Sphinx's Princess (38 page)

I wish I could have shifted my gaze a little, just to be able to see his expression when he spotted the smashed snake wrapped in my ruined gown, but dead people don’t do that. I had to content myself with hearing him gasp and splutter with confusion.

I sat up, grinned right into his shocked, bone-white face, and chirped: “Good morning, my prince. I slept
so
well last night, thanks to whatever that was in my beer, but I had
the
funniest
dream and now—isn’t it awful?—I’m going to need a new dress.”

He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. I rolled back and forth on my mat, laughing so hard that I almost couldn’t hear the sound of Thutmose bawling out my guards.

After a while, I heard him stomp away, cursing. The door opened and one of the guards came in looking like a whipped dog. Without a word, he bundled up my dress and the dead snake. “Maybe you should have warned Prince Thutmose about what he was going to find in here this morning!” I called after him. “He could’ve prepared himself for disappointment.”

“Shut up,” the guard muttered, closing the door.

I just laughed some more. I had no qualms about mocking him or his partner. Even if they hadn’t been the ones who dropped that leather bag into my room last night, they’d certainly been in on it. “I
know
you heard the racket I made killing the viper,” I shouted at the door. “You could’ve peeked in after things got quiet, just to see who’d won, me or the snake, but you stayed put. Cowards!”

“I said shut up!” the guard bellowed back. “Shut up or I’ll come in there and—”

“And I’ll give you what I gave that snake!”

The silence that followed was as sweet to me as a mouthful of honey.

Later on, I ate every bite of my breakfast. I wasn’t being foolhardy. When the servant who brought it set the dishes on the floor, he managed to murmur for my ears alone,
“With the compliments of Princess Sitamun.” He was wearing a pair of gold earrings that looked much too fine for a person of his rank.

I looked forward to seeing Sitamun, to thank her for looking out for me, but the day went on and she didn’t come. The guards changed shifts and the afternoon was nearly gone before my prison door opened again and Nava came in with her harp, alone.

“Where is Sitamun?” I asked as the child seated herself on the floor and prepared to play. Nava didn’t answer, but her fingers glided along the harp’s wooden frame until they touched a piece of papyrus stuck to the wood. She strummed a few notes with one hand and began to sing loudly while the other hand peeled the note from the harp frame and gave it to me to read.

What happened last night? Thutmose summoned me this morning. He was ranting about something you’d done, calling you an unnatural woman, but I couldn’t piece together anything sensible from his ravings. He forbids me to see you. He says the guards are ordered to turn me away if I come. I pray that they will let Nava pass. A child is harmless. Tell her everything and send her back to me. Whatever you did has set a monster free. May the gods shield you, my sister.

I didn’t want to do it. How could I tell Nava what had almost happened to me? It would petrify her.

Yes, but if I spare her, I may lose my chance for freedom
, I thought.
My chance for life.

“Nava?” I whispered. “Nava, can you be brave?”

Nava left me shortly after I gave her my message. My
little Habiru didn’t go straight back to Sitamun. I listened at the crack of the door as she talked with the guards. They were charmed.

“You remind me of my little sister, when she was a tyke,” one of them said. “Except she couldn’t even get decent sounds out of a sistrum!” They all laughed.

“What would you like me to play for you?” Nava asked sweetly. They called for a few popular tunes and clapped mightily as she finished each one. “I have to go now,” she said after the fifth song. “But I can play some more when I come back later.”

“You come back any time you like while we’re on duty, girlie!”

“Bah, just come any time,” the second man said. “We’ll tell the lads who’ve got the other shifts that you’re all right.”

“Poor donkeys,” said the first guard. “They got their ears yanked off them by Prince Thutmose. Any idea what they did?”

“Don’t ask me.” I could picture the other guard shrugging. “It doesn’t pay to rub shoulders with anyone that gets on
his
bad side.”

“I heard he’s having fits because something happened to that cat of his and that
this
one”—he rapped on my prison door—“is to blame.”

“What, that cat he used to take everywhere, the one with the white star on its forehead? Huh. I could’ve sworn I saw a cat like that just yesterday, when I was passing through the royal quarters.”

“And all the lads know why you were in
that
part of the palace,” his friend teased. “So, you’re romancing the queen’s hairdresser and you noticed a
cat?
That’s not what catches
my
eye when I’m with my sweetheart. Hey, little girlie, take some advice.” He was talking to Nava again. “Never marry a man who puts you second to a cat.”

“No, Master,” Nava said docilely.

“Good girl. You remember that and grow up to be a
smart
woman, eh? Keep your nose clean and your mouth shut and you won’t end up like the one we’ve got behind
this
door.”

“Yes, Master.”

“All right, all right, let’s see that pretty smile of yours again. That’s it. And you remember what I told you: Come back and see us any time.”

“Oh, I will, Master! Thank you very much.” I heard the sound of her little feet running off.

Clever Nava! Thutmose might not forbid her to return, but the chastened guards might have gotten more officious and done it. She’d prevented that by opening a good path between them. I wanted to cheer, but all I could do was smile. I couldn’t wait to see her again and praise her for her shrewdness in making my guards her friends.

I didn’t wait long. I heard one of the guards call out, “Well, look who it is!” and then: “What’s this, sweetheart? Brought us something, did you?”

“It’s cake,” Nava said. “Honey cake, my favorite! My mistress, Princess Sitamun, wants you to have it so you’ll treat Lady Nefertiti nicely, because she likes her.”

“Hmmm, something for
us
from Princess Sitamun?” The second guard sounded dubious. “She’s not allowed to visit anymore. You think we should trust this stuff?”

There was a lot of muttering on the other side of the door and then Nava’s voice saying, “Can
I
have it if you don’t want it?” Then I heard her gobbling.

“Hey, save some for us!” Soon the guards were digging into the cake as well. I could still hear them stuffing their faces when they let Nava into my room.

This time Sitamun’s message was folded up small and tucked into the wide belt of Nava’s dress:
The child told me everything. I am so afraid. If you stay, I know Thutmose will try again to kill you, and this time he won’t underestimate you. He’ll see to it that you have nothing you can use as a weapon, then he’ll destroy you and make it seem to be mischance. May Imhotep heal my brother, he has a demon in him. You must flee tonight. I am doing all that I can to make this happen. We have help—I won’t say who, in case this message reaches the wrong eyes. May the gods grant that we meet again in this life, my sweet sister, and not in the Field of Reeds.

I gave the papyrus back to Nava, who was strumming her harp but not singing yet. “Did you read this?” I asked under my breath. She looked embarrassed, but she nodded. “Good. Because—don’t stop playing, Nava—because this means that when I leave, you’re coming with me.”

“Oh, I knew
that
,” Nava replied. She smiled at me and began to sing. Soon the two of us were singing together.

She left me when the servant came with my dinner and to light my lamp. I didn’t have any of the extra oil left, but that didn’t matter. I wouldn’t need it tonight.
Who’s going to
go out first, me or the lamp?
I thought, trying to hearten myself with a lame joke.

The servant was the same man who’d brought my breakfast, so I ate my dinner just as confidently. Even so, I sniffed everything I was given, food and drink alike, just to be sure nothing smelled like last night’s beer or that “funny milk.” As I was disposing of the last mouthful, I heard the guards take notice of something.

“Well, look who’s back! It’s our little girlie. Brought us more honey cake?”

“Whoa, what’s in that monstrous huge jar you’ve got there? It’s bigger than you!”

“Looks like a beer jug to me. Is that it, girlie? You bringing the lady some beer?”

Nava’s voice came through the door: “It’s not beer; it’s wine. Princess Sitamun sent it. She said not to drop it or spill even
one
splash or I’m in trouble.”

“Hmph. Must be pretty good wine, then.”

I heard a slap and then an exasperated: “Of
course
it’s good wine, you dung-brain!
From
a princess
for
a princess, it’s not going to be like that sour swill you and I get to drink when we’re lucky. By Bes, I hate that stuff!”

“You drink enough of it when you can.”

“Well, it makes a change from beer.”

Nava spoke up again: “It
is
good. Really good. I tried it.”

“What, a little tadpole like you got to drink royal wine? You’ve got a generous mistress if she’s giving you this stuff.” There was a silence, then the guard’s voice again: “Ohhhh. So
that’s
how it is. Look at that guilty little face! She didn’t give you any; you helped yourself.”

“Let me see that jar,” the other guard said. “Aha! The seal’s broken.” Both of them clucked their tongues so loudly that there was no doubt they were clowning.

“Please, Master, don’t tell Princess Sitamun!” Nava cried.

“Welllll … maybe we won’t tell if you share a little of that wine with us,” one guard said. The other chuckled.

“Oh, I can’t do that!” Nava said. “This is for Lady Nefertiti.”

“That didn’t stop you from dipping
your
beak into it, my fine little goose.” The men were enjoying this. Guard duty was tedious, and they were glad to have any kind of diversion.

“Come on, just a taste,” the other wheedled.

“No.”
Nava was unbending. “You can’t have a taste. You can’t have
any.
I won’t let you!”

“We’ll see about that,” came the good-humored response. There was a scuffle and the sound of Nava’s protests, though they weren’t very loud. Judging by what I heard next, the guards were passing the jar back and forth between them.

“Say, this
is
good.”

“Save some for me, you guzzler.”

“Stop whining, you had some.”

“And you’re having plenty! Give it back.”

“Stop it! Stop it!” Nava cried. “You’re going to drink it all! Don’t you
dare
, or I’ll—I’ll—”

“Oh ho, making threats now?” one guard said. “I’m so scared. I guess we’d better obey her before—” He took such
a big slurp that the noise carried through my prison door, followed by the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground. “Awww, too late. Sorry, girlie.”

“You’re mean! I
hate
you!” Nava exclaimed. I pressed one eye to the crack between the door hinges and saw her pelting away while the guards doubled over laughing.

I sighed. Some men were nothing but overgrown boys who never got over the “fun” of teasing girls, just to get noticed.
They’ll be sorry about this in a little while
, I thought.
They’ll apologize to Nava when she returns.
I knew she would—how else was I going to receive Sitamun’s next message, the one that would tell me the plan to free me from prison?

I looked up at my window. Night had fallen. I caught a glimpse of the moon, showing half his face.
I hope she comes back soon.
I gathered up the loose material of my dress and secured it with the pin Sitamun had left me. I wanted to be ready. Then I sat down on my sleeping mat and pricked up my ears, waiting to hear the guards hailing Nava’s return and begging their “little girlie’s” pardon.

Time passed and I heard nothing, not even the sound of the guards’ voices. Where was Nava? What was wrong? Had Sitamun’s scheme to free me been discovered? If Thutmose had found out what his sister was planning, everyone would suffer for it.
Not Nava
, I prayed.
Please, sweet Isis, not the child!

I was praying fervently, my eyes closed, my arms extended in supplication, when I heard the creak of the door edging open.

“Nefertiti?” Nava clung to the doorpost, her face painted with the oil lamp’s dancing shadows.

We crept away together, past the sprawled and snoring bodies of my guards. Nava took impish joy in telling me how she’d tricked the men into drinking the “funny wine.”

“Master Henenu went to that old doctor and told him he couldn’t sleep. Then
he
gave the medicine to Princess Sitamun, and
she
put it in the wine, but it was
me
who got them to drink it, every drop! That’s because I told them
no.
”

I patted her head and murmured praises. I did feel a pang of pity for those men—Thutmose would have their hides for this—but my life was at stake, and now others’ as well.

I found everything as Sitamun had described it. The small building where I’d been kept was all by itself in a deserted enclosure; the wall that Nava led me to was high, but not so high that I couldn’t boost her to the top and climb up after. The beautiful sound of the sacred river’s flowing waters came to us from a distance. I jumped down from the wall and caught Nava in my arms as she dropped. With the child’s hand in mine, we moved swiftly to the riverbank, seeking the boat that Sitamun had promised.

By the moon’s weak light, I saw a dark shape rocking in the shallows. The small vessel was the same type that poor Mahala had used when she saved me from drowning, made of bundled papyrus lashed together and curving up at both ends. The ferryman crouched by the oar, his bent body
cloaked head to heels, though the night wasn’t that cold. I couldn’t see his face, only one hand silently beckoning us to board. As Nava and I picked our way forward, I saw that the bottom of the boat held bags of supplies and bulging water-skins. I thanked Sitamun in my heart and hoped she’d also sent me another dress to wear.