The King's Man (10 page)

As Huy bent between his curtains, a movement caught his eye and he straightened. Halfway between himself and the far wall of the estate, a young girl was coming to her feet in the shade of a sycamore. A grey cat was tucked carelessly under one of her arms, its flaccid body hanging against her side. Both the monkey and the goose were tethered to the tree. At Huy’s glance she stood perfectly still and gazed at him fearlessly, eyes narrowed. Huy stared back. In spite of her gangly limbs and skinny torso, she had an air of impudent confidence about her that immediately commanded his attention. She neither bowed to him nor looked away. She went on staring at him, the breeze ruffling her reddish-black hair and stirring the hem of her short white kilt, until Amunhotep leaned out of his litter and addressed Huy impatiently. “That’s Yuya’s daughter Tiye. Take no notice of her. She’s rude and pushy and she thinks she’s clever. Hurry up, Uncle! Thanks to you I have to listen to Nakht-sobek drone on about the contents of the Treasury before I can take my bow out to the practice ground.”

Huy got onto his litter, and all the way back to the palace the girl’s unmoving yet alert regard stayed with him.

He was not summoned to dine with the King. Amunmose had prepared a table for him in his reception room, and Huy sat waiting there for the steward to bring him his food. He had briefly met Paroi, his new under steward, on his way to the visit of the afternoon. Paroi was a young man with a permanent expression of sober purpose on his face. His voice was soft, his words delivered slowly. Huy could not imagine a servant less like the restless and voluble Amunmose, Paroi’s immediate superior. Huy watched his calm approach. He bowed.

“Master, there are three men waiting outside the door to see you,” he said. “Apparently two of them are expected. The third is a young soldier.”

“Bring them in.” Paroi bowed again and glided away.

In the short hiatus before the three made their obeisances to him, Huy realized first that he had intended to pass the bar of his gift over each of them, and second that he had in fact never deliberately Seen for any of his servants apart from Ishat, whom he had never thought of as a member of his staff.
I will wait and see what my own ka senses about them as time goes by
, he decided.
I have been free of pain for a few precious weeks. I won’t risk an unnecessary attack
. Three backs were bent before him. Three heads of black hair were lowered together. Huy told them to rise. At once two sets of dark eyes were fixed on him expectantly. Captain Perti’s brown eyes met Huy’s calmly. Huy spoke to him first.

“Your decision, Captain? Will you work for me?”

Perti nodded. “Supreme Commander Wesersatet and my division commander have both agreed to release me into your service, Great Seer. I have been allowed to bring my men with me. All of them chose to leave the division.”

“Good.” Huy’s gaze moved to the others. “You two have already made up your minds. I have decided to hire you but not See for any of you just yet. The Seeing is not a small matter either for the subject or for me.”

Perti’s eyebrows rose. “Your trust is welcome, Master.”

“Very well. Paroi will see to your evening meal, and after we have all eaten we will sit down with Amunmose and Paroi and establish a proper routine for the running of this place. Ba-en-Ra, you may go home to your wife. Return tomorrow morning.” The herald bowed his thanks and moved to the doors. Huy waved the other two towards a waiting Paroi and turned to Amunmose and the kitchen servants behind him. The food smelled very good and Huy found that he was actually hungry. His appetite was an unforeseen blessing.

He spent several hours afterwards with the senior members of his household, thrashing out a workable arrangement of responsibilities for his two stewards and his soldiers. The small sounds his scribe Paneb made from the floor beside Huy, as he recorded every decision on his palette, were reassuring. At last the wine jugs were empty and Amunmose was making no effort to hide his yawns.

“This is all very good,” he said, gesturing behind him to the servants waiting to clear away the cups. “Thank you, Huy. If you will dismiss me, I’ll retire to the bathhouse and then to my cot. Tomorrow I’ll see Nubti about having Paneb and Perti moved closer to these apartments.”

Huy dismissed him and rose, Perti with him. “I want to meet my new guards,” Huy said. “Then I’ll leave it to you to introduce them to my old ones.”

“They are outside on the grass,” Perti replied. “With your permission I shall pair them with those who are used to seeing to your safety and begin their rotation at once. For myself, I shall take the first watch on your garden door and be available to the men throughout the night. I pray that this change goes smoothly.”

They crossed the room together. Perti opened the door and the guard stationed outside saluted Huy as he walked out into the cool air. The gardens were shrouded in darkness, but there was a small pool of lamplight not far from where Huy paused, and the sound of low voices.

“You do not need my permission to order the twenty in any way you see fit,” he told Perti as they crossed the springing lawn, and there was a rustle of movement ahead as the men rose. “All I ask is that the soldiers who accompany me each day be seasoned.”

“One of them will always be me,” Perti answered promptly, and Huy smiled to himself at the note of pride in the young man’s words.

Later, after greeting Perti’s contingent, Huy was at last able to enter his bedchamber and close the door behind him. He had digested his meal without difficulty, but the parade of the day’s new faces and decisions had left him eager for the dose of opium Tetiankh was holding out to him as he came up to his couch. “I need a massage tonight,” he said, grimacing from the drug’s bitterness as it slid down his throat. “My neck and shoulders are stiff, Tetiankh. Use plain sarson oil. I don’t want to inhale any perfume apart from the lily.”

“You need to be bathed, Master,” Tetiankh offered as he undid Huy’s kilt and removed it. “You are covered in sweat.”

“So I am, but I have no desire to stand on the slab tonight. Wash me here. Tomorrow the Prince Amunhotep returns to Mennofer. It will be another taxing day.”

As the poppy began to blunt his anxiety and Tetiankh’s expert fingers coaxed the tension from his shoulders, Huy became aware that beyond the quiet of his room the palace still whispered and murmured.
How many people serve me now?
he wondered.
Fifty? More? All with their several tasks, all weaving around one another in this apartment that now seems much smaller than my estate at Hut-herib. Shall I ever know such freedom again? I remember thinking that the Osiris-King Amunhotep the Second had cornered me, put me in a pleasant prison with his gift of a house and land and gold. But compared to my situation now, I was a bird. Here I must be guarded against the jealous, the envious. My food must be tasted, my doors protected. How soon may I beg the King for a house of my own, big enough for everyone surrounding me? Something the size of Heby’s home would suit me well but would not be practical. How soon will my days be filled with the familiar instead of the new, against which I must brace myself?
Tetiankh’s touch was withdrawn, and Huy began to doze.

He was almost asleep when he heard the door open and whispers beyond. Drowsily annoyed, he turned over, away from the irritation and the last of the light on his bedside table, but a polite hand descended on his shoulder.

“Master, your pardon, but Captain Perti has sent one of his guards to tell you that he is remaining by the garden door in order to watch a young girl who is demanding to see you and will not go away. He wants to know what your wishes are regarding her.”

“My wishes?” Huy sat up. “He is to send her away at once, and if she won’t go, he is to have her forcibly escorted back to wherever she came from. This is a ridiculous hour to be disturbing the household.”

Tetiankh bowed himself away and Huy lay down again and closed his eyes, but within a few moments he had returned.

“Master, I’m sorry, but Captain Perti asks that you come to him. Two of his men have restrained the girl, but not before her goose inflicted several sharp bites on them. The bird has been tied to a tree and the girl is threatening to scream if you won’t see her. If she does, she will attract the attention of the palace soldiers, not to mention waking up half the residents.”

“A goose?” Huy swung his legs over the edge of his couch. “Give me a kilt, Tetiankh, and then tell Perti’s man that I am coming at once.” The body servant nodded, handed Huy the limp kilt he had removed a short time before, and went out.
It must be the girl I saw under the sycamore tree in Yey’s garden, the one who stared at me so rudely
, Huy thought as he tied the garment on and followed Tetiankh.
Yey has just died and she’s been unable to reach the Queen. But no—that’s silly. Such a message would be carried by Yey’s chief steward. Tiye. That’s her name
. He had crossed his dim reception hall and was coming up to the open garden door. Beyond it the light from a lamp Tetiankh was holding showed him two burly men glowering as they managed to control the struggling form between them. The goose was a bundle of grey against the darkness, and honking loudly. Perti swung to Huy, his face set in what Huy rightly took to be anger.

“This being my first watch in your employ, I have probably erred in not dealing with the situation myself,” he said shortly. “I’m sorry, Master. But I don’t yet know how you would want such circumstances handled. The girl looks familiar to me, and judging by the quality of her sheath linen and sandals, she’s from some noble’s house.”

“Don’t call me ‘the girl,’ you ignorant peasant!” the girl shouted. “Of course I look familiar to you, or I would if you ever did anything but polish your weapons and idle about on this doorstep! My father is the noble Yuya! I am Tiye!” Perti did not even glance at her.

“Someone go and silence that bird,” Huy ordered. “And as for you, Tiye, you are rude and thoughtless. This man is Perti, the captain of my soldiers. He is neither ignorant nor an idler. Surely you’ve heard the words from the Wisdom of Amenemopet, ‘Say nothing that gives injury. Do not you yourself cause pain,’ even if you don’t know how to read them. You’re lucky his men did not drag you back to your father at once. Please apologize to him for your insult.”

“Apologize to a servant? I will not! And you’re wrong, Great Seer. I can read the Wisdom of Amenemopet for myself, and quote from it too!” At Huy’s gesture the men began to drag her away. “Oh, all right! All right! Please don’t let that guard hurt Nib-Nib! I apologize for my rudeness, Captain Perti.”

“That’s better. Release her and let her untie that infernal creature!”

At once he was obeyed. Tiye ran to the goose. It stopped squawking and appeared to be nuzzling her bare legs as she freed its leash and led it back to the group of men by the door.

“I really am sorry, Captain,” she said while the goose glared balefully around. “I have a dreadful temper. Father can’t seem to beat it out of me.” She turned to Huy. “‘Be serious of heart, steady your thoughts, and do not use your tongue to steer by.’” She smiled at Huy. “But Amenemopet can be very boring and sanctimonious as well as offering good advice, can’t he, Great Seer? My father has me schooled with my older brother Ay and my younger brother Anen. Anen is friends with your nephew Ramose, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know. What are you doing here without a guard, in the middle of the night?”

“Nib-Nib is a much better protector for me than any guard,” she replied promptly, “and of course I’m here because I want you to Scry for me.”

Huy stared at her. She went on smiling, standing loosely and easily with the goose squatting by her feet, the cool wind stirring her linen against a body still largely bony and unformed yet held with confidence. Only her eyes were truly beautiful, large and perfectly shaped, the brows pleasingly feathered above eyelids that were already full. Her mouth in repose turned down, giving her an expression of dissatisfaction. Her nose was too wide. Yet she exuded the force of a powerful though still embryonic personality that suffused an otherwise ugly little face and made it strangely compelling. Her dark red hair fell to her shoulders and gleamed with health in the guttering lamplight. Her fingers held the leash with confident grace.
Mitanni blood
, Huy thought.
Warrior blood
.

“I will Scry for you with your father’s permission, but certainly not tonight,” he said. “Do your parents even know that you’re not on your couch? No, I didn’t think so. Captain Perti and these two men will rouse my litter-bearers and take you home immediately. I hope that Yuya disciplines you severely.”

“So I have walked all this way for nothing?”

“Yes. Don’t do it again.” His glance at Perti was a permission to move. “Your selfishness has robbed me of sleep and given these good men an extra duty to perform. Captain Perti will give you into the care of your father’s chief steward with a full account of your behaviour. Then, if your father agrees, you may send to my chief steward for a suitable time to come to my apartments through the front door. Give no more trouble.”

Her eyes blazed at him and that sullen mouth opened, but the moment of rebellion passed. She bowed. “I have deserved your tongue-lashing, Great Seer. I will behave.”

Perti left Huy’s side and, sending one of his men for a replacement, stepped to Tiye. “By the time your new guard arrives, I will have the bearers up and ready, Master,” he said. Gently he took the girl’s arm. The goose, after giving him one sharp and beady glance, ignored him. The small cavalcade began to leave, but Huy stopped them.

“Tiye, how is your grandfather?” he asked on impulse.

The girl did not turn. “Yey is beyond healing now,” she said sadly. “All that’s left to us will be the Prayers for the Dead in a very short time. Thank you for your concern.”

Huy did not wait to see her swallowed up by the darkness. Bidding Tetiankh close the door, he swiftly crossed his reception hall, entered his bedchamber, pulled off the kilt, and regained the couch. He was already hungry for more poppy. The encounter with Tiye had agitated him, why he did not know. It was something more than having to deal with the spoilt child of an aristocrat. The incident seemed to have a curious aura around it in his mind, as though every word, every action, even the scents carried on the wind and the flicker of the lamp’s flame in a soldier’s hand, were imbued with hidden meaning. Though he was very tired, Huy knew that without his drug he would be unable to sleep. Sending Tetiankh away to get it, sitting under his sheet and waiting, he clearly saw those strong little fingers controlling the recalcitrant bird, the downturned mouth widen in a smile of great sweetness, the big eyes light up in a flash of anger at once subdued.