Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda S. Robinson

sword? And stop chewing your lip. It's bleeding."
    "Yes, lord."
    "You may speak freely to me. I give you permission, Sedi."
     "I did nothing! There was a crowd around the body,  and I came to look. It's not my fault. I did nothing."
     Kysen put a hand on Sedi's shoulder, and the youth  jumped.
     "I asked you to speak freely, but I do expect you to  make sense. You're beginning to sound like Raneb."
     Sedi made a choking sound and then lost the battle  not to laugh. Through the hand that rested on the water carrier's shoulder, Kysen could feel tense muscles relax.
     "Brother, don't you think I know the courage it took  for you to come forward with your knowledge? Everyone knows it's best to leave the affairs of the great alone. If you speak before great men you are as a reed before pylons, no?"
    "Yes, lord." Sedi wet his lips and swallowed. "But Raneb has been good to me, and I couldn't let evil flourish in the Place of Anubis."
    Kysen eased his body down to sit beside Sedi, and eased into his question as well. "Then you understand that it's important for me to know how you recognized Hormin."
    "I've seen him perhaps three times."
    "Here?"
    "No, lord, in the village of the tomb makers of Pharaoh."
     Kysen felt the strength drain from his arms and legs,  and he was glad that he was sitting down. 'Tell me."
    "We came to Thebes last Drought in search of work and found it at the tomb-makers' village. My father is servant to the painter Useramun. Raneb has allowed me to visit him on feast days, and I saw Hormin there. I think he was paying the servants of the Great Place to decorate his tomb. You know they take on extra work to be done after their service to Pharaoh is done each day."
    "I know," Kysen said. "So you've only been at the village a short time. How often did Hormin go there?"
    "I don't know, Lord Kysen. I only saw him briefly, and by chance."
    "What was he doing?"
     "Once he was yelling at the chief scribe, once he was  yelling at a draftsman, and another time he was walking down the path to the landing at the river."
    "Hormin yelled a lot."
    Sedi nodded.
     "But you know nothing else of his business at the village?"
     "No, Lord Kysen. I am but a water carrier, son of a  humble cup bearer, but…"
     Kysen watched Sedi chew on his lip. "You won't suffer for your honesty."
     "I don't think anyone in the tomb-makers' village  liked Hormin."
    "How do you know?"
     "I'm not sure, lord." Sedi squinted and stared out into  the white heat of the afternoon. "I think it came to me because whenever I saw Hormin, I noticed that everyone else seemed anxious to find something to do elsewhere. He must have been an unpleasant man."
     Kysen smiled. "Someone found him unpleasant indeed.  You've done well, Sedi."
     Rising to his feet, Kysen motioned for Sedi to get up.  Over the youth's shoulder he saw the approach of his men. They'd finished their examination of the Place of Anubis. He glanced at Sedi, and found the water carrier watching him anxiously. Kysen knew what it meant to feel helpless in the face of happenings one didn't understand. Before his men came within hearing distance Kysen whispered to the youth, "If you remember something else, come to the house of my father in the Street of the Falcon near the palace. And listen, brother. Should you need help, or if you lose place because of this evil, come to me."
     This time Kysen didn't object when Sedi fell to his knees. When his men reached them, he had assumed the proper attitude of a lord receiving the obeisance of an inferior. Without looking at the water carrier on the ground beside him, Kysen walked out of the drying shed and stepped into his chariot.
     On the way back to the palace district he tried not to  think of the possibility that he would have to go to the tomb-makers' village. He hadn't been back there since his real father had dragged him from it ten years ago.  The village lay a short distance north and west of the offices of the