Lauren Haney: Place of Darkness

“Lieutenant Bak!” Ani stepped over a chunk of rock and came to a halt before the makeshift table. “Senenmut is coming, sir. He’s about halfway up the causeway.”

“Already?” Bak moaned.

“Can we go see him, sir?” Kasaya asked.

“We’ve a task to do,” Bak snapped, then relented. “All right. We can see him well enough from the terrace.”

“Sir!” Hori looked pained. “The terrace is too low. We won’t be able to see anything. Can’t we go over to Djeser Djeseru?”

“We can’t take the time.” Bak’s eyes darted toward the priest. “Should you be there to greet him, Kaemwaset?”

“I see no need. This is a simple inspection, with no part of the temple to be dedicated.” Kaemwaset’s eyes twinkled.

“I’ll stay here with you. Searching for a hidden tomb will be much more intriguing than walking around a construction site I’ve seen many, many times before.”

Bak stood with his three companions on the edge of the terrace that faced Djeser Djeseru. Behind them lay the ruined colonnade they had walked through four nights earlier, carrying oil lamps and trying to look mysterious in the hope of proving to the workmen that the malign spirit was a flesh and blood man. The old temple was lower than the new and the view far from ideal, but it was good enough to satisfy Bak, who had no desire to attract Senenmut’s attention.

He studied the cliffs towering over the two temples. The lord Re, high overhead, reached into the crevices and cracks that broke the face of the cliff, making them blend together as a single rough-hewn mass. He saw no sign of life on the rim above, and if anyone had climbed partway down the cliff face, he was safely concealed among rocks, impossible to distinguish in the deceptive light.

Uneasy, preferring to face an enemy he could see, he focused on the procession walking at a good fast pace up the distant causeway toward Djeser Djeseru. Sunlight glinted on bronze spear points. Leather armor glistened, polished to a high sheen. Ostrich feather fans waved back and forth, stirring the air above lofty officials. Though he heard, faint and far away, the hunting cry of the falcon streaking down from the deep blue sky, neither the words spoken by Senenmut’s party nor the sound of marching feet carried across the sand.

Maiherperi had kept his vow and more, sending with Senenmut two companies of guards, one hundred men who carried the white shields of the royal house. One contingent marched at the head of the inspection party. Solely responsible for Senenmut’s safety, they could not leave his presence.

A second unit marched behind, men handpicked by Maiherperi and given red armbands to distinguish them from Senenmut’s personal guards. These men Bak could call upon when needed. Whether the royal guards were setting the speed of forward movement or whether the Overseer of Overseers had deemed it wise to come and go as quickly as possible, Bak could not begin to guess.

The inspection party was larger than he had expected. At least fifteen men rode on carrying chairs held high above the ground on the shoulders of porters. Senenmut had to be the man in front, and Bak thought he recognized Amonked by his side. Their faces and those of the men behind them were hidden in the shadow of white awnings that sheltered them from the sun. The latter were lesser noblemen, he suspected, men who hoped to gain advantage by breathing the same air as that of their sovereign’s favorite. Heralds, fan bearers, and scribes kept pace behind them.

Bak took a small, highly polished mirror from a square of cloth tied to his belt, caught the sun on its surface, and angled it toward the rear column of guards. Within moments a mirror flashed a response from the lieutenant in charge of the men wearing the armbands. Should one need the other, they each knew where to find him.

After taking another long, careful look at the cliff above the new temple, Bak turned away. He could find nothing out of order, but he was far from satisfied. Somewhere up there, he feared, a man lay hidden, waiting.

He walked to the fallen segment of wall where he had been surprised by Pairi. Warning the others to keep a wary eye on Djeser Djeseru and the cliff above, he scrambled over the broken stones and crossed the littered pavement of the main court to the opening in the rear wall, trying to re-create in his thoughts exactly what had happened that night.

Pairi had led him into the colonnade court, where he had been struck from behind. Another man, Humay no doubt, had been the one to fell him. Earlier, well before he had been struck down, Pairi had shouted, “Let’s go, my brother,” or something similar. He didn’t recall seeing Humay, but had sensed someone’s presence. Or had the frenzied shadows cast by the wildly flaring torch sent his imagination soaring?

He backed up to stand beside the column where the plan lay, both ends curled to meet in the center. He closed his eyes and tried to bring back that night. The man-Pairi-appearing out of nowhere. He, Bak, leaping over the fallen section of wall and racing after him, torch in hand. Sparks flying, erratic shadows flitting over and around the fallen columns, Pairi’s fleeing footsteps.

Suddenly he remembered: While passing the block structure in the center of the court, he had glimpsed a man off to the right.

He eyed the right rear-northwest-corner of the main court. Both back and side walls rose higher than his head.

A slope of dirt and debris fallen from the cliff over many years pressed against them from the outside and had spilled over into the main court. The two rows of eight-sided columns that had once supported the roof behind the central, ruined block were sadly damaged. A few stood to various heights, but most lay broken on the pavement among remnants of architraves and roof slabs. Again he asked himself: Had Pairi and Humay reached this point after many nights of searching? Or had they found a rich tomb?

Seeking some sign of fresh disturbance, he walked along the spill, turned the corner, walked a dozen or so paces farther. The pavement beneath his feet was covered with sand and littered with chunks of stone of all sizes and shapes.

Voices drew him on to the fallen segment of wall. Kasaya, Hori, and Kaemwaset stood where he had left them, looking toward Djeser Djeseru. Senenmut and Amonked, easier to see than before, were walking slowly along the fill above the southern retaining wall, watching the men below slide a stone in place. Kaemwaset was pointing out various men in Senenmut’s party whom he recognized.

Bak turned away to retrace his steps. Rounding the corner and walking a few paces along the rear wall, thinking of the plan Hori had so painstakingly redrawn, he knelt to dig away the debris at the base of the spill. It was not as hard-packed as he had expected, betraying the fact that it had been recently deposited.

His expectations were small, a faint hope at best, but the lord Amon chose to smile upon him. The edge of his hand struck a hard projection. He quickly dug away more debris, revealing a slab of carved stone set into the pavement.

Barely daring to breathe, he moved a few chunks of broken rock and dug away more of the spill, revealing several carved slabs between the one he had initially found and the corner of the court. They formed two rectangular shapes. Shrines, he guessed, from their location at the rear of the court. Dedicated to the gods important to Nebhepetre Montuhotep. The base of a fallen column caught his eye. It stood almost directly in front of the entrance to the shrine farthest from the corner.

The shrines had been built during an earlier stage of construction!

Forgetting Menna, forgetting the likelihood of a rock slide, he ran to get the plan and returned to the corner. Unrolling the scroll, he compared the six small structures that lined the rear edge of the platform with what he could actually see. They might well be the shrines he had found-if the original temple lay beneath the northern side of the present building instead of being centered beneath it as he had assumed. If so, he had found the two northernmost shrines. He saw no sign of the other four, but he had every confidence that a diligent search would reveal them.