The Sleeper in the Sands (33 page)

For Tyi, having left the Harim behind, was determined that she would never now return behind its walls. She had seen for herself how easily a Queen could be deposed and sometimes, when the mood took her, she would stand behind the screen which her husband always used when he wished to inspect his Harim unseen. It amused Tyi to watch her rival, the former Great Queen, sitting with her sisters -- just a Harim-woman now; yet the sight also offered a terrible warning, for Tyi knew that, until she had given her husband a son, her position would never be wholly secure. In truth though, for all King Amen-hetep’s power, she soon learned to despise him, for she saw that he was lazy and loved only his pleasures, and so she made herself adept at providing him with those, confident that it needed no greater skill to rule him. As Tyi began to twist him round and round her finger, so King Amen-hetep grew ever more besotted until at last it was he who was frantic to please her. Watching how she loved to walk beside the lake, the scene of her happiest childhood hours, he enlarged the lake and built a palace on its shores, richer and more splendid than any palace seen before. Upon the waters by its walls a golden barge was moored; and it was upon this same barge that Queen Tyi would be rowed, across the artificial lake or along the flow of the Nile, dressed in jewellery bright with precious stones, and surrounded by her lions, seated on her throne. To the crowds gathered along the shore, eagerly awaiting her scattered munificence, she appeared a vision drawn from the tales of the gods -- and indeed, she had always been spoken of in whispered terms of awe. For people knew how she had survived her fall from the Harim, they wondered at the lions always padding at her heel, and they marked how King Amen-hetep, in the massive sculptures of himself, had his wife portrayed on an identical scale. All these were strange and unheard-of wonders; and so it was no surprise that, as the years began to pass, men started to think of her as a great and fearsome god - greater even, it was whispered, than Pharaoh himself.

But Tyi, brought up in the Harim far away from the world and sometimes still an innocent despite her best attempts, remained ignorant of the effect which she had had upon her subjects. It was her father who finally brought it to her attention. He found her one morning, seated upon the terrace which looked out across the lake, very near to the spot where they had always been accustomed to sit. He stood above her in silence a moment. ‘I have been hearing strange things of you,’ he said at last, dropping a bracelet into her lap.

Tyi picked it up and inspected it closely. There was a plaque lined with gold and crafted from cornelian. It portrayed a goddess with wings and the body of a lion, and the head of a queen which Tyi at once knew was herself. She clapped her hands with delight. ‘But it is exquisite!’ she exclaimed.

‘No,’ said her father. ‘No, it is not.’

Tyi looked up in surprise. His tone had seemed angry, yet her father had never been angry with her before. ‘I do not see the harm.’

‘Look at it more closely’ Her father snatched it from her hand. ‘Can you not see? You have been portrayed as a deadly thing, hungry for prey. People dread you, O my daughter, even as they love you and worship you, for it is said that you are the goddess of the wild beasts of the sand.’

‘Is that my fault?’ asked Tyi with a lazy shrug. She reached down to stroke the head of one of her lions, asleep by her side. ‘I cannot help what people want to believe.’

‘You must disavow it at once.’

‘Disavow it?’

‘You must proclaim to the people that you cannot be a god, for there is only one true God in Whose hands are all things.’

Tyi sat in silence a long while until at last, failing to meet her father’s eyes, she lowered her own and looked away. Joseph sighed and crossed to the steps where the lake waters were gently lapping, a shimmering blue against the marble of the stone.

‘I cannot surrender this,’ Tyi whispered softly as she gestured to where her golden barge lay moored. ‘Not all this.’

‘You would not need to.’

‘It is easy for you to say that. You are a man. You do not face the risk of being returned to the Harim.’

Joseph smiled at her ruefully, but still he shook his head. You may be certain, O my child, that your destiny is a great one, for it was revealed years before, in a dream which was sent by the will of the All-High.’ And so saying, Joseph crossed to her and took her by the hand, raising her up to hold her in his arms; and he told her King Thoth-mes’ dream of the valley of the tombs, and of its meaning that the curse in the royal blood-line would one day be cleansed.

But when he had finished, Tyi frowned and shook her head. ‘If it was my mother whom King Thoth-mes saw holding the jar of water, then how can you be so certain when you speak of my destiny? You might just as well speak of Inen’s or of Ay’s.’

At once, as she looked up into her father’s face, she saw a grey look of pain; and she remembered how she had seen such an expression only one time before, when she had shown herself to him for the first time on the evening after her fall. ‘What is it?’ she whispered. ‘Please -- you are frightening me now.’

She could barely breathe, so tight was her father’s embrace. You will always love me, I trust,’ he whispered at last.

‘But . . . yes . . . yes, of course . . . why would I not?’

‘I . . .’ Her father breathed in deeply. ‘I did not tell you everything when I told you King Thoth-mes’ dream. There was something else - something which the King could never bring himself to say, but wrote upon papyrus on the same day that he died.’

What?’

You may read it for yourself.’

Tyi took the papyrus which her father handed her. She read it very fast, then slowly once again. ‘I ... I do not understand.’

Joseph smiled bitterly. ‘Why, is the meaning not as clear as the sunlight of day? In his dream, even as he watched your mother pouring water from the jar, King Thoth-mes saw himself taking her and filling her with his seed. Certainly, he did not require me to interpret such a vision.’

‘How . . . how do you mean?’

Joseph’s smile grew tighter. ‘When I read the papyrus which King Thoth-mes had given me, I approached your mother’s servant, who confirmed for me that once, some nine months before, the King had given her a potion and ordered her to give it to her mistress that same evening. I have no doubt that the potion served to plunge your mother into sleep; nor do I doubt what King Thoth-mes’ business with her must have been upon that night. I know his dream had been weighing sorely on his mind. He must have thought it a sacred command, sent to him by his gods, to do what he did behind the back of me, his friend.’

‘No.’ Tyi shook her head. ‘No. For, surely ... is it not possible . . .’ She swallowed, then looked away. ‘How can you be certain?’

‘I was not -- not for a long while -- not until I saw you alive despite your fall from the Harim roof. Then I knew that . . . that the blood in your veins could not be mine.’ He smiled at her sadly and stood frozen a moment, then folded her tightly in his arms once again. ‘You will always be my daughter,’ he whispered. ‘My youngest, dearest child.’

Tyi felt the tears wet against the side of her cheek, and she kissed his own gently, then wiped the tears away with her hair. ‘O my father . . .’ she whispered.

He looked at her, and despite his sadness he smiled.

‘The marks of this blood-line -- you said they were a curse?’

‘So I fear.’

‘What might this curse be?’

He shrugged very faintly. ‘I cannot say. All I do know is . . .’ -- he paused a moment, swallowing, then looking down at the bracelet, at the portrait on its plaque -- ‘you must stay true to the will of the All-High. Look upon that. Look upon it closely’ He pressed the bracelet back into his daughter’s hand. ‘Be warned by what you see, and guard yourself well.’

Tyi gazed at her portrait a long while in silence. ‘I remember,’ she said at last, ‘on the evening of the announcement that I was to be the Great Queen, Inen came to me and said how he wished that things were different. I have often wondered what he meant by that, what he might have known.’

Joseph frowned coldly and turned away. ‘A great many things, no doubt.’

‘It is seven years now since I saw him last.’

And in that time he will doubtless have learned even more, for he is very high now, I hear, in the favour of the temple.’

‘Do you think he would tell me any secrets he might know?’

‘If he was willing to trample upon the love of his father, and turn to the worship of sorcery and idols, then do you think he would betray his precious secrets to you?’

‘It may be.’ Tyi smiled, then fastened the bracelet round her wrist. ‘For remember, I am not only his sister, I am also his Queen.’

And so it was that same evening, when she lay by King Amen-hetep’s side, that she repeated everything which she had learned that afternoon, and her husband listened in great confusion and wonder. Seeing this, Tyi determined to press her advantage, and so she demanded that the High Priest be summoned straight away, to reveal to them both all the secrets which he knew. King Amen-hetep, however, grew pale and shook his head, for he dreaded, he confessed, to cross the High Priest of Amen, since the powers of his sorcery lay beyond all mortal scope. But Tyi did not despair, having long grown used to her husband’s terror of the god, and so she worked hard all that night to alter his resolve. Such were her skills, and her arts of persuasion, that in the end she succeeded; and the next morning, together, they proceeded to the temple.

Tyi marked, as they passed through the outer court, with its clanging of gongs, its chanting of prayers, its cries of terror from the sacrificial animals, how her husband-brother had once again grown pale, but she refused to meet his eye and continued along the route. Beyond the second court were two enormous doors, and Tyi gestured to the servants to have them flung apart. As they were swung open, she saw beyond them a vast and flickering darkness, and she felt in her own heart, to her surprise, a touch of fear. ‘O great Pharaoh, O great Queen,’ an unseen voice rang out, ‘you are about to pass from the realm of man into that of mystery, and of the star-dwelling gods. Cross the boundary of the secret realm!’

For the first time since entering the temple, Tyi allowed herself to meet her husband’s eye, but then she turned again and did as the voice had commanded. Passing through the doors, she saw a priest waiting for them, and it took her a moment to recognise Inen, her brother. It was not, though, that he had changed - rather that, despite the passage of seven summers, he had not changed at all. His face was unlined, his body still firm, and he seemed younger, Tyi thought, than she did herself. ‘But Inen,’ she whispered, ‘you are my elder. How can this be?’

Inen did not answer her, however, nor even meet her eye, but turned instead and led the way towards a further gate. It opened ahead of him, and Tyi saw that beyond it there waited another further gate. On and on they led, the roofs of each room becoming ever lower, and the darkness deeper and lit by fewer candles, so that the talismans carved upon the walls could not be read. It seemed to Tyi that the shadows were mocking her ignorance, and she felt her anger flare and ordered Inen to stop. He turned, impassive.

‘What is the secret of this place,’ she demanded, ‘and of the royal blood-line which I share with great Pharaoh?’

‘It is not yet the time for you, O my sister, to find out.’

‘I am the Queen!’ Tyi cried. ‘I may find out what I wish!’

‘No.’ Inen’s voice was suddenly brusque and very firm. ‘Pharaoh may come’ - he bowed very low - ‘for he is ready now to glimpse the mysteries of Amen, and to learn what it means to be descended from the gods. But you, O my sister -- you must still wait.’ And so saying, he turned and walked a few paces on, then rapped upon two doors which were small and set deep in the furthermost wall. They opened with a strange sound, gliding apart without the aid of human hand, and Tyi gazed at them in wonder, for she knew that she was in the presence of a terrible sorcery.

Inen beckoned to King Amen-hetep. He glanced once more at Tyi, his eyes bulging from his head; then he passed very slowly into the darkness beyond. Tyi moved to follow him and brush Inen aside, but he blocked her path, and even as he did so the doors behind him glided shut again. ‘I am sorry,’ he whispered, ‘but you must have patience, O my sweet, much loved sister. For why else would we have permitted you to enter so far into this temple, unless to give you a foretaste of the secrets which will come?’

Tyi breathed in deeply, and did not meet his eye, but gazed upon the doors barring her way. They seemed made of a strange metal, very bright and smooth, and inscribed with markings in an unknown language. She frowned, trying to make sense of them, then shuddered, for she realised that she had never seen their like before - that for all she knew, they might indeed have come from a world of strange gods. ‘Our father . . .’ she whispered, glancing at Inen,
‘our father --
he was right. This is a hellish place.’

She turned and began to hurry back towards the daylight. Inen, though, ran after her and seized her by the arm. ‘Trust me,’ he whispered, ‘I beg you, please!’

‘Then tell me what the secret of this place is, for I fear it terribly’

‘I cannot.’ Inen glanced about him, then lowered his voice still more. ‘But I swear it, O my sister, that the time will come when you will understand.’ He glanced round hurriedly again, then kissed her hand. ‘Everything that I am doing -- O Tyi, it is all for you.’

Then he turned again and vanished back into the shadows, so that Tyi was left alone to return towards the light. All that day, in great perplexity, she pondered her brother’s words and awaited her husband’s return with impatience, confident that he at least would be able to keep back nothing from her. But when he finally reappeared he would say not a word, although his face appeared expressive of a terrible shock, and all that night he muttered and moaned in his sleep. The next morning, Tyi pressed him on the secret once again; but again he resisted her most enticing persuasions. ‘It is forbidden,’ he whispered, the colour draining from his cheeks, as he seemed to drift at the same time into unbidden thoughts. He began to extend his fingers, then to stretch his limbs, as though he had never properly been aware of them before. Tyi gazed at him, alarmed, and sought to take him in her arms, but he shuddered horribly and brushed her away. Then suddenly, as though waking from a nightmare, he stared at her in confusion and reached after her once more; and as he did so, he caught sight of the bracelet on her wrist. ‘What is this?’ he asked, inspecting the image; and then he threw back his head, and began to laugh.