“My lady Nefertiti, there will be plenty of time for you to see such things later,” the tall servant said. He sounded edgy. “Please, we are expected.”
I don’t know exactly where he took me. The building where we were lodged was a maze. Hall after hall and great room after great room seemed to open up before us until without warning, we crossed the final threshold and were in a chamber twice the size of my room. There were many narrow windows high on the walls, letting in stripes of light but keeping out the worst of the day’s heat and the night’s cold. I saw my sister standing in one of the bars of sunshine and heard her call out, “Look, here she is! Nefertiti!” just as my guide bowed so low I thought his nose would brush his knees.
“O Majesty, lady of the north and the south, mother and wife of greatness,” he told the ground. “As you have commanded, so it is done. She is here.”
“So I see,” said a voice from the far end of the room. There was the dry rustling of fine linen, the flash of gold, and Queen Tiye rose into the light to greet me.
I stared at the small woman who stood before me. She was very beautiful, with a softly rounded face and the sweet expression of a happy child. Her graceful body was dressed in a sheath of delicately pleated linen with a short cape floating around her shoulders. Over this she wore a necklace of so many strands that it covered most of her chest with gold, carnelian, turquoise, and crystal beads. Its centerpiece was a gigantic blue scarab with outstretched multicolored wings. And a gold crown shaped like a vulture framed her face with its jeweled feathers.
Even if she’d been dressed as simply as a farmer’s wife, it was impossible not to stare at her. There was something about the way my aunt carried herself that demanded attention. I got the feeling that she had been exactly like this long before she married Pharaoh Amenhotep. Born to be a queen, I thought. I recalled all that Father had said about his sister—her ambition, her scheming, her way of using people—and couldn’t make his words fit the pretty, soft-spoken little woman before me. Was this the same person he blamed for my mother’s death?
Then I remembered my manners and bowed.
“Stand up, my dear child.” Queen Tiye’s voice was warm and caressing. “We are all family here. Or will be.” She looked meaningly at the tall servant, who promptly scurried from the room. Satisfied, Queen Tiye smiled and motioned for me to approach her. Her large brown eyes shone with affection as she embraced me. Her skin was soft and luminous, scented with a haunting, spicy perfume that also clung to the tightly curled short wig under her crown.
“So you are Nefertiti,” she said. Her eyes never left mine, yet I still felt as though she was looking me over from top to toe and evaluating everything about me. “What a foolish woman I’ve been, to have delayed this meeting for so many years. Your mother was one of my dearest friends; did you know that?”
I nodded, unsure of how else to respond. She was my aunt but also my queen. Was I supposed to call her Aunt Tiye or Queen Tiye or try to come up with a string of praise-names like the tall servant had used? Indecision left me silent.
She laughed and lifted my chin a little with the fingertips of her right hand. “Oh, such a joy! The resemblance is incredible. It’s as if she were still alive. You don’t look like your father at all, praise the gods.” Her tone made it clear that she was teasing her brother.
“That seems to be the way it works in our family,” Father answered genially. “Mutnodjmet doesn’t resemble me, either, and you never looked anything like our father, Tiye. What about your own children? Do the girls favor you or their father?”
“You’ll have to judge that for yourself when you meet them, Ay, though most people claim that all four of them look like me.” A skeptical smile touched her lips. “More beautiful than Hathor, as charming as Isis, and so on and so forth. The magnificence of our beauty is determined by the size of the favors our flatterers come seeking.” She cradled my face with both hands this time and added: “At least when people tell you that you are lovely, dear Nefertiti, you’ll know they mean it.”
Father laughed. “You’ve made her blush, Tiye! Nefertiti, your aunt’s just paid you a compliment. Say something.”
I lowered my eyes. “Thank you, Aunt—I mean, Queen Tiye.”
She kissed my cheek and said, “You were right the first time. I have enough royal geese waddling after me, honking out empty titles. You will call me Aunt.”
I was thankful to have that question settled. “Oh yes, Aunt Tiye!” I exclaimed happily.
She waved me to sit in a small chair close to her own. A table holding an alabaster fruit bowl and a pitcher of wine was between us. She served me with her own hands before telling Mery, “Don’t stand on ceremony. Your husband and daughter must be thirsty. Take care of them.”
I saw a hard look come into Father’s eye. He had reason to be angry: My aunt had spoken to Mery as if she were another servant to be ordered around. She was also making no secret that she favored me above the rest of my family, even her own brother. Why? I wondered. Is it for my mother’s sake? She said they’d been friends, but Father told me she treated my mother like a tool to be used whenever it suited her. Once again, my aunt’s actions were nothing like her history and I was even more confused.
While we ate and drank, Aunt Tiye kept a close eye on all of us, but mostly on me. “Such a healthy appetite! And yet she doesn’t gobble down everything in sight, like a hippo.”
“Am I doing that, Aunt Tiye?” Bit-Bit asked plaintively.