Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,17

was not like my beautiful sister, slim and delicate; but was wide hipped and her breasts were big and slightly sagging as she left the buoyancy of the warm water. She wrapped herself in a wide length of linen and motioned us to chairs.

Tey sat down and I sat, as I always did, at her feet. Nefertiti, a little nervous at being in the presence of this powerful woman, examined her sandals and did not venture to speak.

‘Hmm.’ The Queen exchanged a long look with my mother. ‘The lady has lain with my son?’

Tey nodded.

‘And it is as I feared?’

‘If you feared that he would be impotent, Lady of the Two Lands, then it is so,’ said Tey bluntly. Nefertiti blushed purple.

‘She is very young; she can not have had many lovers. Can it be that she does not know…’ Tiye smiled at Nefertiti, who was still too miserable to return it.

Tey shook her head so decisively that her earrings rang like bells.

‘I have examined her account of what happened and my other daughter agrees. Nefertiti is fresh and beautiful and skilled, and entirely willing. She tried in all ways to please the son of the lord may he live but to no avail. She doubts that he is capable of producing an erect phallus, and without that there is no seed, and with no seed….’

Tiye wrapped the rope of her hair meditatively around her hand. ‘Does she wish then to return to her mother’s house?’

‘No, Lady,’ Nefertiti came to life and threw herself to her knees at the Queen’s feet. Tiye, surprised, embraced her in the curtain of her coppery hair.

‘Daughter, can it be that you love this weakling who cannot even lie with you as a man does with a woman?’ she asked in an astonished tone.

‘Yes, yes,’ whispered Nefertiti into the linen towel. ‘It is not his fault, it is the will of the Gods, who made him so. He is crippled, but he is so gentle. He did not hurt me, as another man might have done, disgusted by his failure. He did not blame me.’

‘What, then, did you do all night?’ asked Tiye, a little amused.

‘We talked, Lady, and then we slept.’

‘What did you talk about? There, daughter, be comforted, I will not tear you from your heart’s longing, I wished merely to be sure that you were not discontented. Egypt does not need an unhappy Queen.’

‘We talked about the Aten, Lady.’

‘The Aten? Ah, religion,’ said the Great Royal Wife, her mouth twisting as though she had bitten a persimmon. ‘Sometimes one questions the wisdom of attempting to penetrate such mysteries. In any case, I am no guide, daughter. My son is philosophical, even whimsical, and perfectly unreasonable on that subject. I have always found it best not to argue with him.’

‘What happens if you do argue with him?’ I asked. Three sets of eyes turned on me. My mother’s glare was as hot as a silversmith’s furnace.

Tiye, however, was looking at me with great interest. She tipped up my chin with a strong forefinger and looked into my face.

‘A good question, little daughter, and one that not many would dare to ask, Mutnodjme. I wonder what your father means to make of you, questioner?’

‘She will be a wife,’ snarled my mother. ‘To an old man who will beat her.’

‘There are worse fates than to be loved by an old man,’ said the Queen gently, who was herself so married, and Tey bit her lip. I had made it possible for her to make a mistake in speaking with the Great Royal Wife, and she was going to beat me until I bled when she got me home, I could tell. But the question had not been answered and I looked at the Queen again. She laughed.

‘What does my son do when he is crossed? He argues, and then if he is further opposed, he screams, and if anyone persists with their opposition, he throws himself on the ground. I recall that his nurse would not allow him to play with one of the guard dog’s puppies, because she was afraid it would bite him. He shrieked until he turned blue and she was afraid and sent for me. I agreed that the prohibition was wise. My son found that he could not move us, and seemed to surrender. But the next day the puppy was found dead, its head beaten in by a stone. If he could not have it, no one could. It