Kameni, with his handsome, laughing face!
She loved him, didn't she?
That was why she was going to marry him.
In this evening hour up here, there were clarity and truth.
No confusion.
She was Renisenb, walking here above the world, serene and unafraid, herself at last.
Had she not once said to Hori that she must walk down this path alone at the hour of Nofret's death - that whether fear went with her or not, she must still go alone?
Well, she was doing it now.
This was just about the hour when she and Satipy had bent over Nofret's body.
And it was about this same hour when Satipy in her turn had walked down the path and had suddenly looked back - to see doom overtaking her.
At just about this same point too.
What was it that Satipy had heard to make her look suddenly behind her?
Footsteps?
Footsteps... but Renisenb heard footsteps now - following her down the path.
Her heart gave a sudden leap of fear.
It was true then!
Nofret was behind her, following her... Fear coursed through her, but her footsteps did not slacken.
Nor did they race ahead.
She must overcome fear, since there was, in her mind, no evil deed to regret...
She steadied herself, gathered her courage, and, still walking, turned her head.
Then she felt a great throb of relief.
It was Yahmose following her.
No spirit from the dead, but her own brother.
He must have been busied in the offering chamber of the Tomb and have come out of it just after she had passed.
She stopped with a happy little cry. "Oh, Yahmose, I'm so glad it's you."
He was coming up to her rapidly.
She was just beginning another sentence - a recital of her foolish fears - when the words froze on her lips.
This was not the Yahmose she knew - the gentle, kindly brother.
His eyes were very bright and he was passing his tongue quickly over dried lips.
His hands, held a little in front of his body, were slightly curved, the fingers looking like talons.
He was looking at her, and the look in his eyes was unmistakable. It was the look of a man who had killed and was about to kill again.
There was a gloating cruelty, an evil satisfaction in his face.
Yahmose - the hidden enemy was Yahmose!
Behind the mask of that gentle, kindly face - this!
She had thought that her brother loved her - but there was no love in that inhuman, gloating face.
Renisenb screamed - a faint, hopeless scream.
This, she knew, was death.
There was no strength in her to match Yahmose's strength.
Here, where Nofret had fallen, where the path was narrow, she too would fall to death...
"Yahmose!"
It was a last appeal - in that uttering of his name was the love she had always given to this eldest brother.
It pleaded in vain.
Yahmose laughed, a soft, inhuman, happy little laugh.
Then he rushed forward, those cruel hands with talons curving as though they longed to fasten round her throat...
Renisenb backed up against the cliff face, her hands outstretched in a vain attempt to ward him off.
This was terror - death.
And then she heard a sound, a faint, twanging, musical sound... Something came singing through the air.
Yahmose stopped, swayed, then with a loud cry he pitched forward on his face at her feet.
She stared down stupidly at the feather shaft of an arrow. Then she looked down over the edge - to where Hori stood, the bow still held to his shoulder...
II