Free Tutankhamun: The Book of Shadows by Nick Drake

am Maia.’
    â€˜Your name means nothing to me.’
    She clicked her tongue in annoyance.
    I finished drying my hands.
    â€˜I was the wet nurse to the King. He fed from me from the day he was born. Now I care for him as no one else can.’
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    She must have lived in the city of Akhetaten. She must have witnessed the life of Akhenaten, and the royal family, from close quarters. It was known the King’s mother was Kiya, who had been a rival royal wife to Nefertiti. But Kiya had disappeared. And then, later, Tutankhamun, son of Kiya, had been married to Ankhesenamun, the child of Nefertiti. The children of enemies, both fathered by Akhenaten, last survivors of their lines, married to each other. From a political point of view it was a great alliance. From theirs it must have been hell, for stepchildren rarely love each other, even less so when great power and treasure are at stake.
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    She nodded as she watched me work this out.
    â€˜What do you wish to say to me?’
    She glanced around, cautious even here.
    â€˜Do not trust that girl. She has the blood of her mother.’
    â€˜She is the Queen. As was her mother. Why should I not trust her?’
    â€˜For all your power, you know nothing. You cannot see what is there. You are dazzled like a fool before gold.’
    I felt the grip of anger at my throat.
    â€˜Man of pride. Man of vanity. Think! Her mother disposed of her rival, Kiya, the mother of my King. That must not be forgotten. It must never be forgiven. It should be avenged. And yet you come like a dog to wait at her door.’
    â€˜You sound like a marketplace storyteller. And you have no proof of anything you say. And even if you are right, it was all a long time ago.’
    â€˜I have the proof of my eyes. I see her for what she really is. She isthe child of her dynasty. Nothing changes. So I come to warn you. Her care is not for her husband. Her care is all for herself.’
    I moved closer to her. She drew herself deeper into her robes.
    â€˜I could have you arrested for this.’
    â€˜Arrest Maia? The King will not allow it. He is my child, and I speak out from love for him. For no one else loves him. Without me he is alone in this palace. And besides, I know their names. I know the names of the shadows.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜Shadows have powers,’ she replied, and with those enigmatic words she slid away along the dark wall, and vanished.

8
    At the jetty, Khay gave me a papyrus of authority that would allow me to enter the Malkata Palace again, and to request an audience with him at any time. He told me he lived within the royal quarters. I should make use of him whenever I needed. Everything he said made it clear he was the pass to all gates, the man whose word was law, whose every whisper was heard in the ear of power. As I turned away, he offered me a leather bag.
    â€˜What’s this?’
    â€˜Consider it a small advance.’
    I looked inside. It contained a good-quality gold ring.
    â€˜Why is it a small one?’
    â€˜I trust it will be adequate.’
    His voice ground the words like grit under a millstone. He turned and left without waiting for any response I might have cared to offer.
    I stood at the stern of the boat, looking backwards as it was rowed away, until the palace containing its lonely Queen and its strange,clandestine young King disappeared behind the ramparts of the great lake’s defences.
    The boat left me discreetly in a far corner of the docks, and I walked back past the hundreds of moored boats, each with their painted eyes, shifting and knocking against each other on the surface of the river’s dark currents, their sails folded and stowed, and their crews and some of the dock workers sleeping on the decks and in the shadow of the heaps of goods, curled into their dreams like ropes into a coil. At the far end of the dock, in the dark, I noticed, to my surprise, two boats being unloaded of their