Nefertiti

“Perhaps it is better not to speak of the Pharaoh Akhenaten in public,” I admitted and Ankhesenamun gave Tutankhamun a wise look. “However, there is nothing wrong with remembering the good a person did.”

Ankhesenamun stared at me. Nakhtmin raised his brows.

“He wrote poetry.” I hesitated. “And he was skilled with the bow and arrow. That is where the two of you might have inherited it from.”

“My mother was good with the bow,” Ankhesenamun contradicted.

“That’s true, but Akhenaten was especially swift.” And at once, I thought of the woman in the Audience Chamber trying to save her child by fleeing from the plague. I drew my cloak closer to my chest, and Ankhesenamun leaned over in the bark as if there was an important question she needed answered.

“Was my father really a heretic?” she asked.

I shifted uncomfortably on my cushion, avoiding Nakhtmin’s gaze. “He was a great believer in Aten,” I said carefully.

“Is that why mother meets with the Aten priests, even though Vizier Ay says that it’s dangerous? Is it because our father believed in Aten and she feels sorry?”

I met Nakhtmin’s glance. “I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t know why she meets with them when everyone’s told her it’s a dangerous thing. Maybe she still feels sad.”

“About what?”

“About being deceived by Aten when Amun is the great god of Egypt,” Baraka declared.

Nefertiti met with the Aten priests despite her viziers’ protests, against all common sense and my father’s warnings.

“I will fix this,” she swore, walking the battlements of the new wall around Thebes. With age, her delicate beauty had hardened into something knifelike and more defining. She was thirty-one now.

“But what if there’s no fixing it?” I asked. “They’re criminals. They want power, and they’re willing to kill to have it again.”

She shook her head firmly. “I won’t allow there to be discord in Egypt.”

“But there will always be discord. There will always be disagreement.”

“Not in my Egypt! I will talk with them.” She gripped the crenellations and stared out beyond the Nile. The sun beat down on the freshly cut stones, baking them in the heat of Mesore. From here we could see the entire city: my villa across the River Nile, the towering images of Amunhotep the Elder, the Temple of Amun, and hundreds of royal statuary.

“What can talking do? These men have killed Amun priests,” I said. “They should be sent to the quarries.”

“I’m the People’s Queen. There shall be peace in this land while I’m its ruler.”

“And how will meeting with them achieve it?”

“Perhaps I can convince them to turn to Amun. To stop fighting.” Nefertiti glanced sideways at me to see that I was listening. “I have so many visions, Mutnodjmet. Of an Egypt that stretches again from the Euphrates in the east to Kush in the south. Of a land where Amun and Aten can both reside. Tomorrow, I’m meeting with two Aten priests. They have petitioned to have a temple—”

“Nefertiti,” I said firmly.

“I can’t grant them the use of Amun’s temples. But their own temple…Why not?”

“Because they will still want more!”

She grew quiet, looking out over Thebes. “I will make peace with them,” she vowed.

The next evening I rushed into the Per Medjat and my father looked up, startled. “Have you seen Nefertiti?” I asked.

“She’s in the Audience Chamber. With Meritaten.”

“No. Thutmose saw her with two Aten priests. She swore she would meet us in the Great Hall, but she isn’t there!”

His eyes met mine, and then we were running. The hour for petitioners was already done. We burst through the doors of the Great Hall and the palace guards tensed. “Find Pharaoh!” my father shouted, and the fear in his voice sent a dozen men springing into action, opening doors, shouting Nefertiti’s name. From down the hall, we could hear the men calling, “Your Majesty!” as we opened doors, finding nobody.

A sick feeling bore into my stomach, a feeling I’d never had before.

Nakhtmin found us in the Great Hall. “What’s happened?”

“Nefertiti! No one can find her. Thutmose says he saw her talking with two Aten priests.” He saw the fear in my eyes, and at once he was moving down the hall and commanding his men to lock every door in the palace. “Let no one out!” he shouted.

Ankhesenamun came with Tutankhamun by her side. “What’s happening? Who’s missing?”

“Nefertiti and Meritaten. Go into the Audience Chamber and don’t come out.” I thought of the Window of Appearances, where Nefertiti sometimes took messengers to show them the city. The children hesitated. “Go!” I demanded.

I ran through the palace, sweat from beneath my wig trickling into my eyes. I threw off the hairpiece, not caring where it landed or who picked it up. “Nefertiti!” I shouted. “Meritaten!” How could they both be gone? Where could they be? I rounded the corner to the Window of Appearances, then opened the door.

The blood had already spread across the tiles.

“Nefertiti!” I screamed, and my voice echoed through the palace. “NEFERTITI! This can’t be happening!” I rocked her against me. “It can’t be happening!” I held my sister’s body against my chest, but she was already cold. Then my father and Nakhtmin were standing beside me.

“Search the palace!” Nakhtmin shouted. “I want every chamber searched! Every cabinet, every chest, every door into the cellars!” He could see the knife on the floor, he could see how deep the cut to Meritaten’s side was.

I collapsed in a heap over my niece. “Akhenaten!” I screamed so that Anubis could hear me. They had been his priests, his religion. My father tried to part me from Nefertiti, but I wouldn’t be parted. He bent down next to me and we both held our queen, my sister, his daughter, the woman who had ruled our lives for thirty-one years.

My mother came running with Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun behind her, despite my orders.

“In the name of Amun…,” my mother whispered. It was too late to tell the children to leave. They had seen what the Aten priests had done.

“Be careful!” I cried. But what was there to be careful of?

Ankhesenamun bent down and touched her sister. Fifteen years old and her life cut short. She looked over at me, and Tutankhamun closed Meritaten’s eyes.

I held Nefertiti’s body closer to mine, trying to press her spirit into me, to bring it back.

But the reign of Nefertiti was finished. She was gone from Egypt.

“Shh,” I heard Nakhtmin whisper to my son. “Your mother’s not well.”

“Should I bring her chamomile?” Baraka asked.

“Yes.” Nakhtmin nodded. My husband moved to my bedside, looking down at me, then he unstrapped his sword and sat by my side. “Mutnodjmet,” he said gently. “Miw-sher.” He caressed my cheek. “I’m sorry, but I have come with bad news. I wanted to give it to you before you heard it from someone else.”

I swallowed my fear. Gods, don’t let it be my mother or father.

“Your sister’s body has been desecrated. Aten priests stormed the mortuary and tried to destroy her.”