"He's a soldier, not a trader like me," Muslak explained. "He's from Sidon." He turned to me. "Lewqys, you said you didn't want one."
"I want a handsome husband," the young woman with the lute declared, "and I would like to visit Mennufer, and all the grand places along the river." She feigned to be speaking to Muslak, but watched me slyly from the corners of her kohl-rimmed eyes. All the perfumes of a garden filled my nostrils.
The priest shook his head, a little sadly as it seemed to me. "You must go back, Myt-ser'eu."
I was trying to grasp the meaning of her name when I caught sight of the clasp on her headband. It was the face of a cat.
"She wants to go because I'm going," Neht-nefret told Muslak. "We're friends. You can have two of us, if you like. I won't mind."
The priest nodded. "You may, for another such coin as the first."
"But not this one," I said. "I want this one for myself. Give this holy man another daric, Muslak."
Myt-ser'eu giggled.
Muslak did, saying he owed me far more than that.
3
IN THE SHADE OF THE SAILWE ARE WARM, although not unpleasantly so. Myt-ser'eu fans me with a palm-frond fan. It cools her as well, or so she says, and waves away insects. Here I write, as Muslak has explained I must. He says a healer gave me this scroll and my cake of ink. My pen is a frayed reed. I dip it in the river and find it difficult to write as small as I wish.
Myt-ser'eu laughs at my letters and offers to show how her people write. Neht-nefret says she writes better. She will show me, not Myt-ser'eu. I will not let either have my pen, although this scroll is so long. I will write on both sides. Who can say where I can find another?
Muslak has sold all the hides in our hold. It took most of the morning. As soon as the money had been paid, we put out. This river is the Pre. Myt-ser'eu says there are three big rivers through this land, and many smaller ones. The Pre is the largest. She shows three fingers. This River Pre is the first. They come together farther south to make the Great River. After that, there is but one. She and Neht-nefret do not name it. It is the river. Muslak calls it the Great River, and says that Hellenes say Neilos or Aegyptos.