'Terhaps not. But it is a good and holy name nonetheless."
'Tou are right," she agreed, sobering, ''but Thothmes is more suitable for the son of today's Pharaoh." She wanted to ask him of his dreams for the boy, the hopes and fears that every father shares, but they were too far apart for any real confidences. She knew without asking how Aset viewed the baby's future, knew the petty ambitions and vanity of the woman.
And yet it is not such a petty ambition, she thought to herself, looking down the years in sudden anxiety. Thothmes. The name of my soft and benevolent brother? Or the name of a forceful and driving King? But why should I ponder these things now, before my own child has seen the light of Ra?
''Come with me to the marshes this evening," Thothmes said suddenly. "I want to hunt wildfowl. It will be a slow and peaceful jaunt to Luxor and back, and you might enjoy the river breezes."
"I think I will," she nodded. "I have had little rest today, and my back aches without ceasing. I am happy for you, Thothmes, and for Egypt," she said, coming close to him. "No matter what I say, it is no small thing to father a royal son." She kissed him softly on the lips, and they linked arms and walked slowly through the garden to the water steps, where they sat on the warm stone for a while, watching their skiff glide slowly to its berth at the golden mooring post. When it had been made fast, they went aboard, sitting together in the bow and watching a crane take off with slender, hanging feet and the beating of white wings before the boatmen pushed them off into midstream and they floated quietly in the long evening light.
Three weeks later, in the early hours of the morning, the nobles and title bearers of Thebes were summoned to the Queen's audience chamber. They straggled in, half asleep still, to find Pharaoh waiting for them, quivering with impatience.
"Her Majesty has begun to give birth," he announced. "As Princes of
Egypt you arc all entitled to be present, with nie, in the bedchamber," and he disappeared through the door, from which a ribbon of soft yellow light streamed.
The men followed him, but Senmut hung back and would have slipped out into the darkness if Hapuseneb had not caught him by the arm, turning him roughly. Senmut shook himself free, repressing an urge to strike, and Hapuseneb saw the quick flare in the black eyes.
''Where are you going, Steward of Amun?"
Senmut balled his fists under the cover of his cloak, and his teeth were clenched as he replied. ''I am going out. Vizier. I am going home to await word. Do you think that I can go in there?"
Hapuseneb's face softened. *'I think that you must. Firstly you are an Erpa-ha, and as a Hereditary Prince of Egypt you must attend and place your seal beside the others' as evidence of such an important birth."
'Tou have not changed my mind," Senmut snapped. ''I was a peasant and the son of a peasant long before the Queen bestowed any titles on me, and I have a peasant's boorish stubbornness."
''When will you cease to insult a Daughter of the God and an immortal Queen by treating her in your mind as the weakest and simplest of women? Do you think that she will acknowledge you in there, or utter one word, one cry? Do you think that a Queen gives birth like a wailing woman in the harem? Mend yourself, broken reed, mend yourself. In honors and preferments you have grown—and in stature. But here"—he tapped his head—"here there are many pockets of foolishness and pride. Would you put yourself above the Queen and Pharaoh and the law?"
"Cease!" Senmut hissed at him. "I am not an untried boy or a stupid, thickheaded scholar. I do not need your lessons, for I know far better than you the secret paths of my own mind. I do not ever, not ever, put myself above her or Pharaoh, and I know full well what and who is the law. Do not ride me, Hapuseneb. The days are full of new loads dropped upon my back like sacks of grain until I know not whether I shall reach the end still walking or crawling like a blind man on a dangerous path. I am a Prince, yes, even as yourself, but I am also a beast of burden!"
"You speak to one who was struggling with the weight of power long before you left your mops and soap on the floor of the temple," Hapuseneb reminded him gently. "And why do we stagger on, day after day, Senmut? Because we like to keep busy? No, my friend"—he laid a firm hand on Senmut's shoulder—"because we both know where Egypt's salvation lies and because she is all that she says she is. Come in with me. It is a marvelous occasion."
Senmut gave in suddenly, allowing Hapuseneb to pilot him into the
crowded, incense-laden room. But while his companion took his place beside the couch as was his right, Senmut sat at the back, on the floor, where he could see nothing.
Hatshepsut lay with her eyes closed and her hands limp above the cover of white linen. If it had not been for an occasional flutter of the long fingers or brief movements of the head, the assembly would have thought that she was asleep. The labor had begun at noon the day before, and by sunset she had been exhausted. Her physician had given her a draft of poppy, and she had sunk into a twilight of drifting images interspersed with flashes of searing pain. Her dreams were flying, but she had moments of clarity during which she opened her eyes to see Thothmes' anxious face above her and beside her, on the wall, the shadows of many men. At last her head cleared, and she heard the midwife say, 'The birth is imminent!" A spasm of agony gripped her, and she shut her lips tightly, rolling her head in a supreme effort of will not to cry out.
When the pain left her, the physician bent, putting his mouth to her ear. ''I can give you no more poppy. Majesty, and in any case it would avail you nothing, for the baby comes.''
She nodded weakly, once, turning from him and gathering her strength as the last wave rushed to engulf her. Sweat sprang out on her forehead, but she did no more than whimper, the pain blotted out by a cry from the midwife.
"A girl. Nobles of Egypt! A girl!"
The men surged forward to catch a glimpse of the Princess, who let out a faint wail. In the eddy Senmut saw Hatshepsut raise herself on one elbow, her eyes big from the drug and her skin pale and somehow thin, like the linen that fell, rumpled, about her.
"Sit me up!" she commanded, and the physician lifted her gently. She held out her arms for the child, cradling it to her. Thothmes went down on one knee, and she smiled at him mistily, still afloat on a poppy sea. '*A girl, Thothmes. A beautiful, delicate Daughter of Amun! See how her tiny fingers curl about my own!"
'^Delicate indeed, and lovely as you are, Hatshepset," he replied, smiling. **Bud of the Flower of Egypt!" He kissed her cheek and rose, but she was no longer looking at him. Her eyes had dropped to the fuzz of black down that nestled in the crook of her arm, and she ignored the nurse, who waited stolidly at the head of the couch.
Thothmes spoke to the cluster of relieved men. 'The documents await your seals. The Scribe Anen will assist you at the door." They began to file out, whispering together.
''Her Majesty has come through unscathed, thanks be to Amun!"
User-aniiin said in a low voice to Hapuscncb, and the other nodded.
''She lias great strength. Egypt will feel her hand once more before too long," he replied, sharing User-anuin's secret fear and its swift dissipation. They left the room and stood waiting for Anen to take their seals.
Senmut had turned to the door, but the voice from the couch stopped him. She called him, and he went to her, bowing. Pen-Nekheb also stood with him, wheezing a little as he shifted his weight from one tired foot to the other, both waiting as she gently disengaged the tiny fingers from her sleeping robe and held the child up.
''Take my daughter, Senmut." As he hesitated, she urged him. "Take her! I appoint you Royal Nurse. From today you are responsible for her health and her safety, and I know that you will see that she grows neither too spoiled nor too harshly taught. The ordering of the nursery is yours, and the wet nurse, here, is under you."
He took the tiny bundle carefully, with infinite, wondering gentleness, looking into a face so like the one he loved that his gaze traveled between them, and Hatshepsut lay back with a sigh.
"I had to
know that she was in good hands," she said to them, "for much goes on in a palace of this size, and how can I hope to know all? As for you, pen-Nekheb, to you I entrust her future education. I wish her to learn as I have done, freely in the schoolroom and freely on the training grounds, and no door of knowledge is to be closed to her. She will need the wisdom of your many years." She closed her eyes, and they saw that she was almost asleep. But she opened them again to dismiss the two men.
Pen-Nekheb went home to bed, but Senmut walked through to the nursery, and he himself placed the baby in the little golden cradle, tucking the covers around her and checking that a Follower of His Majesty stood beyond the door and another in the garden under the high, narrow window. He left and sought out Nehesi, asking that more men be taken from the ranks of the Bodyguard and posted near the nursery to guard the child. Only when he was satisfied did he walk to his little palace.
All was quiet. Ta-kha'et had said that she would await his news, but he found her asleep on the carpet beside his couch, and he went to bed without waking her. The cat was nowhere to be seen, but as he reached to snuff out the night-light, it sprang upon him from somewhere in the shadows, its back arched and its teeth bared. He sat up, his ears and eyes open, every muscle tense. But the darkness was dumb, a close, comfortable darkness that seemed to hold no breath of danger, and in the end he pushed the beast onto the floor and lay down. He was very tired.
The temple celebrations went on for days, attended by Pharaoh and all his household. Ta-kha'et had to don her finery and go on her own, for Senmut spent the time in the nursery, watching every hour of the new Princess's routine. The wet nurse seemed to have plenty of milk, and the staff were all middle-aged women who had been culled from the harem because of their years spent attending their own children. Senmut gathered them together and spoke to them all, instructing them sternly, making sure that they knew the child was to receive only lo'e and patience at all times. He left them finally, reluctantly, to see to new pens for the cattle of Amun and to speak to Benya, who was prepared to disagree on the exact dimensions of the third pillar to go up on the second terrace. He found his mind wandering back to the baby who slept so long and so often and who seemed to be so listless. It was not uncommon for a girl child to be less demanding and noisy than a boy, but all the same Senmut decided to seek the advice of Hatshepsut's physician and perhaps to procure some helpful spells from, the temple sorcerers. Not that he believed entirely in the efficacy of magic, but it did no harm.
He listened to Benya's angry explanations with only half his attention.
Benya's hand shook as he held the diagram, and he finally flung the scroll down in disgust. 'Tou are not listening, Senmut! Why should I concern myself with this—this fraction of a mistake, this tiny edge that juts like a mountain in my mind and offends my eye when you look at the wall and dream?"
''I am sorry, my friend." He tore his gaze back to Benya's black frown. ''What is wrong with the pillar?"
''O ye gods!" Benya rolled his eyes and snatched up the reed and plan once more. ''See, Senmut, it cannot sit thus; it will not. The angle must be so"—he slashed at the papyrus—"or the fourth one will give us endless trouble."
"Then enlarge the foundation."
"I cannot. The pillar is up."
"Then take it down, and set it again. By Amun, Benya, can you not do your job properly the first time?"
"Can the architect not foresee a muddy angle?"
They glared angrily at one another, and Benya at last grudgingly rolled up the scroll and dropped the reed back onto the desk, acknowledging his need for a few days of diversion away from the endless heat and dust of the valley. He was concerned at the strained eyes and work-worried preoccupation of his friend.
Senmut apologized sadly. "I had thought that my measurements were exact," he said, "but perhaps I was wrong."
*'No, it was I. I hurried the erection, knowing the haste the Queen has, and I should liave listened to my better judgment. I will take it down, Senmut, and put it up again." He raised and lowered his hands in a gesture of weary resignation and walked away.
Senmut sat for a moment in the deserted office, overcome with the need for rest. He put his head down on the smooth wood, promising himself a few moments of peace. Almost at once he was asleep, lulled by the silence and the green shade that stretched across his chair from the trees standing motionless outside.
Hatshepsut awaited the naming of the child with anxious impatience. She was up already, scorning her couch in favor of her little bedside chair, and though she still felt weak and drained, she saw her body slowly knit itself together again as her belly flattened and tightened. One day she threw her sheaths contemptuously into a corner and called for the little kilts of manhood, delighting in the old freedom. It was as she was choosing a belt, sitting undecided while Nofret held them all on both outstretched arms, that the Second High Priest of Amun was announced. Eagerly she ordered him to be admitted, and when he came, bowing, she wasted no time on pleasantries.
'Tell me at once!" she barked. ''What is the name to be?"
He smiled. 'The decision was long and hard, for as a fully royal Princess her name must hold great power and offer her a full protection."
"Yes, yes! Of course!"
"The name she will carry is Nefcrura. Majesty."
The words hung in the air. The room suddenly seemed to be filled with a rush of cold wind, a draft of dark, evil breath from the past that drained the color from Hatshepsut's face and caused Nofret to shiver, looking quickly behind her to the statue of the God, though the priest did not seem to have felt it.
Hatshepsut beckoned him nearer, shaken. "Repeat the name to me, Ipuyemre, for I did not hear it aright."
"Neferura, Majesty. Neferura."
She pressed him. "That cannot be. The name is a name full of power, certainly, but not good power, not good magic. You have made a mistake."
He was affronted, though he did not show it. "There is no mistake, Majesty. The signs were read many times. It is Neferura."
"It is Neferura," she repeated dully. "Very well. Amun has spoken, and the child shall bear that name. You may go."
He backed to the door, bowing, and the guard opened it for him and closed it again.
Hatshepsut sat staring into space, as if in a trance, muttering the name over and over. ''Send Duwa-eneneh to Pharaoh/' she said at last to Nofret, ''and order him to give Pharaoh the name. I cannot go. I think that for the rest of the day I will lie on my couch. Neferura/' she said slowly again as Nofret held back the covers. "Evil omen for my beautiful little girl. I should send for a sorcerer and pierce the future on her behalf." But she knew that such sick strivings were foreign to her nature, and she would never summon the priests of Set.
Thothmes sent Duwa-eneneh back with a formal agreement on the name, but he did not come himself. She knew that he was with Aset in little Thothmes' nursery. She lay on her side, her head pillowed on her arm, gazing into the perfumed dimness of her room and thinking of her sister Neferu-khebit and the little fawn, both long gone.
She did not get up. Senmut brought the child to her every day, and she played with it and cuddled it and smiled upon it, but she would not leave her couch. A terrible lassitude was on her, a deadening, killing apathy. Day after day she ate and drank and slept, all in the safety of her room. In the audience chambers and ministries of the country Hapuseneb, Ineni, and Ahmose, User-amun's father, struggled desperately to hold the line against an ever increasing mountain of work while Thothmes and Aset hunted and boated and feasted, their laughter and the comings and goings of their slaves and servants an ever present taunt to the ears of the harried men who rose early and were still in their offices when the next dawn broke.
Senmut tried to speak to Hatshepsut of the great machinery of Egypt that was grinding slowly but surely to a halt without her hand to guide it, but she told him irritably to get about his business, reminding him that men did not become ministers for nothing.
He had appe
aled to Thothmes, going to Pharaoh because there was nowhere else to go, though his heart was sick at the prospect. He had chosen a bad time. Thothmes was about to set off on a small trip with Aset and little Thothmes, down the river to Memphis to worship Sekh-met, and Senmut had to speak to him while his hangers-on thronged the water steps and the Imperial Barge, with all flags flying, rocked, waiting.
Thothmes had brushed him aside. "I will see to it all when I return,'' he had snapped, his eyes on Aset as she swayed up the ramp and looked back at him, beckoning.
Senmut had retired in helpless fury. And when Thothmes returned, nothing happened, and the feasting went on.
Finally Nehesi went to her, stalking unannounced into her bedroom one hot, stifling evening to find her sitting up on her couch, naked but for a film of linen across her loins, an empty wine jug on the table beside
the bed and a bunch of wilting lotus flowers under her listless hands. He bowed but came to the couch quickly, looking down at her.
"It is time to get up, Majesty," he said peremptorily. 'The days fly by, and Egypt needs you."
She regarded him with lackluster eyes. ''How did you get in here, Nehesi?"
"I ordered my soldier to let me pass, of course."
''What do you want?"
He leaned over her urgently. "I want nothing, Majesty, but your country is crying out for your royal hand upon it once more. Why do you lie here like an ailing child? Where is the Commander of the Braves of the King? I would not fight under you now, no, not if a thousand thousand Kushites clamored at the door!"
"That is treason!" she said with a flash of her old asperity. "Who are you, black Nehesi, to speak to your Queen of treason?"
"I am your Royal Seal Bearer, carrying at my belt a worthless piece of metal that becomes tiresome. I am your General, watching your soldiers grow fat and restless and unruly. Why do you not get up?"
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