He suddenly winced and grasped his jaw. It seemed that all the power in the world could not alleviate the pain of ruined teeth.
Before she departed, to her uncertain future, Ankhesenamun turned quietly to me.
‘I came to you, asking for help. You have risked everything to help me in these days. I heard his threat against your family. So be sure I will do all within my power to ensure their safety. You know I wish you to become my private guard. That offer remains open. It would make me happy to see you.’
I nodded. She looked sadly at the sealed entrance to the tomb of her late young husband. Then she turned away, followed by Khay and the other nobles, and they all took to the chariots that would carry them back on the long paved way to the palace of shadows, and the merciless work of fashioning and bringing to pass the secure future of the Two Lands. I remembered what Horemheb had said about power; that it was a rough beast. I hoped she could learn to ride it well.
Simut and I stood watching them go. Darkness was falling quickly from the dawn air.
‘Horemheb is right, I’m afraid. Ay will not live long, and the Queen cannot govern without an heir. Not while Horemheb is waiting.’
‘True. But she is becoming a powerful woman. She has her mother in her. And that gives me hope,’ I replied, with a feeling of optimism that caught me by surprise.
‘Come, let us walk to the top of the hills and watch the sun rise on this new day,’ he suggested.
So we scrambled up the tracks, like scars on the rough, dark, ancient hide of the mountainside, and soon before us lay the vast panorama of the shadowy world: the rich, ancient fields, the endlessly flowing waters of the Great River, and the sleeping city with its glorious temples and towers, its rich, silent palaces, its prisons and hovels, and its quiet homes and poor districts, in the dark distance. I breathed in the cold, fresh air. It was bracing and fortifying. The last stars were fading, and there was a hint of red on the horizon beyond the city. The King was dead. I thought of his eyes, and his gold face, down in the dark, perhaps-who knows? — now seeing the Otherworld appear before him as the light of eternity dawned and his spirits rejoined him.
As for me, what my eyes beheld of the world was enough. Smoke from the first fires began to twist into the still, pure air. Far off I heard the first birds begin to sing. I rested my hand on Thoth’s head. He gazed at me with his wise, old eyes. My children and my wife would still be asleep. I wanted very much to be there to greet them when they woke. I needed to find a way to believe we could be safe, despite the perils and threats of the future to come. I looked up at the indigo sky, and the horizon that was brightening with every moment. It would soon be light.