Free Andre Norton - Shadow Hawk by Shadow Hawk Page A

are, Royal Son. All veterans in that service."
    "We have heard of the Scouts." That was a quiet, almost colorless statement, but it warmed Rahotep. His men were accepted with the recognition they should and did merit.
    "You will remain unattached until Pharaoh commands
    you—"
    Rahotep could not allow his instant disappointment to show. So they were not yet accepted into the army after all. It would depend upon Pharaoh's decision. And his thoughts went on to practical matters—where could they find quarters in the city when they had no official standing? Or should they remain on the ship? But he continued to stand at attention with his men while the prince spoke to Nereb, then moved on to inspect the regiments now disembarking from the ships of the southern nomes.
    Rahotep dismissed his men before he spoke to Methen. "So we are not after all in the service of Pharaoh," he broke out hotly. "These northerners perhaps class us with the barbarian Kush—"
    "Hold your tongue!" Methen bade him as sharply as he had a decade earlier when he had been putting a boy hardly out of the Women's Hall through his training. "Our Lord uses his tools handily. You have not been passed over—to the contrary, you will appear before Pharaoh personally—a great honor. That was Prince Kamose, the Royal Heir, and the commander of the right wing of the army. And has he not said that you shall rest under the orders of Pharaoh? Walk carefully, Rahotep. There were dangers in plenty in Semna— there may be more waiting in Thebes for the unwary."
    "Prince Kamose knows men when he sets his eyes upon them, Lord," Kheti agreed. "He is no fortress soldier, but one who runs with his men in the wastes. There shall be work for bows, spears, and axes, for those who march at his heels." His head up, he sniffed at the mixed smells from the shore. "All towns are alike, save that some are bigger or older than others.
    I shall keep a close eye upon these archers, Lord, lest they plan to go exploring for the reason of tasting strange beer or some such foolishness. Do we remain on this ship?"
    The problem of their immediate quarters was solved when Nereb returned to the ship with the information that they were to be guests in his father's house until Pharaoh signified their future. So, with slave porters bearing their limited baggage, they marched through the crowded ways about the dockside of Thebes out into the wider avenues and so at length to the walled city homes of the nobles.
    Though he was used to the simplicity of the frontier forts, Rahotep had been reared in the luxury of the Viceroy's palace in Nubia. And from the tales of his mother's servants, from the nostalgic reminiscenses of Hentre and Methen, he had built up a picture of the old northern capital that had led him to believe that Semna itself was as a Kush village when compared to Thebes. But reality erred from that picture. There was the setting of wealth, of fine and easy living, but it was only a setting. The jewels it had been fashioned to dis play were gone. Thebes was shabby, old, a beggarman of cities, shadow capital of a ravished land. And Rahotep, seeing the holes in the time-worn fabric, was as disconcerted as he had been at Prince Kamose's reception of his archers. The wealth of Egypt had been sucked north to the treasure houses of the invaders. There were only remnants left for her own people.
    Just as Thebes was a shadow capital, so was Nereb's father a shadow officer of its rule. Sa-Nekluft, Treasurer of the North, Fanbearer on the right hand of Pharaoh, occupied an office without power or duties—for northern Egypt was enemy held and there was no tribute to be reckoned in its treasury, no business to transact in its judgment hall. Yet the very fact that Sa-Nekluft had his skeleton organization argued that time might work on their side once more and the Red House of the north rise beside the White of the south.
    The porter admitted them to the outer court with a salute to Nereb, and