Ptah-Hotep smiled. “No harm will come of giving her a sip or two.”
I held the clay pot to her lips. The first taste made her greedy and she would have drunk the whole thing if Ptah-Hotep hadn’t snatched it away from her. He could react with remarkable speed for a man of his age. “I said a sip.” He spoke so sternly that Nava jumped off my lap and ran into the bedroom.
“You scared her,” I accused him.
“Lady Nefertiti, I don’t know what that child is to you, but if you care for her at all, you should thank me. If I scared her, I swear by the wisdom of Thoth, I did it for her own good. The most harmless herbs can still have ill effects if you consume too much of them, just as the most wholesome foods will make you sick if you overeat. I have offered you a dose carefully measured to be beneficial for a young woman. It would be too much for a small child. I swear to you by the wisdom of Thoth that whatever sins I may commit, I will never betray my calling as a physician. I would sooner die than give anyone a potion that I knew would harm them.” There were tears in his eyes as he finished.
“I believe you, Master Ptah-Hotep,” I said, and to prove it, I drained the last drop from the clay pot in my hands. The physician was visibly pleased.
“Sleep well, Lady Nefertiti,” he said, bowing before he left me. His words combined magically with the sweet potion, and I fell into a deep sleep the moment I stretched out in my bed.
That night, for the first time in years, I dreamed of the desert and the monstrous lions of my childhood. I stood in their midst, not knowing how I’d gotten there, and watched in horror as they circled me. Their jaws were stained red with blood, their yellow fangs were spotted black with rot, their ribs protruded from their scrawny, half-starved bodies, but their manes were gorgeously adorned with sparkling beads made out of precious gems and gold. When they opened their mouths to roar, all I heard was a low, indistinct droning, like the chanting of priests from deep within the god’s house.
As they drew their circle tighter around me, I felt the sand beneath my feet give way. I sank slowly, unable to fight back, or run away, or move a finger, or even scream. When the sand reached my chin, I saw their looming faces ripple and begin to change like long ago, before I’d found the magic to overcome my nightmares. I waited helplessly for them to become sphinxes and devour me.
Up! Get up! A gigantic voice boomed through my dream. The lions’ changing faces became featureless disks of polished bronze, mirrors that flashed my own slowing drowning image back into my eyes. Get up, Lady Nefertiti, and face your crime!
I gasped, inhaling dream-sand, and woke to find myself on my feet, held captive between two palace guards. A strange man who smelled strongly of incense stood in front of me, the pottery lamp in his hand casting weird shadows on the walls. He was hairless, well-dressed, and his glittering collar was adorned with a massive golden image of Amun. A priest? I thought, still half-mired in sleep. What’s a priest doing in my dream? But when I tried to ask him what magic he’d used to save me from the hungry sand and the lions, my tongue wouldn’t obey me and my words stumbled out of my mouth as nonsense.
“What are you waiting for?” the priest barked at the men holding me. “The crown prince is waiting!”
“Lord …,” one of the guards said timidly. “Lord, her chief maidservant is fetching her dress. If she is going to stand trial, she must be clothed.”
The priest growled something I couldn’t hear, then bellowed, “And how long will that take? Maid! Hear me! If you can’t clothe your mistress before I count to five, she’ll go before the crown prince and her accusers as naked as the day her mother bore her!”
Kepi came running, one of my dresses draped over her arms. She was followed by my other maids, all of them wailing hysterically. I watched with heavy-lidded eyes as they wept rivers of tears while wrestling the dress onto my languid body, and I smiled because none of this was really happening. The thick darkness beyond the circle of lamplight proved that it was still nighttime, so clearly this was all a lingering dream. If it weren’t, all the noise and commotion would have wakened little Nava, but there she was, still sleeping soundly in her bed.
Yes, it was all just a dream.
“Stop fussing, you stupid turtles. That’s good enough. Bring her!” The priest sailed out of my rooms and we followed him, leaving Kepi and the other maids sobbing in the dark.
I lurched along between the guards, sometimes tripping over my own feet, sometimes treading on theirs, sometimes almost tripping all of us until it got so bad that one of them swept me up in his arms and carried me until the priest glanced back, caught him at it, and cut him to pieces with his tongue. I had to walk the rest of the way, even though it was much slower going.
They brought me to the small, private audience chamber where I’d once spoken with Pharaoh. I recognized Pharaoh’s vizier and two other high-ranking nobles. Judging by their resemblance to the man who’d ordered me here, the five others present were also Amun priests. The vizier and the nobles were bewildered and sleepy. Their clothing was rumpled, as though thrown on in haste. One nobleman’s wig sat tilted too far down on one side, making him look like a drunkard. The priests, on the other hand, were neatly dressed and seemed to have no doubt at all about why they were there.