The Egyptian rose

1341 BCE

Chapter 6

Mahu knocked on the door three times, a simple signal he knew all too well, and used on few occasions such as these. When Baruti answered he was not the least bit surprised at Mahu's presence. Looking past him on either side, Baruti checked for possible officers standing guard, before allowing Mahu to enter his home. Once inside with the door closed for privacy, Mahu did not waste any time getting to the point of his visit.

"I can't stay long. I just have a few quick questions."

"There you are acting like an officer again! Not even a hello first!" Baruti complained, only half being sarcastic in his tone. "What happened to the friend from the marketplace?"

"Baruti, you know that friend is gone. He left the minute you joined these people against the king."

"Who are you to talk?" Baruti defended. "The man who used to steal from the marketplace when a merchant wasn't looking; the man who would try to get away with anything he could!" he laughed at the memories.

"That man is long gone and you know it! Besides, I am here on official business of the king and you mock me!" Mahu declared, his temper rising.

"Mahu, stop pretending to be someone you're not! Stop trying to be this brave officer when you're still the man who sold jewelry in the marketplace!" Baruti shouted, advancing on the other man's angry tone.

"It's over, Baruti, all of it! I can't live that way anymore!" Mahu leaned himself against a wall, unable to deal with this argument standing straight up and not at all happy that this conversation turn the turn that it did.

"It's not over! You were there! You saw what he did to our families! You know very well what he's capable of and yet you stand there and defend him every day of your life!"

"I didn't come here to argue with you, Baruti. I just needed answers and I thought we could put aside our differences just this one time!"

"Why, so you can arrest me like you plan to arrest all the others?!" Baruti countered defensively.

"The king's daughter was kidnapped shortly after your rally yesterday!" Mahu interrupted.

"How did you know about the rally?" Baruti asked, ignoring the kidnapping incident part of Mahu's statement.

"I have my sources. The point is that I need to know why she was there and who took her."

"Even if I had those answers, why would I give them to you? You'd just have your officers arrest whoever it was that was involved and probably myself for allowing her to be there!"

"The king just wants to make sure she's alright and home safely. Justice will be served accordingly!" Mahu protested.

"Listen to you, Mahu! You sound like one of them!"

"I am one of them!" Mahu argued in return. "And if you have any information on the king's daughter, you need to tell me now!"

"Ask the king! Rumor has it he sent her to try to stop us!" Baruti countered, completely defeated in his argument. "And I don't know who took her. I was the only one who recognized her as the king's daughter," he lied, trying to save Khenti from being arrested.

"Alright, I believe you," Mahu sighed. "But please be more careful the next time there's a rally," he concluded, smiling at his friend.

"I will," Baruti smiled, knowing there still was a friend in him somewhere.

Mahu left and Baruti just smiled after him. It was not every day you could have a heated argument with the chief of police and not get arrested. He closed the door and headed towards the back of his small house. As he looked out the back door window, the light from the sun glistened on the River Nile, making him smile even more. He had done well for himself over the years and he was proud of all he had accomplished, even if Mahu tried to protest their likeness.

A figure by the water caught his attention and he opened the door to get a better look. "Ramla!" he called, running towards her and kissing her on the cheek out of respect. "What brings you here?"

"I've come to warn you," she said solemnly.

"Warn me, what for?!" Baruti stuttered, panic now forming in his voice.

"You wife has a special ‘destiny' to fulfill," she simply said, not taking her eyes off him.

He looked back at the house. "Kiya? But how? Why?"

"The king has his eye on her from a distance," she spoke as she too looked at the house.

"What would the king want with my wife when he has the most beautiful Queen in all of Egypt?!"

"She will bear him a son—the son his poor Nefertiti could not give him," she stated matter-of-factly.

* * * * *

"They'll find her, my love," Nefertiti soothed as they sat in the throne room of the Great Palace that afternoon. The rest of their children were being watched carefully at the North Riverside Palace by several royal nurses and guards. King Akhenaten stiffened slightly when he felt her touch his arm affectionately and chose instead to pull away sharply.

"If anything happens to her..." he gritted through clenched teeth.

"They'll find her," she repeated to her husband.

"I should never have let her go. It was foolish of me to think... She was too young!"

"And if she was a boy instead?" Nefertiti questioned, knowing the answer already but needing him to say it.

"It would have been different," he sighed.

"That's what I thought," Nefertiti huffed, getting up from her throne. "I'm going back to the Riverside Palace to await my daughter's return and to make sure my other daughters are alright," she emphasized the words and left.

The Pharaoh was left alone in the great throne room to fester about the disappearance of his first born child. It was his fault she was kidnapped. He had thought that she was ready to come of age and take her place among the Kings of Egypt. Yet what he told Nefertiti was true—Meritaten was just a girl and anyone could see that. At twelve years of age, this girl had no place dealing with such political matters as he had asked her to. He had known she could not have handled the situation yet he had gone ahead and asked her to risk her own life for the sake of an issue he himself had no way of dealing with on his own. Had she been a boy though, things might have been so much different.

Nefertiti was the most beautiful woman in all of Egypt and he had the privilege of having her as his wife. But she had given him six daughters. Although he loved them all, they were not sons and a son was needed to continue his dynasty and be strong enough to deal with matters of state that a simple woman could not. He had been blessed with all daughters and now his first-born was missing, taken before he had a chance to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, he had no more time to think on the situation as the large doors of the great thrown room for forced open and the overseer to the court of justice stood before him.

"Ahmose, what is the report?" the king bellowed, not getting up from where he sat.

"We've made several arrests but none for the kidnapping," the other man replied.

The king sighed but still glared at him suspiciously. "What were the arrests for?"

"The riots have started again, in full force it seems."

"Probably as a deterrent to stop us from finding Meritaten," the king said angrily. "No matter though. Continue searching for her and forget the nonsense with the peasants and merchants for the time being."

"Your highness?" Ahmose questioned, unsure of why his liege said those words.

"No use cluttering the jails with useless rioters when the real kidnappers are still out there," Akhenaten replied, making sense out of the other man's confusion.

Ahmose nodded in agreement and left the hall, bowing as he backed himself out, a custom that Akhenaten had grown too used to. He was left in the empty hall to mull over the situation at hand. She was just a girl—a sweet and innocent girl he had attempted to make a woman before her time. He needed to bring her home safely and keep her under lock and key before anything else happened to her. He still needed a male heir to deal with this problem because the people of Egypt needed to be silenced and he just could not do it on his own.

*  *  *  *  *

"Please, child, you're only hurting yourself. Just tell us their names and we'll let you go," Nakhte pleaded with her.

Meritaten was seated in a chair in Nakhte's house, an officer's hand on her shoulder, keeping her rooted to the chair in case she attempted an escape. She tried not to move and remained silent, wondering what would happen to her if she admitted everything that she knew, or what would happen to the others if she spoke against them. Realizing quickly the predicament she was in, she needed to think, act and speak quickly otherwise Nakhte would know for sure she was hiding something.

"Ramla told me the truth of everything," she attempted to sound convincing, putting most of the blame on the old prophetess instead of the large crowds.

"Ramla? What did she have to say to you?" he eyed her suspiciously.

"Everything! How could you have consciously taken part in my father's plan?" she accused, pushing the argument off of her and onto him.

"Everything your father has done has been for the greater good of Egypt! And you should be more respectful and grateful, knowing your title and place!" he pointed a finger at her.

"How can you believe it was for the greater good of those people?!" she countered, getting angrier as he continued to defend her father.

"The people needed a change!"

"Did he even ask them?!" she shouted not realizing her voice was raised and her tone was not that of a twelve year old girl.

"He should not have to! He is the Pharaoh of Egypt! What he says goes by law!"

"But the people will protest!"

"Let them protest! They will be arrested and tried for treason! Just as you will be if you continue to vilify your namesake!"

"What are you plans, then? You have me here, while the apparent enemy is out there. You can't very well keep me and capture them. You will lose," she said certifiably, knowing she cornered his attempts to scare her.

He lifted her chin up to meet his eyes. "You my dear will lead us right to them!" he smiled deviously.

"Me?!"

He pulled his hand away before he spoke deliberately to the officer who still had his hand rested firmly on her shoulder. "Let's go!"

Meritaten was pulled up from the chair and pushed deliberately and forcefully towards the front door of the house. She was terrified, not only for herself but for those she was discreetly trying to protect by keeping silent. Just as she was shoved fully out of the door, though, she felt the sting of pain, as a rock struck her calve. Glass shattered everywhere as rocks broke windows along both sides of the door. She screamed in pain as another rock hit her arm but she knew that both the guard and Nakhte would be preoccupied with the assault to keep a steady hand on her. She quickly broke free of the guard's grip, making a mad attempt to run into the confrontation, knowing neither man could follow her.

*  *  *  *  *

"What happened to her?" Khenti exclaimed.

"She was hit by several rocks as she tried to escape," Amisi said to him as Kamenwati carried a limp Meritaten into Khenti's room and placed her gently onto his bed.

"Escape from whom? Her kidnappers?" he eyed her.

Amisi nodded. "Nakhte had her," she stated matter-of-factly.

"If he laid one hand on her I'll—"

"You'll what, Khenti?" Kamenwati interrupted, looking up at him from the child's side.

"He shouldn't have taken her!" Khenti replied, angry at himself for not being more careful with her at the rallies. "He had no need for her!"

"Does it really matter? We'll just get blamed for it!" the other man replied.

"I don't care!"

"You have to care! It was your idea to start rioting again and now she's taken a blow for it!"

"How was I or anyone going to know she was there with him?!" Khenti argued.

Amisi could see them both flaring with anger and she gingerly touching Khenti's arm much to Kamenwati's chagrin. Khenti immediately began to calm himself but was still breathing heavy, knowing the other man would not back down. He was more upset with himself though because he had left Meritaten when he should not have and when he had returned to the back of Baruti's house, he had assumed she had left on her own accord. Now she was lying in his bed unconscious from the assault that he had ordered. Kamenwati got up and left the room, unable to stomach being there with either of them, especially seeing how affectionate Amisi was towards the younger man.

If they had done things his way, none of this would have happened. Meritaten would have never gotten involved and he wouldn't be as angry with Khenti as he was at that very moment. He was about to leave the tavern and get as far away from the situation as possible when the door to the tavern opened and several officers stood flanking Mahu on either side. In an instant they had surrounded him and he calmly and casually agreed to be escorted away, knowing jail was probably better than dealing with the boy. The tavern owner, that had been watching the entire scene unfold from behind the bar, briskly walked back to Khenti's room to inform him of the increasing problematic situation.

Continue to chapter 7