“You are my Queen, my chief royal wife,” he said. “As there is one god of Egypt.”
Those words, though technically what she wanted to hear, were said with a distain, and their distaste crept onto Nefertiti’s face.
Nakht stood up and said through his teeth, “I will notify the state officials to carry out your order.” He bowed and then, as he straightened, said, “Pharaoh, if I may, this action may cause another rebellion.”
“The Aten has not given me any such vision. Be on your way.”
Nakht nodded and left for Waset.
General Paaten stood behind Queen Tiye and watched Nakht leave the room. He closed his eyes, knowing the vizier had spoken the truth.
Before anyone else could garner the courage to speak, Pharaoh said, “Pharaoh is tired and will retire for the evening. You all shall do the same,” and left the room.
Nefertiti felt pity in her heart for the man. He was clearly not himself. She wished they had never moved here. The sun—the Aten—was taking away the man she loved, Amenhotep, the man she married and to whom she gave four daughters. The fifth one, however, was born to Akhenaten, a father who couldn’t even turn out to see his new child.
Nefertiti stood up slowly, trying not to revisit the shockwave through her back, and left the room with the others in silence, her face flushed with embarrassment for both herself and her husband. She wanted to cry, but she willed her tears to stay welled inside her eyes.
Aitye stood by the council room, waiting for the Queen to come out. When Nefertiti appeared, she and another servant helped their Queen to her chambers to draw her another warm bath.
“The water is ready, my Queen,” Aitye said as she finished placing the last lotus blossom in the water. The maidservants helped her undress and Aitye helped lower her into the stone pit.
Akhenaten has still not come to our bed, Nefertiti thought. I wonder if he went to praise the Aten on his way.
Her thoughts didn’t have to wander for too long, however, as he swung open the door and asked for all to leave.
Nefertiti, soaking in her bath, commanded Aitye to stay.
“Pharaoh said to leave,” Aitye whispered, shrinking back.
“Pharaoh, I need one servant to stay and help me with my bath,” Nefertiti said.
“Only one may stay,” he said, and Nefertiti looked to Aitye and nodded.
Aitye smiled hesitantly and knelt down again to rub the Queen’s back.
Pharaoh walked around the dividing wall and looked at his wife in the bath. “Such a beauty,” he said. “I received word we had another daughter.”
“Yes . . . a while ago. I named her Nefernefereure.”
“Very well,” he said, and shrugged his shoulders. “A fitting name.”
“Do you want to see her?” Nefertiti wondered why he did not care to refute the name.
“I already have. She was brought to the temple with me. Royal wife Kiya painted me holding her. I liked her painting so much I gave it to the stone sculptor.”
“Isn’t she a beautiful daughter?” Nefertiti wanted to know why Kiya had failed to mention this to her. Did he order her to silence? Why am I still jealous over this stranger who has done nothing but make life miserable for me? Because . . . he is Amenhotep underneath it all.
“Yes! I now have five beautiful daughters . . . but no son.”
“We will have a son,” Nefertiti said, wondering where the strange man before her would go with this conversation. “I will bear you a son.”
“After five daughters, one begins to doubt your ability to produce an heir.” He walked around the tub, glaring at her. “Pharaoh is considering consummating his marriage with royal wives Kiya and Henuttaneb.”
His words stabbed her in the heart. Amenhotep would have never made her feel this way. She hardly knew this man anymore.
“After all we have been through?” she asked, almost a whisper.
She leaned forward into the bathwater, sitting up straight, and wished her back was new again. Aitye sensed the pain and rushed to massage her lower back.
Pharaoh turned away from his wife and rubbed his hand on the smooth stone wall. “I need a son . . . and the Aten has shown me a son.”
“I can have your son,” she said. “You gave me your word.”
“I do not remember saying such a thing,” he said, his hands now firmly folded behind his back; he still refused to make eye contact with her.
“My love . . . since you believe Aten is Egypt’s only god, don’t you think I, Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, should be Pharaoh’s only wife?” One last attempt to keep him loyal to her by appealing to his deeply held belief. As the words flowed from her mouth, a heaviness crept into her stomach.
Pharaoh Akhenaten hesitantly replied, “The Pharaoh of Egypt does not limit himself to one woman. But have I not told you I have chosen you as my chief wife, my only love?”
“Then the Pharaoh lies,” Queen Nefertiti whispered, trying to pull the guilt from the depths of her soul.
He snapped, spinning to face her. “The Queen shall silence her tongue!”
But Nefertiti went on, her eyes dancing in fury. “When we built this great city of Aketaten, the Pharaoh Amenhotep told his beloved Queen, his chief royal wife, that because Egypt has now only the Aten as its premiere god, then Pharaoh shall only have one woman as his lover.”
“Pharaoh Amenhotep is dead!”
Nefertiti sucked in her breath and bit her lip.
He continued. “And so as it is, Pharaoh Akhenaten is a god divinely appointed by the Aten. He shall have whatever he wants!”
“Even a foreign wife? What good will a foreigner do? If she ever bears you a son, he will be a half blood, not fit to rule the great Egypt. Are not I the most beautiful Queen in all of the lands?”
“My Queen, you are the most beautiful Queen in all of the lands . . . your brown and godly eyes, your cheeks that raise to the sky, your lips as soft as silk from the foreign lands, your skin as smooth as the waters of the Nile, and your hips as graceful as the rising of the sun. Yes, my Queen, you are the most beautiful in all of the lands.” Pharaoh Akhenaten still averted his gaze.
Queen Nefertiti smiled and stood up, masking the pain under a seductive glare. “Then why must you share our bed with another?”
Her nakedness caught the corner of his eye, and he couldn’t help but feel a longing for the wet skin of her body.
“All of the great Kings of Egypt had more than just one wife, my Queen . . . but you, my captivating Queen, will always be the Queen of Egypt,” he said as he came to her and smoothed the back of his hand over her brown cheek.
“Is this not a new Egypt? An Egypt where there is only one god and so one lover of Pharaoh?” Queen Nefertiti asked again. She felt Amun-Re leave her as she turned from him once again to fulfill her selfish desires.
Akhenaten stepped into the bathwater with her and shooed Aitye away.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “But what about a son?”
“Meritaten can marry Smenkare,” Nefertiti said. “They can provide the next heir. It will still be through your bloodline.”
“I suppose . . .”
“And in the meantime, let me have another child. Perhaps the Aten will grant me with a son?” She drew her arms around his neck.
Forgive me, Amun-Re, for denying you, she screamed in her mind, pleading with him to not turn from her. I do so only to keep his love for me. Please let me have a son! she prayed. Please do not let him take another lover.
“Yes, my Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti.” He kissed her. “As you wish.”
Chapter 18
The Time of Quarrel
“Pharaoh of Egypt.” The messenger bowed.
“Speak your message,” Pharaoh Akhenaten responded with a wave of his hand. Even though his mother told him he could not be in the temple today, he was glad to at least have his open-roofed throne room where the Aten’s rays could still touch him.
“Princess Beketaten has come to Aketa
ten to request a short stay with her sister, royal wife Henuttaneb,” the messenger said with another bow.
“Princess Beketaten?” Pharaoh asked, glancing around and raising a hand for an answer. “Who?”
“Princess Beketaten is the former Princess Nebetah,” the messenger said. His shoulders immediately shrank away from the Pharaoh’s flaring nostrils.
“Under what trickery has she been allowed back into Egypt? Under a false pretense of loyalty to the Aten?!” Pharaoh stood, slamming his fist into the arm of his throne. “Has she not disobeyed a direct command of Pharaoh? Send her to the temple of the Aten in Waset to face her punishment of impalement!”
“Pharaoh . . . Princess Beketaten comes under pardon from Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, from when Pharaoh gave his ruling authority to her during his time in the temple,” the messenger said, and after the words came out he hoped he hadn’t condemned his Queen to Pharaoh’s wrath.
“What?!” Pharaoh yelled. “Guard, bring Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti to me! Now!”
A member of the royal guard bowed and rushed out to find his Queen.
Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti sat in the courtyard as royal wife Kiya instructed her how to paint her children as they played before them. The wet nurse held Princess Nefernefereure, off in the shade.
The guard stood in the doorway leading to the courtyard and took a deep breath before walking up to his beloved Queen. “Royal wife Kiya,” he said with a bow to her and then a bow to Nefertiti. “Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, Pharaoh wishes to see you in his throne room. I’m afraid that it is not under the best pretense,” he added.
“Under what pretense does he wish to see me?” Nefertiti asked as she dipped her brush in the ink to make a stroke.
“He is angry for the pardon bestowed to Princess Beketaten, formerly Princess Nebetah.”
“The pardon I bestowed in his place,” she said as she looked at her unfinished painting.
Kiya looked to Nefertiti and whispered, “I thought he would be happy his sister came to the Aten.”
“As did I,” Nefertiti said. “The one thing he wants for Egypt, and now he can’t accept when his sister comes to the Aten.” She knew Nebetah’s switched allegiance probably wasn’t real, but Pharaoh wouldn’t know that.
“May the Queen please come with me?” the messenger asked.
Nefertiti put her paintbrush down and asked Kiya to finish the painting for her, for she did not believe this would be a short visit. Kiya squeezed her hand as if to wish her luck and watched as they left the courtyard. Listening to the children’s laughter in the background, Kiya closed her eyes and wished for her friend to return to them soon.
They passed Princess Beketaten on the way to the throne room. She looked to Nefertiti with a bittersweet glance: a friendly smile perched on her lips, but a cold darkness lingered in her eyes.
Nefertiti smiled back and said, “The Queen says to make yourself welcome in Aketaten.”
Princess Beketaten nodded. “Thank you, most gracious Queen Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti.” With a knowing sneer, she left at once to find her sister Henuttaneb.
“My apologies, my Queen,” the guard muttered under his breath before they entered the throne room.
“I have nothing against you, whatever the outcome,” Nefertiti said.
He bowed his head as she walked inside.
“There is my wife, who stabs me in the back!” Pharaoh bellowed.
Nefertiti said nothing until she was seated next to Pharaoh—her throne, now next to his, was on an even ground. She turned to look at her husband, who was practically fuming from the ears. “For what does Pharaoh wish to see his Queen?”
He stood up and planted himself before her. “You,” he said with his finger in her face. “You!”
“I . . . what?” she asked, gazing up at him, the picture of patience and innocence.
“You undermined my authority as Pharaoh! You pardoned Nebetah! Why would you do that? My father before me gave word for her to be exiled—I gave word for her to be exiled—and then you go and devalue both Pharaohs’ word?!” He threw his hands in the air out of exasperation. “What is wrong with you? Are you ill in the head?”
“What is wrong with me?” Nefertiti asked, one eyebrow shooting toward the sky, and partially laughed at his comment, thinking, I’m not the one prancing around naked singing praises to the sun!
“Yes, you!”
Nefertiti grinned and shook her head. “Perhaps if Pharaoh performed the function of Pharaoh and sat upon his throne and ruled Egypt, he would not have had to name his Queen—who, might I add, had just given birth to his fifth exquisite daughter, whom he refused to see—to rule in his place.”
“You!” he yelled again, but Nefertiti cut him off.
“Perhaps if Pharaoh had not neglected four years worth of messengers, the state of Egypt would not be this dire. Our foreign allies think we have abandoned them. They have sent no more gifts. We are losing vassal states. We had to seize the treasury of Amun-Re to make up for Pharaoh’s neglect. Egypt’s prestige is damaged, and all you care about is a little pardon for your exiled sister? Your sister, who came back and even changed her name to honor the Aten?”
He fumed for a moment in silence then lashed out. “Be gone, Nefertiti!” He threw himself back onto his throne. “Be gone,” he said again in a low grumble. “Pharaoh says leave Aketaten!”
Nefertiti stayed, wanting to say more, but he was still Pharaoh. Given his mental state, she decided to leave. Standing up, she turned to him one last time and said, “The Queen is sorry if she offended Pharaoh through a quick decision that had to be made.” She took the first step down and added over her shoulder, “It was not the Queen’s intent to undermine the word of Pharaoh. I do love you, Pharaoh Akhenaten.”
He averted his eyes and sulked. She continued down the steps out the throne room and back to the courtyard. She willed the tears in the backs of her eyes to stay put as she came upon Kiya finishing up her painting. “It’s beautiful, Kiya,” she said, and bent to kiss her cheek.
“The painting evoked a kiss from the Queen?” Kiya said.
“It did. You took my worthless scratchings and made it worthy to be looked upon for all of time.”
“What did Pharaoh wish to say to you?”
“Pharaoh has ordered me to leave the city.”
“Oh, Nefertiti! Forever?”
“I hope not . . . but if that is the case, will you join me in my father’s house in Waset? Or, perhaps we could go live with Sitamun and Iset in Malkata.” She laughed to keep from crying.
“Of course! You know I will follow my best friend,” Kiya said.
“As will I,” Nefertiti said, and gave her a long embrace. When they finally pulled apart, Nefertiti’s eyes had glistened over.
“Nefertiti, everything will be as it should,” Kiya reassured her. “Pharaoh is simply angry. He will realize when you are gone that he needs you by his side.”
Nefertiti just shook her head and bit her lip, debating to tell Kiya the whole truth or not. Finally, as a rogue tear slipped down her face, she whispered, “A few nights ago, he said he wanted to consummate his marriage with you and Henuttaneb because I was not giving him any sons.”
“I will say no,” Kiya said as she put her hands over Nefertiti’s. “I made you a promise long ago.”
“If Pharaoh commands, no one can say no.”
“I will say no,” Kiya said. “I don’t believe in your afterlife, anyway, and I’m not afraid to die. I will miss these precious girls and watching them grow up, but I will not go back on my word. If he sentences me to death for not following his command, then so be it.”
Nefertiti all of a sudden became sick to her stomach as heat tingled in her face. “I can’t ask you to die for this, Kiya. If he commands it, then he will have been the one to go back on his word, not you.”
“I will say no,” Kiya said again with fervor.
Nefertiti embraced her again and kissed her cheek once
more.
“I will leave and take all of my daughters with me. We will see if he even notices.” Nefertiti chuckled, masking the pain of what her husband had put her through this past year and pushing the thought of Kiya and him together out of her mind.
“He will notice,” Kiya said. “I promise. You are not entirely gone from his heart, Nefertiti.”
“Sister!” Henuttaneb squealed, throwing her arms around Beketaten’s neck. “I am so happy you have returned!”
“I can’t breathe, Henuttaneb,” Beketaten gasped.
Henuttaneb let go of her neck and wrapped her arms around her body instead. “I thought I would never see you again,” she said.
“Silly! Of course you would see me again.”
“But you were exiled.”
Beketaten closed the door and peered out the window to make sure no one was listening. In a low voice, she said, “So, sister . . . what do you think of our brother’s rule?”
“All the Aten orders?” Henuttaneb let out a heavy sigh. “I know why he is doing it, but I think he has taken it too far. Mother didn’t tell you because you married Pawah.”
Beketaten shook her head. “Sitamun told me after we had rebelled, but this has gone on long enough. He seized the treasury of Amun-Re. Unforgivable!”
“What are you going to do about it? Get more people killed? I was lucky you told me to take a trip with Iset and Sitamun to Men-nefer. I might have died. Why didn’t you warn Mother?”
“Because at the time I thought Mother was encouraging the turn to the Aten, and Nefertiti too,” she said. “Now I know they are in just as much trouble as I am, with Pharaoh running around like some zealot and them not having a way to stop it. But they did let my mad brother exile me. They knew who I fought for, and yet they did nothing. They are nothing to me, and I will work every day to see that all three of them pay for what they did to Pawah and their own people . . . and me.”
“So what are you going to do?” Henuttaneb asked, stepping away from the intense venom of her words.
Salvation in the Sun (The Lost Pharaoh Chronicles Book 1) Page 17
