Piay glanced back at the galley, where Harrar was standing by the rail, letting them know that he wanted to be off. He sighed.

  ‘You’re right, Hannu. There’s nothing here to keep us.’

  Myssa flashed him a look. ‘If you two want answers to your questions, why don’t you ask that poor woman? And we can find out if she needs any help, while we’re at it.’

  Piay nodded, chastened. ‘Yes, my dear.’

  He let Myssa take the lead as they approached the weeping woman, since she would seem infinitely less threatening than two armed men and a group of soldiers.

  Drawing closer, Piay could see that the woman’s black hair was threaded with grey. Tears cut paths through the dirt that streaked her deeply lined face. Her frayed dress, cracked, dirty fingernails and calloused hands spoke of a lifetime of hard manual work for very little reward.

  Piay stood in silence as Myssa rested a hand on the woman’s head. Instantly her crying ceased, as if a spell had been uttered. Myssa dropped beside her and whispered some soothing words. The woman blinked her tears away and looked up at Piay with hopeful eyes.

  ‘Tell me what happened,’ Piay asked in what he trusted was a comforting tone.

  ‘It was the Shrikes.’

  So this was the work of criminals, after all. But criminals from another age.

  Piay summoned up a memory of Taita telling him about the bands of vicious thieves and cut-throats that used to roam the fertile Nile valley in the days before Piay had been born.

  The Shrikes had grown more and more daring as the authorities failed to get a grip on them. They became a threat to the very stability of the Upper Kingdom, even roaming into the cities, robbing and killing and wreaking havoc among the people. It had taken the renowned General Tanus to crush them once and for all.

  So it had been believed. But now they had returned.

  ‘They came at dawn,’ the woman cried. ‘Raided our home, and when they’d taken what they wanted they set fire to it. We tried to fight back, but . . . but . . .’

  She glanced up at the dead man hanging from the shadoof and was racked with another bout of sobs. When she was done, she said, ‘They took our daughter too, and . . .’ There were more sobs before the woman managed to gather herself enough to say, ‘They left my husband there as a message to all who live around here. They will be back and they will not be resisted.’

  Piay looked towards the soldiers and said, ‘Get that body off there, so that he can have a proper burial.’ He turned back and gently told the woman, ‘Don’t worry. Your husband will be able to make his journey to the afterlife. He will be at peace.’

  ‘Thank you, master,’ the woman said, and her mood lifted a little, for the loss of a safe passage to the world to come was feared more than death itself.

  ‘How long have these Shrikes been a problem?’ Piay asked, wondering whether there was any connection, other than the name, between these raiders and the Shrikes of years gone by.

  ‘They came after the barbarians fled. No thieves would ever have risked an attack like this before. The Hyksos would have hunted them down like rats and cut them dead. Oh, if only the barbarians had stayed behind! We were safe then—’

  ‘And you will be safe once more,’ Piay interjected. We have come to help. Does the leader of this band have a name?’

  ‘Akh-Seth. That is what he calls himself. His true name, no one knows. No one has even seen his face.’

  Akh-Seth meant the brother of Seth. Piay felt his mood harden at the sound of that name. Once again the god haunted him.

  Piay swept out an arm. ‘Do you see these soldiers? They are men of the Blue Crocodile Guards of the Upper Kingdom, the fiercest warriors in all the world. This Shrike – this Akh-Seth – will stand no chance before them. He will flee in terror the moment he sees their faces.’

  The woman nodded. ‘But . . . but . . . my daughter. He has my daughter, my little girl. If these soldiers are so good, can they not bring her back to me?’

  Piay winced. He looked around the gathered soldiers and then back at Harrar’s furious face as he stood at the rail. It was one thing stopping to gather information. He would have a far harder time justifying to himself, as much as to anyone else, the time and potential risk of chasing after the Shrikes.

  The woman must have noticed his hesitancy, for she grabbed at Piay’s arm.

  ‘And not just my daughter! Others . . . They take others! A captive was with them, a man – a demon! Covered in strange marks from head to toe!’

  Piay flinched. ‘Tattoos? Black tattoos, circles and stars and—’

  ‘Yes, yes, all of that!’ the woman enthused, now that she could see Piay was interested.

  ‘Tell me,’ Piay said, ‘this man with the tattoos, this demon . . . Was he with you when the Shrikes arrived? Or was he with them? Had they already taken him prisoner?’

  ‘He was with them.’ The woman shivered in revulsion. ‘We would never have let such a creature remain in our village. We may be poor, but we are good people, respectable people. We worship gods, not demons.’

  ‘I quite understand. Please excuse me one moment, while I speak to my friends.’

  Myssa shared a few reassuring words with the woman, then got up to join Piay and Hannu.

  ‘What in Ra’s name does a bunch of criminals want with one of the Sons of Apis?’ Piay asked the other two.

  ‘Maybe they don’t know what they’ve got?’ Hannu suggested.

  ‘Then why are they keeping him alive? Why not just kill him?’

  ‘The real question is, why did this Son of Apis allow himself to be captured?’ Myssa said. ‘First the Hyksos catch the man with the Eye of Horus. Now this . . . not to mention all the attacks. For centuries, these men are invisible, no more than rumours or passing mentions in ancient scrolls. Now they have come out into the open.’

  ‘Surely this means that it is the time for Imhotep’s prophecies to come true and his clues to be solved,’ Piay said. But then he sighed, shook his head and said, ‘But we can’t just go chasing after this tattooed man.’

  ‘Then chase after that poor girl,’ Myssa said. ‘We can’t just stand by and let her be sold into slavery. I know what that’s like. Please, I’m begging you, we must go after her.’

  Piay closed his eyes and screwed up his face as he tried to find a way out of an impossible situation: his duty on one side, the woman he loved on the other.

  He took a deep breath, sighed and said, ‘I’m really sorry, my love. I know . . . I really know how much this means to you. But we have to get to Memphis. That’s where our real work is. I hate to say it, but Lord Harrar’s right about that.’

  ‘Helping those in need is important work,’ Myssa said. ‘Whatever lies ahead has waited a thousand years. It can afford to wait a few more days. If it is within your power to save this mother’s daughter, then you have to do it.’

  Piay looked at Myssa, knowing how furious and, even worse, how desperately disappointed in him she would be if he sided with a man they both despised.

  ‘A confrontation with the Shrikes would be dangerous,’ Hannu said, seeing the conflict tearing Piay in two. ‘And do either of you really think Lord Harrar’s going to wait here, where the Shrikes have been? That man’s afraid of his own shadow. Oh, and one more thing . . . What if the Sons of Apis come looking for their brother?’

  Piay glanced once again at Myssa and knew his mind was made up.

  ‘I say we do what we can to bring the daughter back. We can tell Harrar that if we rescue the Shrikes’ captive, then we can learn the Sons of Apis’ plans, and that way we’ll be better able to protect him.’

  Hannu shrugged. ‘Maybe he’ll fall for it, if you lay it on thick enough. But he’s not going to send one single, solitary Blue Crocodile guardsman marching off into the wilderness. He’ll want them looking after him. So then what are you going to do?’

  ‘Go alone,’ Piay said. ‘There’s no other way Harrar will agree to it. He won’t give a damn risking my neck, so long as his is safe.’

  ‘He won’t care about my neck, either,’ Hannu said, and Piay knew just by the way the words were said that it would be a waste of time to argue with him. ‘I’m just going to take a look around this place,’ Hannu added. ‘See what we’re up against.’

  He wandered off, his face pointing down at the ground like an old hound following a scent, while Piay returned to the farmer’s widow. She raised a trembling hand and caught at Piay’s wrist when she heard he was heading after the Shrikes.

  ‘Ten thousand thanks,’ she all but sobbed. ‘May the gods watch over you for all your days.’

  As Piay turned away, Myssa leaned in and whispered, ‘You are a good man.’

  Piay gave her a wry smile. ‘You’d better ask Captain Gatas to tell our esteemed passenger what I’m doing. That kind of man would be affronted by a woman telling him what’s going on.’

  ‘And my kind of woman doesn’t want to waste a second of her life arguing with him, so Gatas is welcome to do it.’ Myssa rested a hand on Piay’s forearm. ‘Good luck.’

  Piay gave a quick smile of acknowledgement, then said, ‘Thanks . . . and don’t worry, I’m not planning on a long expedition. If I’m not back by nightfall, set sail without me.’

  ‘Then come back quickly, because that would break my heart.’

  ‘Wait,’ Piay said.

  The pouch containing the Eye of Horus was tied to the belt of his kilt. Now he undid it and gave it to Myssa.

  ‘Just in case I don’t come back,’ he said. ‘Use it well.’

  ‘But you will come back,’ she said softly, laying a hand on his arm.

  ‘I will . . . but just in case . . .’

  Piay kissed Myssa and she returned to the ship with the guardsmen.

  Hannu made his way back to Piay.

  ‘I’ve been checking footprints. This farm was attacked by a large band. I’d say forty men, at least. And that Akh-Seth character knows what he’s doing. They came in from two directions, using the trees and bushes for cover before creeping along the ditches. This isn’t going to be easy. You know, just the two of us.’

  ‘It would be harder with others,’ Piay said.

  ‘What? Are you serious?’

  ‘Absolutely. Look, if we set off with the soldiers, they’ll see us coming a mile off. But if there’s only two of us, we can sneak up on them.’

  Piay grinned. ‘Hey, who knows? If the gods smile on us we could be in, out and back to the boat . . . and the Shrikes won’t even know that we’ve been there at all.’

  S

  oon the fields of barley fell behind them. As they followed the trail out of the lush, irrigated land and into the scrub that bordered the wilderness, Piay said, ‘I remember Taita telling me that the Shrikes stole girls to sell into the brothels, so this one should still be alive. That’s something.’

  ‘And do you have even the faintest inkling of a plan when we do catch up with them?’

  ‘I’ll know when the time comes.’

  ‘I thought we’d agreed not to use those kinds of plans anymore.’

  ‘How can I think with all your wittering?’

  Before Hannu could reply, Piay strode off, picking up his pace, waiting until he had found the point at which his companion, with his wounded leg, could not match him. Then he slowed down and let Hannu catch up.

  The spiky bushes and tufts of yellowing grass eventually gave way to the ochre rock and drifting dust of the wasteland. The trail was easier to follow there – a mass of footprints trudging across the rolling desert.

  As they crested a ridge, Hannu pointed towards the azure sky ahead. Black shapes circled: vultures, their wings catching the hot currents.

  ‘They spy carrion,’ Hannu said.

  ‘At least we’re not it,’ Piay replied.

  ‘Yet.’

  Sweating in the heat, the two men picked up their pace again. Piay could see that Hannu was working hard to keep up, but they still marched side by side before skidding down a slope, then clawing their way up the next dune. At the top, Piay shielded his eyes against the glare and peered ahead. Underneath those slowly descending vultures, he spotted a figure spread-eagled across a rock.

  ‘Now who could that be?’ Piay mused. ‘Another farmer? But why bring him all the way out here?’

  Piay and Hannu hurried across the shifting dust to try to reach the remains before the vultures began tearing the flesh from the bones. As they rounded a boulder, Piay slowed his step when the body fell into relief.

  ‘Do you see what I see?’ he said.

  ‘Aye,’ Hannu replied. ‘This changes things.’

  Flapping his arms to frighten the vultures away, Piay raced across the remaining distance until he stood by the remains. His eyes had not lied. The dead man was one of the Sons of Apis, the tattoos stark on the pale skin. It must have been the man the Shrikes had held captive. He was naked, and he had been tortured by the looks of it. Open wounds scarred his flesh and his member had been lopped off and stuffed in his mouth.

  Hannu limped up to his side, gasping for air, and studied the corpse.

  ‘So even a Son of Apis can’t beat a gang of Shrikes,’ he said. ‘Could be a lesson for us there.’

  Piay did not respond. He was studying the pattern of the wounds.

  ‘Tortured to get the information they needed,’ he said. ‘And look, there are scars and fading bruises under the new wounds. They’ve been working him over for quite a while.’

  ‘So did they kill him because he wouldn’t speak, and they got bored waiting?’ Hannu asked. ‘Or did they kill him because he’d already told them everything and they’d got no more use for him?’

  ‘The only way to find out is to go and ask the Shrikes.’

  ‘And I would imagine that’s not something you plan to do, seeing that it would be mad.’

  Piay peered across the waste to a ridge of bronze-coloured rocks.

  ‘Tell me that’s not your plan,’ Hannu said.

  ‘We still need to find the camp so we can tell the mother where the girl is being kept,’ Piay replied. ‘If there is some way to free her ourselves, that is good. If there is a chance to capture one of the Shrikes so we can find out what the cultist told them, that is also good.’

  Piay sensed Hannu wearily sagging his shoulders. He didn’t look round. Instead, he pressed on towards the ridge.

  ‘T

  here’s more of them than I thought.’ Hannu lay on his belly, peering around the edge of the boulder. Ahead, the Shrike camp lay in a hollow so it could not be seen by anyone approaching from any direction. Tents were jumbled around a central campfire, their cloth stained in earthy colours so that they merged with the desert landscape. ‘Too many for us, I’d say.’

  Piay had to agree. This Akh-Seth had amassed a body of men that was more like a military unit than a gang of thieves and cut-throats. True, the men wandering around the camp or squatting in conversation near the fire were dressed in ragged robes stained with filth, and had scarves tied around their heads like the desert wanderers, but they were all well-armed.

  Piay spied bronze swords hanging from waists, axes and bronze-tipped spears, all of them no doubt looted.

  ‘There’s a lot of lads with crescent swords down there,’ Hannu said. ‘Must’ve taken them off what’s left of the Hyksos army.’

  ‘Unless they’re Hyksos, too,’ Piay said. ‘Deserters, maybe . . . or deliberately left behind to cause trouble. Either way, I’ve only counted three guards on the perimeter of the camp. They’re not expecting trouble.’

  ‘Who’s going to give them any? There are two armies in Egypt and they’re both busy in Memphis. This lot can do what they like.’

  The wind whined among the rocks, whipping up whorls of dust. Then it died down for a moment, and in the calm that followed, Hannu tilted his head and frowned.

  ‘Can you hear that? Coming from the camp.’

  Piay cocked his head, too, and made out women’s voices. They seemed to be coming from a larger tent close to the camp’s edge.

  ‘Well, now we know where the girl is,’ he said.

  Piay imagined the farmer’s daughter who had been stolen by these cut-throats, and her terror at being snatched from the heart of her family. His own feelings of being abandoned by his parents stabbed into his mind. But here there was no Taita to make things right for a lost child. So now it was all down to him.

  Without looking at Hannu, keeping his eyes on the camp, Piay said, ‘Go back to the ship.’

  Hannu stared at him, his face crumpling into a scowl as the truth behind Piay’s words revealed itself to him.

  ‘Don’t be a fool,’ he growled.

  ‘Go back to the ship . . . and tell Harrar I have uncovered a plot by the Shrikes to capture him and hold him to ransom.’

  ‘He won’t send anyone to help you, if that’s what you’re thinking. He can feel the Sons of Apis breathing down his neck, and all he wants to do is get to Memphis and hide behind those big high walls.’

  ‘If it’s the Sons he’s worried about, the walls won’t help,’ Piay said.

  ‘Aye, but Harrar doesn’t know that. Wouldn’t surprise me if he’d already ordered the captain to sail on.’

  Piay studied those lazing guards and the space that lay between where each one had been positioned.

  ‘They won’t be breaking up the camp now,’ he said. ‘Under cover of the night I can sneak into the camp there . . . and there.’ He traced a path in the air with his finger. ‘With the blessing of Khonsu, I can crawl into the tent where the women are kept.’

  ‘And then what? Will Khonsu give you magic wings, so you can pick up that lass and fly back to the boat? Eh? A quick prayer and – oh look! – a miracle!’

  ‘Don’t insult my faith.’

  ‘Then don’t you insult my intelligence.’