He smiled slightly and threw out his hands and said, “Ay and Horemheb, crime and spear, so they are the only faithful and come to me.” Thereafter we said no more but listened to the gentle purring of the water clock until priest Ay and Horemheb entered the presence of Pharaoh. They had been disputing violently with one another, and their faces were dark with anger, and they breathed heavily, both talking at once before Pharaoh, ignoring his dignity.

Ay said, “You have to abdicate, Pharaoh Akhenaten, if you would preserve your life. Let Smenkhkare rule in your stead, and let him return to Thebes and make sacrifice to Amun, and the priests will anoint him and set the red and white crown upon his head.”

But Horemheb said, “My spear shall maintain the crown for you, Pharaoh Akhenaten, if you will return to Thebes and make sacrifice to Amun. The priests may growl a little, but I will quiet them with my whip, and they will forget their grumbling when you declare a holy war to conquer Syria again for Egypt.”

Pharaoh Akhenaten surveyed them both with a worn-out face and smiled a lifeless smile. “I will live and die as Pharaoh,” he said. “I will never submit myself to make sacrifice to the false god, and I will never submit myself to declare war and preserve my power by blood. Pharaoh has spoken.” With this, he covered his face with a corner of his garment and went, leaving us three alone in the great room with the odour of death in our nostrils.

Ay spread out his arms helplessly and looked at Horemheb. Also Horemheb did the same and looked at him. I sat on the floor, for my knees had no more strength in them, and I looked at both of them. Suddenly Ay smiled slyly and said, “Horemheb, you hold the spear, and the throne is yours. Set on your head the two crowns you desire.”

But Horemheb laughed at him in derision and said, “I am not such a fool. Keep your dirty crowns if you want them, for spears will pierce my behind if I try to sit on their heads, and I have no royal blood to back me. You know very well that after all that has happened, we cannot go back to the old times again, for Egypt is threatened by war and famine, and if I were to take the crown now, the people would blame me for all the evil that must follow — and you would find it an easy matter to depose me when you’d see the time was ripe.”

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Ay said, “Smenkhkare, then, if he will agree to return to Thebes. If not he, then Tut. Tut will certainly comply. Their consorts are of the sacred blood. Let them bear the hatred of the people until the times improve.”

“So you plan to rule in their shadow,” said Horemheb. But Ay said, “You forget that you have the army and must defeat the Hittites. If you can do this, there is no one more powerful in the land of Kem than yourself.”

So they disputed until they perceived that they were bound to one another and could not survive without each other. Therefore Ay said at last, “I freely admit that I have done my best to depose you, Horemheb, but now you have outgrown me, the son of the falcon, and I can no longer dispense with you for if the Hittites invade the country, I shall have no joy of my power, nor do I fancy that any Pepitamun could wage war against them, though he may be suitable as a spiller of blood and executioner. Let this be the day of our alliance then, Horemheb, for together we can rule the country but divided we both fall. Without me, your army is powerless, and without your army, Egypt is doomed. Let us swear by all the gods of Egypt that from this day forward we shall hold together. I am already an old man, Horemheb, and desire to taste the sweetness of power, but you are young, and you have time to wait.”

“I do not desire the crowns but rather a good war for my dung snouts,” said Horemheb. “Yet I must have a guarantee from you, Ay, or you will betray me at the first opportunity, and do not gainsay me. I know you well.”

Ay spread out his arms and said, “What guarantee could I give you, Horemheb? Is not the army the only valid guarantee?”

The face of Horemheb darkened as he glanced uncomfortably about the walls and scraped his sandals on the stone floor as if he sought to wriggle his toes into the sand. Then he said, “I would have the princess Beketaten to wife. Indeed, I mean to break the jar with her though heaven and earth should fall, and you cannot prevent me.”

Ay cried and said, “Aha. Now I see what you are after, and you are more astute than I thought and worthy of my respect. She has already changed her name back to Beketamun, and the priests have nothing against her, and in her veins flows the sacred blood of the great

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