warrior. Mentu the Scribe had died with her.
And now, the last living child of the Pharaoh Amenhotep-Osiris had just died. Therefore the only persons with any rights to the throne were Ankhesenamen, who had been Great Royal Wife twice and was a Great Royal Heiress; and possibly me, Mutnodjme who, as child of Divine Father Ay and Great Royal Nurse Tey, and sister of Queen Nefertiti, had been awarded the rank of Royal Princess; though I had never used it, .
Resolving to die rather than marry my father, no matter what happened, I went to find the Great Royal Wife and warn her of her fate.
Ptah-hotep
I heard of the death of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen from many sources, and the question of the safety of my household was uppermost in my mind as I ordered my crew to re-load the vessel Glory of Thoth and set out at once for the capital. I had been complacent. I had not expected anything more to happen in what had been, by any measure, a very active life.
The hawser was freed and dragged back into Glory of Thoth and we were loosed into the current. The rowing-master ordered the sweeps out. I accepted a bite of bread and a cup of wine and sipped and thought as the cultivation slipped past, date palms and men ploughing with oxen, someone driving a light carriage between two villages, women coming down to the river for water.
I looked into my cup, swilled and tasted with pleasure. I still liked the Tashery vintage best, though that produced by the Ammemmes vineyard was very promising. I had expected to spend the night at the house of my father, who was very old and ill. I had expected to spend tomorrow judging a complicated land tenure case. My mind was full of the laws of measurement and taxes, not the matters of state which I now had to consider.
I had grown sure of my place, and that is not a good thing for a man or a judge. I lived in the combined household which contained all that I loved; Kheperren and his general and Mutnodjme. It also contained all that I needed, a place to lay my head, someone to help me wash and dress and take care of my garments, and a table laid with good food. Unlike some of my contemporaries, I had not become dyspeptic over the years, and I could even join the general in his favourite dish of leeks, garlic and onions, though such an indulgence meant that we would sleep together, because both Kheperren and Mutnodjme were sensitive to garlic breath. My mind was dwelling on these domestic matters because I did not want to think about the death of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen-Osiris.
There was the question of the succession.
Now that the boy was dead, it was up to Ankhesenamen to choose the new Pharaoh. Whoever she married, within limits, would be king. I did not know her well, she seemed a pleasant young woman, though remarkably unlearned like all the Amarna princesses.
Suddenly I recalled Khons, dead many years, and the fate of learning under Akhnaten, and the pull-along clay horse in a pool of blood.
I found myself praying as the Glory of Thoth sped along towards the capital to whatever fate waited for me there.
I found the palace in an uproar, all of the furnishings of the dead king being carried to the docks to be placed in his tomb.
My household was going about its business as usual. Ipuy, very old and gnarled now, challenged me at the door and then let me in. I found Mutnodjme sitting quite still. I spoke to her, but she did not seem to hear me. When I came closer, I saw that she had a knife in her lap and was looking at it.
‘Ptah-hotep, I have a terrible suspicion,’ she said, as though I had just been at court and come home as usual instead of being summoned from Memphis and exhausting my rowers in getting to Thebes in record time.
‘Tell me,’ I said, sitting down. I did not touch the knife.
‘I saw the body of the young king,’ she said slowly, choosing her words. ‘He had various broken bones: a fractured skull, a broken arm and leg. He fell from a height, Ptah-hotep, that is the only way he could have sustained such injuries. They picked him up from the courtyard. The walls are very high there.’
‘Yes?’ I prompted her gently, as one encourages a