‘I cannot take your word alone as sufficient guarantee of her safety.’
‘How dare -?’
‘Let us be realistic. I need to be able to take her away from here, to a place of safety, where she will not be molested by you or by Horemheb. I need your help to get her away. In return, I can give you enough damaging information concerning Horemheb’s activities to ensure that, once he knows you have it, he will not contest your claim to the Golden Chair.’
‘No information is that good.’
‘This is. The general would never hold the priesthood or the army together if it became open knowledge. No pharaoh yet has held power who has shown himself to be more of a man than a god, and Horemheb is not heaven-born.’ The last remark went home to Ay, himself a commoner, as it was intended to.
‘I will be generous,’ said Ay graciously, after a short pause for form’s sake. ‘Now, tell me what you know.’
Behind him, Huy heard a faint rustling and the scrape of a chair. Ineny had brought out a scribe’s palette and a scroll.
‘There is something else first,’ he said. ‘The queen is concerned about Nebkheprure Tutankhamun’s journey to the west.’
Ay spread his hands again. ‘He will be given a burial worthy of a great pharaoh. I am in charge of the arrangements myself.’
‘Good.’ Huy thought of the poor funeral furniture he had seen and wondered if Ay would better it. It seemed unlikely, but there was no time to bargain details. ‘Then there is another entombment.’
Ay looked at him: ‘Whose?’
‘The doctor, Horaha’s.’
‘His position guarantees him one.’
‘There may be no one to watch over him. He must be given a formal burial in full accordance with his rank, and all his names must be written down over the lintel and in the chapel. This must not be left to his successor.’
‘You have my word,’ snapped Ay impatiently. ‘But of what importance is Horaha now?’
‘You will hear.’
Ay sat down. Behind him, the sun streamed over the city and the swelling river, making a silhouette out of the old man. He sat still as rock while Huy spoke, his head lowered on to his hands. The silence was broken only by the soft swish of Ineny’s brush as he wrote. Huy told him of the king’s death, of his meeting with Nehesy, about finding the dead tracker with his fistful of silver; about the uninjured horses, and about what Horaha had thought about the king’s injuries. Finally he told him about Horaha’s death, and Nehesy’s arrest and torture. He did not mention where Nehesy was now. The man deserved his peace.
‘Even the threat of an inquiry in any of those areas would stop Horemheb in his tracks,’ said Ay, when Huy had finished. He looked at him. ‘You have done well. But I need proof.’
‘Horaha’s reservations can be demonstrated.’
‘How?’
‘The king’s body is being preserved. No one can disguise the wound on the skull now. If you can lay hands on the chariot, you have a case. But I think all you need do is mention that to Horemheb. You are too powerful for him to destroy; and he cannot kill everyone.’
‘I wonder,’ said Ay.
‘I mean, he has not that much power. But then there is me.’
In the act of rising, Ay looked at him again and sat down.
‘You?’
‘I collected these facts and have a record of them. I am still alive.’
‘Yes?’
Huy hesitated fractionally before continuing. ‘Forgive me, but I cannot trust you absolutely. Now you have what you need, I run the risk of becoming dispensable – I, and all that I seek as a reward.’
‘Your conditions?’
‘Yes.’
‘They make an easy reward to grant. And I give you my word as pharaoh-elect.’ Ay seemed to grow physically as he spoke the words. The new thought occurring to his heart threw years off the lined face. ‘You are lucky that I am pleased with you. I am not offended by what you say. But do not try me too hard.’
‘I know that you are a wise man. Therefore I know too that you are aware of the threat that the queen’s life, and the one within her, pose to the future of your line.’ Huy paused. ‘I must tell you that if I find myself crossed in any way, I will go to Horemheb and warn him. If anything happens to me, the record I have made of these events will go to him. It is safe, in a place you will never locate, and I have made arrangements with friends in the harbour quarter who are such little eels that they will always wriggle through your fingers if you attempt to catch them. But they have strong jaws.’ Privately, Huy wished that he had indeed made such a record.
Ay turned in on himself, the fingers of each hand touching one another at the tips. His face was turned downwards, and it was impossible to see the expression on his face.
‘Do you have a plan for the queen’s departure?’
'Of sorts.’
‘But have you considered Horemheb? You might have to trust me, for all your skill; but if Horemheb thinks that she is alive – wherever she is in the Black Land – he will not rest until he has hunted her down and killed her. And her child.
He has the means to do it, too, Huy. Even if I beat him now, I cannot strip him of his power without risking a division of the army. And we cannot have that.’
‘I have thought of what to do.’ In reality, Huy had only the sketchiest of plans, and a weak and dangerous one.
Ay smiled. ‘I have often said that you were a clever man, Huy.’ He paused delicately. ‘I suppose it is a waste of time to offer you land when I become pharaoh? In return for your service, of course.’
‘Yes.’
Ay pursed his lips. ‘Then you shall have your wish. Ineny will escort you to the gate.’ He stood up. Ineny packed up his palette and prepared to stow the rolled parchment under his arm.
‘Leave that with me, Ineny,’ said the old Master of Horse.
She was not at their meeting place. Huy squatted down on the flat rock which jutted out forming a ledge over the surface of the River and watched the sluggish, patient water pass. Idling the time away with his thoughts at first, for he was early and felt no alarm, he let his heart drift with the current as it proceeded on its eternal journey north, knowing that this water was the Black Land; that it would flow here long after the pyramids had crumbled to dust and even the memory of them been lost. What was happening now, what seemed of such monumental importance to him and to his own little life, would not affect the future one iota. He thought as far ahead as his imagination would run. Perhaps there were more countries, even beyond those bordering the Great Green to the north and the forests far to the south. Was there life in those countries? Would they, too, one day be discovered, visited, colonised?
Such considerations made him wince. They did not matter to him. He might only be a speck in the scheme of time and space, but the immediate world to which he was condemned surrounded him with matters whose reality and importance could not be reduced just by thinking about them in relative terms. An attacking lion was an attacking lion, no matter how little time and space its action occupied.
The sun dipped over the western horizon and at last Huy felt the coolness of the north wind on his face. He blinked his tired eyes slowly, gratefully. But he did not relax. Senseneb was late now. He settled himself with his back to another rock and, instead of simply continuing to wait, kept watch. His apparent victory with Ay by no means meant that the game was over.
Darkness descended suddenly, and immediately the small, pale lights that mankind lit to keep it at bay appeared on both banks of the River. The flat rock stood at a point just to the south of the city where few people passed at night. Senseneb would have been here before sunset if she was coming at all. Still he waited, though now he knew that it was in vain. After half an hour he stood up, and, still uncertain what to do, made his way back to the city.
By the time he had reached the outskirts he had decided to risk going to her house. In his heart he ran over what the possibilities might be, raking through his memory for any sin of omission or commission which might have led to this. He told himself that it might be nothing at all even though he knew that now any mistake, any irregularity, any broken promise, however small, was not only important but vital.