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begin.
    "It will be down soon," he told me, "and I will be ready. Even now, one may learn much."
    Thotmaktef had seated himself beside him and spread a scroll like this upon his knee, ready to write as his master directed.
    "A woman has gone into the village," I told them.
    "A village woman?" Qanju asked.
    Recalling the way her jewels had gleamed in the moonlight, I said, "No."
    "Not your woman--she would not leave you."
    "Myt-ser'eu?" I knew she was mine, but I wanted time to think. "She's asleep in the stern."
    "Not the captain's woman. We left her behind us, didn't we, Thotmaktef?"
    Thotmaktef nodded. "We did, Most Noble Qanju."
    "Another woman?"
    "Yes," I said.
    "You have forgotten her name."
    It was not a question, but I said, "No doubt I have."
    "Indeed." Qanju sat up, surprising me. "Tell me everything, Lucius."
    I did, speaking worse than I write and using too many words.
    "This is an important matter," Qanju said when I had finished. "Will you remember everything in the morning?"
    "Perhaps I will." Although I know I forget, I cannot be sure how soon I forget, or how much.
    "I did not intend to pain you. You appear sober enough to write. Are you?"
    "Certainly," I said.
    "Good. You speak our tongue badly, making it difficult to judge. Thotmaktef?"
    "Yes," Thotmaktef said.
    "You are to come with me, Lucius. There are two fine lamps in my tent. You are to write of this incident in your scroll before you forget it. Include every detail. When you have finished, you may return here, if you choose."
    I protested, saying that Muslak would be very angry when he learned that his ship had been left unprotected. This I knew to be true.
    "It will not be unprotected," Qanju explained. "Thotmaktef will take your place until you return. He is young, strong, and honest. I would trust him with my life."
    I offered to lend him my sword, but he declined with thanks.
    That is all, and now I will return to the ship and Myt-ser'eu.
    No, one thing more. When Qanju and I had traveledsome distance up the path from the river, I looked behind me to see whether Thotmaktef had uncovered Myt-ser'eu. He had not, but he was untying the rope with which I had fastened the cover over the hatch.

8

SHADE

    A BREEZE AND a lovely woman must be pleasant at all times--or so it seems to me. Sahuset, the wise man of Kemet, has been speaking with Myt-ser'eu and me beneath these fragrant trees. There is nothing my eyes can see here that is not beautiful, save my own feet. Sometimes Myt-ser'eu speaks. Sometimes she is silent. That is the best way for a woman.
    For anyone.
    At times we kiss and laugh. Work is good, I think. No doubt hard fighting is good sometimes as well. But there are times when the best thing is to sit as we do, in a place of beauty, watching the sails upon the blue waters of the Great River. Before Sahuset came, we washed in the canal.
    Myt-ser'eu says I speak her tongue well. I do not think so, yet she insists. I want to learn it, but know (because she tells me) that I forget each morning. Yet she insists that I speak much better than I did when we met.
    She chose me, she says, in the temple of Hathor in her city. She says also that it is already written in this scroll;thus I need not write it again. That temple is very far from here.
    The temple behind us is that of Sesostris, a different god. He was a king long ago, but has become a god of a thousand years. (The priest told us this.) He built a mountain of white stone here, very beautiful, and his priests have built the other things, the wall, the temple, and many other buildings--a little city, Myt-ser'eu says, and I agree. I would call them of no use; the people of this land do not, and the labor was theirs, not mine.
    MYT-SER'EU TELLS ME I must write of the counsel we gave Qanju this morning. She says it because she wishes to know what we said, I know, and will tease me until I have read all that I write to her. Very well.
    The sailors had complained to Muslak, and Muslak to Qanju, who