He reckoned without her perceptiveness. She had called him through her heart once, and now she read his eyes without difficulty.
‘You have something important to tell me.’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t think you had come simply to find out how I was.’ She had turned her face away.
‘I would not have needed a greater reason.’
‘Nevertheless…’
‘There is something, yes. And it will hurt.’
‘Little could hurt me more than what has already happened.’
‘I think I know who killed Horaha.’
‘That is not bad news. Tell me.’
‘Kenamun.’
‘How?’
‘He does Horemheb’s dirty work. If he was there at the Oblation to Hapy…’
‘But he would have been there anyway, as a court official. Isn’t the connection too obvious?’
‘We know Horaha’s death was meant as a warning.’ Senseneb looked thoughtful. ‘I am sure that my father was poisoned. There is nothing I can prove. If Kenamun – or someone used by him – could have poisoned the sacred river water he drank…’
‘I would like to finish Kenamun,’ said Huy. ‘For this, and for other crimes.’
‘Let me help you,’ she said. ‘You tell me that you think he killed my father, and I believe you. Horaha has no one but me to avenge him.’
‘It will be hard to bring Kenamun down.’
They were sitting in the garden, in the same place as he had first met her with her father. Now she stood up, and paced the length of the pool impatiently. Returning to him, she said, ‘There is Ay.’
‘Yes.’
‘Have you seen him?’
‘Yes.’
‘What deal have you made with him?’
She had sat down again now, still impatient, her whole body taut, her long legs spread like a man’s, leaning forward, forearms on thighs, her head low, at an angle, looking up at him, her eyes dark and angry.
‘I have asked for more time.’
‘Why?’
Huy spread his hands. He was telling her more than he had wanted to, but found that he could not help it. It was possible too that he was tired of having no one in whom he could place trust. There was Nehesy, but he was part of the palace. Senseneb had suffered at the hands of the authorities and she was now outside them. The law, society, would no longer protect her, for she had seen it for what it was in its present guise; and she, too, needed someone to trust. Suffering is intolerable when it is endured in isolation, thought Huy; and action to end it needs help.
‘I asked for more time because I want to get Ay’s measure-He has a hold over me which I do not like. If for any reason Horemheb gets wind of what I know, or of what I am doing, before Ay is ready, Ay will toss me to him without a thought. By placating Horemheb he could buy himself more time.’
‘But don’t you have enough on Horemheb to give Ay now? Enough for him to use to bring the general down?’
‘I think so. But my knowledge is also my safe conduct. I know that Ay is hungry to be king. I must let that hunger grow greater before I feed it. Then, instead of my being in his power, he will be in mine.’
To his surprise, he found that Senseneb was looking at him with contempt. ‘I see,’ she said, tonelessly.
‘What do you see?’
She rounded on him. ‘You are playing the game like an expert, Huy. The only thing I do not understand is why you are so candid with me.’
‘What do you mean?’ Huy had been too intent on explaining his plan. He now found that he had explained it appallingly. ‘What will your price to Horemheb be? Kenamun’s head?’
‘For what?’
She laughed. ‘For Ay! I will not avenge my father through another betrayal.’
Huy was too tired to restrain himself. Fury seized him. He stood up, grabbed the woman by the shoulders and shook her hard. She broke loose and hit him with a balled fist across the mouth. He responded immediately, not thinking, feeling his right arm swing and the impact of his open hand on the side of her head. He felt briefly the softness of her cheek and the texture of her hair. He had caught her squarely off balance and she sprawled on to the couch. Before she could recover he took her roughly by the arm above the elbow and pulled her up, jerking her savagely round to face him.
‘What are you thinking? Has grief deranged you? If I cannot convince you I am not evil at least understand that I am not stupid. Do you seriously believe that I could play one regent off against the other like that? They would close tanks and crush me and then continue their battle with each other. As for Kenamun, I pray the good gods to let me find a way to get him; but not as a price to Horemheb for Ay!’
She glared at him silently, her mouth defiant; but gradually thought replaced anger in her eyes, and both their bodies relaxed. When he released her, he was shocked to see the ugly purple marks his fingers had made on her arm.
‘I thought you could read my heart,’ he said.
‘So did I. I could not believe what I saw there.’
‘You saw what you put there. What we are involved in now is cobra’s venom; it seeps into us too.’
‘You are not above using it.’
‘To survive, yes. For my own advancement, no. Not because I am moral. Because I am practical. That kind of advancement carries its own chains, its own death.’
Senseneb drew herself upright on the couch, curling her legs round her. Her body was smooth muscled, like a panther’s. The plain white mourning robe she wore had pulled tightly against her in their struggle, and she made no attempt to loosen it again. Perhaps she was not even aware of it.
‘The queen,’ Huy began, ‘the queen must leave here before she is killed. I do not think she is in danger until after the pharaoh’s funeral but I am not going to take the chance. To Horemheb she is a threat until he can father a new child. In any case he will want to get rid of her because a son or daughter in direct line from Tutankhamun could always gather forces against him. And for the same reason Ay would not flinch from killing her, if marriage to her proves impossible. But he is her grandfather, and there is a shred of hope that he could be manoeuvred into showing mercy.’
‘How?’
‘If he were convinced that she would not be a threat. He is more subtle than Horemheb and less ruthless. He is an artist, not a scientist. He is less predictable, weaker, more malleable. Above all he is vain. And as long as the general and the Master of Horse are preoccupied with each other, there is a chance that the queen may slip out between them. That is why I am playing for time.’
Her eyes were as dark as sloes. ‘I do not know why you trust me. You are too clever to trust anyone. Why are you telling me this?’
Huy was too weary of explanation to explain any more. He could not tell her that his ideas were only half thought out, that at any minute they might founder, that they were based on supposition and the hope of fortunate coincidences, that after all he was an inexperienced opportunist in too deep and principally motivated by a desire to survive. It was true that in the midst of all that were a desire to see the queen safe, and a desire to kill Kenamun, but nothing was in focus.
‘I am telling you because you of all people could not use it against me. Your father was disinterested, showed integrity, and died for it. Who on earth is going to trust you after that?’
‘You spawn of Set,’ said Senseneb after studying his face in silence for a moment or two.
Huy laughed. ‘Now you don’t believe me.’
‘But what you say is so possible.’
‘Yes; but is the reasoning?’
‘Coming from you?’ She smiled. ‘I honestly don’t know any more.’
Huy had sat down in the chair near the couch. Now he leant forward to pour the wine which Hapu had placed there when he arrived.
‘Isn’t it a little early for that?’ asked Senseneb, putting her feet on the ground and sitting up.
‘Yesterday was very long,’ said Huy. He sipped the drink he had poured and leant back, looking at the girl. Two or three strands of hair had swept across her face and she shook her head to clear them. He gazed at the columns of her neck and the collarbones that spanned her wide shoulders, then he became aware of her gaze and looked away, uncomfortably. He had become relaxed at last and here, in this delightful garden which Senseneb would only be able to enjoy for a short time more, he felt that the walls were enough to shut out the rest of the world – at least for that morning. His eyes were drawn back to her. The expression on her face was veiled, but her heart was speaking to him again and its message was clear. He put down his cup, rose, and crossed to sit next to her, touching her arm where a bruise was already developing. Her eyes were lowered, her breath was warm. She moved her head gently forwards and touched his nose with hers. Then she kissed him, fully, open-mouthed, but still lightly and quickly, drawing away as soon as she had done so. His nostrils were filled with the smell of her, close and delicious.