Nefertiti Read Free

“He wants to be rid of them?”
    “Yes.” My father nodded. “And go against all the laws of Ma’at.”
    I sucked in my breath. No one went against the goddess of truth. “But why?”
    “Because the crown prince is weak,” my father explained. “Because he is weak and shallow, and you should learn to recognize men who are afraid of others with power, Mutnodjmet.”
    My mother threw a sharp glance at him. It was treason, what my father just said, but there was no one to hear it above the splash of the oars.

    Nefertiti was waiting for us. She was recovering from fever, but even so she was sitting in the garden, reclining by the lotus pool, the moonlight reflecting off her slender arms. She stood up as soon as she saw us, and I felt a sort of triumph that I had seen the prince’s funeral and she’d been too sick to go. Guilt swept this feeling away, however, when I saw the longing in her face.
    “Well, how was it?”
    I’d planned on having the information drawn out of me, but I couldn’t be cruel the way she could be. “Absolutely magnificent,” I gushed. “And the sarcophagus—”
    “What are you doing out of bed?” my mother scolded. She was not Nefertiti’s mother. She was only mine. Nefertiti’s mother had died when her daughter was two; she’d been a princess from Mitanni and my father’s first wife. She was the one who gave Nefertiti her name, which meant the Beautiful One Has Come . And though we were related, there was no comparing us: Nefertiti was small and bronze, with black hair, dark eyes, and cheekbones you could cup in the palm of your hand, whereas I am dark, with a narrow face that would never be picked out of a crowd. At birth, my mother didn’t name me for beauty. She called me Mutnodjmet, meaning Sweet Child of Goddess Mut .
    “Nefertiti should be in bed,” my father said. “She’s not feeling well.” And although it was my sister he should have been reprimanding, it was me to whom he spoke.
    “I’ll be fine,” Nefertiti promised. “See, I’m better already.” She smiled for him, and I turned to see my father’s reaction. Like always, he had a soft look for her.
    “Nevertheless,” my mother cut in, “you were hot with fever and you will go back to bed.”
    We let ourselves be herded inside, and when we lay on our reed mats, Nefertiti rolled over, her profile sharp in the light of the moon. “So, what was it like?”
    “Frightening,” I admitted. “The tomb was huge. And dark.”
    “And the people? How many people were there?”
    “Oh, hundreds. Maybe even thousands.”
    She sighed. She had missed a chance to be seen. “And the new crown prince?”
    I hesitated. “He…”
    She sat up on her pallet, nodding for me to go on.
    “He is strange,” I whispered.
    In the moonlight, Nefertiti’s dark eyes glittered. “How do you mean?”
    “He is obsessed with Aten.”
    “With what? ”
    “With an image of the sun,” I explained. “How can you honor an image of the sun and not Amun-Ra, who controls it?”
    She was quiet. “That’s it?”
    “He’s also tall.”
    “Well, he can’t be that much taller than you.”
    I ignored her criticism. “He’s much taller. Two heads over Father.”
    She wrapped her arms around her knees and replied, “This should be interesting, then.”
    I frowned. “What?”
    She didn’t explain.
    “What should be interesting, then?” I repeated.
    “Marriage,” she said lightly, lying back down and pulling the linen cover over her chest. “With a coronation so close, Amunhotep will need to pick a Chief Wife, and why not me?”
    Why not her? She was beautiful, educated, the daughter of a Mitanni princess. I felt a sharp stab of jealousy, but also fear. I had never known a time without Nefertiti.
    “Of course, you’ll come with me,” she said, yawning. “Until you’re old enough to be married, you’ll be my Chief Lady.”
    “Mother wouldn’t allow me to go to the palace alone.”
    “You wouldn’t be alone. She’d