“So we’re in agreement.” He smiled at me with so much charm and kindness that I couldn’t help smiling back. He no longer seemed like the disagreeable old bullfrog who’d shared our table. Maybe I’d misjudged him. Then his eyes flashed with malice and he said: “Too bad I don’t have the power to bring back the dead.”
“Then she’s already been …” I choked on the words. My cheeks burned, but my eyes stayed dry. How I wanted to strike out at this mean-souled, leering man and his cruel game! My right hand lifted, as if it had its own free will. Stop, a level voice sounded inside my head. If I slap that nasty grin from his face, he wouldn’t hesitate to make Father, Mery, and Bit-Bit suffer for it. I forced my hand back down and became Sekhmet again. “Then may the gods reward you for what you’ve done. Good night.”
“Not so fast, girl!” The high priest sprang out of his chair and had my arms pinned to my sides before I could even turn toward the door. “We have unfinished business.”
I squirmed and struggled in his grip. “Let me go! I have nothing more to say to you!”
“I disagree.” He was a strong man and had no trouble hauling me across the floor and shoving me down into his chair so hard that it rattled my spine. “You wasted my time with that flimsy nonsense about your supposed dream, but I’m not the kind of man who wastes a good opportunity. Have you forgotten Ikeni? Your bridegroom?” His teeth were sharp and white, like a jackal’s. “Once there’s a kinship bond between our families, your father will have to treat me with more … courtesy. You’ll stay here tonight, and in the morning you will be escorted back to your father’s house with all the ceremony and spectacle suitable for such a happy occasion.”
“Do it, then!” I snapped, digging my fingertips into the arms of the gilded chair. “The bond won’t last a day! I’ll be free of your son before noon. Even if people believe Ikeni wed me, marriage is a house with an open door. I can walk out any time I like!”
“And where would you go? If you leave my son quickly, after having rushed to his arms tonight, all Akhmin will see you as a common little slut. You’ll never find another husband.”
“I don’t need a husband,” I countered. “I can take care of myself!”
“But can you take care of your father’s reputation? There are many men in this city who envy his success as Pharaoh’s overseer. It won’t take them long to send letters to the royal court, every one saying: How can Ay look after Pharaoh’s affairs when he can’t even look after his own daughter?”
“Pharaoh wouldn’t believe them,” I said staunchly. “He loves my father.”
“No. He loves your aunt. If your father became an embarrassment to her, she’d turn her back on him in the blink of an eye and take all of her royal husband’s favor and support with her.”
I shook my head. “She’s his sister. She wouldn’t.”
“She’s Queen Tiye. I’ve met her.” The high priest’s grin grew even wider until the jackal became a crocodile. “She would.” He shouted two names and a pair of gangly boys about my own age came running into the room. They were as thoroughly shaved as he, priests in training from the look of them.
“Master, is everything all right?” one of them asked, the lump in his throat bobbing wildly.
“Better than that, lads,” the high priest replied easily, gesturing at me. “The house of Isis has a new mistress. Your companion Ikeni has taken a wife. We’ll celebrate her arrival properly tomorrow. For tonight, she will be given the best room under my roof and the two of you will have the honor of seeing that no one enters or leaves. No one. Is that clear?” The boys bowed to show they understood and were ready to obey. The high priest turned to me once more. “Your escort awaits.”
The boys marched me through the priest’s house, one walking ahead with a lamp, one walking behind me. I didn’t try to run away from them. They would have caught me, and I’d had my fill of unwelcome hands on me that night. It didn’t take us long to reach my prison. “Best room” or not, a prison was its rightful name. The boy carrying our light went in first and used it to kindle the alabaster oil lamp inside. Soft radiance glowed over fine furniture and walls painted with a scene of dancing girls. The freedom of their movements seemed to mock me.
I sat down on the bed and stared at the wall. From the corner of my eye I saw the priests-to-be bow very low to me before leaving the room and pulling a blue and yellow curtain across the doorway. No doubt they were on guard just outside. I looked around the room for possible escape, but unless I could learn to be an earthworm and burrow my way out, I was trapped. The only window was too high for me to reach, even if I stood on the bed. There was a small storage chest in the corner, so I tried balancing it on the bed and using it to lift me higher, but the bed frame creaked and sagged so sharply under the extra weight that I toppled off. I landed on my feet without doing any further harm to the foot I’d twisted climbing the outer wall, but that was as far as my luck went. I was still a captive.
And in the morning, I’ll be paraded back to Father’s house as Ikeni’s wife, I thought angrily. Father will put an end to that “marriage” right away, but not before everyone in Akhmin starts jabbering about where I was tonight, and why. And if they don’t know what happened, or if the truth’s too tame, they’ll make up a nastier tale to tell, just to amuse themselves. O Ma’at, how I wish your sacred Feather of Truth could send all storytellers’ hearts straight down the gullet of the monster Ammut! My whole family will be shamed. And it was all for nothing. The girl is dead. I should have stayed at home and tried to find out if she were still alive before running headlong into this mess.
I covered my eyes with both hands and sighed loudly.
“Mistress?” One of the boys spoke up in a reedy voice. “Do you want something?”
“Nothing,” I replied. “Leave me alone.”
“Don’t call her ‘Mistress!’ ” Now I heard the other boy’s voice, deeper and scratchier than his companion’s.