“—and I am strong enough to help you find your boy.” Amenophis’s voice rose, drawing my attention back to his conversation with Samut. “I’m in your debt for all this”—he indicated the food that Samut had given us so freely—“and I will pay it back! When you meet with those two vermin tomorrow night, I’ll be waiting with that bow and pick them off. Osiris will be sitting in judgment over their hearts before another dawn.”
“It’s not that simple, young master,” Samut said. “There are three of them, not two. They’ve hidden my child in a cave like this, somewhere in these hills, with their third partner holding him captive. He’ll be watching from hiding tomorrow night when I’m supposed to meet the other two, back at the empty houses, and he’ll have my boy with him. He’ll only bring him out into the open once I’ve given those sacrilegious beasts what they want—the location of Lord Iritsen’s tomb and help breaking into it. If an arrow were to come out of nowhere and kill one of that man’s partners, my son would be—would be—” He covered his face and sobbed.
Amenophis laid one hand on the weeping father’s back. “That won’t happen, Samut. I’ll find another way.”
“We will,” I said. “Whatever course we decide on to save Samut’s son, I’ll be a part of it.”
Samut lifted his chin and spoke to me in a faltering voice. “Oh, no, my lady, I couldn’t allow such a lovely girl to endanger herself!”
I smiled at him. “Not so long ago, you didn’t think I was a girl, lovely or not.”
He struggled to smile back. “If only you were Lady Isis. You could use your magic to make short work of those criminals.”
“Yes, if only. Maybe that would teach them to fear the gods.”
“Oh, but they do fear the gods, my lady!”
“Tomb robbers who fear the gods? They have a strange way of showing it,” Amenophis broke in.
“It’s true, young master.” Samut bobbed his head. “You see, I know these men. We grew up together, all of us the sons of tomb workmen. We were even friends once.” He sighed. “But they chose a bad path and became notorious rogues. They went swaggering through our village, refusing to learn their fathers’ honest trades, making fun of those of us who did. Finally they ran off, and the next any of us heard of them was word that they’d gone north, to seek their fortunes in Per-Bast.”
“Bast’s holy city? Why would they travel so far?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the only way to outdistance some trouble they’d stirred up closer to home. Sometimes a traveler would bring messages to their families here—simple words, letting their mothers know they were alive and well—but when the travelers were asked for details, they always talked about how surprising it was to meet three men so devoted to the goddess of the city. My former friends might be criminals who scorn and defy the other gods, but they are Bast’s devoted worshippers.”
“That’s not so odd,” Amenophis said. “Lady Bast is a goddess of love and pleasure, but she’s also a terrifying avenger of wrongs, like Sekhmet.”
Nava gave me a puzzled look. She was still too young to know all the gods of the Black Land, so I explained, “Sekhmet is the goddess of war. You’ve seen her images. She’s a woman with the head of a lion.”
“And Bast is a cat, like Ta-Miu,” Nava said, nodding. She stretched out her hand to scratch Ta-Miu’s ears. “I wish you could go punish those bad men,” she told the pretty creature.
Her words struck me like cold water dashed in my face. My eyebrows shot up, my mouth fell open, and all I could say was, “Oh!”
Amenophis noticed and said, “Nefertiti, what are you thinking?” So I told him; I told everyone.
“No, no, my lady, you mustn’t,” Samut said, shaking his head violently. But there was a faint trace of hope in his voice. He was desperate for some way to save his son, and so far, what I’d suggested was the only plan that wouldn’t worsen the child’s situation if it didn’t work.
My fate, if it failed, would be another story—a grim one—but I would take that chance.
“What other choice do we have?” I asked Samut. “And I won’t be doing this alone. Each of you will have a part in it. I know I can rely on you.” I looked at Nava. “Now the gods have entrusted all of us with the opportunity to save another life. I can’t turn my back on it. Stand with me again, my friends.” I stretched out my hands. “Please.”
Nava was the first to leap up and grab my left hand. Amenophis got to his feet somewhat more slowly and took my right.
“You make it impossible for me to say no to you, Nefertiti,” he said.
“You can always tell me no,” I replied with a half-smile. “But I won’t always listen.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now tell us what we have to do.”
We worked hard all day, preparing ourselves for the night to come. Samut looked ready to collapse from exhaustion. It was his job to bring us the supplies we needed to make my plan succeed. He had to make several trips back and forth to his village to do so without raising questions among the other workmen and their families. We all knew the value of keeping things secret. No decent person would allow the violation and pillage of a tomb. If the villagers learned about the would-be robbers, they’d react without thinking and attempt an open attack. No need to guess what would happen to Samut’s son then.
With this in mind, we were all startled to see Samut returning to our cave accompanied by a sturdy, plain-faced woman. He introduced her as Kawit, the sister of the nasal-voiced tomb robber.