Free A God Against the Gods by Allen Drury Page B

safety’s sake be given also an escort of a hundred soldiers from the garrison at Memphis.”
    Ramose bowed low again and withdrew. We three were left alone.
    “Thus,” my brother-in-law said, staring at me with insolent eyes, “will my son be safe.”
    “Thus will Amon be suitably honored, even as Ptah is honored,” I replied, staring back.
    “Thus will the peace and order of Kemet be kept,” my brother Aye said quietly, “as it is the duty of all of us to do.”
    This was a month ago, and in that month spies went to Memphis (my own, and Aye’s on Pharaoh’s service), plans were revised, supplies were increased; the agreed-upon number of priests and soldiers was assigned, two barges— Ptah Is Satisfied and Amon Is Gracious —were outfitted; and two weeks ago my nephew and his company set forth upon the river, heading south into the northward-flowing current.
    And so now Pharaoh and I are arriving at the landing at Karnak, and no word has come from the High Priest of Ptah and his flotilla. Last night they were encamped within half a day’s journey, as my spies told me and Aye’s, I am sure, told him; but nothing has been heard today, though they were expected in the fourth quarter of morning, in time for the boy to accompany his father to the temple.
    We had to leave without him: how sad.
    I see in my brother-in-law’s carefully veiled eyes and tensely held posture as he steps ashore, smile fixed and eyes straight ahead while he takes back his crook and flail from Ramose and prepares to follow me into the temple, that his worry is now beginning to consume him.
    My eyes do not meet his, I make no slightest gesture, no smallest sign of my own worry lest the venture go awry. I cannot afford to indicate by so much as the flicker of an eyelash any knowledge, any concern; and really, why should I?
    I am supported by the right, after all. It is not I who tried to pick a quarrel with Amon-Ra.
    ***

Tiye
    The new god fights to be born: Bes and Hathor are helping him. Amon’s priests, doctors, nurses, stand twittering about. What are they to me? Bes and Hathor and I will do it all, as we have done it twice before with Sitamon and Tuthmose, and as we shall do it again many times, until the House of Thebes has so many princes and princesses that not even Amon will dare attack us then.
    Aiee ,it hurts! But it is the new god, and I will stand the pain.…
    I would stand any pain for my husband, any pain for the House of Thebes, any pain for the land of Kemet, which I love. Nothing shall defeat the House of Thebes. Nothing shall betray the land of Kemet. I, Tiye, say so. I, Tiye, shall see that it is always true. I do not wear the Blue Crown but I am of the mettle of those who have. I could do it if I had to. I, Tiye, could rule, for I am as strong as Hatshepsut (life, health, prosperity!), as strong as Tuthmose I (life, health, prosperity!), as strong as Tuthmose III (life, health, prosperity!).
    I am stronger than Amonhotep III (life, health, prosperity!) though he is my husband and to him I owe much, for he has made me great.
    I give good measure for it. The Great Wife Tiye does not accept her honors without keeping her part of the bargain. I give him children. I give him counsel. I give him love. I give him strength. I know now, after twelve years in his bed, that I have sufficient strength to give him what he needs and still keep within, in some secret place known only to me, enough more to meet for us both whatever the gods may bring. I am not weak. I am stronger than he. This I know now.
    I did not know it when we married. Then I was as shy as he, pushed forward by my parents, Yuya and Tuya, and by my aunt Mutemwiya, when there was no sister he could marry, no heiress to the throne. We were ten, and pawns.
    We are not pawns now.
    At first it was a children’s game: Kemet loved us, we were taken everywhere, for months we were on constant display. Of Kemet’s five million people, probably two million at least came out