thumping, her father returning from a successful hunt. When the sun rose, she was already on deck, sitting again in her chair. Her slave came and asked her to return to the cabin to be prepared for the ceremony, and she went meekly, still silent. She emerged an hour later wrapped in white, her head bare.
Thothmes raised his eyebrows at her, questioning, while the priests waited on the bank, solemn and unmoving.
She smiled at him briefly. ''I am ready," she said.
They led her to the temple through the streets lined with quiet people, for all knew what an occasion this was, and she mounted the steps and stood waiting while the doors were opened for her. Inside all the hierarchy of Heliopolis was gathered, eager for a look at an awesome presence who turned out to be nothing more than a pale, taut-lipped girl. She paced slowly between the rows of men until she came up at last before the Sacred Stone. For a moment she looked down on it, oblivious of the crowd behind her, lost in wonder, for it was from this stone that the first sun had risen on the first day of Creation, and she knew that she was on holy ground. The stone was set on a gold pillar, and at last she turned from it, lifting her chin and surveying the strange, expectant faces with hauteur. With a swift movement she dropped the linen wraps to the floor. A sigh went up like the wind through the palms, for under the cloak she was clothed in solid gold and encrusted with jewels, and only her head was naked.
She went down on her face before the image of Amun-Ra, throned beside the Sacred Stone, and there was a flurry as the gods came forward, clouded in incense. When she rose they were there: Thoth, with his ibis head; Horus, with glittering bird eyes; her beloved Sekhmet; and Set the cold. Set the fierce, gray-limbed and wolfish. She still seemed remote from it all, hardly breathing, but as Thothmes approached to embrace her, she lifted her arms and fell against him, burying her head against his thick neck. She knew that more than the great ceremonies that would follow in Thebes, it was here that he was giving her his last gift, the gift of his throne, and she cried, unashamed, while the assembly shouted and their clamor echoed to the roof high above them. Thothmes held her tightly with one arm, begging for silence with the other.
''Blessed One!" he spoke into her hair. He shouted aloud. ''Blessed One, whom I take in my arms, thou art my heir, and only thou!" He thrust her forward, and the tears poured down her cheeks, but she did not try to hide them or wipe them away. She scarcely heard the gods, who continued with the rite.
Tus thy daughter who hveth satisfies us in h'fe and peace. She is the daughter of thy form, begotten of thee, and thou hast given her thy soul, thy bounty, and the magic powers of the diadem. While she was yet within her mother's body, the lands were hers, all that the heavens cover, all that the sea encircles. . . .
The voices fell upon the awed congregation, and Hatshepsut struggled for control, her lips shaking.
Thy tribute is myriads of men, the captives of thy valor, men for the temples of the Two Lands. The gods have endowed thee with years, with life and satisfaction. They praise thee, for their heart hath given understanding.
Then Thoth, God of Wisdom, spoke for them all: Set the diadem upon his head before all gods and men.
Hatshepsut felt the hands settle upon her head the pretty, jeweled coronet that had been her mother's and all queens' before her, the Cobra, Lady of Life. The High Priest began to recite the titles that had belonged to Aahmose, but his drone was lost as Hatshepsut raised her arms in triumph and the hall exploded in a cacophony of applause and approval.
Thothmes hugged her again and then spoke to them all, his mighty voice rising above the noise like thunder. ''My daughter Hatshepsut, the Loving One—I put her in my place. Let her henceforth guide you. Whoever obeys her will live, but he who speaks against her will surely die!"
They began their progress out of the building, but they could go only a step at a time, for as she passed, the men fell to the ground, reaching for her feet. By the time they at last left the temple and moved out into the streets, it was full morning, and despite the solemnity of the occasion Hatshepsut was hungry.
Big tents had been erected on the bank of the river, and a feast had been prepared. She and Thothmes feted each other while the nobles of Heliopolis ate and drank to their new ruler. Not all of them were happy. Some doubted the sanity of Pharaoh, who grew old and perhaps a little overemotional; and some looked at the small, smiling face and delicate fingers of the Regent and feared for the safety of the country, praying that Thothmes would be spared to reign a few years more.
He knew their doubts. He could read their faces, but he said nothing,
watching them all with his black, expressionless eyes, possessed suddenly by a wild and protecting jealousy for Hatshepsut, his beloved. She was deep in conversation with Kenamun, nodding once in a while as she ate and he gestured over the plates and cups. Her face was intent on his words, and when Thothmes heard a scrap of their conversation he turned away, smiling and roaring for wine.
*'I favor a short rein and a stiff bit," she was saying, ''for how else can a horse be controlled in the heat of battle unless he is trained to these things from the start?"
Thothmes drained his cup and sucked in his lips with relish.
For three days they were entertained by the people of Heliopolis, and on the fourth day they weighed anchor, and the oars were run out.
'Thebes, beautiful Thebes," Hatshepsut sighed. "Father, I have greatly enjoyed this voyage, but I am glad to be going home." The Cobra glittered on her forehead as she turned to look at him. "I am sadly in need of some practice on the training grounds, and I am eager to begin work on my temple."
"So you know now what you wish to build?"
"I think so, but I cannot speak of it until I have consulted Senmut."
"Ah, yes, the handsome young architect. No doubt he is hard at work again, for Ineni has been chosen Mayor of Thebes and will have little time for his precious buildings."
She was astonished. "How do you know that?"
"I received word last night. The heralds ply the river, as we do."
"How lovely it has all been!" she sighed. "My mother would have loved to see me crowned in the temple!"
"I do not think so," Thothmes replied gently. "She worried always for your future, and the crown you wear is as nothing to the crown you will carry on New Year's Day." He laughed fondly. "No, she would not have approved at all."
"I suppose you are right. And now I hold her titles. Great Royal Wife. How strange it seems. I remember that title on so many lips, from the time of my birth. How they loved her, the people of Egypt." She wondered whether they would love her, too, and decided that it did not really matter. The important thing was power, power to make them do her will for their own good, and power was almost within her grasp.
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They docked at the famihar water steps two days before New Year's Day. Tlie river had shrunk to its proper size, and the land hummed with the industry of sowing. In the palace gardens the new blooms stood tall, and the trees and shrubs had begun to flower. To Hatshepsut's delighted nose the whole of her home seemed one long flower smell. She endured the formal welcomes, glad that her new titles were given to her. She graced Ineni with a large grin, and when he went off with her father to give him all the news, she called for her guard and her attendants and went to find Senmut.
He was lying on his back in the long grass that grew at the edge of the little pond beside the sycamores under the wafl. Ta-kha'et was with him, dropping flowers onto his chest. Hatshepsut heard them laughing and found, to her surprise, that she was angry. She strode toward them, and as they heard her come, Senmut said something to Ta-kha'et that sent her walking swiftly away. He ran to meet Hatshepsut, falling on the grass at her feet.
She could no longer be angry. ''Rise, priest,'* she said. *'I can see that while I have been away, you have been putting your time to good use."
The tone was bantering, but behind the royal smile Senmut could detect
irritation. He bowed again. *'My time has not been wasted. Divine One, although the munificence of your gift tempted me to idleness." His clear gaze sought hers in reassurance, and she looked away, her anger gone. '*! have a few drawings for your approval."
'Then let us immediately go and see them, for I am eager now to begin, and I know what I want," she replied tartly.
For a moment they smiled at each other, glad to be together again. He knew that soon she would be Regent, for although Pharaoh had made no official announcement, the rumors were flying thick and fast in Thebes, and all knew of her crowning as Divine Consort and Great Royal Wife. The Cobra perched on her brow suited her, he thought. It seemed to symbolize all the latent ability and impatient power in her that waited to be released. He also thought that the King's Double Crown would suit her even better. She was eyeing him with quiet happiness, her eyes
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screwed shut against the sun, her black hair whipping about her face. With the heightened awareness of woman that Ta-kha'et had brought to him, he saw not only her beauty as Queen and God but her utter fascination and mystery as woman. He wanted to brush the unruly hair from her face and tuck the strands behind her ear, but he folded his arms and awaited her signal.
''Lead the way to your rooms," she said finally, ''and together we will have wine and honey cakes and study these plans."
They went to his apartment, where Ta-kha'et welcomed her mistress and fetched red wine in alabaster jars and little gold drinking cups and a silver tray of candied dates and honey cakes. When Ta-kha'et had finished, Senmut dismissed her absently, already getting out his scrolls and papyrus pads, and she passed from his mind before the doors had closed behind her.
"This is what 1 have in mind," he began, unrolling his work on the desk.
She bent over it, her hair and necklaces falling forward. Although she was so close to him, Senmut was already poring over the yellow sheets, oblivious of all but his neat, black lines. "As you can see. Highness, I have not attempted any height, for as you said before, no building could compete with the cliff of Gurnet and win. So I have conceived a series of terraces, one upon another, leading from the floor of the valley to the shrine that you want cut deep in the rock."
She reached for a honey cake and bit into it, chewing thoughtfully as she looked down at his work. "You have made a good beginning," she said, "but the terraces must be wider and longer so that they do not huddle against the cliff. Draw it!" Obediently he took the reed, and she exclaimed with satisfaction. "Yes! The whole must be light and delicate, even as I am.
"There will be no steps to approach it," he said. "I think a long ramp would be the best, a gradual ascent. And beneath the first and second terraces and at the entrance to the shrine must be pillars, well spaced and airy." With a few swift strokes he showed her what he meant, and her eyes kindled.
"I must have other shrines as well as the one where I may be worshiped," she said. "I want one to Hathor and another to Anubis, and of course the whole will be dedicated to my Father Amun. He must have a shrine, also."
"In the rock? All of them?"
"I think so. Make your engineer earn his bread. Now pour me some wine." He filled two cups, and they settled back to discuss the temple, drinking together, forgetting the hour of rest.
"I wish the work to begin ininiediately, tomorrow," she told him. "Take a destnietion crew and clear the site. If you wish, you may use the remains of the temple of Mentu-hotep."
"The clearing will take a long time, Highness. There is a natural rise in the earth at the foot of the hills that must be leveled."
"That is your business. Requisition what you will. The priests have approved the site; I saw to that on the day I saw the holy place, so there is nothing to prevent an immediate beginning. I will show my brother what a Queen can do!"
All at once she seemed to sink into some dark thought of her own, and as he drank, he watched the hand holding the scrolls fall into her lap, the smooth forehead under the golden snake become furrowed. She crossed her legs and began to swing a jeweled foot back and forth. Presently she shot him a searching, cold look so like her father's that Senmut hid a tremor.
"In two days I go to the temple to be crowned Regent in Egypt," she said, but he did not respond, waiting for the new train of her mercurial thought to emerge. "Then my life will change, priest. Many who bowed to me indulgently and called me Highness will begin to veil their eyes from a King and close their thoughts oflF from me. I must begin to wall myself about, carefully, with those whom I can trust." Her foot stopped swinging, and she pierced him with another glare. "Those whom I can trust," she repeated slowly, musingly, her eyes on his face. "How would it suit you, priest, to become a Steward of Amun?"
In the long second of shock and surprise Senmut's thoughts flew back to his first day in Thebes, to the haughty, perfumed servant of the God who had listened with such boredom to his father's anxious recommendations in the white, gilded office. He again felt the shrinking, the embarrassment, and he smelt his father's nervous sweat. "Highness, I do not understand," he said.
She laughed shortly. "I think that you do. From the beginning you have shown discreetness. You have kept your pride and your loyalty to me and to your friend in the face of Pharaoh himself, and that was not easy. I need you in the temple, Senmut, as my guardian. I love the God, my Father, and I do homage to his servants, but I am not stupid. I am young to be King, and I am untried. There are many in the temple who will not stop at watching me and will fear for their positions. I will set you over them, as a steward, and you will serve me well. I know it. Now do you understand?"
He did, but he still could see only his father's back, bent in prostration to the man in dazzling white, and his own uncertain, work-roughened hands held out in supplication.
*'I have said before that I live only to serve you/* he answered, ''and that I will do. Only you are worthy of my worship." He spoke with his mind still full of that first day, and his words were tinged with bitterness and a certain arrogance, his head thrown back to see her.
She noted the tone with approval. 'Then it is settled. Weed out those of your new servant-priests in the temple who seem to you to be unreliable, and do not fear anyone but me. Report to me every day at the hour of audience, and you shall have a staff bearer to announce you and scribes to follow you. You shall be Steward of Amun's Cattle and Amun's Gardens, for I know your experience with both, and woe to the man who says nay to you!''
He continued to sit and look at her, but his mind was busy. The responsibility was awesome, but with her usual acumen she had seized on duties that would be within his power because of his days on the farm. He was certain that he could carry them out. Of the unspoken duties he was not so sure, but he knew that no one in the temple would spread discontent while he held the Stewardship.
"Stay in this apartment," she said, "until you know the extent of your new position. Then I will build for you a palace, and you shall have your own boat and chariot and whatever else you will."
He searched her face, but she was not joking, and in the dim coolness of the room he felt her wordlessly reaching out to him, her face still with an expression of unfathomable, quiet searching. He knew that intuitively, almost blindly, she needed the boy who had pulled her out of the lake, who had revealed dreams close to her own, who as a man was still possessed of the drive that had caused him to ask a place at Ineni's feet. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that this temple would be not only her gift to the God and herself but also his love gift to her, all that a lowly man could do for the woman he wished to take in his arms. His eyes must have told her something of what he wished to say because she smiled a little wistfully.
"You are a great noble, Senmut, inside. I like you very much. Do you remember how angry I was when you rubbed me with that ragged old blanket? And how I fell asleep on your shoulder?"
"I remember. Highness. You were a beautiful little girl. You are a beautiful woman." He spoke matter-of-factly, but the words traile
d away, and he bit his lip, looking at the floor.
"I am God," she said firmly, and the mood was broken. She rose. "It is nearly time to dine. Come with me, and we will eat and talk with Menkh and Hapuseneb. Perhaps User-amun will be there. You have not met him yet, and I want you to. I want to know what you think of all my friends, for they may soon be more than friends and your opinion is of
importance to inc. I wish you also to meet Thothmes, my brother, who has returned from the north for my coronation."
He rose also, and he bowed. ''Highness, it has just come to my mind that my brother, Senmen, would be of great help to me in my new work. May I send for him, and perhaps replace him at home with a slave? My father needs him, but I think I need him more."
'Tou need not ask me for this. Assemble what staff you will. Do you like your brother?"
'Tes. We have worked together often."
''I, too, have worked often with my brother!" she retorted as she swept past him, ''and I must confess that he is exceedingly boring. But you may find something in common with him, for he loves to build and has already done much beautifying in Egypt."
She waited for him to catch up, and they walked side by side through the blue dusk while the servants led the way with lamps. The night folded around them with a sweetness and poignancy heightened by the new, pale stars that pricked silver fire in the water of the lily ponds, by the scented winds, and by the nearness of each other.
On her coronation day Hatshepsut awoke to the sound of horns, and she lay listening to the harsh, copper notes. She had slept deeply, without dreaming, and when the horns had ceased, she got up. The room was full of warm pink light. She walked naked to her bathroom, where her slave had already filled the stone tub with hot, scented water, and she stepped down into it until she was submerged to her chin. "How is the day?" she asked the girl who joined her with soap and cloths, and while she was scrubbed and her hair was washed, she listened to the artless gossip.
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