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With the “beautiful blue cup” clutched firmly in the palm of his hand, Davis added the name of this mysterious new pharaoh to his list of tombs to be found. And Davis was sure he would be the one to do it.
Howard Carter, making his living selling watercolors to tourists, could do nothing about this new development. He merely stored the information away.
Tutankhamen was out there somewhere just waiting to be found by somebody.
Chapter 32
Amarna
1335 BC
THE MORNING SUN, so benevolent and omniscient, blessed Nefertiti as she awaited Tut’s arrival in her private quarters. Akhenaten had been dead for only a few hours. She had already selected a group of “mourners,” women who would openly grieve at her husband’s funeral, beating their exposed breasts and tearing out their hair.
The time had come for the queen and her boy to have a grown-up talk about his future and, indeed, the future of all of Egypt
Nefertiti loved the six-year-old Tutankhamen: his trusting brown eyes, his passion for board games, even his endless questions about why the royal family never traveled to cities like Thebes and Memphis. In fact, Nefertiti adored everything about Tut except for one niggling detail: he wasn’t her son by birth.
As a very bright and practical woman of the times, Nefertiti understood that a pharaoh might have needs that could not be fulfilled by just one woman. But as a passionate queen and a woman unaccustomed to being trifled with, it had infuriated her when Akhenaten had married and impregnated Kiya. The great god Aten had been just and wise when he had taken Kiya’s life as she gave birth to Tut. And Nefertiti made sure that there would never again be a second wife around the royal court.
She had tended to her husband’s every fantasy, and when she couldn’t, Nefertiti directed his affections toward the harem girls, for it was common knowledge that no pharaoh, not even one as outlandish as Akhenaten, would marry a common whore.
So it was that Nefertiti began to raise Tutankhamen as her own.
The boy never knew his real mother, and though he had been told of her life and tragic death, he was still too young to fully comprehend being conceived in the womb of one woman and reared by the loving hands of another.
“Did you want to see me, Mother?” He was so i
“Yes, Tut. Come. Sit next to me. Sit close to your mother.”
Tut walked across the tile floor in his bare feet and plopped onto the divan next to Nefertiti.
“I heard about the pharaoh,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”
She placed a hand underneath his chin and lifted it until his eyes met hers. “Your father hadn’t been feeling well for a long time,” she told him.
“How did he die?” Tut asked next. Always the questions with him.
She could never tell him the truth, but a lie didn’t feel right either. “He died in a burst of happiness. His heart was so filled with joy that it exploded.”
There. Not so bad.
“Tut, there’s something else we need to talk about. I need you to pay attention to what I have to tell you now.”
“Yes, Mother?”
“You are just a boy and have not yet been trained in the ways of the pharaoh. But you must know that this is your destiny.”
The boy stopped her. “I don’t understand.”
“You will be pharaoh one day, Tut.”
“I don’t want to be pharaoh. I don’t! Why can’t you be pharaoh, Mother?”
“It is not considered best for a woman to rule Egypt, Tut. But because I am of royal blood, I will find a way to rule for as long as it takes you to learn to be a great pharaoh.”
“How long will that be, Mother?”
“A dozen years, maybe less. Because you’re so bright, Tut. There is no hurry. The important thing is that you learn to be wise and strong and full of compassion for the people of Egypt, as your father was. He was a good man, always a good man.”
“Smenkare would have made a good pharaoh,” said Tut. “And he was your son. This day must make you sad.”
The boy was smart, which was probably why she loved him as she did.
“Smenkare is dead, Tut.” She neglected to add that she had never loved her own son as much as she loved Tut. She had tried, but there was no light in Smenkare’s eyes, and she felt no co
“No, Tut. It must be you.”
Tut simply nodded. “So what do I do next? Help me, Mother.”
“See how we’re sitting here? You and me, right next to each other?”
“Yes. Of course I do.”
“This is how we will rule Egypt at first. Side by side, the two of us. For now I will make the decisions, because you are too young. But as you become a man, you will fill a bigger space and have the knowledge to make good decisions.”
“Then I will rule as pharaoh?”
“Yes, Tut. And I know that you will do great things. You will be a pharaoh people always remember.”
Chapter 33
Amarna
1334 BC
THAT WAS THE PLAN for the boy who would be king, though it didn’t turn out that way. Not even close. Once again death would intrude-perhaps even murder.
“You live in a house full of women,” the military instructor informed Tut. “To be pharaoh, you must become a man. Someday, you will be as big and strong as I. Once you are through with your training, no man will stand in your way.”
Studying the instructor’s bulging biceps and massive chest, Tut had a hard time believing that could ever be true, but he listened closely to every word.
They stood in a great green field on the west side of the Nile. It was February, and the mild sun kissed the earth.
Tut was a ski
“Are you ready, sire?” asked the instructor.
Tut tried to speak, but in his nervousness only a sigh escaped his lips.
The instructor concealed a smile. “Let’s talk about the types of bows we will be using in our archery practice, then.”
The list was too long and too dazzling for Tut to remember right away-though the instructor made it very clear that the pharaoh would be proficient in each of them, along with shield and mace, sword fighting, spear throwing, chariot riding, horseback riding, hand-to-hand combat, daggers, throw sticks, boomerangs, clubs, and battle-axes. For today’s lesson there was a double-composite angular bow, composite angular “bow of honor,” bow staves, and short self bows. That was all he had to master.
The bows were made of birch that was then wrapped in sinew and bark for durability. Gold leaf and ivory decorations adorned their curved shafts. The instructor’s great bow was taller than Tut, while Tut’s bow was only big enough to reach just above his knee when he stood it on the ground.
The instructor placed the bow in Tut’s little hands: “Now listen to me. You will want these with you in the afterworld. On the day you are buried, all your bows will be buried with you. So learn to use them well, Highness. The rules of combat you are about to learn will stand you in good stead… forever.”
Tut notched an arrow in the bow and pulled back the string. His shot hit the target cleanly on the first try, though it wasn’t far from the boy.