Abi–rami blushed and lowered her eyes.
Clearly as inexperienced as Naqi’a. Wonderful. I cursed Ashur–dan. “Take some of my wife’s older retainers along to help.”
“Yes, Majesty.” Abi–rami sounded relieved.
I summoned a nearby guard. “Show these women to my room,” I ordered. “Abi–rami, I’ll be along later, a couple of hours from now. After the banquet ends.”
She whispered to Naqi’a.
Naqi’a kept her eyes lowered.
“Father’s banquets drag on and on. You’ll have plenty of time to prepare her, Abi–rami,” I said.
“I understand, Majesty.”
She’d have time because I was going to go straight from this hall to Neset’s hut, as I’d originally planned. I was going to run away with her tonight. I was going to use Naqi’a to mask our escape. Everyone expected me to spend tonight with my bride in my room. No one would disturb me. By the time they did in the morning I’d be long gone.
Abi–rami gestured at the retainers. Several came. Abi–rami whispered to Naqi’a again and she rose. She was shaking, drops of sweat beading on her brow. She didn’t look at me. Abi–rami took her by the hand and led her from the hall, following the guard. Everyone cast knowing glances my way. A few raised cups in salute. I raised mine in return and casually sipped at my wine. Good. They all assumed I couldn’t wait to be with Naqi’a. Otherwise, why send her from the hall with her attendants so quickly? They believed me so lustful I wouldn’t even let her enjoy the banquet. My reputation was going to help me for once. Naqi’a was going to be a perfect if unwitting cover for my escape.
After a decent interval I too departed the hall, making sure Father took note. He smiled at me and I bowed slightly, resignedly, as if I’d accepted my fate. Once away from the banquet hall I half–ran from the per’aa, then from the temple precinct and along the darkened lane to Neset’s hut, not bothering to make sure I wasn’t being followed. I didn’t have to worry about Mother spying on me anymore. Tomorrow she’d probably direct her spies’ attention to Father and Neset. Only, there’d be no Neset for them to watch.
I tapped on Neset’s door and she opened it immediately. She’d been waiting. A sliver of light spilled into the street. I hurried inside and quickly shut the door behind me.
“I thought you’d never come,” Neset said tremulously. She linked her fingers behind my neck and tilted her head back and closed her eyes.
I brushed her long red hair from her face and bent and kissed her, long and hard, one hand caressing her smooth back, the other resting on her waist. Then I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. I needed Neset in the worst way.
After a long while we broke our embrace. Neset took my hand and led me to a chair beside a small table. A cup of wine was waiting. She sat next to me, took hold of my hand again, leaned over, kissed me. “I’ve missed you so much!”
I looked around the room. It was so simple, so unlike rooms in the per’aa – two chairs, a table, a couple of lamps with flickering wicks, a few storage chests, a pallet unrolled alongside the wall, earthenware storage jars and platters and bowls. Neset lived simply despite her status. My eyes fell on an ebony chest. In it, I knew, were the dresses and jewels I’d gifted her, worth a small fortune. Those were going to come in handy in years to come. Yet despite her wealth she was dressed simply, in a nearly transparent skirt, with only her talisman around her neck.
I drank the wine down without stopping, set my cup on the table.
“Something’s happened,” Neset said, her brow furrowed. “I can see it in your face.”
No sense putting it off. “I’m married, Neset,” I blurted.
“What?” Her eyes opened wide. “When?”
“An hour ago. At the banquet. Father told me and Mother less than half an hour beforehand that he’d arranged it. Right after he told me I’d never command his army.” I slammed my fist on the table, so hard wine sloshed from her cup. “He made it sound like the marriage was going to take place in the future. So I decided I’d slip from the banquet hall the first chance I got and run away with you. He must have suspected. He gave her to me in front of his entire court, right after everyone finished eating.”
“Oh, Pentawere… Is it Tjuyu?” she asked, jealousy in her voice.
“No. A wretch from Assyria. Naqi’a. She’s fourteen, Neset! She doesn’t even speak our language!”
The light seemed to die in Neset’s eyes.
“I argued with Father. I fought against it. You have to believe me.” I raised my eyes to hers. “I told him I love you and want to marry you.”
Her hand rose to her lips. “You used my name?”
“I did.”
Neset’s face went white. She drank the rest of her wine, her hand unsteady. “Your mother will tell Pharaoh about me and my dead husband now. What’s going to happen to me?”
“She did. He didn’t care.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. And, Mother switched to our side. She advocated for you and me.”
Neset shook her head in disbelief. “Why? After she threatened me and spied on us?”
“Because she believes Father wants you. She’d rather you be my wife than his. Pure self–interest.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe not. Father forbade us to marry.”
She stared at me for a moment. “That’s it, then, Pentawere. We’re done.” Tears began streaming down her cheeks.
“We’re not, Neset,” I said insistently. “We’re going to run away together. Right now.”
She took my hand. “I can’t. You have to obey Pharaoh. So do I. If he forbade you he forbade me too.”
I could care less about Father’s command. “We can be far from here by morning.”
“On our way to where?”
“Does it matter?”
“What about your wife, Pentawere? Where’s she?”
“In my room, being prepared by her retainers for what she expects will be the worst night of her young life.”
“Yes. I know what she’s going through,” Neset said softly.
“She and her friends think I’m at the banquet right now, celebrating. Believe me, Naqi’a no more wants to be my wife than I want to be her husband. She’ll stay in my room all night and keep quiet, giving thanks for every moment I’m absent. Meanwhile, I made a very public departure from the hall. Everyone assumes I’m already in my room, with her. It’ll be morning before anyone comes looking for me. By then we’ll be far from Waset.”
Neset sadly shook her head, raised her hand to my cheek. “We can’t, My Love. It’s too late. This day was inevitable. We both knew it from the start. We’re lucky we had each other as long as we did. But I won’t let you run away tonight. I won’t let you give up your life for me.”
“I don’t have a life without you.”
“You do. A different one. You have to accept it. Besides, you still have to save Pharaoh from Ramesses. You can’t do that if you disappear. If we disappear.”
I couldn’t believe she was rejecting me. And putting Father’s life before our happiness. After he’d prevented ours without a second thought. “We didn’t have enough time!” I kissed Neset again, urgently.
“I know, My Love.” Tears were welling in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.
“I can’t give you up, Neset. If you won’t run away with me, at least tell me we can go on as we have been, stealing moments whenever I come to Djeme. I’ll find a way for us to see each other without Father or Naqi’a or anyone else finding out. I’m sure I can. The time apart from you these last ten months has been torture. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I can’t live without you, Neset. I love you.”
“Your marriage has changed everything, Pentawere,” she said softly. “I won’t let you cheat on your wife with me. I told you that a long time ago.” She leaned over and kissed me. Tears were dripping off her chin. “I love you desperately, but we have to let each other go. We can’t overc
ome your marriage.”
“I can’t let you go!” I stood and raised her up and held her tight, miserable. “I can’t live without you. Marry me right now. I’ll make you my Great Wife no matter what Father says. I’ll tuck the Assyrian away in a harem, do what I must with her tonight and then never see her again.”
“You’d make her suffer for my happiness?”
“Our happiness. And why not? What’s she to us?”
“Nothing. But Pharaoh married you to her. That’s part of your responsibility as his son, to do his bidding. What would the gods do to me if I got in the way, if I disturbed maat?”
“I don’t care about maat. I can’t conceive of my life without you.”
“Your father’s doing what pharaohs have to do to ensure the continuity of our valley. And so you have to do what pharaohs’ sons have to do. And I have to do what commoners have to do. We were doomed from the beginning, My Love. We never should have started. But until my dying day I’ll thank the gods we did.” Neset gently slipped from my arms. “We have to make a clean break, Pentawere. It’s the only way.” She looked deep into my eyes. Her voice grew firm. “We can’t see each other again after tonight. Ever.”
“There has to be a way for us to be together!” I cried. “I’m not giving up on us, Neset.”
“You have to. I have to.” A sob escaped her lips. “Leave. Now. Please.”
The world was spinning. Neset’s eyes were closed, her face etched with pain, arms rigid at her sides, fists clenched. There was no point arguing with her. She’d made up her mind. Crushed, I slowly turned away, crossed the room, opened the door, went outside, closed it behind me. I leaned against it for a moment, devastated. I heard Neset sobbing through the door. “I hate you, Father!” I spat. “I’ll make you pay for this!”
I went directly to Father’s harem, on a mission. El–ram was guarding the corridor that led to the rooms where Father’s wives and current favorite concubines and the women who served them lived.
“Pentawere! What are you doing here?” he asked, startled.
“I need a favor.”
“Oh?” From the look on his face he seemed to think I wanted to borrow one of Father’s concubines for the night. It wouldn’t have been an unusual request; he’d regularly brought them to my parties over the years. He hadn’t been at the banquet; he didn’t know about my marriage.
“I need a secluded room. Then I need you to fetch Mother from the banquet. Bring her to me. Discretely.”
“That’s easy enough,” El–ram said.
He opened the door to the harem, grabbed a lit lamp on a table just inside, led me down a short corridor and into a side room. “You should be comfortable here. Would you like me to send a serving girl with food and drink?”
“No. Only you can know I’m here.”
“Understood.” He set the lamp on a small table and departed, closing the door behind him.
I waited half an hour, pacing the whole time, thinking. Father had ripped Neset and me apart. He’d denied me command of the army. He didn’t care about me. After I’d spent the months since Neset’s dream trying to save his life. So much for that. He was going to pay now. There was a knock. The door opened. Mother entered.
She looked around the room, surprised. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you with your new wife?”
“I want in.”
“In on what?”
“Your plan to make me Pharaoh.”
“Ah…” She smiled. “You’ve had a change of heart.”
“After what Father just did to me? I’m tired of his disrespect, Mother. I’m tired of him denying me the chance to go to war. He should have given me the army. He should have given me Neset.”
“He was right to keep you two apart,” Mother said.
I was angry and frustrated. “Why do you hate Neset, Mother? What’s she ever done to you?”
“Nothing. It’s what she’d do to you someday. Drag you down. You’re royal. She’s not.”
“I could make her royal with a word.”
“Only a pharaoh can do that.”
“Which I just told you I’m ready to be.”
Mother sat down, unimaginably calm. “I predicted you’d come to your senses, Pentawere. It was inevitable.” She gazed up at me. I was still standing. “So… you’re finally prepared to kill your brother and your father.” She said it without batting an eye.
I wondered if she’d ever loved Father. I didn’t really care. “Whatever it takes.” I’d had enough. I was going to forge my own destiny, beginning now. “And when I’m Pharaoh I’m going to put Naqi’a aside and take Neset as my wife.”
Mother started to object.
“If you want me to participate in your coup you won’t stand in the way of our marriage. You’ll embrace it. That’s my price.”
Mother sighed deeply, shrugged. “Do what you want. Make Neset your chief wife. But you’ll have to keep Naqi’a to avoid angering the Assyrians. And you’ll have to take more wives when you’re Pharaoh, to build alliances.”
“No. Just Neset,” I said stubbornly. It was the only way I wouldn’t lose her. “I’ll give Naqi’a to Setherkopshef. They’re practically the same age. That’ll assuage Ashur–dan. Those are my terms, Mother.”
She pondered a long moment, shrugged. “Have it your way.”
“Good. Now, there’s something you need to know about Neset, Mother. It might change your mind about her.”
“I doubt that.”
“Her family was chosen by the falcon god – Horus – to represent him on earth more than four millennia ago. Her family brought Horus to this valley, its first god.”
“Are you crazy?” Mother looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Your father is the living Horus, not some common girl. What lies has she been feeding you? Better yet – why do you believe her?”
“The talisman Neset wears around her neck? The falcon god gave it to her ancestress Aya. He cast it from the heavens in a fireball and took the form of a falcon and led her to it. It’s been handed down ever since.”
“That’s absurd!”
“I used to think so too. But with my own eyes I’ve seen evidence that supports her claim.”
“What kind of evidence?” Mother asked, skeptical.
“Hundreds of stories have been passed down in Neset’s family, Mother. Neset told me one of them when we went to Abdju. She said we’d find a statue of King Khufu in his ka shrine. Her ancestress was present when it was deposited.”
“Every ka shrine has a statue,” Mother said.
“Neset told me and Osiris’ high priest Harwa in explicit detail what the statue would look like. The three of us went into the shrine. The statue was exactly as she’d described, even though she’d never been to Abdju.”
“She could have guessed.”
“That the statue of the king who built the largest structure on earth is only three inches tall? Hardly.”
“Seems flimsy…”
“Yet Harwa accepts her stories as true. He’ll testify if I ask. Whether you believe Neset’s claim or not – and it doesn’t really matter either way – when the time comes you must proclaim that Neset is blessed by Horus and has his favor. The favor of the god who’s protected pharaohs from the beginning of time. Especially after I take the throne. As my wife she’ll bestow legitimacy on me and on our sons.”
“Because of a story?”
“Because, according to other stories, Neset’s descended from King Narmer’s brother, and Narmer’s son King Aha, and kings Djer and Djet and Den and Adjib, and even from Merneith, who ruled the land as king on behalf of her son. The blood of the first kings is in Neset’s veins, Mother – along with Horus’ favor. She’s an unbelievably valuable asset for us.”
I could see Mother calculating.
“There’s more. Some of Neset’s ancestors who bore the talisman received dreams from the falcon god. Those dreams always came true. Always! The very night Neset took the talisman from her dead grandfather she receiv
ed a dream. She saw my brother being condemned before a Great Kenbet for murdering Father. She saw Ramesses being burned alive for his crime.”
Mother seemed completely baffled, trying to process what I’d said.
“Don’t you see? I will be Pharaoh, Mother. Neset’s seen the future. Father killed by Ramesses. Ramesses executed by the Great Kenbet. Me, the only son left, Pharaoh. Revealed by Horus himself.”
Mother slowly nodded. “So we don’t have to kill your father or your brother. All we have to do is wait for Ramesses to do it and make sure he’s convicted afterwards.”
“No. Ramesses might not assassinate Father for years, Mother. I’ve been trying to protect Father from Ramesses ever since Neset told me about her dream. That’s over. I don’t intend to wait anymore for Ramesses to make his move. Not after what Father just did to me. I’m not going to wait years to be with Neset or to wield the army to make this valley great again. So – I intend to kill Father myself and place the blame on Ramesses. Then he’ll be executed, just as Neset’s foreseen.”
“Fascinating…”
“As soon as Neset told me about her dream I started replacing Father’s bodyguards with men loyal to me. I did it to protect him. If Father had given me the army and let me marry Neset tonight I would have continued to use them that way. But now they’re my instruments to use against Father. With their help we’ll be able to frame Ramesses for Father’s murder.”
Mother smiled. “Amazing! But we’ll need more than a few guards to pull this coup off. We need to develop an actual plan and round up allies to carry it out.”
“Any ideas?”
“There are plenty of women and men in Pharaoh’s household who’ll do my bidding, even if it means killing your father. A necessity if the coup is to take place here at Djeme. I’ll concentrate on accumulating allies in the harem and per’aa. You’ll have to rally the army – get trusted commanders to back you, men who are willing to follow your orders without question.”
“Easy enough. I’ve been positioning myself to lead them for years. How will we communicate once I’m back at Pi–Ramesses?”
“Not directly.” Mother thought for a moment. “The concubine, Heket. Her brother’s loyal to you, isn’t he?”
The Gardener and the Assassin Page 44