Rahotep, raising the adze in his hands, repeated a solemn passage from the Book of the Dead. “My breath is returned to me by the gods. The bonds that gag my mouth have been loosened and now I am free. Those who have done me harm in my life, I kindly forgive, for the gods will punish you, not me.”
Henuttawy stood, wiping the dirt from her sheath.
SITTING IN my chamber around the warmth of the brazier, I told Woserit and Paser what I suspected about Iset. Woserit gazed at the flames in silence, while Paser cradled a cup of warm Sermet beer in his hands. But neither was as surprised as I had thought they would be.
“She had to be someone’s daughter,” Paser said at length. “Everyone assumed it was some nobleman at court.”
“But she’s the child of the man who killed my family!” I cried. “He’s the murderer of Nefertiti. And if he set the fire . . .” My throat began to close with emotion. “Then he is the murderer of two generations. Do you think he would hesitate to commit another?”
But neither Woserit nor Paser seemed to see the danger I did in the prospect. They were more concerned about the coronation, and Woserit asked sternly, “Is there any chance he will crown you queen?”
I shook my head. “He will never break his promise to his father. But as for Iset, Merit reported seeing a man near her rooms last night.”
Both Woserit and Paser sat forward. This news, at least, appeared to shock them as much as it had me.
“Who was it?” Paser demanded.
I turned up my palms. “She couldn’t see.”
“It might have been the Habiru Ashai,” Woserit guessed immediately.
“No. I’m sure she’s not that foolish,” I replied.
But Woserit shook her head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she paid a servant to go in search of him.”
“She’s desperate,” Paser added. “Who does she have to turn to? Not Pharaoh. Not Henuttawy. She already owes the High Priestess of Isis more than she may ever be able to give.”
Woserit rested a hand on my knee. “Rahotep can do nothing more for her. He can’t speak too loudly against you because his past is still his prison. Iset may not know this yet, but we do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
FOR THE KING IS RA
RAMESSES’S WIDE PECTORAL caught the morning sun, and the blue faience tiles across the dais made it seem as though he was walking on water as he approached his new throne. It was seven days after Pharaoh Seti’s burial, and thousands of noblemen filled the Temple of Amun at Karnak from cities as far away as Memphis. I wondered what they thought of crowning a king without his queen. From my place beside Iset on the third step of the dais, I looked down at my sons in their milk nurses’ arms. They were such bright, happy babies. I felt the burning need to know that they would always be safe, that they would never be subjected to Iset’s whims if I were to die and she were made queen.
A trumpet pierced the crisp air of Pharmuthi, silencing the courtiers in their fur-lined sandals and heavy cloaks. And though I hadn’t been chosen for Chief Wife, Ramesses glanced at me as Rahotep placed the red and white pschent crown on his brow. Several of the viziers did the same, and of those who were gathered on the dais, only Queen Tuya with her ill-tempered iwiw avoided my gaze.
“For the King is Ra,” Rahotep declared. “He is the creator of all things, the begetter of the begotten. He is Bastet who protects the Two Lands, and the one who praises him will be protected by his arm. He is Sekhmet against those who disobey his orders, and Lord-south-of-his-wall. And now he is Pharaoh of all of Egypt, Ramesses the Second and Ramesses the Great.”
Cheers erupted throughout the temple. When Ramesses descended the dais, the chanting was so loud no one could hear him when he held my chin and swore, “If not for my promise . . .”
But no one in the chamber missed his kiss on Amunher’s head, and when he took our son in his arms, Ramesses’s meaning was clear. Amunher was the future of Egypt. Queen Tuya’s glare could not stop Ramesses from raising our son above the crowds. While young dancing girls beat their ivory clappers together, Rahotep passed Henuttawy a meaningful look.
I grasped Merit’s hand; she had seen it, too. My sons could not leave her sight for a moment; every dish brought to the milk nurses’ chamber must be sampled by palace tasters first. Though Ramesses held out his arm for me to take, I remained where I stood.
“Go with Pharaoh,” Merit prompted in my ear. “Nothing will happen.”
“But Rahotep—”
Merit pushed me forward. “I’ll be watching.”
In the courtyard outside of Karnak’s temple, Thebans waited to see who Ramesses would take into his chariot. He had kissed Amunher before the court, and now, before the cheering crowds of Egypt, he offered me his hand. I held my breath, dreading that the people should fall silent, but instead, their cries became thunderous. As we rode through the streets in a procession of soldiers and golden chariots, Ramesses turned to me and smiled.
“You are conquering their hearts. You really are a Warrior Queen, Nefertari.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TO THE RIGHT OF THE KING
IN THE AUDIENCE Chamber, Ramesses still wore his nemes crown. He appeared no different to me than three months earlier, when only Thebes had been his to govern. But the palace of Malkata had certainly changed since his coronation. The walls had been stripped of their vermillion rugs, and from every niche the statues had been taken and placed in wooden chests bound for the palace of Pi-Ramesses. Wherever I went in the halls of the palace, servants were carrying heavy reed baskets, filling them with every conceivable luxury that the city of Avaris might lack. Few petitioners ventured into the Audience Chamber with the palace in such a state, so when Ahmoses appeared and demanded to see me, Paser waved him by, already knowing what my answer to the Habiru’s request would be.
“You’ve come at a bad time, Ahmoses. The court is leaving tomorrow,” I said.
“Then this would be a good time for the Habiru to leave as well,” he offered. “Why make them suffer the move to Avaris?”
“The army does not suffer.” I laughed. “They’ll be sailing the Nile in the same ships as Pharaoh.”
“Not every Habiru is in Pharaoh’s army. Some must sell their stores of grain to hire boats.”
“And they will have to hire boats to reach the shores of Canaan.”
“Not if we walk.”
“The Habiru cannot leave!” I exclaimed, more sharply than I intended. “Reports have come from the north of advancing Hittite troops. If the Hittites take Kadesh, there will be war. Every soldier is needed. Wait until Thoth.”
“I want to know when Pharaoh will set my people free!” His eyes were blazing. He brought his staff crashing down on the tiles, and armed guards moved forward, but I raised my hand to stop them.
Ramesses turned from his business with Paser. “My wife has told you the truth. Every soldier in Thebes will be coming to Avaris,” he said with a sharp dismissal. Then he turned to me. “Why do you entertain him?” he asked quietly.
As Merit and I made our way to the baths that night, she repeated Ramesses’s question.
“Because my mother suffered the way the Habiru do. But if Emperor Muwatallis moves for Kadesh, every soldier in Egypt may not be enough to stop him. And if Kadesh falls, Avaris will be next. Then Memphis. Then Thebes . . .”
The dark silhouette of Merit’s head shook as we walked the tiled path leading to the bathhouse. “If Pharaoh knew that you were considering this,” she began, but I held up my arm to stop her.
“Listen!”
There was the sound of weeping. I glanced at Merit.
“It’s coming from in there,” she whispered.
We slipped quietly through the columned entrance to the royal courtyard. Standing behind the girth of a sycamore tree was the shape of Iset and with her was a young man. From any other entrance, they would have been hidden from view. Her back was to us.
“You could come every morning,” she pleaded. “
You’re a sculptor, Ashai. We could tell the court you’re sculpting my bust. No one would know—”
“I should never have come to you.” The Habiru moved away. “I loved you once, but I’ve learned to love my wife. She’s given me two children . . . But inviting me here—you’re putting my life in jeopardy!” He must have caught a glimpse of our movement, for in a moment he had fled.
Iset turned, and when she saw me standing with Merit, she covered her mouth in horror. She sank to her knees among the belt of flowers bordering the path to her chamber. “Are you going to tell Ramesses?” she whispered, her head bowed.
“No. Your secret is safe from him,” I said quietly.
Merit looked at me in shock. “My lady!”
Iset looked up at me, eyes narrowed in calculation. “And what will I have to pay for this silence?”
“It is only people like Henuttawy who expect payment,” I replied.
LATER, IN my chamber, I told Woserit and Paser what had happened. “They were hidden beneath the branches of a sycamore,” I finished. “If we hadn’t been on our way to the baths, we would never have seen them.”
“A wife of Pharaoh must be beyond suspicion,” Woserit said darkly. “When Ramesses discovers this—”
“He won’t discover it. I told Iset that her secret was safe.” Though Woserit and Paser both stared at me in astonishment, I shook my head firmly. “Henuttawy has already made her life miserable enough. And Ashai swore that he would never return. How would knowing this make Ramesses happy?”
“But Iset is betraying him!”
“For love. My mother betrayed her family for love. I wouldn’t be here if my mother hadn’t chosen the general Nakhtmin over duty to her sister.”
“But your mother wasn’t married to your sister!” Woserit cried. “They hadn’t sworn an oath before Amun.”
It was true. The situation wasn’t the same, but now that the time had finally come, and it was in my power to destroy Iset, I didn’t have the heart.
THE NEXT morning, every Theban who depended on Pharaoh for their employment was on the road. I shaded my eyes with my hand, and from my balcony, I could see the thousands of wagons, loaded with grain, chests, and weapons of war, beginning the long journey to Avaris. Those who could afford it hired barges, packing their belongings into simple chests. Beyond the city, farmers carried their last baskets of threshed grain to the whitewashed silos, where scribes paid them from the treasury. The fortunate used these copper deben to purchase a place for their families on ships.
I embraced Ramesses tightly as we stood together looking out over the sea of people.
“It’s not like Nefertiti and Akhenaten,” Ramesses promised. “We aren’t building a city in the desert to glorify ourselves. We’re moving to Avaris to protect our kingdom.” Ramesses looked down at me and smiled. “Do you know what I instructed the builders to see to first? Your chamber,” he said. “I’ve had them build you one next to mine, painted with all the scenes from Malkata.”
No one had ever done something so considerate for me. I put my hand to my heart, and when he saw that he had left me speechless, he kissed my lips, my cheeks, my neck. “Your akhu built Malkata, Nefer. Your mother lived here. I don’t want you to feel sad when you leave it today.”
I pressed my hands against the hardness of his chest, then down to his waist, and even farther. He swept me into his arms, carrying me from the balcony, but the servants had already packed my bed.
Next to the brazier was a sheepskin, deep and white and soft. “Like you,” he whispered when he laid me against it. He knelt to kiss my shoulders, then my breasts, then the soft inside of my thighs. He inhaled the scent of jasmine I always wore between my legs. We lay on the warm rug in my empty chamber and made love, until Merit’s knocking had become too loud to ignore.
Still, I wanted to look out over the fruit trees in the garden one last time. Their branches were supported on painted trellises, and some nights I imagined that it was my mother who’d planted them. She had been a great gardener, but there was no one to tell me which flowers she had left to me in Thebes. I’d told Ramesses that I wouldn’t be sad to leave Malkata, but now I realized that I had lied. In four months, during the Feast of Wag, there would be nowhere for me to go to in Avaris to light incense for my mother’s ka. She would sit untended in Horemheb’s temple, her face enshrouded by darkness, forgotten.
“We’ll return.” Ramesses came up behind me.
“My mother walked these halls,” I said. “Sometimes, I stand on this balcony and wonder if she saw what I am seeing.”
“We will build her a temple,” Ramesses promised. “We will not let her be forgotten. I am Pharaoh of all of Egypt now.”
“Akhenaten was once Pharaoh of all of Egypt—”
He took me by the shoulders. “You are related to me now. To Amunher and Prehir. The people have seen my victories in Nubia and Kadesh. They’ve seen our conquest of the Sherden. The gods are watching us now. They know us.”
That afternoon, we sailed with a flotilla of more than a hundred ships, and I stood on the stern watching Malkata disappear. Ramesses’s finest ship was filled to bursting, piled with chests and heavy furniture from the palace. Ebony statues of the gods peeked from the cabin, seemingly as anxious as I was to arrive. There was little room to stand, and the courtiers who’d come with us sat beneath a sunshade, unable to move. So much would change, and I sighed wistfully. “I wonder what it will be like to live in Avaris permanently?”
As always, Merit’s reply was sensible. “The same as it was when you were a child and the court spent every summer there. Now don’t let Iset decide which chamber she will have.”
“Ramesses has already chosen my chamber. He built me a new one next to his,” I told her, “and there are two rooms next to it. One for you, and one for Amunher and Prehir. You won’t have to share with the milk nurses anymore. It will be the largest room in Avaris.”
Merit put her hands to her heart gleefully. “And does Iset know this?”
WE ARRIVED in Pi-Ramesses in the middle of Pachons, and it was a different palace from the one we’d seen in the chilled month of Tybi. In the months that had passed, thick clusters of flowers had bloomed from newly painted urns and hanging vases. From the lofty heights of the sandstone columns, fragrant garlands of lotus blossoms had been twined with branches painted in gold. The sweet scent of lilies filled the halls, and in the tiled courtyards water splashed musically from alabaster fountains onto blooming jasmine. An army of servants must have worked every day since Seti’s death. I imagined them buzzing about the palace like bees, darting into the chambers to clean, and polish, and prepare for our arrival. The freshly painted walls gleamed in the sun, and a thousand bronze lanterns waited for nightfall to reflect in the newly tiled floors. Everything was rich, and new, and glittering.
I turned to Ramesses in shock. “How can the treasury of Avaris afford this?”
He lowered his voice so only I could hear. “It can’t. You can thank the Sherden pirates for this.”
Hundreds of courtiers assembled in the Audience Chamber with its colossal statues of King Seti and Queen Tuya, and Paser read out the locations of every chamber. When he came to my name, the court seemed to hold its breath.
“The princess Nefertari,” he announced, “to the right of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great.”
A murmur of surprise passed through the room, and I saw Henuttawy glance at Iset. To be placed at the right of the king meant that Ramesses had made me Chief Wife in all but name. It wasn’t a public declaration engraved on the temples of Egypt, but the entire court of Avaris knew his preference now.
“Shall I show you the chamber?” Ramesses asked. He led me to a wooden door, inlaid with tortoiseshell and polished ivory, and then placed his hand over my eyes.
I laughed. “What are you doing?”
“When you go inside, I want you to tell me what it reminds you of.”
I heard him open the door, and as soon as he withdrew his ha
nd, I gasped. It was exactly like home. On the farthest wall were the leaping red calves from the palace of Malkata. On another was a large image of the goddess Mut, passing the ankh of life to my mother. I stared at the painting, remembering the mural that Henuttawy had destroyed, and tears coursed down my cheeks.
OVER THE next month, the Audience Chamber of Pi-Ramesses was never silent. Our days were spent in work, touring Avaris, overseeing repairs, meeting with emissaries and viziers from foreign courts. But at night, there were endless distractions. The deben in Seti’s treasury had gone to prepare for war and provide him with entertainment, so even while all around him the palace lay crumbling, he had never been without Egypt’s most beautiful dancers. They crowded the Great Hall in numbers, seeking support from the new Pharaoh of Egypt, and the entire court felt alive and merry. Amunher and Prehir could now sit upright on Woserit’s lap and clap in time with the rattle of the sistrums. But no one was allowed to hold Ramessu except his own mother or his nurse. Iset kept her watchful eye over him, and if Amunher and Prehir crawled too close, she gathered him in her arms and whisked him away. From his mother’s grasp, poor Ramessu listened to the delighted squeals of my sons, crawling together on the dais. He will grow to be a very lonely child, I thought.
But no one else in Avaris seemed lonely. In the grand villas beyond Pi-Ramesses, there were nightly feasts as new relatives arrived on the road from Thebes. The aroma of roasted duck wafted into the corridors of the palace, and in the mornings the scent of pomegranate paste was so strong I would awake to the sound of my growling stomach. From the balcony of my chamber, I watched the farmers harvest the amber-hued myrrh, and at night their wives would take their small children and stroll the city’s tree-lined avenues. The fear of devastating famine was gone, and though the people believed that it was Penre’s invention that had changed their lives, I knew better. I wondered what my akhu would think, knowing that not everything from Amarna had been destroyed.