Jewel Of The Nile [COMPLETE]

Chapter Thirty-Five

Dazed, numb, senseless...there was no way to describe the feeling that crept upon me as my brother and I were promptly escorted back to the palace in the same chariot that had taken us here, accompanied by every other guard who was not investigating the murder of my brother and sister.

Smenkhkre and Meritaten...Pharaoh and Queen of all Egypt...my brother and sister...murdered, right in front of my eyes.

My brother and sister were gone. Forever.

Tutankhaten was all I had left now.

And they had been murdered by one of their subjects, those who were supposed to worship them as the living embodiments of Aten himself. What if this was what would happen to me? Would my own people be my downfall?

But if Smenkhkre and Meritaten were dead...

It meant Tutankhaten and I were now the rulers of Egypt.

Tutankhaten - small, young, nine-year-old Tutankhaten - was now the Pharaoh. The most powerful man in Egypt. The most powerful man alive. Just like that.

And I, his sister, his wife, his consort, was now Queen. The most important woman in Egypt. Just like that.

How could the death of my family members benefit us in such a way? It was horrible, as though tradition was almost encouraging us to murder our siblings.

I would never see their faces again.

Yes, Smenkhkre was absolutely ghastly towards me during his time as Pharaoh. But no one, not even he, deserved such a fate as to be murdered by his own people.

I remembered that when my father was Pharaoh, the citizens of Akhetaten believed that Smenkhkre would be their saviour. Two years later, they have killed him and his wife.

I won't apologise! The Gods sent me to do it!

The words of the killer kept echoing around and around my mind.

The Gods sent me to do it.

What kind of Gods sent someone to kill another person? Gods were supposed to protect mortals and look after us, not inflict pain and chaos.

The sun beamed down as the chariot sped down the path we had came. My skin prickled underneath the heat. And yet, I was cold. So, so cold.

I looked back at the cliffs. I could distinctly make out the silhouette of all those people on the edge, with the sun behind them, their shadows casting deep into the valley below. To the left, I could instantly make out the familiar shape of the palace guards, all huddled around one spot.

The spot where Smenkhkre and Meritaten fell.

When we got to the palace, we were greeted by Ay. Without thinking about how he got here before us, I looked at him tiredly as he bowed. "What do you want, Ay?"

"My Queen, I do not wish anything at all. I think it best if you both retire to your chambers to calm down for a while."

Tutankhaten's head snapped up. "She is not the Queen. Meritaten is the Queen. And I am not the Pharaoh - Smenkhkre is."

A horrible, dead silence filled the room. Ay was at a loss for words.

I couldn't blame him.

"Tutankhaten..." Ay cleared his throat, and grabbed my brother's hand sympathetically. "Tutankhaten, you know as well as I do what happened on the cliffs. You know as well as I do that Smenkhkre and Meritaten aren't...aren't coming back. You know that this makes you Pharaoh."