"My majesty knows drivel when his ears are covered with it."
Meren bowed from his sitting position. "Pardon, sire."
"I pretended remorse at suspecting her of treason and rewarded her with that palace. She was furious, but couldn't show it, since I was rewarding her. She leaves as soon as we can replace her servants."
"I suppose the messenger who was caught with the letter to the Hittite king is dead."
"Killed trying to escape," the king said.
Meren listened to the king's tale of the capture of the messenger on the northeastern border. Teti finished with his oil and produced an obsidian jar. Removing its stopper, he inhaled the scent of the unguent. Meren turned toward the young man as he scooted closer to the king so that he could apply the salve to the king's hands and neck. Teti held the jar in one hand, dipped a small ivory spoon into the unguent, and reached out to the king. Meren sniffed, and smelled myrrh and spice. Myrrh and spice.
With a cry, Meren lurched forward and knocked Teti's hands aside. The servant fell backward. The jar flew from his hand, crashed on the tiles that bordered the reflection pool, and splintered. Across the pool, the leopard sprang to his feet and loped toward them. The king shot up from his couch as Meren threw himself between Tutankhamun and Teti.
"Meren! Are you mad?"
Guards darted at them even as the king spoke. Meren shoved the king so that his body blocked Tutankhamun from the servant and pointed at Teti.
"Take him."
Sa joined them and snaked his body around the king's legs. Teti made gasping sounds as two men grabbed his arms and shoved him to his knees. He darted bewildered glances from his captors to Meren.
"You're scaring him," the king said as he peered at the young man from behind Meren.
"A moment, majesty."
Assured that the servant was under control, Meren went to the edge of the pool and retrieved a fragment of the obsidian jar. He picked up a fallen palm leaf, tore it, and placed the fragment on it so that his skin didn't come in contact with the unguent. Calling for a lamp, he took it from the guard and read the engraved inscription on the fragment. His lips folded together and he swore under his breath.
Returning to the king, he handed Tutankhamun the palm leaf and jar fragment. He held the lamp so that the king could examine the inscription.
The king read it and handed the leaf back to Meren. "I don't understand. The unguent is from the treasury of the god Amun."
"This is qeres, majesty."
"Isn't that the unguent-"
"The unguent coveted by the Great Royal Wife."
"Ankhesenamun," the king said.
They both looked at the silently weeping Teti.
Tutankhamun restrained Meren when he would approach the servant.
"Let me. He's frightened and doesn't understand."
Dismissing the guards, the king went to Teti, who fell to his knees and placed his cheek on the king's foot. The king knelt and raised his servant. While Meren watched, they conducted a silent conversation using hand signs. Tutankhamun gestured several times toward the unguent jar fragment.
When he finished, the king placed his hand on Teti's shoulder. The servant began to weep again, but kissed the hem of the king's kilt. Giving the young man several reassuring pats on the shoulder, he sent the servant away.
Tutankhamun rejoined Meren. "He knows little. It's as I thought. The chief bath attendant is responsible for making sure my supplies of salves and unguents are in place each day. The trays of jars were checked this morning and restocked from the palace storeroom. This jar appeared for the first time then."
Meren lowered his voice so that only the king could hear him. "Majesty, the queen requested qeres from the treasury not long ago. And there are no stores of it in the palace."
"I am to be astonished?"
"No, divine one. But we may thank the golden Horus for the queen's bad luck. If I hadn't been making inquiries about the unguent for this murder in the Place of Anubis, I would never have noticed that qeres."
"It's poisoned."
"Perhaps. I think so. There is a bitter smell to it that shouldn't be there."
The king's leopard yawned and strolled away. Tutankhamun lapsed into silence. He and Meren gazed at the pattern of moonbeams dancing over the surface of the water in the reflection pool.
"The queen again," Tutankhamun said in a whisper.
"Perhaps not."
"Not?"
Meren shrugged as he stood beside the king. "It came from the treasury of Amun."
"But to send poison in a container marked with the god's name, it is too absurd. The high priest would never make such a mistake."
"Unless he meant to," Meren said.
They both thought for a moment.
"We will examine the qeres, majesty. For poison."
"And then put it someplace secret."
"Yes, majesty."
"And then tell that old jackal that we have it."
'Thy majesty is wise."
"My majesty wants to live, Meren."
Meren turned to the king. "The Eyes of Pharaoh will do his best to see to it, majesty."
They both turned again to gaze out at the light- spattered water. Meren heaved a deep sigh and looked down at the scar on his wrist, his own personal legacy from a dead pharaoh. Keeping the king alive was a far more difficult and dangerous task than solving the murder in the Place of Anubis.