The Murder of King Tut - James William Patterson [27]
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 connection between them. Someone like that should never rule Egypt, and it was almost fitting that the job would now go to this precocious boy at her side.
“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 skinny child whose slightly cleft palate gave him a mild lisp but who otherwise bore the flawless beauty of his mother. His arms were thin, and his sandal-clad feet supported legs that weren’t much bigger around. At the time of his death, Tut would be approximately five foot six, and his build would still be slight.
“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,