Shedamun was chief lector priest to Amun. Nefertiti glanced at her father; she hadn't recognized the man, he had changed so in appearance. He'd lost hair, flesh, and much of his old assurance. She had thought Shedamun was hiding or dead.
One of the holiest of the god's servants, Shedamun was known throughout the Two Lands for his powerful magic. To him went the privilege of reading from the sacred texts of the god. From the reading of the words came power of the gods hidden in deep antiquity. Shedamun's reading was imbued with sanctity.
Nefertiti could remember Akhenaten's father saying that no royal endeavor would succeed without a favorable reading from Shedamun. When Amunhotep had been ill, the lector priest's voice brought ease from suffering. Shedamun was one of the few who knew the secret words by which Amun was invoked.
'There was a rebellion in Nubia once,' Nefertiti said. 'The pharaoh Amunhotep said your words brought the magic of Amun to bear upon the rebel tribes.'
'What? Oh, yes, majesty. Are you sure we're safe?' Shedamun's gaze searched the cabin for listeners. 'Great royal wife, I come from the high priest. There are so few of us left that he had to send me.'
The man must be woefully short of priests if he sent this quaking, unworldly scholar. Of course priests of Amun were scarce now.
Nefertiti nodded to give the old man courage.
'I memorized the message,' Shedamun said after a final look around the cabin for spies. He pitched his voice in a singsong manner that almost made Nefertiti smile.
'The high priest of Amun to the great royal wife, mistress of the Two Lands, Nefertiti, may you live in prosperity, health, and in favor of Amun, king of the gods. I say to Amun, keep the queen in health.' Shedamun cleared his throat. 'Thus says the high priest. Great royal wife, the priests die. Those who live dare not shave their heads nor perform lustrations, nor make any worship of the Hidden One. In the Two Lands the thief becomes a lord, and the sinful man rules the temple. Wretched Asiatics and Nubians threaten from north and south. The land is not fruitful.
'Thus says the high priest. For many years I have watched the sickness grow within the body of Egypt, and I have great sorrow. For many years I have heard of thy piety. Thy mercy has come to me on the tongues of priests and workmen.'
'Stop,' Nefertiti said. 'The pharaoh Amunhotep always said the high priest used five words where one would do. Can you omit some of them?'
Shedamun grinned. His eyes became distant as he mentally thumbed through the pages of the letter. 'Let me see.' Shedamun cleared his throat again. 'The House of Amun suffers. We have no more tribute from the vassal towns of Syria. Our herds are confiscated. We no longer own fields and gardens. This year alone we lost ten thousand slaves. All of our storehouses have been seized: the treasure of the god- gold, silver, lapis lazuli, malachite. In one treasury, three hundred twenty-seven vessels of electrum, gold, and obsidian. We have no galleys or barques, no black bronze, no woven robes, incense, or honey, no precious wood.' Shedamun paused and wet his lips. 'The list goes on, majesty, but you understand the point.'
'Of course.' Did the priests think she'd been asleep since becoming queen?
'Lo, the farmers of the god, the vintners and herdsmen, the scribes and gardeners, cooks, painters, and doorkeepers, they suffer from hunger, for we can give them no bread or beer.'
'Shedamun, I'm well aware of the suffering of pharaoh's people. You'd better come to the point, for we cannot risk a long meeting.'
'Yes, majesty. The high priest begs thy mercy. He pleads with thee to intercede with pharaoh on behalf of Amun.'
Nefertiti rose and nodded at her father, who helped the old man to his feet.
'I understand your message,' she said. Walking away from the priest, Nefertiti hesitated, but she'd already endangered her life and her father's. Not to go forward was to have risked all for naught. She turned and gave Shedamun a regal inclination of her head. 'Thus says Nefertiti, great royal wife, mistress of the Two Lands, to the high priest of Amun. Indeed, the land of Egypt suffers. Chaos reigns, and my majesty believes that order must be restored. Maat-the truth, harmony and order of existence-must govern Egypt again.'
Nefertiti paused as she noticed that old Shedamun had tears in his eyes and was bowing repeatedly in gratitude.
'The path to… restoration is fraught with peril,' she said gently. 'My majesty will labor to clear the path, but this work will take time. Meanwhile, converse between us must be as secret as the passage through the netherworld. Lord Ay will make the arrangements. It is my command that you send an unknown man to Horizon of the Aten to act as messenger. Thus says the great royal wife.'
'Thy wisdom and mercy are unequaled, O mistress of the Two Lands,' Shedamun said. He pressed the hem of his robe to his damp eyes. 'It's not easy to be brought so low, especially for the high priest.'
'Blessings of the gods be with you,' Nefertiti said.
She inclined her head. At her gesture, Ay took the priest's arm and urged him to the cabin door. With each step Shedamun turned his head this way and that, a frightened sparrow in search of hidden falcons.
While awaiting her father's return, she paced. When the messenger arrived, she would send him to Thutmose the sculptor and keep him out of pharaoh's sight.
Nefertiti wandered back to her chair with her thoughts flying. The high priest of Amun, once the most powerful man in the kingdom next to pharaoh, begged her help in restoring Amun. She recalled Shedamun's list of the god's holdings. The temple of Amun had been richer by far than any other. Amun's dependents were countless. His slaves numbered several hundred thousand. Once, his gold would have filled the pyramid of Khufu.
'Perhaps the temple was a little too rich,' she murmured. Tracing the carving on the chair back, she continued talking to herself in a whisper. 'All that wealth. Does the mighty Amun really want that much? I know the high priest does; is that the same thing?' She pounded the chair with her fist. 'Restoration must bring back the favor of the gods.'
Sinking into the chair again, Nefertiti rested her chin in her palm and pondered the danger of questioning the gifts her husband's ancestors gave to Amun. For many years they'd endowed the god with riches beyond any other deity. After all, it had been Amun who gave victory to Pharaoh Ahmose when he defeated the Hyksos invaders. It had been Amun who gave Thutmose the Conqueror the power to create the empire.
'When pharaoh withdrew his devotion, Amun took back the empire and opened the way for invaders again. Amun visits his wrath upon Egypt. And upon me.'
On the floor of the cabin a beetle, sacred creature of the god Khepera, waddled across the mat. It was said that a great beetle rolled the sun before it from east to west. Akhenaten called such beliefs nonsense. The sun was the sun, the Aten, the fount of all life. The Aten needed no help getting across the sky. 'Little scarab,' she said to the insect, 'will you ask Amun if he will accept me as his servant again? I'm not sure I'm worthy to join the company of Ahmose and the Conqueror.'
At the sound of the door creaking open she looked up. Ay came toward her.
'Shedamun is gone.'
'You know what will happen should Akhenaten find out we've but spoken to a priest of Amun,' Nefertiti said.
'Daughter, we've discussed the peril already.'
'I could have done this without you, and you wouldn't have been involved in the danger.'
Ay came to stand with the chair between them. 'I've been speaking to Shedamun for months.'
A sudden chill overtook Nefertiti, and she shook her head. 'You've seen what he does to traitors.'
'I've seen what his heresy has done to you, to your children, to Egypt.' Taking her arm, Ay led her onto the deck.
The Nile was as black as the sky, and the only sound heard above the water hitting the side of the yacht was the cry of a heron. The only light came from a lamp near the gangplank. Ay's attendants, soldiers all, stood guard with Sebek.
As she listened to the heron, Nefertiti's heart jumped in her chest. For almost the space of an hour, she had forgotten her babes. She closed her eyes, willing tears away. Pain wrapped its cloak of torment around her once more, and the course ahead seemed beyond her strength. Yet for a brief time her pain had receded; she hadn't believed it possible. Her father had been right. She had work to do if her remaining children were to live in the favor of the gods. And she must think of young Smenkhare and Tutankhaten now that Tiye was gone.
