City of the Dead

happily for us is also a tragedy. But if life has a purpose, so perhaps does death.’
    ‘What has happened?’ Huy’s eyes prickled. He blinked to rest them, and forced them wide open. He had smudged a crumb of kohl on his lower right eyelash, and it blurred the foreground of his vision.
    ‘I have a body for you to bury as the former queen.’
    Huy felt energy surge back into him. ‘That indeed is a gift. Where is it?’
    ‘On the river.On its way here from the Northern Capital.’
    ‘But who —?’
    Ay was solemn, it may be better if Ankhsi does not know - it is little Setepenra.’
    ‘What happened?’
    Ay spread his hands. ‘We do not know exactly. A snakebite, probably. She was in the palace garden when suddenly she cried out and fell. They called doctors immediately, of course. But by the time they arrived it was too late.’
    ‘When did this happen?’
    ‘The message came by carrier pigeon yesterday, soon after the sun had passed his zenith. I have sent a courier north to find out more, but we sent another pigeon back with orders to put the princess’s body on a falcon ship and bring it here. My people will meet it some way downriver of the city, and bring it here after dark. I hope now you will learn to trust me, Huy. I think I have repaid my debt to you.’
    Huy looked inwards. If Setepenra’s death had indeed been an accident, it could not have happened at a better time. The girl was Akhenaten’s sixth daughter, two years younger than Ankhsenpaamun, and in face and body very similar to her sister.
    ‘What about your other granddaughter in the Northern Capital?’
    Ay looked at him narrowly. ‘What reservations do you have now?’ He broke off to smile thinly. ‘I was wrong to offer you the archives. I should have suggested Kenamun’s job; but I think you’d be too good at it for comfort.’ He paused to answer an enquiry from one of the order-issuing secretaries, and then drew Huy apart from the throng of people to stand by a large window opening to a view of the great temple of Amun.
    ‘The princess Neferneferura will soon be leaving the Black Land. For a long time I have been in negotiations, through the vizir of the Northern Capital, with King Burraburiash of the Land of the Twin Rivers. An alliance with them now will be a bulwark against the Hittites. Now the princess is going to marry the king’s son.’
    ‘So, all Akhenaten’s surviving daughters will be accounted for.’
    ‘None of us likes loose ends,’ said Ay lightly, and without waiting for an answer, returned to the centre of the room. ‘By the way,’ he said over his shoulder and indicating one of the secretaries. ‘This is Kenna. You will be liaising with him from now on.’ The secretary, an intelligent man of thirty, with close-cropped hair, looked up unsmilingly at Huy and nodded an abrupt greeting.

    Ay kept his word. He even managed to provide an excuse for Senseneb to leave the doctors’ compound and come to the palace without arousing the suspicions of Merinakhte, by summoning her to consult with him about the arrangements for her father’s burial, which would take place soon after the king’s. As chief physician, he would be buried in a place of honour on the fringes of the valley. The body of the little princess was brought secretly to a ground-floor room of Ay’s palace and there Senseneb applied what little make-up and hair dye was necessary to turn the dead girl into her sister’s double. Once dressed in a set of the queen’s robes, the transformation was complete. Keeping it from Ankhsenpaamun was a problem which the queen solved herself, saying that she did not want to see the body which would be left in her place, or know the identity of its owner. She would offer prayers for the safe passage of its soul to Thoth and Osiris, and to Isis and Nephthys.

    ‘How is your wound?’ asked Senseneb, when they were together at his house.
    ‘Sore.’
    She smiled, touching it. ‘The stitches should stay in three more days, but I think you have healed enough for me to take them out before I leave.’ Her voice trailed off as she spoke the last words.
    ‘Have courage.’
    She looked at him, taking his hand. ‘I am trying. But my heart tells me I will never see you again.’
    ‘I will follow as soon as I am sure Ay is not planning to send anyone after you.’
    ‘He gave his word.’
    Huy smiled.
    ‘Has a boat been arranged?’
    ‘A light sailing barge of Taheb’s fleet with papyrus from the Delta is