The Forgotten: Aten's Last Queen (43 page)

Nakht-min stood to our right, a spear in his hand, while Horemheb held a bow to our left. Nakht-min signaled to the rowers, and they stopped their movements. From here we glided. All was silent for a moment.

We drifted through thick marshes. The rowers used their paddles to keep the brush from scratching us. It sounded like the lands were whispering as we passed.

A sharp noise made us all jump. Nakht-min waved for us to crouch down, and the rowers slowed our forward momentum. More noises caught our attention. It sounded like busy conversation rising with Aten’s light.

We were just a breath away from their pool. Could they sense us? I had no idea what to expect. Father had never taken us hunting before. Everything was new and exciting. My heart raced with anticipation and felt as if it had jumped into my throat. I held a reed arrow ready to hand to Tutankhaten, my arm floating upwards toward him anticipating the handoff. Its tip was of bronze, which caught the morning’s rays for just a second and twinkled in the light that was peeking through the tall marshes.

The nose of our skiff parted the rushes ahead of us, and there they were. There must have been at least 50 ducks gathered together. It was hard to count them because as soon as we emerged, they sprang into motion. Feathers filled the air at their sharp ascent, trying to escape from our tables tonight.

Tutankhaten was fast. I had a hard time keeping up with his ready hand. I could not see where his arrows took purchase. I heard them slip from his fingers, cross the bowstring, and cut the air. He was precise in his movements. Each arm stroke looked like the one before. I could tell he was well trained.

In the corner of my vision, I could see men spearing fish below us. Water splashed up onto my face as they brought aboard the still-live fish, wiggling their last in an attempt to escape. They were tossed into woven baskets, far from their watery home. The suddenness to it all struck me, and I felt for the beasts we were waging war upon. It seemed such a violent way to begin the day.

I shook my head from these thoughts as Tutankhaten reached for yet another arrow before the last of the ducks disappeared from view. I could not regret this. A crocodile’s jaws would be just as sharp and quick. We needed their meat for our food. Or did we? This was more of a pleasure trip. I knew we would put our catches to good use, but if we did not need it, should we be interrupting the morning with death? This was for sport, for show. I felt saddened even though I knew I should not. Men had performed this for us when we lived in Akhenaten. It’s not like the ducks we feasted on magically appeared on our plates. It
was
a necessity. I had to ignore the red bubbling through the waters, creeping toward us. I was sure I would get used to this. It was the way of things now.

“Hold!” Horemheb yelled. The men were still. They looked about, searching for any more game hiding in the greenery. Servants jumped from our skiff into the shallow waters. They went and retrieved the kills.

Tutankhaten sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. Horemheb took Tutankhaten’s bow and laid both of theirs down together. He then covered them with cloth to protect them from any errant splashes of water.

Tutankhaten looked down on me; his eyes were brighter than I had ever seen. “What did you think?”

“Your catch and release of the arrows was astounding! I bet your skills rival that of Horemheb himself!”

He laughed easily. “Let us see how many I actually killed today! It’s harder than I expected to get ahead of their movements. But I loved it! Thank you for your help. It means a lot to me.”

Again my face flushed. “I will be here for you anytime you ask, Husband.”

The men began sloshing around us as they returned. They carried an impressive haul with them. Quickly, the ducks were laid out upon the deck to see who claimed the most. The men gathered around to count them. They looked like eager children, fidgeting and bustling about as they tried to get closer and count the skewered ducks for themselves. I could hear numbers faintly being counted, arrow shafts pointed at, and I waited to hear the hunting victor. My heart was pounding so fast that my entire chest felt hot with my anxiety.

“Pa-ramessu! He totals 9 fat ducks!” Someone called out. The men cheered, including Tutankhaten. He stood up and applauded him.

“Congratulations, Pa-ramessu!’ Tutankhaten said, “For your prowess with the bow, I award you an extra barrel of beer along with your choice of which duck you would like for the feast tonight.”

Horemheb stepped up to the pile. “Pharaoh, you have done well this day. You brought down 5! That is one more than me!”

There was an explosion of cheers and praises for him. He humbly waved in response to their praise and accepted it graciously. They shook his hand, rustled his hair, and patted him on the back. I thought this a little too casual a manner to be treating him, but Tutankhaten did not mind. They had watched him practice with Horemheb, so they were on a different familiarity with him. And he was not a full-grown adult yet. It was obvious they did not take him too seriously. They respected him, but in their eyes, he was not their vision of an awe-inspiring pharaoh. He was a boy they played with.

“Tonight, you will all dine at my table!” Tutankhaten announced. “I hope when we leave tomorrow, you will keep your spears sharp and your bow strings ready. For I will again challenge you, and you can bet that next time, I will bring forth more ducks than you all combined.”

There was a raucous laughter from the men. I moved back by Mutbenret who watched her husband lovingly.

“He is very handsome when he is hunting. The way he draws the bow and easily aims it.”

I was confused. “But Nakht-min used a spear this day.”

“I was not talking about Nakht-min, and I would think you would agree. I saw you watching him.” She smiled at me warmly.

I felt the flush return and course through my body. But I took comfort in this. Perhaps my heart was finally where it belonged.

Under The Power of Thy Countenance
1322 B.C
.

Funeral Procession of Pharaoh Tutankhamun

The priests began to play their sistrums as we completed our cross of the Nile and walked onto the landing. Tutankhamun’s boat was behind us. His coffin was accompanied by a sem priest and two priestesses. The women were meant to represent Isis and Nephthys. Their presence was to protect him during his procession until his senses were again awakened.

The sem priest locked eyes with me as their boat approached the shore. His black panther-skin cloak moved like liquid on his body underneath Aten’s gaze. His face appeared familiar, but I could not remember from where…

A bridge was moved over to the ship, and the priest and priestesses departed from the vessel. Then 10 sturdy servants came aboard to carry the coffin onto the funerary sled. It would be pulled by two oxen as well as men to help control it and provide enough muscle for it to move smoothly down into the valley. One of the animals stomped impatiently as it waited to pull its load to the tomb. He was crowned with a sun disc which wobbled slightly as he turned his head to us.

Male and female dancers were in swift motion all around me. They wore stark white skirts and moved in large, circular motions. They were another representation of mourning, but their movement felt too jubilant for what was astir in my heart. They made me feel uncomfortable.

I wanted to be alone. My heart was filled to the brim with despair. I felt too weak to see his coffin before me. I did not want to look into his eyes. Despite Tia’s encouragement, I still felt the guilt. I felt like I’d betrayed what we had.

Wailing cries filled my ears. It was building up around me. I felt as if I could touch it, as if it was thick enough to encase me in a tomb of my own. I shut my eyes and tried not to focus on the jumbled sights and sounds swallowing me. Everything was closing in. There was no escape.

I was guilty.

Something delicate touched my shoulder. I opened my eyes again to see Mutbenret beside me. Her eyes were already red and puffy. My frantic thoughts ceased. I took in a breath. As I observed her expression, I remembered that I was not alone.

I took in a deep breath.

My heartbeat slowed.

My eyes focused on the coffin. It was being placed upon the sled. I walked up to it as the servants finished securing it. I would walk beside him for the next leg of the procession.

I looked down upon his sarcophagus. Here was the moment I had feared.

His face glowed. The coffin was made from solid gold. I looked into his smooth eyes. The whites were made from calcite, the pupils obsidian, and the eyebrows inlaid with lapis lazuli-colored glass.

I felt my mouth smile when I looked upon his image. It was the type of smile that was given when the one you love returns to you after a long journey. It was a hello.

“Here I am, my husband, right beside you,” I whispered.

With my eyes, I absorbed the rest of this house which now held his flesh. I did not care how long our procession had to wait. All I thought about was his body in front of me. I would make sure everything was done right.

I was his voice now.

His breast was adorned with an etched broad collar made of blue glass beads with leaves, flowers, berries, and fruits. Molded over this, his arms were crossed in the Osiris manner. The bracelets on his coffin were inlaid to match the collar using lapis-, carnelian-, and turquoise-colored glass. The crook and flail held in his left and right hands were made of gold, dark blue faience, glass, and carnelian.

Down from his hands on his torso, the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet spread their wings protectively around the upper part of his body. They were made from gold and inlaid with red-backed quartz as well as lapis- and turquoise-colored glass. Each of them grasped in their talons the shen, a perfectly formed circle resting atop a horizontal line. It was a sign meaning infinity. It was the cycle of day and night, good and evil, life and death, heaven and earth, all endlessly turning on itself. This was not an ending; it was merely a turn in the circle.

Further down from this, two vertical columns of religious text worked their way from his navel to his feet. And there Isis’s image would forever kneel upon the top of his feet.

I was looking down at a god now, encased in the god skin and free from the sadness of this world.

What touched my heart the most was placed atop the neck of his coffin. There were two heavy necklaces of disc beads colored red and yellow with dark blue faience threaded in and then bound together with linen. Each of the strings had lotus flower terminals inlaid with carnelian, lapis, and turquoise glass. I looked over to where Horemheb stood with Nahkt-min. Necklaces of this kind were awarded by kings to military commanders for distinguished services. I knew their hand was in this honor. I felt my kohl spreading warmly down my cheeks, carried by my tears, in response to their gift. He had always wanted to be a great commander and defend his country. It was all he had desired in life.

A servant quickly came up to me and wiped away my sadness. If only it were so easy…

I looked up at the gatherers, priests, dancers, singers, and servants present. All eyes were on me. I was no longer uncomfortable, though. I took comfort in it. I could see genuinely grief-riddled faces.

They had loved him.

I had loved him. I would always love him.

With a nod of my head, our procession into the valley began.

Chapter Four

In the Horizon of Heaven

1329 B.C. – Second year of Tutankhaten’s reign

It had been a little over a year since we left Akhenaten as the new pharaoh and great wife, and already it was crumbling to ruin. Those left in the city, unable to leave, had attacked the images of our family. The faces of my father and mother had been destroyed in many places. The Temple of Aten was under a constant state of repair. The priests would fix one area, but other places would then be attacked. The city swelled like a diseased limb, poisoned with hate.

What had hurt the most was the destruction in Meketaten’s tomb. Some images of her name and face had been destroyed. I had fallen onto the ground and wept so hard that I had to be carried back to the palace. I could not believe that our citizens would be so cruel. They were trying to erase my sister’s ka. She had done nothing wrong, and she was being attacked on account of others’ deeds. My heart felt like it had broken into as many pieces as the rubble that lay at the foot of her coffin, those delicate pieces that had once etched out her face. The people didn’t care who received the blame, they just knew she was a member of the family that had founded this city.

The priests had tried to clean up the palace before our arrival, but so many places were overgrown and rotting. Our collection of animals in the garden area had been left to starve. The smell permeated the entire apartment area, and we were forced to sleep where the harem quarters were. It was no use cleaning up the mess. It would simply fall to ruin again.

Despite all the destruction that ensued, I knew that at the heart of it, our people needed us. I wanted to be angry at them and punish those who wished to harm my loved ones. Then I thought of Tutankhaten, and I knew that he had suffered as well. He too had been forgotten. All he had needed was support. Though my insides felt heavy with anger, like a water-laden cloth, I would give the people our support and help them leave this place.

The priests of Aten tried to be calm about what had happened, but I could tell they lived in fear for their lives. They said the head priest had disappeared one night and had not been seen since. The people’s faith had died. They no longer wanted to worship this lone God, they only wanted revenge.

Tutankhaten took everything in quietly. After listening to the priests’ frustration about the state of the city, he decided that he wanted to face to his people. He wanted to let them know he was on their side. So he had Ay arrange an appearance.

When the appointed day came, horns blew to announce our arrival at the Window of Appearances. Tutankhaten and I stood before those who had been abandoned. Horemheb was behind us. Guards flanked the citizens whose faces looked hopelessly lost. Their eyes did not focus on us or on anything. They were simply there. Their bodies and clothes were dirty. Some had rashes upon their arms and legs. I had never seen a sadder group of people.