by C T Cassana
“Oh my God, Charlie! You’re hopeless!” said Lisa, laughing. “But I’m relieved to know it; I’d thought you’d lost your adventurous archeological spirit after what happened with the dinosaurs and you didn’t want to time travel anymore, or something like that.”
“Are you kidding, Lisa? Did you think I was going to be scared out of time travel by a couple of prehistoric pelicans?” retorted the boy in an outraged tone. “I’m shocked, Lisa. I never would have thought something like that about you.”
. . .
“Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt from 1351 to 1334 B.C.
“After the first years of his reign, Akhenaten, also known as ‘the heretic pharaoh’, decided to ban the worship of Amun, the most important of all the Egyptian gods. With this measure, the pharaoh sought to combat the tremendous power that the priests of Amun had acquired in recent times, stripping them of their lands, riches and privileges, which passed into the hands of the king.
“Shortly thereafter, Akhenaten decreed that the only god who could be worshiped was Aten, the sun god, represented by a solar disk that extended its protective rays over its subjects. This represented a great blow to the people, who for centuries had been worshiping dozens of different gods. The Egyptians were a superstitious and very religious people who had a god for practically every situation or problem that could arise in their lives. It was almost impossible for them to give up their wide and varied pantheon to worship only one deity.
“Furthermore, all their gods were represented by figures that were human, animal or a combination of both. As a result, the Egyptians were not accustomed to identifying with something as impersonal as a simple solar disk, however divine it might be.
“Another extremely unpopular measure taken by the pharaoh was his abandonment of Thebes, the city which had a long tradition as the imperial capital. Akhenaten ordered the construction of a new city, which would be dedicated entirely to his god, and he transferred his court there. This city, called Akhetaten, was on the east bank of the River Nile, in the middle of the desert half-way between Thebes and Memphis. In our times, it is known by the name of Tell el-Amarna.
“Nefertiti always accompanied her husband and supported him in his political and religious reforms. The queen’s beauty was legendary even in her day, but she also seemed to have had an exceptional ability to thrive in courtly life, performing an important role as Great Royal Wife in official ceremonies, religious rites and delegations on behalf of the royal family. In all these events, and for the first time in the history of ancient Egypt, the queen was almost on the same level as the pharaoh himself, and enjoyed practically as central a role.
“Nefertiti and Akhenaten had six daughters, but no son who could inherit the throne. However, the succession was assured when the pharaoh had a son by a secondary wife.
“In spite of her great importance at court, Nefertiti seems to have disappeared without a trace in 1337 B.C., the fourteenth year of Akhenaten’s reign.
“Her fate remains a mystery, although various theories have been posited to explain it. One possibility is that the Great Queen died suddenly, or that she fell into disgrace for unknown reasons. Others suggest that Smenkhkare, a pharaoh who ruled briefly after the death of Akhenaten, was actually Nefertiti.
“Whatever may have happened, the name of Nefertiti disappeared without any trace. Neither her tomb nor her mummy—which would help explain how her life ended—have been found, and so the true story of the most beautiful and mysterious of all the Egyptian queens remains as yet unknown to humankind.”
After reading the chapter on Nefertiti, Lisa closed the book that Miss Rotherwick had lent her that afternoon, and studied the beautiful bust of the queen that appeared on the cover. Charlie had been listening to her attentively, making sure that this time he didn’t miss a thing.
“So now could you explain to me all this business with the papyrus scrolls?” he asked meekly. “What’s the discovery that Mum has made that makes it so important?”
“Look,” began Lisa, “the papyrus that she found tells the story of a really important woman, of extraordinary beauty, who had a secret meeting with the high priest of Amun to ask for his help. In those days, people were only allowed to worship Aten, so by meeting with this priest the woman was putting his and her own life in danger. She took that risk because she was totally desperate, as she was being punished by Amun for having offended him terribly. In revenge, Amun had made it so that she could only conceive girls, but not the male child that she wanted so much to give her husband. The woman begged for divine forgiveness, saying she had done what she did out of love and loyalty to her husband, but above all because she was afraid of facing a terrible punishment. She also promised that if Amun would grant her a male child, she would ensure that the boy would lift the ban on worshiping the god, restore his temples to their former glory, generously compensate his priests for the humiliations suffered, and reinstate Thebes as the imperial capital.”
Charlie listened to Lisa without knowing whether what she was telling him was a piece of history or a tedious episode from one of the soap operas that his sister liked so much.
“Don’t you get it?” asked Lisa impatiently. “It’s clear that this happened during the reign of Akhenaten, because it says that by seeking help from a priest of Amun she was risking her life. It also says that she is very beautiful and very important, and that she had offended Amun. Remember that Nefertiti took part in the religious rites to worship Aten and that she supported her husband’s decisions. In other words, when the pharaoh banned people from praying to Amun, she didn’t do anything to stop it.”
Charlie listened carefully to Lisa, trying not to lose the thread of the story; it was a shame that the ancient Egyptians hadn’t thought to give their gods names that were a little more distinguishable from each other, or at least some epithets that might make the story easier to follow, like “Aten, the pharaoh’s god” and “Amun, the banned god”.
“It also says that she could only have daughters, but she needed to give her husband a son,” Lisa went on. “In those days only men could inherit the throne, so having daughters was no use at all. In return, she promises that the son she has will allow people to worship Amun again, that he’ll give riches to the god’s priests and make Thebes the capital again. And that, Charlie, is something only a king could do. So this woman can only be the wife of a king, and furthermore, she plans to be the mother of the next one. In other words, she’s a queen.”
Just when Charlie was about to ask why out of all of the pharaoh’s wives this mysterious woman had to be Nefertiti, his sister gave him the answer.
“And remember, only Nefertiti was famous for being really pretty, and also she had six daughters but no son, while other wives of the king did have sons,” she explained.
The boy nodded. It was clear that Lisa loved these kinds of complicated and gossip-filled stories, because she had grasped the whole thing perfectly.
“And what’s so important about the papyrus scroll that’s missing?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t know, but going in search of a missing piece of papyrus doesn’t sound that exciting.”
“You’re wrong, because in this case the papyrus we have to look for is like a treasure map that has been torn in two, and we have to find the missing half.”
Charlie opened his eyes wide as he listened to his sister’s words. Suddenly the challenge sounded much more important and promising.
“You see, the papyrus that Mum has found doesn’t tell the full story about this woman,” explained Lisa. “It only says that the priest decided to help her and that he has sent her some amulets of the god Amun so that she can bear a male child. But the rest of the story is cut off. And on the back the scroll it’s been numbered in pencil with the marking ‘VD 1/2’. That suggests that it’s the first of two scrolls that tell this woman’s story. And that’s why it’s so important to find the second one, because that way we’ll know how
the story ends.”
“What a bother!” exclaimed the boy. “Just when it gets to the exciting bit, the rest of the story is missing.”
“Yes, but we’re going to find it,” said Lisa in a bold voice. “And if we don’t, we’ll find out what happened to the queen and bring some clues back to Mum so that she can work it out.”
“What if we don’t find anything?”
“You heard what Miss Rotherwick said. None of this will go any further than a simple dream, an unconfirmed suspicion that Nefertiti betrayed her husband by asking for help from the priests of the god he hated so much.”
“Well, yes, but she did it with good intentions,” said the boy, in an effort to defend the poor queen.
“That is exactly what we want to find out,” replied Lisa in a tone that exuded suspicion. “Whether she did it with good intentions, or just to have a male child who could be the next pharaoh, so that she could stop the child her husband had had with his second wife from taking the throne...”
At this remark, Charlie wondered what it is that makes girls get so spiteful whenever they come across a pretty woman. And in this case it wasn’t just a very pretty woman, but a queen to boot.
CHAPTER XI: The Cat and the Crocodile
Lisa spent the next few days preparing every detail of their journey. This time, it wasn’t just a pleasure trip, or a bit of time-traveling tourism. Now they had a clear objective, a mission to accomplish: to find Nefertiti or any clue as to her whereabouts.
She immersed herself in the task of gathering all the information she could on the life of the Egyptian queen. She then focused her research on the place where they would be able to find her: Akhetaten, the city that the pharaoh had ordered to be built in the middle of the desert in honor of his god, Aten.
Luckily, her father’s library was filled with books on ancient Egypt with illustrations showing how the original city might have looked, as well as modern tourist guides with detailed information on the location today.
From all her research, Lisa came up with an ingenious plan, which she presented to Charlie in their headquarters.
“Akhetaten, known today as Tell el-Amarna, stretched out in a long strip about fifteen kilometers long by three kilometers wide,” she explained, with the help of a map that recreated the city as it had been in ancient times. “The pharaoh designed it meticulously, placing the Royal Palace and the Great Temple of the Aten in the center.”
Charlie looked at the picture and imagined himself strolling solemnly down the wide Royal Road, escorted by an opulent entourage that cooled him with fans made of gold and long white feathers.
“A few years after the pharaoh died, the court returned to Thebes and the city was abandoned. Subsequent pharaohs ordered the buildings to be pulled down and the stones were used for other constructions far away,” Lisa went on. “However, it has been possible to reconstruct the outline of the city because the foundations are quite well-preserved. And better still: the ruins of the city can be visited today.”
By this point, Charlie was coming to the doors of the palace, approaching them like a distinguished dignitary arriving for a meeting with the beautiful queen.
“We’ll get to Nefertiti in two stages,” Lisa continued. “The main problem we have is that it’s unlikely that we’ll bump into the queen walking around the city, and I doubt the Egyptians will open the palace doors to us just so we can go in and say ‘hi’.”
Charlie was kneeling down now, about to kiss the soft hand of the lovely Nefertiti, when he realized what his sister had just said.
“And why not?” he asked, annoyed.
“It’s estimated that at that time more than 40,000 people lived in Akhetaten, Charlie. Even though it was three thousand years ago, Egyptian society was well organized.”
Charlie stared at Lisa. Clearly, he didn’t understand what she was getting at.
“It would be like if today you tried walking right into Buckingham Palace to see Queen Elizabeth,” she said. “They may not have had security cameras, alarms or infrared sensors in those days, but I think we can assume that the pharaohs were well protected and had a personal guard to keep just anyone from walking up to them.”
“But we’re not just anyone,” retorted Charlie. “We’re time travelers who are coming to clear the queen’s name.”
“Not to clear her name; we want to complete her story,” corrected Lisa. “But tell me, how do you think you’re going to explain that to her? Do you speak ancient Egyptian?”
Charlie fell silent for a moment, trying to come up with an answer to his sister’s question.
“We could take the books on Nefertiti and something that shows that we’ve come from the future,” said the boy. “A radio, or a mobile phone, or even Dad’s GPS. They’ll be amazed by that for sure.”
“For sure, especially when they see they don’t work. Charlie, think for a moment. All those things operate by satellite, remember? And three thousand years ago there were no satellites up there.”
Charlie fell silent once more.
“Well, then, we’ll take something that works on batteries, like my camera or your iPod,” he suggested.
“I don’t think that will be enough. And anyway, it would make things unnecessarily complicated for us.”
“I don’t know, Lisa. Maybe it would be better to follow the professor’s advice and look for all the annuli before we do any more time travel. Maybe there’s one that turns you into an important person so you can go wherever you like.”
“Charlie, that’s only a guess, and we’d lose a lot of time that way,” said Lisa. “The exhibition is in nine weeks, and we have to get Mum her clue ahead of time so that she can work out what happened.”
“So then, what do we do?” asked Charlie.
“It’s simpler than it looks,” said Lisa, happy to finally be able to present her ingenious plan. “We’ll go to Amarna as it is today, and pretend we’re just a couple of tourists visiting the ruins of the city. We’ll find the exact spot where the queen’s chambers were and take their coordinates with the GPS. And when we’ve got them all, we’ll go back in time to look for her.”
“We won’t need the GPS, Lisa. Once we’re there the bracelet will give us the coordinates of any place we go, at any time.”
“That could be dangerous. Somebody might get curious about the bracelet. It would be better to use the GPS.”
“And why do you want to note down the coordinates of Nefertiti’s rooms if we’ll already be there?” asked Charlie.
Lisa let out a deep sigh when she saw that her brother hadn’t grasped the strategy she was proposing.
“We have to appear and disappear in each spot quickly, like magic,” explained Lisa. “Remember, there could be a guard at each door, and if they see us they’ll try to capture us. We can’t just go wandering around like we were taking a Sunday stroll. Don’t forget that we’ll be intruders.”
Charlie pondered everything his sister had said for a moment. Lisa was right, and her plan was the most sensible solution under the circumstances. But appearing and disappearing in the palace rooms like an evasive ghost trying to keep from bumping into its victims was not exactly what he had imagined for their first meeting with the Great Queen Nefertiti.
. . .
Max Wellington ordered his secretary to ensure that nobody bothered him until further notice. He then shut himself up in his office and spread the reports from the two experts he had consulted out on his desk. Although both were reliable specialists, each of them had received the task of completing only part of the required research. Neither one knew about the origins of the object, or the location or circumstances under which it was found. Max was the only one with all the information; he alone knew all the details and their real meaning. He was the only person who had all the pieces of the puzzle and the only one able to put them together in order to make sense of this strange discovery.
He sipped at his coffee while he read the dossiers he had received. The object wa
s a mid-range to high-end pocket compass that a well-known German company had been manufacturing for the past eleven years. The model was the Greenwich 4, classic design, simple but reliable. It had a diameter of 45 millimeters and weighed 37 grams. The outer casing was made of gold nickel and had a protective cover made of the same material.
The annual production of this model ranged between three and five thousand units, and it was sold mainly in Europe, the United States and Japan. The usual points of sale were sporting stores, specialty shops and department stores.
No fingerprints or DNA traces were found on the object in question. Moreover, it was in a terrible state of preservation and no longer worked.
On the back were engraved the letters “CW”, perhaps referring to the initials of its owner, which might have been an individual or some kind of organization. The engraving had been made with a sharp object, like a knife or scissors, in quite a slapdash fashion.
To this information, Max Wellington added a couple of conclusions of his own, knowing that neither of the experts would ever have been able to guess them. The owner of the compass had a fondness for dinosaurs, given that he had traveled 60 to 70 million years back in time to see them. And more importantly, that journey in time had occurred at some point between 10:30 a.m. on Monday, February 3, 2014, and 10:30 on Monday, February 10, 2014; a little over one week ago.
. . .
It was a hot afternoon in Tell el-Amarna. Lisa and Charlie were walking around the ancient city with a large group of British tourists submissively following a guide through the ruins.
The girl had told her brother to forget his explorer’s outfit and wear something that would make him look like a typical tourist. After searching thoroughly through the drawers of his dresser, he found some summer clothes that his mother had forgotten to put away: a Lacoste t-shirt with a large crocodile on the front and a pair of shorts with numerous pockets sewn on the front and back. The boy had also decided to bring his backpack, in which he had packed his cape and a few other things he deemed necessary.
