Suzanne Robinson by Heart of the Falcon

and ink from the magician priest who gave her the amulet of the buckle that would protect her from harm. It was a charm of red glass shaped like a miniature buckle. She wore it suspended from a copper chain. In return for the amulet, Anqet had transmitted a love token to a dancer for the priest.
    Anqet twirled the reed pen in her hand. The problem was not to reveal her education. Gossip of a court singer named Anqet who was also learned might reach Hauron before she could gain the safety of Menana’s house. Anqet stuffed her writing materials into a bag, along with a vial of water.
    She decided to take a walk. She would keep her eyes open for a good hiding place. She had more free time now, for today the Great Royal Wife had suddenly gone to Abydos with most of the harem. Ostensibly the queen went to dedicate a new wing of the Osiris temple. Anqet was sure that Pharaoh could no longer abide his wife’s presence under his roof One of the queen’s women had commanded Anqet’s presence on the royal barge, but theorder was countermanded by Pharaoh’s steward. So here she was, stuck in the women’s quarters with a reduced contingent of singers, dancers, acrobats, and musicians who had nothing to do because Pharaoh was indisposed and the court’s activities in abeyance.
    It was dusk. Heat from the afternoon sun still baked the bricks of the living quarters. Anqet sauntered toward the east side of the compound where little-used storehouses hugged the outer guard wall. She passed artisans, laborers, and slaves headed for home and the evening meal. In the distance she could hear one of the king’s horse masters swearing at a stallion newly arrived from some desert kingdom.
    Anqet glanced up and down the path that led to the storehouses. Ahead lay a block of buildings in disrepair. A dumping ground for everything from broken harnesses to flawed stone from the sculptors’ workshop, the place was deserted. Holes had begun to appear in walls and in the exterior staircase at the end of the building. These stairs led to the roof and had three steps missing at the base.
    Anqet paused beside the stairs and inspected them under the guise of adjusting the strap of her sandal. No one was around. Who would look for her on the roof of a storehouse? Pleased with her cleverness, she hopped up the steps and onto the roof. There were holes in it, so she’d have to stay close to the edge. The walls of the building extended above the surface of the roof, so that she was hidden from anyone on the ground. Anqet sat down and leaned back against the wall. Taking out her supplies, she mixed ink while she thought of the best way to explain to Menana that she wanted to be his wife after all and that they had to hire a small army as soon as possible.
    Anqet swirled the tip of her pen in the ink and tried not to worry. Each day she was absent from home risked the souls of her parents. She was afraid Hauron would take vengeance upon her by destroying the eternally preserved bodies of Rahotep and Taia. It was the threat ofthis horror that gave her the courage to propose to the unexciting Menana.
    The Ming light was causing her eyestrain by the time Anqet was halfway through the third sentence of her letter. She packed up her utensils and was about to swing her leg over the wall when a man walked past the stairs. Anqet crouched behind her wall and raised her head barely above it. The man stopped to adjust his sandal, just as she had. The coincidence sparked her curiosity. To her dismay, the intruder went around the staircase and leaned against its back as though he intended to remain there for some time.
    She heard a crunch and peeped over the low wall. She could make out the man’s form only as a blacker mass in the darkness. He was popping bits of whiteness into his mouth. Coconut. The noise of his chewing was loud. Anqet groaned inwardly and sat down with her back to the wall. Why did this man have to choose her refuge as a place to snack?
    The time