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What suspicions does Ranofer have about Gebu’s wineskins?

What does Hequet have that Ranofer wants?

Describe Gebu’s split personality.

Who does Ranofer meet at the river?

Who is Ibni and what role does he play in the mystery?

With what does Gebu threaten Ranofer if he fails to bring the wineskin?

What plans do Ranofer and Hequet make about the wineskin?

1. How many days does Heqet wait before telling Rekh about Ibni’s wineskin?

2. What advice does the Ancient give Ranofer regarding the execution?

3. Why is the morning after the execution an especially good one for Ranofer?

4. What devastating news does Gebu give Ranofer on page 84?

5. Who is Nebre?

6. What are Ranofer’s workdays like? How is his life at home?

7. What does Ranofer realize one night as he hears the leather hinge on Gebu’s door squeak? Predict.

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What happens to the Nile River every spring?

Do Heqet and Ranofer trust the Ancient?

How does the Ancient shed a new light on stonecutting? Does Ranofer change his mind about it?

How does Ranofer’s daydream contrast with what really happens at Zau’s?

Will Ranofer find a way to reshape his life? Predict.

How is Ranofer feeling the morning after the meeting with Zau?

What does Ranofer think about Gebu’s remark, “…him and his paltry wineskins! There are far bigger birds in the air than Rekh the goldsmith”?

What do the three friends plan to do when Ranofer tells them his suspicions about Gebu?

9. How does the spying game become less dull on the night Gebu goes to Wenamon’s house?

10. Why does Ranofer finally decide to follow Gebu at night?

11. How does Ranofer’s hunger-caused by Gebu lead Ranofer to make a very important discovery?

12. What will happen when Gebu see the broken seal on the door? Predict.

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Ranofer is doing some things he would not have done a few months ago. What are they, and what does his behavior indicate?

How does Gebu’s behavior work against him and for Ranofer?

Why is the discovery of the goblet “the most important thing that ever happened”?

Why didn’t Ranofer take the goblet to Zau as he had planned?

Why does Ranofer keep the discovery of the goblet a secret from Heqet and the Ancient?

To what day do the three friends look forward?

7. Why does Heqet tell Ranofer he seems more like he was when the two first met?

8. What information about Gebu does Heqet tell Ranofer?

9. What information does the Ancient give Ranofer to help him decide to follow Gebu and Wenamon to the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings?

10.What does Ranofer realize in “a flash of understanding” (p. 204)?

11.What clues do the Ancient and Heqet put together?

12. What is the ushtabi? What has happened to it?

13. How does the tomb itself surprise Ranofer and how does he react to it?

14. Who are the two people buried in this tomb?

15. How do you suppose Ranofer felt as he saw his friend Heqet running toward him across the sand?

16. Why is Ranofer so worried about where to go for help? What else worries him as he hurries back to town?

17. Ranofer “himself felt a different person from the boy who had started out this morning”. In what way is he different?

18. What is it that gives Ranofer the nerve to go to the palace?

19. How do the people who catch Ranofer inside the palace perceive him?

20. Who takes pity on Ranofer and decides to listen to his story? How is his name ironic?

21. How does the queen “test” Ranofer to make sure he is not lying?

22. Where is the golden goblet found and who finds it?

23. Queen Tiy gives Ranofer a reward he could not buy anywhere. What is that?

24. How are Heqet and the Ancient rewarded?