The Forgotten Pharaoh

by David Adkins

  “In the morning, Smenkhkare,” he said and left, and soon Taduheppa was once again in my dreams.

  ****

  It was early when we left the palace and entered the glorious gardens that were part of the splendour of Malkata. I smiled at the thought that what Taduheppa had urged from me had already been suggested by Coreb, the man she would have me persuade. “It is a fine morning,” I said to Murat with feeling for I felt surprisingly optimistic about the day ahead.

  “Smenkhkare, wait.” It was the unexpected voice of my wife. She came over and took my arm and drew me away from the hearing of Murat.

  “You are up early, Taduheppa,” I said smiling at this unexpected pleasure.

  “I spoke with Nefertiti yesterday,” she grinned. “As we shared a drink she entrusted me with a great confidence.”

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “She told me that Akhenamun had murdered Thutmose.”

  “Did she?” I gasped.

  “No, of course not, but that is what you will tell Coreb. Tell him that your wife and Nefertiti are great friends and that she confided in your wife.”

  “You are very cunning,” I said with both a degree of admiration and surprise.

  “I do my best but it is up to you to sound convincing, Smenkhkare.”

  “I will do my best too, Taduheppa.”

  “Remember, Smenkhkare, that total power is within your grasp. Seize it with both hands. If the army is yours then Egypt is yours.”

  “I will remember. Tell me, Taduheppa, when Akhenamun begs you for mercy will you grant it?”

  “No, I will not. Besides it would jeopardise our future if he were to remain alive.”

  Her words were frightening but part of me knew she was right and that Coreb would agree with her. Sometimes my resolve was strong and at other times it faltered. I rejoined Murat and we walked towards the palace gates. I looked back and saw Taduheppa waving. My wife was determined that I should become pharaoh and that she should become chief wife.

  Chapter 10

  We covered our faces with our hoods and made our way down to the pier and Murat hired a boat for our journey across the great river. We thought it better that we travel anonymously, just the two of us, and so he took the helm and steered the boat towards the east bank. We were alone under the emerging rays of the dawn sun. “Do you know of the decision that I have to make, a decision that haunts me?” I asked.

  “I think I do,” he replied.

  “What do you think it is, Murat?”

  “I think you must decide whether you will use the army to displace your brother as pharaoh, Smenkhkare.”

  “It may be the only way I will be able to stay alive,” I mused.

  “And the only way I will get to call you ‘your majesty’ again,” he smiled sympathetically.

  “What do you think I should do, Murat?”

  “I think you should make sure that you stay alive.”

  “And depose my brother who is the legitimate heir?”

  “If I may speak freely, you will make a much better pharaoh than your brother. A man who brutalises his own servants is not a man who will rule for the good of the people of Egypt.”

  “Does he really do that?” I asked.

  “He does and worse. The servants all fear him. You know from our visit to the Magisa district how violent he can be.”

  “Tiye and Sitamun say that he will change when he becomes pharaoh.”

  He shook his head. “That is unlikely. It is rare for a man’s character to undergo such a change. He is who he is.”

  I nodded and remembered the words of the pretty prostitute, Lana. “I am sure you are right, Murat.”

  “There has already been one attempt on your life, Smenkhkare. If Akhenamun becomes pharaoh then I am sure that it will not be the last. He will eliminate any possible rivals – and already you are proving a rival.”

  “Thank you for your opinion, Murat.”

  We pulled into the pier on the east bank and made our way to Coreb’s army headquarters. Coreb was there to greet us as always. He bowed. “It is good to see you again, your majesty.”

  “Thutmose told you to call him by his name as you were his friend. I tell you to call me Smenkhkare as I hope I am also your friend.”

  He smiled. “You are indeed. Let us go inside, Smenkhkare.” We entered his base and sat ourselves on two plain wooden chairs. He looked at me expectantly.

  “You wish to know if I have arrived at a decision” I said.

  He nodded. “A decision is needed urgently.”

  “I am convinced that Akhenamun had Thutmose murdered. My wife is also convinced that Akhenamun had Thutmose murdered. We are also both convinced that he was responsible for the attempt on my life.”

  “I hope you did not tell your wife of our plans,” he gasped. “It is better that as few people as possible know of such matters.”

  “Taduheppa can be trusted, of that I have no doubt. The only way that I can guarantee my safety is to become pharaoh.”

  “And you will also be saving Egypt from a tyrant,” he offered.

  “What are your plans for making me pharaoh?” I asked.

  “It is simple. I will cross the Nile with a large section of the army and we will take Malkata and declare you pharaoh. The only question is when to act. I feel that it must be very soon before Akhenamun is declared pharaoh.”

  “I want there to be as little bloodshed as possible.”

  “Your brother must be executed plus any who might prove close supporters.”

  “No other member of my family must be harmed,” I said.

  “No member of your family will be, apart perhaps from Ay. It will depend on what Ay does and says during the coup for he is the chief vizier and is in charge of the palace guard.”

  “I do not want a battle with the palace guard,” I said.

  “I will ask them to lay down their arms and support the new pharaoh, but I cannot guarantee they will obey though they will quickly realise their cause is lost in the face of such superior numbers.”

  “It will depend on Ay,” I replied. “I will talk to him when the situation for the palace guard is hopeless and try to get his support. I will remind him that if he does not concede to my demands then his guard will be decimated and he will forfeit his life.” I could not stand the man so I knew that would be a very easy course of action for me to take.

  “When do you suggest we act?” he asked.

  “Thutmose will make his final journey in three days’ time. It would be possible to occupy the palace when the family is at the funeral but the idea of doing it then does not weigh easily on me.”

  “Also Akhenamun and Ay will not be at the palace and that would make their escape easier. If Akhenamun escapes then you will never feel secure,” he replied.

  “Then the day after the funeral,” I suggested. “You can make the final arrangements undetected while we are all at the funeral. Cross the Nile early the next day and the palace will still be sleeping after the exertions of the previous day. Malkata will be in your hands before most are even awake. The guard should then surrender without a fight.”

  “The day after the funeral it is,” responded Coreb. “That gives me time to plan and it will be before Akhenamun is declared pharaoh.”

  “When Malkata is in your hands, Coreb, what will you do?”

  “Akhenamun and Ay will be made prisoners. Ay’s fate will depend on him. You will be declared pharaoh immediately.”

  “What will be your position?” I asked.

  “I will be your loyal general and advisor. I was always totally loyal to your brother, Thutmose. I have transferred that loyalty to you. I will always remain loyal to the Pharaoh, Smenkhkare, of that you can be certain. I will remain a powerful man in Egypt but I will always be your subordinate and on that you have my word.”

  He had realised what I was asking and I believed his reply completely. He was not of royal blood and was loyal and content to be general and of that I wa
s certain. “You will be needed to secure my realm in the face of the Hittite threat,” I said.

  “I will do my duty and serve you well,” he replied. “You are a good man, Smenkhkare, and unlike your brother, Akhenamun, you will be good for Egypt. Now we must not meet again until the day for if we meet too often it might arouse suspicions.”

  I smiled. “You are right for I can say we are friends meeting for military exercises once too often. The morning after the funeral I will be waiting for you outside the palace and I will be ready to join you as we make a triumphant entry into Malkata, and I will position myself alongside you at the head of the army.”

  “So be it, Malkata and Egypt will be yours and Thutmose will, at last, be avenged,” he said smiling. “I will move some men across the river on the day of the funeral, downstream of Malkata and it will look like training manoeuvres. The rest will cross during the night while Malkata sleeps.” We clasped hands in a token of unity. “It will be a momentous day.”

  “We shall next meet outside Malkata just to the south,” I confirmed again.

  The excitement was coursing through my veins as we climbed aboard the boat for the return trip across the Nile.

  “Did it go well, Smenkhkare?” Murat asked as he steered our small vessel towards the west bank.

  “It went very well,” I replied, but I did not divulge any of the details. The less anybody knew the better.

  He smiled. “Coreb is a good man and like me, though a general, he is a loyal servant,” he assured me.

  “You are right and I am lucky to have you both,” I responded enthusiastically.

  ****

  I hoped that I had not been seen and I returned stealthily to my apartment. When I opened the door I expected to see my wife waiting for me and keen to hear my news but to my surprise it was my sister, Nebetah, instead. “Where have you been, Smenkhkare?” she asked.

  “To see my friend, Coreb, and to indulge in a little more army training,” I replied.

  “You left very early,” she said.

  “I like to make an early start, sister. What is this about?” I sensed her tension.

  “You go too often to the army camp and Akhenamun does not like it.”

  “Why would he not like it?” I inquired feigning surprise.

  “There is so much going on at the moment and he gets suspicious about what you are doing. I assure him that you and Coreb have become close friends and there is nothing for him to be concerned about, but this does not satisfy him.”

  “I do not really care if it does not satisfy him,” I responded sharply.

  A tear rolled down her face. “I know that both my brothers are good men. Please, Smenkhkare, do not return to the army camp until after Akhenamun becomes pharaoh.”

  I put my arm around her and gave her a hug. “Do not worry, I have always had a strained relationship with Akhenamun. I do not like to see you so upset, Nebetah. Is that all that is worrying you?”

  “I have been sick with worry since I realised that the cobra could not have been an accident. I just do not know what to think about anything anymore. I fear that one of the servants might try to murder you again.”

  “You know it was one of the servants?” I said.

  “It must have been, Smenkhkare. Please let me tell Akhenamun that you will not return to the army camp until after Akhenamun is made pharaoh.”

  “I have no plans to return to the army camp in the foreseeable future,” I assured her.

  She sighed with relief. “I will go and tell him for he has been concerned about you.”

  I nodded and watched her depart my apartment leaving the door open as she left. I hated being economical with the truth with regard to Nebetah but there was no other way. It also upset me to see her in such a distressed state. I wondered if she would ever forgive me for what I was about to do.

  “What did she want?” Taduheppa was standing in the open door way.

  “She wanted to know where I had been.”

  “Why did she want to know?” she asked suspiciously.

  “She is concerned about me and I am concerned about her. You must remember, Taduheppa, that she and Thutmose have been the two people most close to me since the day I was born. I no longer have Thutmose so Nebetah remains my one dearest friend.”

  “That may be, but she makes me nervous for she is always sniffing around.”

  “It is her nature. She has a curious mind and she loves Malkata.”

  “By the way, your mother had another meeting today regarding the funeral and I was asked to stand in for you as you had disappeared once again. I told her you had got so enthusiastic about your military training that it was taking up a lot of your time.”

  “Was anything important discussed?” I asked.

  “No, it was all very boring and I will fill you in on the details you need to know before the funeral.” Taduheppa closed the door. “Now tell me all that happened with Coreb at the army camp.”

  “Plans have been made,” I said somewhat secretly.

  “Please expand on that, Smenkhkare,” she responded irritably.

  “Perhaps it is better if you do not know … for your own safety,” I suggested.

  “We are in this together. I need to know the details so that I can be of help to you. It was me who encouraged you in this course of action in the first place.”

  “True,” I said, but it was not strictly true and still I hesitated for I knew Coreb would not approve of me telling anyone, not even my wife.

  “If I am soon to be a true wife to you then you must share with me.”

  The connotations in her words were not lost on me, for more than anything else I desired her to be a true wife in every sense of the word. “I talked with Coreb and he has placed the army behind me. We will take Malkata.”

  “You convinced him then of the guilt of Akhenamun. Did you tell him of your wife’s conversation with Nefertiti?”

  “Yes and that helped to convince him.”

  “When will you take Malkata and make yourself pharaoh?” she asked. I could detect the excitement in her voice.

  “The day after the funeral,” I replied. The palace will be relaxed and in a state of slumber after the anxieties of the previous day. I hope to be able to accomplish the takeover without loss of blood.”

  “Except for the blood of Akhenamun,” she sniffed.

  I nodded. “Regrettably yes. I will meet Coreb and some of the army outside the palace and we will ride into Malkata together.”

  “Can Coreb be totally trusted?” she asked.

  “I am absolutely positive he can.”

  “Then for the next couple of days before the funeral and during the funeral we must continue as normal so that we do not arouse suspicions. I will tell Nefertiti that you have accepted that an unidentified servant must have planted the cobra in your room and then it will get back to Akhenamun.”

  “Are you on good terms with Nefertiti again?”

  “Now that she believes she is destined to be chief wife she has been very magnanimous and has suggested we become friends again for she genuinely loves me as a sister – or so she says. Akhenamun will feel that all is well.”

  “Then he is in for a surprise,” I suggested.

  “We must not appear to have become too friendly either. Let everything in Malkata appear to be unchanged,” she grinned. “I will go and speak with my dear friend Nefertiti.” The irony in her tone was unmistakable.

  “Keep your ears open and appear to take Nefertiti back as a friend for you never know what she might divulge, but do not openly question her.”

  “I am very subtle, husband.”

  She left my apartment and left me with my thoughts and my recriminations. Being the leader of a palace revolution did not rest easy on my shoulders particularly as it was a revolt against my own family. However, if I was to avenge Thutmose and ensure my own survival I had no choice. The die was cast.

  The next few days passed quietly and I was sure that nothing was susp
ected regarding the plot. With the exception of my wife all of my family members kept out of my way and it was a state of affairs that pleased me for I could not help feeling large doses of guilt. Taduheppa visited each day and she seemed equally confident that our plan was unsuspected and would be successful. She told me what I needed to know about the funeral and encouraged me in the coming enterprise with enticing promises and persuading assurances. I went to bed the night before the funeral with my mind once again in turmoil. It was extraordinary that, so recently before the death of Thutmose, I had no worries and no ambitions. How things could change in such a short space of time.

  ****

  The next day the royal family with many servants and guards left the palace of Malkata at mid-morning on a rare cloudy day. I wondered if the clouds were an omen for what was to come. All of the royal family including my wife and Ay and Nefertiti and five servants travelled on the new royal barque down the Nile to the valley of the dead. The royal barque could comfortably seat 14 passengers with the servants acting as rowers. The barque was very grand and was a fitting vessel to begin this sombre and momentous day – a day when one pharaoh would begin the process of preparation for his time in the afterlife and his son would undertake the final journey to that same afterlife.

  We were all dressed in fine clothes to match the occasion and this seemed to all of us like the end of one era and the beginning of another. The journey was in the most part undertaken in silence for frivolous conversation seemed inappropriate in the circumstances. The royal barque docked at the pier for the valley of the dead and joined a host of small boats and some large ones which had gathered for the occasion. The notables of Upper and Lower Egypt particularly those from the great city of Thebes had assembled for the occasion.

  My family took its place at the head of the procession and the rest of the mourners filed in behind us for the walk to the tomb. There we would see my father’s corpse before it was prepared for the great journey, and we would see Thutmose off as he began the journey on which my father would soon follow. It was quite a unique occasion for rarely had a pharaoh and his eldest son both died in such a short space of time. The procession then started a slow walk from the great river to the valley of the dead.