His words horrified me, and I asked, “Do you seriously mean that Horemheb, my friend Horemheb, would raise his gaze to reach for the red and white crowns? This is mindless talk, and a mad dog must have bitten you to say such things. You know well he was born with mud between his toes and came to the golden house wearing a poor man’s grey cloth on his shoulders.”
But Ay looked at me with his dark, swollen face grim, and his sunken eyes under his broad brows examined me suspiciously when he said, “Who reads the hearts of men? Lust for power is the greatest of human lusts, but if he dares to think such things, I will quickly drop him from his seat to the ground.”
He let me leave his company, and thoughts buzzed through my head like bees so that I did not remember any more to watch my step and walk along the walls — for everything that he had spoken about royal blood had ignited my heart ablaze. Queen Nefertiti was by no means of royal blood, but if Pharaoh Akhenaten would die, she might rule until her daughter Meritaten was adult, and Smenkhkare could only rule as Meritaten’s consort. In addition to Meritaten, only Akhenaten’s other daughters and Akhenaten’s sister Baketaten had royal blood, and there was no male royal blood after Akhenaten — that had Queen Mother Tiye secured with her sorcery and crimes. And no one knew that I, Sinuhe, might have royal blood in my veins — the blood of the great Pharaoh and the princess of Mitanni. Only the sacred blood legitimised Pharaoh’s throne, and therefore perhaps I had the right to Pharaoh’s throne and to the red and white crowns, though no one knew about it.
But having seen the sowing of power, the mere thought made my heart quiver for power terrified my sheep’s heart, and nothing was more frightening to my heart than the horrifying responsibility of the throne and crowns, and I could not understand how any man could voluntarily pursue such responsibility. So I regarded Ay’s talk about Horemheb’s secret ambitions as madness and blessed in my mind the fate that had delivered me across the river to the poor people’s quarter in a reed boat during the night of my birth, and I blessed Queen Tiye’s black fingers that had tied the reeds and relieved me from the weight of the crowns and from all responsibility. But so foolish and inconsistent is the mind of man that whatever my reason assured me, my heart was bitter and felt I had been wronged, though my reason said the wrong was my blessing since my heart was not the ruler’s heart but the heart of a quiet man.
559
Wandering this way around palace corridors without looking where I was going, deep in heated and bitter thoughts, I naturally bumped straight to the arms of Mehunefer, the Keeper of the Needle Case, though I had decided to do everything to avoid her. But perhaps my secret thoughts led me directly to her regardless of my will for often a man does not know where his legs take him. In any case, seeing her thickly painted face and small, black eyes scared me badly, and the jingle of countless jewels about her neck and wrists reminded me about chariots rumbling and shields clashing when I was running in the desert sand with my arms tied to a chariot of Aziru’s men. But Mehunefer was as badly scared as me when she saw me and grabbed my arm and glanced around and pulled me into hiding behind pillars though I greatly resisted. Behind the pillars, she caressed my cheeks with her hands and glanced fearfully around and said:
“Sinuhe, Sinuhe, my small he-dove, my faithful bull, you finally came to get me. I assure you, though, that it wouldn’t have been a sin if you had only remained as my friend. I travelled after you to Akhetaten to say that to you, but your servants treated me arrogantly and took me back to the ship, and when I jumped from the ship to the water to get back ashore, they threw me back to the water and poked me with sticks so that I nearly drowned and had to swim back to the ship, and oarsmen lifted me on board with an oar which was very shameful. I have no hard feelings though, Sinuhe, and I believe it was your servant’s ignorance and not your doing. Afterwards, I heard you had travelled to Syria on a dangerous mission and made a great reputation for yourself during the journey. But Sinuhe, I don’t know how to tell you everything, and I fear I wound your heart.”
She wrung her hands in great distress, and her black eyes avoided me so that I became increasingly frightened and unable to understand anything unless perhaps she tried to claim in her madness that she had made a child with me though I had never touched her that way. But she started weeping and grabbed my arms and said:
560
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