Valley of the Kings

by Terrance Coffey

  Teppy was aroused by her movements across his body and the warmth of blood rushing into his extremities. She quickened her rhythm as Teppy grabbed ahold of her, and the two moved and moaned, groping each other, until his ecstasy gave way to climax. Nefertiti collapsed on Teppy’s chest, and from the twilight till the morning sun, he held her close in his arms.

  WHEN TEPPY AND NEFERTITI AWOKE, they began the day by teaching their two daughters hieroglyphics as their newborn Senpaten slept soundly in her bed. Teppy trusted no one else to tutor his children, afraid that someone might discover their secret birth names if they were taught outside of their presence. While Nefertiti taught Meketa and Mayati the meaning of the symbols, Teppy taught them how to draw them on a papyrus scroll. They both delighted in creating pictures of all the flora and fauna they had seen the day before on their trip to the river. Teppy’s time with them reminded him of treasured moments from his childhood, when Tuthmosis would teach him to draw animal pictures.

  Ay halted the children’s teaching session when he came to inform Teppy that General Horemheb needed to speak to him urgently. Speaking to Horemheb was something Teppy tried to avoid. He was not versed in the tactics of war, nor capable of leading an army due to his deformity, thus he avoided contact with the general.

  Ay and Nefertiti escorted the children from their chamber and sent Horemheb in to see Teppy. The general was dressed in his officer’s uniform with his breastplate and helmet polished and shined. He looked valiant and poised to conquer. His size and muscularity intimidated Teppy, and the scowl on the general’s face was evidence that he would not like what he was about to hear.

  “Pharaoh, your order to execute the rogue Nubians that attacked our outpost and killed our viceroy has been carried out. However, some members of their tribe escaped and joined forces with the Libyans in halting our shipments of gold. They’re attacking more Egyptian outposts in the other surrounding lands. We must act soon before we lose control of the entire region.”

  “Act how?” Teppy replied.

  “By sending a regiment of our forces out into the kingdom of Kush where they have taken refuge.”

  “What is stopping you, general? Subdue them.”

  Teppy went back to drawing hieroglyphics on the papyrus scroll. He had no interest in war; it only brought misery and death. War was why his brother had never returned to him. War was evil, and it was sure to drain the royal treasury.

  “My warriors are afraid to fight because the priests of Amun proclaimed they will no longer petition the war god Montu in ensuring our victory against the Nubians,” said Horemheb.

  This inflamed Teppy, but he refused to let the general see him angry. The Amun priests were succeeding by flaming superstitions and fear mongering. They had taken control of his people, his workers, and now with their warning to the army, threatened the potential wealth of Egypt. Teppy felt trapped. The only thing left he had control over was his demeanor. He turned to Horemheb, trying to appear calm and unaffected.

  “Then you should execute the Egyptian warriors that refuse to follow your orders,” Teppy said as he stood up and rolled up the scroll.

  “If I were to do as you say, my Pharaoh, Egypt would be without any warriors. Most of them are afraid of the Amun priests’ curse.”

  “If what you’re asking me, general, is to give in to wicked priests; that’ll never happen. Let each Egyptian soldier pay the price for his rebellion against Egypt.”

  “Pharaoh, are you not aware that the Hittites are a looming threat to the stability of Egypt’s tributaries? I need all my men,” said Horemheb.

  Queen Ty walked into the room and interrupted him.

  “I would wager that our general is more concerned with avenging the death of Lady Lupita with a war against the Hittites than he is of stabilizing our tributaries,” she mocked.

  Horemheb ignored her. “Pharaoh, we’ll continue our discussion when it can remain private,” he said before he gave the queen a flippant look and walked out of the chamber.

  Queen Ty stepped up to Teppy. “He’s not to be trusted. The general is a traitor of his own country,” she said taking her son’s hand and kissing it.

  “No, mother,” he replied, pulling his hand away. “General Horemheb worships his country, and father worshiped him.”

  Teppy moved away from his mother and took a seat at his table.

  “Enough of Horemheb,” she said. “Have you sent the gold statue to King Tushratta as your father requested in his last will and decree?” asked the queen.

  “It should have reached him many days ago. Why?”

  “I received this from a Mitanni messenger today.”

  The queen removed a scroll from her garment, opened it, and read it out loud:

  To Queen Ty, lady of Egypt, thus speaks Tushratta, king of Mitanni.

  Everything is well with me. May everything be well with you. May everything go well for your house and your son. May everything be perfectly well for your soldiers and for everything belonging to you.

  You are the one who knows that I have always felt friendship for Amenhotep, your husband, and that Amenhotep, your husband, on his part always felt friendship for me. The things that I wrote and told Amenhotep, your husband, and the things that Amenhotep, your husband, on his part wrote and told me incessantly, were known to you. But it is you who knows better than anybody the things we have told each other. No one knows better.

  You should continue sending joyful embassies, one after another. Do not suppress them. I will not forget the friendship with Amenhotep, your husband. At this moment and more than ever, I have ten times more friendship for your son, the pharaoh.

  You are the one who knows the words of Amenhotep, your husband, but you have not sent me yet the gift of homage which Amenhotep, your husband, ordered to be sent to me. I had asked Amenhotep, your husband, for massive gold statues, but your son has sent gold-plated statues of stone. As the gold is like dust in the country of your son, why have they been the reason for such pain, that your son should not have given them to me? Neither has he given me what his father was accustomed to give.3

  --------------------

  Teppy was silent.

  “Is it true?” she asked. “You have disregarded your father’s decree and have only sent a gold-plated statue to king Tushratta?”

  “My dear father-in-law continues to raid and steal from our Eber-Nari tributaries while he pretends to nurture a friendship with us. Why should I keep enriching Mitanni with our treasures?” Teppy said.

  “It serves your father. It was his will and decree.”

  “Father is dead. He is not the pharaoh anymore, Mother. I am.”

  THE UNFINISHED PILLARS of the Gempaaten temple cast broken shadows on the silent construction grounds as Neper approached Meri-Ra. The Amun priest had requested to meet with him alone.

  “I couldn’t risk being discovered,” Neper said as he removed the cloak concealing his face. “Here, no one will see us.”

  “Why have you summoned me? And why is it necessary to hide?” Meri-Ra asked.

  “I fear the pharaoh is in great danger,” said Neper.

  “In danger?”

  “There is a plan to overthrow him.”

  “And what evidence do you have of this?”

  “Are you aware of the Amun statue in our temple?”

  “I am.”

  “The blood dripping from its mouth, the thunderous sounds it makes, it’s all tricks to manipulate the people into fearing us,” said Neper.

  “But I’ve seen it myself with my own eyes.”

  “An illusion, made from contraptions that engineers have built for us and hidden beneath the temple itself.”

  Meri-Ra looked unconvinced and wondered instead if Neper had devised a plan against him.

  “I can prove to you that it’s true if you’re willing to meet me at the Amun temple. I will show you there in private, the contraptions, how it’s done,” said Neper. “Sia will be away administering to the Mut god.”


  “What does this have to do with a plan to overthrow the pharaoh?”

  Neper exhaled before speaking again. Meri-Ra hoped it was the coolness of the night that made Neper tremble so.

  “The one who is planning to overthrow pharaoh Teppy is my twin Sia. He is being assisted by the other Amun priests. That is the reason he has threatened the people with curses from Amun and using illusions from the statues. What I’m telling you is the absolute truth. You must warn the pharaoh before it’s too late,” said Neper.

  “Why are you revealing this to me? You are an Amun priest yourself, and I am a priest of the Aten. There’s hatred between our gods.”

  “It is written in the old scrolls that twins are blasphemous and despised by Amun. I fear that my twin is conspiring to kill me so that there will only be one of us, as it was meant to be from the womb,” said Neper.

  The priest’s nervousness and paranoia now made sense to Meri-Ra. If Sia planned to overthrow the pharaoh and his twin was found to have revealed his secret, his life would indeed be threatened.

  “I’ll come to you by dawn tomorrow,” replied Meri-Ra.

  Neper covered his face with his cloak and exited the Gempaaten temple leaving Meri-Ra concerned for his own life. The Amun priests were known to be volatile at the threat of their discrepancies being exposed. Because they wielded unlimited power over the people of Egypt, a common citizen could be induced by them to stab or even stone Meri-Ra to death.

  THAT NIGHT, QUEEN TY found it hard to sleep. She got up, sat down in front of her mirror, and while shaving her head, a noise of metal crunching against metal startled her. Ty stepped out into the palace hallway and found it vacant. Within a moment of returning to her seat, an image of Lupita flashed across her mirror. Ty lurched around. No one behind her.

  Afraid someone was hiding in her chamber, she rushed out into the hallway again. It was still quiet with Teppy’s royal guards standing post. The only sound was from her own erratic breathing.

  “It’s the wine,” the queen whispered under her breath. She walked back into her chamber trying to convince herself of it. An object gleamed on the floor, and she reached down to retrieve it. Perplexed by its appearance, the queen held it tight in her hand. It was not a wine-induced figment of her imagination. It was the matching lapis-lazuli earring she had given Lupita.

  CHAPTER 18

  Queen Ty arrived at Horemheb’s military camp just days after their confrontation. She assumed the general would expect that it was nothing more than her desire to continue their dispute.

  Women were not allowed at military training camps, and certainly a refined queen would never want to be tainted with the smell and sweat of war. Nevertheless, Queen Ty’s chariot thundered in, and she stepped out from it in awe at the hundreds of young boys practicing archery, spear hurdling, sprinting, and wrestling. She had seen drawings of this on the palace columns and pottery jars, but it didn’t appear as fascinating as it did in the flesh.

  Horemheb marched in front of her, disrupting her gaze. “My queen—”

  “I came to speak with you general,” she said, her eyes still fixed on the young boys engaged in their training exercises.

  “This is not the place for a female, not to mention a queen,” said Horemheb.

  “You have no authority to tell a queen where she can or cannot appear.”

  “I do have the authority to act on behalf of your well-being. The training grounds are dangerous,” replied Horemheb.

  The queen interpreted Horemheb’s advice as another instance of his blatant disrespect for her.

  “If I need your advice, General, I'll ask you for it,” she said, handing him a leather pouch.

  Confused, Horemheb opened it and pulled out what appeared to be her lapis-lazuli earring.

  “Why have you brought me this? This is Lupita’s earring that I returned to you,” said Horemheb.

  “I have the one you returned to me, general. It’s put away. This is the matching one you planted in my chamber last night to frighten me into your extortion.”

  Horemheb handed it back to her. “There was only one earring found, and I gave it to you.”

  “If it wasn’t by your hand, then it was by someone you convinced to carry out malicious deeds on your behalf,” said Queen Ty.

  Her purpose was not to quarrel, only to inform him she knew of his machinations. “Whatever scheme you are conjuring against me,” she purposefully left the sentence unfinished and returned to her chariot.

  “I am the general of this army, not a conjuring priest, nor do I have time for childish games,” said Horemheb. “

  “Make sure we have a sufficient amount of guards at the Aten temple for my son’s Sed-Festival.”

  “I know nothing of a Sed-Festival, that would be senseless. Sed-Festivals are celebrated in the thirtieth year of a pharaoh’s reign, not the fifth as it is with pharaoh Teppy,” said Horemheb.

  “You have been made aware of it now,” she replied, motioning her driver to pull away.

  Queen Ty understood why Teppy needed to prove his vitality early in his reign. The Sed-Festival would offer proof of his strength and a confirmation of his right to rule, demonstrated in front of Horemheb and the Egyptian citizens. As a mother aware of the limitations of her child, she worried if Teppy had the physical ability to endure it.

  THREE DAYS LATER, in the Colonnade court of the old Aten temple, Teppy appeared in front of the massive crowd of Egyptian citizens, dressed in a short cloak that reached the length of his knees. Teppy appeared confident along with his royal wife Nefertiti and his daughters, Mayati and Meketa, in attendance. Their faces were filled with pride as they waved at the crowds and received thunderous roars of applause in return.

  Teppy shuddered inside—vulnerable and preoccupied with what Meri-Ra had told him just hours earlier. He would have to be alert and cautious at all times in the company of Sia and the Amun priests. If they could rig statues to perform illusions in the face of the people, how much more possible that in an audacious move they might attempt to overthrow him during the Sed-Festival itself? The additional one-hundred and fifty royal guards posted throughout the Colonnade court were meant as a deterrent to any such uprising.

  Compounding his concerns, a row of tenebrous clouds moved across the sky, obscuring the sun. It worried him that the Aten god’s presence might be blocked from sight during his run. He kissed his Aten amulet, and the engraving of the sun’s rays shining down on the pharaoh reassured Teppy that the clouds would soon dissipate and he would have the courage of his brother Tuthmosis.

  The Colonnade temple courtyard was flanked on one side by a chapel dedicated to the Aten god and the image of the jackal. On the opposite side stood the double throne of Egypt, the finish line of his run. The competition began in the open space between the rows of shrines, a one hundred twenty-five-cubit course with spaces evenly separated by three markers.

  Meri-Ra bowed in front of Teppy holding the royal scroll in his hand. It represented the pharaoh’s sovereign right to rule and his ownership of the two lands of Egypt, Upper and Lower. The priest said a prayer to the Aten and handed Teppy the scroll. He looked up into the sky, nervous and apprehensive that the clouds still obscured the Aten’s rays. How can I complete the seven times around the course without the power of the Aten? Teppy paced back and forth, thinking it would mask his fears from the people. If they had no faith in him as a physically fit living god, it would only be a matter of time before the Amun priests could justifiably rally the citizens to their side, shaming him and his family from royalty.

  The roar of beating drums and the cheering of the crowd grew. Teppy rubbed the Aten amulet, and turned to face the course. He took one last look at his wife and his daughters, vowing that he would never let them see failure.

  After a silent prayer, he began running the boundaries of the field with the royal scroll clutched tight in his hand. Though his pace was slow, the crowd cheered him on. His euphoria from their enthusiastic support was not eno
ugh to stop his legs from weakening, and when he felt his heart pounding against his chest and his breath quicken, panic struck him. He had abandoned faith that he could even make it past the first round of the course, and before reaching the first marker, Teppy’s legs collapsed under him.

  As he fell to the ground out of breath, the sound of the crowd dissipated, and all that was left was silence—the emptiness of being alone in the world, alone without his brother, Tuthmosis, to carry him from this nightmare, alone without his mother to help him back to his feet and make the pain go away.

  Out of respect for himself and his family, Teppy tried to lift himself from the ground, but each time he fell back down. Nefertiti sprang from her seat and ran across the field toward him carrying his cane. She had tears in her eyes when she reached her hand out to help him. Suffocated by her pity, he pushed her away.

  "I am strong, I am the pharaoh,” he said to her.

  With what little pride he had left, Teppy pushed himself up from his elbows and back onto his feet. The crowd, not sure of how to react, remained silent. Nefertiti handed Teppy his walking cane. He took it and limped the rest of the way to the finish line in front of the double throne.

  As was traditional, an Apis bull was brought forward by the hand of the Amun priests, Sia and Neper. They had adorned the black bull calf with flowers and jewelry, and Sia said a prayer over it before leading the animal to the pharaoh and walking away. Both priests avoided looking Teppy in the eye during the ceremony; however, when Neper, the twin with the scar on his neck, strolled past the pharaoh, it appeared from his gaze that the priest wanted to reveal something to him. Teppy witnessed Sia glance in Neper’s direction, causing the nervous priest to abandon his urge.

  Teppy refocused his attention on the eyes of the bull. There was nothing there except fear. He rubbed its head to calm the animal’s spirit and shouted the words of praise from the scroll: