Nefertiti (15 page)

Queen Nefertiti
, I thought,
ruler of Lower Egypt and someday Upper Egypt as well. Queen Mutnodjmet
, I imagined, then shivered. I would never want that. A low voice shook me out of my reverie, and I realized that Amunhotep was standing near our awning. He was wearing a long kilt with a golden belt and silver bangles. The kohl around his eyes was fresh. General Horemheb was standing across from him at arm’s length, but a gulf separated the two, and with little surprise I realized,
The general doesn’t respect this new king
.

“Seventy men are to follow on my heels with fifty in front. I won’t risk assassination. If any peasant slips onto the boats undetected, he is to pay the penalty of immediate death.” Runaway slaves would sometimes join a king’s caravan so they could escape to the palace, where they could serve in luxury.

The general said nothing.

“And we shall travel from morning until dusk. Until it’s too dark to see the currents,” he commanded. “We will proceed straight to Memphis without stopping at any ports.”

The first flicker of emotion crossed Horemheb’s face. “Your Majesty,” Horemheb interrupted firmly, “the men will need rest.”

“Then they may take turns at the oars.”

“In the heat of the day, the men could die. The cost would be great—”

“Then whatever the cost, it shall be done!” Amunhotep shouted. The bustle in the courtyard fell silent. Amunhotep was aware of an audience and the blood rushed to his face. He stepped toward Horemheb, who didn’t flinch. “Are you questioning Pharaoh?” he asked dangerously.

Horemheb returned his stare. “Never, Your Majesty.”

Amunhotep narrowed his eyes.

“Is that all?”

For a moment, I thought Amunhotep wouldn’t answer. Then he replied. “That is all.”

The general strode purposefully toward his men and Amunhotep moved in the opposite direction. Nefertiti looked at my mother and then at me. “What’s happened?”

“Amunhotep was angry with the general,” I said. “We are to proceed straight to Memphis without stopping. The general says the men could die in the heat.”

“Then they can take turns at the oars,” she replied, and my mother and I exchanged glances.

There was to be no Feast of Farewell before we left for Memphis. The sun rose higher in the sky and the time of our departure grew near. Panahesi appeared in the courtyard, and my sister and I saw him whisper something into Amunhotep’s ear. They stood together on the verge of the commotion, away from the braying of the donkeys and the din of the servants. Nefertiti moved across the courtyard, pulling me with her, and Panahesi gave a bow and made a hasty retreat. “What did he want?” Nefertiti demanded.

Amunhotep shifted uncomfortably. “A litter.”

My sister was quick. “For Kiya?”

“She’s pregnant. She will need six bearers.”

Nefertiti held tighter to my arm. “Has she grown so fat she must be carried by six men?”

I flushed. She was raising her voice to the King of Egypt.

“I must accommodate Panahesi—”

“Is Panahesi riding in it or is she? Only
queens
are carried by six servants! Is she queen now? Have I been replaced?”

I could sense the commotion in the courtyard stopping again, and on the border of my vision I saw General Nakhtmin.

“I…I will tell Panahesi she must only use five,” Amunhotep faltered.

I gasped, but Nefertiti nodded and watched Amunhotep disappear to tell Panahesi that his pregnant daughter must use fewer bearers. As Pharaoh left, General Nakhtmin waded through the busy courtyard.

“I have come to wish the Queen of Egypt farewell,” he said, “and to bid the Sister of the King’s Chief Wife a safe journey. May you find as much joy in the gardens of Memphis as you have in Thebes, Lady Mutnodjmet.”

Nefertiti raised her eyebrows. I could tell she was intrigued by the general. She liked his pale eyes against his dark skin. He looked at Nefertiti and I felt a sudden surge of jealousy. “You seem to be familiar with my sister, General.” Nefertiti smiled and the general grinned back.

“We have met several times. Once in the garden, in fact, where I predicted her future.”

Nefertiti smiled wider. “Then you are a fortune-teller as well as a general?”

I inhaled sharply. Only the priests of Amun knew the wishes of the gods.

“I wouldn’t presume to go so far, Your Highness. I am simply an astute observer.”

She moved closer to him, so that if she wanted to she could have brushed his cheek with her lips. They were playing a game I didn’t like. His eyes swept over her small, powerful body and rested on the inky hair that fringed her cheek. She would not have allowed just anyone to look at her that way. The general stepped back, dizzy from her perfume. Then Amunhotep appeared and their dangerous game was over. She straightened. “Will you be coming to Memphis then, General?”

“Sadly, no,” he answered, and he looked at me when he said it. “I shall be waiting here instead for your return. But I shall accompany Your Highness’s caravan to the quay.”

Nefertiti shrugged playfully. “Then we shall see you shortly.” She moved to interrogate Amunhotep about the bearers, and the general held me with his eyes.

“Good-bye, General,” I said coolly, then turned to join my mother beneath the awning.

The caravan was ready. The animals shifted uncomfortably in the warm courtyard, and there was nervousness in the air. The horses whinnied impatiently and servants stroked their muzzles to calm them. I had packed my plants into a carefully prepared chest, placing linen between the pots to stop them from rocking together on the short trip from the palace to the quay. On the ship, I could unpack them and place them where they could find sun. But there were only a dozen. The rest I left in the palace, taking clippings from their leaves and storing them in an inlaid ivory box. There were dozens of these, and in small, tightly bound linen bags I’d stockpiled some of the most useful plants. General Horemheb inspected the army, then Amunhotep knelt before his father, receiving the Elder’s blessing.

“I will make you proud,” Amunhotep swore. “The gods are rejoicing on this day.”

I saw the Elder turn to Tiye, and I imagined they were both thinking of Tuthmosis, who should have been kneeling there instead of Amunhotep. Amunhotep saw this, too, and stood.

“You may wish for Tuthmosis,” he hissed sharply, “but I am the son who rules Lower Egypt.
I
am the one the gods chose,
not
him.”

Queen Tiye straightened her shoulders. “May the gods protect you,” she said coldly. Pharaoh nodded, but there was no love in his eyes.

Amunhotep straightened his tunic self-consciously, and when he saw that the soldiers and servants were watching he cried out violently, “Move!”

My body servant appeared and shouted, “Into your litter!”

I scrambled inside. The caravan surged forward. I was behind Nefertiti and Amunhotep, who rode together. I parted the curtains and waved to my aunt. She waved back. The Elder, I noticed, looked solemn. We departed in a cloud of dust, riding the short distance to the bay that surrounded the palace. The glare off the moving water could be seen through the strips of linen protecting me from the sun, and then the caravan stopped where a fleet of impressive Egyptian ships had been moored. We were lowered in our litters and the royal family was taken onto the barges. Because we were part of the royal family now, my mother, father, and I would be traveling on Pharaoh’s barge with golden pennants flying from the mast. Panahesi and his family had their own private ship. I was glad for the separation; no vessel could have held both Nefertiti and Kiya.

The barges could fit fifty-two soldiers rowing at the oars and another twenty passengers above or below decks. In the midst of the ships were wooden cabins with two chambers inside. The cabins were built of wood and covered in linen. “To protect against the heat,” my father said.

“And where will the soldiers sleep?” I asked him.

“On the deck. It’s warm enough now.”

The ships looked handsome in the water. The ebony oars, inlaid with silver, caught the light, and the calls of an ibis searching for its mate echoed across the bay. I watched from the steps as treasures from the Elder’s palace were packed: copper bowls, cedar wig chests, alabaster statues, and an altar of granite that was inlaid with pearl. The slaves strained under the weight of the many heavy baskets, loading Egypt’s finest jewels onto the vessels last so that the guards could watch over them.

When the ships set sail, I went to find my parents in our cabin. My mother was playing Senet with the wife of Egypt’s most honored architect.
So Amunhotep convinced him to leave Thebes after all
, I thought. “Where’s Father?” I asked her.

My mother used her chin to indicate the stern of the ship, but she didn’t take her eyes from the game. Like Nefertiti, she was good at Senet. I wandered out to the stern and heard my father’s voice before I saw him.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he demanded.

“Because I knew you would be angry. But Horemheb is on our side. He understands what we are doing.”

I peered beyond the door of the cabin and saw my father shake his head. “You are making enemies for this family faster than we can make allies. The sands of Memphis will swallow us whole, and if the people rise against you…”

“But they will love us!” Nefertiti promised. “We will build them greater temples than they have ever seen. We will hold more feast days, and we’ll
give
to the people. This is Amunhotep’s
dream
.”

“And yours?”

She hesitated. “Don’t you want to be remembered?”

“For what? For taxing the temples?”

A short silence hung between them.

“You will be the most powerful man in the kingdom,” she pledged. “I shall see to it. While he builds temples, you will rule this kingdom. He has no interest in politics. Everything will be left to you, and Panahesi will be like bronze to your gold.”

Chapter Nine

Shemu, Season of Harvest

BY THE SECOND of Pachons, I began to recognize the sailors on board our ship. They nodded as I passed, but they were wearied and beaten, driven all day in the sun with only water and soup to sustain them. They always had time for Ipu, however. When she walked the decks with her heavy gold earrings and swaying hips, the men talked to her the way a brother might talk with his sister, and quietly, when no one was looking, they laughed. But they never spoke to me except to mumble politely, “My lady.”

By the third day of the voyage, I had grown bored. I tried to read, learning about trees that grew in the Kingdom of Mitanni far to our north where the Khabur and the Euphrates overflowed their banks. I read all seven treatises that Ipu had collected in the markets of Thebes by the time we had spent seven days without disembarking. Then, on the eighth night, even Amunhotep grew weary of constant travel, and we were taken to shore to build fires and stretch our legs.

The servants gathered wood to roast the wild geese they had caught on the river, and we all ate in the Elder’s best faience bowls. It was a glad change from the hard bread and figs we had been eating, and Ipu joined me at the fire, holding a cup of Pharaoh’s best wine. Across from us, at a dozen different fires, soldiers were getting drunk and courtiers were playing Senet. Ipu stared into her cup and smiled.

“As good as anything I’ve ever tasted,” she said.

I raised my brows. “Even the wine from your father’s vineyard?”

She nodded and leaned close. “I think they have opened the oldest barrels.”

I sucked in my breath. “For
tonight?
And Pharaoh doesn’t care?”

She glanced at Amunhotep, and I followed her gaze. While the courtiers laughed and Nefertiti spoke in low tones with our father, Amunhotep was staring into the fire. His lips were drawn into a thin line and the bones in his face appeared hollow in the flickering light. “He only cares about getting there,” Ipu replied. “The faster he arrives in Memphis, the sooner he can take up the crook and flail of Egypt.”

Panahesi was making his way toward our circle with an obviously pregnant Kiya. As they drew near the fire, Nefertiti turned and pinched my arm roughly. “What is she doing here?” she demanded.

I rubbed my arm. “She’s coming with us to Memphis, remember?”

But Nefertiti didn’t hear my sarcasm. “She’s pregnant. She should be back on the ship.”
And away from Amunhotep
, she wanted to add.

One of Kiya’s ladies spread a feathered cushion on the sand and Kiya sat across from Amunhotep, resting her hand on her large hennaed belly. She was soft and fresh, natural in her pregnancy, while across the fire Nefertiti glittered with malachite and gold.

“We are halfway to Memphis,” Panahesi announced. “Soon, we will arrive and Pharaoh will be enthroned in his palace.” The small group around the fire nodded, murmuring among themselves, and my father watched him carefully. “Are the plans going well for the building, Your Highness?”

Amunhotep straightened, awakening from his stupor. “The plans are coming magnificently. My queen has a great mind for design. We have already sketched a temple with a courtyard and three altars.”