The Egyptian rose

1341 BCE

Chapter 9

"So you are one of them?" Ahmose questioned, scowling at the cell in front of him. "Care to tell me what your plans are?"

"I have nothing to say to you," Kamenwati replied from the other side of the cell.

"Such a shame. I was willing to give you a pardon if you would just cooperate. But no matter, we'll just find the others."

"There's too many of us," Kamenwati stated.

"You really think we can't stop you?" Ahmose challenged.

"I know the prophecy. The king's empire will fall."

"Not before Egypt's people fall to their knees!" came the retort.

Kamenwati said nothing. Ahmose laughed at his silence and walked away. Kamenwati sighed and leaned against the wall of the cell, debating on telling Ahmose what he wanted to know. The plans themselves to outsmart the Egyptian government were still hazy, even for him, and it was still unclear whether they were about to jump away from the occasional scuffle and riot. He knew the officers were looking for names and they were picking off the group one-by-one, but Kamenwati had no names to give, other than those he was closest to, and those were friends he refused to watch take the brunt of Egypt's anger. Before he could decide though, Ahmose returned.

"Do you have a next of kin?" Ahmose asked him, looking only at the papyrus he held in his hand.

"No," came the reply. "I have no one. Why is it so important? You want to capture them as well?"

"We just need a name to inform after you are put to death. It's just a simple formality."

"Ahmose, please, my life for all those the king himself has condemned?" Kamenwati laughed.

"Have you any family at all that can claim your body once you're dead?" Ahmose asked again, completely ignoring the question asked of him.

"No, none," Kamenwati pronounced solemnly.

"Very well. That is all," and Ahmose was gone again.

Kamenwati was lost in thought again. He knew he could divert their efforts to cull the crowds by giving up his own life but how long would it last? They would eventually find the others and they too would meet the same fate. What if he gave them names? Would they be satisfied with arresting a select few or would they feel the need to get them all?

As he slumped down onto the cold, hard floor in the corner of his cell, he contemplated actually giving them names. Baruti already had the ability to save himself, with his connections to the central administrative district. He would be useless to barter. Then there was Amisi—such a frail, simple young woman who always saw the good in others. He considered her like a daughter but even some fathers had to give up their daughters to protect them. She'd make a fine addition to the servants or slaves of the king's house.

Then he realized that if they took her away, he'd have problems with Khenti. The boy was too new at dealing with the issues these people faced and he didn't understand the commitment it took to overthrow a king, especially one as totalitarian as Akhenaten. He was only a small boy when Akhenaten moved the entire capital city to Akhetaten, naming it so eloquently after himself. He was too young to remember the temples of the gods being destroyed as people prayed in them, burying them alive. And he was too naïve to know how kings of the past paved the way for Akhenaten to rule—with their great royal wives and secondary wives and even their own daughters bearing them sons. This he assumed would just be the fate of the young Meritaten had Khenti not interfered.

He began to think back to when he first learned about the great King of Egypt. Akhenaten was born into Egypt as Amenhotep IV, but soon fell into darkness, only seeing the vague light the Aten shown on him. When we became Pharaoh he was considered a living god but he wanted so much more than to just be associated with them. He destroyed so many lives just to keep and gain his power and the power of Egypt as an empire. He took the most beautiful woman, Nefertiti, as his Great Royal Wife, and together they changed the face of Egypt forever. This was the last thought which crossed Kamenwati's mind as he closed his eyes and fell asleep in the corner of the cell.

*  *  *  *  *

Meritaten was brought back to the North Riverside Palace by one of Nakhte's officers and made a mad dash, crying, into her mother's waiting arms. Nefertiti quietly dismissed the officer and held her eldest daughter protectively, stroking her hair and soothing her with comforting whispers. No sooner had their reunion taken place they heard heavy footsteps in the hall, quickly separating them as they both looked up to see Akhenaten's stern face.

"I assume you were unsuccessful in your task. Let me see what they did to you," he demanded, both him and his wife seeing her bruises for the first time since she had come home.

"They?" Meritaten looked up at him quizzically.

"The people who kidnapped you!" he exclaimed, his voice echoing loudly. "Nakhte told me how they stoned you and took you away as he was trying to bring you back!"

"What?!" she shouted. So this was his game, she thought to herself.

"Go up to your room and wash up," he ordered her. "I should never have let you handle this situation by yourself if I had known what they would do to you!"

As soon as Meritaten left the room, still crying, he turned to his wife angrily. "This was too much her and I should have known!"

Nefertiti tried to console her husband by placing a hand on his arm. He only shrugged it away. "You had no way of knowing," she soothed.

"She's just a girl!" he exclaimed, causing her jump a bit from his anger. "It was never her place to deal this and I should have known better! They will pay for what they've done to her!"

Nefertiti sighed, knowing it was useless to argue with him. She left him there in his anger and went up to speak to her daughter. Meritaten was in her bedchamber crying into a wash cloth, the pain of the wounds beginning to get to her. Nefertiti quickly closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms protectively around her daughter, smoothing her hair with her fingers, trying not to touch the bruises on her arms.

"I'm sorry," Meritaten squeaked through tears.

"Shh! It is not your fault. What they did to you they would have done to anyone," her mother soothed.

Meritaten pulled away and tried to protest. "They were only protecting themselves and I got in the way!"

"They tried to deliberately hurt you," her mother insisted.

"They didn't kidnap me! They helped me escape!" she argued.

"Was it not one of them who held you against your will while the others staged a rescue, only to be caught in the crossfire of their anger?" her mother asked her, now angrier than before.

"No!" Meritaten protested. "That wasn't what happened at all!"

"What? Then please tell me the truth!"

Meritaten slumped down onto her bed and winced in pain. Her mother wanted the truth, but the truth was something she had been hiding from everyone and yet everyone had tried to push the truth onto her! She knew what everyone else wanted and needed to know—from the cruelty of her father, to Nakhte's plans, to even the demands of the people of Egypt. She thought of the one truth she knew she could speak up about and answered her mother sincerely. "Nakhte was the one who kidnapped me, not them."

"What?! He wouldn't dare lay a hand on you!" her mother tried to protest, shocked at what she just heard her daughter say and also suspicious about whether she was lying to her for other reasons.

"I'm sure he didn't care!" Meritaten mumbled under her breath.

"When did this happen?"

"I was down by the river and—" She stopped herself before admitting she was a part of their rallies. "And that's when I was grabbed," she quickly continued.

"If he was in fact the one who took you, what did he want?"

Meritaten knew she was caught again. If she admitted Nakhte wanted to use her as leverage for information, her mother would know she was siding with the people of Egypt. She carefully chose her words as she bowed her head. "He didn't trust that I'd get the job done right so he had me kidnapped so he could deal with them his own way."

"How dare you speak this way of him!" her mother shouted, not quite sure what had possessed her child to speak out against the Royal Vizier this way. Although Nefertiti did not trust the man fully, even she respected him to a point.

"I speak the truth!" Meritaten protested. "He kidnapped me and shoved me into the assault of stones, then ‘rescued' me to try to play the hero!"

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"Because he wants to be king!" she shouted, knowing as soon as the words escaped her lips she had overstepped her boundary with her accusations.

*  *  *  *  *

Khenti almost choked when he heard Ramla mention Kamenwati's name. He glared at her through narrow eyes as she simply sighed and shook her head. She made herself comfortable on a chair in the corner of the room but he began to pace the floor, not quite sure how to process the information he was just given. Ramla was the first to speak, much to his chagrin.

"Khenti, please sit down. I can explain everything better to you if you stop moving around so much."

"There's nothing to explain!" he shouted, stopping only to look up at her and then began pacing again.

"Khenti, please," she sat up straighter in the chair, trying to make her point clearer to him.

"Fine!" he stated blankly.

"Kamenwati doesn't know he's your father. In fact, he has no other kin but you."

"And why should I care?" he spat angrily, remembering the many arguments he had had with the man over the years. "He never bothered to care about me my whole life! And what's worse, he has been under my feet with anything I have tried to do for the people, claiming I'm too young to understand!"

"He's just being protective," she protested, sighing again, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere if he kept up his argument.

"But if he doesn't know I'm his son, why should he care to be protective? I've been perfectly capable of handling myself and my life all these years!"

"I know you have. Please, just sit down so I can explain everything to you," she begged, her eyes pleading with him.

"I'm not sitting and I'm not listening to your stupid story! My father is dead to me and has been for some time!"

"Your father will die if you don't stop them from killing him!" Now her voice was being raised to match his. "Khenti look, I know why your father left when he did and I know now that he needs—"

"He doesn't need anything! Least of all from me!" he shouted.

"Kamenwati abandoned you because he didn't know you were alive!" she sighed. "He thought you and your mother both died when the king ordered the temple to be destroyed."

"What?!" Now she had his attention and he stopped moving long enough to look at her wide-eyed.

"When the king moved our capital here, he ordered that all temples to the gods be demolished in order to build one new temple to his sun god, the Aten. Unfortunately, many people were still praying in them when they fell, including yourself and your mother. Kamenwati didn't abandon you on purpose, Khenti. He left because he thought you were dead!"

*  *  *  *  *

Nakhte returned to his home after having personally making sure Meritaten was escorted back to the North Riverside Palace. He found Mahu sitting in the central room scowling at him from the top of his eyes. Nakhte smiled at his friend's reaction as he entered the room and quietly sat down across from him, a table separating them. He was the first to break the silence.

"The king's daughter has been returned."

"And the others? Were they all arrested?" Mahu threw an evil glare at him.

"That was supposed to be your job, Mahu, not mine! If you can't keep track of your own arrests then that is not my problem!" Nakhte countered.

"And then what, Nakhte? Will you take all the credit and leave the rest of us to rot?"

"When I am king, you will be my second in command, my friend!" Nakhte smiled.

"And how will you dispose of the present king? Have you thought about that?" Mahu sounded angrier than before.

‘I've thought about it, yes. But I believe allowing his self-destruction will do that for me!"

"You think the king's own life will diminish on its own? Kings of Egypt have always had a longer life than the rest of us thanks to the gods!"

"Only one god, Mahu," he reminded him but quickly added his ideas into the quarrel. "His health will not fail him but his empire will!" he smiled. "Egypt's people are not going to rest until their demands are met. No matter how many we arrest, more will replace them."

"Are you giving up on your plans then?" Mahu raised his eyebrow hopefully.

"No, but kidnapping the king's daughter gave me the information I need to destroy him!" Nakhte chuckled.

"How so?"

"She was with them. She was at the rally at Baruti's when we grabbed her. All I have to do is expose her as one of them and her father's entire world will crumble!" Nakhte continued exposing his plan.

"But don't you think she will protest?"

"Yes, of course. But the king would surely trust the Vizier over his daughter. She can lie through her teeth because she is just a child but her sharp tongue and her wicked sex will play against her!"

"What did she admit to you?"

"The people of Egypt are angry with the way the king has treated them, which is evident by the way they stoned my house, but in the process they stoned the girl! The king will retaliate I'm sure with stricter laws or harsher taxes. He will keep his daughter well protected from them even though they have probably told her the truth of what her father has done."

"And then what?" Mahu pressed.

"How do you think the king will react when he realizes she's one of them?!" he exclaimed with glee, knowing the king will put him in charge again.

"Hmm," Mahu said, nodding his agreement. They both exchanged a laughter that soon filled Nakhte's house.
 

Continue to chapter 10