He approached closer.
‘There is much at stake in these last days of the Queen Ankhesenamun’s corrupt and dying dynasty, and my triumph will not be denied,’ he said.
‘I need the help of my colleague, Simut,’ I said quickly.
‘He is a prisoner of war, and he will be returned to Thebes for trial as a traitor of the new order,’ he responded brusquely.
‘He is essential to my investigation. He carries royal authority. Without him, it will be impossible for me to examine the army ships, to infiltrate the warehouses, to question witnesses…’
‘I will give you that authority,’ he said.
‘I must not be identified with you in any way during the course of this investigation. It would reveal too much, if I were caught. This has to be clandestine. I must remain invisible, and all connections between us must remain secret,’ I said, trying not to plead.
‘Do not try my patience. I will not release him. He will still stand trial. He is a traitor. As are you.’
‘If I succeed, grant me his life,’ I said.
‘There is a new order coming to Egypt, and I will not be persuaded by arguments of care. There will be no forgiveness. There will only be retribution. Starting with those who undertook this treasonable mission to marry the Queen to a Hittite and bring him to the throne of Egypt.’
And then he was gone.
Part Five
My mouth is given to me that I may speak with it in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of the Underworld.
35
It was early evening. The oppressive heat of the day refused to lift from the port town of Avaris, just inside Egypt’s border.
I had tracked the military convoy on foot along the last part of the Way of Horus as they transported another consignment of the dead. But I was in trouble: Nakht’s death haunted and obsessed me. I had been sent on the mission to protect him, but I had failed him, as I had failed Khety. Now both my dear friends were dead. If Nakht had survived, he could have supported the Queen in her fight against Horemheb’s occupation. But now she would be alone. I kept remembering the strange look on Nakht’s face as he brandished the sword, and then ran into the smoke and flames. I could not stay still; I toyed with my dagger, over and over. My body shivered continually; an uncontrollable shaking tormented my legs; and the skin on my arms and legs was bleeding from the endless scratching. I had been unable to sleep or find any rest for days. I knew what was wrong with me. I craved the golden bliss of the opium dream. I had become the addict I once condemned.
I expected the cargo of coffins to be loaded directly on to a military ship bound for Bubastis; but instead they set off towards the military camp, accompanied by soldiers who peremptorily cleared their way through the crowds. They continued past a long row of warehouses, then turned a corner as if making for the huge tent city of the military camp; this occupied every free space between the port warehouses and grain silos, the massive new barracks under construction, and the ruins of the old citadel which lay behind. Despite the heat, bonfires burned in the shimmering late light, and sweating red-faced cooks toiled at brick ovens, serving the lines of soldiers waiting for food.
But the soldiers and their carts did not enter the camp compound either; instead, they moved towards the burial grounds, and the ruined walls of the citadel ahead of them. I followed behind, keeping within the lengthening shadows. The soldiers and carts continued beyond the burial grounds, too, until they passed through the citadel’s broken gateway, and the old wooden doors creaked closed behind them. Then two soldiers discreetly appeared and stood guard.
Keeping to the shadows like a jackal, I scouted further away along the walls, until I discovered another way into the citadeclass="underline" a section of wall had collapsed inwards into a broken slope of crumbling stone and mud-brick. I pulled myself up the outer wall of the citadel by my fingers and toes, grasping the crevices between the stone blocks, until I just managed to reach the top. Having hauled myself over, I scrambled down the slope of collapsed blocks, and was inside.
I crouched against the wall, sweating. My guts felt twisted and knotted inside me. The interior was haunted by shadows; everywhere animals had left their scents and their dung. Birds squawked and roosted in the crevices. In the distance I made out the sound of voices calling brief commands; I crept carefully through the darkness, feeling my way over the broken ground, until, around a corner, I found myself looking into a large courtyard. The carts with the coffins stood in the middle, and along one wall empty coffins were stacked upright, as if waiting for re-use. The foot soldiers were unloading the last of the coffins from the carts into a storage magazine. When this was accomplished, they loaded the carts with the empty coffins and, with a salute, drove away, accompanied by the officers on horseback. The great doors creaked closed behind them. The two soldiers who had stood guard at the gateway remained behind. The sun had now passed below the horizon, and the last golden light of the evening occupied the arch of the sky; but it would soon be dark. The two soldiers lit an oil lamp, and found comfortable places to sit and rest, while keeping their attention turned to the gateway doors.
Keeping to the shadows, I slipped silently along the wall of the magazine behind them, and entered. The interior stretched back into darkness. It was cool, but the stink of putrefying meat was overwhelming. The coffins-twenty of them-were stacked inside. Each one had the same hieroglyph drawn on it-Seth, God of chaos, storms, darkness and the desert, with his curved snout, forked tail and body of a dog. In the underworld of the abandoned citadel, before the marked coffins of the dead, I shivered; I could almost feel the dark presence of the God at my back, and his stinking breath on my neck.
The last of the evening light was fading fast; I prised off the crude wooden lid of one of the coffins. The almost-sweet stench of death instantly invaded my hair and skin. I forced myself to look inside: the body was wrapped in a thin layer of white linen bandages, stained and mottled yellow. Turning the body on its side, I slipped my dagger blade between the layers and as quietly as possible cut through the bandages. I carefully lifted them away, but the dead man’s skin peeled from the body, too, where it had become stuck to the linens. The officer’s side had been sliced open from his armpit down to his hip, and then crudely stitched together again. The wound was yellow and blue. I quickly cut through the stitching, and the body cavity opened up. Some crude work had been done to preserve the body for its journey: all the viscera had been removed; the flesh had turned grey and green under the desiccation of the natron salts; and the corpse had been drained of its blood. Willing myself not to gag, I reached inside; to my profound relief, my fingers quickly discovered several wrapped packets. I withdrew one and, with the blade of my dagger, opened the packaging. And there it was, at last: a brick of sticky, brown opium. Evidence; proof of my contention, and the key to everything that lay ahead. I felt stupid tears of relief filling my eyes. With this, I could return to Horemheb, and save myself and my family.
But even with the relief of the discovery, something else possessed me: an overwhelming need to return to the golden bliss of the opium. My hands holding the brick were shaking. Hurriedly, I reached inside and took out three more packets. If each body held four packages, then this consignment of coffins alone would yield eighty packages of opium; a quantity of vast value on the streets of Thebes. How clever they had been to think of this grotesque method of transportation! Once the body cavity was emptied, I could see how the soldier’s spine, ribs and thorax created an efficient storage area. The muscles of the abdomen looked like old leather.