Smith, Wilbur A. Egyptian series

Since becoming Nomarc, Piay has thrown himself into pulling the city of Memphis back from the brink. The once starving inhabitants have been fed, a new school for Royal Princes and the sons of aristocrats has been established, and Piay has been recovering the many riches looted by the Hyksos. But when the heavily-guarded vault is found locked with the body of a murdered scribe inside--the mark of Anubis, god of death scrawled in his own blood--panic sweeps the city. Only the wisest man in all Egypt can solve this mystery: Piay's mentor, the great Mage Taita