Sphinx's Queen (35 page)

Thutmose must have heard something of my struggles because he paused for a moment at the far end of the lotus pool and peered back to see what I was doing. When he finished laughing, he started running again, but
toward
me.

If that braying jackass gets within arm’s reach, I swear by Bes that I’ll slap the gloating grin off his face
, I thought. With my hem now back around my ankles, I couldn’t break into a wide stride and had to work twice as hard to keep up a good pace. Sweat trickled down my spine. I ran with my hands bunched into fists and felt them become damp. I wasn’t fighting for breath, but it was harder to draw the air in easily. Oh, how much I would have given for the one pin Thutmose refused to let me have!

He overtook me near the place where the willows grew. “Is
this
the direction we’re supposed to run, Nefertiti?” he asked in an irritatingly childish voice. “Or should we be going
this
way?” He ran around me twice, tittering, before sprinting onward.

I was still only halfway along the far end of the lotus pool when he reached the myrtles growing beside the last stretch of the course. Though there wasn’t that much distance between us, he stopped to make fun of me once more. He knew he had the advantage, and he couldn’t keep from flaunting it in my face.

“You’re doing better than I expected, little
gazelle!”
he called out. “Too bad your hooves are tied, or else you might have had a hope of beating me. What luck that hounds are smarter than their prey! Ah well, cheer up. You can teach our sons how to run.” He fell into an easy stride. I could only see the back of his head, but I’d have wagered my life he was grinning like a fully fed hyena.

Then I heard his voice raised in anger. “No cheers for my victory? Not even you, Uni? You shout for your precious
little gazelle
, but not for your master? Curse you all, if you don’t fill the air with your voices, I’ll—!”

They cheered for him before he could finish the threat of what they’d suffer otherwise. Slaves and servants, everyone who feared Thutmose’s wrath, sent up a roar of celebration as loud as it was false. It burst out suddenly, a shock of sound so startling that even I gasped and recoiled in mid-stride.

Somewhere in that eruption of noise, Ta-Miu woke in fright and bolted from the little maidservant’s arms. The panic-stricken cat dashed blindly across the garden path, her flight directly under Thutmose’s feet. She yowled when he tripped over her and desperately tried to keep his footing. Arms flailing in the air, he went stumbling and lurching in a zigzag pattern until he lost the battle and went sprawling over the rough, rocky border stones, face-first into the lotus pool.

I waited until I’d run well past Uni and the witnesses before I drank in a deep, deep breath and drenched myself with laughter.

“What is going on here?”

The voice of Pharaoh turned all of us to stone. Uni looked ready to collapse. The maidservant who’d lost her hold on Ta-Miu broke the silence when she began to weep in dread. From the lotus pool, Thutmose groaned, then cried out in pain.

Without thinking, I rushed to help him, kneeling on the stone border and letting him sling one arm over my shoulders so that I could help him stand. He was a soggy mess, his body streaked with water and slime. A deep, nasty, bleeding scrape ran down one leg from thigh to ankle. When he tried to step away from me, he yelped again: He’d done some damage to his right foot and couldn’t stand unaided. His eyelids fluttered as he blinked furiously through the water still dribbling down his face. He had the empty, bewildered expression of someone who has seen the bottom fall out of the world.

When no one else seemed able to do so, the sturdy female servant who’d first called me “little gazelle” approached Pharaoh and touched her forehead to the dust at his feet. “O my lord Pharaoh, eternal and mighty, I beg for permission to speak.”

“Then rise,” he said tersely. “Tell me what all this means. I heard the uproar from my bedchamber.”

I wondered why he hadn’t summoned guards to investigate what might have been a perilous situation. Then I saw that Pharaoh Amenhotep was holding a massive war club. If the health and strength of the Black Land depended on the health and strength of its ruler, we were safe for many years to come.

The woman got to her feet and told Pharaoh everything. When she spoke about what Thutmose and I had wagered on the outcome of our race, she was wise enough to omit all mention of my forced marriage and to change my prize to “a great feast that my lord Prince Thutmose will give for Prince Amenophis, to celebrate the bonds of love and brotherhood between them.”

“So, an altogether friendly wager.” Pharaoh nodded, pleased. “My son, I’m glad that you’ve made peace with Nefertiti, but above all, I rejoice to find your spirits restored. I’ve been deeply concerned about you.” He signaled for one of the male servants to take his war club, then moved toward Thutmose and me. He tenderly slipped Thutmose’s other arm over his own shoulders. “Let’s get you inside. It’s a shame that your game ended so badly, but we’ll soon mend that. Cats! If they weren’t protected by Bast herself, perhaps they’d treat us with a little more respect, eh? Now, don’t be afraid to lean on me, my son.” He glanced down at Thutmose’s injured foot. “Hmph. That looks broken to me, but I’m no doctor. I’ll send for my physician. Let’s hope he proves me wrong. You’ll be better in no time, and then I insist on helping you arrange that feast.”

Uni recovered his professional poise in time to rush through the doorway ahead of us and see to it that a proper bed was prepared in Thutmose’s real bedchamber to receive the injured prince. As the torch-bearing slaves from the garden began trickling back indoors, the Master of the Household began barking commands in every direction. Pharaoh watched the resulting commotion and chuckled.

“My son, I was going to send one of your people to fetch the doctor, but I think we’ll have him here sooner if I bring him myself.”

“I can do that for you, if you’d like, my lord Pharaoh,” I offered.

“Thank you, dear. That would be—”

“No!” Thutmose made a grab for my hand. “Please, Father, I want her to stay.”

The urgency in his voice put me on edge, but it only made Pharaoh’s brows rise in speculation. “Is that so? Well, I won’t deny a sick man such a simple request.” He left us.

As soon as his father was out of earshot, Thutmose bawled an order to the rest of his servants: “Get out! I want to speak with Lady Nefertiti alone.” They didn’t wait for a second command.

When we were by ourselves, Thutmose shifted his body on the bed and winced in pain. “I think I did break a bone.” He looked up at me with a twisted smile. “Aren’t you going to say ‘Serves you right’ or ‘That’s what happens to those who deny the existence of the gods’ or ‘I’m sorry it wasn’t your neck’?”

“No, I’m not,” I replied. “I might have wanted to push you into the pool, and I definitely wanted to slap you for all of your stupid teasing during the race, but I never wanted you to suffer something like this.” When I saw the skeptical look on his face, I added, “I’m not asking you to believe I’m your friend, Thutmose, but the fact is, I’m not your enemy.”

Uni entered to announce the arrival of Pharaoh’s chief physician. It was time for me to go back to my own quarters. I wanted nothing more than to find my bed and go to sleep, but as I headed for the main door of Thutmose’s apartments, someone called my name. It was the female servant who’d called me “little gazelle.”

“Lady Nefertiti, may I speak with you?” she asked in a low, confidential voice. “There’s something you should see.”

I followed her into the now-unlit garden. The stars above us were losing their light with the waning night, but the woman knew her way. Her work-hardened hand closed on mine as she brought me to a place by the wall where the myrtles’ perfume was heavy on the air. Here I heard the sound of crying and peered into the dark. The maidservant who’d dropped Ta-Miu crouched there, curled up into a ball of tears.

“Why are you out here alone?” I asked.

“He’ll kill me,” the girl whimpered. “I tried to hold the cat, but she kicked and she clawed and I couldn’t do it and the prince fell because of
me
. I can’t go back, I can’t get away, and I don’t know what to do. He’ll
kill
me!”

I knelt beside her and rested my hand on her curved back. “I won’t let that happen. You’re going to come to my rooms and serve me.” She raised her head and looked at me, a tentative glimmer of hope in her eyes. “I’ll send word to Uni and give my
two
maids in exchange,” I went on. “I doubt he’ll make a fuss over such a good bargain. He won’t have time: He’ll be as busy as everyone else here, looking after Prince Thutmose. And if not”—I smiled at her and shrugged—“it’s something we’ll resolve tomorrow.”

15
T
HE
H
ORIZON OF
H
EAVEN

As I’d hoped, Uni was still too upset by his master’s accident and too stressed dealing with the aftermath to block the exchange of servants. My maids were thrilled to be joining the prince’s household—they saw it as a promotion. I sent them off with best wishes for their future and promptly received a rather confused note from Uni, acknowledging the trade. Somehow he’d gotten the impression that it was all his idea. He closed by reporting that Ta-Miu had been found and was a marvelous comfort to her master, who was resting as well as he could with a broken ankle.

I’ll miss you, Ta-Miu
, I thought.
But Thutmose does need you more than I do. I’m glad he bears no grudge against you for tripping him. Thank Isis, he’s capable of love
.

After Uni’s letter arrived, I spent the rest of the morning letting my new maid get used to my rooms and the women’s quarters in general. Her name was Teti, and she was the daughter and granddaughter of royal servants, though her family’s long history of loyal service had done nothing to protect her from a bad-tempered master. She was a hard worker, but she did her chores with one eye on the door, as if fearing the imminent arrival of a messenger from Thutmose, demanding her return. When I told her that there was no need to be afraid of that, she dutifully agreed with me, but her expression said “I know better.”

If I don’t convince her that she’s safe, she’ll never be able to enjoy her new life
, I thought. It will be as if Thutmose still owned her. I considered how I might prove to her beyond all doubt that she was in my household now and finally came up with a plan. “Teti, please come here,” I called. “I need you to help me prepare for a visit.”

“Yes, mistress,” Teti said. “Where will you be going?”

“We
are going to see Prince Thutmose.”

“Ah!” His name nearly sent Teti running back into my rooms, but I grabbed her hand before she could bolt.

“Listen to me: I pledge by the sacred Feather of Ma’at that if I bring you back into the prince’s apartments, I will bring you out again. I want you to know, once and for all, that I will always defend you, my life for yours. Do you trust me?”

She nodded, but again I saw doubt in her eyes and the absentminded way in which she cradled her left wrist, the one that had been broken. I could imagine her asking herself, “Who made such promises to mere servants?”

I do, Teti
, I thought.
I do
.

Teti alone did a better job of helping me bathe, oil my skin, and paint my eyes than my two former maids had ever done. As she slipped a fresh dress over my head, she asked where I kept my jewelry. My laughter at the question baffled her.

“Oh, Teti, this is perfect,” I said. “I was wondering what excuse I could give for going to see the prince, and now I have one: my jewelry! I took it off last night in the garden and left it there.”

“You—you don’t have more?”

“Someone else needed it. If Hathor is willing, I’ll have more someday. If not, we can make me some ornaments from flowers.”

“I can do that, Lady Nefertiti!” she cried eagerly, and dashed away.