The Heretic Queen

watching us now. They know us.”

That afternoon, we sailed with a flotilla of more than a hundred ships, and I stood on the stern watching Malkata disappear. Ramesses’s finest ship was filled to bursting, piled with chests and heavy furniture from the palace. Ebony statues of the gods peeked from the cabin, seemingly as anxious as I was to arrive. There was little room to stand, and the courtiers who’d come with us sat beneath a sunshade, unable to move. So much would change, and I sighed wistfully. “I wonder what it will be like to live in Avaris permanently?”

As always, Merit’s reply was sensible. “The same as it was when you were a child and the court spent every summer there. Now don’t let Iset decide which chamber she will have.”

“Ramesses has already chosen my chamber. He built me a new one next to his,” I told her, “and there are two rooms next to it. One for you, and one for Amunher and Prehir. You won’t have to share with the milk nurses anymore. It will be the largest room in Avaris.”

Merit put her hands to her heart gleefully. “And does Iset know this?”

WE ARRIVED in Pi-Ramesses in the middle of Pachons, and it was a different palace from the one we’d seen in the chilled month of Tybi. In the months that had passed, thick clusters of flowers had bloomed from newly painted urns and hanging vases. From the lofty heights of the sandstone columns, fragrant garlands of lotus blossoms had been twined with branches painted in gold. The sweet scent of lilies filled the halls, and in the tiled courtyards water splashed musically from alabaster fountains onto blooming jasmine. An army of servants must have worked every day since Seti’s death. I imagined them buzzing about the palace like bees, darting into the chambers to clean, and polish, and prepare for our arrival. The freshly painted walls gleamed in the sun, and a thousand bronze lanterns waited for nightfall to reflect in the newly tiled floors. Everything was rich, and new, and glittering.

I turned to Ramesses in shock. “How can the treasury of Avaris afford this?”

He lowered his voice so only I could hear. “It can’t. You can thank the Sherden pirates for this.”

Hundreds of courtiers assembled in the Audience Chamber with its colossal statues of King Seti and Queen Tuya, and Paser read out the locations of every chamber. When he came to my name, the court seemed to hold its breath.

“The princess Nefertari,” he announced, “to the right of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great.”

A murmur of surprise passed through the room, and I saw Henuttawy glance at Iset. To be placed at the right of the king meant that Ramesses had made me Chief Wife in all but name. It wasn’t a public declaration engraved on the temples of Egypt, but the entire court of Avaris knew his preference now.

“Shall I show you the chamber?” Ramesses asked. He led me to a wooden door, inlaid with tortoiseshell and polished ivory, and then placed his hand over my eyes.

I laughed. “What are you doing?”

“When you go inside, I want you to tell me what it reminds you of.”

I heard him open the door, and as soon as he withdrew his hand, I gasped. It was exactly like home. On the farthest wall were the leaping red calves from the palace of Malkata. On another was a large image of the goddess Mut, passing the ankh of life to my mother. I stared at the painting, remembering the mural that Henuttawy had destroyed, and tears coursed down my cheeks.

OVER THE next month, the Audience Chamber of Pi-Ramesses was never silent. Our days were spent in work, touring Avaris, overseeing repairs, meeting with emissaries and viziers from foreign courts. But at night, there were endless distractions. The deben in Seti’s treasury had gone to prepare for war and provide him with entertainment, so even while all around him the palace lay crumbling, he had never been without Egypt’s most beautiful dancers. They crowded the Great Hall in numbers, seeking support from the new Pharaoh of Egypt, and the entire court felt alive and merry. Amunher and Prehir could now sit upright on Woserit’s lap and clap in time with the rattle of the sistrums. But no one was allowed to hold Ramessu except his own mother or his nurse. Iset kept her watchful eye over him, and if Amunher and Prehir crawled too close, she gathered him in her arms and whisked him away. From his mother’s grasp, poor Ramessu listened to the delighted squeals of my sons, crawling together on the dais. He will grow to be a very lonely child, I thought.

But no one else in Avaris seemed lonely. In the grand villas beyond Pi-Ramesses, there were nightly feasts as new relatives arrived on the road from Thebes. The aroma of roasted duck wafted into the corridors of the palace, and in the mornings the scent of pomegranate paste was so strong I would awake to the sound of my growling stomach. From the balcony of my chamber, I watched the farmers harvest the amber-hued myrrh, and at night their wives would take their small children and stroll the city’s tree-lined avenues. The fear of devastating famine was gone, and though the people believed that it was Penre’s invention that had changed their lives, I knew better. I wondered what my akhu would think, knowing that not everything from Amarna had been destroyed.

Then came the message that we knew would arrive. We had been in Avaris for only a month, and our days of touring and feasting were soon ended. Paser came to us in our chamber and closed the door. Ramesses took the scroll and unfurled it.

“Ten thousand Hittite soldiers have taken Kadesh,” Paser reported. “The city has already changed its allegiance.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“Only the messenger, Your Highness.”

I read the report over Ramesses’s shoulder. Ten thousand men had marched on the city at dawn, and the people of Kadesh were so afraid of war they had surrendered by afternoon. Ramesses crushed the papyrus in his hand. “He thinks I am too young to challenge him! Muwatallis thinks he’s a hawk swooping in on the nest of a chick!” He flung the crumpled scroll across the room. “He greatly mistakes me.”

“Emperor Muwatallis is a veteran of war,” Paser warned. “He’s seen battle in every kingdom in the east.”

“And now he will taste war with Egypt.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

BEFORE THE WALLS OF KADESH

Avaris

  “YOU’RE GOING ALL the way to Kadesh?” Merit shrieked. She stood over Amunher and Prehir, who looked up at me beneath their fringes of red-gold hair and flapped their arms, wanting to be held. “It’s enough that you went to the north, my lady, a princess of Egypt on a ship with pirates—”

“And you saw how the people reacted,” I argued. “It was worth the risk.”

“Because there were only a hundred men!” Merit cried. “Not ten thousand Hittites prepared for war. Does Pharaoh understand the danger—”

“Of course he does.” I only had one day to prepare, but Merit was standing in the way of my traveling chest. “He’s stayed up nights thinking about it. We both have, mawat. And last night he decided.”

“But think of all the ways there are to die in war,” she begged. “Please.” Her voice rose in desperation. “What will happen when Pharaoh is in battle? You’ll be completely alone.”

I drew a steady breath. “No. I will have Amunher and Prehir.” I saw the look on her face and added quickly, “Ramesses first went on campaign at eleven months old. Iset is going as well. With Ramessu.”

Merit’s hands fell from her hips, her defiance melting into astonishment. “To Kadesh? ”

“It’s Henuttawy’s suggestion. She wants to be sure that Ramesses spends as much time with Iset as he does with me. We will be with the camp outside the city,” I explained, “in the hills. We’ll watch the battle from afar.”

Merit threw up her hands in horror. “Well, then, if you can join the camp, I can, too!” She stood with her fat little legs apart, and when she placed her hands back on her hips, I knew that there would be no arguing with her.