The King's Man (25 page)

“I am here as my daughter’s chaperone until she moves into the Chief Wife’s apartments,” she continued. “I was raised in the harem, Seer Huy, before I was given in marriage to Yuya as a special favour. The greatest danger to her there is the fever that seems to run rife as the Inundation rises. If necessary I will want to move her, either to the harem by the lake in the desert at Mi-wer or to your estate outside Hut-herib.” She sipped again, placed her cup carefully back on the table, and inclined her head slightly in Huy’s direction. “Her Majesty the Regent has already told me that Tiye’s care is completely in your hands. I am pleased. The King has benefited greatly from his annual stay in your house and I anticipate nothing less for Tiye. My only request is that she is never allowed to be alone with any man other than the King.”

Tiye herself had said nothing while this conversation was proceeding. She had been feeding grapes to the monkey one at a time while it perched on her shoulder. “And you, Great Seer,” she put in now, “I want the freedom to be alone with you whenever I want. The King doesn’t particularly like me, so you must tell me everything about him. Stop it, Prince Rascal!” The beast was patting her cheek and chittering in her ear.

Huy crooked a finger at Paroi. “Take this animal into the passage and give it to Perti to watch.” The under steward reluctantly wound its leash around his wrist and lifted it with both hands, holding it as far away as possible as he approached the door. “Now perhaps we may talk without distraction,” Huy went on. “Lady Tiye, I am available to you whenever you wish to see me, but I beg you to leave Nib-Nib and Prince Rascal in your quarters!” Looking into her face, he wondered if she had brought the monkey along to annoy him or her mother. “I shall come to the harem tomorrow to learn the routines of your days and I shall attend your lessons with you. I warn you that if I see a need for changes, I shall make them and you will accept them quietly.” Thuyu nodded.

Tiye’s eyebrows rose and her mouth twisted. “I’ll learn far more about being a Queen if you let me attend
your
routines. I should be with the King at his daily audience and with you as you move from minister to minister.”

Huy paused before replying. Her comment had surprised him. His encounters with her so far had been between an annoyingly persistent, even rude young noble and his exasperated self. “You should certainly begin to spend time with His Majesty, but that will be at his choosing, not yours or mine,” he told her. “If your mornings are spent outside the classroom, you will have to study in the afternoons instead.”

She shrugged. “I shan’t mind. May I learn to use a bow and arrows? It would be good exercise for me. I need to swim also.”

Thuyu made a tiny sound of distress but otherwise remained silent.
There is going to be a battle of wills between her and me
, Huy thought, not without humour.
I wonder if Amunhotep is going to be strong enough to stand up to her when necessary. What if his dislike for her becomes hostility and her light dismissal of him turns into indifference?

Thuyu delicately cleared her throat. “When you have caught up with your general studies, you will be giving your attention to learning the correct deportment for a Queen. Not only must you gain the King’s respect, but the members of the court and the foreign delegations must recognize in you the invisible aura that surrounds a goddess. You can’t elude your father’s guards and run around the palace gardens with Prince Rascal and Nib-Nib anymore. Your father is now the King’s Master of the Horse, Lieutenant Commander of the Chariotry, and Chief Instructor of the King in Martial Arts, as your grandfather Yey was. He will not allow you anywhere near the training ground. You silly girl! You hold the highest rank of any woman in Egypt. Even I must bow to you. Do not squander this authority in foolish displays of self-will.”

Huy expected an outburst from Tiye, but it did not come. After a moment she took her mother’s hand. “I know that you’re right. At night on my couch I think about what it means to be a Queen and I seem to be in the middle of a wonderful dream. But then I remember that I can’t go hunting for spent arrows in the bushes behind the barracks with Ay anymore, or play in the dirt beside the river with Anen and Ramose.” She pursed her lips and met Huy’s eye. “I am used to the freedom of life in a rich and aristocratic household, Seer Huy. It seems to me that the life of a Queen is not free at all, and I am a little afraid.”

“I’ll arrange for you to visit the Regent privately, in her apartments,” Huy promised. “Remember the vision, Tiye. Atum intends the Queen’s crown for you. There is no need for fear.” At once his mind filled with images: Tiye and an unknown King, a misshapen figure standing beside her in the blazing heat of an unroofed inner temple, her face harsh, her expression closed. But as the conversation became general and Huy’s guests got up to leave, that picture faded and another took its place. He had told Tiye that she had nothing to fear, but he wondered whether she and her parents had considered a threat from the thwarted Iaret. And what of Neferatiri, the late King’s Chief Wife? She had made no overtures to Prince Amunhotep; Mutemwia’s concern in that matter had been almost entirely allayed. The King himself had not cared much for her and never mentioned her in Huy’s presence, but might she not be brooding over the latest turn of events with her attention turned to a marital alliance with Amunhotep? A sexual relationship between the two was unlikely but not impossible. However, the true worth of such a marriage contract lay in the power and prestige it would bestow upon the Queen. Was she greedy and ambitious?

Huy sighed as he bowed the women out and Paroi closed the door behind them. He had scarcely spoken to Neferatiri since moving into the palace. She had graced him with a few words in passing as she made her way from the women’s quarters.
I must spend tomorrow in the harem once the foreign correspondence has been dealt with
, he thought, standing irresolute for a moment in the middle of his reception room.
I must greet and question everyone. I must obtain the personal histories of all of them from Userhet, make sure that Menkhoper, Scribe in the House of the Royal Children and the King’s tutor for many years, is prepared to educate his newest charge, talk to the captain of the harem guards, the physicians who tend the women, the food tasters. I must either place a spy among Iaret’s and Neferatiri’s staff or ask Mutemwia to introduce me to the servants in her pay and ask to see their regular reports
. He felt both overwhelmed by the new responsibilities being placed on his shoulders and privileged to be bearing them.

For several days he performed his duties in the ministerial office with May and the royal pair, spending the rest of his time in the women’s quarters. The river continued to rise, and its increasing height was celebrated with feasts almost every evening. Huy took those opportunities to become familiar with the ambassadors stationed permanently in Egypt. On the whole he liked them. He began to regularly attend the King’s morning audiences, watching and listening in particular to the representatives of the foreign tribes and nations paying an annual tribute to Egypt in exchange for their autonomy. The emissaries from Keftiu, Alashia, and the other entirely free countries with which Egypt had trading agreements were polite, well-educated men who understood Egypt’s eminence in the world. Their dealings with the King and the Regent were tactful when arguing on behalf of their masters, reverential when approaching the Horus Throne, and knowledgeable when discussing some thorny matter with the ministers involved. They treated Huy with deep respect, seeming to understand intuitively that his influence with the King, always strong, was growing. Huy was aware of this himself. More and more often he appeared in the Office of Foreign Correspondence to be told by Minister May that Their Majesties would not be attending and the letters must be answered by Huy himself. He and May began to present the daily report together.

Towards the end of the month, when Egypt was preparing to celebrate the Feast of the Great Manifestation of Osiris, Huy and May walked into May’s office after the morning’s audience to find Tiye and her scribe already there. Both men bowed profoundly, Huy with a pang of anxiety. But Tiye was smiling at them, the downturned mouth that gave her face a deceptively displeased look lifting in greeting and lighting those hooded blue eyes. A band of blue lapis flax flowers encircled her head, emphasizing the dark red gleam of her shoulder-length hair. A soft white sheath fell in graceful folds from her neck to her gold-thonged sandals and was belted to her skinny waist with rectangular pieces of lapis set in gold. In spite of her naked arms, fingers, and earlobes, she was a strikingly extravagant sight. Once again Huy was struck by the atmosphere of latent force she exuded. The usual ray of hot but fleeting sunlight pouring through the open doorway was resting briefly on the almost transparent drape of the linen, and through it Huy could see the slight curve of her calves. The scribe had risen to perform his obeisance before sinking cross-legged to the floor beside her chair, his palette across his naked knees. Huy thought him very young.

“Great Seer Amunhotep, Noble Minister May, this is my personal scribe Anhirkawi.” She waved at him. “My new tutor Menkhoper recommended him to me. He comes from the office of the noble Nebmerut, the King’s Seal Bearer. So far I haven’t used him much, but I intend that to change.” Her smile became a wide grin, the scarlet henna on her lips making her small white teeth gleam. “Great Seer, His Majesty and the Regent have given me permission to accompany you each day as you go about your duties, as I told you earlier I wanted to do. Actually, I asked Amunhotep first. He laughed and thought my request was funny, but I remembered your advice and kept my temper. Besides, he wasn’t being nasty. The Regent said that you must approve, though. Do you approve? I’ll try not to be a nuisance.”

“Well, in that case you’d better call me Seer Huy,” Huy replied heavily. “You do understand that Anhirkawi may not take down any official correspondence for your private use and I may occasionally ask to see his records?”

“Of course.” She wriggled further into her chair and folded her arms. “I really want to call you Uncle, as the King does. After all, according to my marriage contract, I’m already Amunhotep’s wife, so his relatives have become my own, even though we don’t share any blood. I think you’d better call me Tiye, at least until the Queen’s crown is set on my head.” Without waiting for an answer, she swung her gaze to May. “I know that you are very busy,” she said to him, “but I want to borrow the scribe of yours who taught the Seer Akkadian. I must learn the language if I am to understand the problems you encounter in the world of diplomacy. I don’t dare approach the ambassadors yet—I’d betray my ignorance, and they’d expect nothing more from a woman, even a noble one. But one day I intend to surprise them, and the King as well.”

Astonished and touched, Huy studied her.
She’s desperately trying to cultivate not only the delicacy of a genuine tact but also a rather engaging humility. The girl who was so loudly rude to Perti is being quickly reshaped by her new circumstances. By Menkhoper’s sensitivity to his pupil’s character also, I’m sure. Perhaps even by her mother’s civilizing influence. Menkhoper tells me that this embryonic Queen has a sharp intelligence and learns rapidly as long as she has an interest in the information she’s being asked to absorb. At least she’s leaving her annoying pets in her quarters. But does she throw off her new manners with relief, together with the jewellery and fine linen, when she returns to the harem?

May was speaking. “Of course you may borrow my scribe, Lady Tiye. As for your attendance to hear the business of my day, I apologize, but I must have a scroll of permission from Her Majesty Queen Mutemwia.”

“You’re afraid that I’m really a gossip and will spread the King’s negotiations all over the palace.” She grimaced and rolled her eyes. “My request has scandalized my dear mother as well. She thought I wasn’t serious when I brought the matter up with you, Uncle Huy. Well, I see that I must prove myself.” She slid off the chair. “At least send me the scribe this evening, Minister May. I wish to master Akkadian at once. Come on, Uncle Huy, let’s leave. Where are you going now?”

Anhirkawi slid the lid of his palette closed and stood. May bowed.

“I’ve been summoned to Her Majesty’s quarters,” Huy replied, “but you, dear Tiye, will hurry to the classroom, where your fellow students are already busy. Do you share any lessons with the King?”

“A couple. We are wading through the interminable complaints of the Eloquent Peasant. I think Menkhoper has chosen them for Amunhotep to make sure that he really does understand the justice of Ma’at, but if I were the Osiris-King Kheti Nebkaura the Third, I’d have ordered the man muzzled and then gone and got drunk. Menkhoper’s very patient with my own complaints and I’ve never seen him use his willow cane on Amunhotep as any other teacher would sometimes do, even though Amunhotep can be mulish sometimes. There’s no hiding behind position in school.”

“You do spend a little time with the King otherwise.”

“I’m sure you are aware that I do. We play board games, but he quickly gets tired of me. I think he’s bored but also secretly amused by me. Well, at least his dislike for me seems to be fading.” She pulled Huy to a halt and pointed up at the blue circlet on her head. “This and the belt were gifts from him after the marriage contract had been signed and sealed. He said that I was now entitled to wear the hair of the gods even though I wasn’t yet fully a Queen. I don’t think that any of it was his idea. Her Majesty the Regent overlooks absolutely nothing.” They walked on until the way branched. There she took his hand. “Uncle Huy, I want to tell you everything I think and feel and do,” she said earnestly. “Your reputation as an honest man is growing among the courtiers, and you’ve treated the wives and concubines in the harem with respect. But I don’t always want what I tell you to get back to my new husband or his mother or my father.” She gave a mock shudder. “The gods forbid! My father still thinks I’m nothing but a spoiled brat! Can you promise to keep my secrets?”