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The floor was beaten dirt. One brown reed mat covered most of it. The interior was pleasantly cool. Three spears were propped in one corner with a gazelle’s hide shield at their foot. Niches pocked the walls. In the centre stood a desk half buried in scrolls, and Amunhotep-Huy himself was rising from behind it, a startled expression on his face. ” he exclaimed. “I’m surprised to see you here! I knew that you’d been summoned but didn’t expect a visit from you. Get the Seer a stool,” he barked at the servant.

His bearers moved cautiously through the throng, none confident enough to demand a passage for him, but once past Peru-nefer itself the crowd thinned. The guarded arsenal loomed on Huy’s right, and once past it the bearers swung that way, pacing by its wall until suddenly the huge parade ground opened out in a dazzling expanse. Across it Huy could see a row of cells and behind them, he knew, there would be many more where the King’s military and naval officers lived while on duty. He heard the whinny of a horse coming faintly from his left and presumed that the stables lay beyond yet another line of similar structures.

He felt exposed and vulnerable without Anhur’s solid figure standing beside him to block out not only the sunlight but also any threat. He and the other bearers waited. Presently the man came back and pointed. ” Huy got off the cushions. “You two, come with me,” he ordered the guards. ” It was a matter of a few steps to arrive at the open door. As Huy and his men approached it, a servant rose and bowed. ” Huy asked. The man bowed again. “He is. I will announce you, Great Seer. ” He smiled. Vanishing for a moment, he quickly reappeared and ushered Huy inside.