Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,40

likely to prove adequate for his high office.’

‘If he lives that long,’ I replied.

He patted my hand. ‘If Amen-Re is kind,’ he agreed. ‘Do you play Passing-Through-The-Underworld, the game also called senet?’

‘Yes, Lord.’

‘I thought that you might. Another time, Ptah-hotep, Great Royal Scribe, will you come and dine with me, and perhaps play the game of the dancers?’

‘It would be an honour, Userkhepesh, Servant of Re, High Priest of Amen-Re at Karnak.’

He smiled, this time, and I returned the smile.

I had left for the temple of Amen-Re in trembling and in silence. I returned, by order of the High Priest, in a litter, escorted by priests, announced by a trumpeter.

I was so relieved that I slept most of the way back.

Chapter Eight

Mutnodjme

Tey my mother reported the Queen recovering, the child suckling his wet nurse, and herself pleased with our silence and attention to our teacher. Because of a lack of brothers—my only brother was grown and married—and my father’s frequent absences on matters of estate management, we had been a female household, and the presence of Teacher Khons put us on our best behaviour. Tey was less likely to shriek, I was less likely to ask so many questions because Khons was there to answer them, or—his especial strength—ask me another, even curlier, which would keep me silent and thinking for hours.

We adjusted to the presence of the teacher very well. He slept on his reed mat in the smallest sleeping-chamber, never went out to get drunk, (except on the festivals, and he was a very considerate and quiet drunk) and told us stories every day. Merope my sister learned cursive, I mastered the priests pictured letters, Khons learned Kritian, and peace reigned in the household of the great Royal Nurse and Divine Father Ay. Even he noticed the change in the atmosphere and approved of the deferential young man whom the Queen had sent. He also approved of the fact that his expenses were paid by the Great Royal Wife. My father was a very rich man, and stayed so because he regarded every bead, every thread, every scraping of copper as a close personal friend.

Tey my mother regarded me with more tolerance because Teacher Khons told her that I was clever. He delighted in arguing with me and though, so far, he had always won, he told my mother that I had an original mind which would take me far, especially if I was to study in the temple of Isis among the priestesses of the Lady of Magic and Learning. Since Tey had often despaired of finding me a husband so wealthy that Divine Father Ay would not have to pay a dowry, this presented her with a possible solution to the problem posed by Mutnodjme.

Thus I was allowed to come along with her and Nefertiti as the hot wind died down and we moved into the month of MesorŽ, seasons of harvests. We were going to renew our interrupted consultation with Queen Tiye about the impotence of the King Akhnamen may he live. The situation had not improved, and my sister was worried. She had tried getting the royal lord drunk. She had tried all manner of baths and unguents, and also the attentions of pretty dancers of both sexes. But the King Akhnamen, when merry, fell into a laughing fit and then into a heavy sleep from which it proved impossible to rouse him. When bathed he drifted into a trance. When massaged he sighed and dozed; when caressed by the dancers he had giggled as if they were tickling him and fallen asleep. He was pleasant and loving, but utterly impervious to all sexual advances.

‘Nothing,’ sighed Nefertiti in reply to my mother’s questions. She herself was nervous, prone to start at sudden noises and to fall into periods of despondency. Mother Tey, after Nefertiti had gone back to her loveless bed the previous evening, had snapped at Father Ay, ‘That maiden needs a man, and if something is not done, she will find one, or one will find her.’

‘Impossible, she is Great Royal Spouse and a virtuous girl,’ my father had puffed, then added, ‘Do you really think so?’

‘Love will have love, heart will have heart, mouth will find mouth,’ quoted Tey ‘As Divine Amenhotep says. I will go to the queen again tomorrow, husband. She said that she might have a solution. I hope that she has.’

‘If the lord Akhnamen may he live, dies without an heir my endowment of royal estates will