The Egyptian rose

1341 BCE

Chapter 8

"So everything I've heard is true and not just stories of angry men and women," Meritaten asked, stunned by what she was just told. Baruti simply nodded in response. "I... I wish I could have done something to help."

"You were just a baby when all of this happened."

"And what about Nakhte? Where does he fit into my father's plan?" she questioned, the need to know overriding her pain.

"He has his own plan. He wants all the glory," Baruti stated. "He wants his name to go down in history as the savior of Egypt—the one who brought Egypt's people to their knees!"

"What can I do?" she sat up, swinging her legs around to the side of the bed.

"Nothing. You can go back to your palace and let us fight this ourselves," he sighed.

"But if I could talk to my father—" she pressed.

"No good. You're too young to understand. He would never believe you over his Vizier anyway."

"But—"

"Just go home, little one," he interrupted her again. "You don't belong here among us and I still don't understand why Khenti expected you to understand our world in the first place. I just thought you should know the truth before going home."

All she could do was sigh and lift herself from the bed, head bowed in defeat. He was right. She did not belong there among them. But she also could not go back to her life under her father's rule knowing what she knew about him. Then there was Khenti. He had befriended her and now she felt as if she was betraying him by going back to the North Riverside Palace and not helping him. Maybe she'd still be able to talk to her father and make him see how wrong Nakhte was about these people.

Baruti opened the door for her and came face-to-face with officers of Egypt. One pulled him back by the shoulders and held him in place while the other walked inside the room and grabbed Meritaten about the waist, lifting her off the ground. Baruti could do nothing as the officer dragged her down the hall, kicking and screaming, trying to free herself through the pain of her bruises. His eyes drifted and came in contact with Mahu's stern glare on the opposite side of the doorway.

"Baruti, why? You lied to me!" Mahu exclaimed to the stunned man.

"I didn't even know she was here! I just found her here moments before you arrived!" Baruti defended, shrugging his shoulders.

Mahu eyed him suspiciously. "You're off the hook this time!"

As the officer walked out of the tavern, Mahu was directly on his heels, eyeing the other patrons with a stern but quizzical look. He sighed heavily, knowing that the people who had tipped him off to Meritaten's whereabouts would be handsomely rewarded. As for Baruti, he needed to pay closer attention to his friend the next time he says he doesn't know something. He tried very hard not to remember he used to be one of them as he exited the establishment.

*  *  *  *  *

Khenti hid his face as the officers pulled Meritaten from his room, closing his eyes tight as he listened to her screams. He waited until they were gone from the tavern before getting up from his seat at the bar and walking back to his room. As he walked through the silent hall, he exchanged a glare with Baruti as they passed, before he got to his room on the right. Throwing himself down on the bed with a heavy thud, he let out a long sigh. He did not even notice when someone else followed him into his room until the door shut loudly behind them, jarring his attention.

"What do you want?" he said angrily, not making any effort to get up at all.

"Why did you let them take her?" Ramla answered him with a question of her own.

"I wasn't going to get myself arrested," he stated, leaning up on his elbow.

"So you'd rather watch her get sent back to that evil man?" she accused.

"If evil you're implying the king of Egypt, you better not say that too loud or his officers will come and arrest you as well! Besides, we'll just get blamed for her kidnapping and be arrested anyway!" he shrugged.

"She's not being brought back to her father," Ramla answered, causing him to catch her eye.

"Where are they taking her then? Not to the jails?"

"Back to Nakhte for more questioning... by his order!"

"What?! Why?!" he jumped up to a sitting position.

"To get more information out of her; to torture her more into submission," she replied.

"If he lays one hand on her, I'll—"

"You'll what, Khenti? You can't go in against an army of Egypt's most powerful officers without any rhyme or reason!"

"She needs to be safe!" he countered, leaping from the bed.

"It is not your place to decide where her safety comes from! Now sit down before I get your father to do it for you!" she argued as he wheeled on his heels.

"My father?! My father is gone! He's never been a party of my life and you know that!"

"Well I think now is the best time to make him a part of your life, don't you think?"

"I don't need to know him, not now, not ever! I know enough! He was never there. He was never around! Why should that make a different now?!"

"Because you need him now as much as he needs you," she replied, shaking her head at him.

"What is he dying or something? His last dying wish is to know who his son is?" Khenti screamed, not wanting to deal with this nonsense anymore.

"Khenti, please, just sit down and I will tell you everything, but I'm not telling you like this!"

Reluctantly, he sat at the edge of the bed. "He is dying, isn't he? That's his dying wish, isn't it?" he repeated, pressing her to answer.

"No, he's not dying. He's in jail."

"Wonderful! So my father wants me to rescue him! He doesn't even know me!" Khenti exclaimed, jumping up from the bed again.

"No, but you will know him," she reassured him.

"What if I don't want to know him?" he asked, finally looking up at her. "What if it's too late and he missed his chance?"

"Then Kam will rot in jail and never know the truth," she sighed.

*  *  *  *  *

"We meet again, little one," Nakhte smirked as Meritaten was led into his office in the Great Palace.

"Put me down!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the room.

"As long as you promise not to run, my dear," he smiled and nodded to the officer that held her.

"Tell me what you want from me!"

"You were with them! You can't deny it this time! They found you in that tavern, where they were hiding you after stoning you! I'm sure you heard them talk. Now tell me what their plans are!" he accused and demanded of her.

Meritaten bit her lip. She was trapped in the middle of a feud because she knew too much from both sides. If she admitted what she knew about Nakhte and her father, there would be a price to pay for speaking against the Pharaoh, even if she was his daughter. If she told Nakhte what she knew about Khenti and the others, they would all be arrested or worse, killed! She kept silent, though, hoping it was enough to keep Nakhte at bay. When he spoke to her again, she realized her silence was not going to work.

"Out with it, child! You know much more than your silence is making me believe!" he bellowed at her.

"Yes! I do know more! I know what you intend to do to my father when opportunity comes!" she blurted out, unable to keep quiet about his plans.

"I see my secret is out," he smiled, undeterred by her outburst or the fact that she knew.

"You want people to know?"

"It is only a matter of time before the king finds a new wife to him a son and that is the perfect time to strike!"

"What?! My father loves my mother!" she protested.

"Yes, but your mother gave him six daughters," he replied. "A king must have a male heir to carry his line." He smiled again when she pouted, almost in tears. "Oh, now child, don't tell me you thought you were going to succeed your father? You are just a little girl that will make a future king's wife!"

Meritaten grew quiet again as the sail of insults swirled in her head. What Baruti said was correct, through and through. Her father would never listen to her over his Vizier and this Royal Vizier wasn't going to make it easy for her to approach her father. Thinking back she remembered Ramla's words to her: she had told her she would bring order out of chaos; it would be her that would make everything right in Egypt again. She didn't even realize she had spoken Ramla's name out loud until Nakhte looked down at her, furrowing his eyebrows.

"She is nothing but a fabricator of lies," he commented when she bit her lower lip as she realized he had heard her.

"But she's the prophetess! She knows the truth of everything!" she protested.

"Did she tell you that you would be held prisoner against your will? Did she tell you that you would be beaten down with rocks by the very same people you befriended? Did she even tell you that your father would find himself another wife to give him a son?!"

"No! She didn't!" she shouted back, tears forming in her eyes.

"Well, then how can you believe anything she has said to you at all?" he smirked. "Tell me now what your friends have planned to do and you can go back to your mother and learn what it means to be a Great Royal Wife."

His words stung but she knew he spoke the truth. Her father, she had been told by Baruti, would betray her mother, the Queen of Egypt, in order to have a male heir. King Akhenaten hadn't planned on having six daughters and so it was in his legal right and best interest for the sake of Egypt to find a woman who could bear him a son. Meritaten closed her eyes and blinked away the tears. Even at twelve years old she knew her place as the Great Royal Wife to the next King of Egypt. Her heart raced as anger and frustration coursed through her. Once again Nakhte interrupted her thoughts.

"Why are you involved in their plans?"

"They want to force the hand of the king to change his laws!" she blurted out, tears fully streaming down her cheeks. "And I'm involved because my father put me in charge of dealing with them!"

"And you expect the king to listen to their demands? You expect to be able to calmly deal with this matter?" he pushed.

"I... I don't know," she bowed her head in defeat.

"Your father was very foolish to try to put you into a man's world and expect you to take charge of this situation! He should have left it to me!" Nakhte addressed her officer then. "Bring her to the North Riverside Palace so she can be reunited with her mother. Arrange for a meeting with Mahu and then the king. Justice will be served!"

"No!" she screamed as she was pulled away and out of the Great Palace.

*  *  *  *  *

Baruti came home tired and angry. He slammed the door but the sound only echoed in the rooms. No other sound came from any room in the house and you could almost hear a pin drop, it was that quiet. Panic took over as he frantically searched each room for any signs of life, but found none. To his surprise, his wife had been sitting outside by the riverbank the whole time, and he only now took notice. The way the light hit her body made her hair shimmer beautifully and Baruti caught his breath and smiled. Walking out the back door, he sat down next to her and was about to cheerfully kiss her hello when he noticed she had been crying.

"Kiya, what's wrong?" he protectively wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"The king..." she breathed.

"What about him?" He could feel the anger rising in his voice.

"He... he had one of Mahu's officers come by earlier to ask me if I would join the king privately for some wine," she cried, her head bowed in shame. He pulled her into him and held her as tightly as he could.

"Nothing will happen to you, I promise," he reassured her, kissing the top her head and letting her hair fall gently through his fingers.

"But how can you be sure?" she sobbed into his chest, closing the distance between them even more.

He lifted her chin up with his finger and made sure she looked into his eyes before answering her. "I will never let you go. I will never let the king or anyone else lay a hand on you. Do you understand?"

Sniffling, she nodded her head in response. He kissed the top of her forehead and then pulled her hands up to his lips, kissing each in turn before placing them on his chest over his heart. "I love you, Kiya. Nothing will happen to you."
 

Continue to chapter 9