be noted very quickly. Coming immediately after the fanfare about the royal hunt, and the expectation of his glorious return, the speculation will be uncontrollable.’
‘And that is why Ay needs to bury Tutankhamun as soon as possible, and announce himself King,’ I replied. ‘And he needs to keep Horemheb at a distance for as long as possible.’
‘But the general is as watchful as a jackal. I am sure he will scent this death and seize his opportunity to confront Ay,’ said Simut. ‘It is not an optimistic prospect.’
We both stood staring down at the King’s delicate, dead face. It represented so much more as well: a possible catastrophe for the whole of the Two Lands if this power struggle were not swiftly resolved.
‘What worries me most is that Ankhesenamun is so vulnerable to both of them,’ I said.
‘That is a cause for deep concern,’ he conceded.
‘It would be a disaster if Horemheb returned to Thebes just now.’
‘And it would be a disaster if he entered this palace,’ said Simut. ‘But how can that be prevented while his wife resides here? Perhaps she should be sent away.’
This was news to me.
‘Mutnodjmet? She lives within the palace?’
He nodded.
‘But her name has never been spoken in all this time,’ I said.
He turned his head closely to mine.
‘No one speaks publicly of her. Privately, they say she is a lunatic. She lives in a suite of chambers, from which she never emerges. They say she has only two dwarfs for company. Whether this is by her own will, or whether that of her husband has been imposed upon her, I do not know.’
‘You mean she is imprisoned here?’
‘Call it what you will. But she has no liberty. She is the family secret.’
My mind raced ahead, like a dog on the scent of its hidden quarry, suddenly close.
‘I must attend to other matters, but let us talk more, elsewhere. What will you do now?’ he asked.
‘I have no future, apparently,’ I said, with a lightness I did not feel.
‘But you are not yet in fetters.’
‘I suspect if I try to leave this palace, a strange accident will befall me.’
‘Then do not leave. You have a role here. Protect the Queen. I can offer you in turn the protection of my guards, and whatever degree of safety the authority of my name confers.’
I nodded, grateful.
‘But first there is something I must do. I must speak to Mutnodjmet. Do you know where her chambers lie?’
He shook his head.
‘It is kept a secret, even from me. But you know someone who probably could take you there.’
‘Khay?’
He nodded.
‘Ask him. And remember: what happened was not your fault. It was not my fault, either.’
‘Do you think the world will believe that?’ I replied.
He shook his head.
‘But it is the truth, and that is still something, even in this age of deceit,’ he replied, and then he turned away and left me alone in the King’s chamber, with the dead boy.
35
Why had no one ever mentioned Mutnodjmet? Not even Ankhesenamun, her own niece. And yet, all the time Nefertiti’s sister, the wife of Horemheb, the general of the Two Lands, had been incarcerated here within the Malkata Palace. Perhaps she was simply a poor madwoman, the living shame of her family, and so they kept her locked away from public sight. But she was nevertheless a connection between the royal dynasty and Horemheb. He had married into power, and now, it seemed, he acquiesced in his wife’s imprisonment.
I was considering these matters when the door of the chamber slowly, silently opened. I waited to see who would enter. A figure in dark robes moved silently across the stone floor towards the bed.
‘Stop there!’
The figure froze.
‘Turn around,’ I said.
The figure twisted slowly towards me. It was Maia, the wet nurse. Her contempt for me was undisguised. Grief disfigured her face. Then she carefully and precisely spat at me. She had nothing more to lose. I wiped the spittle from my face. She moved towards the dead body. She bent tenderly over her King, kissing his cold brow reverently.
‘He was my child. I fed him, and cared for him from the day he was born. He trusted you.
Without waiting for, or apparently desiring, a reply, she began to wash the body with natron-salted water. I sat down upon a stool and watched. She worked with infinite care and love, knowing this would be the last time she could ever touch him. She washed his limp arms, and his dangling hands, taking each finger in turn, and wiping them like a helpless child’s. She passed her cloth gently over the unmoving, thin chest, wiping along the length of each rib, and over the narrow shoulders, and under the shallow armpits. Then she drew her cloth down the long length of the sound leg, and then gently around the festering wound of the broken one, as if he were still sensible of his pain. Finally she knelt at his feet. I listened to the quiet splash of the cloth in the bowl of scented water, the little cascade as she wrung it out, the steady repeated movement of the cloth between his toes, around his delicate ankles, and along the length of his dead feet, which she kissed as she finished her work.
Tears dripped from her chin as she wept silently. Then she folded his arms, in time-honoured fashion, ready for the gold crook and flail, the royal symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt, and of Osiris, the first King, Lord of the Otherworld, which others would place in his hands in due course. Finally from one of the clothing chests, she took a fine gold collar and a jewelled gold pectoral, with a scarab inlaid at its heart, pushing a fine red carnelian sun disc above it into the light of the new day, and placed it on his chest.
‘Now he is ready for the Controller of the Mysteries,’ she whispered.
And then she settled herself on a stool at the side of the room, as far away from me as possible, and began murmuring her prayers.
‘Maia,’ I said.
She ignored me. I tried again.
‘Where are the quarters of Mutnodjmet?’ I asked.
She opened her eyes.
‘Oh, now that it is too late, he asks the right question.’
‘Tell me why that is the right question?’
‘Why should I tell you anything? It is too late for me. It is too late for you. You should have listened to me before. I will speak no more. I will be silent for ever.’
I was about to insist when the door opened and the Controller of the Mysteries entered the chamber, wearing the jackal-headed mask of Anubis, the God of the Dead, and accompanied by his assistants. Usually the body would have been removed to an embalming enclosure, away from the living quarters, where it would be washed, eviscerated, dried out with salt, anointed and bandaged. But I supposed because Ay had insisted upon secrecy, he had ordered that the body must remain in the chamber. A lector priest began to recite the first instructions and magical utterances, while the lesser officials prepared the chamber with the necessary equipment-tools, hooks, obsidian blades, resins, water, salt, palm wine, spices, and the many bandages that would be used during the long process. They set the sloping wooden embalming board upon four wooden blocks, and then respectfully lifted the King’s body and laid it out there. Later in the long ritual, the embalmed body would be dressed in a shroud, and then bandaged; and then, for this King, priceless jewels, rings, bracelets, collars and magical amulets, many containing
