Nefertiti (13 page)

Amunhotep watched him go and turned to Nefertiti. “I will never bow to the priests of Amun again.”

“You’ll be the greatest Pharaoh of Egypt,” Nefertiti swore.

“With the most magnificent queen of Egypt,” he added, “producing Pharaohs that will sit on the throne of Egypt to eternity.” He put his hands across her small taut stomach. “Even now, a little queen may be growing inside.”

“We should know soon. I’m sure by the time we reach Memphis I will be showing.” But she looked at me when she said this, as if I could influence the gods because I was the one who prayed every night and made obeisance at the shrine of Amun every morning.

Chapter Seven

twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi

“WHAT IF I’M not with child and Kiya gives birth to a boy in six months?” Nefertiti was pacing the floor of the antechamber. The sun had set, but Amunhotep was not with Nefertiti. He had gone to visit Kiya. “And who knows how long he’ll stay in her room tonight? What if he’s there until morning?” she panicked.

“Don’t be foolish,” I tried to comfort her. “Pharaohs don’t sleep in bed with their wives.”

“He sleeps in mine!” she shrieked and stopped pacing. “But he is not getting into bed with me tonight. He thinks he can go from one wife to the next? I’m no different from any of his other chattel?” Her voice rose. “Is that what he thinks?” She sat down before her mirror. “Kiya is not more beautiful than I am.” It was a question.

“Of course not.”

“Is she more cunning?”

I couldn’t say.

Nefertiti spun around, and there was the light of a new idea in her eyes. “You must go and see what they are doing,” she decided.

“What?
You want me to spy on your husband?” I shook my head vehemently. “If I’m caught spying, the guards would bring me to Pharaoh.”

“I
have
to know what they do together, Mutnodjmet.”

“Why? What does it matter?”

“Because I have to be better than she is!” She raised her chin. “We all have to be. It’s not just for me, it’s for our family. Our future.” She came and held my shoulders. “Please, just find out what he says to her.”

“It’s too dangerous!” I protested.

“I can tell you how to reach their window.”

“What? Outside?
You want me to crawl in the dirt? What if I’m caught?”

“Guards aren’t posted beneath Second Wives’ windows,” she sneered. “Please, just put on a cloak,” she encouraged.

With a deep foreboding, I put on a heavy linen and sat at the mirror to tie back my hair. Nefertiti watched my progress from behind me. “It’s a good thing you’re dark,” she remarked. “No one will notice you.”

I glared at her, but she was no longer watching me. All of her thoughts now were on Kiya, and she stared down the hall as if she could see what her husband was doing already. When I was done, I went and stood at the door. My father would have wanted me to do this. It was for the good of the family. And spying wasn’t against the laws of Ma’at. I wasn’t stealing, just listening.

“I need to know everything that he tells her,” she said. She wrapped a long cape over her sheath and shivered. “I’ll wait here. And Mutny—”

I frowned.

“Be careful.”

I felt my heart in my throat as I slipped into the courtyard. The air was warm and reed mats slapped softly against the palace windows, moving in the breeze. No one was out. The moon was a sliver in the sky, and unless someone were looking for me, there would be no reason to walk beyond the palace doors in the middle of the night. I passed through a succession of courtyards, counting them as I went. I kept close to the walls, near the shrubs and ivy. When I arrived in Kiya’s courtyard, I stopped to listen, but there was no sound. I crept along until I reached the third window. I glanced across the courtyard and saw no one, then crouched to listen. Now there were voices; I pressed myself flat against the wall, trying to hear what Pharaoh was saying.

When you set in western lightland, earth is in darkness as if in death. Every lion comes from its den. All the serpents bite. Darkness hovers, earth is silent, as their maker rests in lightland

.

He was reciting poetry.

Earth brightens when you dawn in lightland. When you shine as Aten of daytime, as you cast your rays, the Two Lands are in festivity. Awake they stand on their feet. You have roused them!

“Let me read the rest.” It was Kiya’s voice. I heard the rustle of papyrus, and then she began to read.

Roads come open when you rise. The fish in the river dart before you. Your rays are in the midst of the sea. You are the One who makes seed grow, who creates life, who feeds the son in his mother’s womb, who soothes him to still his tears. Oh, Nurse in the womb, oh, Giver of breath. You nourish all that you make

.

So this was the spell that Kiya, with her long willowy legs, cast on him…the magic of quiet sanctuary. Away from Nefertiti’s constant plans and politics, Amunhotep and Kiya read poetry together. From beneath the window, I could smell burning incense. I waited to see what else they would talk about, and he began telling her stories of what life would be like in Memphis, where he’d grown up as a boy.

“My rooms will be in the center of the palace,” he said, “and to my right I will place you and give you the best of everything.”

I heard her giggle like a child. Nefertiti never giggled; she laughed, deep and breathy like a woman.

“Come!” He must have grabbed her, because I heard them fall heavily on the bed, and I covered my mouth in horror. How could he take a woman in pregnancy? He would hurt the child!

“Wait,” she whispered, and her voice grew stern. “What about my father?”

“Vizier Panahesi? Of course he will come with us to Memphis,” he pronounced, as if there was never any other option. “And I will give him the highest position at court.”

“Such as?”

“Such as whatever he wants,” he promised. “You never have to worry. Your father is loyal to me and my cause. There is no vizier in Egypt I trust above Panahesi.”

I looked across the courtyard and there, in the silvery light, was the vizier listening to everything that I’d just heard. He was standing motionless, and I believe at that moment my heart stopped in my chest. When he saw that I’d recognized him, he smiled.

Then I was running, all the way back to Nefertiti’s chamber. I forgot about Amunhotep’s poetry and Kiya’s questions. Nefertiti rushed to meet me at the door. “What happened?” she exclaimed, seeing my face, but I couldn’t answer. “Mutny, what happened? Were you caught?”

My breath came in quick gasps. My thoughts raced, and I wondered if I should tell her about Panahesi. We had both been conspirators caught in the night. I hadn’t said anything and neither had he.

She shook my shoulders. “Were you caught?”

“No.” I breathed. “They were reading poetry.”

“Then why were you running? What happened?”

“He said he trusted Panahesi above any other vizier in Egypt. He told Kiya he’d give her father the highest position at court!”

Immediately, Nefertiti was at the door, commanding one of the guards to fetch Vizier Ay. Our father came at once, and the three of us sat in a circle around the king’s private brazier. If he returned, he would catch us conspiring about him.

My sister straightened. “I’m going to tell Amunhotep that Panahesi can’t be trusted,” she resolved.

“And risk his anger?” My father shook his head. “No. Panahesi can be avoided,” he replied. “The bigger threat is growing in Kiya’s belly.”

“Then perhaps we should kill it,” my sister said.

“Nefertiti!”
She and my father both looked at me.

“The right mix of herbs in her wine…,” my father wondered. I didn’t want hear this. I didn’t want to be part of it. “But she would only get pregnant again,” he concluded.

“And the vizier would be suspicious,” Nefertiti replied. “He would tell Amunhotep and that would be the end of us. I will simply have to outwit her.”

“Keep doing whatever you’re doing,” my father agreed. “He’s infatuated with you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You mean keep praising Aten?”

My father looked stern.

“It’s the only way to keep him,” Nefertiti said quickly.

“And it’s what Kiya does,” I pointed out.

“Kiya does
nothing
,” Nefertiti replied hotly.

“She listens to his poetry. And he doesn’t read it to you!”

“When we go to Memphis, he must be careful with the priests of Amun,” my father interrupted. “He cannot interfere with them. Nefertiti, you must make sure of this.”

I waited for my sister to speak of the deal Amunhotep had struck with Horemheb in the gardens, but she said nothing.

“If he grabs for too much power, it could topple us all. The Elder has other sons that could replace him if he should suddenly die.”

My breath caught in my throat. “The priests of Amun would murder a king?”

My sister and father stared at me again, and then ignored my outburst.

Nefertiti asked, “But what if he
could
take power from the priests?”

“Don’t think it.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Because then Pharaoh would have total control of Memphis, and your husband is not wise enough to wield that kind of power.”

“Then you could have it. You could be the power behind the throne,” she tempted him. “You would be untouchable.”

Now this was something new. A king’s vizier could wield more influence if he only had to answer to Pharaoh, not to the priests and noblemen. I saw my father thinking, and my sister continued. “It’s what he wants. He will be busy building his temples to Aten. And who would rule better, you or the High Priest of Thebes?”

I could see that my father was thinking she was right. If there was going to be a shift in the balance, why not come out on the better end? He had a better knowledge of foreign and domestic entanglements than a priest walled up in a temple to Amun. “Tiye will not be pleased,” my father warned. “It’s a gamble,” he said. “It could all turn out wrong.”

“How else am I to remain the favorite?” Nefertiti rose dramatically. “Tell him he will fail? He will go through with this whether I support him or no.”

“Can’t you take his mind away from Aten?”

“It’s all he can think about.”

My father stood and went to the door. “We will play this slowly,” he decided. “There are men in this court neither you nor your husband would like to make enemies of.”

We listened as his footsteps slapped across the tiles back to his own chamber.

Nefertiti collapsed into a chair. “So while Amunhotep is reciting poetry to that
whore
, the Queen of Egypt is spending the night with her sister.”

“Don’t be angry or he will resent you,” I said.

She shot me a look, but didn’t mock my suggestion.

“I will sleep with you tonight,” she decided, and I didn’t complain. I wouldn’t have wanted my husband crawling into bed next to me after a night with another woman, either.

The next morning, I awoke at sunrise, then dressed myself quickly to pay obeisance at the shrine of Amun. I moved as silently as possible, but even so Nefertiti rolled over to grumble at me.

“You’re not going to the shrine?” she asked with disbelief. “You don’t have to pay obeisance
every
day,” she said.

“I enjoy speaking with Amun,” I replied defensively, and she made a disbelieving noise in her throat. “When is the last time you went?” I demanded, and she closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. “Do you even know where Amun’s shrine is?” I challenged.

“Of course. In the garden.”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to come. You’re Queen of Egypt.”

“And you visit every day. You make my offerings for me. I’m too tired.”

“To thank Amun?”

“He knows that I’m thankful. Now leave me alone.”

So I went into the gardens by myself, as I had every morning since our arrival in Thebes, and picked a crop of flowers to place at Amun’s feet. I took only the choicest flowers: irises as purple as deep summer’s night, and hibiscus with petals like bloodred stars. When I was finished at the shrine, it was still quite early, and only servants were out in the gardens, watering the tamarinds with their heavy earthen bowls. Nefertiti was certain to still be asleep, so I walked to my parents’ courtyard. My mother would be awake, placing offerings at Hathor’s feet.