The Egyptian rose
1341 BCE
Chapter 15
"Don't touch me, Queen!" Nakhte growled at her as she advanced on
him.
"Leave my mother alone!" Meritaten shouted, but kept her distance,
unsure of what he would do with the dagger if she tried to move.
"Your daughter mirrors your compassion for justice. Too bad Princesses
of Egypt are the thorns to the Pharaoh's side!" Nakhte spat, not letting
his eyes leave Nefertiti's.
"Why do you have such hatred for us?" Nefertiti asked, lifting the anger
from her voice, just long enough to sound concerned.
"You, my Queen, have risen higher than many of the queens in the past,"
he eyed her suspiciously. "And it is not your place to do so."
"There were others like me and there will be others after me!" she
stated matter-of-factly, remembering the pictures she had seen on the
walls of the great thrown room in the Great Palace.
"And they will all be erased from history! Egyptian queens are not meant
to rule side-by-side with their kings; they are meant to give them sons
to continue the male line!" he snapped back at her.
"So kidnapping and marring my daughter was your way of proving your
point?" Nefertiti did her best not to raise her voice again in the
presence of her daughter, but her anger was building once again.
"I did not kidnap your daughter!" he quickly defended. "I simply showed
her the type of people she was associating with," he smirked at
Meritaten. "Take this boy for instance, Khenti," he made a move to grab
for Khenti's arm but the boy quickly pulled away. "He lost his mother to
a tragic accident and his father sits in a jail cell. All his father
ever wanted was to be reunited with his son and this boy stirs the crowd
into a frenzy with words of vengeance for his misfortune."
"You're lying!" Khenti exploded. "My father didn't even know I was
alive! He sits in jail because he was one of the first people to
recognize we were being treated poorly by the king!"
"Khenti, is that your name? Please take my daughter out to the Great
Hall and wait for me there. I must speak with Nakhte alone," her
powerful voice making Meritaten shutter.
Khenti did as he was told, bowing out of the room, holding Meritaten's
hand as he did so. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Nefertiti
glared at Nakhte. She lifted her hands out, palms up, to show him she
was unarmed, but still he refused to drop the dagger and the paper from
his hands. As she advanced, he stepped back, pointing the dagger out
towards her.
"Would you really kill the Queen of Egypt and have her blood on your
hands?!" she stared at the tip of the blade as it sparkled in the dimly
lit room.
"I would rather see her blood on my hands than her on the thrown!" he
gritted his teeth.
"Give me the paper and I will hand deliver your confession to Akhenaten,"
she ordered, figuring a new tactic was in order.
"You want me to hand over your daughter's signed confession? I'd
rather deliver it and the girl myself!" he retorted, not budging.
"If you want me off the thrown that badly, let me deliver my own
daughter's confession and I will take the blame for it!"
Nakhte considered this alternative for a moment and then sheathed the
dagger. "Since we are here we might as well make it an official
confession," he smiled at her while busying himself at the desk,
rummaging through a drawer for the official Egyptian seal. "Sign under
your own daughter's name as a witness to her confession. Seal it and
hand it back over to me."
Nefertiti sighed but still played his game. Picking up the feather that
was dropped on the floor, she dipped it in the inkwell and signed her
name, in block hieroglyphic letters, under her daughter's. She then took
the official seal, melted the red wax with a candle on the desk, and
pressed the Egyptian symbol into the wax. Nakhte quickly grabbed the
paper and whispered into her ear.
"Clever, my Queen, but not clever enough!" Using the dagger, he
punctured her side, causing her to cry out in pain and glare at him as
she clutched her side to stop the bleeding that had begun to slide down
her body.
Nakhte sheathed the dagger once more and walked out of the doorway, only
to find Khenti and Meritaten standing in his way. Meritaten raced past
him to kneel by her mother's side, tears streaming from her eyes. Queen
Nefertiti lifted her head from the desk to acknowledge her daughter and
nodded to assure her she was alright. Meritaten looked back to Khenti as
he squared off with Nakhte outside the office.
"You can't stop me, boy! I have a full confession, signed and sealed by
the Queen of Egypt herself!"
"You still have to get through me to deliver it!" Khenti replied in
return.
* * * * *
"I'm sorry I failed you, Amisi," Kamenwati exhaled, bowing his head
slightly in defeat.
"You did not fail me," she replied, looking up at him, trying to get him
to look up at her. "I failed you."
"How did you fail me?"
"I couldn't stay away from Khenti even after you asked me to," she
sighed.
Kamenwati smiled. "You love him, don't you?" Her eyes smiled her answer.
"I knew I couldn't keep you away for long. You did not fail me by not
keeping your distance. I failed you for not protecting you enough and
now you are here."
"What will Nakhte do to Meritaten?" she quickly changed the subject, not
wanting to make Kamenwati feel any worse about the situation than he
already did.
"Exactly what he said—bring her back to her father."
"And her father? What will he do?" she pressed further, unsure she
really wanted to know what the king had in store for that little girl.
"I don't know," Kamenwati lowered his head.
"Quiet over there!" an officer called out, causing Amisi to jump.
"What right do you have to keep us locked up in here?" she shouted back
at him, angry at him for trying to quiet them down.
"I said keep quiet!" the officer shouted back, tired of her outbursts.
"And what if I don't?" Amisi challenged.
"Amisi, stop, please," Kamenwati hissed through his teeth.
The officer came over and unlocked her cell, grabbing for her arm. Amisi
pulled back and the officer stumbled forward, giving her a chance to use
her fists as defense, crashing down on top him and causing him to tumble
to the ground. She rolled him over, making sure she had knocked him
unconscious and grabbed for the cell keys to unlock Kamenwati's cell.
"Thank you," was all he could muster, still not able to look her in the
eye.
"Come on," she grabbed his arm hurriedly. "We've got to find Meritaten
before it's too late!"
Kamenwati touched the hand that was on his arm, stopping her where she
was. "We can't help her," he said solemnly, his eyes fighting to keep
her from looking away.
"What do you mean we can't help her?! We know what Nakhte is capable of!
There's no telling what he could tell her father!" she exclaimed, still
trying desperately to pull him with her.
"Amisi, wait, please," he begged, as he was pulled out of the building
before she would stop again. There was too much light from the moon and
anyone could see them as they made their hasty escape.
"Come into the shadows more so we aren't seen. When the officer wakes,
he'll come looking for us. Now, listen, we can't go after that girl
because that is exactly what Nakhte wants. If we try to rescue her, he
will easily turn the story around so that we are the enemy. The king
will believe his Vizier over us."
"So we just let him take her away?" she pleaded with her eyes.
"We have no choice!" he argued.
"I don't believe you! You are afraid of something else. What is it?"
"I'm afraid that we are too late to save Egypt," he sighed, looking down
at the ground.
"Kam, Egypt was gone a long time ago."
* * * * *
"Out of my way, boy!" Nakhte ordered, pulling the bloodied dagger once
more into his hand.
"Or what? The Queen's blood drips on your hands and you threaten me with
the same weapon!"
"I have no time or patience for this, boy! This letter must be delivered
to the king!"
"Fine, deliver the false confession if that is your plan, but I will see
to it that every peasant, merchant, and elite makes your life hell for
it!" Khenti threatened, stepping aside.
"An empty threat no doubt!" Nakhte pushed past him, his footsteps
echoing through the hall as he walked away.
Khenti turned his attention back to Meritaten and the Queen in Nakhte's
office. Nefertiti was still clutching her side, her eyes expressing the
fear and pain she felt. Her daughter looked up at him, tears staining
her eyes, not sure how to handle the situation. Khenti swallowed hard,
knowing the Queen's life was now in his hands and Meritaten would never
forgive him if something happened to her that he couldn't have
prevented.
"Are you alright to move?" he asked the Queen, his voice shaky yet
stern.
She nodded her head in response and started to rise from the chair,
leaning on the desk for support. As she stretched her side, her breath
caught in her throat but she neither made an attempt to sit nor cry out
in pain. As a queen of Egypt, she refused to look weak in front of any
of her people, especially a man. Khenti took this as a signal and gently
pulled Meritaten back so that Nefertiti could brace herself on his
shoulder.
"Easy now," he soothed. "Just take it one step at a time and put as much
pressure on me as you can," he instructed. He then looked up at
Meritaten. "We need to get her back to the Riverside Palace where she
can be taken care of. Make sure all the doors are open for us to get out
of."
Meritaten nodded her understanding and fled out the door. She ran
through the halls of the central district building, her loud footsteps
echoing around her, as she made her way to the main doorways. When she
threw open the heavy doors, she almost collided with Mahu, who had been
coming in. He quickly grabbed for her, stopping her from running past
him or running back to Khenti.
"Where are you going, child?" he asked sincerely. She turned nervously
to glance at her mother, wincing in pain, attempting to walk towards
them. Mahu followed her stare and smiled before answering his own
question. "We'll take care of her," he spoke down at her as he signaled
for several officers to come in from behind him.
They quickly took Nefertiti from Khenti, lifting her up and placing her
onto a piece of canvas that stretched between two poles. They carefully
lifted the poles, causing her to cry out in pain and clutch her side,
still bleeding slightly from the deep wound. Meritaten looked away, not
wanting to see her mother in pain, fresh tears emerging from her eyes.
As they left the palace, Mahu remained behind, not willing to let this
go.
"Meritaten, daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, Akhenaten, and his Great
Royal Wife, Nefertiti, you are hereby placed under arrest for confessing
to treason against the king as well as for the attempted murder of the
queen."
Meritaten looked up at Mahu through reddened and swollen eyes. She
couldn't believe what she was hearing. Nakhte had not gone to her father
after all! She was going to be blamed for everything Nakhte had
done and in the end, he would come out the victor! Half coherent to what
was going on around her, she did not take notice when Khenti tried to
interfere and protect her or when they were both bound and dragged from
the building into the cool night air. She did not pay attention as
Khenti was knocked unconscious so he would struggle less and she could
barely make out Mahu's instructions as they were separated from each
other and she lost sight of her friend in the distance.
When they reached the Riverside Palace, her mother's screams were what
brought her out of her numb, trancelike state. She tried to run to find
her, but the officer that held her tightened her grip. Mahu stood in
front of her again but this time Nakhte joined him. She glowered at the
man she had come to despise but he only smiled at her misfortune.
"You won't get away with this!" she hissed at the sight of him. Both men
exchanged a look and laughed aloud.
"Ah, my child, you will never understand how this game is played,"
Nakhte exclaimed. He then took a single flower from behind his back and
ran the petals down her cheek, making her feel even more uneasy in their
presence. "You see, Mahu, she really is like the Egyptian rose—soft
and sweet at first glance, but deadly to the touch," he mused. "Her
tongue should be the first thing removed and make sure you get it all
because like the thorns of the rose, any piece left behind can still be
sharp!"