Why would you ask such questions? I thought, looking up into that hard, carved face more intently. Why, unless there’s something about you that you know I shouldn’t trust?
Nefertiti … Nefertiti … The Great Sphinx crooned my name in a voice that dripped with false love, thick and too sickeningly sweet to stomach. If you don’t come closer, how will you ever be able to receive the gift I have for you? Draw near and see how good I am to you, beautiful one! Come, my treasure, my prize, come….
Something stirred between the Great Sphinx’s paws. I saw a glint of gold in the darkness, and then a lithe, elegant shape stepped into the light on dainty feet. Tail held high, a glittering collar around her neck, the royal cat called Ta-Miu left a trail of little paw prints like golden flowers in the sand. The star-shaped patch of white fur on her brow shone with mysterious light.
“Ta-Miu, you’re alive!” I clapped my hands with joy. “Gracious Isis be thanked.”
How dare you thank Isis? The Great Sphinx’s voice was suddenly strong again, roaring his rage. Ungrateful girl, you should thank me! Me and only me! He scowled, and the sandstorm-pitted surface of his face cracked like a dry streambed, hard flakes scattering everywhere. A second face began to emerge from what was no more than a thin shell of stone. Your life depends on whether this creature is alive or dead! Have you forgotten that you were the one accused of killing her? That to kill one of the goddess Bast’s own children is blasphemy, a crime that carries the supreme penalty? Her blood is the ransom for your own! Thankless, treacherous girl, don’t you know that I have the power of life or death over you? Still you repay my gracious kindness to you with a thousand betrayals!
The flakes of stone were falling faster. I gasped when I saw what lay beneath the Great Sphinx’s mask.
“Thutmose …” I spoke the name of Pharaoh’s heir in a whisper, but a whirlwind whipped through the grove of palm trees, turning my voice into a roar that rivaled the false Great Sphinx’s voice. My whisper became a clap of thunder that smashed what was left of Prince Thutmose’s disguise and tore away the illusion embracing him. While I watched, he shrank like a green leaf left to bake in the sun. In three heartbeats, he stood before me as a young man hardly older than I. All that was left of the looming presence of the Great Sphinx was the nemes crown he wore, the blue-striped cloth adorned with the protective image of Wadjet, the cobra-goddess.
“Now see what you’ve done to me, Nefertiti!” His handsome face twisted with resentment. He knelt to scoop Ta-Miu into his arms, and his sullen expression softened for a moment when he glanced at the pretty little cat. “If you had been a normal girl, you would have jumped at the chance to marry me, not delay and delay and delay. You made me wait—me, the next pharaoh, the god-on-earth! Father would have named me coruler long ago if you’d married me when you were supposed to instead of wasting time with my brother, that ugly, stammering bundle of sticks and stupidity!”
“Don’t speak about Amenophis that way!” I snapped back. “He’s your closest kin.”
An ugly smile stole over Thutmose’s face. “And what is he to you?”
I pressed my lips together and gave him a hard look. “He’s my friend,” I said stiffly.
“Really?” The crown prince’s sneer grew more repulsive by the moment. “Nothing more? Nothing … closer than that?”
“My friend,” I maintained. “Maybe if you’d tried to be my friend—my true friend—no one would have had to force me to marry you.”
“Is that it?” Thutmose’s mean smile was gone. His face darkened with rage. “Is that your nasty little secret? You want to marry him—him! That gawky, ridiculous, worthless—!”
I covered the ground between us in two strides and slapped the words from Thutmose’s mouth. Ta-Miu gave a little squeak of surprise and leaped from his arms. “No more!” I shouted in his face. “I won’t let you speak like that about Amenophis ever again. You may be stronger and handsomer and your mother’s favorite, but his kindness and courage make him worth ten of you!”
He grabbed my wrists before the last words left my lips. “What do you know of courage, Nefertiti?” he snarled. “You’re only a girl.”
“Try me,” I shot back, and wrenched myself out of his grasp. My hands were fists. “I’ll show you how brave I can be.”
He laughed, and it echoed as if we were deep in the heart of a tomb. Something hissed. The cobra atop Thutmose’s crown rose and swayed back and forth, no longer a golden image of Wadjet but a living serpent. It spread its hood and gaped at me, its cruelly curved fangs heavy with venom. I gasped and jumped back.
“How brave are you now, Nefertiti?” Thutmose taunted.
My mouth went dry and my heart beat as fast as a quail’s whirring wings. The cobra slowly descended from Thutmose’s crown to circle his neck and slither down the length of his body. It poured itself across the sand, eyes flickering with unnatural scarlet fire. I backed away and it followed me until I felt something solid at my back. My fingertips brushed the rough shapes of stones. I glanced to either side, glimpsed the wall behind me, and knew I had run out of room for retreat.
“How brave are you now, Nefertiti?” Thutmose’s mocking words rang out a second time. “Brave enough to fight? Brave enough to die?” The cobra reared up and grew before my eyes until it was as tall as I. I met its merciless stare and trembled.
And then, in an instant, a small shape appeared on the ground between us. My former slave, Nava the Habiru child, sat hunched over a papyrus scroll, her eyes intent on the strands of words, the complicated symbols of our written tongue. Innocent, vulnerable, she was completely unaware of the deadly serpent towering over her.