The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog - Elizabeth Peters [89]
“If he was, it was inadvertent, Abdullah. Cats cannot be trained to lead people into ambushes—or to do anything else they don’t want to do. Anubis has become very attached to Emerson; he stayed with him, on the foot of his bed, all the while he was ill. Now, Abdullah, have you warned the other men that Emerson is still in danger from the man who called himself Schlange, and told them of the subjects they must not mention?”
“Such as the subject that you are the wife of the Father of Curses?” Abdullah spoke with a sarcasm worthy of Emerson himself, and his prominent hawklike nose wrinkled critically. “I have told them, Sitt. They will obey, as they would obey any command you gave, though they do not understand your reasons. Nor do I. To me, this is a foolish way of bringing back a man’s memory.”
“For once we see eye to eye, Abdullah,” said Cyrus, joining us. “But I reckon we’ve got to go along. When the Sitt Hakim speaks, the whole world listens and obeys.”
“No man knows that better than I,” said Abdullah.
Emerson’s shout brought us gathering around. “Abdullah has set up camp for us,” he announced.
“And I have washed the donkeys,” said Abdullah.
Emerson stared at him. “Washed the donkeys? What for?”
“He was following my orders,” I said. “The little animals are always in wretched condition, covered with sores and inadequately tended. I do not allow… Well, that is beside the point. Will you now condescend to tell us where we are going and what you propose to do—and why we require a campsite when we have the dahabeeyah?”
Emerson turned the stare on me. “I have no intention of staying on that cursed boat. It is too far from the tombs.”
“Which tombs?” I asked, stepping heavily on Cyrus’s foot to still the objection he was about to make.
“All the tombs. The southern group is a good three miles from here and the northern group is even farther. There is another interesting area in a hollow behind that low hill near the center of the arc of the cliffs.”
“There are no tombs there,” I objected. “Unless the brickwork—”
Emerson gestured impatiently. “I will make my final decision tonight. My object today is to make a preliminary survey, and the sooner you stop arguing, the sooner we can get at it. Well? Any further objections?” He wheeled suddenly on René, who had edged closer.
There were no further objections.
Before the day was over, any doubts as to Emerson’s physical condition were removed. He declared we did not need the donkeys—a statement with which everyone disagreed but to which everyone except myself was too cowed to object. I knew perfectly well that he was testing us—me, especially—and so I did not object either. We must have walked almost twenty miles, counting the perpendicular distances we covered scrambling over piles of rocky scree and climbing up and down the cliffs.
The easiest way of describing this hegira is to envision the area as a semicircle, with the Nile forming the straight side. The cliffs of the high desert curve like a bow; at the extreme north and south ends they almost touch the riverbank. Haggi Qandil is somewhat south of the midpoint of the straight line, so we were a good three miles from the nearest section of the cliffs.
The path led through the village and the surrounding fields out onto the plain—an undulating, barren surface littered with pebbles and potsherds. The ruined foundations of Akhenaton’s holy city lay under the drifted sand. It had stretched the entire distance from the north end of the plain to the south. The portion we had excavated during the years we worked at Amarna lay farther to the south, but I felt sure the slow, inexorable hand of nature had reclaimed the site and buried all evidence of our labor as it had that of the ancient builders.
Emerson struck briskly out across the plain. Quickening my pace, I caught up to him. “I take it, Emerson, that we are going to the northern tombs?”
“No,” said Emerson.
I glanced at Cyrus, who shrugged and smiled and invited me, with a gesture, to walk with him. We allowed Emerson to forge