The King's Man Read Free Page A

around him did not have much decoration on them. They were broken by rectangled doorways leading into other rooms and perhaps even to rooms beyond them, until there was a solid wall against which some noble lived. The layout was simple, pleasing, and easy to grasp.
    Huy found his body servant folding linen in a large, dim room dominated by a capacious couch with its head pushed against the far wall. Over it on the ceiling the body of the goddess of the sky, Nut, was arched, surrounded by stars, the sun just about to disappear into her mouth. Pink light, the early light of sunset, dribbled down from the three clerestory windows cut high in the only wall clearly fronting the garden Amunmose had mentioned, and pooled weakly on the blue and white tiling of the floor. The table by the couch was gilded, and already held Huy’s night lamp. So was the chair resting against the right-hand wall, with two of his chests beside it. Tetiankh had already dressed the couch and placed Huy’s shrine with its likeness of Khenti-kheti against the last piece of free wall.
    The air smelled faintly of vinegar and jasmine. The jasmine must be flowering outside , Huy thought. It had been years since he had worn that particular perfume, not since the disastrous evening at Nakht’s house when Nakht had refused him a position in his Governor’s office and Anuket had kissed him so deliberately and so coldly in the dark of her father’s garden. Huy hated this room at once, then silently reprimanded himself. You are tired and a stranger here. Besides, you know there won’t be much time for sleeping, don’t you?
    “I need a small dose of poppy and an hour on the couch, Tetiankh,” he said, stepping reluctantly forward. “Go and find out from Royal Steward Nubti where the palace physicians keep their mortars and pestles and whatever else you’ll need. Later, you and I and Amunmose must discuss the safety of our belongings, how to keep everything secure, but for now just let me rest.” He stripped off his kilt, sandals, and jewellery, placed his headrest on the couch, and lay down, watching the glow from the two standing lamps in the room gradually seem to brighten as the daylight waned.
    When Tetiankh returned, Huy drank then dozed, listening as the man set up Huy’s cosmetics table, opened a chest to retrieve a clean kilt, brought out a piece of jewellery with a soft clink. There was sanity in the gentle sounds, and relief from heartache in the drug. He came to himself with a start when a hand descended on his naked shoulder.
    “Master, I let you sleep for two hours, but I dare not make you late for the King,” Tetiankh said. “A servant from the nearest bathhouse is here with hot water. I will refresh you.”
    Later, in white kilt and shirt, a plain gold chain hanging with the sa around his neck and golden ankhs in his earlobes, his eyes kohled and his hair newly braided, he sat in his new reception room, now full of shadows, glad to be away from the aroma of jasmine and feeling wholly unreal.
    A herald came for him not long afterwards, and by the time he had followed the man the short distance to the King’s dully gleaming electrum doors, he was familiar with the way. He entered the royal apartments to a blaze of cheerful lamplight and the pleasant trills of a plucked harp. Nubti flowed towards him, reverenced him, and led him to where Amunhotep and Mutemwia were waiting, three little dining tables laden with fresh flowers behind them.
    Huy made his obeisance to them, and Mutemwia held out both silver-hung arms. Astounded, Huy found himself loosely embraced, enveloped in her perfume, the blue enamel flowers surrounding her coronet brushing the middle of his chest. His own arms went around her automatically. It was like holding a child. She stepped back, but only a little. “I have missed you a great deal, Seer Huy.” She smiled. “Many times during the worries of the past months I have needed your counsel and gone without. I hope you