Chapter 15
Boredom filled Nefertiti’s time. She hated laziness and having nothing to do. She always had to be doing something, anything. Thus, the former Great Royal Wife spent many free hours raising her step-son, Tutankhaten, whom she’d become quite fond of.
A servant, his head lowered, entered carrying her lunch tray.
“Just put it down on the table,” Nefertiti ordered.
The servant placed the food on the designated area, but he did not leave.
Nefertiti flashed him an annoyed look. “I don’t need anything more. You may go.”
The servant looked up, a broad grin upon his face.
Nefertiti gasped. “Howymose!”
Howymose bowed low. “At your service, my queen.”
“I am not a queen any longer--”
“Only a lady of the court.” Howymose smiled.
“A disgraced lady at that.”
At least she has a sense of humor about it, he thought to himself.
Nefertiti quickly motioned for him to sit down next to her. “What brings you here anyway?”
“The Cause.”
“I should have guessed.”
He paused and looked at the dignified woman in silence for a woman. She looked so strong as though nothing could penetrate into her soul. Finding the courage to ask what was on his mind, he inquired, “Do you regret joining us at all?”
“No. I did what the gods deemed necessary to save my soul. When I pass on, no doubt I will have made up my youthful mistakes. Now tell me all that has happened with all you and The Cause. First, though, Nefret... did she get caught?”
“Yes, but Alexhotep got her out using the secret passage you informed him of.” Howymose then filled Nefertiti in on Nefret’s newfound happiness with Brianamun, Meritaten’s marriage to Smenkhkare (which Nefertiti knew of), her pregnancy (which Nefertiti didn’t know about), and the new plan concerning the boy-prince.
Nefertiti frowned at him. “I’m not happy with that. Tutankhaten is only a mere boy! He shouldn’t be the puppet behind a conspirator’s ploy!”
Howymose glanced at the door nervously, hoping that her raised voice would not attract attention.
Nefertiti suddenly calmed down, but she was now defensive and as icy as she had once been.
Howymose sighed. “We only want to make him into a good king,” he explained.
“We want him to be the first to bring the Two Lands back to into the light and away from the darkness Akhenaten has brought it to. Tutankhamun will be a great king. I have a gut feeling about this--a premonition.”
Nefertiti’s defenses dropped. “I hope you’re right, Howymose.”
“You’ll be out of here as soon as we can get Akhenaten and Smenkhkareout of the picture. You’ll be an influential image in court again in no time. I just hope whatever it is that Brianamun’s planning will turn out well.”
“We all do,” she responded kindly. “Now to get to Tutankhaten’s rooms...”
****
Howymose slipped out of Nefertiti’s sitting room and followed her precise directions to Tutankhaten’s chambers.
His head lowered, he prayed that no one would recognize his face. Once again, he was glad that he worked behind-the-scenes so often.
Howymose found the boy playing a board game with his nurse when he entered.
The nurse looked up, questioningly.
“I have been told to escort Your Royal Highness upon your walk,” Howymose stated.
The nurse nodded while Tutankhaten jumped up with a burst of energy. “Thank the gods!” he exclaimed.
His nurse quickly clapped her hand over his mouth.
Guiltily, Tutankhaten lowered his eyes.
Howymose pretended not to have noticed anything unusual. “Come, my prince.”
Howymose took Tutankhaten in with his eyes. Tall and skinny, Tutankhaten had a round, youthful face with wide, bright eyes. He had close-cropped dark brown hair. From a brief glance, one could tell that, like his father, he was a philosopher and wanted to learn all that he could get his hands on. Unlike Akhenaten, however, Tutankhaten was athletic, energetic, and--only at eleven--more masculine than his father had ever been or ever would be.
As the two walked, Tutankhaten rambled on and on. He treated his servants as equals, and they were his only friends.
“My nurse, Wia, tells me legends about other, pagan gods. I’m not supposed to talk about them, but they’re interesting. One even came to me in a dream and told me all sorts of things. But he made me swear not to talk about them with other people.”
“What did he look like?” Howymose asked casually.
“He wasn’t in his real form, or so he told me. He came as a ram... I believe that I dreamt of the god whose name my father has forbidden, but since I’ve never, ever seen my father...”
Rams are sacred to Amun, Howymose thought.
“Amun,” Tutankhaten was saying. “I like him... He was kind to me and spoke comforting, nice words to me.”
“Amun is the god of all--”
“Like Aten?”
“No. Aten is only a minor deity who was raised to become the all-powerful god by your father. The role that he holds belongs to Amun, not himself. Akhenaten had no right to do such a thing... angering the gods.”
“That sounds like something he’d do,” Tutankhaten said, nodding thoughtfully.
Mature, Howymose noted. Aloud, he went on, “Those gods Wia, your nurse, told you of are no doubt the true gods of Egypt. Were their names Osiris...? Isis? Hathor? Horus?...”
Tutankhaten nodded vigorously. “That’s them! Well... some of them. They’re so many. Plus, Amun of course and Mut and Khonsu...”
“You mustn’t talk about them in front of the other servants. They wouldn’t understand. They’d think you were betraying your country.”
“But that’s what my father’s really doing, right?”
“That’s it. I must return to my other duties now. I’ll most likely be back, or someone else who has been sent by me will be.”
“What’s your name anyway?”
“Call me... Howymose.”
“ ‘Born’,” the boy murmured to myself. “Born of what?”
“A new birth!” Howymose called over his shoulder, leaving the boy-prince in wondering awe.