“Stand back!” I commanded. “I won’t say another word if you leave us alone.”
“You give me orders? Amun curse you for a thousand years, you insolent girl!” He raised his hand as if to strike me.
Acting as one person, Thutmose and Amenophis moved swiftly to shield me. Thutmose touched the ceremonial crook-shaped scepter to the priest’s chest. “Do you deny my authority, too?” he said. The priest bowed almost double, begging Thutmose’s pardon, and took himself to the far side of the little chamber.
Thutmose returned to his throne and resumed his imposing stance. “So, brother, do you think I acted well just now, or do you want to send a message to Father about that, too, to see if he would approve?”
Amenophis gazed at his brother with new respect, then went down on one knee before him. “Father was right to give you the power of rule in his absence. I am loyal to you both and I—I love you dearly. All I ask—all I beg of you—is that whatever judgment you give tonight will not weigh down your heart when you stand for your own judgment in the court of Osiris.”
“Judgment—” Thutmose repeated. He pronounced the word solemnly, sadly. “You speak as if I have a choice, but in this case, there can be none. I rule in our father’s name, according to the customs and traditions that you know as well as I. It is in his name that I must pass judgment, even if it breaks my heart. The penalty for sacrilege—”
I clapped my hands over Nava’s ears. I couldn’t, wouldn’t let her hear Thutmose utter the same verdict that had taken the life of her sister.
“—is death. The penalty for sorcery is death. The penalty for plotting the destruction of the divine one, my father Pharaoh Amenhotep—may his name be preserved and praised!—is death.” He leveled the flail at me. “So it must be.”
The guards came at me from either side. They hooked their hands under my arms and lifted me off my feet. Nava tumbled sprawling to the floor. She looked like a gazelle hearing the first distant cry of the hunt. She had no idea at all of what was going on around her, only that I was being taken away. Amenophis was shouting at his brother. The other men were babbling excitedly over my fate. It was only a matter of time before my poor Nava overheard enough to understand what was happening and to hear my fate.
“Nava, go! Get out of here! Run back to the room!” I cried, struggling against my captors. I wanted her far away before it was too late.
“—Great Royal Wife’s own niece, his own bride, and yet he condemned her—”
“Nava, obey me! Go!” I went limp in the guards’ grasp, fighting for the chance to let Nava escape before she could hear—
“—to death!”
One of my guards lost patience and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of emmer wheat. As he carried me away, I heard a piteous howl rise up behind us, and then a voice that I had never heard so clearly before calling after me: “Nefertiti! Nefertiti! Don’t leave me, Nefertitiiiiii!” And the first words that completely broke Nava’s long silence ended in a storm of tears.
They put me in a room even more isolated than the quarantine apartments in the women’s quarters. I could tell that by how quiet it was, though I had no solid idea of where it stood because they’d dragged me there in the dark. It was very small, with a wooden door instead of a curtained archway, and a window that was so high and narrow that if a mouse could scale the outer wall, it would still have to crawl on its belly to get in. At least it was wide enough to let me watch a bit of sky. It was still the color of a crow’s wing, but the stars were already losing their light as the night began to seep away.
I had a mat to sleep on, a jug filled with water, and a tiny clay lamp that could hold so little oil that its light would never last me through a whole night. There was also a toilet stool—a wooden frame holding a large clay pot with a heavy lid. I hoped that my jailers would empty it often. I didn’t want to think about how foul the air would get in that confined space when the heat of the day rose, even if it were kept covered.
I sat cross-legged on the mat, rested my head in my hands, and tried to make sense of what had happened to me. O Isis, my head is spinning! I’m so happy that Nava can speak again, but what a dreadful cause for regaining her voice! And what will become of her now? Sweet goddess, help her. Bring Ta-Miu back so that everyone can see living proof that Meketre lied. Why did he do it? I don’t know him or that mean-hearted Amun priest; we’re strangers, yet both of them stood against me and did everything they could to drag me down. Why? I stretched out on the mat and closed my eyes, intending only to rest long enough to sort through those mysteries with a clear mind, but instead I plunged into dreamless sleep.
“Nefertiti?” A soothing voice woke me. Daylight filled my small window and I saw Thutmose standing in the doorway of my prison. He still wore the nemes crown and looked as impressive as when he’d handed down my death sentence, but instead of the crook and the flail he held a garland of flowers. “These are for you,” he said, stooping to place them on my hair as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. He’d brought me roses.
I took off the wreath and laid it aside. “You’ve done enough. I can’t make you leave, but I wish you would go.”
“Not without saying what I’ve come to tell you.” He sat down beside me. “You’re not going to die.”
“Don’t do this to me, Thutmose. You were the one who pronounced my death sentence.”
“Nefertiti, I had no choice. Meketre’s testimony—”
“Meketre’s lies! Why would a boy I’ve never seen before want to incriminate me like that? I’ve done nothing to him.”
“Who knows? I was born and raised in this palace and even so, I’m still stunned by how many secrets it holds.”