Sphinx's Queen (36 page)

We arrived at Thutmose’s apartments as the Aten’s bright disk was just beginning to descend from the highest point in the heavens. When Uni opened the great door and stared at Teti, my new maid retreated so closely behind me that I felt her breath on my back through the thin linen of my dress.

“I’m sorry if she is not working out for you, Lady Nefertiti,” Uni said pompously. “But we can’t undo the exchange.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” I said, making my voice twice as haughty as his. “I have come to visit with Prince Thutmose. I want to be certain that he is being well cared for and is resting comfortably. Teti has come as my attendant.”

“I can assure you, my master is receiving every attention.”

“And I can assure you, I will leave as soon as I’ve seen him for myself.”

“As you will, my lady.” Uni bowed and stepped to one side so that we could enter.

Prince Thutmose was not in his bedchamber. He had been moved, bed and all, to the doorway that looked out on the garden. Ta-Miu was snuggled against his side, butting her head under his hand to demand more and more petting. When Uni announced my presence, the prince jerked his head as if waking suddenly from a deep sleep.

“Nefertiti? Why are you here?”

“It’s good to see you, too, Thutmose,” I joked. Tilting my head to one side, I added: “You’re looking much better than last night.”

“They cleaned the mud and blood off me, if that’s what you mean, but you can see for yourself I was right about the broken bone.” He gestured at his right foot, splinted and bandaged with clean linen. There were other bandages wrapping the scrape higher up his leg. A strong smell of honey and acacia gum hung over everything. “I’m going to be trapped like this for a long time. So many long, empty days.” He sighed.

“There’s nothing you can do to fill them?”

He lifted his hands, helpless. “I loved to hunt, and to train for war, and to drive my chariot. Do you know a magician with a spell that will let me do such things from my bed?”

I thought about it. “Maybe not a magician,” I said.

I never did remember to ask for my jewelry back, not even after more than fifteen days had passed.

If a passing stranger somehow gained access to the prince’s apartments and saw us together, he would think we were childhood friends. I came to see Thutmose every morning and sat beside his bed until midafternoon. Uni told me that was when Aunt Tiye paid her visits, and I didn’t want her jumping to the wrong conclusion about Thutmose and me. It was bad enough that she was continuing to keep Amenophis close to her in order to keep us apart. If she found out I was getting any enjoyment out of Thutmose’s company, she might be mean enough to put an end to that, too. She wanted our marriage or nothing.

Thutmose and I almost did have nothing. At first he regarded my visits with suspicion. When he spoke, his words were often mocking or bitter. More than once, he asked me outright what I hoped to gain by coming to see him so often.

“I’m keeping an eye on you, waiting to catch you dancing around the room when you think no one’s looking,” I said dryly. “You’re only pretending to have a broken ankle because you won’t have to give that feast for Amenophis until it’s healed.”

“Ah, so my evil plan is discovered. A thousand curses on all clever girls!” he exclaimed, and for the first time, I heard him laugh with warmth and pure joy.

Things were much better between us after that. It became my pleasure to keep him amused with jokes, entertained with songs, enthralled with the same sort of stories I used to tell my little sister, Bit-Bit. Sometimes I had Uni bring us the game board for playing Senet. We tossed knucklebones to see how many spaces we could move our pawns around the course, and when he tired of that, we turned the board over for a match of Twenty Squares. We soon agreed that the winner would be whoever was farthest ahead at the moment when Ta-Miu pounced into the middle of the game and scattered the pieces.

One day, Thutmose refused my offer of a game. “I don’t feel well,” he said. “I’m too tired to play.”

I studied him closely. “You do look a little flushed. You might have a fever. I’ll get the doctor.”

“No, don’t. I just want to rest a bit. Why don’t you go out into the garden? I’ll have Uni bring you back when I’m ready to beat you at Dogs and Jackals.”

“Since when do you have a Dogs and Jackals board?”

“Since I remembered what an excellent player I am. Now go and prepare for your doom.”

I did as he asked, though I would have rather made sure that Pharaoh’s doctor came to check on him. To take my mind off my worries for Thutmose, I turned my thoughts elsewhere as I walked along the garden path. He did love the tales I told, so I began creating a new one, resting my sight on the tranquil ripples of the lotus pool as I waited for fresh ideas to come to me. A bird was singing in the willows, and I tried to seize that thread of song and weave it into my story. Was the bird a messenger from the gods? An enchanted princess? A wandering spirit that could not enter the afterlife until a curse was broken or an incomplete task was fulfilled? I decided that the bird was an ordinary girl, a farmer’s daughter who had done something to please the dwarf-god Bes. Bes offered to grant her one wish, and so she wished to be able to fly, but before her wish was granted, she did something to annoy the god and so … and so …

“And so what
did
she do to anger him?” I asked the sky. “It would have to be something awful. Bes is very kind and patient, especially with children. Would he get mad if she laughed at how short and ugly he is? Oh, I know! The evil one, Set,
disguised
himself as Bes, in order to play tricks on mortals, and—” I lowered my voice as I wrestled with the problems of my story.

“That’s not fair, Nefertiti. Now I can’t hear you, and you were getting to the best part.”

My heart beat faster at the sound of the voice coming from the green shade of the willows. The singing bird took flight as Amenophis emerged through the delicate, drooping branches, his arms held out to me. I rushed into their circle with a cry of pure happiness.

“So
this
is why you sent me into the garden, Thutmose?” I said, pointing at Amenophis as we came back into the prince’s room, arm in arm. “The next time you claim to have a fever, I’ll simply dump a jar of water on you.” I tried to sound severe and angry. I was a total failure.

The three of us gathered around the Dogs and Jackals board, but we talked more than we played. My spirit sang louder than any bird as I saw how well the brothers were getting along. It all felt so much like a happy dream that I was afraid to ask how such a thing had come to be, in case asking that question would break the spell and wake me.

Luckily, Thutmose didn’t want to wait for my question before telling me everything. He took mischievous delight in playing the storyteller for once: “You know Mother came to see me every day at first, and she brought
this
old papyrus stalk along.” He jerked his thumb at Amenophis. “But as soon as the doctor told her I was in no danger, she found other business to mind. Think of how surprised I was on the first day she didn’t come here, but he did!”

“I can’t say I got a warm welcome,” Amenophis added. He glanced at a place on the wall where the painted pattern was marred by a dark, irregular stain and some chipping. “I hope that wasn’t a special goblet you threw at my head.”

“It was made of glass.” Thutmose looked sulky, remembering how his temper had led him to destroy something so rare, precious, and costly. “I don’t know why you came back after that.”

“Come back? I
stayed
that first time!” Amenophis chuckled. “I was safe enough. As soon as you realized what you’d destroyed, I reckoned you’d think twice before hurling another treasure at me.”

I gave Thutmose a hard look. “You threw a glass goblet at him? What about our wager?”

He was visibly ashamed. “I forgot, for a moment.”

“Nefertiti, let’s not argue about pebbles and forget to look at the mountain,” Amenophis said. He sat beside his brother on the bed and put his arm around him.

Thutmose resumed his story, telling me how Amenophis came to see him loyally, day after day, sometimes bringing him small, special gifts, always sharing the news of the palace. Aunt Tiye was content. As long as Amenophis stayed away from me, she didn’t need to come up with more and more excuses to separate us. She never knew how much Amenophis welcomed this chance to be with his brother.

But Thutmose did, in time. The brotherly friendship I’d tried to force on him had come into being on its own.

When he finished his tale, Thutmose clapped his hands together with satisfaction and announced, “Now that you see where we are, Nefertiti, we can all plan our next step together.”

I glanced around the room uncertainly. “How much longer do you think we will be able to meet like this?” I asked. “Your mother’s agents are going to tell her that Amenophis and I have been under your roof together, and she won’t like it.”

The charming smile that had once attracted me to Thutmose was back. “My mother’s agents aren’t paid enough to tell her things that I pay them to conceal.”

I breathed a little easier. “All right. What’s this ‘next step’ we need to plan? The feast for Amenophis? Doesn’t that have to wait until your bones are healed?”

“That will be soon enough, but, no, we have bigger plans to set in motion. I want to see you and Amenophis married, Nefertiti. That will be something worth celebrating with the greatest banquet Thebes has ever seen.”

I squealed with joy so loudly that I embarrassed myself, and when I tried to throw myself into Thutmose’s arms to thank him, Amenophis had to grab me and hold me back.

“Watch out, Nefertiti, you’re going to land on his bad leg!”

I pulled back and gave him an insulted look. “I know enough not to touch his broken ankle.”

“Yes, but the scrape farther up his leg still hurts, too.”

“In that case”—I steered Amenophis out of my way and gently put my arms around my new friend and kissed his cheek—“Isis bless you, Thutmose. I pray for the day when Amenophis and I will see you standing at your father’s side as coruler of the Two Lands.”

I did more than pray. I wrote a letter to Pharaoh, filling it with just enough praise for his oldest son for him to notice but not so much that my words rang false. Whatever else she was, Aunt Tiye was crafty when it came to knowing how her royal husband’s mind worked. She saw my marriage to Thutmose as the only way to persuade Pharaoh that his son’s past offenses were forgiven and that he could reinstate Thutmose as his heir. I showed her that there can be more than one path to any goal.

The first news I received to let me know I’d succeeded did not come from Pharaoh or Thutmose or even Aunt Tiye, but from Sitamun. Teti came running after me as I headed out for my morning visit with Thutmose (and another sweet, secret afternoon with Amenophis).

“A messenger came to your rooms with this after you left, Lady Nefertiti,” she said, panting for breath as she handed me the small papyrus scroll. “She said it was
very
important.”

I unrolled the message and read it, then read it again, and a third time before I could believe it. “Teti, bring my sandals and my oldest dress to Princess Sitamun’s rooms,” I said as I rushed away down the hall.

Soon after that, I found myself holding on to the rail of a chariot driven by one of Sitamun’s menservants. I don’t know how much gold changed hands for her to provide me with that transport. I do know that the driver was unskilled and was distinctly relieved when I told him to give me directions to our destination while I took over the reins. We must have made a very odd picture, even if I hadn’t been the one driving. We were passing through the poorer sections of Thebes, and because I’d followed Sitamun’s suggestion that I dress as humbly as I could, I appeared to be of the same rank as the servant with me. But if my friend had hoped we wouldn’t attract notice, she’d forgotten that a royal chariot’s presence in such a neighborhood was the same as arriving crowned with gold.

On a street lined with run-down houses, my escort indicated the one we sought. I threw the reins to him and leaped down from the chariot while he struggled to control the horses. A crowd of curious onlookers gathered around the vehicle at once, but I never looked back or even bothered to announce my presence before barging through the badly hung wooden door. It swung back with a loud crash that instantly commanded the attention of the three people gathered in that one-room dwelling.

“Nefertiti!”
Nava was in my arms.

At first all we could do was laugh and cry and hug and laugh again while the tears poured from our eyes. I don’t know how long we would have carried on in that way if I hadn’t heard another voice say, “Let her breathe, little sister. I don’t think you were this happy when you saw me.”

“Oh, that’s not true, Mahala; you know that’s not true!” Nava sprang away from me to embrace her sister fiercely.

It was Mahala’s turn to laugh, with Henenu joining in. The scribe held up his hands as if he stood before the gods. “I am here to bear witness that Nava is right. When the priest of Ptah agreed to our offer and ordered Mahala to come greet her new ‘owners,’ this child threw herself on her so violently that I could just imagine that man telling himself, ‘I should have asked for double the price.’ ”

I faced Mahala and Nava, then deliberately knelt and pressed my forehead to the ground at their feet. “You saved my life, Mahala,” I said. “Not a day passes when I fail to thank you for that wonderful gift. May your god and mine bless you forever.”

“Lady Nefertiti, you mustn’t bow to me!” Mahala dropped to her knees and forced me to lift my head. “You cared for my sister, you made her free, and you redeemed me from slavery. The debt is mine.”

I held out one hand to her, one to Nava, and drew the sisters into my arms. “You’re alive and well. All debts are paid.”

We emerged from the hovel to see my escort fighting a losing battle against the street children who were determined to swarm all over the chariot and the horses. He looked both worried and relieved when I told him he was free to drive back to the palace at once.