Two months later, in the middle of the night, Hapuseneb's frightened acolyte woke him., whispering breathlessly in his ear that the Crown Prince was without. Hapuseneb fought off his dreams and struggled from his couch, thanking the boy and telling him to summon Nehesi and the
Followers of His Majesty immediately. He let the lad out of his own little door, the one that led directly into Amun's sanctuary, locking it behind him. He shrugged on a thick robe and splashed water on his face. He wished now that he had chosen to sleep in his own house downriver instead of in the apartments of the temple, but he wasted no time in foolish regrets. When his doors were flung open, he was seated in his chair, his hands folded in his lap. His cold gray eyes greeted Thothmes across the dimness.
Thothmes was alone, but at the end of the passage two of his soldiers stood guard. Hapuseneb had no idea where his own temple guards had gone, but he could guess; gold was a strong magnet. He did not rise and bow, but only bent his head slightly. Thothmes advanced until he was looking down on the High Priest. Then and only then did Hapuseneb rise, and the two men were face to face. Hapuseneb, as was correct, waited for the Prince to speak. Thothmes had been drinking, but he was not drunk. Hapuseneb could smell the beer on his breath as he opened his mouth, and Thothmes' earrings swung as he shifted his weight, planting his feet firmly on the floor and bringing his fists to his hips in a characteristic gesture, his eyes fighting savagely for possession of Hapuseneb's own.
*'I will waste no time," Thothmes said. '*! want to sleep as much as you, High Priest. I have a proposition to put to you." He waited for Hapuseneb to reply, but the gray eyes went on smiling slightly, so he continued, his jaw thrust forward. **My aunt-mother is finished as Pharaoh. She knows it, and I know it, but she will not move. I have had enough of waiting. There will be changes in the palace, and I need not tell you what they will be. I am sure that you know."
''I know," Hapuseneb said, his heartbeat quickening. "We all know."
**Of course you do." Thothmes stepped away suddenly, swinging about the room. There was an aura of impatience around him, a palpable, restless, brute force. Hapuseneb shivered a little and drew his hands in under his woollen robe, seeing Thothmes the First, the Mighty Bull of Maat, stalking in his room in the faint yellow glow of the night-light. 'Tou have served her long and most faithfully. High Priest. Your father, the Vizier, served my grandfather with the same laudable devotion, and that is why I come to you in person and do not summon you to a public audience." He wheeled abruptly. **Do you serve Egypt or Hatshepsu?"
Hapuseneb answered him levelly, though his mouth was dry. 'Tou know already what I will say. Prince. I serve Egypt as embodied in Pharaoh."
'Tou evade me, and I am tired, so I will put it more plainly. Will you serve me as High Priest, or will you continue to align yourself to a pharaoh who has never been Pharaoh?"
**I serve Pharaoh," Hapuseneb said stubbornly, ''and Pharaoh is Hat-shepsu. Therefore I will continue to serve her as long as she lives."
''I am offering you more than your freedom. I am giving you a chance to continue in the temple and in the courts as you have always done, remaining Pharaoh's confidant and adviser. I need you, Hapuseneb."
Hapuseneb smiled faintly. ''I cannot desert her as long as she rules Egypt."
"And after that?"
Their eyes met, and Hapuseneb struggled against the overwhelming magnitude of Thothmes' will. *'I am hers. I cannot put it more clearly."
Thothmes stalked to him, frowning. ''Come, come, Hapuseneb. You are not a baseborn upstart like Senmut. You are of an ancient and aristocratic family. Side with me, and live in every good blessing."
Hapuseneb shook his head emphatically, his hands trembling under the robe. "I will not betray her who has heaped rewards and affections upon me from the time of our youth together, even if it means my death. She is Pharaoh, Prince, and has been since her father's rising to Ra. If there is any treason, then it will be found in those who support your claim."
Thothmes blinked and stepped back, irritation making his cheek muscle twitch convulsively. "You are a fool. I ask you once more and then never again. If you feel you cannot serve me, will you accept exile and agree never to cross the borders of Egypt for the rest of your life?"
"I will not run away. I will not leave her friendless, with no defense. I would rather die." The gray eyes faltered momentarily and looked away. Hapuseneb sat down. His knees would hold him up no longer.
Thothmes sneered and walked quickly to the door. Hearing him come, his soldier opened it and stood waiting. "It may come to that," Thothmes said loudly. "Yes, it may. Reflect on your words, and if you have changed your mind before morning, bring me word." His hand was on the door.
Hapuseneb regarded him mildly. "I am sorry. Prince, but my mind is not swayed by every wind of good or evil that blows. It will never change."
"Die then!" Thothmes exploded, the door crashing shut behind him.
Hapuseneb got up stifHy and went to stoke the brazier. He was shivering violently and was very cold. He had scarcely flung fresh charcoal onto the embers when his door burst open again and Nehesi strode in, knife in hand. Behind him four Followers of His Majesty ran, fanning into the room, eyes quickly scanning every corner. Hapuseneb smiled tremulously and held out his hands to the new blaze. "Thank you for coming, Nehesi."
"I wasted no time." Nehesi sheathed the knife and went to Hapuseneb. The guards retired at his nod. "I thought to find you wounded or dead. I saw Thothmes and his cohorts crossing the outer court, all armed to the teeth."
''He came only to talk. We talked, and then he went away."
Nehesi glanced at the High Priest. "You are pale."
In truth Hapuseneb was sweating profusely. He was still trembling, but he had begun to recover his customary aplomb. He led Nehesi to his table and poured wine, drinking thirstily. ''I suppose I am. Thothmes is preparing to move—I think within the next day or two. He came to offer me safety."
Nehesi laughed grimly. ''Indeed? I can guess the price—and your answer. Where were your guards?"
"Lured away, I suppose. I doubt if I shall see them again. We must go immediately to Senmut and warn him. He is probably in the royal apartments." He shrugged helplessly. "What can we do?"
"Nothing but die like men," Nehesi said indifferently. "At least we can say that we have lived like men. We will be justified before the gods. Our end will be swift, but what of Pharaoh?"
They looked at each other hopelessly, the cups still in their hands, angry that now, at the last, they were as impotent as newborn babies. They left Hapuseneb's rooms together, knives drawn again, gliding warily through the night, the Followers of His Majesty behind them, their eyes straining, searching the darkness.
Senmut and Hatshepsut were asleep when Nehesi sought admittance from Duwa-eneneh, but before the herald knocked softly on the door, they were awake, listening to the urgent whispers outside in the passage. Duwa-eneneh found them on their feet, robes clutched tightly around them.
"The High Priest and the Chancellor request audience," Duwa-eneneh said with a bow. Seeing his face, Hatshepsut felt a stab of panic. It had come. And so soon, so soon!
She nodded, meeting Senmut's encouraging smile. "Let them in. And stay with us, Duwa-eneneh. I think that what they have to say concerns you as well."
He opened the doors, and Hapuseneb and Nehesi entered quickly. He closed the doors quietly behind them, making sure that the Followers of His Majesty had taken up their positions outside and at either end of the long, twilit passage.
"Speak," Hatshepsut said briefly, "and do not be afraid to spare me. The time is here. Is it not so?"
Nehesi went and sat by her table, under the small window. Hapuseneb approached, telling her as gently as he could of Thothmes' proposal. She listened without comment. When he had finished, she went up to him and touched him softly on the shoulder.
'Tor your own sake, beloved, you must leave Thebes tonight and flee to the north. I will not have your blood o
n my conscience."
'*I will not go. My place is here, and here I stay. Nehesi and Senmut and your other ministers will say the same."
"I have taken everything from you, Hapuseneb, even your heart. Must I take your life also?" Her voice was a private, low murmur, and the other men heard only its tone, pleading, begging. ''I will give you gold and soldiers. You can easily find peace in Rethennu or Hurria. Please, Hapuseneb, go from me!"
He fingered his badge of office, shaking his head slowly from side to side and smiling at her as she spoke. ''No and no and no," he said. "How could I live then, knowing that I had left you to your fate?"
"Fool! Fool!" she said angrily. "What can you, any of you, do if you stay? The tide runs against me, and nothing you can do will avert the flood!"
"We can die." Nehesi's voice floated to them from the other side of the room. "We can die." She let out a cry of frustration and flung herself back to the couch, sitting tensely on its gilt edge. "We can show Thothmes what true loyalty means, and we can make the ultimate sacrifice of our devotion. No soldier could ask more," he went on, speaking as if he were discussing the outcome of the day's dispatches from the nomes.
She chewed on her lip, thinking furiously. "How long do we have?" she asked them.
Nehesi left his perch and came into the circle of the lamplight. "No time at all," he said. "Now that Thothmes has shown us his hand, he will move fast. He will strike at you first, Senmut, as the most powerful prince in Egypt. Then he will eliminate Hapuseneb as the highest oflScial of the temple, and then me as Pharaoh's bodyguard."
"I think he will try to do all at once," Senmut said. The conversation had the quality of a deep, unpleasant dream for him: the dufl, yellow light; the stiff figures; the night wind moaning faintly in the shuttered wind catchers; and over them all the swiftly falling shadow that would never lift to show the skirts of day again. His voice was as lifeless and heavy as his limbs. "He will strike quickly and completely, between one day and the next, fearing that if he gives you time, Majesty, you might yet muster a force and defeat him."
"How little he knows me," she answered. "He himself, if he were in my position, would not hesitate to pour out the blood of the army just to hazard a try, but I will not. I wifl not kill."
A heavy silence settled over them, an almost apathetic mood of defeat.
She stirred and sent Duwa-eneneh to summon Nofret and her slaves. *'We will eat and drink together as Ra rises," she said, **and we will speak of these things no more. You know what is in my heart for all of you. If I can do no more than plead your justification before the gods, then that I will do. In later times we will laugh together as we walk the green fields of paradise with eternity before us and remember it all as a game."
They did not move or look at her, each of them struggling with emotions that ran too deep for words. Nofret came in and was sent away again for food and wine and lights. When these things arrived, they sat on cushions on the floor and ate and drank to each other, talking softly of all that they had done together since the far-off, shining days of their first offices, holding each moment up to the light of memory, exclaiming quietly over its beauty or its terror or its humor, smiling at each other, resignation and love in their eyes. Then it was dawn, and while she knelt before them, her black hair falling over her face, they sang the Hymn of Praise, arms around each other, voices breaking finally, tears coming unbidden as Ra saw them through the high window and bathed them in his limpid glow.
She got up and embraced them, holding them to her fiercely before she let them go, crying with them in the dawn silence. One by one they prostrated themselves and kissed her naked feet, slipping away into oblivion, taking with them the days of strength and happiness they had given her and vanishing like wind ripples on the placid water. She turned to Senmut, her face white and drained and somehow younger in the spreading light. ''Let us go onto the roof," she said, taking his hand. They left the bedchamber, mounting the stairs that clung to the palace wall and coming out finally on the flat roof of her audience hafls. They sat, still holding hands, and Senmut knew that he was looking his last upon the lordly pylons and obelisks of Thebes. Far to the west a band of night still hung, a gray cloud clinging to the tops of the cliffs and hazing the sun. The broad reaches of the Nile lay glinting in the new day, its waters dimpling and sparkling, the reedbeds and tall palms an oasis of cool green. Closer in lay the gardens and lawns, statues and wide avenues and twisting paths where he had walked and dreamed and laughed and wept. Now they were empty in the hush that preceded the clamor of the day, the grass glittering with dew, the Imperial flags fluttering in the morning breeze. In the distance he saw the dip and glance of the sun on the golden prow of the Royal Barge, resting at anchor beside the water steps. He drew in a deep breath, inhaling afl the perfume of Egypt,
muddy water and sweet lotus, the freshness of living trees and a waft of myrrh.
He turned to her slowly. 'Thank you, beautiful God," he said quietly. 'Thank you. Divine Incarnation, Living Forever. I shall not forget." He gathered her gently into his arms and kissed her while the winter mists blew away and Ra's fingers grew hot on their tired faces.
^/4^
Senmut went back to his palace and spent the day unobtrusively putting his affairs in order. Before the noon hour had passed, he bundled Ta-kha'et and most of his servants onto his barge, ordering his captain to take her north to his parents' farm. She protested loudly, sensing danger, but he kissed her lightly on the cheek.
**Do not argue!" he said firmly. **Go to my father, and stay there until I send for you. It will not be long. See! I have even ordered my musicians to go with you! Please, Ta-kha'et, make no more fuss, or I shall call for my Steward, and he will beat you!"
She looked up into the gently smiling face and stopped shouting. ''Very well, Senmut, I will go. But if you do not send for me before the end of winter, I shall come sailing back! What are you going to do?"
''Something very hard," he replied. Suddenly the cat sprang from her arms and hissed at him, its eyes frightened and staring in the sun. It struck out at his ankle, baring its claws, and sprinted up the ramp to disappear within the ship.
"You have upset him," she pouted as he hustled her up the ramp and nodded to his captain.
"Not I," he said. He kissed her again and left her, standing on his little wharf as the gay red and white boat pulled away and the oars were run out. She waved once and went into the cabin, still angry, but he did not move until the barge's stern vanished around a bend and the water ceased to heave with the wash. He walked slowly up the water steps and along his deserted avenues. The sun was hot, but not with the usual, heavy, drugged weight of summer. He went to his pool and sat cross-legged on the grass, gazing into the brown depths as the fish darted and the dragon-flies hovered, his mind a careful blank. Though he tried, he could not shut out the sound of his own rapid breathing and the beating of his vigorous heart. Even as he forced it down, a great love of life swelled within him. He groaned and covered his face with his hand.
His Under Steward touched him on the shoulder. "Master, how many will be dining tonight?"
Senmut looked up at him, startled. He laughed. "Why, no one, my
friend. I hold no feast tonight, so you may go to your quarters as soon as you will. Dismiss the servants before dusk, and see that the slaves are far from my rooms. I will need no one, I think, until the morning."
The man bowed, perplexed, and left him. He continued to watch the busy blue and green and violet fish, but he felt light, light and free, and not until the shadows of his trees touched his back did he get up and walk quickly in under his pretty, colonnaded cloister.
They came just after the temple horns had sounded midnight. He was waiting for them, sitting beside his couch, reading in the steady glow of his night-light. From the darkness of his reception hall he heard their furtive, quiet steps turn into the deserted passage. They paused and came on more slowly. He smiled at their hesitation, laying aside the scroll and risi
ng to his feet. No doubt they had expected a host of guards and a palace full of lights and waiting soldiers. Someone tried the door softly. There was a hurried, whispered question followed by a brusque command. Sen-mut stood motionless, fighting for control as the white-hot fingers of panic groped for him. The tall cedar, gold-inlaid doors began to inch open. Senmut still did not move. In the shrine behind him the plume of incense wavered suddenly in the fresh draft, and the scroll lying on the couch rustled dryly, but his eyes were fixed on the gulf of blackness widening in the wall. His senses began to shriek within him: Fly! Run! Live! Live! A brown, ringed hand appeared, cautiously feeling the edge of the door. Senmut closed his eyes for a split second and swallowed, sweat drenching his kilt and running down his naked back. With a reverberating boom the door crashed back against the wall. Two men rushed at him, raised knives glittering yellow and cold in the friendly, soft light. He saw their faces, wild under the blue helmets, their eyes fierce, their teeth bared. For a moment, one long, frozen moment, when they seemed to glide toward him with sickening slowness, time seeming to merge with eternity, he looked up to his walls and saw her face, brooding and forever untouched under the Double Crown, the golden eyes fixed upon him in mild authority. He smiled at her. And then They were upon him, and in the agony of his dying he screamed, falling, the sound of his own fear in his ears, his own blood gushing into his mouth. Above him his blue ceiling, strewn with silver stars, shook and dissolved into a deeper, wider blackness, a mouth of ice that swept down to devour him.
They struck Hapuseneb as he walked alone in the moonlit silence of his garden. He died minutes later on the wet grass, wounded in the stomach and chest.
They got Nchesi as he strode between the palace and his own quarters, overpowering his two guards and thrusting a knife through his neck while he struggled with ferocious strength to shake them off and run back to the palace. He staggered on for three paces, then fell face down on the cold stone path. It still lacked four hours to the dawn.
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