The Assassins of Isis Read Online Free Page B

of the Temple of Isis. He undid the cord and handed it to the physician.
    â€˜Yes, it’s crushed poppy seed,’ the fellow replied. ‘Lady Lupherna, you did not know your husband was taking this?’
    She shook her head.
    â€˜He must have mixed it secretly,’ Heby murmured. ‘I knew he had visited the House of Life at the Temple of Isis, but …’
    â€˜Did he mix it with his wine tonight, I wonder?’ Nadif asked.
    â€˜I have a better question for you,’ Menna hissed. ‘Here we have General Suten, bravest of the brave, a man who hated snakes, who had this roof terrace searched this evening to make sure there were none, and who is suddenly found bitten at least fifteen times whilst his roof terrace is swarming with those vermin.’

    All of Nadif’s doubts and confusions disappeared. He realised why Menna, Heby and the Lady Lupherna had been acting so strangely when he’d first arrived.
    â€˜This was no accident,’ he whispered. ‘I remember the stories about General Suten’s fear of snakes. He was murdered, wasn’t he?’
    The physician wiped his hands on his robe. ‘Murdered!’ he exclaimed. ‘Is this the work of the red-haired god Seth? General Suten was a hero of Egypt. May Osiris have mercy on us all. If he was murdered, someone will burn for it.’
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    The Temple of Isis was a sprawling compound of storehouses, mansions, living quarters, gardens, orchards and pastures. It surrounded the temple proper, dedicated to the Mother Goddess who worked so hard to bring Osiris to life after he had been slain by his vindictive brother Seth. The Temple of Isis proclaimed itself an oasis of calm, a place of healing, with its Houses of Life and Learning, dedicated to the study of medicine and the care and strengthening of Pharoah’s subjects. Near the House of Life, the academy where the young men studied to be physicians, stood the House of Twilight, a place where those in mortal fear of their lives, attacked by some malignant disease, could receive specialist help and attention. They called it the House of Twilight because those who lived there hovered on the border between life and death, ready to make the journey into the Eternal West to rejoice in the everlasting fields of the green-skinned Osiris. Near the House of Twilight were the mansions and living quarters of the chief physicians and their helpers, men and women of great learning who gathered all the knowledge available on disease and its cure. Nevertheless, the priests of the Temple of Isis believed a dark shadow lay across their temple.
    No one was more concerned about this than High Priest Impuki, physician, priest and politician, who, during his
ten years of high office, had made the Temple of Isis even more famous. Now he sat in his small writing office next to the embalming rooms underneath the temple. It was a gloomy place even during daylight hours, as only a window high in the wall provided sunlight, but now, as darkness fell, the oil lamps and candles had to be lit. Impuki sat fanning himself and, as he often had during that evening, moaning bitterly about the heat. He prayed quietly that the hot season would soon pass, the Dog Star would appear and the Great Inundation would begin, when the rushing waters of the Nile would replenish themselves and refertilise the land. Until then the heat would be intense, the only relief being the cool of the evening and the fragrant breezes from the Nile.
    However, at this late hour, Impuki was not so concerned about the heat as about the failure of the man opposite, Mafdet, Captain of the Temple Guard, to discover the whereabouts of four young besets, temple girls, who had disappeared. Impuki glowered at the fellow. When this crisis was over, he promised himself, he would tell Mafdet to exercise more and eat less. He noted the soldier’s bulging belly, the fat glistening thighs, and the jowls appearing on either side of this