“Your royal father is the god-on-earth,” I said firmly. “Are you as eager for his death as you are for your brother’s?”
My words struck Thutmose hard. I saw a flash of remorse in his expression as he realized what his rash words implied. “I didn’t … I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t want anyone dead,” he murmured. “Not even you, Nefertiti. Not even after all the ways you’ve hurt me. All I ever wanted was to have you for my wife, the way Mother had it all planned, but you spoiled everything. Why did the gods ruin such a beautiful creation by filling it with so much defiance and stubbornness? They’re as much to blame as you for making me treat you this way.”
Did I see tears in his eyes? Did that mean there was still hope for him? I knew very well that the royal palace could be a woefully unhealthy home for its children. Its high walls and countless rooms bred plots the way rotten meat bred flies. Thutmose’s mind carried the scars of always living in the shadows of uncertainty, fear, and suspicion. Aunt Tiye hadn’t helped matters by raising him to think he could only be Pharaoh or nothing. If he could be reclaimed even now!
I leaned forward to offer him a comforting touch, but before my hand could reach his, the little cat decided I ought to be using it to pet her some more. She slid her sleek head under my palm and butted it so imperiously that I had to smile.
You are Bast’s true daughter, I thought as I stroked her head. She closed her eyes in bliss when I massaged her whiskery eyebrows with my fingertips. May the goddess give you a safer life than poor Ta-Miu. As if she could read my thoughts, Thutmose’s new pet gave a small mew and pushed her head against my hand again, harder.
“I believe you, Thutmose,” I said gently while I rubbed the cat’s head. “You do care for your family; you don’t want to lose them. Neither do I. We’re kin, remember.”
“Kin who keep secrets from one another,” he responded glumly. “You wouldn’t even tell me if my brother was alive or dead.”
“That’s because I thought you wanted him dead. I was afraid that if I gave you any bit of information, you’d use it to hunt him to his doom. I was wrong; I’m sorry. You want to know why I came here tonight? To save him. Listen.” And I told him about how Amenophis had been stung by the scorpion and now lay sick and feverish. What I didn’t tell him was where his brother lay. My heart believed that Thutmose held no life-threatening grudge against Amenophis, but my mind whispered, Remember Set! Tread cautiously, and I heeded the warning.
When I was done speaking, Thutmose raised one eyebrow. “Honey?” he said, bemused. “That’s all you wanted?”
“To fight the infected sting, yes,” I said. “Do you have any?”
“Of course.” He nodded at the wooden chest. “I have a casket of such things in there, packed toward the top. You’d have found it and been long gone if I hadn’t heard that scuffle you had with this little demon.” He reached out his hand to pet the cat, and I drew back my own hand to let him.
Then I drew a sharp breath. My fingertips were stained brown, and in the place where I’d been rubbing the cat’s head, a patch of smudged white fur was now visible. The edges of the blaze were still obscured by whatever stuff had been used to conceal it until this moment, but I could see enough of it to recognize the shape of a star.
“Ta-Miu!” I was so dazed that I could hardly speak that name above a whisper. The little cat lifted her pointed chin as though acknowledging this startling truth.
I turned a furious face to Thutmose. “This is Ta-Miu, isn’t it? She’s not dead. She was never killed, never even harmed!”
“You sound disappointed,” he replied coldly. “Do you think I’d let anything happen to my dearest one?” He scooped the cat from my lap and held her close, whispering loving nonsense in her ears.
The full meaning of what I’d discovered fell over me like a mountain of sand. I felt that I was about to choke on my rage. “You knew this,” I rasped. “When you pretended to feel pity for me at my trial, when you listened so earnestly to the false testimony brought against me, when you so reluctantly let me be condemned to death for killing Ta-Miu—through all of that, you knew that there was no crime. There never had been; Ta-Miu was alive, unhurt, and hidden away so that you could use her ‘death’ to destroy me. And you would rule the Two Lands? Ma’at forbid it—that would be the real blasphemy.”
Thutmose dropped Ta-Miu and slapped my face so hard that I almost knocked the lamp over when I sprawled on the floor. He snatched it out of the way and held it high. “Ma’at doesn’t listen to a grubby little upstart who doesn’t even know how to act like a real woman. So you’ve discovered my secret; so what? All I need to do is hide her away again. Your accusations won’t be anything more than the terrified raving of a condemned criminal. Your word against mine, the word of Pharaoh’s heir?” He laughed.
I sat up on my knees and bowed my head. I knew he was right. In that moment, he held all the power. I was his captive. All I had left to sustain me were words.
Slowly I raised my eyes and looked around the tent. Was this going to be my new prison until we started back for Thebes in the morning, or was he going to summon one of his men and have me tethered outside, like an animal? The oil lamp’s flame revealed more of Thutmose’s hunting gear than I’d been able to make out in the dark. There was the bed and the chest, but now I could also see several smaller boxes stacked against the other wall, and the prince’s magnificent bow and quiver full of arrows propped in one corner. A low-seated folding stool was set beside the small, round table near his bed. A goatskin bag for carrying drink lay beneath it, and the remains of Thutmose’s evening meal were still scattered on the tabletop.
“More silence?” he snapped at me, lowering the lamp. “I’m tired of these games. What are you staring at?”