Tutankhamun: The Book of Shadows

39

Ay entered the chamber, followed by Simut, who closed the door behind him.

Ay gazed at me with his stony eyes. I could smell once again the lozenge of cloves and cinnamon that he sucked constantly in an effort to relieve the pain in his rotting jaw. For him to reappear at this hour of the night could only mean bad news. He sat down upon a couch, rearranged his linens meticulously, and nodded to Ankhesenamun to sit opposite him.

‘Horemheb’s ship of state has been sighted to the north of the city,’ he said, quietly. ‘He will arrive here soon. When he does so, I am certain he will request an audience with the Queen. I suspect he must know the King is dead, even though there has been, and will be, no announcement. How he knows this is a matter for investigation. But we have priorities. First, we must agree a strategy for managing this unfortunate eventuality.’

Before Ankhesenamun could reply, he continued.

‘Clearly, he will have considered, as I have done, the advantages or otherwise of an alliance with you. Like me, he will recognize the value in your ancestry and the contribution your image might make to the continuing stability of the Two Lands. I am sure he will make an offer of marriage. He will couch it in favourable terms, such as: he will father sons, he will promote you as Queen, and he will bring the security of the army of the Two Lands to support your mutual interests.’

‘These are interesting and, on the surface, favourable terms,’ she replied.

He glared at her, and continued: ‘You are still a fool. He will rid himself of Mutnodjmet, and marry you to promote his own legitimacy within the dynasty. He will father sons for the same reason. Once you have supplied him, he will dismiss you, or worse. Look what he has done with his own wife. Accept his offer, and he will destroy you in the end.’

‘Do you think I do not know this?’ she replied. ‘Horemheb despises my dynasty and all it has stood for. His ambition is to create his own. The question for me is whether my survival and that of my dynasty through my future children is more assured with him than it would be otherwise. What other choices do I have?’

‘It would be naive to the point of idiocy ever to think anything of yours would be assured with him.’

She rose and paced the chamber.

‘But my life and the future of my dynasty is not assured with you, either,’ she replied.

He did his crocodile imitation of a smile.

‘Nothing in this life is certain. All is strategy and survival. And so you should consider the advantages that might lie in an alliance with me.’

She gazed at him imperiously.

‘I am no fool. I have considered instead the advantages to you of an alliance with me. Marriage to me would grant you the final legitimacy of my dynasty. I would be the vessel of your ambitions, now that the King is dead. You could assert your authority even more extensively, as King in name and deed,’ she said, as she walked around him.

‘My own ancestors have been intimately allied to the royal family for several generations. My parents served your parents. But as King, in return for marriage I would offer you the support of the priesthood, the offices and the treasury, as protection against Horemheb and the army. For make no mistake, he is planning a coup.’

‘I see. That is also an interesting prospect. But what of the future? You are very old. When I look at you I see a sad, old man. A man sick of the pain in his teeth and his bones. Sick of the effort of it all. Sick of being alive. You are a bundle of old sticks. Your virility is a withered memory. How could you provide me with heirs?’

His eyes glittered with hate, but he refused to take the bait and reply in anger.

‘Heirs can be provided in many ways. A suitable father to your children could easily be found, with my help. But we speak too personally. What is most important is the exercise of authority for the sake of maat. All I do is for the stability and the priority of the Two Lands.’

She turned on him now.

‘Your progeny is shadows. Without me your paternity will amount to nothing but dust. After your death, which will not be long-for all the powers in the kingdom cannot save you from mortality-Horemheb will erase your name from the walls of every temple in the land. He will bring down your statues, and demolish your offering hall. You will be as nothing. It will be as if you never lived. Unless I decide that you are useful to me. For only through me can your name live on.’

He listened without emotion.

‘You make the mistake of hatred. Emotion will betray you, in the end, as it always does with women. Remember this: only through me could you survive to accomplish all that you wish. You should know by now death holds no fear for me. I know it for what it is. He understands.’

And he pointed at me.

‘He knows there is nothing to come. There is no Otherworld, and there are no Gods. It is all nonsense for children. All that exists is power in the crude hands of men. That is why we are all so desperate for it. Otherwise what is there for men to shore against the inevitability of their own ruin?’

No one spoke for a long moment.

‘I will consider everything you have said. And I will meet with Horemheb. And in my own time, I will come to a decision. It will be the right decision for me, and my family, as well as for the stability of the Two Lands,’ she said.

He rose from the couch, and shuffled towards the door. But before he departed he turned around, stiffly: ‘Think carefully which of the two worlds is the lesser in evil. Horemheb’s army, or mine. And then make your choice.’

And he left.

The Queen immediately began to pace the chamber again.

‘Horemheb is here already. That is too soon! But why is he waiting?’ asked the Queen.

‘Because he knows he can create a situation of tension and fear. This is strategy. He wants to make it seem as if he is in control of what happens. Do not give him that power over you,’ I replied.

She gazed at me for a moment.

‘You are right. We have our own strategies. I must maintain them. I must not be misled by fear.’

I nodded and bowed.

‘Where are you going?’ she asked, anxiously.

‘I must talk further to Ay. There is something I need to ask him. Simut will remain with you until I return.’

I closed the door, and quickly followed the shuffling figure up the dark corridor. As soon as he heard footsteps he turned, suspiciously. I bowed.

‘What is it now?’ he snapped.

‘I would like to know the answer to a question.’

‘Do not waste my time with your foolish questions. It is too late. You have failed in your task. Go away.’

And he waved his bony hand dismissively at me.

‘Mutnodjmet is incarcerated here in the Malkata Palace. This was originally done years ago, under your orders, I assume in agreement with Horemheb. And I assume she has been more or less forgotten.’

He looked surprised at the mention of her name.

‘So what?’

‘She is an opium addict. Who supplies her with the drug? The answer is: someone who attends her, in secret. She has obeyed his instructions in return for the gift of the drug for which she has, of course, a desperate need. It was she who left the death mask, and the carving, and the doll, in the royal quarters. Shall I tell you what she calls this mysterious man? She calls him the “Physician.”’

Ay was listening seriously now.

‘If only you had discovered this weeks ago.’

‘If only someone had told me about her weeks ago,’ I replied.

He knew I was right.

‘I think you must know his name. For it can only have been you who appointed him to her care in the first place,’ I continued.

He considered everything for a long moment. He seemed profoundly reluctant to speak.

‘Ten years ago I appointed a physician. He had been my Chief of Physicians. But he failed to be useful to me. His gifts deserted him, and his knowledge was of no help in curing me of the maladies that beset me. So I made Pentu Chief Physician, and I gave that man the task of caring for the needs of Mutnodjmet. It was a private arrangement, in return for which he would be paid well, both for his work and his absolute discretion. He was to keep her alive, for the time being. There were severe penalties for any failure of secrecy.’

‘And what was his name?’

‘His name was Sobek.’

My mind raced back through everything that had happened, to the day of the festival, to the day of the blood, and the dead boy with the broken bones in the dark room, and the party on the roof of Nakht’s city house. I remembered the quiet man of late middle age, with short grey hair untouched by dye, and the bony, minimal physique of someone who does not eat for pleasure. I recalled his unremarkable, almost simple face-hollow, as Mutnodjmet had said-and his stony, cold grey-blue eyes bright with intelligence, and with something like rage. I heard him say: ‘Perhaps it is the human imagination that is the monster. I believe no animal suffers from the torments of the imagination. Only man…’

And I remembered Nakht, my old friend, and now it seemed also the colleague or acquaintance of this master of mutilation and mystery, replying: ‘And that is why civilized life, morality, ethics and so on, matter. We are half-enlightened, and half-monstrous. We must build our civility upon reason and mutual benefit.’

I saw in my mind’s eye the grey man raising his cup and replying:

‘I salute your reason. I wish it every success.’

Sobek. The Physician.

‘You look like you have seen a ghost,’ said Ay.