Free Tiy and the Prince of Egypt by Debbie Dee Page B

most fun she’d had in a long time. Ramose and the muscular boy joined in when their laughter escalated enough to include everyone, but for the most part, Tiy and Amenhotep conversed as just the two of them.
    Eventually , the girls Tiy’s age lined up. Tiy eyed the line, reluctant to join Kepi and her followers when she was having so much fun with Amenhotep on the wall.
    Petep leaned forward and smiled at Tiy. “How about we take a trip to Giza during the school holiday tomorrow? Do you boys want to come?”
    “Yes!” Amenhotep and the muscular boy answered in unison. They exchanged glances and laughed.
    “We don’t have class tomorrow?” Tiy asked.
    Petep ’s eyes brightened. “Not for the rest of the week, for the closing of the Akhet season.”
    Tiy furled her brow. Her old school never got holidays to celebrate the end of the seasons. They had the typic al festival days off of school—Opening of the Year, Sokar Festival, Ipet Festival, and even the newer festival of Ptah.
    The muscular boy nodded. “This may be our last chance to go this year,” he said.
    “I don’t know,” Ramose said. “ Maybe we should go somewhere else. Giza has been abandoned for years. We could run into trouble.”
    Amenhotep slapped Ramose’s back. “Relax, old man. We need some excitement in our lives.”
    Tiy smiled. Ramose couldn’t have been more than three or four years older than Amenhotep, certainly not an “old man” by any means. But by the grin on Ramose’s face, she didn’t think he minded the sentiment.
    The muscular boy nudged Tiy’s shoulder and she turned to him, noting his boxy features and eager smile. He also appeared older by a year or two and had a square jaw and low brows. She gave him an open smile, and he seemed to accept it as permission to talk to her, not that he needed her permission.
    “ Have you ever been to Giza?” he asked.
    “ No. Have you?”
    He grinned . “A dozen times. I can be your guide. I’m Merymose, by the way.”
    “I’m Tiy.”
    “I know who you are. Everyone knows you. You are the one who saved Prince Amenhotep.”
    Tiy shook her head. “Not so much saved as happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
    Merymos e raised an eyebrow. “That isn’t what I heard.”
    Tiy leaned in to whisper, “Do you believe all the palace gossip?”
    Merymose seemed to like her close proximity. He leaned in as well and whispered. “I believe all the wonderful things people say about you.”
    Tiy s traightened. Wonderful things? What wonderful things were there to say? She wanted to ask what he’d heard, despite how self-indulgent it would have sounded, but Amenhotep nudged her, and she forgot all about what Merymose had said.
    “Tiy, what are you two whispering about?” he asked.
    “It’s nothing,” Tiy said shrugging, happy to turn her attention back to Amenhotep. “He’s under the same delusions as everyone else.”
    “And what delusions are those?”
    “You know what people are saying, that I saved you from the desert storm . You and I both know you would have eventually figured out a way to save yourselves had I never shown up.”
    Amenhotep’s jaw set and his mo uth formed a line. “You don’t really believe the nonsense that just came out of your mouth, do you?”
    Tiy folded her arms and matched his hard stare. “Of course.”
    “Tiy,” he said , his voice low with exasperation.
    “It doesn’t matter anyway . Anyone would have done what I did.”
    “Not everyone would have known what to do in a sandstorm of that magnitude. It came naturally to you.”
    Tiy o pened her mouth to protest again, but he held up his hand, “Please,” he said, his voice turning soft, “don’t insult the memory of my friend. He died, and I would have too had you not been there.”
    Tiy clutched her writing board to her chest, wishing she could hide behind it. She never intended to disrespect the honor of Heru.
    “What else were you whispering about?” Amenh otep asked