Sphinx's Queen (17 page)

She paused and lowered the razor. Her eyes were moist with tears. “And that’s true. You saved that sweet little boy, may the gods bless you forever. Samut’s got a heart that’s much too trusting. If he’d consented to help those ruffians on his own, he’d’ve done it believing that they’d give him back his son and leave them both alone after. But my brother told me that their ringleader—the pig you stuck so neatly with that arrow, my lady—he’d’ve murdered them both as soon as Samut gave him the way into Lord Iritsen’s tomb. My brother told me he didn’t want any part of that trickery—said that a bargain’s a bargain—but he knew his leader well enough to know that any objections would buy his own death.”

“An honest thief,” Amenophis muttered ironically.

Kawit heard, and slapped his newly shaved skull. “You save that sharp tongue of yours for making a proper life for this pretty lady,” she scolded. “She’s much too beautiful to be dragged down by a man—a boy, more like it—who can’t provide her with bread, or a roof over her head, or—”

“I pray daily that the time will come when I can give her all of that and more,” Amenophis said solemnly.

He was a little too solemn. Kawit thought he was being sarcastic again and slapped his head a second time.

We said our farewells to Kawit that night and were roused from sleep the next morning by Samut’s urgent summons. The grateful tomb worker led us away from the land of the dead, back to the lush verge of the sacred river. A medium-sized sailing vessel was waiting for us in the shallows. There were only five men on board, and they were already getting the ship set to sail. The master of the ship stood at the stern, supervising his crew. Samut hailed him and we were curtly ordered to come on board. Samut took Nava on his back, leaving Amenophis and me to wade out to the ship on our own. I had to tie up my new dress so that it wouldn’t snare my legs. Samut’s late wife had been a much larger person than me, so there was a lot of linen to get out of my way. It made clambering onto the ship difficult, but not impossible. Once I was aboard, I leaned over the side so that Samut could hand me the covered basket where Ta-Miu was once more curled up, sleeping peacefully while her human servants did everything to maintain her comfort. Then and there, I decided that if the gods ever allowed our souls to return to the world, I’d ask Isis to let me come back as a cat.

By the time the dawn was a pink and golden sliver in the east, we were sailing downriver, waving good-bye to Samut. The voyage to Dendera didn’t take long at all. We had the current on our side, an experienced shipmaster and crew, and the blessing of Hapy. If not for the fact that the ship was a merchant vessel that had to stop twice along the way to receive and deliver cargo, we’d have been in Dendera that same day.

As it was, we approached the dock of Hathor’s favored city next morning, early enough for the air to be fresh and filled with the sounds of celebration. We heard the first strains of music, the clapping of many hands, and the clamor of voices raised in joyous song long before our ship was tied up and we were allowed to land.

“Just look at that,” the shipmaster said, hands on hips, head shaking in disapproval. “Scarce three souls on the dock. No need to ask where the rest have gone. This festival makes the city crazy. Dancing in the streets, music, flowers everywhere, and palm wine until your head spins!” He frowned fiercely, then broke into a smile and winked. “I can hardly wait.”

I turned to Amenophis and sighed happily.
“That’s
a relief. All that fretting we did was for nothing. It looks like your brother didn’t station his men around the city to keep us from reaching your parents after all.”

“He might’ve realized he didn’t have enough soldiers for the job,” Amenophis replied. “Or else he tried it, but the lure of the festival was too much for them and they sneaked away. Whichever it was, I’m relieved. I had no idea how we were going to handle the situation if we had encountered them.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Nava asserted. “If anyone tries to stop us, Nefertiti can stick
them
full of arrows, too!” She hadn’t stopped crowing about my skill with the bow since the instant I’d saved Samut’s child.

“Nava, I did not stick that man full of arrows, and I would
not
want to do that to anyone else,” I said. “The only reason I shot him was to make him drop his dagger before he hurt the little boy.”

“But you’d do it to save
us
, wouldn’t you?” She appealed to me with her eyes.

“Only if there was no other choice. And today there is, so no one’s going to be shooting anyone else, understand?” I gave her a crooked grin. “Don’t look so disappointed.”

Amenophis’s mouth grew small with concern. “Let’s not speak too soon. Thutmose might have decided that it’s easier to keep us from reaching my parents by planting a fence of his men around them instead of around the entire city. If that’s the case, what will we do? Try to sneak past them?”

I took Nava’s hand before the overeager child could grab my bow and offer it to me. That was becoming her solution to everything. “No more of that, Nava. From here on, we’re letting Amenophis have the bow and arrows. A girl carrying such weapons would attract too much attention in the city. I’m not going to use the bow, and we’re not going to use stealth. Stealth wasn’t what saved Samut’s boy. We acted boldly then, and we have to act boldly now. A thief sneaks into the house he wants to rob, but the owner strides straight through the door. That’s his right; he belongs there. He’s
supposed
to go in! Who’d even think to stop him? And who’s going to dare stop a royal prince from seeing his parents?”

Amenophis surveyed his travel-worn clothes ruefully. “I don’t look all that princely.”

“If your clothes don’t tell people that you’re a prince, act like one! Stand like one! Speak like one!”

Amenophis took Samut’s perfume vial from his belt and dangled it before my eyes.
“Smell
like one?” he joked.

“If that’s what it takes.”

We thanked the shipmaster and his small crew for their kindness to us on the voyage to Dendera, then set out to find Amenophis’s parents in the city. He’d taken my advice to heart and was no longer acting like just another polite young man. When he said good-bye to the shipmaster, he did it with such a regal air of command that the fellow actually bowed to him without thinking! My hopes rose.
If he can keep this up, we’re sure to succeed. Let the whole city of Dendera know that a prince is coming to rejoin his parents, and no one will stand in our way, not even Thutmose’s most loyal soldiers!

“Let’s go to the temple,” I said. “That’s where we’ll find your parents. If they’re not taking an active part in the rites, surely they’ll be watching the priests make the offerings and listening to the temple musicians singing and playing to honor the goddess.”

“Good idea,” Amenophis said, nodding. “Even if they’re not present at the ceremonies, they’ll be staying at the guesthouse inside the temple grounds. It’s a miniature palace, very luxurious. I remember that’s where we stayed the time I came here as a child.”

“Do you think you can lead us there, then?”

“Maybe.” Amenophis sounded only a little doubtful. “It was years ago.”

“You don’t have to know the way,” Nava said, cradling a purring, docile Ta-Miu in her arms. “If today is Hathor’s festival,
lots
of people will be going to the temple. We can just follow them.”

I laughed. “Leave it to you, Nava.”

Nava was right, of course. If we were going to find Pharaoh Amenhotep and my aunt, Queen Tiye, Hathor’s temple would be the place. Pharaoh was the god-on-earth by his own decree, a pronouncement he’d made to remind the priests that he was the ultimate authority in the Black Land. The so-called servants of the gods, especially the priests of Amun, had been growing more and more wealthy and influential over the years. Pharaoh’s decision to name himself god-on-earth was his clever way of putting a leash on them, and they didn’t like it.

What better place to find the god-on-earth than in the house of his sister-goddess Hathor at the time of her festival? He would show himself at his finest to the people of the city—clad in the richest garments, adorned with brilliant flashes of gold, wreathed with gracefully ascending trails of the sweetest incense from distant Punt—and the priests would be cast into the shadows.

It would also provide an effective distraction from the real reason that had brought Amenophis’s father to Dendera, namely to seek Hathor’s help in restoring his health. Pharaoh had not been well for some time, a fact that had to be hidden from everyone except his closest kin. The land was only as strong as the one who ruled it—everyone I knew grew up believing that. A weak pharaoh meant a weak land, a land where the sacred river failed to rise, the soil became barren, the crops refused to grow, and the people starved. It could also mean a land that would fall easy prey to the armies of our enemies. Pharaoh
must
stay strong!

But what would happen on the day when Pharaoh’s strength failed for the last time and his spirit rose to dwell among the stars? Thinking about that ill-omened day made Aunt Tiye half mad with worry. It wasn’t just that she loved her royal husband—she did, and would have loved him even if he hadn’t been pharaoh—but also that when he did go to meet Osiris, who would rule after him? Aunt Tiye would sooner die than lose the power she wielded as Pharaoh’s Great Royal Wife. If another woman’s son somehow managed to take Amenhotep’s throne when he died, that would be the end of Aunt Tiye’s status. She was determined that this would
not
happen and that the next ruler of the Black Land
must
be her older son, Prince Thutmose.

Must
and
must
and
must
, with never any room for argument because that was the way Aunt Tiye had decided things were going to be. She was a very determined woman. She took nothing for granted. The chances of Thutmose succeeding his father looked almost inevitable. Even though I had good reason to dislike him, I couldn’t deny that the prince was handsome, intelligent, and fascinating. His father trusted him enough to have given him charge of governing Thebes in Pharaoh’s absence, but Aunt Tiye wouldn’t be able to sleep easily until the great red and white double crown of the realm was placed safely on her favorite son’s head.

Her obsession with securing Thutmose’s inheritance had been the source of all my own troubles. If not for her insistence on making me Thutmose’s wife, this festival day would have found me at home in Akhmin with my sister, Bit-Bit. Together we’d be singing songs of praise to Hathor and draping her statue with flowers. Every so often we’d drop the tune to lick our lips as we imagined the wonderful feast my stepmother Mery was preparing for us. How we’d laugh if we caught one another doing that!

Instead, here I was in Dendera, pushing my way through the crowds of people choking the streets near Hathor’s temple. It was very difficult breaking a path through so many merrymakers. Besides the goddess’s sincere worshippers and those people using the sacred festival as an excuse for wild revelry, there were also all of the shopkeepers and street vendors eager to sell their wares. I couldn’t tell if the man offering me a honey cake wanted to share a treat with a fellow worshipper in a friendly way or wanted me to buy it. The problem was, neither the merchants nor the ordinary celebrants would take no for an answer. Every step we took had to be fought for, as though we were wading through the thick, fresh silt of the riverside when the waters of the Inundation sank back, leaving their treasure behind. Arms waved all around us, like a bewildering thicket of windblown reeds.

I began to perspire from the effort of making any progress at all. Besides struggling to move forward, I had the triple distraction of keeping track of Nava, holding tight to Ta-Miu’s basket, and trying to keep Amenophis in sight. He had taken my advice seriously and was carrying himself as if he were someone extremely important, someone to whom an ordinary city dweller should show reverence.

It’s working!
I thought proudly.
They’re all falling back as soon as they see that commanding look in his eyes. He’s like the old images of past pharaohs, the ones that show them trampling their enemies. See how wonderful he looks, how impressive, how—Uh-oh, how am I going to catch up?

Amenophis had mastered my advice too well. He was far ahead of us. The person he was pretending to be was too important to bother looking behind him to see if we were still there. I’d noticed the same behavior among the nobles and other high-ranking officials in the royal palace at Thebes: They expected their slaves and servants to keep up with them no matter how fast the pace or how many parcels, scrolls, fans, stools, or other items their followers had to juggle. If they couldn’t keep up, it would be their problem—and probably their punishment as well. But that wasn’t any concern of the big, important man they followed.

Suddenly I was very glad that I had to
tell
Amenophis to behave like that. It wasn’t a natural part of who he was. I called for Nava to stay close beside me, got a better grip on the cat’s basket, and used my shoulder to shove our way after him.

When we caught up to him again, I was breathing hard and sweat was pouring down my face, my back, and my legs. “Slow down, for the love of Isis,” I said, shifting Ta-Miu’s basket to my other hip. “We almost lost you at least five times. All I can say is that it’s a good thing you’re so tall and that Kawit reshaved your head.”

“Why, so you can follow the glare?” He grinned and ran one hand over his hairless skull.

As hot as I was, I began to wonder if I’d be happier with my head shaved, too. I loved my hair, but I could always get a wig. Nearly all of the palace women wore them.

“Very funny,” I said. “And very true.” We both laughed while the mob of singing, clapping worshippers swirled around us. “I think you should carry this for a while.” I indicated the basket.

“What?” he cried in mock indignation. “The idea! A royal prince does not go through the streets carrying baskets.”