Lynda Robinson - Drinker Of Blood

Meren rested the back of his arm on his forehead and sighed. "Majesty, you were a child when the queen was killed, but you were in her household. Do you recall what happened to any of her servants?"

"No." The king leaned forward in his chair. "Wait. I think I remember… After Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Smenkhare died and I became king, Ay mentioned the disposition of servants from the royal households. He was talking to one of his underlings. I remember that many retired with estates granted by me, and Ay said it was for the best. I suppose he meant that some of them were stained by their fanatic service to my brother and that to keep them would create strife and factions at court when we needed desperately to heal and forget."

Tutankhamun's brow furrowed with the effort to recall more. "Many of the highest in Nefertiti's household retired-the steward, of course, the captain of the queen's guards, her overseer of vineyards, her priests, the overseer of horses, her personal maids." The king spread his hands wide."I can't remember anything else."

"I've had to be most clandestine in my inquiries regarding them," Meren said.

"Aye, Father, but we still leave a trail of bodies wherever we search."

"Mother of the gods," Tutankhamun whispered.

Meren and Kysen looked at the king. He turned an incredulous stare on them.

"The guard."

"Mose, golden one?"

"No-Bakht. The one whose death you kept forgetting to investigate. Remember, I favored him because he would tell me wonderful stories of times past."Tutankhamun wet his dry lips. "And the ones I loved best were those from the years of my childhood, when he served as a guard in the household of Queen Nefertiti."

Meren turned to Kysen. "Where is Abu?"

Kysen left in search of the charioteer. The king made only one remark while they waited.

"I liked his stories because he never mentioned the heresy or the strife. He talked of our adventures sailing skiffs on the Nile, of the festivals, of the kindness of Nefertiti. And I remember trying to see the queen when she fell ill. I insisted on dragging my nurse to the queen's chambers, even though she told me I couldn't visit. Bakht was on guard that day, and he wouldn't let me in her apartments. He was most kind and promised to pass on my prayers for her health."

Abu arrived, out of breath and disheveled. He prostrated himself before the king, but rose on Tutankhamun's command.

With great care Meren propped himself up on his elbows. "Abu, before I was forced to flee, I had you inquire into the death of that royal guard."

"Bakht, lord."

"Yes. What have you discovered?"

Abu glanced at the king.

"You may speak freely," Tutankhamun said. "Lord Meren and I are completely reconciled."

"Did you not speak to the overseer of the royal menagerie?" Kysen asked.

"Aye, lord. He insists that the baboons wouldn't have attacked a man who fell into their enclosure. The males would scream and bare their teeth and make a great noise, but he is most adamant that they wouldn't try to kill him."

"But he's dead," Meren said.

The king threw up his hands. "And the report said he had many wounds."

"Did you progress no further?" Kysen asked.

"Many perilous days have passed since the lord gave the command about the royal guard." Abu rubbed his chin. "I think I may have asked Nebamun to look at the body." He paused, then nodded. "Yes, I did ask him, because I remember that we weren't sure if it was too late and Bakht had already gone into the natron in the place of Anubis."

Nebamun was summoned, and he remembered his journey to the place of Anubis.

"I was able to see the body, majesty, but before I could write a report for Lord Meren-" The physician stopped with his mouth open.

"Continue, man. I know what intervened."

"The wounds that killed the royal guard were from a knife. An extremely sharp knife, not the ragged tears that one sees in animal attacks. Certainly the bite of a baboon would never make a wound so deep as to hit the spine."

Meren thanked the physician, dismissed him, and lay down on his back again.

"Bakht was knifed and then pushed into the animal pen," he said.

Kysen went to a table, poured a cup of water, and brought it to Meren. "Surely there would have been blood where he was attacked."

"There may have been," Meren replied, "but I was too distracted to examine the menagerie. Majesty, I have failed thee."

Pharaoh took the cup from Meren and helped him drink. "Only a god wouldn't have been distracted by the burden you've been concealing. And you must remember, the evil one made certain you had little opportunity to do anything but flee for your life."

"Thy majesty is certain it was Bakht who was on duty when the queen was ill?" Kysen asked.

"Yes. I liked his stories and used to pester him for a tale almost every day."

"By the gods," Kysen said suddenly.

Meren propped himself up again, and he and pharaoh regarded Kysen with inquiring looks. Kysen looked from one to the other.

"Mose," he said, turning to Abu. "Was Mose on duty the night Bakht was killed?"

Abu shook his head. "No, lord. He wasn't among-wait." Abu narrowed his eyes. "There was a youth, barely out of training. He was most disturbed by Bakht's death but had little to contribute that would help solve the mystery of his death. I remember him lamenting that he hadn't heard Bakht cry out for help, so of course that means the killer didn't strike until the boy was gone. But the boy said he had to return to the menagerie for his sandals, which he'd left near the gate. As he was leaving, he noticed Mose approaching from the palace."

Meren dismissed Abu. Still propped up on the bed, he searched for something to say to the king. He'd tried so hard to keep the danger away from pharaoh, and it had slithered into the palace through the menagerie gates. No, the danger had been closer than that all along.

All at once his arms lost their strength, and he fell back on the linen-covered mattress. Kysen rushed to him with a damp cloth, but Meren shoved it away. He was already clammy. The king stood over him, threatening to summon Nebamun.

"I beg thy majesty not to," Meren said faintly. "I'll rest. All I need is rest."

"It's unreasonable to be so furious with yourself," Tutankhamun said. "How could you know the extent of the power of this drinker of blood, as Kysen calls him?"

"Thy majesty should set me to solving petty thefts. It's all I'm good for."

"All you're good for is rest at the moment, and I'm not going to listen to such absurdities. Kysen, set a guard around Lord Meren. It's reasonable to expect an attempt on his life now."

Meren opened his mouth, but the king was gone before he could protest the order. Kysen followed, leaving Meren to fume by himself. He must have drifted into sleep soon after, for he woke to find Bener and Kysen engaged in a whispered quarrel over his bed.

"I wouldn't have been discovered if it weren't for that stupid Lord Irzanen," Bener hissed. "I vow he has the wits of a mollusk."

Kysen poked a finger at his sister. "You promised not to stir from the house!"

"I was doing well until that fool Irzanen saw me in the street. Can I help it if he gawped at me as if I were a three-headed hippo? He stopped me and demanded what I was doing, and by the time I made him go away, one of the king's spies must have seen us."

"And followed you and summoned the king," Kysen said with brotherly contempt.

"I concealed myself well," Bener protested. "None of you saw me."

"None except pharaoh.'"

"You two are squalling like cats in the night," Meren said.

Bener's face appeared before him as she bent over the bed. "Father, are you well?"

"I'll deal with you tomorrow."

"But my leading pharaoh to you was a most fortunate occurrence," his daughter said brightly. "You were able to reconcile by saving his life."