CHAPTER 10

Homeward Bound

Kiya kicked and screamed, but Lady Satiah refused to change her mind. Everything was soon arranged. The nursemaid and guards, looking sick and wobbly, were ushered onto the barge. The Steward himself carried Kiya on board.

“Dedi!” she shouted from the railing. “Dedi, where are you?”

“We’ll find him,” I meowed to her from the landing, but seeing me only made her wail. I winced. Despite the dress-up nonsense, she was a good kid at heart, and I hated to see her so upset. I knew Pharaoh would be, too.

But then, Pharaoh would be even more upset about Dedi.

“Where is Miu?” I asked Khepri. Perched on my head, he had a better view of the scene.

“Here I am!” Miu bounded over to us, panting. “I found those sandal prints. They’re the right size, but there’s not much scent. And the prints are smudged, so it’s hard to tell if they’re from Dedi’s sandals or some other pair.”

“So we can’t say for sure if he left or not?” Khepri said uneasily.

“No, we can’t,” Miu said. “So who is going with Kiya, and who is staying here? We need to decide—and fast.”

“I’m staying here,” I said. “I’ll get a ride home with Pharaoh later.”

Miu gave me a stern look. “You aren’t just trying to avoid dress-up time with Kiya, are you?”

“Of course not,” I said indignantly. “Dedi could be here, and it’s my duty to find him. After all, he disappeared on my watch.”

“It’s my fault, too,” Khepri piped up between my ears. “I’ll help you search, Ra.”

“Well, we can’t let Kiya sail by herself,” Miu said. “So if you’re staying here, I’ll go with her. With luck, I’ll find Dedi safe at the other end.”

As she headed for the gangplank, Khepri jumped down and settled himself between my paws. “So where do we start, Ra?”

Wasn’t it obvious? “With breakfast, of course.”

Khepri clicked at me in reproof. “You’re supposed to be thinking about Dedi, not your appetite, Ra.”

“I am thinking about him,” I said. “But I think better on a full stomach. I bet they have leftovers from last night’s feast in the kitchen. I’ll get myself a quick snack and we’ll be on our way.”

With a sigh, Khepri hopped onto my head. “Well, if you’re going to have breakfast, I guess I will, too. Stop by the zoo, and I’ll get something to go.”

“Not if you’re getting a ride from me,” I said. “You can eat it right there. And wipe your feet afterward.”

“Okay, but we need to move fast,” Khepri said. “It sounds like Dedi probably disappeared just before dawn. And that was only two hours ago. The trail is still hot.”

“True,” I agreed. “Luckily, we already know where the trail leads.”

“We do?”

Khepri’s a bright beetle, but sometimes he misses what’s right under his antennae. “Sure we do,” I said. “It leads straight to Lady Satiah. Didn’t you hear what Kiya said? Lady Satiah kidnapped Dedi because she wants Ahmose to take his place.”

“But it wouldn’t work like that,” Khepri said. “It’s Pharaoh who decides who the crown prince will be. And if Lady Satiah kidnapped Dedi, Pharaoh would never choose Ahmose as his new heir. He probably wouldn’t anyway, because it would make the Great Wife angry. She’d want one of her younger sons to inherit the throne.”

Hmmmmm…I hadn’t thought about that.

“And what about that missing boat?” Khepri added. “I know Kiya says Dedi would never leave this place without her. And she’s probably right. But you remember what Dedi said when he was falling asleep, don’t you? How the only good thing about being here was that they had so many boats?”

Uh-oh. I didn’t remember Dedi saying that, but then, I’d had my paws over my ears. Not that I wanted to admit that to Khepri.

“So I worry that Dedi might have set out on a trip down the river, just for fun,” Khepri went on. “I know he’s good with boats, but these are the worst floods we’ve ever had. He could easily get washed up somewhere.” He gulped. “Or even washed overboard.”

Overboard was not a word I wanted to think about, so I was glad when Miu interrupted us. “Ra! Khepri!” She raced down the gangplank to the landing. “I have to talk to you.”

“Don’t miss your boat!” Khepri warned. “The sailors look like they’re ready to go.”

“Don’t worry,” Miu reassured him. “I’ve got a few minutes. They’re still bringing food on board. The cook says a crate of meat on board has spoiled and needs to be taken away.”

How spoiled? I wondered. If it was merely a touch, I wouldn’t mind nosing around. “Thanks for the tip,” I told Miu.

“That’s not the tip,” Miu said. “It’s the crocodiles. I heard them splashing around as Kiya looked over the railing. ‘Now there’s a delicious morsel,’ one of them said. ‘Just like the one who came out at dawn.’” I looked at her in horror. “They saw Dedi?”

“What if they ate him?” Khepri clacked in dismay.

It was starting to look like a possibility, and the thought was so terrible that I stopped feeling hungry. In fact, I stopped feeling pretty much anything.

“I hope I’m wrong.” Miu’s whiskers twitched anxiously. “But it didn’t sound good. I yelled down to the crocodiles to get their attention, but they only laughed and swam away. They’re still around, though. Well, one of them is, anyway. You can see him lying in the mud near the landing. He’s the one with the huge ridges on his tail and the snout that’s bigger than anyone else’s.”

I was starting to feel something now: anger. I gazed past the busy landing, where men were carrying crates on and off the royal barge, and scanned the riverbank. It took me a while, but I finally spotted Miu’s crocodile.

He was the biggest, meanest crocodile I’d ever seen. Even bigger and meaner than the one that had lunged at Khepri and me the night before.

“I have to get back to Kiya,” Miu said. “I led her to her cabin, but I don’t know how long she’ll stay there. It’s up to you two to get that crocodile to talk.”

“We’ll make him talk.” My fur bristled. “We’ll go on the attack.” I was so angry, I almost charged down to the riverbank then and there.

But then the crocodile opened his mouth wide. Even from this distance, I could see his many, many teeth—and I felt something else: a cold trickle of fear.

I sat down hard. “Er…maybe I’ll have breakfast first.”

“Oh, Ra.” Miu turned a disappointed gaze on me. “Does food always have to come first? I thought you were a Great Detective.”

“Great Detectives need Great Snacks,” I told her.

“Maybe you should be the one to go with Kiya,” she said.

“No, you should,” I said.

“No, you.”

“But—”

“Hey, the barge is leaving!” Khepri broke in.

Miu careened down to the edge of the landing. I raced down with her, but it was too late. The barge was headed down the Nile, with Kiya on board—and without a single Great Detective to guard her.