Then Thutmose’s head swung toward me. His lips curled back, and in a voice that came from a place of endless, all-consuming darkness, he growled, “This is your doing. You wretched girl, you’ve destroyed my life, but I’ll end yours!”
With an unexpected twist of his body and two vicious slashes of his dagger, he was free of the guards who held him. As they staggered back into the arms of their fellow soldiers, their hands pressed to the wounds his blade had opened, Thutmose leaped straight at me.
I didn’t pause for any thought—I spun on my toes and ran. My skirt held me back, so I pulled it high and dashed away. The nobles who had come to witness my trial screeched and fled, but fear confused them and they wound up milling crazily in the courtyard, bright petals caught in a whirlpool. I dodged in and out among them with Thutmose after me. I heard grunts and screams in my wake. I prayed that all he was doing to clear his path was shoving the innocent aside. I ran faster and knew I was outdistancing him when I heard his foul curses receding behind me.
Then I heard him cry out in fury and frustration, “No! Let me go! She’s mine. Release me, or your life will pay me back for hers! Ah, you dog, you dare to take a prince’s dagger? I’ll still make you bleed—”
One of the temple singers, a motherly priestess, came up behind me and gathered me into her arms. “It’s all right now, Lady Nefertiti,” she said. “See? You’re safe.” She gently pried the bunched-up fabric of my dress from my rigid grasp, smoothed it back into place, then turned us both around to view the courtyard. Thutmose was once more in the grip of his father’s guards, except now he was without his weapon. They brought him to the foot of the platform where his father waited.
“Take him away,” Pharaoh said. His voice was drenched in a bitterness and grief that broke my heart.
11
HATHOR’S GIFT
The rest of that day became a blur for me. I know that someone must have brought me back to my rooms, because that was where I was when my maids lit the lamps and offered me dinner.
“You must eat something, mistress,” one of them said. “You didn’t touch a bite of your midday meal.”
“Is Amenophis all right?” I blurted. Now that I was back in the waking world, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I had no idea what had become of him after he’d fainted. How could I forget to ask such a thing? I thought, miserable with self-reproach.
“Ameno—? Prince Amenophis?” The two maids exchanged an uneasy look. “We heard that he fell ill this morning, but nothing more.”
“We could go find out, if you give us permission, mistress,” the second maid said. I couldn’t tell if she was sincerely willing to serve me or just avid to have a fresh excuse to run back to her sweetheart in the kitchens.
“That would be good. You are free to go. Come back as quickly as … when you can.” I was too worn out from the morning’s ordeal to care about the honesty or duplicity of another girl in love. “Thank you.”
“Mistress?” Her expression changed from eagerness to concern. I must have looked dreadful. “Mistress, I promise you, I’ll be back very fast. And when I come back, would you … would you like the two of us to prepare a bath for you? I can bring some fragrant herbs to scent the water.”
The maid who’d insisted I eat something answered for me. “Yes, do that! A bath is just the thing she needs. And don’t you dare take all evening finding out about the prince. The news must be old by now; everyone will know it. You don’t need to get it from the kitchens,” she concluded meaningly.
The second maid didn’t wait to hear more. She was gone and back again before I’d eaten the last of my dinner. “I have good news, mistress,” she announced with a smile. “Prince Amenophis is well. It was only a mild fainting spell. He looked healthy and fit when he accompanied his royal parents back to the palace. It’s even said”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“it’s even said that Pharaoh himself had to reprimand the prince for looking too well.”
“That makes no sense,” I objected.
“They say that Pharaoh was made so wretched by what his eldest son did in the Palace of Ma’at that he spent the rest of today snapping at anyone he saw who didn’t wear a face long enough to trip over. They say that finally he shut himself up in the heart of his chambers and wouldn’t see anyone, not even his Great Royal Wife. They say that she beat on the doors with her fists and shouted at him to let her in, but he refused. They say she looked like a wild thing, and—”
“That’s enough,” I said curtly. “I am tired of what they say. All I wanted was news of Prince Amenophis. He’s better; I’m content. The two of you are free for the night.”
“But, mistress, your bath—” The news-bearing maid offered up the basket of herbs she’d brought me.
I took it from her hands and set it aside. “These will keep. I’ll bathe in the morning. For tonight, I want to be alone.”
“We are here to obey your wishes, mistress,” the first maid said. “But we were also told—”
“To stay near enough so that I didn’t try to escape?” I finished her sentence for her with a wry smile. “You haven’t been doing a very good job of that, have you?”
The two of them looked embarrassed and nervous. “We didn’t think you would try to escape,” the first maid said. “You are—forgive me, mistress, but it’s true—you are only a girl. How would you be able to come up with a successful way to get out of the palace? And if you did manage that, where would you go? How could you survive?”
“I’d die,” the second maid said plaintively. Her eyes were wide with all her unspoken fears of what lay beyond the palace gates.
“And yet you must know that I did escape, once before,” I said. “What did you think of that?”