“My grandfather came from your land,” I said. “And my mother also had Mitanni blood.”
“So that is why you are so pretty!” the first princess exclaimed with satisfaction. “All Mitanni women are, much more than Black Land women.” Then she made a comically serious face and laughed, to let me know she was only teasing.
I returned to my rooms with a happy heart. Aside from my writing practice with Sitamun and Henenu, this was the most company I’d enjoyed since my arrival. There were some times that I was summoned to dine with the royal family, but they were formal occasions, often attended by foreign dignitaries. Pharaoh was the only one who dared to break the solemn atmosphere with a joke. Everyone laughed dutifully, but no one tried to tell another one.
As for my husband-to-be, the last time I’d seen Thutmose, apart from the formal dinners and our initial meeting, was a month ago when Aunt Tiye had the two of us brought back to that same garden to share a very awkward meal while servants filled the air with soft music and passionate love poetry. Thutmose ate without enjoyment, asked me a series of dull questions, and didn’t bother to listen to my answers. I prayed that I’d get a fish bone stuck in my throat to put an end to the torture.
The next morning, all of my joy at finally making new friends in the women’s quarters was snatched from my hands and shattered. Instead of Kepi’s murmured, “Mistress, it’s the hour you asked to be awakened,” I was roused from sleep by an anxious, “My lady, the queen wants you. Now.”
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Kepi hovered by my bedside with a clay lamp in her hand, her broad, pleasant face transformed by apprehension. “At this hour?” I protested, shivering. The air still held the chill of night, the windows were still dark, the holy sun-disk still hidden below the horizon.
“Yes, my lady. At once. I have your dress waiting, and a robe. Her messenger said—she said that all of us must come with you.” Her fingers flew to her simple necklace and closed tightly around the amulet she wore to ward off evil. “Even the child.”
Even though the palace came to life very early every day, with slaves and servants hastening to stoke the cooking fires, bake the bread, and fetch all the things that their masters needed to start the morning, we walked through deserted halls. I still had three maidservants looking after me—my efforts to make do with only Kepi had been countermanded by Aunt Tiye—and now I was glad to have them. I didn’t dare to be caught holding Berett’s hand when I presented myself to the queen. No matter how special the child was to me, Aunt Tiye could not be allowed to discover that. So Berett walked behind me, with the rest of my servants, and took comfort from the two who clasped her small hands and whispered for her not to be afraid.
We were taken to a part of the palace whose sumptuous rooms were decorated with scene after scene of Aunt Tiye receiving gifts from her husband. The flickering lamps that lit our way let me glimpse some of the writing on the walls, all praising the beauty, charm, and wisdom of the Great Royal Wife. The woman herself was waiting for us in a room that looked like a miniature version of Pharaoh’s principal reception hall, where he sat on a raised platform under a colorfully striped and gilded canopy and accepted the tribute of lesser kings.
Aunt Tiye was not seated. She stood with her fingertips just touching the arms of her chair and looked ready to spring straight down my throat. In spite of the hour, she had seen to it that her attendants dressed and adorned her to the point where she might have been mistaken for a goddess—a goddess of wrath.
“Are these all of your people?” she thundered when we all bowed before her. “I’ll know if you’re lying, Nefertiti. I know everything that happens under this roof.”
“Yes, Aunt Tiye,” I replied calmly. “This is everyone who serves me.”
She pointed at her messenger. “Take them out of my sight! Let no one know they’re here.” The woman bowed and ushered everyone else away. The look of stark terror in their eyes was appalling. I saw Berett press both hands to her mouth, as if to make doubly sure that no sound would escape her lips.
“Aunt Tiye, what’s wrong?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Is that so?” She mocked me. “But you’re such an intelligent girl, so talented, so perfect to become the next Great Royal Wife. So why aren’t you intelligent enough to remember that everything you are or ever hope to be, you owe to me? Why have you decided to reward all I’ve done for you with treachery?”
“What treachery?” I asked, unable to believe my ears. “I’m your niece, not your enemy. If I’ve done anything to offend you, I apologize, but I don’t see how I’ve—”
“You were with them!” Aunt Tiye’s teeth clashed together in her fury. “You shared food and drink and laughter with the women who’d like nothing better than to steal our rightful thrones from my son and me!”
“The Mitanni princesses?” So that was it. “All we did was—”
“I know what you did. How could you even think of befriending the very people who want to destroy your family? Does loyalty mean nothing to you? Are you so stupid that you’d betray the ties of blood between us for a mouthful of cake and wine? Do you love those foreign dogs so much that you’d gladly cover yourself with their fleas?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Aunt Tiye, I swear by Ma’at that I would never side against you with any of the other royal women.”
“Royal women,” she repeated scornfully, then narrowed her eyes. “Prove it.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Forget your foolish reluctance to do what you know you must, sooner or later. Marry Thutmose now.” She was smiling again, a thin, disturbing smile.