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III
‘Renisenb!’
Hori had repeated her name twice before she heard him and turned
from her contemplation of the Nile.
‘You were lost in thought, Renisenb, what were you thinking about?’
Renisenb said with defiance:
‘I was thinking of Khay.’
Hori looked at her for a minute or two–then he smiled:
‘I see,’ he said.
Renisenb had an uncomfortable feeling that he did see!
She said with a sudden rush:
‘What happens when you are dead? Does anyone really know? All these
texts–all these things that are written on coffins–some of them are so ob-
scure they seem to mean nothing at all. We know that Osiris was killed
and that his body was joined together again, and that he wears the white
crown, and because of him we need not die–but sometimes, Hori, none of
it seems real–and it is all so confused…’
Hori nodded gently.
‘But what really happens after you are dead– that is what I want to
know?’
‘I cannot tell you, Renisenb. You should ask a priest these questions.’
‘He would just give me the usual answers. I want to know.’
Hori said gently, ‘We shall none of us know until we are dead
ourselves…’
Renisenb shivered.
‘Don’t–don’t say that!’
‘Something has upset you, Renisenb?’
‘It was Esa.’ She paused and then said, ‘Tell me, Hori, did–did Kameni
and Nofret know each other well before–they came here?’
Hori stood quite still for a moment, then as he walked by Renisenb’s
side, back towards the house, he said, ‘I see. So that is how it is…’
‘What do you mean–“that is how it is”? I only asked you a question.’
‘To which I do not know the answer. Nofret and Kameni knew each
other in the North–how well, I do not know.’
He added gently: ‘Does it matter?’
‘No, of course not,’ said Renisenb. ‘It is of no importance at all.’
‘Nofret is dead.’
‘Dead and embalmed and sealed up in her tomb! And that is that!’
Hori continued calmly:
‘And Kameni–does not seem to grieve…’
‘No,’ said Renisenb, struck by this aspect of the question.
‘That is true.’ She turned to him impulsively. ‘Oh Hori, how–how com-
forting a person you are!’
He smiled.
‘I mended little Renisenb’s lion for her. Now–she has other toys.’
Renisenb skirted the house as they came to it.
‘I don’t want to go in yet. I feel I hate them all. Oh, not really, you under-
stand. But just because I am cross–and impatient and everyone is so odd.
Can we not go up to your Tomb? It is so nice up there–one is–oh, above
everything.’
‘That is clever of you, Renisenb. That is what I feel. The house and the
cultivation and the farming lands–all that is below one, insignificant. One
looks beyond all that– to the River– and beyond again– to the whole of
Egypt. For very soon now Egypt will be one again–strong and great as she
was in the past.’
Renisenb murmured vaguely:
‘Oh–does it matter?’
Hori smiled.
‘Not to little Renisenb. Only her own lion matters to Renisenb.’
‘You are laughing at me, Hori. So it does matter to you?’
Hori murmured: ‘Why should it? Yes, why should it? I am only a ka-
priest’s man of business. Why should I care if Egypt is great or small?’
‘Look.’ Renisenb drew his attention to the cliff above them. ‘Yahmose
and Satipy have been up to the Tomb. They are coming down now.’
‘Yes,’ said Hori. ‘There were some things to be cleared away, some rolls
of linen that the embalmers did not use. Yahmose said he would get Satipy
to come up and advise him what to do about them.’
The two of them stood there looking at the two descending the path
above.
It came to Renisenb suddenly that they were just approaching the spot
from which Nofret must have fallen.
Satipy was ahead. Yahmose a little way behind her.
Suddenly Satipy turned her head to speak to Yahmose. Perhaps, Renis-
enb thought, she was saying to him that this must be the place where the
accident occurred.
And then, suddenly, Satipy stiffened in her tracks. She stood as though
frozen, staring back along the path. Her arms went up as though at some
dreadful sight or as though to ward off a blow. She cried out something,
stumbled, swayed, and then, as Yahmose sprang towards her, she
screamed, a scream of terror, and plunged forward off the edge, headlong
to the rocks below…
Renisenb, her hand to her throat, watched the fall unbelievingly.
Satipy lay, a crumpled mass, just where the body of Nofret had lain.
Rousing herself, Renisenb ran forward to her. Yahmose was calling and
running down the path.
Renisenb reached the body of her sister-in-law and bent over it. Satipy’s
eyes were open, the eyelids fluttering. Her lips were moving, trying to
speak. Renisenb bent closer over her. She was appalled by the glazed ter-
ror in Satipy’s eyes.
Then the dying woman’s voice came. It was just a hoarse croak.
‘Nofret…’
Satipy’s head fell back. Her jaw dropped.
Hori had turned to meet Yahmose. The two men came up together.
Renisenb turned to her brother.
‘What did she call out, up there, before she fell?’
Yahmose’s breath was coming in short jerks–he could hardly speak…
‘She looked past me–over my shoulder–as though she saw someone com-
ing along the path–but there was no one–there was no one there.’
Hori assented:
‘There was no one…’
Yahmose’s voice dropped to a low, terrified whisper:
‘And then she called out–’
‘What did she say?’ Renisenb demanded, impatiently.
‘She said–she said…’ His voice trembled…‘Nofret…’
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