The Egyptian rose
1341 BCE
Chapter 7
Nakhte and his officer approached the thrown room cautiously after he
cowardly allowed Meritaten to be taken by them instead of having them
all arrested for destroying his house. He had not intended on allowing
her to be hurt, but he had decided that she had done it to herself,
flinging herself into the oncoming assail of stones. None of this would
have happened if the king had put him in charge instead of his
foolish little, precious daughter! He was the king's Royal Vizier, the
most trusted advisor and yet he could not entrust the king with dealing
with this matter in his own way. Now the king's daughter had been taken
away from him by the very same people her father had put her in charge
of dealing with!
Breathing in deeply to try to calm his anger, Nakhte pushed open the
large, heavy door and entered the great thrown room. Both his and his
officer's footsteps echoed loudly as they approached the king. Akhenaten
was seated high on his thrown, his head bowed and leaning on his hand,
his mind deep in thought. Nakhte cleared his throat to get the king's
undivided attention before beginning his pre-meditated speech.
"Your highness, they've taken her," he began. Akhenaten did nothing to
reply but only stared at his Vizier, edging him to continue. "The
insurgents have taken your daughter!"
Akhenaten slammed his fist onto the arm of his thrown. "And you did
nothing to stop them?!" he bellowed, his voice echoing loud enough to
vibrate the walls.
"I tried!" Nakhte exclaimed in return. "But there were too many of them
for just my officer and me to handle alone! They took her away before I
had a chance to react!" he lied, knowing he himself had caused the
commotion outside his house.
"Well get back out there and bring her back! Arrest anyone who stands in
your way!" the king growled angrily.
"Yes, your highness," Nakhte bowed and backed himself out of the hall,
his officer following in step. Now Nakhte had even more of a reason to
stop them.
* * * * *
"And they just took him without a fight?" Khenti questioned the tavern
owner, who stood in his doorway.
"He went willingly," the owner replied.
"Alright, thank you," Khenti dismissed and the old man was gone. "I
can't believe he went without a fight!" he exclaimed, shaking his head
in disappointment.
"I'm sure he had his reasons," Amisi calmed, placing a hand on his arm.
"But it's not like him to go without a fight!" he argued. "If he's
trying to play the martyr…"
"He wouldn't. He has no reason to."
"What do we do about her?" he asked, nodding his head towards Meritaten,
still unconscious on the bed.
"We keep her here until she regains consciousness, then we send her
home!" she pursed her lips.
"What?! I can't do that!" he exclaimed, squaring off with her in the
middle of his room.
"Why not? She's caused nothing but trouble since you brought her here!"
"Amisi, Nakhte tried to kidnap her and I need to find out why!" he
argued.
"Since when did you become her keeper? Khenti, she has plenty of people
to take care of her. Just because you never had that gives you no right
to take it away from her now!"
Before she could take it back, the words effortlessly slipped through
her lips. Khenti glared at her as she bit her lower lip and bowed her
head in shame. She knew her words had stung and his silence told her she
had overstepped her boundaries. Quickly, she moved to gently touch his
arm and fix the damage she just caused.
"I'm sorry," she breathed without looking into his eyes. "I didn't mean—"
"Save it, Amisi! You meant every word!" he replied angrily, pulling away
from her hand.
"I just don't want you thinking saving her is going to bring your father
back," she tread as lightly as possible with her words, although she
knew he did not want to hear it.
"If you understood you wouldn't have just said that!" he countered,
stinging her with words of his own.
She was on the brink of tears when she finally lifted her face to meet
his angry eyes. He could tell he had hurt her with his own words but he
did not care. It was not fair that she thought he was using Meritaten to
bring his father back and it was not right that she defended Kamenwati
when the old man clearly chose to act impulsively. He turned his face
towards Meritaten, unable to look into Amisi's eyes any longer.
"I'll stay here with her if you want to find out what happened to Kam,"
he replied, hoping she would take the bait.
She sighed heavily, knowing she was being dismissed, but something
compelled her walk over to him and place a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"I'm sorry," she whispered and walked away.
With a loud sigh, Khenti turned to face the closed door. He knew he
should go after her, tell her he was sorry as well, but his feet would
not move. What he did not see was Amisi standing on the opposite side of
the door, waiting (hoping) for it to open and him standing there. When
it did not happen, she walked away, tears staining her eyes.
* * * * *
Nakhte paid a visit to the police offices of the Great Palace after his
visit to the thrown room. He sat at a very long table opposite Mahu, who
had just returned from his visit to Baruti's house. They were calmly
discussing the day's events and wondering what to do about the problems
arising in Egypt and a king that only rewrote laws instead of taking
action against his own people. Akhenaten had expected his officers and
his elite to "take care of" the people of Egypt and now that his own
daughter had become involved, they would be harder to deal with.
"I thought kidnapping her myself would have given me the information we
needed to take them down," Nakhte replied, a bit disappointed with
himself.
"And I thought speaking to one of them would have helped our cause and
keep Meritaten out of the loop enough to get something done," Mahu
concluded.
"Do you think they told her everything that has happened or she's just
going on what Ramla might have fabricated?" Nakhte asked.
"I doubt it. Most of their rallies are just them sitting around
complaining. She's just a little girl too. She'll never be able to piece
it all together. Besides, I hardly see her as the type to expose herself
as a spy for her father just to get information for us," Mahu spoke
genuinely.
"You'd be surprised what a young girl like that could put together,"
Nakhte countered, eyeing him suspiciously.
"I suppose," Mahu sighed even though he was not convinced of the girl's
abilities at deductive reasoning.
"I still think they need to be brought down, regardless of whether she's
involved or not!" Nakhte argued. "Pretty soon they'll have all of Egypt
against the king!"
Mahu shrugged nonchalantly. "They have a right to speak their minds. No
law of the Pharaoh prohibits this."
"How can you say that?" Nakhte shouted, almost leaping from his seat.
"The king did what he felt was necessary for the expansion of Egypt and
this is the way the people repay him?!" He gripped the edge of table
forcefully and almost tipped it.
"Moving the entire capital and destroying the temples of the gods wasn't
a necessity!"
"He needed it in order to get them to listen!" Nakhte argued, not
believing his chief of police was not agreeing with him on this.
"They would have listened without their temples being destroyed! And it
wasn't just that, Nakhte. He's become a lot more demanding on the
merchants. I remember when I was—"
"That was awhile ago, friend, remember that," Nakhte interrupted
abruptly. "You have been an officer for what, five years now?"
"Only three, but that's not the point! The point is that these people
will riot unless the king gives into their demands!"
"You are the chief of police—it is your job to keep the peace
and order in this great city! If they riot, arrest them! If they throw
stones at the Vizier's house, hang them!"
"So that's what this is really about? Your house gets defaced and now
you want everyone to hang?!"
"They took her! They beat her down with stones and they took her! I was
so close to getting answers and they took her away!" Nakhte growled.
"Revenge for kidnapping the king's first born daughter, forcing her to
talk? That doesn't sound right."
"Well it is a better plan than allowing them to have their rallies and
waiting for them to riot before arresting them!" he glared at Mahu,
knowing he had touched a nerve.
Mahu sat back and contemplated the words before sighing and finally
replying. "You leave me with a very sour taste in my mouth. I'll see
what I can do about arresting the others and finding out where they took
Meritaten."
"When you find her, return her to me for more questioning!"
Nakhte ordered, a very sly smile on his face.
* * * * *
Khenti walked over to the bed when Meritaten stirred back into
consciousness. The bruises on her body were starting to surface, making
purple blotches on her skin. He gently touched them and she stirred
again, causing him to jerk his hand away. The last thing he wanted was
to hurt her even more than she already was. A knock at the door jumped
him back to reality a bit and before he could make his way across the
room, it was opened from the outside. Baruti stood in the doorway, his
eyes fixed on the girl lying in the bed.
"I heard she was here. You should not have brought her to the rally,"
Baruti said as soon as he shut the door behind him.
"They took Kam," Khenti replied, ignoring his friend's comment.
"When?"
"Not long ago. I'm surprised you missed them on your way over here."
"And you let them take him?" Baruti exclaimed, not caring if he woke
Meritaten in his fit of anger.
"I was in here! He left here and got himself arrested! I am not
responsible for his actions!" Khenti shouted back.
"But now they know we are here! They knew the rally was at my house!"
Baruti countered, bowing his head in shame.
"And how did they figure that out I wonder!" Khenti glared at him.
"Maybe you should ask your royal friend there. I'm sure her father sent
her to find out as much as she could for him!" Baruti hissed, pointing
an accusing finger at her.
"I'm not working for my father!" Meritaten said weakly from the bed,
startling both men out of their argument.
Khenti ran to her side and glared at Baruti before turning his attention
back to her. "Are you alright? Are you in any pain?"
"I'm fine, but I am not working for the king!" she argued,
looking up at Baruti.
"Could have fooled me!" he growled at her.
"Tell me how this happened," Khenti demanded, ignoring his friend's
anger.
"Nakhte took me," was all she could say, still eyeing Baruti.
"What?! The Royal Vizier of Egypt took you? You expect me to believe
that story?" Baruti stammered, backing up until his body hit the wall
behind him.
"He wanted to know what your plan was. There was fear in his eyes, I
could see it," she stated weakly to Khenti.
"So the man would kidnap Pharaoh's own daughter just to get information
about our plans! And yet the king sends his daughter out to do the
same!" Baruti mused.
"He said no one would get hurt," she replied innocently.
"Ha! He meant no one on his side would get hurt!" he exclaimed.
"He's afraid of you, why?" she questioned.
"He knows there are too many of us to arrest us all and he knows we
could dethrone the king if we chose to," he admitted matter-of-factly.
"You wouldn't!" she gasped.
"No, we wouldn't. But he knows we could. He knows given enough pressure
your father could reverse his own laws and allow us to go back to the
way things were before…" he trailed off.
Meritaten thought on this and simple stated, "Nakhte wouldn't like that,
would he?"
"No he wouldn't. Keeping order in the southern province has given him
way too much power and now he plans to either arrest or kill us all!"
Khenti interjected, causing her to shoot an eye in his direction.
"He wouldn't! I'd make sure of it!" she gasped in anger.
"Nakhte would never listen to a woman and he'd never listen to one as
young as you," Baruti pointed out to her.
"But I'm still my father's daughter," she tried to press.
"Something tells me even the Pharaoh wouldn't be able to stop him if he
gets too aggressive," Baruti said nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?" she asked, wincing a bit in pain.
"Lie back down and let me take care of your bruises," Khenti ordered,
giving his friend a stern look.
"Khenti she needs to know!" Baruti exclaimed.
"She doesn't need to be pulled into this!" Khenti argued.
"Pulled into what?" she shot up and grimaced in pain.
"Lie down!" Khenti yelled at her. "And you, get out of here!" he glared
at Baruti.
"I'm not leaving until she knows the truth!" Baruti shouted back,
walking deliberately over to the other side of Khenti's bed.
"Fine! Then I'm leaving! Take care of her yourself! Let her be your
responsibility when you bring her into this!" Khenti stormed out of his
room and slammed the door behind him.
"Ok, you want to know what's going on?" Baruti asked her and she nodded
her head. "I'll tell you everything you need to know."