Heretic of El Amarna

Chapter 31: Tiye

“Absolutely not! Mother, how could you even suggest such a thing?” My son raged, fists clenched, eyes ablaze.

I stared back at him, keeping my poise and unflappable cool regard. “Are you done now?” I inquired coldly.

He stared back at me, fury still in his eyes, but muted this time. He nodded.

“Good… Now, perhaps you will hear me out about Kiya. Marrying King Tushrutta’s daughter will greatly increase our influence in our alliances with them. You know that our alliances with the Mitanias have been shaky at best. Now your uncle, Ay, has connections with the Mitanian king and has obtained permission already for you to make a bid for Kiya’s hand…” I stopped speaking, assessing his reaction.

He was listening quietly, but I could see the anger still boiling  beneath the surface of his calm demeanor. “He would expect that I would give her a child, would he not?” Amenhotep asked, shrewder than I had expected in his questioning.

“I would expect so… But that is not so much to ask, is it?” I inquired.

He stared out the window at the desert sprawling out, shimmering and light in the heat of the midday sun. “And what of how that will make my wife feel? How do you think she will fare if I wed another woman alongside her? Will she not believe that I have found her lacking because she gave me a daughter, not a son?” He whispered. “She already doubts herself because of you. Would you have me confirm her false doubts?”

I shrugged. “You are confirming nothing. Speak with her. Tell her the importance that we go through with…”

“We? We, Mother?” He shook his head. “There is no ‘we’ in this endeavor. If I agree to your machinations to wed me off to a second woman alongside Nefertiti – whom I love very much – it will be because I please to do so not because you demanded it.”

I nodded. “Of course, my son… But please… Speak with her of it. Know her mind on this matter and show her that it is important. The Mitanian king’s alliance is of great import to Egypt. He has been asking if you might wish to wed Kiya anyway. I think this is too great an opportunity to pass to the wayside.”

He smiled thinly. “Your advice is appreciated, Mother. I will speak with my wife about what I will do in this matter, and you will be duly informed of my choice in it. If my answer is nay, you shall abide with it. If my answer is yea, you shall abide by it.”

I smiled back, equally insincere. “Of course, my lord. I understand well that you are the final authority of this house – indeed, of this land.”

He nodded. “I am glad that you do.” He gave me a stiff goodbye and withdrew, perhaps to go and speak to his wife.

Once he was gone, I sat on my bed, seething at his ready dismissal of me. How dare he treat his own mother thus? I took the time to care for the worthless man while he was a child, and he cast me aside with little more than a terse word!

We would see how high and mighty he was when this was all over. I would see everything torn from him before he went down. It was essential that his image was utterly destroyed and that his firstborn son was not embroiled or affiliated in any way with his heretical father.

If his son became affiliated with his father too much, it would be impossible to set the boy up as Pharoah when my own son fell along with that miserable wife of his who – instead of quietly supporting – had pushed him into this heretical behavior with her honey-coated words and subtle plots.

But no matter.

Fall they would. In time.

I could afford to be patient.

I was nothing if not patient.