Queen of the Heavens (13 page)

All present bowed, and then lifted their heads as Harenhab began to speak with perfect diction in a strong voice so every guest could hear.

“I welcome all of you to this great feast. My life has been a good one, and I’m pleased to share with you the abundance the gods have bestowed upon me. Today, however, we celebrate more than the anniversary of my reign. We celebrate also the future of Egypt.”

Harenhab looked at Ramesses. “Stand next to me, my Vizier, for I have some welcome news.”

The crowd stood hushed as Ramesses took his place next to the Pharaoh.

“I look back with pride on my years as your ruler, but someday my reign must end,” Harenhab said. “Time has no favorites. Pharaohs and commoners alike eventually must succumb to it.”

Harenhab placed his hand on Ramesses shoulder. “The reason this man stands next to me should be apparent to all of you. I’ve looked throughout the realm for someone capable of succeeding me after I pass from this life to the next. I’ve found no one as intelligent, honest and loyal as Ramesses, so today I am naming him as my heir.”

The declaration of succession stunned all present, for no one anticipated such a pronouncement would be made at the feast. The guests remained silent for a time, but erupted in a cheer as Harenhab embraced an astonished Ramesses, who had just been elevated to the position of a son.

The Pharaoh soon raised his arms to quiet the crowd. “As of this day, Ramesses holds the title of Hereditary Prince of all Egypt. A statue of the two of us together will be erected at the Great Temple of Amun, casting our union in stone.”

Harenhab motioned to my husband. “Join us, Sety, and bring your wife.”

Sety and I quickly obliged.

“One of the reasons I chose Ramesses to succeed me is because he has a fine son to succeed him,” the Pharaoh said. “I’m confident Sety will learn much from his father and develop the skills and judgment to govern wisely when the gods decide it is his time to assume the throne.”

The Pharaoh nodded at me. “I’m also confident Sety and his wife Tuya will produce an heir capable of leading our glorious nation to even loftier heights. Now, I command you to celebrate the success of my reign, the future reign of Ramesses, and the marriage of Sety and Tuya. This is indeed a joyous day for our country.”

Harenhab sat down, signaling the revelry to resume, and it did so at a heightened pitch. Wine and beer flowed freely, and the servants brought on more food, including roasted gazelle. As the sun disk reached the western bluffs, palace guards lit torches so the feast could continue into the night.

A stream of people came by to offer good wishes to Harenhab and congratulations to Ramesses. They sought out Sety and me also to offer kind words on our marriage and to praise our elevation to royal status. After the well-wishers had slowed to a trickle, the Pharaoh asked us to sit next to him.

“This is a great day for your father and a great day for you, Sety. You are now a Prince,” Harenhab said.

“I’m honored, My Lord, and a bit overwhelmed.”

“That’s understandable, but I’m quite certain you’ll rapidly get used to your new position. If I may offer you some advice, study your father’s ways. He’s a fine soldier and a wise leader. Seek counsel from him, and from your wife. She brings to your marriage the compassion of Isis, which few men appreciate.”

The Pharaoh looked at me. “My dear, always remember you are a Princess not because of Ramesses, or Sety or me. The Neters made you one. They have done this for a reason, so never neglect your duty to them.”

I bowed my head. “I will not, My Lord.”

Harenhab’s voice became quite buoyant. “This is a grand celebration, but I suspect the two of you would rather do other things than linger here conversing with the guests or with an old man like me. You will stay for a week at a villa on the palace grounds used by visiting ambassadors. That way, Ramesses won’t be around to bother you. It has all you will need.”

The offer came as a surprise.

“Thank you, My Lord,” my husband said

“You are most generous,” I added.

“I ask but one thing. I’ve ordered a statue of Bastet to be placed in your bed chamber. I would like both of you to pray to her each day and ask for her blessings.”

I smiled at Harenhab. “Bastet is the goddess who helps women to conceive children. You wish us to waste no time producing an heir.”

The Pharaoh smiled back. “You see through my motives, Tuya. Yes, I do wish for you to begin having children. A son would ensure the stability of the new dynasty for three generations at least, but keep in mind that Bastet’s grace is not limited to the practical concern of child bearing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Bastet also is a goddess of sexual rites and lovemaking, and she desires young people to know the ecstasy of a passionate embrace. Be gone, and enjoy each other. You honor the gods by having pleasure.”

XIII

An officer escorted Sety and me to the nearby walled villa and opened the wooden gate.

“I will leave you here,” he said. “Servants will tend to your needs.”

We walked through the courtyard to a willow near the main entrance of the house where we stopped to embrace. I felt Sety grow hard underneath his kilt and my sacred place become warm. The passion excited yet scared me. I pushed Sety away just a bit and looked up at his eyes, which reflected the light of the full moon.

“I still have trouble comprehending what has happened to me,” I said. “Yesterday I was a commoner and today I am a Princess. My life is changing so rapidly.”

“It’s changing for the better, I would say.”

“Of course, but at times the change still frightens me. Making love with you frightens me as well.”

My confession distressed Sety. “Am I so terrifying?”

“No,” I said as I embraced my husband again and rested my head upon his chest. “I don’t fear you, but making love is new to me.”

“You’ll become accustomed to it,” Sety whispered in my ear. “Let us waste no time introducing you to its pleasures.”

A man and a woman my parents’ age greeted us as we entered the living quarters.

“My wife and I are here to serve you,” the man said. “Baths have been prepared.” He looked at Sety. “I will assist you if you like, My Lord.”

The woman looked at me. “And I will assist you, My Lady.”

Sety took my hand. “We’ll be clean and fragrant for each other.”

“We honor the Neters by being so,” I replied

We followed our respective servants into separate rooms. I removed my jewelry and wig, disrobed, and sat on a stone bench next to a sunken tub lined with limestone tiles. The servant poured water over me that had been heated in a hearth nearby. With the dust and sand now gone from my body, I lay down in the tub’s clean warm water. I had immersed myself daily in the lotus pond outside my home but never before had I bathed inside a dwelling.

I am truly blessed to know such luxury,
I said to myself. I closed my eyes and took pleasure in the stillness, until the servant’s voice shook me from my peaceful interlude. “We must continue, My Lady. Your husband awaits you.”

I climbed out of the tub and stood as the servant scrubbed my entire body with a course cloth and
swabu
scented with jasmine. The soapy paste turned into lather. The servant picked up a bronze razor with a handle of ivory.

“May I?” she asked.

“Yes, you may,” I answered. I shaved my whole body regularly at home and used unguents and tweezers as well, but it had been impossible to attend to my unwanted hair as completely as I wished in the confines of the palace boat. I was pleased the servant made the suggestion to shave me, for I did not want Sety to think the less of me.

I lay down on the bench, and with a delicate touch the servant shaved the new growth from my legs and arms and pubis. She shaved the barely visible hair from between my eyebrows, and with a finger closed one eyelid then the other and shaved the hair from them as well, though I didn’t know I had any. When she had finished, I stood so she could rinse my whole body again with warm water and dry me with a soft linen cloth.

“Should I assist you with your breasts?” the servant asked.

The question startled me. I had seen Mother with her breasts highlighted. Now mine were to be so adorned, a certain sign I had passed into womanhood.

“Yes, please,” I answered, hesitantly.

The servant sat across from me on a stool. She picked up a brush from a table nearby and dipped it in a jar containing a blue paint speckled with gold made from finally ground lapis lazuli, then carefully traced the barely visible veins that ran through my breasts to the nipples. The delicate brush strokes caused my nipples to harden.

“This drives men wild,” the servant said. “You’ll be most beautiful for your husband.”

“I’m nervous about tonight.”

“A wife is always nervous when she sleeps with her husband for the first time, but I suspect Sety is experienced. Allow him to guide you as you make love. He’ll enjoy introducing you to the joys of passion.”

“Will it hurt?”

“Yes, but if we never felt pain, how would we know pleasure?”

After finishing my breasts, the servant applied green paint to my eyes and a few drops of oil to my forehead and heart center.

“The scent is magnificent,” I declared.

“It’s made from the finest blue lotus, grown here at the palace.” The servant handed me a blue lotus blossom, its petals fully opened. “Close your eyes, cover your nose with the flower and breathe deeply.”

I did as suggested. White light flashed through my consciousness. The aroma overpowered all thought, which heightened my senses as I floated in a sea of rapture. A smile formed on my lips. “The fragrance is magical,” I said.

“It will work magic on your husband and help to incite his passion.”

“I’m not worried about Sety’s passion.”

“Of course not. Your time together is just beginning, but as you go through life, never take his passion for granted. You’ll need all your feminine wiles to keep him desiring you.”

Nonsense,
I thought.
How could Sety ever not want me? Isis wouldn’t permit it. Sety will have concubines and perhaps lesser wives, but certainly I’ll always remain foremost in his affection.

The servant handed me a finely textured dress. “Leave your other dress with me. I’ll see to it that it’s washed and pleated. Instead, wear this.”

The garment dropped from my waist to the floor, exposing my beautifully painted breasts. The diaphanous linen also left visible, though barely, my shapely hips and legs, and the rest of my feminine allure.

I reattached my earrings, slipped on my bracelets and fastened the necklace Sety had given me. The servant brought a new wig with silver rings at the tip of the braids and placed it atop my head. She handed me two blue lotus blossoms. “Give one to your husband and breathe their fragrance together.” The servant led me to Sety’s room. “Remember: let Sety guide you as you make love, and don’t worry about trying to please him. That will come in time.”

Sety, lying on a wooden bed, rose quickly as I walked through the door. He still wore black eye paint and the same jewelry as earlier in the day, but all that covered his body was a loin cloth. We stood a few paces apart and looked at each other by the flickering light of candles placed throughout the room.

“You’re the most beautiful woman in Egypt,” Sety said.

“You’re the handsomest man in all the land.”

“You have not yet seen all of me.”

Sety untied his loin cloth and tossed in on the bed. I gazed upon my husband’s muscular, shaven body and was pleased with what I saw. While we had not touched each other for quite some time, Sety’s thoughts of me, and now my presence, had aroused him.

“I would like to see your naked body, too,” Sety said.

The request, though not untoward, flustered me. Throughout my childhood I had played naked with friends. I had seen men working in the fields without clothes and entertainers performing with but the skimpiest of coverings, if any at all. Yet, I found standing naked for the first time with my husband to be more than disquieting.

I swallowed and held my breath. With the lotus blossoms in my right hand, I untied my dress with the left and allowed it to drop to the floor.

Sety smiled. “You’re perfect, like a goddess.”

I raised my head in a regal gesture. “I am a goddess.”

Sety walked to me and gently stroked my cheek. “Let us make love.”

My heart pounded in excitement and fear, and I wished to embrace my husband and flee from him at the same time. As I was about to accede to my husband’s desire, the Pharaoh’s words came to mind.

“Before passion overcomes us, we should honor Lord Harenhab’s request and pray to Bastet,” I said.

A look of disappointment crossed Sety’s face. “Must we do so now?”

“We can’t ignore the Pharaoh’s wishes.”

An onyx statue of the cat goddess, sitting on her haunches atop a scarab, had been placed on an altar in a corner of the room. We knelt before Bastet on sheepskins covered with a sheet of linen. I placed the lotus blossoms on the altar and lit incense from a lamp burning nearby.

“We should pray to Bastet for joy and happiness in our marriage, and for many children.”

Sety and I bowed before the goddess and prayed silently, which helped to settle me. When finished, we sat back on our heels. “It would be fitting if we made love before Bastet, under her protective gaze,” I said. “We can lie down on the sheepskins.”

“I’m sure that’s what they’re here for,” Sety whispered as he placed his hands on my shoulders and pulled me toward him. We rubbed noses and cheeks, and Sety gently guided me to the floor. I lay on my back and he lay sideways next to me, his head propped up by his left arm. With his right hand he caressed my body and felt my wetness.

“It’s like a pink lotus,” he said.

“It is a sacred place,” I noted, then remembered the blue lotuses.

I turned, took the blossoms from the altar and handed one to Sety. We placed them over our noses, and our bodies shuddered in delight as we inhaled the sensuous aroma.