Queen of the Heavens (26 page)

Sety sat down on a stool, held his head in his hands and sobbed. I knelt next to my husband and placed an arm around him.

“My darling, shock and sorrow overcome you. Allow me to stay beside you and comfort you.”

I felt Sety relax into my embrace. He turned toward me and cried into my breasts as if he were a child. I held him tightly and felt the energy of his heart enter mine, as the eternal in both of us joined as one. Through grief we felt love, but Sety’s body soon stiffened and he pushed me away. We rose and faced each other.

“You, comfort me?” he said. “What makes you think you can comfort me, Tuya?”

Sety walked to a basin filled with water, washed the tears from his eyes and dried his face with a cloth. “I will comfort myself,” he said, as he walked out of the tent.

Alone with Ramesses’ corpse, I brushed away two flies that had alighted upon his eyelids and covered him again with the linen. I sat down on a stool next to the bed and cried for Ramesses, but also for Sety and me.

Our love has not vanished, for it exists in the eternal within us. Why will Sety not allow himself to feel it?

After a short while, I washed away my own tears at the basin and dried my face with the same cloth Sety had used. The officer who accompanied me from Thebes met me as I left the tent.

“Ramesses is dead,” I said.

“Yes, My Lady. Sety just informed me.”

“The Pharaoh’s body must be returned quickly to Thebes. There’s no time to waste for the embalmers to begin working on him.”

“The boat that brought you here will be taking him back immediately,” the officer said. “The Prince already has gone to the river and will accompany his father’s body. You are to stay here in his tent and await another boat.”

I grimaced, stung by Sety’s refusal to allow me to join him.

Nebet waited inside the tent with a cup of tea for me made from chamomile. I took a sip.

“Ramesses is dead,” I told her.

“I know. The word has passed quickly through the camp. I will pray for his soul.”

“Pray for my husband as well, for now the responsibilities of Pharaoh fall upon him.”

A glum expression crossed Nebet’s face. “If you insist, but I don’t know how sincere I can be. He treats you poorly, and I don’t like him for that.”

“Sety’s treatment of me is of little consequence. He now must rule Egypt. Pray with sincerity that he be granted the wisdom and fortitude to succeed in his divinely appointed duties.”

“Yes, My Lady.”

“Nebet,” I said, as she was about to leave the tent. She turned. “Pray for me as well, for now I must bear the responsibilities of being Queen next to a husband who despises me.”

“I will say many prayers for you, My Lady.”

I took another sip of tea, sat down on a stool and brought forth in my mind the image of Thoth.

Grant me insight and give me guidance as I face the challenges ahead
, I silently asked the god of wisdom. Then I began reciting aloud the spells that would assist Ramesses’ soul during the perilous journey through the demon-infested
duat
, and into the realm of bliss.

XXVI

The next morning, soldiers hailed a palace boat coming from Aswan. The hold was filled with spices and incense brought there from the mysterious land of Punt, a place far to the south where few Egyptians ever traveled. Fine pieces of red granite from the Aswan quarries cluttered the deck. Two minor provincial officials on their way to Thebes occupied the living quarters, but they debarked so Nebet and I could take their place.

When we boarded, Nebet looked annoyed.

“You deserve much better than this,” she said. “A Princess shouldn’t have to step around stones when she walks to her cabin.”

“I prefer riding in this boat to waiting at the encampment for a more suitable one,” I told her.

“At least the crew could unload it,” she continued. “The smell of all the incense and spices overwhelms the nose.”

“That would take all day. I want to be home with my children, not waiting here.”

“As you wish, My Lady, but you must be mindful of appearances. The people expect the royal family to travel only in luxury.”

“I shall be,” I assured Nebet, recalling Lord Harenhab’s observation that the Pharaoh always stood at the center of the world. Since I would be standing next to him, I, too, would be at its center, with all eyes upon me.

The gentle current, rather than a strong wind and oarsmen, propelled the vessel and we stopped for the night, so it took two days for us to reach Thebes. When I arrived back at the estate just before dusk, I found Sety on the terrace taking a meal of pigeon, lettuce and leeks. Though uninvited, I sat down next to him.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Not well, but I must remain purposeful,” Sety answered, staring into the distance. “There’s much to do in preparation for my father’s entombment. His reign lasted but two years. Why was he not allowed to rule longer?”

“It is not for us to question the will of the Neters,” I said. “Perhaps Ramesses achieved all he was supposed to in this world and the time had arrived for him to move on to the next.”

“I find that hard to believe, Tuya. He wished to accomplish so much.”

“The mysteries of the Divine Pageant are many,” I replied. “Perhaps out of love for you his soul chose to depart from the earthly realm.”

Sety looked at me, quizzically. “Love for me?”

“Yes, so that you might ascend quickly to the throne and face the challenges that will enable your soul to progress in its journey to the afterworld.”

“I could have waited. His reign was so short there wasn’t even time to fashion an adequate tomb. The passageway is but ten or twelve paces long. Men will labor throughout the nights to cut a burial chamber at the end of it. Then the artists will begin work.”

“I’m certain Ramesses will have a fine tomb,” I said.

“He had better.”

Sety rose, leaving his meal unfinished. “After today, I will be living at the palace. I must be near my ministers and generals. You must prepare to move into the palace with the children.”

A frown crossed my face.

“Why so sullen?” Sety asked. “You should be pleased. As the Great Royal Wife, you’ll know greater splendor than any woman in the world.”

“I would be pleased, if you and I could rekindle at least some of the passion we once knew.”

“That’s impossible.”

“All things are possible.”

“Is that so? Then why is my father not alive?” Sety snapped. “A few days ago you told me bringing Ramesses back to life was impossible. You were correct. I was a fool to think otherwise, but don’t tell me now that all things are possible.”

“Your father’s body perished, but his soul survives, for it is eternal,” I replied in a gentle voice. “Our love is eternal and survives as well. Allow yourself to feel that love.”

For a moment, Sety looked at me as if he might still feel love deep in his soul. Then his body stiffened and he glowered at me. “Please, Tuya. Permit me to mourn without having to listen to your silly musings.”

I sat on the terrace alone for a while, then walked to the room where Hint-mi-re was sleeping. Though troubled by the encounter with my husband, I felt a touch of bliss as I stroked my daughter’s hair.

In the next room, young Ramesses sat on the floor, his bottom wrapped in linen, rolling a ball back and forth with Nebet. Joy gushed from him when he saw me. He reached out as he stumbled in my direction. I lifted him in my arms and sat down in a chair.

“Bow, bow,” he said, which was one of the few words he knew.

I asked Nebet to fetch Ramesses’ toy weapon. He took it in his left hand and giggled as he pulled the string with his right again and again. While he had held the bow often, I had not seen him draw it properly before.

“You know how to use a bow without even being taught. This bodes well,” I said. The child was too young to understand my words, but he no doubt sensed my sentiments, and I noted a hint of pride in his expression.

I held Ramesses for a while. He looked perplexed when I returned him to Nebet, but he didn’t cry out for his mother since he still had his bow to keep him occupied.

In the garden, I found Tjia, trying to catch a hopping locust. The naked child ran to me and I stooped to hug her.

“Father is very sad,” she said. “He told me Grandfather has gone west.”

“Yes, he has, my darling.”

“When will he be coming back?”

“He won’t be returning. The Pharaoh’s soul has passed into the afterworld, in the direction of the setting sun.”

“Does this mean Grandfather’s dead?”

I sat down on a nearby stone bench with Tjia next to me, her legs dangling in the air. I put my arm around her.

“It does,” I said.

Tjia’s eyes filled with tears. “Then he won’t ever play with me again.”

Tears filled my own eyes. “He will not play with you in this world, but you will see him again, when your own soul goes west many years from now on its own journey to the afterworld.”

My daughter turned her head into my side and cried as I held her.

“Do you promise?” she asked.

“I promise,” I assured her.

To mourn the Pharaoh’s passing, I shaved my eyebrows and secluded myself in the early morning and evening, chanting the ancient spells on behalf of Ramesses’ soul.

During the daytime, I supervised servants as they filled trunks with the family’s belongings for shipment to the royal residence. I also collected Ramesses’ effects that were suitable for entombment with him.

First, I sent amulets to be wrapped with many others in the linen of his mummy. They included six silver scarabs, a coiled ivory serpent, a golden vulture, and an onyx head of Sekhmet. I also sent larger items for the tomb, among them a gilded statue of Bastet, several alabaster plates for dining and faience chalices for wine.

Ramesses had enjoyed playing
senet
, so I sent a board with silver and gold pieces so his spirit might continue playing the game in the afterworld.

Sety also asked me to commission someone to make
ushepties
. These tiny figures of servants seemed still and lifeless on the earthly plain. When sealed inside the tomb, however, their essence would come to life in the realm inhabited by the
ka
. The
ushepties
would do Ramesses’ bidding, so he would not have to trouble himself with any form of labor.

I asked the man reputed to be the finest wood sculptor in Thebes to come to the estate. His appearance surprised me, for he was ancient and stooped and had knuckles so swollen they locked his fingers in place. His face held the grimace of perpetual pain.

“You are the renowned sculptor?” I asked.

“Yes, My Lady,” he answered after he had bowed.

“How do you practice your craft with hands such as yours?”

A look of sadness crossed the old man’s face. “I no longer do, but I have four sons who learned from me. Their skills equal mine when they were at their best.”

The sculptor’s woes distressed me. Without his knowing, I directed energy from my heart into his hands.

“Very well,” I said. “I wish for your sons to create a
usheptie
for each day of the year of the finest wood and gilt to be entombed with Ramesses’ mummy. I’ll pay you well if they meet my expectations.”

The old sculptor grinned. “My family has been crafting
ushepties
for royal tombs since the reign of the first Pharaoh Tuthmosis. You honor us by requesting we do the same for Ramesses.”

“Bring the first ones here in three days so I may see if they are of sufficient quality.”

“You will have them in two, My Lady.” The old man looked at his hands and wiggled his fingers. “This is strange. Much of the pain has left me. I feel as if I could carve some of the
ushepties
myself. Perhaps knowing my work would rest in the tomb of the beloved Ramesses has limbered my fingers.”

I smiled. “Perhaps.”

With much to do, the traditional seventy days between death and burial passed quickly. In the early morning six days before the entombment, Sety and I sat side by side in the courtyard of the Great Temple of Amun. A gold coffin, shaped like a man and holding the Pharaoh’s mummy, rested on a litter a few paces in front of us. The lid had been fashioned to look like Ramesses in life, wearing the
nems
and
uraeus,
right wrist atop left, holding the crook and flail crossed before his heart center.

A drummer began beating a slow cadence, signaling twelve litter bearers in immaculate white kilts and copper bands around their powerful upper arms to come forward. Straining under the weight of the gold, they lifted the coffin to their shoulders and began walking in step toward the rear of the temple. Sety followed, leading a long line of priests in a somber procession to the sanctuary, where he and the High Priest would perform funeral rites.

I remained seated. In front of me, and to my right, twenty of the most massive columns I had ever seen dwarfed the courtiers who stood underneath. Mammoth rectangular stones extended from capital to capital forming a roof. This was the beginning of the Hall of Columns Lord Harenhab had conceived and Ramesses had vowed to build. Many years remained before completion, but I could see even now the Hall would rival the Pyramids of Giza in grandeur.

I chanted the sacred spells until the procession returned, then joined Sety as it continued to the river. The litter bearers placed the coffin under the wooden canopy of the small gilded funeral boat that had carried the mummy of Lord Harenhab from Memphis two years before. Ramesses would be entombed in the great valley directly across the Nile from Thebes, but his mummy first had to be taken to Abydos so funeral rites again could be performed, this time in the place where Isis resurrected Osiris.

I followed Sety onto the Pharaoh’s great boat, to which the funeral boat was tethered, and stood on its deck for the first time. The huge, immaculate vessel was like a small palace. The officers were handsome to a man, and even the oarsmen held great dignity in their countenance.

“You are impressed,” Sety noted as I looked around.