Again there was silence.
"Well," said Patjenfi at last, "you'll have to live somewhere, if you're back. I think-"
"You'll move into my apartments here in the palace at once," Osorkon interrupted. "I'll leave my servants in place until you can arrange matters to your own satisfaction, elder brother."
"I'll send over clothing from my suite," added Pent-weret. "It will fit you, I think." He glanced at the massive Osorkon and grinned coolly. "Again, until you make other arrangements."
"The children will need their things, too," said Patjenfi with a frown. "I do hope that-" He paused, pursing his lips, and finally continued, "Well, if you want to separate them, of course, that's your right, whatever you want. But they've grown up with my three, haven't you, darlings?"
Serpot nodded determinedly. Pemu, less convinced of the question's simplicity, looked from his uncle to his father- who was smiling-and nodded agreement himself.
Khamwas leaned down, kissed each child on his forehead, and said, "Go back and get your things together, darlings," he said as he hugged them. "My brothers and I have one more thing to discuss."
The children went out into the corridor. Before the door closed behind them, Samlor heard Pemu saying in a clear, princely voice, "Take us back to our rooms, Tery. We'll be-"
"One more piece of business," Khamwas paraphrased. As he eyed his brothers, his expression reverted to the icy hardness with which he had first entered the inner palace. Samlor thought of his dagger and thought about the three seated men. . and wondered what was about to happen.
"Six years ago, my brothers," said Khamwas, "one of you-let's pretend that I don't remember who-said that if I were killed instead of being sold into slavery, I wouldn't come back later to make trouble."
Samlor now understood the look and the tone.
Patjenfi looked down at his hands, making attempts to smile that each time lapsed into terror. Osorkon met Khamwas' eyes as stolidly as a mirror, but sweat glittered on his high forehead.
Pentweret was looking up also. His eyes were blank and the angle of his chin suggested that he was offering his throat to a slaughterer's blade. His larynx hobbled as he tried to swallow, and hobbled again.
"You didn't take that advice," Khamwas continued, "and perhaps you think you made a mistake."
There had been a tone of playful banter, cat and mouse rather than cat and kitten, in Khamwas' voice. Even that false humor dropped away as he continued, "Don't be certain that I wouldn't have returned, my brothers. I was a scholar even then, though I hadn't a fraction of the powers I have now."
He paused before he concluded, "Believe me, you would be even less pleased to see me now if you had chosen murder."
"Then we can all rejoice to be the men we are," said Osorkon calmly. He stood up and reached across the table to clasp the hand which Khamwas slowly extended to him.
"Welcome home, my brother," Osorkon said. "It's good to have you with us again."
CHAPTER 25
THE WALL OF the terraced garden overlooked the river, but from inside even the enclosure was screened by lush greenery. Expert tending preserved the appearance of untrammeled nature without the dankness and the impossible tangles which «natural» implied in reality. /A fountain played in the near distance, noticeable for its babble and the sheen of mist in the air beyond a border of straight-stemmed bushes with flowers of glowing magenta.
Broad-leafed vines-gourds rather than grapes-had been trained to cover the arbor in which Samlor sat with Khamwas, watching the flock of royal children playing a game with bats and a feather-filled ball on the lawn. Servants stood nearby with refreshments and in case of accident, but the arbor's narrow doorway and curved walls gave it the privacy of a camera obscura.
"I can't offer you more than you've earned already, Samlor," Khamwas said. Both men found it easier to speak when their eyes were on the squealing children than they did while searching each other's expressions. "You'll leave here a rich man-"
"I do all right," Samlor interrupted. "I never doubted you'd keep our bargain-and I've never asked anybody for more 'n that."
Khamwas laid two fingers on Samlor's knee and brought the other man's eyes to meet his.
"You have helped me gain the cosmos," Khamwas said softly. He patted the crystal book beneath his sash, using the same touch with which he had demanded Samlor's attention. "To an extent, I'm wondering what I'll do with the power now that it's mine. . but don't ever doubt that the power is at your service, or that you've earned that service."
"If I need your help, I know it's here," said Samlor as he turned his head again. "You know. .," he added.
On the grassy area, Pemu made a goal amid great squealing from the older children.
"You know, it could be that I'd want Star to have a place she could be that wasn't Cirdon. That's a lot-"
"Of course," interrupted Khamwas.
"That's a lot to ask," Samlor repeated sharply. "And it's going to be more as she gets older, the way she, you know, learns things."
"Yes, I do know," Khamwas agreed with a smile. He plucked one of the gourds hanging beside him and turned it in his hands, letting the yellow and green stripes shine alternately in a spike of sunlight through the leaves massed above. "I would be honored."
"You were going to say," remarked Samlor to change the subject-and not to change it- "that you wanted something from me."
"Yes, I was," Khamwas agreed drily. "I was going to ask if you'd stay here with me for a little while, perhaps a month."
"You don't trust your brothers?" Samlor said with mild surprise. He twisted a gourd from its cap also. The rind felt waxy and cool in his hands, artificial rather than alive.
"I do trust them," Khamwas corrected, smiling. "And I don't-how shall I say it, fear for my life. But I'd like there to be one person who is-" he looked away, looked back, and smiled again " – my friend, in the next few weeks while I set up my household."
"You can order wax statues to row," said Samlor, picking up a memory the two of them shared from another age. "But you can't tell them how to do it."
"Exactly."
Samlor laughed. "People worry about the gold plate in the strongroom, but they forget about the eggs in the pantry till there's nothing for supper," he said. "Sure, I'll hang around for a while and help you get organized. Anyway, I haven't seen much of your city here."
"I need to get reacquainted myself," Khamwas said. "We'll go out together in the morning."
He rubbed the hidden book with the knuckle of the thumb hooked over the gourd. "It-" he began, then started over with, "We risked much, you and I, to win the book. But despite the difficulties, the dangers, I must admit it was easier than I had expected."
"Don't call your life blessed," said Tjainufi sourly, "until it has ended."
But the men's attention was absorbed by the children, Serpot running toward the arbor in a grass-stained tunic shouting, "Daddy! Daddy! We won!"
CHAPTER 26
"Is THE DISH to your taste, your highness?" said the priest, adding with a nod to Samlor, "Excellency?"
Samlor mumbled agreement while Khamwas continued to peer with rapt attention at the scene in the temple forecourt beneath them.
The bowl of mixed fruit slices had been chilled somehow. At least it felt cool after a day of ambling through Napata with a minimal entourage-Khamwas, Samlor, and the two footmen whom Khamwas' borrowed major domo absolutely insisted must accompany the prince. The inner loggia of the Temple of Tatenen was a good place to rest and view the crowd of late-afternoon customers visiting the expensive shops in the court below.