“Sealed with the seal of the Envoy of your Majesty,
Rasa the Scribe.”
When Khian had copied this letter and done it up into a roll, wondering much what Apepi his father would say and do when he read it and that by which it was accompanied, he ate of the food that was brought to him and afterwards went to the door of his chamber and clapped his hands, as he had been directed to do. Instantly from the recesses of the dark passage appeared Ru accompanied by a white-robed man whom Khian knew for one of the councillors. To this councillor he gave the roll that he had written to be despatched together with the answer of the Council to King Apepi at Tanis. When he was gone Ru led Khian through the great hall where Nefra had been crowned and thence, meeting no one, by a secret doorway to the desert beyond.
“Where have all those gone whom we saw last night?” asked Khian.
“Where do the bats go, Lord, when the sun arises? They vanish away and are no more seen, yet they are not dead but only hidden. So it is with the Company of the Dawn. Search for them among the fishermen of the Nile; search for them among the Bedouins of the desert; search for them in the Courts of foreign kings; search where you will, yet be sure that neither you nor all the spies of the Shepherd king will find one of them.”
“Truly this is a land of ghosts,” said Khian. “Almost could I believe that those veiled ones were not men but spirits.”
“Perhaps,” answered Ru enigmatically; “and now, where would it please you to wander?”
“To the pyramids,” said Khian.
So to the pyramids they went, walking round all of them, while Khian marvelled at their greatness.
“Is it possible that these stone mountains can be climbed?” he asked presently.