'Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the River, take both, since they are brothers,' suggested another voice. The speaker sounded male and a little curt. I believe that it was the Master of the Scribes. I didn't know that they knew about us.
'No. One alone, who will love me, is what I want,' said the King. My heart gave a startled jolt, as though a hand had seized it. I slid my hand across and grasped that of my heart's brother, horrified that we were to part.
'This one,' said the light, careful voice of the King, and laid the flail of Kingship gently across my shoulders. I shuddered at the touch.
Thus I was given my freedom, though it was bitter at the time with the parting from the only one I loved. Thus I became personal scribe to the Pharaoh's son Akhnamen, Amenhotep IV, who is called Live the Horus, Mighty Bull, Lofty of Plumes: Favourite of the Two Goddesses: Great in Kingship in Karnak: Golden Horus: Weaver of Diadems in the Southern Heliopolis: King of Upper and Lower Egypt: High Priest of Re Harakhte Rejoicing- in-the-Horizon, Heat which is Amen, Neferkheprure-Wanre, which means in the common tongue Beautiful One of Re, Unique One of Re.
CHAPTER TWO
Mutnodjme
It is a serious business, marrying a Pharaoh.
This is because he is also a God, the avatar of Amen-Re, Lord of All. He takes many women as concubines and secondary wives, but there is only one Great Royal Wife, and it is through her that the crown is gained. Therefore he is usually required to marry his sister.
The case of Akhnamen was unusual. Everything about my sister's husband was unusual and I found myself wishing, sometimes, that Prince Thutmose, his elder brother, had not died after being bitten by a snake. The physicians and the priests had laboured over him as he shivered and screamed, but their spells had not found favour with the Gods and Thutmose, the eldest son and his father's delight, had departed to the Field of Offerings, the pleasant land where the ka of the person goes after death.
It is well known that a person has five elements: the ka, or double; the khou, or soul, the little flame which burns over the ka; and the ba, or the body-spirit. Then there are the Name and the Shadow, but only priests really understand these mysteries.
I have at last been allowed to stop tormenting flowers and I am sitting at my sisters feet, already dressed in my own best garments, listening to Tey's instructions as the bath-women massage Nefertiti with scented oil. My mother's voice is sharp and precise. She says exactly what she means, and she knows everything.
'This is a great honour, daughter, and it has been bestowed on you because Tiye the Queen may she live is your father's sister. You are required to serve the Pharaoh, please him, and bear him a son.'
'Mother,' Nefertiti murmurs, 'that may not be possible'.
'You have heard the rumours, then?' asked Tey. She is sitting in a leather saddleback chair and she is picking the gold leaf off one of the lion's head finials. I can see her nervous fingers, dark and skilled, smeared with golden dust.
'They say that he is impotent,' Nefertiti did not sound perturbed, but then she never did. Her nature was as sweet and still as cream.
'You must do your best,' said Tey. Then she sat up straight and clapped her hands, gesturing to the door. The servants left without comment - Tey would never keep a servant who did not obey her instantly - and the door closed.
'You know the situation, daughter,' said my mother. 'Amenhotep the Third may he live and his son, are co-regents. The next King was to have been Prince Thutmose but he is gone. The King strives to teach the Lord Akhnamen wisdom such as he himself richly owns, but the Heir was idle and mystical when he was just a prince. Now he wishes to do nothing but consider the deep matters of the Gods which would be better left to priests, whose business they are.
'And the King Amenhotep is aging - health and strength be unto him - so your Lord may soon be Lord of all Egypt, may that day be long delayed! Before this happens, a son is needed.'
'Why didn't my Lord Akhnamen marry his sister the Princess Sitamen?' I asked from the floor. Tey jumped, saw that it was only me, and answered briskly.
'Because his father had already married her. There is no Royal Heiress for the Heir to marry, so he has done this house great honour in choosing Nefertiti. Your questions will not spoil, Mutnodjme, if you keep them in your mouth until later!'
'Do not scold her, Mother,' my beautiful sister drew me closer to her scented breast. 'It was a good question. And the problem remains, Mother Tey. I do not need rumours, I can see for myself that there is something amiss with the Heir; though he is gentle, they say. If no seed springs from him in my womb, what shall we do?'
'We will think of something,' said Tey. 'I will be near, daughter, we will talk again. Let me look at you.'
Nefertiti stood up and Tey herself draped the gown over her; the finest pleated gauze-thin linen, through which her delicate pale limbs moved, as visible as a woman swimming in milk. The fashion for short, neat wigs, the sort that they called Nubian, suited my sister's pure line of jaw and nose. The jewels of the Pharaoh were laid on her shoulders and arms, and I thought that they weighed her down. My sister was more beautiful in her bare skin as Khnum the Potter made her on his wheel, than any lady dressed in the most precious garments, the richest topaz, turquoise and gold.
Tey my mother adjusted the counterweight which held the great pectoral in balance across the slender shoulders and flicked an errant strand of hair into place.
'You are beautiful,' decided Great Royal Nurse Tey, and led Nefertiti to the door. She moved as she always did, with elegance and economy, like a dancer in the temple of Hathor, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and the attendants, waiting outside until we should please to emerge, leapt to their feet. There were a hundred women in fine gauze and all of their jewellery. The scents of jasmine and myrrh were so strong as to be almost a stench. In homage to her beauty, the naked musicians carried Hathor's sistra before my sister on the way to her marriage with the Pharaoh Akhnamen may he live. We entered the corridor to the music of harps and drums and little bells.
That was the first time I saw him whose wisdom is famous throughout the whole world. Barbarian Kings sing his praises, and his own scribes and priests bow down to his sagacity: Pharaoh Amenhotep, Lord of the Upper and Lower Crowns.
He was old and fat and I was very disappointed.
We came in to the great hall of the Kings, our music about us, to stand before the two thrones. They were on a high dais with eleven steps. The thrones were of black wood, inlaid with lions and lotuses, and the king's enemies were on his footstool; defeated Nubians and Asiatics and Hittites. The carved figure of Amenhotep may he live was holding three of them at once by the hair.
Our sandals made a rustling on the inlaid marble floor, as though the papyrus remembered its reedy home. I was right behind my sister Nefertiti, a little stunned by the drumming and the music and half suffocated by perfumes.
Nefertiti was led toward the thrones by Father Ay, soon to be Divine Father. I had not seen him often during my life. He was wearing so many jewels that he glittered in the dawn light; a stocky man with dark skin, like mine and my mother's. He was scowling, as he usually was. He had shown no interest in me.
The women said that he had been very much in love with his concubine, who bore him one dazzling daughter before she died, and he visited my mother only occasionally. First wife has the position, concubine has the attention; that is what the women said. Perhaps that also was a maxim of Amenhotep may he live! for he had almost a hundred wives; though they said that he doted most on the red-headed woman, Tiye the Queen, who had been his first wife and still lay with him almost every night.
Nefertiti was approaching the throne. She sank down, graceful as a bird, while the music died away and there was silence. It extended for so long that I grew bored. We could not move until one of the Kings was pleased to speak to us.
I tried lining up my new sandals on the golden lotuses