Gene Wolfe - Soldier of Sidon

Qanju paused, smiling upon us. "You object to everyone save me, Sahuset, and thus to the sagan Kha. He represents the governor of Abu, and has come with us to help us, for the governor obeys the satrap. What reception might we have on our return to Abu if we acted now without informing him? What report might the governor send the satrap?"

Sahuset did not reply.

"Holy Thotmaktef is like a son to me. We share all confidences. Should I die or fall ill, he will act as a good son should, leading in my stead. Am I to keep this from him when I have kept nothing else from him? His wife is of the Medjay and may be of the greatest service to us-but only if she understands what it is we do and why we do it. She wished Neht-nefret present, since the customs of her people require that a married woman alone among men may not speak unless her husband is present. I know Neht-nefret is clever, and our captain declares her a woman of discretion. Whom would you have me send away, Sahuset?"

"I know the tongue," Sahuset said.

Qanju nodded. "So you do, but let us reach the point. Agathocles?"

"My contacts say that gold is coming from a mine in the east. Not much, they say, but some. They also say that a tall young man of Kemet is a slave there, and is being forced to work at the mine. They did not know his name. No one I spoke with has ever spoken to him."

I said, "The man who sent you to find his son must have given you a way to know him when you saw him."

"He didn't have to. I had seen him several times before he left home."

"You'd know him?"

Agathocles nodded. "Unless he's changed a great deal, I would. Besides, I could question him about his father's house, the names of servants and so forth. I know several of them because they've been sent to buy wine from me. He grew up in that house and must know them all." He spread his hands. "It's as plain as day, isn't it? His father sent him to look for the mines and find out if there was still gold to be had. He came as far as Miam and learned where they were. After that, he probably hired someone to guide him there. He was caught."

Neht-nefret said, "They'd kill him, wouldn't they? I would have."

Qanju shook his head. "You are a clever young woman, but you have much to learn. He is the son of an influential foreigner. Such a son is a sword in the hand of whoever holds him."

"Exactly." Agathocles chuckled. "If they kill him, they lose him, and if they bring him to Miam or Meroe, he'll talk about the mines to people who didn't know before. So they keep him at a mine. Let him talk. Everyone he talks to there knows already, and he can do some work."

"They will keep us there as well," Sahuset said, "if we go there as he did. They may arrest us and take us there if they so much as find out we're looking for them. Agathocles told you we were in agreement. That is one of the things we agree on."

"The satrap," Qanju said smoothly, "has sent us that he may learn of the south. We are interested in these mines because they are in the south and thus bear upon our mission.

"Kha, I will have my scribe draft a letter to the satrap, telling him what we have learned thus far, perhaps with some indication of what I plan to do. I will sign and seal it. My scribe will draft another to the governor at Abu. It will say only that he is to take the letter from the bearer and forward it to the satrap. Will you be the bearer? You may, if you wish."

Kha shook his head. "That was not my errand. I will remain with you, Most Noble Qanju, if you will permit it."

"I will, of course. Captain, will you send a reliable man? He need go no farther than Abu, and can rejoin us when he has delivered my letters to the governor."

Muslak nodded. "There's a small boat in our stores. Can I use that?"

"Of course."

"Then he'll get through the canal a lot faster than we did-the current will be with him. I'll send Azibaal. He's completely reliable."

"Good. Send him to me this evening. Both letters should be ready by then."

Qanju smiled as before. "Now I have a problem to lay before you. I will ask everyone's advice, beginning with the youngest. One must do that, I find, if one's younger counselors are not to repeat their elders' wisdom."

He spoke to Alala. "My dear, you are youngest, or so I judge. Here is my problem. A young man of Kemet, one Kames, is said to be held here as a slave, though he is none. He is a subject of the Great King's, and because he is, it is my duty to free him if I can. You are my counselor. How am I to do it?"

Alala spoke so softly we had to lean toward her to hear. "I don't understand. If the mines yield only a little gold, and people willing to tell this man," she gestured toward Agathocles, "know of it already, why does King Siaspiqa bind this Kames?"

Agathocles said, "Surely that's clear. They yield more than a little, and Kames learned of it."

Qanju said, "This Hellene may speak truly, my dear. It may also be that the king is jealous of what gold they yield, though it is but small. Or that he has little use for spies, or some other reason. We cannot know, and so I wish to speak with Kames. And to free him, as I said. How am I to accomplish that end, do you think?"

"By the help of my people, the Lion People," Alala said promptly. "They take the Great King's gold to fight for him and to guard the northern land. They will take it again, overwhelm King Siaspiqa's men, and free this Kames for you."

"It is certainly worth considering," Qanju said, "and I will consider it."

He turned to Neht-nefret. "My dear, you are youngest after the wife of my scribe, I believe. May I have your thoughts?"

Neht-nefret shrugged. "If you wish them. I've never been chary of advice. I don't think we know enough now to come up with a good plan. If I were you, I'd find a handsome young woman and have her get close to the man in charge of one of these mines. She'd soon find out a thousand things you need to know, if she were the right woman for the job. She might even be able to free this Kames herself." Neht-nefret paused and licked her lips. "She'd expect to be well rewarded for what she did. I'm sure you understand."

Qanju nodded, still smiling. "She might say that she had escaped from the Medjay, who had stolen her in the north. Exhausted, she would come limping out of the desert."

Neht-nefret nodded. "I like it. It's simple, and it might work."

"I shall consider it. The Holy Thotmaktef is next, I would say."

"They write here as we do," Thotmaktef said, "having learned the art from us. They'll have a scribe at every mine to write reports and keep track of the gold they gain and the supplies they need-for those purposes, and a hundred others. He won't be there all the time, or I would think not. When he's not there, he'll go to the temple of Thoth in whatever city he reaches. I'd like to talk to the priests in all of them, as we go up the river. This Kames is the son of a rich man. He'll have been well taught in the House of Life in Wast. They won't set him to carrying baskets of rock, not unless they're complete fools."

Qanju nodded. "He may be helping one of their scribes, as you say. Such a scribe may know of him even if he is not. Go to Thoth's temples, as you suggest, and learn all you can. Lucius?"

"You have two problems," I said. "First, you must learn where Kames is. Second, you must free him. They will not sell him for gold. If they were willing to do that they would demand it from his father, who has it and wants him more than anyone."

Agathocles nodded. "That's obvious."

"Thus we must take him by stealth or by force. Have the Medjay good horses?"

Qanju nodded to Alala.

"Yes," she said. "The best. The people of the north buy them to pull their chariots, but our men sit on their backs. My mother has done that also."

I said, "Would you like to learn?"