Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,42

she knew exactly what Tey wanted to do and was determined that she would not do it; and which, by one arched eyebrow, posed the question which could be summarised as, ‘Who is Queen?’ Tey looked away first. I was delighted and strove to keep my face straight.

‘No one will disturb you, but before night falls you will send your sister, the little scribe, and she shall bring your answer to me. I will not have you take my lord unwillingly; or with half a mind yea and half nay. He does not deserve that. To conceive you must enjoy him—ask any physician. To do that, you must want him. He gets no enjoyment from rape. Have I not lain with him all these years, and never left his arms without regret? Unbolt the door, Lady Mutnodjme, and call Sahte to me.’

I did as I was bid and Sahte’s disapproving face appeared at the door.

‘This young woman will come with a message for me tonight,’ said the Great Queen. ‘I wish to hear it, wherever I am and whatever I am doing. Do you understand, Sahte?’

Sahte sniffed, but nodded. This order was essential, because she was frequently known to banish all visitors from her Royal Mistress’ door and often kept messages until the time of arising the next day if they arrived after the Queen had retired. I was delighted at being referred to as a young woman. I was, of course, now ten, and my woman-blood was expected next year, after which I would be fully female.

‘When I receive it, I may want to speak to my son. Make sure that you know where he is tonight. Now, Sahte, we will allow the lady Nefertiti to leave, and perhaps the Great Royal Nurse will assist me in some of my household problems?’

Nefertiti left without a backward glance at my mother, and Tey subdued her rage. The Queen was keeping us with her so that King Akhnamen’s wife had time to get to her own apartments and lock herself in. So I was more surprised when I saw the beautiful Great Royal Wife Tiye and my mother exchange a grin.

‘Oh, very well, Lady, I will not rail at her. But the Divine Father is worried by this lack of an heir, and this seems like an excellent solution if the silly girl will but see it.’

‘She is very young, and I will not have my husband imposed on a shocked and frightened maiden; it would hurt his feelings as well as hers. Nefertiti the beautiful must make up her own mind,’ said Tiye.

‘Now, what shall I do with this baker? I am sure a lot of flour is going astray. Look at the accounts! He must think we are stupid, or cannot read plain figures. He has drawn twenty sacks from the grain-store, and made of it only a hundred loaves of bread.’

‘Fine or coarse?’ asked Tey, after a marked delay. Peace had been declared. I exhaled the breath I had been holding. Although she was midwife to the Queen and had her confidence, there was something about the affable, smiling Queen Tiye which made me sure that Royal Midwife or not, Great Royal Nurse or not Great Royal Nurse, Tey and all of us would be out of the palace before nightfall if we dared to seriously cross her. And Tey in a temper was not discriminating in her choice of target.

After Tey had scribbled some figures on an ostracon, it became clear that even if the baker was wasting a large amount of grain in attempting to make the finest flour, he was stealing about five sacks for every twenty he drew. Finest flour is sifted three times and there is a certain amount of wastage, which, as Tey pointed out, is not actual waste, because the coarse flour makes bread for the mill-workers or the baker’s household and the husks fatten his pigs.

The palace, of course, never ate of the flesh of swine. Teacher Khons had informed me that this was because the pig was an avatar of Set the destroyer, and certainly wild boar were terrible creatures who ate babies and wrecked whole vineyards.

But since people in some places on the Nile ate crocodile, which according to place was either the God Sobek or an avatar of Set, and which also ate people, this did not strike me as a good explanation. And in any case, the commoners all kept pigs, which were slaughtered every year