Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [63]
Vivant sat down next to the stretcher. ‘I have seen to it that a payment has been made to the murdered handlers’ families. Bonaparte will not miss a few hundred francs.’
‘I should have gone alone. It’s not fair to put anyone else into danger. None of this is fair! How are we going to find the Graffito?’
Vivant helped her to sit up. Her shoulder was sore, but she was obviously going to live. ‘There’s some medicine in my bag,’ she said, ‘it’ll help prevent septicaemia.’
‘The surgeon says there’s no sign of poisoning of the blood,’ said Vivant, but he picked up the travel bag anyway.
Benny opened the zipper, clutching the bag to her chest so that the artist couldn’t see inside. He watched as she pulled out some strange pills and 120
swallowed two of them. ‘Do you know, Mlle Summerfield,’ he murmured, ‘you are a very mysterious woman. I would like to know more of your secrets.’
Benny looked at him over the top of her travel bag, hesitating. Their eyes met for a long moment.
‘Now, if I told you them, they wouldn’t be secrets any more, would they?’
she said softly, and tugged the zipper shut.
‘You could at least have the common courtesy to be afraid.’
Ace’s face was lit from beneath by a brazier. The warm light barely reached the walls of the cave, casting deep red shadows that faded into blackness. She sat cross-legged, her khopesh balanced across her lap.
Pharaoh raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing. His hands were tied in front of him, and he sat awkwardly with his back against the wall. He looked just like the sculpture she had vandalized, long face, full lips. His eyes glinted with a very nasty sense of humour.
She’d trussed him like a chicken and chucked him into a chariot and sped off even as the alarm was being raised. The Setites contributed to the chaos by milling about shouting nonsense, tripping people up and asking stupid questions. The palace had sounded like a receding circus as her horse pelted across the desert, following a trail of torches. Each time she passed one she shot an arrow into it, knocking it from its stand and extinguishing it.
The horse had taken a tumble a klick from the cave, breaking its leg in a deep hole. She and Akhenaten had been thrown from the chariot, rolling over the stones. She’d put an arrow through the horses’ head, untied the bruised Pharaoh’s feet and dragged him to the cave.
The cut in her thigh wasn’t too bad. In fact, given her opponents, she had done exceptionally well.
She ought to be proud of herself.
‘I understand,’ said Pharaoh.
Ace had been staring into the brazier. She looked up at Akhenaten. ‘What?’
‘You want to make your name part of history. To be written down in the records as the one who killed Pharaoh.’
Ace shook her head. ‘You don’t look dead.’
‘Don’t be obtuse. Your allies aren’t going to keep me alive any longer than they have to; as the legitimate ruler, I’m too much of a threat to them.’
‘They plan to exile you. Establish a new Dynasty.’
‘Of course.’ He was smirking! ‘That’s what it’s all about. History. Nothing ever changes here. Egypt has no history – just a list of kings, a scribbled record of wars. I’m not going to be just another name on that list. And neither are you.’ His lips curved into a half-smile. ‘Who’s paying you?’
‘It –’
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‘No, let me guess. The army promised you a position if you’d kill me.’
‘This isn’t a game.’
‘Then perhaps the Amunites offered you what’s left of their fortunes to dispose of me. A foreign, female assassin. Very ostentatious, I like it.’
Her face twisted. ‘You’re a tyrant. I wreck tyrants. You won’t let anyone worship the way they want to.’
‘Pharaoh is always a tyrant. Because it’s Pharaoh’s task to keep Egypt in order. Do you really think we could do without that order, without measure-ments and records and laws?’
‘Maybe you overestimate their importance, mate.’
‘There are three hundred and sixty-five offering tables outside the palace I built for my Father. One for every day of the year, heavy with food and drink.
That bounty is the direct result of my rule.