Murder in the Place of Anubis Read Free

The arm swung down. At the same time a muscle,in Pharaoh's jaw twitched. Meren offered the matching band to Ay; he looked up at the king's face. As he did so, Tutankhamun abandoned his pretense of studying the door and looked at him. Meren winked, and the king's solar smile burst upon him.
     "The Lord Meren has permission to speak to my majesty," the king said.
    Meren tried not to look at the vizier. Refusing to allow his chief minister to speak was one of the king's small vengeances taken upon the man who was his foster father. It served Ay right for piling too many duties on a boy who was only fourteen, for all he was the son of the god. This morning Ay had foiled the king's attempt to steal from the palace and sail his skiff on the Nile. Instead, Pharaoh spent the morning in ceremony and listening to the avaricious howling of the priests of Amun.
    "Sovereign, my master, what is thy will?"
    Tutankhamun grinned at Meren while holding out his hand so that Ay could slide a ring on it. "You are one  of the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh. What happenings are there to report?"
     "Nubian bandits in the south, majesty. And the prince who absconded with the serfs of Lord Soter has been  persuaded to return them."
     "Prince Hunefer would rob the night of its stars if he could," Tutankhamun said. He twisted one of the rings on his hand.
    "And there has been murder, divine lord."
     The king lifted his eyes from the ring. He waved his  hand; servants and lords faded away through the double doors.
    "Tell me."
     Meren hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, during  which he stifled his own guilt. He would be commanded to hunt a murderer again, when he was guilty of that crime himself. No matter that he hadn't known they were going to kill Akhenaten. He'd suspected it and let Ay send him to the Libyan border anyway. And even if his own conscience were clear, he worried about the boy king. There was no way of knowing whether his news would bring out the youth in Pharaoh, or the burdened monarch.
     "A man has been found in the Place of Anubis,"  Meren said. "He was stabbed in the neck with an embalming knife, and the Controller of the Mysteries of Anubis begs me for aid."
    The king's eyes grew round. He rested a knee on the seat of an ebony chair and shivered. "Desecration of the place of embalming. Do you—do you think that the poor souls of the dead ones have fled in fear? They might be afraid to be reborn."
    "I don't know, majesty, but this evil touches a sacred place and involves priests. One must not capture suspicious ones and beat them in hope of finding a criminal."
    "No," the king said. "It isn't wise to beat priests."
     Tutankhamun turned and slouched down in the ebony  chair. "You're going to hunt another murderer, and I will sit for hours in the throne room listening to the complaints of governors, bureaucrats, priests, and that cobra of a Hittite ambassador."
     Meren bowed to his king. He took in the wistful expression and slumped shoulders. Once Kysen had been  burdened as was the king, and it had taken Meren years to undo the damage wrought by his adopted son's natural father. He would speak to Ay about allowing the king time to be a youth instead of a divine ruler.
     "I sent my son to the Place of Anubis before I attended Pharaoh. Shall I come to the sovereign with news of this abomination?"
     "Yes!" The king jumped from the chair. It went sliding across the floor. "Yes, tell me everything. At least I can trust you not to conceal the evil from me or dress up your affairs in order to gain favor. You must hurry. This matter of the embalming knife is likely to be the only interesting business of the day."
     It was Meren who jumped when Pharaoh grabbed his arm and hauled him toward the doors. Tutankhamun flung open the door and gave Meren's shoulder a push.
     "Hurry. I remember what you told me: One must  study the place where evil has been done before the scent and markings of that evil vanish. Hurry."
     Meren