The City of Refuge: Book 1 of The Memphis Cycle by Diana Wilder Page A

nodded to Khonsu. “Commander, you will accompany Master Mersu to the cliffs tomorrow morning at first light. Take as many armed men as you wish. Mersu will determine exactly why those cliffs fell today. General Seti will escort Master Nehesi to the quarries along with a heavily armed squadron. Nehesi will look the place over and give me his conclusions about the cause of the quarry's collapse tomorrow.”
    Nehesi swung a startled eye at Mersu, but he bowed. “Yes, Your Grace.”
    Nebamun turned to Perineb. “You will begin immediately to perform the ceremonies incidental to the operation of a temple. This supposed ghost flees at the sight of the god: very well, then, morning and evening we will worship Ptah here.”
    “Yes, Your Grace,” said Perineb. “It will be my pleasure.”
    Nebamun's eyes lost their glitter for a moment and he smiled at Perineb. “Yes. It probably will. And as for myself, I shall be hunting ghosts again tonight. I say it again: it is time they learned with whom they are dealing.”

 
    XIII
     
    “The landslide started with that big rock.” Mersu squinted down at the buildings below, half-hidden by the debris of the hillside. “It moved and took others with it.” He cocked an eye at Khonsu, “A half-assed landslide compared to what I could do, but enough to cause plenty of trouble.”
    Khonsu squirmed backward from the ledge of the natural step cut into the cliffs. Mersu, who possessed the agility of a monkey, had located a series of footholds and had scampered up to their perch with Khonsu behind him. Up there, the rocks formed a natural shelf wide enough for thirty men to stand. The dizzying view made Khonsu drop back to all fours and wondered how he would be able to get down again.
    “So you don't have any doubt, then, Master Sculptor?”
    “None at all, I'm familiar with that rock. We apprentices used to speculate on what we could carve out of it. We all carved our names on it as a sort of memorial to our times in His Majesty's city. I'll show you when we get down.”
    “Why did the cliffs collapse yesterday?”
    Mersu dusted his knees off. “Levers were used, if you ask me. Look: that boulder sat flush against this vertical crevice here before it went, You can see it forms a step here, with room for people to stand. The ledge below is fairly soft. See how it crumbled? In fact, it looks steeper than it was; I suspect it went, too, with that boulder. It wouldn't take much to get a lever between them, put weight on it, and start a landslide.”
    “But could it have been done yesterday?”
    “Maybe,” Mersu conceded. “More likely, someone saw the need for a ready-made catastrophe and set the landslide up a while ago.”
    “How so?”
    “They prepared the boulder, braced it so it wouldn't fall, easy enough if you know what you're doing. They pulled out the prop when they needed to. Get to your feet and come over here.”
    Khonsu followed the sculptor to a weathered portion of cliff.
    “Look: the rocks and debris have been here since Ptah spoke the first word, as our own fearless, ghost-hunting leader might say. Notice the color? Now watch.” He cupped his hand and swept it through the dust. “The older surface is weathered. Here, underneath, where the soil's formed of decayed limestone, it's lighter. Remember that. Now look around: do you see marks like the one I made?”
    Khonsu looked and then pointed. “There! Just as you say! It looks—” He broke off.
    “It looks like what?”
    “Like–like the sort of mark a stout beam might make when used for a lever.”
    “You give me hope,” said Mersu. “Now let's inspect Maru-Aten. I'll go down before you and give you directions. Thank the gods we didn't take the rest of your skittish fellows up with us!”
    **   **   **
    Weird carvings. That was how Djer had described them. Khonsu, gazing at the reliefs on a granite stela set within Maru-Aten, agreed with all his heart.
    The names seemed strange, the verbiage an odd