Nefertiti (33 page)

“Fenugreek, Your Highness.”

He snapped his fingers twice without taking his eyes from my face and two guards entered into the pavilion. “Test them.”

I gaped at Nefertiti, who said sharply, “She’s my sister. She’s not going to poison me.”

“She’s a rival to the crown.”

“She’s my
sister
and I
trust
her!” Nefertiti’s voice brooked no argument. “And when she’s done, she will go to the nurse’s tent for Meritaten.”

The guards stepped back. Akhenaten said nothing as I boiled water, steeping the herbs to make a tea. I brought it to my sister and she drank it completely. Akhenaten watched us from across the pavilion. “You don’t have to watch us,” Nefertiti snapped. “Go find Maya and look over the plans for the villa.”

Akhenaten passed me a look of deep hatred, then swept through the tent flap and was gone.

“You shouldn’t shout while I am here,” I told her. “He’ll think it’s me that makes you angry with him.”

“It’s his obsession with assassination that makes me angry. He suspects everyone.”

“Even your own sister?”

She heard the criticism in my voice and said defensively, “He is Pharaoh of Egypt. No one faces the danger that he does, for nobody’s visions are grander than his.”

I raised my brows. “Or more expensive.”

“What is expense? We’re building a city that will last through eternity. Longer than you or I ever will.”

“You are building a city of cheap material,” I replied. “A city as cheap as it is quick.”

“Is this Father talking?” she demanded. “Does he think this city is cheap?”

“Yes. And what if we’re invaded? Where will the gold come from to defend ourselves?”

She sat up. “I won’t hear of this. I am carrying Egypt’s future in my belly and you are going on as if it’s doomed to failure! You’re just jealous! You’re jealous that I have a beautiful little girl and a son on the way, and you are nearly sixteen and Father has not even decided who you shall marry!”

I stepped back, stung. “He hasn’t decided who I shall marry because of
you
. He wants me here with
you
, waiting hand and foot on
you
, giving advice to
you
. If I had a husband, none of that would be possible.
Would
it?”

We stared at one another.

“Am I dismissed?” I asked her.

“To go to Meritaten. Then you will have dinner with us,” she replied.

It wasn’t a question. It was a command.

“What are you looking for, my lady?”

“My cloak. I’m going out.”

“But it’s nearly nighttime. You can’t go out now,” Ipu cried. “It could be dangerous.”

“My sister has plenty of guards. I’ll take one of them.” I picked up my basket for collecting herbs and Ipu trailed after me. “Shall I come instead?”

“Only if you feel like a walk.” I didn’t look behind me to see whether she had come, but I could hear her footsteps. She caught up to me at the gates. “You can’t go into a man’s camp—”

“I’m the Sister of the King’s Chief Wife,” I retorted. “I can do what I want.”

“My lady,” Ipu’s voice was desperate. “My lady.” She put her hand out to stop me. “Please, let me go instead. Let me give him a message.”

Outside the walls, fires were being lit in the soldiers’ camp. One of those fires belonged to the general. I stopped and wondered what message I should give him. “Tell him…” I bit my lip and thought. “Tell him that I accept.”

“What do you
accept?
” she asked cautiously.

“Just tell him I accept and to come tonight.”

Ipu’s eyes grew wide as cups. “To your
pavilion?
”

“Yes. He can say he is coming to see Pharaoh.”

“But won’t they know?” Ipu glanced at a nearby soldier.

“Perhaps. But the guards at the gate are his men and they
despise
Akhenaten. They will turn their heads the other way. That I promise.”

Amun must have been watching over me that night, because the fanfare and music accompanying our regular meals was mercifully short. Nefertiti ignored me while everyone laughed, telling stories about Memphis and what Amarna would be like once it was finished. Nevertheless, I walked Nefertiti back to the Royal Pavilion, and as we stepped into the chill night she shivered. Four guards stood back and two held open the flap leading into the Royal Pavilion. I walked Nefertiti to her large bed hung with linen. “Come and rub my back,” she requested.

I took off my cloak and began with her shoulders. They were tense, even for a woman with child.

“I wish Father was here,” she complained. “He’d understand how difficult this all is. The building and planning. He understands me.”

“And I don’t?”

“You don’t know what it’s like to be queen.”

“So Father does?”

“Father rules this kingdom. Even without the crook or flail, he is Pharaoh of Egypt.”

“And I’m just a handmaiden to my sister,” I said sharply.

She tensed. “Why are you so bitter?”

“Because I’m sixteen years old and no one has planned
my
future!” I stopped rubbing the oil into her back. “Your future is all laid out. You’re queen. Someday you’ll be a mother to a king. And what will I be?”

“The Sister of the King’s Chief Wife!”

“But who will I love?”

She sat up, taken aback.
“Me.”

I stared at her. “And what about a family?”

“I’m
your family.” She lay down again, expecting me to rub. “Warm the oil. It’s cold.”

I closed my eyes and did as I was told. I wasn’t going to complain, not when it would only prolong my time in the Great Pavilion. I waited until Nefertiti fell asleep, then I washed my hands and crept outside into the cool Phamenoth night. In my own pavilion, Ipu was waiting. She stood up as soon as she saw me.

“Are you sure about this?” she whispered. “Do you still want him to come?”

I had never been more certain. “Yes.”

Ipu’s hands flew around her in excitement. “Then I should braid your hair, my lady.”

I sat down on my feathered cushion and couldn’t sit still. I had already told Ipu what the general had said. Now I told her that I wanted a quiet life. “A life away from any palace in a place where I can tend my herb garden and—”

There was the crunch of boots on gravel and we both turned. Ipu dropped my braids in her hands. “He’s here!”

I grabbed the mirror to check my appearance. “How do I look?”

Ipu searched my face. “Like a young woman ready to meet her lover,” she said with slight consternation. “If your father—”

“Shh,” I remonstrated. “Not now!” I dropped the mirror. “Open the tent.”

Ipu went to the door and the general’s voice came softly through hangings. “And you are sure that she sent for me?”

“Of course. She is waiting for you inside.”

Nakhtmin showed himself in. Then Ipu disappeared as I had instructed, and I held my breath. The general stood before me and bowed. “My lady.”

Suddenly, I was very nervous. “Nakhtmin.”

“You sent for me?”

“I have thought over your proposal,” I replied.

He raised his eyebrows. “And what has my lady decided?” he asked.

“I have decided that I am done being the handmaiden to Nefertiti.”

He stared at me in the firelight. In the glow of the flames, his hair was like copper. “Have you told your father this?”

My cheeks warmed. “Not yet.”

He thought of Nefertiti. “And I suspect the queen will be angry.”

“To say nothing of Akhenaten,” I added. I looked up into his face and he wrapped his arms around me, grinning. “But what if we are banished?” I asked him.

“Then we will go back to Thebes. I will sell the land I inherited from my father and we will buy a farm. One that is all ours,
miw-sher
, and we’ll have a quiet life away from the court and all its entanglements.”

“But you will no longer be a general,” I warned.

“And you will no longer be Sister to the King’s Chief Wife.”

We were quiet, clasping hands by the fire. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

I found I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his, and he stayed until the early hours of the dawn. It was the same throughout that entire month of Phamenoth and into Pharmuthi: The guards would look the other way and smile as he made his way to my tent. Sometimes when he came, we talked by the brazier, and I asked him what the men thought of Akhenaten.

“They stay because they are paid so well,” he said. “It’s the only thing that keeps them from revolt. They want to fight. But they’re willing to build so long as the gold keeps coming.”

“And Horemheb?”

Nakhtmin heaved a heavy sigh. “I suppose that Horemheb is far to the north.”

“Killed?”

“Or fighting. Either way”—he stared into the flames of our small fire—“he is gone and Pharaoh has what he wanted.”

I was quiet for a moment. “And what do the men say about my sister?”

He glanced sideways at me, to gauge how much I really wanted to know. “They are under her spell the same as Pharaoh.”

“Because she is beautiful?”

He watched me carefully. “And entertaining. She goes into the workers’ villages and tosses deben of silver and gold into the streets. But she would do better to toss them bread, for there’s little to buy, even with all the gold in Egypt.”

“Is there a shortage?” I asked.

He glanced at me.

“I didn’t know.” In the royal camp, there was plenty of everything: meats, fruits, breads, wines.

“Until the population of Thebes moves north, there will always be a shortage. There are few bakers and no place to house them even if there were more.”

A shadow appeared outside the tent and Nakhtmin rose. His hand flew to his sword.

“My lady?” It was only Ipu. She pushed aside the flap and looked at Nakhtmin, blushing although he was fully clothed. “The queen is asking for you, my lady. She wants her tea.”

I looked at Nakhtmin. “She doesn’t want tea. She only wants to gloat that they’ve nearly finished the palace.”

“She could be an ally to us,” he said practically. “Go,” he suggested, “and I will see you tomorrow.” He stood up and my eyes filled with tears. Nakhtmin said kindly, “It’s not forever,
miw-sher
. You said yourself the palace is nearly finished. In a few days, then, your father will be here and we will go to him.”

Nefertiti wasn’t due to give birth until Thoth, but she walked through the camp as if the child might come any day. Everyone had to stand three paces back when they were near her, and work in the city stopped when she went past, so that the noise of the hammers wouldn’t disturb the unborn child. She was convinced that it would be a prince, and Akhenaten catered to her every need, ordering her wool from Sumer and the softest linen from the weavers of Thebes. Then she tested her power by demanding that he stop visiting Kiya in the pavilion across the road, in case her worry should hurt the child.

“Could it happen?” Akhenaten came upon me at the well. Though we had servants for fetching water, I enjoyed the musty scent of the earth. I lowered my bucket and shaded my eyes.

“Could what happen, Your Majesty?”

He looked across the lotus pond that had been built in the midst of our camp. “Could she lose the child if I were to upset her?”