As Ay and Teyla sailed in their royal canoe, Ay, as he always did, dipped fruit in the river to cleanse it before feeding it to himself and his wife. When Ay turned to retrieve more berries from the fruit basket, Teyla saw a mark on his leg, partially hidden by the hem of his garment.
“What is that on your thigh?” she asked.
Her concern alarmed him. “Where?”
“Pull your garment above your knee.”
Ay pulled up his garment. A purplish bruise the size and shape of an olive was on the back of his left thigh. Ay couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“It’s an illusion. The disease perished years ago,” said Ay.
“It cannot be an illusion if we both see it, my husband. It’s more sinister than a disease. It is an unrelenting plague, and it has found you,” cried Teyla.
Nine years later, citizens of Thebes gathered in the courtyard of the Colonnade Hall to hear their pharaoh speak. Pharaoh Horemheb was now in his fifth year of reign. Ay, whose reign had lasted only four years, was long buried, his life cut short by the mysterious disease that had killed thousands before in Amarna. Buried with Ay was the knowledge that he deliberately left Amenhotep with the fatal doses of the cure, knowing the pharaoh would consume it all at once to his demise. It was the first step he had taken to secure his position as pharaoh, but what happened in the unexplained death of his daughter, Queen Nefertiti, remained a mystery.
Ay’s death had cleared the path for Horemheb’s ascension, and to prevent Sia, Ay’s staunchest enemy of the two, from succeeding him as pharaoh, Ay had turned over Neper’s scroll (that contained Sia’s illicit secrets), to Horemheb just before his death, and the general used it as collateral to quash any ambition Sia might have had for the position of pharaoh. As a token for his cooperation, Horemheb gave Sia his blessing to become the new oracle of Egypt.
On the day of the festival commemorating Sia’s new position as oracle, Pharaoh Horemheb appeared at the podium side-by-side with Sia, wearing his copper war helmet in place of the customary nemes head cloth. His wife, Mundi, stood directly behind him, admiring the enthusiasm of the crowd for her husband.
A young sturdy man in a soldier’s uniform escorted Mayati to her royal position next to Mundi. The soldier was well-built, tall and muscular, as Pharaoh Horemheb had been in his youth. The pharaoh welcomed him to stand by his side opposite of Sia.
“Praises to the almighty god Amun and to Osiris, Montu, Isis, and Horus,” shouted Horemheb, his voice amplified and echoing off the surrounding cliffs. “Egypt has flourished with law, order, peace, and abundance now that the heretic Pharaoh Akenaten and his god, the Aten have perished. Their blasphemous names have been erased from the Colonnade Hall and from every monument and statue in Egypt. I have destroyed their city of Amarna by fire so neither their works nor the Aten will be remembered. The names of Akenaten, Senpaten, Ay, Nefertiti and Tut have been stricken from the history of Egypt and of the world forever. They will be forgotten, but my name, Pharaoh Horemheb, will last until the end of time!”
The crowd applauded. Horemheb turned to his wife, proud of the adulation pouring out from the Egyptian people. Instead of joining the crowd in praising her husband, Mundi’s concern was for Mayati, who had tears in her eyes because of the curse Horemheb had just pronounced against her parents and siblings by erasing their names from the Colonnade Hall—a curse that could forever prevent their return from the afterlife.
Horemheb waited for the crowd to grow quiet before he continued his pronouncements.
“And now,” he said, nodding to the young soldier next to him, “just as you have welcomed Sia, our newly ordained Oracle, you must welcome your new ordained general of the Egyptian army . . . General Ramesses!”
As the crowd erupted in applause again, Horemheb spotted Salitas approaching in his chariot. The pharaoh’s military captain was furious he had been passed over for the position he believed was rightfully his. The disdain he harbored toward Horemheb distorted the fake pleasant expression on the captain’s face.
Salitas halted his chariot next to the crowd and nodded at Mayati. Horemheb watched aghast as Mayati left her position next to his wife and entered Salitas’ chariot. Salitas embraced her and smirked at Horemheb before speeding away from the festival with Mayati by his side.
Confused by what he just witnessed, Horemheb turned to his wife and spoke directly in her ear in order to keep their conversation private. “Why did she go with him?”
Mundi looked straight ahead and didn’t answer.
“Answer me, Mundi. Why has Mayati spited me by leaving with Salitas?”
“They’re lovers,” she answered, still looking straight ahead ignoring his stare. “And if you had been paying the slightest bit of attention to her, you would have known that it was you and only you who drove her into his arms.”
Burning with anger, Horemheb gripped Mundi’s chin with one hand forcing her to look him in the eye, while he caressed her shoulder with the other. His teeth clenched as he spoke to her. “You allowed this, and now he’ll soon exploit her because of her royalty in order to stake a claim as pharaoh. And when he has attained his position, he will discard her in the same manner he defecates. Is that what you want for your niece?”
“The same has been said about you,” Mundi replied, shoving his hand away from her chin, “as you have used for your benefit in becoming pharaoh, the royal relation of my dear sister, Queen Nefertiti. And contrary to what you’ve told these people, my sister’s legacy is ingrained in the earth as deep as the roots of a sycamore tree. Not even you nor the battle axes from a thousand of your men could cut it off,” she said, undeterred by his anger or concerned that she could be heard by the people around them.
Her response silenced Horemheb. He turned away from Mundi’s unyielding gaze and focused his attention back on the crowd to avoid having to assault her in their presence.
Ramesses stepped forward onto the podium, and Horemheb removed his war helmet and placed it upon his new general’s head. The citizens chanted and cheered their names, unaware that their celebration was being watched.
Hidden among the hills surrounding Thebes, a massive army moved into battle formation. After years of waiting for the perfect moment to strike, King Suppiluliumas had used the secret trade route Shattiwaza had revealed to him and was staring down into the Egyptian capital with the same blazing rage he felt the day his son Zenanza was laid into his arms, slaughtered by the hand of Horemheb.
On horseback, next to Suppiluliumas, sat Shattiwaza grinning from ear-to-ear with his Mitanni army, and behind them stood a Hittite and Nubian alliance of thousands of soldiers from as far as the eye could see. And just as the Nubian prisoner who killed Tuthmosis over forty years before had predicted—the Hittites, the Nubians, and the Mitannians had all united as one force against Egypt that day for war. The story of Ramesses and the 19th dynasty had just begun.
*****
PHOTOS
TUT/Tutankhaten
Bust of Tutankhamun, museum of Cairo/Egypt.
Source: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France. November 1, 2002
This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
TEPPY/Akenaten
Replica of Akhenaten's model head, that was found in the workshop of the sculptor Djehutimes at Akhet-Aton. The original is in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Picture taken at VAM Design Center, Budapest, on 'Tutankhaton's Treasures' exhibition April 22, 2010
Source: HoremWeb (Az Ókori Egyiptom website)
Permission is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
NEFERTITI
Nefertiti Bust, Berlin Museum August 13, 2006
Source: http://flickr.com/photos/bittidjz/250320817/
This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
QUEEN TY
Queen Ty bust, Ägyptisches Museum (Egyptian Museum), Berlin June 28, 2011
Source: Einsamer Sc
hütze
Permission is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
AMENHOTEP III
Red Granite Head from a colossal statue of a Pharaoh Amenhotep III from the Temple of Mut in Thebes (Waset). circa 1390 BCE. June 8, 2013
Source: Avrand6
This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International license.
AY
Portrait study of a man thought to be of Ay (though attribution is not certain). Amarna, 18th dynasty. Catalog #21350. Image taken at the Altes Museum, Berlin.
November 8, 2006
Source: Keith Schengili-Roberts
Permission is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
HOREMHEB
Partial profile of Horemheb, from a statue of him with the God Horus made of limestone, 18th dynasty, reign of Horemheb (circa 1343-1315 BCE) November 13, 2010
Source: Captmondo
This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Generic license.
THE WORLD OF THE 18TH DYNASTY
FOOTNOTES
1EA 41. A letter from Suppiliuimas, king of Hatti, to Amenhotep IV (Akenaten), king of Egypt. After a French translation by Claire Lalouette, Thebes ou la naissance d’un empire, Fayard, Paris 1986.
2One of the earliest lullabies on record, dating from around 2,000 BC. Nina Perry, “The Universal Language of Lullabies,” BBC World Service, BBC News Magazine.
3EA 26. A letter from Tushratta, king of Mitanni, to Ty, lady of Egypt. After a French translation by Claire Lalouette, Thebes ou la naissance d’un empire, Fayard, Paris 1986.
4Certain passages are from the document “The Book of Overthrowing Apep,” originated in the Ramessid period (1307-1070 B.C.E.)
5Ankh-Senpaten Letter translation: Journal of Cuneiform Studies Vol. 10 No.3 (1956) Frgm. 28 contains: The Deeds of Suppiluliuma as Told by His Son, Mursili II. Hans Gustav Guterböck.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The discovery of the Hittite and Amarna letters in 1887 has provided access to the actual correspondence between the 18th dynasty pharaohs and the surrounding kingdoms of Mesopotamia that battled them for prominence. This important finding has helped to unlock some of the many mysteries of the ancient Egyptian superpower. Our lives today and those of the ancient Egyptians are separated by thousands of years and cultural differences, yet we seem to have shared similar hopes and dreams, and most notably, triumphs and tragedies. Writing this book was more than fulfilling, it was my therapy. I felt privileged and obliged to share the story of these provocative characters whose voices deserve a chance to be heard by more than just its author. The anecdote has always been there, waiting for those willing to take on the research and the responsibility of unearthing it. I hope you will continue this journey with me into the next installment of the ‘Valley of the Kings’ dynastic series; The 19th Dynasty.
I would like to thank my family: Tony, Yolonda, Rick, and my mother—Yvonne, for their continued support during the writing process. It was just the push I needed to keep moving forward. Thanks to Megan, Ernesto, and the entire Kindle Scout team for acknowledging my work and giving it a chance to live and thrive via Kindle Press.
They say a book can only be as good as the ability of its editor, so my mission from the beginning was to find the best possible editor around. I am fortunate to have found such an awesome team in Ronit Wagman & Dustin Schwindt. You guys have taught me so much and I bow to your expertise. Many thanks to my friend and fellow author Marsha Jenkins-Sanders, whose critique, encouragement, and advice were invaluable in the writing and publishing of this book, and to Doriano Carta, who insisted that I write it when I wasn’t convinced that I could. Thanks to Damon Za for such an intriguing cover and Sean Crisden for his extraordinary narration of the audiobook. Also, thanks to Donnie Demers for championing my literary endeavors from the start, and a special thanks to Larry, Janet, and Damon Stout for their help and support in making this book the best that it could be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terrance Coffey is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and composer with a predilection for Egyptian history. He has written numerous short stories, screenplays, television pilots, and even Coca-Cola music jingles. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Terrance now lives in an ambitious little town near Atlanta, Georgia.
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www.TerranceCoffey.com
Valley of the Kings: The 18th Dynasty©2016 Terry Coffey
Editors: Ronit Wagman & Dustin Schwindt
Cover design by Damon Za
Twitter: @terry_coffey
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EG5NGFA/
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