The customs officer started to leave, but then turned back and hesitatingly asked Vidyunmali, ‘My Lord, you are one of our greatest warriors. Why isn’t our army deploying you at the battlefront?’

Vidyunmali shook his head with a wry grin. ‘I’m not a warrior now, officer. I’m a bodyguard. And also, as it now appears, a transporter of royal fashions.’

The customs officer smiled politely, and then hurried off the ship.

‘Why the delay?’ asked the Egyptian.

Vidyunmali had just entered the hold below the lowermost deck, deep in the ship’s belly. The only porthole, high in one corner, had been shut tight and it was unnaturally dark. As his eyes adjusted, he was able to see the countenance of about three hundred assassins sitting with cat-like stillness in a huddle.

‘Nothing important, Lord Swuth,’ said Vidyunmali to the Egyptian. ‘A stupid customs officer got it in his head to check the ship’s hold. It’s been taken care of. We’re sailing past Karachapa now. We will be in the heart of Meluha soon. There’s no turning back.’

Swuth nodded silently.

‘My Lord,’ said the captain, as he entered quietly with a shielded torch.

Vidyunmali took the torch from the captain, who was followed by two men carrying large jute bags. They left the bags next to Vidyunmali.

‘Wait outside,’ said Vidyunmali.

The captain and his men obeyed. Vidyunmali turned towards the Egyptian.

Swuth was the chief of the shadowy group of Egyptian assassins that Vidyunmali was escorting back to Devagiri. The sweaty heat of the closed ship hold had made Swuth and his assassins strip down to their loincloths. Vidyunmali could see the several battle scars that lined Swuth’s body in the dim light of the flaming torch. But it was the numerous tattoos on him that drew his attention. The Meluhan brigadier was familiar with one of them: a black fireball on the bridge of his nose, with rays streaming out in all directions. It was usually the last thing that his hapless victims saw before being butchered. The fireball represented the God that Swuth and his assassins believed in: Aten, the Sun God.

‘I thought that Ra was the Sun God for the Egyptians,’ said Vidyunmali.

Swuth shook his head. ‘Most people call him Ra. But they’re wrong. Aten is the correct name. And this symbol,’ said Swuth, pointing to the fireball on his nose, ‘is his mark.’

‘And the jackal tattoo on your arm?’ asked Vidyunmali.

‘It’s not a jackal. It’s an animal that looks like a jackal. We call it Sha. This is the mark of the God I am named after.’

Vidyunmali was about to move on to the other tattoos, but Swuth raised his hand.