City of the Dead

leaving the audience chamber; but Tutankhamun managed to control it this time.
    Horemheb had come alone, for once. His proposal had been outrageous. The king had requested — requested of a subject! — time to consider, but in reality he knew that there was little he could do to prevent it. The general wanted to marry Nezemmut.
    The pincer movement again. For a moment of panic, the king saw himself outmanoeuvred on the senet board, saw himself dispensed with before he had begun to reign. Nezemmut was now twenty-four. She had never had quite the beauty of her older sister Nefertiti, but she had a far more durable character, and she had ridden out the storm following the fall of Akhenaten without recourse to her father’s protection. She had a dark, strong face, her eyes full of sexual challenge and threat. If Nefertiti’s looks reminded you of the sky, Nezemmut’s made you think of the earth.
    She had been married to a son of the Hittite king Selpel, but the marriage was annulled after the Hittites withdrew their friendship from the Black Land. Since then, she had lived in the palace at the City of the Horizon, and her affair with the sensitive picture painter, Auta, was an open secret mildly disapproved of by the king. With the collapse of the city, Tutankhamun had brought her back with him to the Southern Capital as part of his retinue - and, as he now remembered with another little stab of irritation, at Horemheb’s suggestion.
    How deeply laid were the general’s plans? And how patient was he? The king could see immediately that a marriage to Nezemmut would strengthen a future claim to the throne by Horemheb. The girl would be preferable to any of Akhenaten’s surviving daughters - the younger ones were now at marrying age - because the stigma of being related by blood to the Great Criminal did not attach to her. As body servants brought water in a golden bowl and washed his face and arms, the king’s thoughts turned uneasily to his own connivance at the blacking of Akhenaten’s name. It had been necessary to underpin his own legitimacy as pharaoh; and of course the campaign had been planned, engineered and executed by Horemheb, riding roughshod over Ay’s weak objections at the vilification of his former son-in-law. At the time, Tutankhamun had believed that Horemheb was simply helping him; giving the line of succession the sort of boost it needed after so much chaos and uncertainty. Now, looking back, it seemed to the king that Horemheb had been helping himself. He appeared to be nothing but another one of the general’s tools. As long as he accepted that role he would be safe for as long as the general chose; but if he resisted...
    Tutankhamun drew himself up. If he resisted, he had better be perfectly sure of success.
    He watched the girl mixing make-up from a cake with water and a linen pad. She approached, avoiding eye contact, which was forbidden to all but the highest servants. He would have to lay plans even deeper than the general’s, and he would have to strike hard and accurately, and only when he was absolutely sure that the blow would be fatal. In the meantime, he would redouble his efforts to get a child. He would have Ankhsi secretly examined, and he would pray with her to Renenutet and Tawaret, Hathor and Bes. If there could be a boy child, he would show him to the army. He would assume command - his royal right — before Horemheb could object.
    As the girl dabbed on the make-up, he sensed her breath on his cheek. He felt better. A glow began inside him, and he raised his head. He would permit this marriage to Nezemmut. It could always be broken off later, and if Horemheb had children they would die with their father as soon as the king was strong enough. His heart dwelt on that day and his thoughts were glad.

TWO

    Everyone had something to gain, thought Ay as he watched his younger daughter take the hand of Horemheb and exchange vows with him. The usually simple ceremony had been blown up into a state occasion by the general, who had secured the king’s permission to hold it in the temple of Amun.
    Ay was not sure about the young pharaoh’s recent acquiescence to Horemheb’s requests. He had been sure that Tutankhamun was on the point of rebelling against them, and had told Horemheb so during one of their infrequent meetings, following the hearing of the reports of the vizirs of the north and south. Horemheb had laughed at the idea, but Ay was left with the impression of being