Sphinx's Queen (34 page)

Her eagerness to help made me smile. “I’m fine. I’m just getting ready to run.” I stuck my right leg out behind me and tried to bend my left knee, but my dress got in the way of a full stretch. “Hmm. This was
not
intended for running,” I said, standing straight and plucking at the tightly fitting linen. “I’d better go back to my rooms and find something I can move in more easily. Look after the cat for me; I’ll be back right away.” I started for the doorway out of the garden.

“Oh, no, you mustn’t go, Lady Nefertiti!” The little maid ran after me and grabbed my arm, then squeaked over her own boldness and held up her hands as if to proclaim
“I never touched you! Never! And I didn’t mean to do it!”
“My lord Prince Thutmose will be angry if he doesn’t find you awaiting him here.”

“Then tell him I haven’t gone far and that I’ll return quickly,” I told her. “He can wait for
me
for a change.”

She shook her head and looked miserable. “He won’t believe me. When he gives a command and it looks as if it hasn’t been obeyed, he won’t listen to explanations or excuses. If you try to tell him anything about it, he turns the matter over to Uni, and then—” She said no more but discreetly held out her left arm. The wrist had the crooked look of bones that had been broken and not healed well.

I gritted my teeth. I knew that slaves were beaten, even servants. The more powerful and high-ranking a master was, the freer he felt to treat the common people of his household worse than his hunting hounds and chariot horses. It infuriated me.

But what could I do about it here and now, for this one frightened girl, except comply with Thutmose’s orders so she wouldn’t suffer for my disobedience?

That
really
infuriated me.

“Never mind, then,” I said, putting on a pleasant expression. “I’ll wait until he arrives; then I’ll get a different dress. Ha! Maybe I’ll see if I can cut one of my dresses short enough to be a tunic and that’s what I’ll wear to run. I’d love to see the face Thutmose—Prince Thutmose—will make when he sees me like that!”

“Yes, Lady Nefertiti,” the girl replied. She looked deeply relieved.

I rested my hands on my hips. “What is taking him so long?”

“He … I heard …” The maidservant sidled nearer and spoke in a nearly inaudible whisper. “I heard that he wanted to bathe and to have his head and face shaved, and that he’s called for the finest scented oils for his skin, and a fresh kilt, perfectly pleated, and then he wanted Uni to lay out all of his best jewelry so that he could choose what to wear.”

“Hathor save me, he sounds like he’s getting ready to be married.” One corner of my mouth quirked up. I lifted the hem of my dress and wiggled my toes in the dirt. “He’s going to be very disappointed.”

There was a stir from the prince’s apartments and a chain of torches emerged. The line of slaves moved slowly around the garden, dropping off individual light-bearers at regular positions, like a broken necklace slowly shedding its beads one by one. I crossed the garden to follow their course from the doorway, all around the raised stones bordering the lotus pool, under the rustling leaves of a line of sycamores, around the corner of the pool where willows grew, past a magnificent doum palm crowned with fronds like daggers, and through a stretch of the garden where small white myrtle blossoms glowed like stars in a sky of lustrous, dark green leaves. I wanted to examine the path I’d have to run, studying it step by step for any places where it might not be level, where I might discover large stones or loose pebbles underfoot, or where a wayward root, snaking its way out of the carefully maintained beds, might become a hazard.

I had nearly completed my walk around the garden when I heard Thutmose calling my name. He stood outlined in the doorway to his apartments, and the change in him was stunning. There was no denying what a handsome man he was. Even when he’d lain unwashed and unkempt in his self-imposed prison, anyone could still see the perfection of his face and the strong yet graceful shape of his body. Now that he had regained an interest in his appearance and was bathed, scented, groomed, and adorned with a wealth of gold and polished gems, he did look fit to be called a god-on-earth.

If I didn’t know what he was like behind that thin layer of beauty, I would have called myself crazy for rejecting him as my husband. But I
did
know better, and I thanked Isis it was a lesson I’d learned in time.

The future god-on-earth was eating a pomegranate. When I approached him, he spat out a mouthful of pulpy red seeds at my feet.

“Oh,
that’s
nice,” I said, taking a step backward and making a face at him. “Does your nursemaid know what a rude little boy you are?”

He laughed, took another bite of the scarlet fruit, and this time spat the seeds well to one side. “Pardon me, Nefertiti, but I’ve been confined to these rooms for so long that my manners have gathered dust. We’ll begin our race soon. I just want to finish this. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I haven’t eaten properly for a long time.”

“Who are you planning to blame for that?” I couldn’t help myself; he had no right to keep up the pretense of being the eternal victim. “A royal prince doesn’t go hungry in the palace unless that’s what he wants to do.” I tried to push my way past him through the doorway.

He sidestepped to block me. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m not
running away
, if that’s what you think,” I replied. “I’m going to my rooms to change my dress for something with more room.”

“No, you’re not. You’ll run our race in what you’re wearing now. I don’t have the time to wait for you.”

“You mean you’re afraid that if I’m free to run at my best, you won’t have a chance against me.”

He glowered at me so viciously that there was no denying I’d hit the target. Then he smiled stiffly and said, “When you consented to let this contest decide things between us, you agreed to the conditions I set for our competition. My race, run under my terms, or no race takes place at all. If you leave now to return to your rooms, you can stay there. Nothing will change from the way things are now. Is that what you’d like?”

Nothing would change. The walls Aunt Tiye had built around me would remain in place, keeping me apart from Father, Mother, Bit-Bit, Nava, Henenu, and, above all, my beloved. The days and the seasons would pass, and Pharaoh’s heart might soften toward his oldest son and reinstate him as his heir. Aunt Tiye would work toward that goal with every grain of strength and willpower in her being.

And when Pharaoh Amenhotep dies, Thutmose will have the double crown on his head, the crook and flail in his hands, and his brother’s throat under his heel
. The thought of how Thutmose would use his unchecked, limitless powers against Amenophis terrified me more than any notion of how he might use those same powers against me.

If I let nothing change tonight, a day would come when
everything
would change.

“Fine,” I spat. “Have it your way. I’ll still win.” I walked back into the garden, head held high, and motioned for the little maidservant who’d been attending me. “See if you can find some pins to help me hold up this skirt,” I told her.

“Yes, Lady Nefertiti.”

“No
, Lady Nefertiti.” Thutmose folded his arms across his chest and defied me to object.

“You said I was to run the race in what I’m wearing now. And I will! Do you think that
one pin
will be enough to defeat you?”

“But you’re not wearing that
one pin
now.”

I pointed at the gaily colored sash that bound my waist. “I’m wearing
this
now. Do you have a good reason why I can’t use it to shorten my dress, or do you need time to patch one together?”

He shrugged. “You can do anything you like to prepare yourself for our contest as long as you do it quickly and you add nothing to what you’ve already got on.”

I tore off my sash and handed it to the little maidservant. “When I pull up the fabric, tie this tightly around my—”

Thutmose snatched the sash from the girl’s hands. She cringed. “I said
you
can do anything you like to get ready for our contest,” he said. “You
alone.”

“And I
suppose
you did all that yourself?” I waved one hand up and down, indicating Thutmose’s splendid appearance.

“None of it was done
after
I set foot on our racecourse,” he said smoothly. “Now that I’m here, I’ll abide by the same rules as you. You can see for yourself that no one will lift a finger to help me.” He removed his sandals with two casual kicks and showed me his teeth. “There. All by myself. Satisfied?”

I refused to rise to the bait of another exchange with him. He was getting too much pleasure out of taunting me. I was no sorceress, but there were times I could make certain people invisible by ignoring them so thoroughly it was like they’d never existed. I banished Thutmose’s wickedly grinning face to oblivion and spoke to the still-shivering maid as if we were alone.

“My dear, I won’t need your help with my dress after all. Will you please do me the favor of catching Ta-Miu and holding her until the race is over? I’m afraid she might get too excited or take fright and wind up in the pool. There must be a basket you could use for her.”

“Why are you giving orders to
my
servant about
my
cat, Nefertiti?” Thutmose knew he was being ignored and barged in to put an end to it. “Have you forgotten that you gave her back to me, or were you hoping I’d forget?” He clapped his hands in the maid’s face. “Find Ta-Miu and keep her safe, but not in a basket, as if she were a load of figs. Let her watch the race and bring me Bast’s blessing.”

“Yes, my lord Prince Thutmose.” The girl hurried away. Soon she had Ta-Miu in her arms and was standing next to Uni and a group of three torch-bearers at one end of the garden pool. The little cat seemed content to cuddle into the maid’s arms and purr herself to sleep.

I couldn’t resist shooting a small barb at Thutmose: “It looks like Ta-Miu would rather watch dream-mice than witness your performance. So much for Bast’s blessing.”

He gave a disdainful sniff. “As if I needed it!”

I did the best I could to fix my dress, rolling up the material at the waist until the hem was halfway up my calves. I passed my sash under this clumsy ring of fabric, tied a double knot, then began removing the few pieces of jewelry I wore. They weren’t too heavy and wouldn’t weigh me down, but I didn’t want to feel them slapping against my skin as I ran.
No
distractions!

“I’m not
adding
anything to what I’m wearing!” I called out to Thutmose, in case he wanted to come up with a new twist to his rules.

“I never said a word,” he replied, all innocence. “I’m simply waiting for you to begin.”

We walked to the spot he’d picked for the start of the race, at the short end of the lotus pool that lay closest to the doorway back into his apartments. “Twice around, remember, and we end there,” he said, pointing to where Uni stood, his shaved head shining in the light of three torches. Dropping to one knee on the raised stone border, Thutmose stretched his hand over the glittering waters of the pool and plucked a single blue flower. “When it touches the ground, we go.” He tossed it into the air.

We watched intently as the handful of fragile petals came to earth and then—we were off! I ran as fast as I could, my eyes focused on the path ahead of me. Torchlight cast some shadows that could be mistaken for obstacles and others that might conceal a hazard on the ground. My feet crunched over earth and crushed stone as a breeze lifted my hair. Thutmose was only a few strides ahead of me, running with a weird, uneven gait. Once I thought I saw him stagger and veer to one side, then catch himself and put on a short, sharp burst of speed just before I caught up.

What’s the matter with him?
I thought. I remembered the servants in the hallway who’d spoken about his lack of appetite. His own words came back to me as well:
I haven’t eaten properly for a long time
.

Was that it? Had his self-imposed hunger weakened him too much for any last-moment meal to repair the damage? If that was so—O merciful Isis!—I was sure to win this race. I pushed myself to run faster, and as we turned the corner of the pool where the doum palm grew, I left him behind.

Five of Thutmose’s servants were gathered near Uni at the spot where the race would finish once Thutmose and I had circled the pool one more time. They were the ones he’d chosen to play witness—four broad-shouldered men and an older woman who looked strong enough in her own right to pick up her fellow witnesses and shake them like wads of wet laundry. As I rushed past her, she shouted, “Well done, little gazelle!”

The men with her laughed; then one of them called out, “Don’t let the hound catch your scent!”

A second joined in the spirit of things: “Leap, little one, leap! Over the thorn bush and you’re safe!” The third and fourth men had their own jests to add, and I smiled and waved my appreciation as I turned the next corner of the pool, flew past the entryway to Thutmose’s rooms, and trampled over the lotus that had signaled our contest’s start. I’d begun the second and last round of the race and Thutmose hadn’t even finished his first circuit of the course. I wanted to spread my arms like wings and laugh.

Another voice laughed first. I heard running feet coming up rapidly behind me, the drumming of their bare soles drawing closer and closer, faster and faster, until Thutmose shot by me like an arrow. “Did you like my little dance, Nefertiti?” he called over one shoulder. “But
now
I run!”

So do I
, I thought grimly, and put fresh power into my pumping legs. As I tried to catch up to Thutmose, to my horror I felt the rolled-up dress material at my waist begin to come undone. First on one side, then the other, the thin linen slid down in spite of the sash securing it. I tried yanking it back in place as I ran, but without the time to gather it patiently and evenly, I wound up hampering myself even more. The narrow bottom of my dress became a noose that tightened around my legs. I stopped fighting it when it threatened to become a tangle that was sure to send me sprawling.