Sphinx's Princess (16 page)

Father laughed. “You’ve made her blush, Tiye! Nefertiti, your aunt’s just paid you a compliment. Say something.”

I lowered my eyes. “Thank you, Aunt—I mean, Queen Tiye.”

She kissed my cheek and said, “You were right the first time. I have enough royal geese waddling after me, honking out empty titles.
You
will call me Aunt.”

I was thankful to have that question settled. “Oh
yes
, Aunt Tiye!” I exclaimed happily.

She waved me to sit in a small chair close to her own. A table holding an alabaster fruit bowl and a pitcher of wine was between us. She served me with her own hands before telling Mery, “Don’t stand on ceremony. Your husband and daughter must be thirsty. Take care of them.”

I saw a hard look come into Father’s eye. He had reason to be angry: My aunt had spoken to Mery as if she were another servant to be ordered around. She was also making no
secret that she favored me above the rest of my family, even her own brother.
Why?
I wondered.
Is it for my mother’s sake? She said they’d been friends, but Father told me she treated my mother like a tool to be used whenever it suited her.
Once again, my aunt’s actions were nothing like her history and I was even more confused.

While we ate and drank, Aunt Tiye kept a close eye on all of us, but mostly on me. “Such a healthy appetite! And yet she doesn’t gobble down everything in sight, like a hippo.”

“Am
I
doing that, Aunt Tiye?” Bit-Bit asked plaintively.

“Certainly not. I would have told you. Really, child, can’t anyone make one remark about your sister without your trying to grab their attention for yourself?”

Bit-Bit looked stricken at our aunt’s casually harsh words, and Father’s face hardened even more, but he said nothing. Mery was the one to speak up: “Mutnodjmet knows better than to do that, Great Queen. She’s not one of those young women who have to have everyone’s eyes on them all the time.”

“Indeed? I’m comforted to hear it,” Aunt Tiye replied blandly. “And how nice to
hear your
voice at last my dear. I owe you a very great debt for how well you raised Nefertiti after Ay lost his first wife. I know he’s grateful to you as well. You must also be commended for how well you’ve steered clear of the stepmother’s greatest snare: treating your true-born daughter better than your foster child.”

“Nefertiti is a daughter to me as much as Mutnodjmet,” Mery said. “What sort of mother would ever treat one of her children better than the other?”

“And yet it happens,” Father said. “Once Tiye was chosen to marry Pharaoh Amenhotep, my parents had trouble remembering they’d ever had a son.”

“You’re exaggerating, Ay,” Tiye said.

“I wasn’t the one who could give them a tomb worthy of the richest noblemen in the Black Land. I couldn’t send them all those luxuries, big and small, that let them live lives of royal splendor until the day they died. And when you became Great Royal Wife, I vanished like a shadow at noon, as far as they were concerned.”

My aunt snorted. “Oh, rubbish! Our family members have always been faithful to one another. There are no exceptions. That loyalty is the source of all the power we have ever earned and the only thing that lets us hold on to that power. Don’t try telling me that you have no enemies, my brother.”

Father raised his wine cup to his lips, frowning. “I do.”

“You’ll tell me about them later,” Tiye said, with a casual wave of her hand. “I’ll see that they’re made harmless.”

“I can fight my own battles, Sister.”

“If you could do that, you wouldn’t have any enemies,” Tiye replied with a wide smile.

“And what about you?” Father asked, flinging the challenge back in her face. “Are you saying
you
have no foes? If so, things have changed very much since the days before Nefertiti was born and you used her mother to—”

“I have
rivals,”
the queen snapped, cutting him off. Her smile was gone. “There is a difference. My royal husband has many junior wives and concubines. I’m sorry to say that he is no longer here at Abydos to receive you, Brother. He’s
already returned to Thebes, supposedly because of pressing business. I know the truth: It’s to be with his newest bride. That is his right as Pharaoh, the living god. I wouldn’t dream of telling a god what he can and can’t do. A pity that some of those foolish women see things otherwise and try to rob me of his devotion. They believe that just because they are royal by birth, they are better than I am.”

“But, Aunt Tiye, you’re the Great Royal Wife!” I protested. “How could anyone be better than you?”

My aunt’s angry expression vanished as quickly as her smile had disappeared before. Her expressions and feelings changed so swiftly that watching her was like trying to keep your eye fixed on a single leaping flame in the heart of a blazing fire. She rose from her chair and seized both my hands, then stripped a silver bracelet from her arm and jammed it onto mine. I couldn’t believe the richness of her gift—silver was much rarer than gold. I couldn’t accept something so precious.

“Aunt Tiye, I don’t deserve this. Please, take it back.” I tried to remove the bracelet and return it, but she clutched my hands so tightly that I couldn’t move.

“I decide what you deserve, my dear,” she said. “Don’t argue with me. I say that your beauty deserves this, and your wisdom seals the bargain. You’re right, you know: I am Amenhotep’s Great Royal Wife. It is the supreme honor for any woman, but even more so for me. Our family isn’t of royal blood, Nefertiti. My father wasn’t even born in this land. He came from the north, from the kingdom of the Mitanni.”

“Like my mother,” I said too softly for her to notice.

“There is no bloodline in all of the Black Land that is more royal than Pharaoh’s,” my aunt went on as she returned to her seat. “It’s more than royal; it’s divine, the blood of the gods. A Pharaoh can have as many women as he likes, but only one can be his Great Royal Wife, and that woman must come from the same family as Pharaoh. That way, the heritage of their child, the next Pharaoh, will stay pure, undiluted by the blood of ordinary mortals.”

Father clicked his tongue. “She
knows
all that, Tiye. I didn’t raise my daughters under a rock. You’re wasting time, teaching a lesson she’s already learned.”

“Why, Ay, I’m surprised at you,” Aunt Tiye said a bit too sweetly. “You should know that I never waste anything. I’m reminding her, not teaching her, because I want her to understand my position. It wouldn’t hurt if you paid attention as well. My status as Great Royal Wife has been
your
good fortune. There are plenty of men who’d love to have your job as Pharaoh’s overseer and investigator in Akhmin.”

“Pharaoh gave me that job because I served him well, and I keep it by my own efforts.”

My aunt’s laughter filled the room. “You’ve been away from court too long, my brother. You’ve forgotten the way things work. Pharaoh’s heart is big and generous, but it’s also changeable and easily distracted. His eyes are drawn to whatever is freshest and most dazzling. Old achievements are covered in the dust of memory, and why should he bother making the attempt to brush them off when he has so many shiny
new
things to see? If some ruthless young
nobleman decides he’d like to manage things in Akhmin, he’s here to give Pharaoh gifts, entertain him with lavish banquets, fill his ears with flattery; flattery and poisonous whispers against
you.
Luckily, no man’s ambitions can touch you as long as I am here. You don’t know how many times I’ve protected and defended you already.”

“And I doubt I ever will know the
true
number,” Father replied.

Aunt Tiye ignored the barb. “You’re my closest living relative, Ay. If we don’t look out for one another, the world will devour us. Your happiness is all I care about. The gods have blessed you with two lovely daughters. I swear by Ma’at, I want both of them to have every opportunity to live rich, perfect lives. As Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep, it will be my joy to give your girls
everything.”

“Everything …” Father chewed over the word like a delicate quail bone. “And what will you want me to give you in exchange?”

Tiye didn’t answer him right away. Instead she turned to me. “Nefertiti, will you please fill my wine cup?” As I rose to serve her, she said, “Look at you, so lovely, so poised. I’ve spoken to the scribe Henenu about you. He tells me you sing prettily, but that your most impressive talent is your superb ability as a dancer. Is that so?”

“I sing and dance,” I replied. “I enjoy it very much, but I don’t think I’m specially talented.”

“None
of that
, young lady.” The queen laughed again as she took her refilled wine cup from my hands. “No misplaced modesty. If you’re good at something, you can admit
it without being vain. So, here you stand, blessed by the gods with so many gifts. I had less than you do when I married, and I was younger than you are now, but I made the most of what I did have. Henenu also tells me that you’re intelligent. That might be useful, too. Yes.”

I began to feel an uneasy, prickling sensation running up my back. My aunt was looking me over closely again and talking about me as if I were a cow she was thinking about buying. But why?

Who
cares
why?
I thought, suddenly furious at this treatment.
She doesn’t have the right to do this to me.

I pulled the costly silver bracelet from my wrist and dropped it onto the little table between us. “Aunt Tiye, this isn’t for me. I’m not worth so much silver. Father and Mother can tell you all about what nearly happened to me at the Festival of the Inundation. Keep this and use it to buy yourself a more sure-footed dancer.”

“What nonsense is this?” My aunt’s soft, round face became a mask of indignation. She surged out of her chair, fists balled at her sides. “Was that miserable dwarf wrong or did he think he could lie to me about you and get away with it? This is
not
how an intelligent girl acts!”

“I don’t know how smart you think I am,” I replied. “But I do know I’m smart enough to tell when someone’s trying to strike a marketplace bargain. Swear by Ma’at’s sacred Feather of Truth that you
don’t
want something in exchange for that bracelet and I’ll apologize to you on my knees! But I don’t think you can.”

“Nefertiti! Don’t you dare speak to Queen Tiye that
way!” Mery’s voice shook. She wasn’t just concerned about my rude outburst; she was afraid.

My aunt glared at me for what felt like an eternity. I held my ground, looking her steadily in the eyes. In the end, she was the one to pull back. Her expression went from blazing rage to mocking amusement.

“Oh dear, Nefertiti, I think we have a problem, you and I. I do swear by Ma’at’s Feather that I gave you that bracelet freely, as a true gift, and yet”—she half-closed her eyes—“and yet, you are also right. I do want something from you, though not in exchange for the bracelet. You see, child, I don’t have to make … ‘marketplace bargains,’ as you call them. I am still Pharaoh’s Great Royal Wife. My word reaches to every corner of the Black Land and beyond. The kings of faraway countries call me sister when they send letters to my royal husband. They know I have great influence over him and that sometimes his treaties, trade agreements, and policies with them are really mine.”

A shadow formed around my heart while I listened to her speak. It grew thicker and darker with every word. I wanted to run into Father’s arms and cower there, but I forced myself to hold my ground.
You frighten me, Aunt Tiye
, I thought.
But I’ve stood up to worse terrors. You are just another dream-lion. You may have plenty of real power, but you have only as much power to scare me as I allow you to have.

I got down on one knee. “So I owe you
half of
an apology,” I said. “I’m sorry I misjudged your gift. I was wrong.” I stood up again. “Now tell me, please, how I was
right.”

The queen’s elaborately painted eyes crinkled at the corners. “My poor, poor son,” she said. “He’ll have his work
cut out for him with a wife like you.” My jaw dropped and she drank in my shock greedily. “You might as well take back my gift, sweet girl. It’s only part of the riches I intend to lavish on you when you become my new daughter.”

“Have you been out in the sun too long, Tiye?” Father was on his feet and across the room in a heartbeat, placing himself like a shield between his sister and me. “Is this why you ordered us here? To marry Nefertiti to your son Thutmose?”

“You make it sound like a death sentence,” Tiye replied dryly. “Thutmose is the crown prince, and I will see to it that he
stays
that way. My husband’s junior wives who boast royal blood and younger faces are always scheming against us. They’d like nothing better than to have one of their nasty brats steal my boy’s future.”

“Are you sure of that?” Father asked sarcastically. “For as long as you’ve been Pharaoh Amenhotep’s Great Royal Wife, you’ve seen sinister plots around every corner. It wouldn’t be the first time that a ghost snake made you jump.”

“I’d rather jump away from a thousand snakes that aren’t there if it means I escape one real cobra. You have no idea what my life here at court is like, Ay. I’ve won many battles, but I’ve had to keep on fighting to hold on to my victories.”

“And you want to drag my daughter onto your battlefield?” Father shook his head. “I want Nefertiti and Mutnodjmet to marry men they love. I want them to live peaceful lives, free from trouble and envy. What you’re offering is nothing like that.”

A sly look touched my aunt’s eyes. “What about your girls, Ay? What do
they
want? To sink into the mud of Akhmin like turtles, watching the days dawdle by, as bland and boring and identical as grains of boiled barley dripping from a spoon? I may have to fight to hold on to my position, but at least I feel alive!” She looked at Bit-Bit and me. “Well, my dears? Do you share your father’s vision for what you’ll become? Do you want to live lives so ordinary that when you die, you’ll hardly notice the difference? Do you want to marry dull men and fill the world with more dull children? The gods have given us only one life. Is that all you want it to be?”