and Thotmaktef's wife, and all four sat. Kha asked whether Alala could be trusted in confidential matters. Thotmaktef said she could be trusted absolutely. Kha asked Alala the same question.

"Your first duty is to the governor," Alala said. (She spoke more softly than the men, and Kha cupped his hand behind his head to hear her.) "A wife's first duty is to her husband. Nothing you tell me will be safe from mine."

"What of your friends?" Kha inquired. "Those with whom you are accustomed to share secrets."

"I have no such friends."

"Your sisters then."

"My sisters share no secrets with me," Alala said, "and I share none with them."

Qanju murmured, "Nor are they on our ship."

Kha asked, "Do we sail today?"

"We sail now," Qanju said, "unless there is reason to delay."

Muslak pretended not to hear this, but I saw the look he gave Azibaal.

"My bag is on board," Kha said.

Alala murmured, "So is mine."

They spoke of places for sleeping and eating, but I will not give all that.

"I am to ask King Siaspiqa to show you the gold mines," Kha said. "He may refuse, though I think he will not. Rest assured that any mines he shows you will be exhausted."

"I understand," Qanju said.

"May I ask why you wish to see them?"

"I have with me a Hellene who is familiar with the methods used in the silver mines belonging to his city. We hope that these mines will reveal to him the methods employed in Kemet of old."

"You must not speak so in the presence of King Siaspiqa. These mines are in his land. They are his now."

Qanju nodded. "Your counsel is wise. Neither will I speak of mining methods to King Siaspiqa."

Alala murmured, "Is the Hellene here? Should he not join us?"

"I would have sent for him if he were on this ship," Qanju told her. "He is to meet us above the cataract."

Kha smiled; his smile is very small. "This Hellene is wise to refrain from so lengthy and tedious a journey."

"If you would prefer…?"

Kha shook his head. "I am equally unsuited to walking and the donkey."

Alala whispered to Thotmaktef. "He might be carried in a litter or driven in a chariot. He wishes to know everyone on the vessel before we reach Napata."

Kha had caught her whisper, even as I. He smiled again, and nodded. "You have chosen well, Thotmaktef."

Thotmaktef made him a seated bow. "I have, I know."

"I have reason to hope, however, that we will find King Siaspiqa south of his capital. If the gods so will it, we may enter his presence north of the second cataract."

There was more talk which I will not give here. Qanju called me over and introduced me to Kha; after that he told Kha, "Holy Sahuset is a learned man of Kemet. Perhaps you know him?"

Kha shook his head.

"The satrap sent him to assist me. He speaks the language." Qanju returned to me. "Could you find him for us, Lucius?"

Aahmes, who knew him, said he had gone ashore. I took him with me to search, and we took with us his four soldiers of Kemet. I soon found Sahuset.

When we returned to the ship, Myt-ser'eu and Neht-nefret were talking with Alala. Qanju sent me away, so I joined them.

"My father is a priest of the temple of Thoth," Alala said. "He has often told me I should marry a priest, but none here are suitable. My new husband is a priest of the temple of Thoth in Me

"He is a friend of ours," Myt-ser'eu told her. "Like my own husband, he has the ear of Qanju, and is thus a person of importance. Have you met my husband?"

Alala said she had not, so Myt-ser'eu made me known to her. "Latro is foreign," she explained, "but he speaks our tongue almost as well as you do."

Alala's smile made me like her at once. "You think me foreign, too. I was born here, though my parents came from the south."

I asked whether she was Nubian-of Yam was what I said in the tongue of Kemet.

"We do not speak as you do. There are two peoples. My own, the Medjay, are the Lion People. The old men speak of King Siaspiqa. He is king of the Nehasyu, the Crocodile People."

Neht-nefret said, "In Kemet, Medjay are what we call those who guard royal tombs and bring anyone who breaks the law to the judges."

"They are we," Alala told her. "You pay our warriors to guard your burial places and drive off those who would come to steal and kill."

"Do you speak the tongue of King Siaspiqa?" I asked her.

"Better than I speak this one," she said, and demonstrated, speaking a tongue unknown to me.

"What have you done with your pet?"

"I have no pet." For a moment she looked puzzled. "My mother has a cat. Do you know her?"

I said no more, but before laying aside my brush I should write a thing I have neglected. When I saw Sahuset in the market, I told Aahmes and shouldered my way through the crowd. When we were alone, Aahmes asked how I had recognized Sahuset so quickly when the market was thronged. I explained that Myt-ser'eu had pointed him out to me that morning before he left our ship, and I had seen his pet.