Heretic of El Amarna

Chapter 23: Thutmose

A week. I had been searching for a whole week! And still no sign of my betrothed or my brother.

But that was not the worst of it.

Whatever plague I’d had before had returned.

I waved weakly to a servant, and they brought me a cup of fresh water.

I was too weak to pick it up on my own, so the servant propped me up and held the cup to my mouth, letting me drink.

I detested the weakness within me. And I had the bad feeling, I wouldn’t be surviving this one.

My belly cramped painfully, causing me to double over, gasping for breath, as waves of dizinness and nausea swept over me. I gagged, beginning to throw up, but there was nothing to throw up. I hadn’t eaten anything for the last few days. I was either asleep and too weak to manage it, or I threw up whatever they fed me, even when it was just some warmed gruel or a little piece of cracker-like wafer bread.

My stomach would not hold it. I knew what no one was willing to say.

I was dying.

Many people had died of this already.

My mother had refrained from telling me, but I’d forced on of the servants to tell me instead. My sister, Sitamun, was also sick and near death. The doctors said there was no chance of her survival. Mine, though, they still argued over.

My father was still clinging to his life, though he was old and the tooth infections that he had struggled with were starting to take their toll. He has remained in his room the last few days, too pain wracked to rule I’d heard, and so my mother was ruling in his stead.

With me sick, Amenhotep gone, and my sister near dead, the picture was dire. If I died, no one would be there to succeed me. My sister Henut-Taneb had passed on due to plague just yesterday. Little Beketaten and Nebetah had also passed, just two days before Henut-Taneb. All three succumbed to the plague in a matter of days, though I still fought on despite having fallen ill with the plague only a day or so after Amenhotep disappeared.

The sounds of wailing and preparation for my sisters’ burials sounded through the palace, the noise harsh and grating in my sensitive ears.

I pushed at the servant’s arm with only a fraction of the strength I once held, and he moves away.

Flipping over, I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t, so I lay still, head pounding, and prayed to the gods that Amenhotep was found along with Nefertiti.

Where would they go?

And then a thought dawned on me. We’d only been searching Thebes and the small villages surrounding it, but perhaps they were never in Thebes. The only other place they could’ve gone would be to one of the other cities, and if I know anything about Amenhotep, he’d probably take Nefertiti to Abydos.

We’d gone there a few years back, and he’d admired the city openly, marveling at the skill of the workers there and the beautiful granite walls that guarded the city.

“Servant…” I croaked, voice dull from disuse.

The servant came closer.

“Tell the guards… to… look… for my brother… in… Abydos…” I gasped, trying to keep my voice from fading.

I was too weak. I closed my eyes, moaning as the pain of the headache became too much.

The smoke of the incense burner meant to ward off the evil spirits causing my illness made me queasy, but I wasn’t about to complain. If an evil spirit was causing my sickness, it was better to feel queasy and banish the spirit than to die because I did not remove the evil being from my body.