THOTMAKTEF ROSE. "WE'LL have to get him before long, I think."
Behind me, Uraeus whispered, "I will go, if my master wishes."
Qanju shook his head. When Thotmaktef had left us, Qanju stared across the gunwale and fingered his beard. "He is a good young man, Lucius; but he has learned a great deal already and is learning more. Learning often turns good to evil."
I said, "In that case, learning itself must be evil."
"It is not. Everything depends upon what one learns, and the great thing-the thing to learn best-is that learning must serve us. If it does, we continue to serve Ahura Mazda, assuming that we served him when we began to learn. But if we serve learning, we learn too late that the dark god has donned it like a mask. Ah! Here is the beautiful Neht-nefret already. Well done, Thotmaktef. Have you a cushion to offer her?"
"I can sit on the deck like everybody else," the young woman called Neht-nefret said, and seated herself swiftly and gracefully. She has fine eyes, made finer still with kohl, a hard mouth, and a bandaged hand. "Is this about what I think it's about, Noble Qanju?"
He nodded. "Are you and Myt-ser'eu friends, Neht-nefret?"
"You know we are. I'd do anything for her. We're like sisters."
"Would Myt-ser'eu say the same?"
"I'm sure she would."
Qanju spoke to me. "If you would like to speak with Myt-ser'eu privately concerning this, Lucius, you may do so now. We will await your return."
I shook my head.
"Then we may begin. It might be well if Neht-nefret first told you how the three of you met."
Neht-nefret said, "I know you forget, Latro, but you're too smart to believe that women always tell the truth. I'm going to tell you the truth now, just the same. This is all true, and when you leave here you can ask Myt-ser'eu or Muslak, and they'll tell you the same exact thing. Myt-ser'eu and I are singing girls-it means good-looking young women of no family you can hire to entertain at parties. We'll sing or dance, serve drinks, or whatever you want, and we're under the protection of Hathor."
"A great goddess here," Qanju murmured.
I nodded. "She was wet nurse to Osiris." Thotmaktef's eyes flew wide when I said that, although he had told me himself a few minutes before.
"That's right," Neht-nefret said. "Girls like us need her protection more than you might think, so you have to go to the temple of Hathor to hire us, and the priests look after us as much as they can, refuse the money of men of bad character and so on. Try to get us out of trouble when we get into some."
I said, "I think I understand."
"That's good. I hope so. I need protection now, Latro. I think I need it pretty bad, and Noble Qanju agrees. Hathor's priests aren't here and I'm hoping to get it from you and Muslak."
I said that I would certainly protect her if I could.
"Thanks. I was supposed to tell you how we met, and this is how it was. You and Muslak came to Hathor's temple in Sais. That's where we're from, Myt-ser'eu and me."
I nodded.
"He wanted a river-wife and picked me. You said you didn't want one. Then you saw Myt-ser'eu and wanted her. Back then, Muslak was the only friend you had."
"Our captain," Qanju murmured.
"He's still the best friend you've got here, Latro. You may not know it, but he is, and he likes me just like you like Myt-ser'eu. Last night we slept in an inn. Not the one you and her slept in, another one."
I recalled awakening in the inn and nodded.
"It was late and we were both asleep. We'd had quite a bit of beer, and you know afterward. Well, I woke up. I think Hathor must've done it, because there wasn't any reason. I woke up, and a woman with a crooked knife was bending over me. I could see her in the moonlight that got past the shutter, and I saw the shine along the edge and grabbed the blade. Look."
She unwound her bandage. There was a long, fresh cut, not very deep, across her palm; it had been smeared with yellow salve.
"I screamed and Muslak woke up, and the door slammed. He'd barred that door before we went to bed. We talked about it after my hand stopped bleeding. I said I thought he'd barred it, but I'd been sort of-of elevated, you know, so I wasn't sure. He said he most certainly had, he'd had a few bowls but he could drink a lot more than that without getting so drunk he'd go to sleep in a place like that without barring the door. Well, the bar was lying on the floor. We found it and put it back up."
I asked how the woman had gotten in.
Neht-nefret shrugged. "You tell me."
Qanju smiled. "Thotmaktef?"
"I have a theory," Thotmaktef said, "and the Noble Qanju agrees. This woman-others have seen her, if it is the same woman-is often accompanied by a large black cat." He hesitated. "Have you ever seen a leopard, Latro?"
"I don't know. I may have. Certainly I saw the skin of one this morning."
"Yes, I suppose you must have, at the temple of Ap-uat. The chief priest of every temple in our nation wears a leopard skin as his badge of office. Since you've seen that skin and remember it now, you should have some idea of the size of a living leopard. They're far bigger than any ordinary cat, but smaller than a lion."
I nodded.
"This cat is about the same size, but it's black instead of spotted. It could have climbed the outside of the inn. It's mud brick, and I've often seen cats climb mud brick. Inside, it could lift the bar with its teeth."
Neht-nefret looked as skeptical as I felt.
"It could have been trained to do that," Thotmaktef insisted. "We train animals to do things that are far more difficult."
"A baboon would be better," Neht-nefret said. "It would be easier to train, and they have hands."
I agreed and added, "From what Neht-nefret has said, this woman ran when she saw the man she was with-"
"Muslak."
"Was waking up. That would not have been necessary if the cat were her guard."
Neht-nefret said, "Muslak's sword was beside our bed."
"Did you see this cat?" I asked her.
She shook her head.
Thotmaktef said, "A man with a sword might have killed the cat in the wink of an eye. She would not want to lose it. Besides, she may have sent the cat into the corridor to make sure she wasn't interrupted."
I asked whether he and Qanju were certain the woman was on our ship.
Qanju said, "It would appear that she has been with us since we set out, though she is seen only at night."
I suggested that the ship be searched for her. Thotmaktef said that it has been. A moment ago, I asked Uraeus whether I was among the searchers. He says I was not among them this time.
Now I am sitting in the shade to write. We just passed three laden lumber ships; Muslak says they are carrying wood from Triquetra to Wast. May not this woman have her own ship? A ship or boat in which she follows ours? What Uraeus tells me cannot be true. I HAVE READ what I have written. Here I add that Muslak and I will take care to stay at the same inn tonight. We have agreed on that, and that I am to remain awake and watch.
The scarab is to guide me, but it has no wings now. No doubt they have broken off.