Tiy and the Prince of Egypt (8 page)

He sighed and stood
. “Do you want to meet me in the morning before we leave for Giza?”

“Here?”

“No, there is a place by the Nile just outside the third pylon. It’s hidden from view from most of the palace so you might have to pass it a couple of times before you spot it. I found it by accident a few years ago. I’ll be there at first light if you want to come.”

“
Will it be safe for you outside the palace? Maybe we should wait to go to Giza until we find this man who tried to kill you.”

Amenhotep jabbed her shoulder playfully. “Not you too! Ramose thinks I should lock myself up in my chambers until my father returns.”

“Maybe he is right, just until they figure out who is behind this.”

“Where is t
he fun in that?” He flashed a smile.

Tiy couldn’t help but smile in return. “
Okay, I’ll meet you in the morning. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“Of
course it will. You’ll be there!”

Tiy barked a l
augh. “Right, because I’m your Desert Guardian. That is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Amenhotep shrugged.
He pointed her in the direction of her courtyard and wished her a good night. He left rather suddenly, she thought. She shook her head. What did she know of the habits of a prince? She left the royal courtyard with a smile on her face. Tomorrow she would meet her friend in a secret oasis.

Tiy found Amenhotep the next morning lounging on a wide rock with his feet dangling in the Nile. He was right about it being hidden from view—she was lucky to have even found it. Surrounded by trees and thick shrubs, it was a perfect haven that far exceeded the privacy and comfort of her quiet little spot in Akhmim.

Amenhotep
was lying on his back, his hands clasped behind his head. His eyes were closed and a comfortable smile warmed his face. His relaxed pose reminded her of how she had been resting the day his barge drifted down the Nile and changed her life. It seemed so long ago.

Tiy
took a deep, refreshing breath, enjoying the sweet coolness entering her lungs. “Hello,” she said.

“H
i,” he replied, his eyes still closed. He looked so comfortable.

Tiy
shifted from one foot to the other. She wanted to lie down too. She wanted to dangle her feet and feel the swells of water swirl around her ankles as she gazed up into the trees. But she knew it wouldn’t be appropriate to rest next to the future king as if she were his equal. Not to mention the gossip such a scene would stir. She squirmed a little, her feet thirsting to splash in the cool water, her body aching to stretch on the cool stones beneath them. She snuck a peek over her shoulders to see if anyone was nearby. Surely Amenhotep wouldn’t mind if she made herself comfortable?

“No one is looking,” he said.

Tiy whipped her head around to look at Amenhotep. His eyes were still closed, a relaxed smile still on his lips. She wanted to ask him how he knew what she had been thinking, but instead she shrugged and laid next to him, sighing the moment her toes sunk into the cool water.

“
This is my favorite part of the day,” he said, “when I have no one looking for me, no one needing my attention. I could stay here for hours.”

“
Me too,” Tiy said as all her concerns seemed to slip away with the current. A part of her relished in the idea that Amenhotep had an oasis similar to the one she had left in Akhmim. If she squinted and looked at it sideways, she could almost see it as a sign that they were meant to be friends. “Will it be a problem for you to be gone all day, holidaying with the rest of us? You’re father won’t be angry, will he?”

Amenhotep shrugged. “Only
if he finds out we went to Giza.”

Tiy’s heart lurched. “What do you mean? Aren’
t we safe there?”

Amenhotep shrugged again. “I think
we’ll be fine, but Ramose and my father disagree. They think I need to cower behind a wall of guards all the time. I’m not going to hide my way through life. I’m going to live it! So what if there might be a few thieves in Giza. I can handle them.”

“Thieves?”

“Hundreds of them.” He grinned, showing all his teeth like a proud monkey.

Tiy laughed. “I can’t take you seriously, can I?”

Amenhotep chuckled. “Perhaps not. I doubt we will see anyone but the spirits of Khufu and his court.”

Tiy shivered. “I hope not.” She’d heard plenty of stories of Khufu being unable to decipher the path to the afterlife and had taken up haunting the villagers every night when the moon was at his highest.
She assumed it was one of the many reasons Giza had been abandoned, and quite frankly, she didn’t blame the people for wishing to live their lives in peace.

Amenhotep laughed again. “You aren’t going to let
those old stories scare you, are you?”

Tiy considered his question for a moment. “No
,” she said. Her curiosity would carry her through her fears. “I don’t want to end up an old woman filled with regret for things I didn’t do or see and too frail to do anything about it.”

Amenhotep smiled. “That’s what I thought.”

They lay in silence until the sun burned away the morning fog and it was time to meet Ramose, Petep, and Merymose at the quay. Emerging from Amenhotep’s secret oasis, they stretched and yawned as if they had been there all night. Tiy quickly glanced around. What if someone else saw them emerge and thought they
had
been there all night. It would be scandalous, and her mother would certainly hear about it.

Amenhotep chuckled. “You are so funny.
No one will think we’ve been here since last night.”

Tiy’s jaw dropped. “How do you…
” She paused. How did he always seem to know what she was thinking?

“How do I what?
” Amenhotep asked.

“Never mind.”
She glanced at the hot sun and tied a scarf to her head. She didn’t even want to think about the number of freckles she would have by the end of the day.

Amenhotep tucked a stray piece of
her wig into the scarf, an understanding smile pressed onto his lips. He turned to a servant and a gleaming chariot appeared almost before Tiy could blink. They jumped onto the platform and were whisked off toward the quay.

Passing through the market
was a much different experience than it had been on the day she arrived with Siese. For Amenhotep, everyone quieted and parted as he passed. Even the litters carrying various noblemen were lowered so they weren’t higher than the prince. Several people took off their shoes in a show of respect usually reserved for those within the palace walls.

Tiy
had been invisible when she arrived in Memphis, which was more to her liking. But with a sinking feeling she realized that as long as she was with Amenhotep she would become the topic of conversation for all sorts of gossip. Everyone watched her, pointed at her, whispered about her. They glanced from her to the prince and back to her, wondering who she was and why she was standing so close to him. Her face flushed. She should have asked Amenhotep to take them on a roundabout route. Or perhaps she shouldn’t have come at all.

No,
she decided. She would have missed the adventure and the moment they’d left without her, she would have regretted staying behind.

Tiy
bit her lip and tried not to appear too mortified as men whispered to their wives, and their wives whispered to their sisters, and their sisters whispered to their friends and mothers and everyone else within hearing distance. She was glad Nebetya had applied darker kohl to her eyes that morning and some color to her lips. With her wig, she might even pass as an Egyptian.

They
couldn’t have reached the quay soon enough. Petep flipped a book shut as Amenhotep and Tiy jumped from the chariot platform. Merymose had acquired a barge and Ramose sat on the deck with a scowl.

Tiy sat next to
Petep and whispered. “What’s wrong with Ramose?”

Petep
glanced at Ramose who had now folded his arms. “He doesn’t think Amenhotep should leave the palace.”

“What do you think?”

“I think we’ll be fine. This wasn’t a planned excursion. Whoever was in that tree yesterday wouldn’t have had enough time to organize another assassination. These things take time and planning.”

Tiy shudd
ered. She couldn’t imagine anyone being fanatic enough to plan an assassination.

The
y reached the shores of Giza well before Ra pushed the sun to its peak. Five camels awaited them with thick blankets covering their backs. Ropes wrapped around the bulk of the camels and across their lower lips for guiding. They were much taller than the horses she rode at her ranch, and even their loud bellows spoke of a very different experience to come. Tiy’s mouth went dry.

The camels
knelt down, their backs reaching as high as her waist. Each had a dull look in its eye that offered Tiy no reason to feel confident in mounting one. With some reluctance, she chose a light brown camel with black protruding eyes and long bushy hair. She wandered to his face and rubbed his long snout, hoping to portray some confidence to the beast rather than expose her knot of nervousness. The camel bellowed and his blackened teeth grinned at her, his hot breath assaulting her nose. She scrunched her face and decided to forget about bonding with the animal.

Tiy turned her attention to the others as they mounted, hoping to glean a better sense of how to do it.
Petep hopped on like a tiny gazelle and seemed to float in the saddle as the camel rose to its feet. Likewise, Amenhotep mounted his dark brown camel with fluidity and confidence. He looked at Tiy as she stood like a fool next to her half-asleep camel. With a smile, he made several clicking noises with his tongue and his camel lowered him to the ground and rested on its knees again. Amenhotep dismounted before the animal came to a full rest and loped over to her.

“Have you ever ridden a
camel?” he asked.

“I’ve ridden
plenty of horses, but I’m guessing it’s not the same.”

“Not really
. Here, take my hand.”

Merymose
jumped forward, having also dismounted his camel. “I can help her, Your Majesty. Please allow me to shoulder the burden of assisting her.”

Tiy
raised her eyebrows. “Please, don’t let me
burden
you,” she said with more venom than she intended.

Amenhotep chuckled
. “Don’t worry, Tiy. He isn’t saying you are incapable or that you are an inconvenience.”

“Oh! No, no
, no.” Merymose said in a rush. “I am only trying to help.”

“Thank you
, Merymose,” Amenhotep replied. He peered at Tiy.

It didn’t matter wh
o helped her onto the enormous beast, so long as she didn’t end up flat on her face. She nodded to Amenhotep, letting him know Merymose could assist her, and he could resume his lead position in the group. Amenhotep had plenty of other responsibilities to handle without having to stay behind and help her.

Amenhotep
glanced at Merymose with eyes that seemed to narrow for the briefest of moments. A lump of panic plummeted to the bottom of Tiy’s stomach. Did Amenhotep not think Merymose capable of helping her onto the camel? Did she just sentence herself to public humiliation?

“Very well,
if that is what you want,” Amenhotep said. “Merymose, she is in your hands.”

Tiy
watched Amenhotep jog back to his camel and mount with deceiving ease. She placed a tentative hand on her camel’s back, the rough blanket scratching her palm.

Merymose
took one of her trembling hands in his and placed his other hand on the small of her back.

“
Did I hear you right that you have ridden a horse?” he asked.

Tiy
nodded.

“Throw one leg over his back just like you would a horse
. I’ll talk you through the rest.”

Tiy
did as he said and soon found herself sitting firmly on the camel’s back. She took hold of the rope.

“Good, good, that’s good
. His back legs will straighten first, so lean far back when he does this. Then his front legs will follow, so lean as far forward as you can. Are you ready?”

Tiy
glanced around. Everyone was watching her. She laughed nervously and flashed what she hoped was a confident grin. She must not have been very convincing.

“Don’t worry,”
Petep said.

“It’s okay,” Ramose said
, “we’ll scrape you off the desert sands before your camel tramples you.”

“Ramose!”
Petep shrieked.

Amenhotep looked like he wanted to dismount again
.

Tiy’s
camel groaned and bellowed at her slow progress. She wanted to groan and bellow as well, but thought better of it. “Yeah, yeah. I’m ready,” she said, just wanting it over with so everyone’s attention would turn elsewhere. She chanted the instructions Merymose had given her in her head. Lean back, then forward. Back, then forward.

Merymose made a series of clicking noises with his tongue
and her camel’s hind legs stretched and rose, setting his back at a precarious angle. Tiy lurched forward and then leaned back until she felt as though she were lying down on the camel’s rear end. The camel jostled her around for a bit and then it rose onto its front legs. She scrambled forward to lean toward its neck, her nose not far from the wool blankets. A quick jolt, a brief moment of terror, and she found herself four cubits off the ground.

That wasn’t so bad
.

“Thank you, Merymose,
” Tiy said. The others were already on their way, no longer anticipating the potential drama that could have unfolded with a novice camel rider. She was grateful she hadn’t done anything to embarrass herself, thanks to Merymose.

He seemed proud of himself as he stood at her camel’s side, beaming from ear to ear.
He mounted his own camel, made a few clicking noises, and they were soon on their way.

Amenhotep le
d their little caravan with Petep and Ramose riding side by side behind him and Merymose and Tiy bringing up the rear. She tried to pay attention to everyone’s animated chatter, but her camel’s unfamiliar gait distracted her. It bleated and bellowed much too often and ignored most of her efforts to guide it. It wasn’t long before her camel thumped to a complete stop and refused to move. It stared off into the distance, oblivious to her pleas.