The Mystery of Queen Nefertiti

by C T Cassana

  “Go to the stables and wait for me there,” said Charlie, while acting out what he was saying with his hands. “I’ll go get Lisa; you hide until we come back.”

  Ankhesenpaaten nodded and went over to the stables. Charlie stayed where he was next to the side wall of the building, trying to come up with a plan. The screams and shouts coming from inside were growing louder, so he had to think of something fast. But his mind was a blank. The boy opened his backpack and searched inside it. Then he adjusted the dials with the coordinates on his bracelet and disappeared.

  . . .

  Lisa successfully repeated the trick with the flashlight and the bubblegum for any other soldiers who came near her. Taking advantage of the shock it inspired in her audience, she managed to reach the main door of the cell block without much trouble. She had programmed the alarm on the cell phone to ring every thirty seconds, creating a continuous cycle that went from soft meowing to wild shrieking. The first guards proved quite impressionable and fled almost at once without staying to watch the spectacle for too long.

  But things were beginning to change; either because only the bravest men were left now or because of the repetitive nature of the trick, she saw that her act was beginning to lose force and was no longer having the same effect. In fact, she had been repeating it now for several minutes for a group of soldiers blocking her path who were looking at her more with curiosity than with terror, and certainly with no sign of wanting to flee. One even began pointing his spear at her, with a clear intention of taking her prisoner again. It wouldn’t be long before they did, and the chief would also probably appear soon to restore order.

  Finally, one of the men took a step forward and raised his weapon against her with a look of determination. The other soldiers were shaken out of their bewilderment and followed his example, and Lisa knew at once that the show was over. The soldier who had taken the initiative took her roughly by the arm and seized the flashlight, staring her in the eyes the whole time to show that he wasn’t afraid of her. He turned her around roughly to lead her back down the dark passage to her cell, and the other men gathered around just in case the sorceress tried to surprise them with another trick.

  They had not even gone a yard when they heard the shout of a boy behind them. The men turned around but barely had the chance to see him before a flash of light blinded them. They all began screaming in fright, dropping their weapons and releasing the prisoner. The more cowardly among them fell to the ground and hid their heads in their hands while howling in terror; the braver ones remained standing, rubbing their eyes with their hands.

  Lisa picked up the flashlight that had fallen to the floor and ran over to Charlie. The flash would take a moment to load before her brother could take another shot with the camera.

  “Just in time!” she said, taking him by the arm and running for the exit. “I was running out of tricks.”

  The children raced up the stairs until they came to an empty room.

  “Come on, Charlie,” said Lisa. “Let’s go home. We’ll come back some other time.”

  “We can’t, Lisa. Anki is waiting for us. She’s put her life in danger to help us.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Lisa with a confused look.

  Charlie took his sister’s hand and led her to the stables. On the stairway could be heard the voices of the soldiers, who had overcome their fear and were now coming after them.

  “She’s waiting for us in the stables,” Charlie explained. “And guess what? She’s one of the daughters of Nefertiti herself!”

  They entered the stables and Lisa discovered to her surprise that it was the same girl who had threatened her with the dagger and called for the guards.

  “How on earth did you convince her to help us?” she asked her brother. “Don’t you think it might be a trick to capture us again?”

  The girl knelt down in a sign of respect to the goddess Bastet, or her envoy, which in any case was the same thing.

  In the courtyard, the soldiers had come out en masse in search of the prisoner and her new accomplice. Lisa peeked out cautiously and saw, much to her dismay, that the group was being led by Captain Senre. She turned back to where Ankhesenpaaten and Charlie stood to explain the situation to them.

  “I asked her about her mother and she pointed to a place outside the city,” said Charlie. “We have to go there.”

  Charlie opened the map and showed the place to Lisa.

  “That’s a long way away, Charlie, and we don’t have the coordinates to get there with the cape. All the guards are looking for us and I can assure you that they mean business. And any tricks we could do would only work the first couple of times; after that they’re not impressed anymore.”

  “Yes, but everything will change if they see us with the pharaoh’s daughter!” retorted the boy. “And she’s going to take us to see Nefertiti! Come on Lisa, we have to take advantage of this opportunity. We could take three horses and go there right now.”

  “The ancient Egyptians didn’t ride on their horses. We’d have to go in one of those chariots. Besides, I have a bad feeling that the only thing we’re going to find in that place is her mother’s tomb. It’s right next to the cliffs, in a place where they’ve found some of the tombs of important people.”

  “And wouldn’t that be the great discovery that would make Mum famous? Don’t you remember what Miss Rotherwick said?” retorted the boy. “Come on, Lisa! Don’t chicken out now. We’re one step away from glory and you get scared by a few guards. I promise not to leave your side again, and if things turn ugly, we’ll grab the cape and get out of here.”

  Lisa thought it over in silence for a moment. Then she raised her head and nodded resolutely.

  “Alright,” she said. “Here’s what we’ll do.”

  . . .

  Captain Senre called the soldiers to attention and began giving orders. He had a total of ten men to capture the intruders; eleven including himself.

  “We will split up to catch the sorceress and her accomplice,” he barked. “All the men who have fled will pay with their lives for their cowardice. And if any of you show the slightest hint of fear again, I will cut your nose and ears off myself and finish you off with my dagger.”

  The men shifted uncomfortably as they heard these words, while from the stable came the sound of the horses whinnying.

  “Two men will come with me into the stables, two will inspect the whole building from the basements up to the top floor, two will stay here at the door making sure that nobody goes in or out, and the rest will patrol the vicinity around the headquarters. If you find them, raise the alarm and we’ll all come to meet you.”

  The captain raised his arm to indicate that his orders were to be carried out at once. But before they broke out of formation, a menacing noise emerged from the stables and suddenly a team of horses came galloping across the courtyard. The men all jumped aside, except for two unfortunate soldiers who didn’t have time to get out of the way and were trampled by the stampede.

  After hitting the ground and rolling out of the way, Captain Senre got up just in time to see that the intruders were escaping in a chariot being pulled by a fine young stallion. And that wasn’t all. In the chariot with them they had a hostage: none other than Princess Ankhesenpaaten.

  . . .

  The children headed north through the city, galloping at full speed through the streets, which were quiet and deserted at that time of night. Lisa gripped the reins firmly while Charlie and Ankhesenpaaten held onto the sides of the chariot with all their might.

  The moonlight shone brightly on the buildings of the city. Lisa and Charlie observed them as they rushed past, surprised by how modern they looked; the whole city seemed much more contemporary than they ever would have imagined. They raced past beautiful villas with large gardens and well-tended orchards, which shrank into the distance as they moved further away from the city center. The villas gave way to simple adobe buildings that became smaller and more crowded toge
ther as they moved along, until finally they were passing little shacks where only poverty reigned.

  It occurred to Lisa that the big cities had had their suburbs even three thousand years ago, although no history or art book ever mentioned them.

  Ankhesenpaaten, meanwhile, gaped in astonishment at how different these parts of her city looked from the beautiful, majestic and luxurious places that had been all she had ever seen until that moment. She had never stopped to think about the places where the servants and common people lived; but now that she saw them she felt a pain in her heart.

  Finally they left the city behind and rode into the desert, which greeted them with a cold breeze. The white and rocky terrain shone in the moonlight, contrasting against the black starry sky in a way that Charlie and Lisa had never seen before.

  Lisa slowed the chariot down so that their horse could recover from the tremendous effort it had exerted in its race out of the city. Ankhesenpaaten protested when she saw what Lisa was doing, knowing that Captain Senre would be right behind them; but the divine envoy did not pay her much attention, perhaps because she was still angry with her.

  Charlie also took a moment to take a breath. He was exhausted and, above all, hungry. The previous trips they’d made had been quite short, and until now it had never occurred to him that it might have been a good idea to bring along a snack in case the journey ended up being a little longer. Now that he had learned his lesson, he decided that next time he would think ahead and pack a lunch box with something simple: a few ham and cheese sandwiches, a hamburger and fries, some spaghetti and meatballs... As he imagined all this food, his belly began groaning even louder. Then he remembered an unfinished chocolate bar that he had left in the inside pocket of his backpack from a recent camping trip. Trying not to lose his balance, he took off the backpack and then slung it back over his shoulders, but this time with the front part against his chest.

  “Bingo!” he exclaimed when he found a small wrapper that looked half full.

  When he took out the chocolate, Lisa caught sight of it and at once noticed how old it looked and the fact that it was half-eaten.

  “That looks like it’s gone off, Charlie,” she said with a look of disgust.

  The boy smiled cheekily and held up the wrapper so that she could see it clearly in the moonlight.

  “It says here: ‘Best before November 2013’,” he read. “But, strictly speaking, it’s 1336 B.C. here. So it’s still good for another 3,300 years.”

  The boy opened the wrapper while Ankhesenpaaten watched on in astonishment. He took out a few little round pieces of chocolate and held them up in the palm of his hand. There were eight left, so he gave three to each girl and kept two for himself. He had to be a gentleman, even in desperate times.

  Lisa looked at the little chocolate pieces for a moment and then popped them all in her mouth. She was hungry too.

  Charlie smiled as he watched her, and then noticed that Anki was staring at the chocolate in bewilderment. He gestured to her to show that it was food, and then began taking a few small bites of his ration, trying to make them last as long as possible.

  Ankhesenpaaten stared at him for a moment longer; she felt truly honored that the divine envoys would share their food with her. Then she turned her attention to the food itself. It was perfectly circular in shape and had a soft, silky surface, a dark brown color and a wonderful smell. The girl put one of the pieces in her mouth. It was as sweet as honey and much tastier than any of the palace delicacies, which were brought from every corner of the kingdom. She had never tasted anything so delicious. The princess let the chocolate melt slowly in her mouth, savoring its flavor, and then put the other two pieces away for an important occasion.

  Moments later, Lisa made a signal for the princess to hold on again, and then urged the horse back into a gallop.

  . . .

  Captain Senre’s reduced troop left the city for the tombs to the north. They had lost precious time recovering a few horses, hooking them up to some chariots and working out the direction that the intruders had taken.

  The pharaoh would have one of his fits of rage when he found out that his daughter had been kidnapped. But if Senre could bring her back safe and sound to the palace, his services would be rewarded with immense riches, he would be promoted to Chief of the Pharaoh’s Guard and he would be decorated with two or three golden bees in recognition of his bravery.

  The rumors that the intruders were divine reincarnations of Sobek and Bastet, which by now were no doubt spreading all over the city, would infuriate the fanatical Akhenaten. The pharaoh was completely obsessed with ensuring that the country worshiped the god Atun alone, and so Senre decided that the best approach would be to present the whole incident as an obvious conspiracy against the royal family, possibly concocted by the priests of the temples of Shedet and Bubastis, which were dedicated to the forbidden gods. The magic displayed by the intruders would reinforce the theory that they were a real priest and priestess, and would make his feat in rescuing the princess from their clutches even more impressive.

  With a shout he ordered his men to pick up the pace. There wasn’t a minute to lose on the night that would change his life forever.

  . . .

  Lisa stopped the horse at the place that Ankhesenpaaten had indicated. She climbed down from the chariot and helped the princess to do the same. The Egyptian girl looked around her and walked a few yards over the barren and rocky ground.

  “It is there,” she said, pointing to some rocks piled up at the bottom of the cliff.

  Charlie and Lisa looked to where she was pointing and wondered for a moment whether the princess had understood what they were looking for.

  “Nefertiti?” asked Charlie to make sure.

  “Nefertiti,” replied Ankhesenpaaten, nodding her head.

  The Wilford siblings looked in bewilderment at the place the princess had pointed to. There was no sign of commemorative statues, stone constructions or any distinctive marking appropriate to the tomb of a great queen. Nothing more than a small pile of rocks, and a few yards further on, a small and insignificant portico whose entrance had been bricked up.

  “This simple place is where my mother awaits the visit of the god Anubis to guide her on her journey to the afterlife,” said the princess. “This is the best proof that her heart was pure and her acts were noble. When my father discovered that she was trying to reconcile with Amun and the other gods, he banished her from the city and imprisoned her in the Northern Palace, where she died a short time later. My father never forgave her and refused to allow her to be buried with the riches and grave goods befitting a queen, condemning her instead to penury for all eternity.”

  “I don’t understand a thing,” said Charlie.

  “It doesn’t matter. Just nod and smile,” replied Lisa. “We can’t go into the tomb with her; she might get too upset. The best thing to do is to listen to her, and to note down the coordinates on the bracelet so that we can come back another day.”

  “Another day?” asked Charlie with a mixture of surprise and rage. “I’ll go inside myself and you stay here with her and wait for me. It’ll only take a moment.”

  “Are you mad, Charlie?” replied Lisa. “What if something happens and you can’t get out? We’re not breaking up again. We agreed we wouldn’t do that.”

  At that moment, Ankhesenpaaten pointed to a cloud of dust rising into the black sky.

  “Captain Senre and his soldiers,” she said. “You must go. He won’t do anything to me; he’ll take me back to my father safe and sound, trusting that he will be rewarded for it.”

  Lisa and Charlie looked to the horizon and saw that the cloud of dust was moving closer at a great speed. Beneath the cloud, a group of men riding in chariots was charging toward them, commanded by the captain of the royal guard.

  “We have to go, Charlie,” said Lisa urgently. “If that man catches us again, we won’t have another chance.”

  “And what about Anki?” asked the
boy. “We can’t just leave her here.”

  Ankhesenpaaten pulled out a ribbon that she wore in her hair, made of brightly colored threads in the shape of delicate lotus flowers, and she gave it to Charlie.

  “Tell the god Anubis not to forget my mother, but to come in search of her once my father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, is dead. When that happens, I shall return to open her tomb and shall order that they fill it with riches for her to enjoy in the next life. When you see Nefertiti, give her this ribbon, and tell her that her daughter Ankhesenpaaten misses her and longs to see her again. Tell her that I will meet her in paradise, where we will enjoy eternal life together with my sisters, who no doubt are already waiting for us there.”

  She moved closer to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she looked back to Lisa and bowed gracefully to her, before turning away and walking in the direction of the approaching guards.

  CHAPTER XII: This Isn’t a Team Anymore

  Max Wellington pulled an envelope out of the post office box and examined it with satisfaction. It was postmarked November 30, 1922, in Luxor, Egypt. Anybody who had a reasonable knowledge of the history of archeology—and Max, of course, certainly did—knew the significance of that date. It was just a few days after the greatest finding in modern archeology: the discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, the Boy Pharaoh.

  Max opened the envelope and read the short note in silence.

  “Send your contact to the Hotel Farouk, Luxor, on January 7 at exactly 12 o’clock noon. Have him ask for Mr. Jones and bring 2,000 pounds sterling with him.”

  . . .

  In spite of the urgent nature of the situation, Lisa let a couple of days pass before calling a new meeting in their headquarters. She felt that her brother needed to rest before embarking on another journey.