Free The Assassins of Isis by P. C. Doherty

case.’
    Amerotke finished the usual ritual and the court settled
down to deal with the business of the afternoon. The day’s heat had now lessened. The shadows in the gardens outside had grown longer, creeping across the grass, whilst a cool breeze wafted in the perfumed fragrance of the flowers. The sacred bar was in place, dividing the place of judgement from the rest of the court. Amerotke, face oiled, adorned with all the regalia of the Supreme Judge, sat more easily in the Chair of Judgement, grasping the flail and the rod. He tried to lessen the tension caused by others hurrying to their places by staring to the left through the great window which opened up on the pastures of Ma’at, where the flocks of the Goddess, her trained gazelles and dappled deer, grazed on the lawns. To the right of the window squatted the line of clerks, Prenhoe amongst them, heads bowed, pens at the ready over scrubbed sheets of vellum. These scribes would take down what was said. Amerotke’s Chief of Cabinet, his collector of words, would write up the official report, copying it for the Divine House and for the office of the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh.
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    Lord Valu, he of the fat face and the bland smile, had apparently enjoyed a good lunch. He knelt on his cushion behind the bar, tapping his fingers on his stomach; now and again he would pick up a small bottle of perfume to savour its sweetness. In a semicircle behind him squatted his retainers, the carrier of his sandals, the holder of his wig and the guardian of his portable toilet, for the lord Valu’s insides were sensitive in the extreme. Nevertheless Valu, despite his indulgent ways, was a mongoose in human flesh. Keen of mind, with a dagger-like wit, he was apparently very satisfied with the convictions he had won that morning and more than pleased with the secret arrangements he had made with the Chief Judge regarding two of the prisoners not sentenced to death. He now smiled conspiratorially at Amerotke. The judge hid his unease. The tenor of the day was growing more complex, and once this
session was finished, he still had business in the House of Chains below.
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    Amerotke accepted that the matters before him were very serious. To his right, further along the bar, squatted the three leading members of General Suten’s household, his lady wife Lupherna, Chief Scribe Menna and the dead general’s valet Heby.
    â€˜My lord Valu, we are ready?’
    â€˜I call on General Omendap.’
    Amerotke moved slightly. He now realised which path Valu was going to pursue. General Omendap was the Divine One’s favourite commander. He had played a vital role in Hatusu’s seizure of power four years earlier. Suten had been Omendap’s lieutenant, so an attack on Suten was an attack on the power of Pharaoh.
    General Omendap, in his pleated robe, a pectoral of dazzling blue lapis lazuli glittering on his chest, was called to kneel on the witness cushion to Valu’s right. A tall, elegant patrician, sharp-faced, with close-set eyes, he bowed towards Amerotke and grasped the gold-cased Feather of Truth brought across by Prenhoe as he took the solemn oath and declared his identity.
    â€˜You’re most welcome,’ Amerotke declared. ‘Yet General Omendap, why are you here?’
    â€˜I knew General Suten,’ Omendap’s voice was low but carrying, ‘when he was a colonel in the Swallows, one of the swiftest and bravest chariot squadrons of Egypt. He was honoured by the Querret.’ Omendap used the old Egyptian word for the Royal Circle. ‘He won collars of valour and the silver bees of bravery—’
    â€˜Yes, yes,’ Amerotke broke in tactfully. ‘But why are you here?’
    â€˜Nine years ago,’ Omendap took no offence at the interruption, ‘Colonel Suten, as he was then, took a force of chariots out into the eastern Red Lands. He was pursuing a band
of Libyan marauders who were attacking