Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,41

blow away with the wind,’ snarled my father. ‘The red-headed woman is astoundingly fertile and so is King Amenhotep may he live forever. She has already borne him two sons, and though Thutmose died early it was by accident. The young Smenkhare is thriving. She may yet bear more children. Go, wife, and ask Queen Tiye. We must have an heir, and she must contrive it.’

‘I will go tomorrow,’ said Tey, and I stopped listening.

So we walked along the corridor to the queen’s apartments. As usual, they were crowded with petitioners, slaves, maids and the Great Royal Heir’s household. The baby was crying and someone was commanding, ‘Put him to nurse, he never cries unless he’s hungry’.

As we came in the Great Queen was saying to a pair of farmers lying at her feet, ‘Yes, yes, I see the justice of your claim and I have given you a note to the Great Royal Scribe, the Lord Ptah-hotep, who will listen to you; go now. A slave will guide you. Sahte, I am going to lie down until the noon meal. Bring some wine for the Great Royal Wife and the Great Royal Nurse and the Lady Mutnodjme.’

Sahte, the thin-faced sour maid who had been the Great Royal Lady’s own nurse, sniffed and announced, ‘My Mistress is retiring for a rest. Make way,’ and she led us to the Queen’s Room of Silence, where no raised voice could be heard from outside. The door, unusually, was of thick wood and had a bolt on the inside. After Sahte had brought the wine, the Queen shut the door and latched it and sank down into a chair with a sigh.

‘Greetings, ladies, have you eaten?’ asked the Queen conventionally and wearily. We assured her that we had and poured her some heavily watered wine. Tey rose and laid a professional hand on the ivory forehead and chided, ‘The Great Royal Wife needs to rest more and talk less.’

‘True, but the Great Royal Wife has petitions to hear and household matters to arrange, and that cannot be done by resting,’ agreed the queen. She looked tired. The coppery hair was loose and fell in waves down her back. I noticed that a streak of white had formed at each temple. She was wearing a cloth with fine blue patterns along its edge but little jewellery. We waited until she had recovered a little and sipped from her cup, and even then we did not have to introduce the subject. She knew what we had come to discuss.

‘He’s impotent, isn’t he, Nefertiti? You’ve tried everything. Including a troupe of very well skilled dancers. And nothing has worked.’

Nefertiti nodded. Her hands were clenched in her lap.

‘And this is not what you expected when you agreed to be Great Royal Wife, is it?’ asked the Queen kindly. ‘You are a young woman and unmated, and your body is restless.’

‘Yes, lady,’ said my sister. She was so beautiful that she hurt my eyes, but there was an edge to her beauty now, a fine grey shadow like a spiderweb over her comeliness.

‘The heirs of the Pharaoh have to be heirs of a Pharaoh’s body, but not necessarily…’ began the Queen.

I caught her drift at the same time as Tey did. Her eyes lit.

‘The Pharaoh Akhnamen,’ Tey finished the sentence.

I did not speak, but I was horrified. To give my sister to that old man! A nice old man, admittedly, a kind and very wise old man, but old.

‘Will you accept this?’ asked the Queen. ‘It is entirely your choice, Nefertiti. This will be the only way you can conceive a Great Royal Heir.’

Nefertiti was thinking. She was never good at quick decisions. Given a chance to consider for long enough, she usually made a wise reply, but she hated being pressured. And now she was on the edge of panic.

Tey said ‘Come, daughter, this is a way out of all our difficulties. The Lord Amenhotep is fertile, as he has amply proved, and he is gentle and wise. Make up your mind, Nefertiti!’

But Tiye, whose slate coloured eyes saw very clearly, took Nefertiti’s slim hand in her own strong ones and told her, ‘You need time to think, lady. Go to your own apartments and consider what you wish to do, all on your own.’

Tey shot the Queen a glare which expressed how much she wanted to take Nefertiti home and rage at her until she agreed. Queen Tiye returned the look with one which said that