Kenna didn’t look convinced. “What is this all about, Neff?” he asked the girl.
“I don’t know yet,” the girl replied. “Not exactly. But I know it’s important. And I promise, when I figure it out, I’ll tell you everything.”
“The origin of this king is an ancient mystery, sen,” Karim added. “You may be the only one who can help me solve it.”
To Karim’s delight, the bait had the desired effect on the curious embalmer. Kenna cast a glance back at the nearly completed mummy behind him. “I suppose she’ll keep until I return,” he said to himself. Then he turned back to Karim.
“Fine, I’ll help you. But I will be watching you very closely, my friend. Do not make me regret this kindness.” Then to Neff he said, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Neff nodded and tipped her head toward the door. “We must hurry.”
Kenna suppressed a grin. “All right.” Despite himself, Karim could see the embalmer was excited about this little adventure. “Let’s go find your missing pharaoh.”
***
The House of Life was as murky as the embalming chamber was bright. Once he’d reached the bottom of the stairs leading down to it, Karim had to stand still for several seconds to allow his eyes to adjust. Windowless and lit only by oil lamps, the vast room contained one long reading table, and walls marked by hundreds of round holes with rolled papyri nested inside. Karim felt an immediate sense of familiarity in the room, but it took a moment for him to understand why.
It feels like a tomb, he thought. Not a tomb for bodies, of course. But for memories. Words. A place to preserve the wisdom and stories of days past, and to honor them with eternal life.
Neff quickly made her way across the chamber to a far wall. “All our King Lists are here,” she said, “But without knowing the date of Setnakht’s reign, it would take too long to read through them all. These cover thousands of years of Khetaran history.”
Kenna folded his arms, his expression pensive. “It’s a pointless exercise, anyway. If this king were on the main list, we’d already know about him. No, I think I know where to look.”
He moved to the far end of the room, bringing an oil lamp along to light the way. They came to a wall that, unlike the others, had no openings in it whatsoever. Instead, it was painted with scenes of gods and battles and rituals, not unlike the ones Karim had seen on the outside of the temple itself.
Kenna began to explain. “My father once told me that scribes, when ordered to remove certain undesirable documents from the official record, would often stow them away in secret places, rather than burn them.” He moved the oil lamp very close and swept his palm slowly across the painted wall.
“That’s the thing about scribes,” he continued, “They have a natural aversion to the destruction of scrolls—no matter whatthose scrolls might say.”
Karim blinked. “I’m not following. This is… a wall.”
“Itlookslike a wall,” Kenna went on, his hands still searching. “When I first entered the priesthood and spent a lot of time here, this wall always intrigued me. Why create an intricate painting here? It’s so dark that no one can see it.
“One day, when no one was watching, I spent some time investigating and found a little hidey-hole behind a detail in the painting. There was a papyrus inside, evidence of an illicit relationship between two palace officials, I believe. So, if there’s one papyrus to be found…” His hand stopped on a cluster of lotus flowers. Then, painstakingly, he pulled a piece of the wall away, revealing a deep depression underneath. Kenna stared into it and chuckled. “Then there might be more.”
Not a wall, but a door, Karim thought, with a peculiar sense that the patterns of the world were revealing themselves to him.
Carefully, the embalmer stuck his fingers inside the hole and removed a papyrus, brittle with age.
Neff hurried to join Kenna at the reading table. “You see?” she told Karim. “I told you he could help!”
Although the contents of the papyrus—which, according to Kenna, detailed forbidden curses and other such evil magic—were interesting, they had nothing to do with Setnakht.
“Let’s keep looking,” Kenna said. “If such information exists, this would be the most likely place to find it.” Replacing the papyrus in the hole, the three of them set to searching for more hidden apertures.
Over the course of half an hour, they located three more hidden documents, but none of them held any of value to their search.
Karim stepped back from the wall and sighed. “There’s nothing here, is there?”
Kenna sucked his teeth. “Perhaps not. Whomever erased this king from the records must have done a very good job. I’m sorry, but unless we find what you’re looking for very soon, we’ll have to abandon the search. The scribes will be returning to their posts before long.”
Karim rubbed his face with his hands, frustration boiling inside him as he stared at the wall.All this way for nothing!What was he supposed to do now? Go to the pharaoh with his doomsaying? It didn’t work for Pasenhor, and it certainly wouldn’t work for a thief from the Red Lands, so—
He never finished the thought.
There, on the left side of the wall, he noticed a detail he hadn’t seen before. Grabbing the oil lamp from the young embalmer, he shone its light on the strange figure painted in black and blue and gold: a god with the head of a strange doglike animal with tall ears and a downturned snout.
He felt a familiar tug in his chest, pulling him toward the image.
