Tiy and the Prince of Egypt (24 page)

Tiy wasn’t exactly sure where she was headed, but she knew the general direction. She followed the Nile south, her leg throbbing as it slapped against the horse. She tried to support it and hold it out from the galloping horse, but that slowed her down, something she could not afford to do. She couldn’t keep up with the sun disk as it lowered into the sky and into the Underworld. It seemed Ra was racing against her.

T
hirsty, tired, and numb with pain, she rode with only the moonlight and rushing water as her guide. The horse’s pace faltered and she knew she wouldn’t be able to push it much further. She tried to encourage the horse and give it strength through the few words she could form from her parched lips, but for most of the journey, her lips were pinched between her teeth. It was all she could to do keep her cries of pain from warning anyone of her presence.

The moon
had reached its peak by the time she saw the first signs of Kerma. She passed a villa or two and then saw the flicker of candlelight in the city windows. She rounded a bend and came into full view of the royal fleet. Reigning in her horse, and without thinking, she jumped from the saddle. Her weakened leg buckled beneath her and she tumbled to the banks of the Nile. With the memory of the crocodile still fresh in her mind, she jerked back to her feet and looked around for the safest place to reach the fleet.

The
night was silent and the barges rocked like dark shadows of emptiness. Terror flooded through her body. Was she too late? She limped toward the center of the fleet where she guessed Amenhotep’s boat would be. Thrashing through the leafy shrubs and thick underbrush, she came upon two soldiers who stood at the bank, spears and shields in hand. She nearly cried out in happiness. They were Egyptian soldiers and they were alive!

Half
limping, half running, she stumbled the final distance toward the two soldiers.

“There is an army coming!”
She whispered, although by the echo coming off the water, she knew her voice carried further than it should.

They
glanced at one another, their faces in a scowl. “We
are
the army,” the taller of the two said. “Now go away, wench.”

Tiy
straightened her back and squared her shoulders. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner?” Despite her anger, she managed to keep her voice low; although she wasn’t sure it did any good. The wind swirled around her ankles, picked up the ragged edges of her humble dress and carried her voice across the river. She realized with a start that they probably didn’t recognize her. With her yellow hair exposed and not a single piece of adornment on her body, she looked nothing like a queen.

“We will
speak to you any way we wish. Be gone you foreign piece of filth or you’ll meet the hilt of my sword.”

Tiy r
eeled back on her heels. “No wonder the Nubians think of us as pompous blockheads. You won’t look past your upturned nose to see the truth before you!”

They glanced at each other again, their scowls deepening. One of
them reached for his sword and Tiy clenched her fists. “If you raise your sword to me, Pharaoh will have you eating sand at the bottom of the desert before morning. Now, fetch me a raft!”

The soldiers smirked. “Who are you to command us,”
the shorter one asked.

“You fool
. I am your Queen!”

Both of them didn’t quite react the way
she thought they would. They doubled over in laughter, their shields shaking in time with their shoulders.

She
didn’t have time for their confusion. The Sudanese army could be moments away from joining the Nubian rebels and no one had been alerted. She thrust her face forward to allow them a better look. “Take me to Pharaoh at once.” she said with more force.

“There is no need,”
a voice called from the dark river.

Tiy
knew that voice and her heart did a flip. The soldiers fumbled around, murmuring excuses and pleading for forgiveness. She heard nothing of what they said, her ears trained on the only voice she cared to hear.

“I was sitting
on deck when I heard you,” Amenhotep said as his papyrus raft met the banks. “I had to see for myself that it was really you.” His grin spread across his face as he leapt off the boat and opened his arms for her. She hobbled up to him and threw her arms around neck, burying her face into his shoulder.

“
What are you doing here, Tiy?” he asked, holding her tight to his chest. “Are you limping?” He pulled her back and bent his face to her level, his eyes searching hers. She wished they had all the time in the world to be together and not have to worry about wars and armies.

“There is no time
to explain,” she said. “The Sudanese army is on their way from the western desert. They plan to ambush you tonight. I rode all day to warn you.”

“Tonight?”

“Yes, a son of a rebel leader told the woman I was staying with. I believe he is telling the truth, or at least he believes he is telling the truth. I didn’t want to take any chances.”

“Hmmm,” Amenhotep said with a nod
. “I received similar intelligence yesterday but was told we should expect them from the eastern desert, not the western. What you say makes more sense, strategically. We have had our sentinels watching the east, not the west.”

“Exactly.”

Amenhotep squeezed her closer to him and rubbed her back, his chin on top of her head. “I’m so glad you are here,” he said. “You can’t image how hard it has been for me to not know if you are safe.”

Tiy swallowed. She could imagine his pain very well.

“Those few weeks when we heard nothing from you were agony. I thought I’d really lost you this time.” He breathed into her hair.

Tiy kissed his bare shoulder, surprising them both. “I’m here now,” she said. “Everything is as it should be.”

“Except for the blasted war. He searched the black desert and then barked several commands to the soldiers. Within moments, the sound of horns filled the air and the entire fleet lit with anticipation, preparing themselves for an attack in any direction.

“
Merymose and Ramose won’t reach us in time. They are on foot and have been fighting battles of their own,” Amenhotep said as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the raft.

“I can walk just fine,” she said, although it felt
wonderful to not have to use her leg.

Amenhotep continued as if she hadn’t spoken, settling her into the raft with the gentleness of a whisper, despite the commotion surrounding them. “Your father’s division could reach us
sooner, but they won’t receive the new intelligence until my messenger is able to reach them.”

“So that just leaves our fleet to fight the entire Sudanese army.” Tiy said.

Amenhotep nodded. “It isn’t safe for you here. I know somewhere close you can go for a few days. The rebels have lost their momentum. I think the Sudanese army joining their forces may have been their last effort to turn things in their favor. We have been able to counter attack all their initiatives, and thanks to you, this last one as well. And I do think it’ll be the last.”

“I’m not leaving you.”
Tiy said.

“I’m not letting you stay
here in the middle of a battlefield. The Sudanese army could be upon us at any moment!”

“I’m not leaving you,”
Tiy repeated.

He was quiet for several m
oments, the sound of water lapping up the sides of the raft filling the silence. Finally, he released her with a heavy sigh. “I can’t say no to you, can I? You can stay on my barge with me
if
you promise to remain below deck.”

“I will, I promise.”

He sighed again and steered the raft toward his barge. He helped her climb aboard ahead of him and then led her to the deepest cabin in the barge.

“Why didn’t you take me to your cabin?”
Tiy asked, surprised.

“Because it is too high and too close to the danger
. You promised.”

“I promised I would stay below, not in this closet
. There isn’t even a porthole.”

“I know,” he said with a smile
. “It’s safer this way.”

She
put her hands to her hips. “And how will I know
you
are safe?”

“Tiy,
my Desert Guardian, you have saved me again. You made me safe by bringing me warning of the Sudanese army. Look at you, your body is worn, you have bandages on your leg for reasons I will want to learn of later, and you have death in your eyes. You need to rest.”

“I have death
in my eyes because an ambush is nearing with soldiers intent on killing you and I’ll be trapped in this hole-in-the-wall not knowing if you are alive or dead!”

The
horn sounded again followed by the whistling volley of hundreds of arrows. They thumped against the sides and decks of the barge, an eerie rhythm against the desperate shouts of soldiers. Amenhotep took hold of her shoulders and held her eyes with burning insistence.

“I have to go to
my men. You will put me in harm’s way if I am constantly worrying about you going above deck. Do you understand? Please, just please, stay here.”

Tiy
nodded, reeling from the raw emotion she saw in his eyes. He was gone before she could exhale a breath. The dull thumping against the barge increased as did the agonizing cries of obsidian arrows meeting flesh. She strained to listen for any cry that could be Amenhotep’s, praying to Monthu, the falcon-god of war, to give him strength, virility, and victory.

As time passed,
Tiy grew more irritated and restless. She picked at the skin around her fingernails, bit her lips, and twisted her hair around her fingers. Each sound above tried every shred of her patience. The barge creaked and groaned as the Nile waters heaved underneath it. The soldier’s boots slapped against the deck as some of them took running leaps off the barge to fight hand-to-hand.

The tiny cabin
grew unbearably hot, so she opened the door to allow in some fresh air, reeling back as a fresh round of ear-splitting screams entered the room instead. Tiy jerked forward out of the wooden doorframe and looked toward the deck, seeing nothing but the wooden planks above her.

Once again curiosity over
powered her better senses and she limped up the stairs to the cabins above. She was still keeping her promise to Amenhotep and remaining below the upper deck, but at least now she could find a cabin with a porthole that would allow her some sort of view and offer a slight respite to her growing unease.

Tiy
stumbled through the first door she came to and entered a dark cabin. It wasn’t much larger than the one below, but it at least had the luxury of a window. She pressed her face against the glass and jumped back in terror. Taking a deep breath, she pressed her face to the glass once more. A swarm of brightly clothed rebels flooded the east banks, with a blanket of black-robed Sudanese soldiers flooding the west.

Egypt’s fleets
were surrounded.

Amenhotep’s already divided army
was split between the two banks. There were not enough of them to hold back the papyrus rafts launching from the banks and drifting toward the fleet of barges. The rafts swarmed with angry rebels and chest pounding soldiers as they shouted and thrust their swords in the air.

“I was too late.”
Tiy whispered aloud. She had arrived soon enough to warn Amenhotep but not soon enough for him to gather the other divisions of his army. Merymose and Ramose were looking for an army from the east. They had no idea Amenhotep was already in the thick of battle.

The papyrus rafts neared and
she watched in horror as they boarded the barges and brandished their swords against the Egyptian soldiers. Steel met steel in a clash of seething rage.

The
barge rocked on its keel and Tiy thrust her hands against the planked walls to keep from stumbling. She hated that she was sequestered below, safe from danger while Amenhotep risked his life for Egypt. She felt undutiful and wormlike as she hid in the dark beneath the storm. Her body squirmed with inaction.

She
watched with increased anxiety as swarms of Sudanese soldiers boarded the deck above her. She could make out their eager faces as they neared and was certain several of them had seen her as well. She stood back from the window, hoping to hide her face in the shadows, but a familiar face made her heart lurch. She pressed her face against the glass again and scanned the faces of the rebels closing in. An Egyptian soldier fell from the deck above, obscuring her view as he plunged into the water below her window. She searched the sea of faces again, but the face she had recognized had already climbed onto the deck.

Tiy
shuffled away from the window, chewing her nails with indecision. It could have been someone else. It could have been a stranger. But she felt sick inside. The face she had seen could very well have been the person she thought it was, the one person she had heard swear on his brother’s grave to kill Amenhotep. She shuddered as the memory of Kamen’s angry face flooded her mind. It had been etched into her memory and she knew she could not have mistaken his face for another’s. She was certain now that it was Wesi’s friend she had just seen board the barge.