“Pylon tower,” grumbled Abi.  “Have I not climbed enough steps this night?  Still, lead on.”

So they went to the narrow stair, up which the thin Kaku ran like a cat, while the officers pushed and led the huge Abi behind him.  On the third landing they all halted at Abi’s command.

“Hurry not,” he said in a thick whisper.  “Her Majesty dwells on the next floor of this hateful tower, and since Asti is with her she cannot be surprised.  Beware, then, of frightening her by your sudden appearance, lest she should run to the top of the pylon, and hurl herself into the Nile, as she has sworn that she will do.  Halt now, and I will call to her when I have got my breath.”

So after a while he called, saying: 

“O Queen, cease to starve yourself in this miserable abode, and come down to dwell in plenty with your faithful subject.”

He called it once, and twice, and thrice, but there was no answer.  Now Abi grew afraid.

“She must have perished,” he said, “and Egypt will demand her blood at my hands.  Kaku, go up and see what has happened.  You are a magician, and have nothing to fear.”

But the astrologer thought otherwise, and hesitated, till Abi in a rage lifted his cedar wand to strike him on the back.  Then he went, step by step, slowly, pausing at each step to address prayers and praises to her Majesty of Egypt.  At length he came to the door of the Queen’s chamber, and kneeling down, peeped into it, to see that it was quite empty.  Next he crawled across the landing to the chamber opposite, that which had been Asti’s, and found it empty also.  Then, made bold by fear, he ascended to the pylon roof.  But here, too, there was no one to be seen.  So he returned, and told Abi, who shouted: 

“By Ptah, great Lord of Memphis! either she has escaped to raise Egypt on me, or she has sought death in the Nile to raise the gods upon me, which is worse.  So much for your interpretation of dreams, O Cheat.”

“Wait till you are sure before you call me such names, Prince,” replied Kaku indignantly.  “Let us search the temple, she may be elsewhere.”

So they searched it court by court, and chamber by chamber, till they came to that inner hall in front of the Sanctuary where Pharaoh had set up his throne while he sojourned at Memphis.  This hall was a dark place, into which light flowed only through the gratings in the clerestory, being roofed in with blocks of granite laid upon its lotus-shaped columns.  Now, at the hour of sunrise, the gloom in it was still deep, so deep that the searchers felt their way from pillar to pillar, seeing nothing.  Presently, however, a ray of light from the rising sun sped through the opening shaped like the eye of Osiris in the eastern wall, and as it had done for thousands of years, struck upon the shrine of the goddess, and the throne that was set in front of it, revealing the throne, and seated thereon Neter-Tua, her Majesty of Egypt.