The King's Man Read Free

open. “He used to prattle on at greater length than I did in those days. Have the passages cleared!” he barked at the guards. As he and Huy fell in behind the soldiers, Amunhotep slid his arm through Huy’s. His perfume, rosemary, wafted into Huy’s nostrils. “My uncle Amunhotep is on his way back from Mitanni,” the King continued as the five of them set off. “I have sent a contingent of soldiers from the Division of Ra to meet him at the border. To escort him safely home.” Huy repressed an urge to glance at the smoothly painted face. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that the hennaed mouth was faintly smiling. “I don’t remember him really. It will be good to welcome him back. Pa-shed is looking forward to serving him again.”
    Huy filed both snippets of information away. The guards were already slowing after no more than two turns of the corridor. Ahead, a pair of tall cedar doors stood open. Two of Huy’s own soldiers were already standing guard outside. He greeted them and they returned his words with obvious relief at seeing him. As he stepped over the threshold, Amunmose came hurrying. At the sight of Huy’s companion, he fell to his knees and his forehead audibly bumped the tiles. Amunhotep told him to get up, which he did with alacrity, only then rubbing his forehead. Huy prayed that he would not speak first. The steward waited.
    “I remember you very well, Amunmose,” the King told him. “You often brought me forbidden sweatmeats when I stayed in Huy’s guest room. Are you happy with the domain you will oversee?”
    “Oh, Majesty, it’s wonderful. Wonderful! Master, there are more and bigger rooms than your house has at home, and several of them give out onto a huge lawn with trees and flowers and two ponds! On this side”—he pointed—“the apartment joins by a door to your servants’ quarters. There’s a door on the opposite wall beyond, but it won’t open.”
    “It will open from the other side.” Amunhotep pulled his arm from Huy’s. “My Majesty Mother’s apartments are between yours and mine, Uncle Huy. If she wishes to speak with you, she will send a servant through. It is the same for me. I don’t spend much time in my quarters, though. I must continue my studies until my sixteenth Naming Day like every other Egyptian pupil, and as well as my lessons, I must give audience to any minister who needs to consult Mother and me. There are a lot of them, not to mention the ambassadors who come and go from barbaric foreign countries.” He turned to face Huy directly. “I must leave you here, but tonight you will be summoned to my rooms. I’ll send you an escort. After the three of us have eaten, I’ll dicate the letter to Anhur. Nubti, explain to Amunmose exactly where your quarters are, and how the stewards in the palace go about their duties. Stay here.”
    Everyone bowed and Amunhotep left. Huy felt that the boy had taken his energy with him. He was all at once tired. A wave of homesickness for his house and Thothhotep’s light voice and Anhur’s lined face washed through him.
    “Master, would you like to see the layout of this place, or would you rather sit quietly while the rest of your belongings are unpacked? Your sleeping room is ready for you now, and Tetiankh is there.”
    Huy fought off his exhaustion. Nubti was waiting in the motionless patience of the good servant. “If Tetiankh is there, I’ll find it myself,” Huy replied. “Nubti, tell him everything he has to know.”
    He wandered farther into the airy room with its white and blue tiles, its pretty red or yellow reed mats, its chairs and tables and lampstands, its cushions stuffed with goose down. The surface of one of the tables formed a sennet board, the figures inside the squares exquisitely painted on bone or ivory, the squares themselves formed of thin, criss-crossing strips of gold. Under the table was a drawer where, Huy surmised, the rods, spools, and sticks for the game were kept. The walls