Sphinx's Queen (11 page)

He yanked me away from the door, back into the darkness of his tent, and shoved me to the floor. “Listen closely,” he whispered. “I don’t know which god I have to thank for bringing you here, and I don’t care. Unless you popped out of the earth under this tent, you’ve seen where you are, less than a bowshot away from
my
soldiers. I’m going to light a lamp, and if you make
one
sound or try to take
one
step out of this tent while I’m doing it, all I’ll need to do is shout
one
command and they’ll have you. Understand?”

I nodded, then realized he probably couldn’t see the gesture in the dark. “I do.” My throat felt as though I’d swallowed a double handful of sand.

I felt a slight stirring in the air as he moved past me, then heard him curse as he fumbled for something. A brief while later, a spark in the darkness bloomed into a petal of flame and Thutmose’s face showed clearly in the light. He set aside the small fire drill and lifted the oil lamp he’d kindled, bringing it to where I sat, unmoving, on the ground.

“Good girl,” he said, patting my cheek hard enough to make me wince. “Now, then, care to tell me why you’re here?” I bent my head and wouldn’t answer, not even when he grabbed my chin and jerked it up, compelling me to look into his eyes. “Silence? Maybe you’re only a dream. But, no, if you were a part of my dreams, you wouldn’t look this bedraggled or smell so bad.” He laughed at his own jibe, but when I refused to react to it, his mouth became a small, hard line.

“Why have you come here, Nefertiti? Giving up? And where is my brother? Your surrender’s useless without his. I won’t return to Thebes until I have both of you. He’s supposedly the reason I’m out here. A royal son of the Black Land can’t simply disappear into the night without the palace, the temples, and all the city calling for a massive search and pursuit. I should thank him for giving me the excuse to hunt my true prey. It’s not the crown prince’s business to chase down an escaped prisoner, even one condemned for blasphemy. If I declared openly that I wanted to go after you, not even my loyal Amun priests would accept that without questioning me. Me! When I rule the Black Land, they’ll learn that only I will ask the questions.” His eyes narrowed. “And I will expect answers.”

I maintained my silence, watching the angry flush rising to his face, seeing his hands tighten into fists. I braced myself for the first blow.

With a loud meow, the same cat who’d startled me before came bounding out of nowhere to land in my lap. It was astonishing to hear such mighty purrs coming from such a lithe and slender body.

Thutmose’s hands relaxed. His whole attitude softened, and he looked at the cat with the affection and tenderness I’d seen him give to only one other living being—Ta-Miu, the innocent she-cat I was accused of killing. I remembered the bloody bits of evidence that had been brought to my trial and felt sick at heart. Did Thutmose hate me enough to have given up the one creature he loved in order to see me killed?

“Well, Nefertiti, you seem to have a new friend,” he said in a good-natured way. It sounded false. “Pretty, isn’t she?”

“Very.” I began to stroke the cat’s back, to her delight. Then I scratched her neck under the fine gold and turquoise collar she wore. Thutmose’s unknowable heart had found a replacement for poor Ta-Miu all too easily.

“Ah, a word at last!” Thutmose snickered. “I was afraid that you’d wandered into the savage Red Lands and the vultures ate your tongue. Is that what happened to Amenophis? Is that why you won’t talk about him? He’s dead. The fool risked his life to save yours and lost his own. What an idiot! And now you think you’ll dodge the blame for his death by refusing to talk about it. You’d abandon his unburied body like a mongrel dog’s, starve his souls, deny him his place in the afterlife, just so you can—”

“He’s
alive.”
I spoke softly, but in truth I wanted to shout those words in Thutmose’s face. I didn’t dare, not with his men outside. “And I would never abandon him,
never
, alive
or
dead.”

The momentary glimpse of a kinder, more human Thutmose vanished. “It’s true, then. You love him. You insulted me, cast me aside, refused to help secure my path to Father’s throne, and all because you love him.”

I could have denied it. The words
He’s only my friend and nothing more
were halfway to my lips. I could have spoken them. I’d said them before, so easily, so simply.

For the first time, I couldn’t.

I looked Thutmose in his hate-filled, hurt-filled eyes and said, “Yes. I love Amenophis. With all my heart, I do.” The cat in my lap purred louder, as if she approved.

“Love …” Thutmose turned the word to poison. “It makes no sense. You’re as beautiful as he is ugly. What can he give you? I will have the throne. I will wear the double crown. I will be the god-on-earth. He’ll be nothing. Even if … if there were a way for your blasphemous crime against the goddess Bast to be erased and forgiven, if you were free to marry Amenophis, you two will still be outcasts. I’ll see to that! Do you think I’d allow the worthless pair of you to lead royal lives once Pharaoh’s regal crook and flail are in my hands? The Red Lands can have you both, forever.”

“If that’s what the gods decide for us—” I began.

“Don’t you listen? It’s already so. As god-on-earth—”

“Your royal
father
is the god-on-earth,” I said firmly. “Are you as eager for his death as you are for your brother’s?”

My words struck Thutmose hard. I saw a flash of remorse in his expression as he realized what his rash words implied. “I didn’t … I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t want anyone dead,” he murmured. “Not even you, Nefertiti. Not even after all the ways you’ve hurt me. All I ever wanted was to have you for my wife, the way Mother had it all planned, but you spoiled everything. Why did the gods ruin such a beautiful creation by filling it with so much defiance and stubbornness? They’re as much to blame as you for making me treat you this way.”

Did I see tears in his eyes? Did that mean there was still hope for him? I knew very well that the royal palace could be a woefully unhealthy home for its children. Its high walls and countless rooms bred plots the way rotten meat bred flies. Thutmose’s mind carried the scars of always living in the shadows of uncertainty, fear, and suspicion. Aunt Tiye hadn’t helped matters by raising him to think he could only be Pharaoh or nothing. If he could be reclaimed even now!

I leaned forward to offer him a comforting touch, but before my hand could reach his, the little cat decided I ought to be using it to pet her some more. She slid her sleek head under my palm and butted it so imperiously that I had to smile.

You
are
Bast’s true daughter
, I thought as I stroked her head. She closed her eyes in bliss when I massaged her whiskery eyebrows with my fingertips.
May the goddess give you a safer life than poor Ta-Miu
. As if she could read my thoughts, Thutmose’s new pet gave a small mew and pushed her head against my hand again, harder.

“I believe you, Thutmose,” I said gently while I rubbed the cat’s head. “You do care for your family; you don’t want to lose them. Neither do I. We’re kin, remember.”

“Kin who keep secrets from one another,” he responded glumly. “You wouldn’t even tell me if my brother was alive or dead.”

“That’s because I thought you wanted him dead. I was afraid that if I gave you any bit of information, you’d use it to hunt him to his doom. I was wrong; I’m sorry. You want to know why I came here tonight? To save him. Listen.” And I told him about how Amenophis had been stung by the scorpion and now lay sick and feverish. What I didn’t tell him was where his brother lay. My heart believed that Thutmose held no life-threatening grudge against Amenophis, but my mind whispered,
Remember Set! Tread cautiously
, and I heeded the warning.

When I was done speaking, Thutmose raised one eyebrow. “Honey?” he said, bemused. “That’s all you wanted?”

“To fight the infected sting, yes,” I said. “Do you have any?”

“Of course.” He nodded at the wooden chest. “I have a casket of such things in there, packed toward the top. You’d have found it and been long gone if I hadn’t heard that scuffle you had with
this
little demon.” He reached out his hand to pet the cat, and I drew back my own hand to let him.

Then I drew a sharp breath. My fingertips were stained brown, and in the place where I’d been rubbing the cat’s head, a patch of smudged white fur was now visible. The edges of the blaze were still obscured by whatever stuff had been used to conceal it until this moment, but I could see enough of it to recognize the shape of a star.

“Ta-Miu!” I was so dazed that I could hardly speak that name above a whisper. The little cat lifted her pointed chin as though acknowledging this startling truth.

I turned a furious face to Thutmose. “This is Ta-Miu, isn’t it? She’s not dead. She was never killed, never even harmed!”

“You sound disappointed,” he replied coldly. “Do you think I’d let anything happen to my dearest one?” He scooped the cat from my lap and held her close, whispering loving nonsense in her ears.

The full meaning of what I’d discovered fell over me like a mountain of sand. I felt that I was about to choke on my rage. “You knew this,” I rasped. “When you pretended to feel pity for me at my trial, when you listened so earnestly to the false testimony brought against me, when you so
reluctantly
let me be condemned to death for killing Ta-Miu—through all of that, you knew that there was no crime. There never had been; Ta-Miu was alive, unhurt, and hidden away so that you could use her ‘death’ to destroy me. And
you
would rule the Two Lands? Ma’at forbid it—that would be the real blasphemy.”

Thutmose dropped Ta-Miu and slapped my face so hard that I almost knocked the lamp over when I sprawled on the floor. He snatched it out of the way and held it high. “Ma’at doesn’t listen to a grubby little upstart who doesn’t even know how to act like a
real
woman. So you’ve discovered my secret; so what? All I need to do is hide her away again. Your accusations won’t be anything more than the terrified raving of a condemned criminal. Your word against mine, the word of Pharaoh’s heir?” He laughed.

I sat up on my knees and bowed my head. I knew he was right. In that moment, he held all the power. I was his captive. All I had left to sustain me were words.

Slowly I raised my eyes and looked around the tent. Was this going to be my new prison until we started back for Thebes in the morning, or was he going to summon one of his men and have me tethered outside, like an animal? The oil lamp’s flame revealed more of Thutmose’s hunting gear than I’d been able to make out in the dark. There was the bed and the chest, but now I could also see several smaller boxes stacked against the other wall, and the prince’s magnificent bow and quiver full of arrows propped in one corner. A low-seated folding stool was set beside the small, round table near his bed. A goatskin bag for carrying drink lay beneath it, and the remains of Thutmose’s evening meal were still scattered on the tabletop.

“More silence?” he snapped at me, lowering the lamp. “I’m tired of these games. What are you staring at?”

“Food,” I answered honestly.

“That’s
what’s on your mind? Not your life, not your fate, but
food?”

“You’ve made it quite clear to me that my life is over and my fate’s decided,” I replied evenly. “Why shouldn’t I think about food? I’m hungry.”

He snorted. “Leave it to Amenophis to carry you off in a grand, romantic escape and never think about providing for you. Did he think you could feast on love?”

“He brought food,” I said. “We lost everything in an accident on the river.”

Thutmose sauntered over to the little table, set down the lamp, and gathered up the remains of his meal. He was probably going to toss them at me as if I were a begging dog, but some remnant of kindness in him made him reconsider. Instead, he opened one of the small boxes and took out a stack of flat, heavy breads. “Here.” He let them tumble into my lap. “You probably would have eaten the
honey
instead of bringing it to my brother.”

He crossed to the big chest and took out the casket he’d mentioned. I stuffed pieces of bread into my mouth as I watched him kneel beside me to unpack rolled strips of linen bandages, tweezers, and a flint-bladed knife. There was also an assortment of stoppered clay jars and flasks, their contents marked in the wax sealing them. He picked up the one labeled
honey
and held it out to me. “You might as well,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” I looked at him suspiciously.

“You might as well eat it. Go on. It won’t turn that bread into honey cake, but it’s still good.”

“Is there more?” I eyed the now-empty casket and scanned the clay containers, but their markings showed that they held other remedies—coriander, paste made from willow bark to ease pain, henna, poppy juice to bring sleep, several flasks of the same castor-bean oil that was now burning in the clay lamp. “You’re making fun of me, Thutmose. We need this honey for Amenophis.”

“No, we don’t.” Thutmose’s face was unreadable. “I’ve been thinking things over, Nefertiti. What good will it do to bring my brother back to Thebes? He rebelled against the lawful decision of Pharaoh’s justice. All your fault, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a traitor.”

“For what? For helping me live long enough to prove my innocence?” I lunged forward so suddenly that Thutmose jerked back. My hands hit the ground painfully hard, one worse than the other. The fat handle of the small flint knife made a hard lump under my palm. “Your parents won’t stay in Dendera forever, Thutmose.”

“They won’t need to,” he shot back, struggling to recover his dignity. “You’ll prove nothing to anyone. The river will have you before my boat reaches Thebes, and the underworld will have my brother. A shame that my men and I won’t be able to find him.” He smiled at the evil lie.