“How are you?” Nefertiti asked. “I have nothing but confidence in you, sire.”
“You lie-so beautifully,” the pharaoh replied.
“How much longer?” Nefertiti whirled and shouted at the sculptor.
“At least thirty minutes.” The callous little man crumpled a sheet of papyrus to start fresh.
“You have ten.”
“But Queen-”
“Not a second more.”
“I’ll do my best,” the sculptor replied.
Nefertiti pursed her lips in a thin crocodile smile-and made a mental note to have the so-called artist killed once the statue was complete.
Chapter 10
Thebes
1347 BC
THE PRIESTS, PREENING AND PRATTLING, filed into the temple room when the sculptor finally left. They were as haughty as the queen’s famed cats. Nefertiti despised their power and how they used religion to make themselves rich. Indeed, Ptahmose, the high priest, was one of the wealthiest and most feared men in all of Thebes.
“Where to next?” Amenhotep IV said to the aged Ptahmose, slipping back into his ceremonial Sed cloak. The priests now attempted to set the pharaoh’s schedule for the busy festival day ahead.
“The temple of Wepwawet awaits, sire. We must apply holy ointment to the standard.”
“I do not honor that god,” Amenhotep proclaimed. “Wepwawet is nothing to me.”
The priests shuddered at this heresy. Even Nefertiti was shocked, though her religious belief was much the same as her husband’s. Egypt was a land of several gods, and all were to be worshipped according to law.
Before Nefertiti could say something diplomatic, Amenhotep grabbed her hand and yanked her down the smooth stone corridor toward the street. “I know what I’m doing!” he told her as the raucous crowd grew so loud the pair could hear nothing else.
The royal couple entered the reviewing stand through the back and stood where they could observe the assembled masses without being seen themselves.