Tiy and the Prince of Egypt (9 page)

“Just move,”
Tiy begged. “We are getting behind.”

“What’s wrong?” Merymose asked
, looking over his shoulder at her.

“I don’t know
. My camel won’t budge.”

“Try whistling
or tugging on the ropes,” he said. He looked like he was trying to turn his camel, but his beast was ignoring his commands as well. Stupid animals! Why didn’t they listen? At least his camel still traveled in the general direction of the pyramids. Her camel, on the other hand, was entirely too fascinated by nothing other than chewing on air.

Tiy
whistled. She tugged. She clicked and made all sorts of funny sounds with her mouth.

Nothing
.

Amenhotep glance
d back, as he had dozens of times during their trek. Calling out for everyone to continue toward the pyramids, he turned his camel toward her. He set it at a gallop and Tiy was amazed at how easily he could get his camel to obey. Merymose’s face pinched with effort as he tried once more to turn his camel toward her.

Amenhote
p reached her and swung his legs around, leaping off his camel before it came to a stop. Tiy gasped in surprise, which seemed to please him. He grinned from ear to ear as he closed the distance between them

“Having some trouble?” He asked
with a playful smile.

“Like you would not believe.”

“Merymose likes you.”

“I thought we were talking about the camel.”
Tiy said, confused.

“We are.
”

“Oh
. Well I can’t get him to move any further. He just sits here like a lump of fur.”

“Do you like him?” Amenhotep asked.

“Well, not really. He is smelly and hairy, and won’t move fast enough, but sure, I like him enough, for a camel.”

Amenhotep laughed
. “I meant Merymose. Do you like Merymose?”

“Honestly Amenhotep, I can’t keep up with you
. Merymose seems nice. Can we talk about him later? I’d rather get my lazy camel moving before the two of us are left alone in the desert.”

Amenhotep rolle
d his head back and laughed. “Of course. Here, take your shoes off and put them in that pouch.”

P
erplexed by his instructions, she scowled.

“Trust me, Tiy. I know what I’m doing.”

She nodded and pulled off her shoes. He was right, after all. His camel seemed to be the only one willing to obey.

“Good,” he said
. “Now, put your feet on his neck and use your toes to tickle his skin.”

Tiy
placed the soles of her feet on the camel’s fur and tickled his skin with her toes. Its head jolted up, and he began to walk.

“It’s working!”
Tiy said with a grin.

“How about a race?” Amenhotep said, urging his camel to kneel so he could re-mount
.

She turned around to face him and called out.
“Are you joking?”

“You have until I
mount this camel to decide. Are you afraid I’ll beat you to the pyramids?”

Tiy bristled. She couldn’t resist a good competition
, and he seemed to know it. Straightening her back, she nudged her toes into the camel’s neck a little harder. Its gait sped up along with her heart rate.

She
glanced back just in time to see Amenhotep’s camel raising his front legs to stand. She squealed and pushed her toes faster, massaging the camel’s neck harder. The camel shot off like a bullet. She bounced along, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a big grin. It was so strange to feel scared for her life, yet to be having so much fun. She whooped and hollered as she passed the others. The shock on their faces was something she never wanted to forget.

Amenhotep
closed the gap, but there was no way she was going to let him win. Pushing her toes further into the camel’s fur, she laughed and congratulated herself as the great sphinx grew larger. It would be her triumphant finish line.

She
was a little more than sixty cubits from the sphinx when she saw the sudden drop in the earth ahead and realized she should have asked someone how to stop a camel. Surely the animal would notice the deep hole and stop on its own, right? She leaned over and searched its glazed eyes. There was nothing that spoke of intelligence in them.

She took a breath. Stopping a camel
couldn’t be that much different than stopping a horse, right? She scrambled to shorten the rope and yanked hard. The camel barely slowed. She shouted at it, but it only hung its mouth open further, exposing its big teeth into a ridiculous smile.

Amenhotep yelled
at her, but the wind blowing against her ears was too loud to make out what he said. And the others were too far behind to help.

Tiy
panicked. The sphinx rested in a deep pit ahead of her, and her camel was running as though it had all the sand in the world stretched before it. She pushed down on his neck with both feet and pulled on the rope with all of her strength. The camel yanked its head back and bellowed so loud her ears stung. It came to an abrupt stop—which wasn’t what she had expected at all— and she shot off like an arrow, flying through the sky as if she had wings. Completely useless wings.

The head of the sphinx
grew larger and larger as she soared toward it. Grimacing down at the sand and stone, she spread her arms wide in an effort to catch herself. But she never reached the sphinx head, although it looked like she might. Instead, she crashed onto the hot sand just below the lion’s two paws, its arms stretched forward as if to catch her. Her head cracked on something hard and every color vanished from her sight. She felt as if she was back in the sandstorm, with the air swirling around her, except instead of orange-blackness coming at her from every direction, it was grey-blackness.

Amenhotep
’s voice sounded strangled as he reached the edge of the pit. His was the only voice she could hear, the only sound. But she couldn’t answer him, no matter how hard she tried. Something heavy sat on her chest, keeping her from breathing. She lay sprawled on the ground and let a heavy wave of pain carry her away.

Tiy awoke to Amenhotep and Merymose hovering over her—at least she was fairly certain it was the two of them. The sun shone at their backs, silhouetting their bodies and obscuring their faces in shadow. Unaware she had opened her eyes, they faced each another in disagreement.

“
Didn’t you teach her how to stop her mount?” Amenhotep questioned with a bite in his voice.

“She said she’d ridden horses before,” Merymo
se said. “I figured she’d know.”

“Stopping a runaway camel is nothing like a horse.”

“We should take her back to the palace.”

Tiy
tried to speak, to tell them she was okay and didn’t want to return, but her tongue was heavier than a block of dry wood.

Amenhotep shook his head.
“I’d rather wait and see what she wants to do. She may feel fine when she awakes, and if I know Tiy, she’ll want to have a look around before we trek all the way back.”

Merymose squirmed
.

“
Merymose, say what you want. I may be Pharaoh’s son, but we are still friends. You can speak your mind with me.” Then he chuckled. “Whether or not I listen is up to me.”

Merymose relaxed his shoulders
. “I’d rather we just carry her back. If she gets mad, she gets mad.”

“
Honestly, I want to take her back too, but I don’t want to be one more person telling her what to do. I think she’s had plenty of that. We should let her decide for herself.”

Tiy smiled.
Amenhotep would probably never understand how much what he said meant to her. He’d lived his entire life dictating orders, and she’d lived her whole life taking them. Not just from her mother, who seemed to be the worst offender, but her servants had often made decisions for her that she didn’t always agree with. What to eat, what to wear. For once, someone was going to let her decide, even if they disagreed.

“
We’ll bring her back another time,” Merymose said.

“
The festival season is almost over; it may be a long time before we are able to return.”

“Then she’ll wait.”

Tiy groaned and cleared her throat.

“Tiy!”
Petep said. She pushed Amenhotep and Merymose aside and gathered Tiy’s head into her lap. “Are you okay?”

Tiy
did a quick check of her body, straightening her limbs and squeezing the muscles in her arms and legs. They seemed fine. She twisted her hips and wiggled her shoulders. Not too much pain there either. Perhaps a little sore, but nothing was broken, and nothing bad enough to shorten their trip.

“I’m
all right,” Tiy said. “Can I have some water?”

A
jug was at her mouth before she could take her next breath. From which direction it came, she had no idea. She chugged down its contents until it soothed her dry throat.

Pulling herself up
, she looked around at the anxious faces staring back at her. “I’m fine, really,” Tiy said, her voice a little clearer. She twisted her neck to stretch it, noticing the mortared limestone bedrock rising on both sides of her little group. “Where are we?”

“Believe it or not,”
Petep said. “You are in the arms of the sphinx.”

Petep
got up from her knees to refill the jug of water and Ramose followed closely behind, offering to carry the jug for her.

“How do you really feel
?” Amenhotep asked.

“Fine enough to
explore. I mean, we came all the way out here.”

Amenhotep smile
d, but he was dignified enough not to gloat at Merymose.

“I’d feel better if we all just went back to the palace,” Merymose interjected.

“She said she is fine,” Amenhotep said.

“So she says
. She could just be trying to appease us.”

“Or her
curiosity is begging to be satisfied before we leave.”

“All the more reason she may
not be rational enough to know whether or not she is capable of staying here.”

Amenhotep clenched his fists. “She should be allowed to choose for herself.”

“She isn’t well enough to make a sound choice.”

Tiy g
roaned, cutting their argument short. “How about I stay here for an hour and rest while all of you go find the best places to explore. And then, before we leave, I’ll go see what you found.”

“Wonderful,” Amenhotep said, slapping his knee
. “Both sides are satisfied. You are a true diplomat. I’ll keep you company. Merymose, you must use your burly bronze to protect my sister.”

“Ramose is with her.”

“Then you must act as escort,” Amenhotep said with a ring of authority. “Leave what water you have with us and you may share with Petep.”

Merymose didn’t argue as h
e slunk off toward Petep and Ramose.

Amenhotep grinned
and sat next to her, their shoulders touching as they leaned against the mortared limestone. “What shall we do while you recuperate?”

“I really don’t mind if yo
u want to go with everyone else,” Tiy said. “I know how much you look forward to your time away from the palace.”

“
I like being here with you.”

Tiy searched his face, pleased to find nothing that would contradict his comment.
“Me too,” she said after a moment

“You know,
it’s interesting you landed here. Before my father became Pharaoh, he rested in the very shade you rest in now. He fell asleep and Ra came to him in a dream. He told my father the kingship would be his if he cleared the sand and uncovered the sphinx, restoring it to its full glory.”

“It was buried?”

“Yes. I know you have seen how the desert sands shift with time. Anything left unmoving is buried, something I understood with more clarity the day we met.”

Tiy
gazed up at the huge creature with a human head and lion’s body. Its square face had a broad chin and wore a stone headdress with a cobra on the brow, a mark of royalty.

“Before I am crowned
Pharaoh,” Amenhotep continued, “I will pay homage before the Sphinx, and I will receive the same promise of protection from the sun god.”

“Are you scared
? To become Pharaoh, I mean?” Her heart sped up a bit, knowing she had asked him to share private feelings with her, thoughts he may not have revealed to anyone else. But Amenhotep looked down at her and smiled with warmth in his eyes. He didn’t seem to mind.

“Yes, in some ways I’m
nervous. I don’t think I’m prepared to lead Upper and Lower Egypt. My brother was always training to rule the Two Lands, even before he could walk. At least my father is young. I still have time to learn what I need to know.”

He sig
hed and swirled a finger in the sand below them. “I wasn’t ready to be thrown into all of this. Everything is so different—the classes, the training, the servants scurrying around me all the time. Everyone treats me so differently, as if I am an all-knowing god who will conquer the world. You’ve seen how Petep defers to me about everything when we’re together, even though she is older.”

“She is just trying to respect the
crown you will someday wear.”

“I know
. Petep is a good person; I shouldn’t be so hard on her. Ramose is different around me too. We used to get into all kinds of mischief together, but now he is afraid to try new things with me.”

Tiy didn’t respond. All of Egypt changed after the
eldest prince died.

“
Ramose was furious with himself after the sandstorm. I had to twist his arm just to come out here. We’ve come every year before the end of the festival season, and I really wanted to show you.”

“Thanks,”
Tiy said as she nudged his shoulder. “I’m hoping I’ll get to see more than just the paws of a sphinx, as stunning as they are. But really, Amenhotep, did you have to make me fly head first into them just to get a better look? I would rather see the area in a more on-the-ground approach, if you don’t mind.”

Amenhotep laughed.
“You are so different than everyone else, Tiy. From the moment we met, you treated me like a normal person, not like the next Pharaoh.”

Tiy’s
belly constricted. Had she behaved disrespectfully? She began to run every conversation she had ever had with Amenhotep through her mind, cringing at how she may have shown disrespect to the crown.

“
You have misunderstood me,” Amenhotep said. “I meant you aren’t afraid to speak your mind and ask questions. You aren’t afraid to offer thoughts of your own and joke around with me. You don’t cower around me like so many others do.”

“Thank you
, I guess.” Tiy wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I
like being around you,” he said. “Maybe it’s because Petep and Ramose are so much older than I am. Merymose too, for that matter, although he has only just begun to follow us around. He winked at her as if she would know what he meant by that.

“
There are others our age,” she offered, although she liked that she was the one he wanted to be with.

“I suppose you’re
right. I don’t know what it is then. Maybe it’s because you saved me. Twice. I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to anyone else about my fears of becoming Pharaoh. In fact, I seem to have the habit of telling you a lot more than I tell others.”

“I know what you mean.”
She couldn’t explain it, just like she couldn’t explain her strange urge to follow him into the desert. “I feel safe with you—from judgment. I trust you.”

Amenhotep smiled. “Promise me something.
”

“
What?” Tiy asked. She couldn’t imagine what Amenhotep could want from her. He had everything and could do anything without her help.

His shoulders
shook in silent laughter. “Relax. I’m not going to ask for your left foot or anything.”

“Oh, well in that case…”

“Maybe I should make you promise not to laugh first.”

“We’ll see,”
Tiy said making no such promise and giggling before she could stop herself.

“Promise me we’ll always be friends, even when you move bac
k to Akhmim—if you move back—and even when I become Pharaoh. Promise me we’ll still find a way to be together.”

Tiy
’s laughing smile vanished. She could sense the sincerity of his request, but they were both so young, how could they make such a promise to one another? When he became Pharaoh, he would be inundated with responsibly, traveling all over the world on conquests and diplomatic visits. He wouldn’t have time to maintain a friendship with someone like her. She looked up to see that his face had fallen with her hesitation.

“Tell me,” he said
. “Tell me what you are thinking.”

“There are
so many things that could happen that would make us break our promise.”

“
You are over-thinking this,” Amenhotep said, rolling his eyes. He already knew her too well. “Why can’t we just make the promise and do our very best to keep it? Don’t you
want
to be my friend?”

“Of course.”

“Then promise me.”

Tiy
shrugged as if she’d made such a promise a hundred times before. But her breath trembled a little, and her chest seemed to tighten with hope. She’d never wanted anything more. A friend. A
true
friend. “I promise,” she said, knowing that two little words would never mean more to her.

“Me too,” He said
, his eyes catching hers.

Tiy cleared her throat
and couldn’t keep the corner of her mouth from turning up into a smile. “Aren’t you supposed to say the exact words?”

Amenhotep laughed. “I prooooooomise,
” he said.

Tiy smiled and their laughter
filled the narrow cavity of stone until it faded into comfortable silence. With their breathing quieted, their shoulders slumped together as they waited for the others to return. Tiy couldn’t have been more happy about her stolen moment with Amenhotep under the sphinx. And about the promise they had made. She only hoped they would be able to keep it.