Chapter Twenty-Five

I bear you no ill will. I must obey the queen...

The words reverberated through Suhad's brain in a sickening loop as she snapped awake from her nightmare, her body trembling and drenched with sweat. She pressed a hand to her thumping heart and sucked in great gulps of air as the final pieces of the mystery that had been plaguing her for the better part of two weeks finally settled into place. What had only been fragmented flashes of memories before was now a complete picture of how she had come to be in the quarantine that night.

Suhad remembered with stunning clarity the torn expression on Sete's countenance as he spoke the words in her dream, only moments before he shoved her through the barricade of the quarantine and closed the heavy wooden door behind her. Her pleas for mercy and aid were quickly swallowed up by the heaving thrust of bodies surrounding her, all begging to be spared from the imminent doom. In the end, she had been left to die among the infected hordes and, it seemed, at the queen's command.

It all came rushing back to her in a sickening tidal wave. Her mounting worry over Tutankhamun... Ankhesenamun with her message that her parents had come to Thebes... The queen's personal guard leading her into the bowels of the city before deliberately turning on her... The baking heat that radiated from the flames and the thick, oppressive smoke that had caused searing pain with each labored breath... The pungent aroma of burning flesh and the piercing screams of the dying...

She realized now that it had all been a ruse to lure her from the palace. The likelihood was that her parents had never come to Thebes at all. Ankhesenamun had merely used them as a convenient means of sending her to her death. Tutankhamun would have surely mentioned her parents before his departure had he been expecting them...which meant that the queen had been manipulating her the entire time. Despite her phony show of devotion and concern, she had known that Suhad would be insistent on going after her parents personally. She had likely counted on it.

Now Suhad was left to wonder who else, besides the queen, conspired against her. Vizier Ay was most certainly second on that list. After Ankhesenamun, the vizier stood to gain the most by her death. Besides Tutankhamun, he would have been the only other person to know how anxious she was to see her parents again. Suhad did not put it past him to use that desire against her.

Without her, there would be no heir and no influence opposing his counsel to the Pharaoh. Nahkt had been right. She did have incredible power. But, while she had been largely ignorant of the influence she wielded, her enemies had known all along. Suhad was slowly coming to realize that she was surrounded on all sides by those who would harm her and her child and, with Tutankhamun and Lagus off on a military campaign for at least another week, she had no one to rely upon except herself.

The understanding left her feeling trapped, utterly alone and defenseless. It was little wonder that Tutankhamun had given her the grave warning he had prior to his departure. She wilted back against the bed, shifting onto her side before reaching out to hug Tutankhamun's pillow against her. She wished fervently that he was there with her right then. Though she understood completely why he'd had to leave, she couldn't help but feel a little aggravated over being left alone to deal with his perfidious court. It seemed the bleak prediction Lagus had made upon her arrival had come to fruition. She did well understand the constant burden that weighed upon Tutankhamun's heart. His enemies had, inevitably, become her own as well.

She seriously considered fleeing the palace but, in her condition, she knew she would not get very far. Though she was still a few weeks away from giving birth, any escape on her part would likely lack the speed and stealth she would require. Nefekare was an option but finding a way to slip out of the palace unnoticed to get to him would prove to be a tricky endeavor. Not only did the royal physician keep a close eye on her but Suhad was keenly aware of the Vizier and queen's constant scrutiny as well. She didn't so much as rise from the bed to use the privy without those two being aware of it.

It was the knowledge that the vizier and the queen kept in constant company of one another that further convinced Suhad that they were conspiring together to kill her. Given that fact, she was extremely careful to keep her suspicions of them hidden even as her memories of that night became ever clearer. Suhad knew that if they discovered that it was within her means to destroy them both she and her child would be in immediate danger. Her constant anxiety over that knowledge was beginning to make her sick, both physically and emotionally.

After an hour of restless tossing and turning, Suhad finally gave up all pretense of continuing her mid-afternoon nap and whipped back the covers with some half formed plan of taking a walk through the courtyard to clear her mind. Not only was she continually besieged with worry over the dangerous position in which she'd been placed, she was also beginning to feel the full discomfort of her pregnancy which was only exacerbated by the stress under which she'd been placed. The intermittent pain that had been nagging at her lower back for months had now become a constant ache which was steadily worsening by the day. The throb was burning and intense and occasionally accompanied by a strange heaviness that would ascend from her pelvis and spread throughout the entirety of her abdomen.

Groaning softly in both pain and frustration, Suhad swung upright and slipped from the bed. The instant her feet touched the floor, however, she immediately doubled over with a gasp as a sharp pain unexpectedly tore across her middle. She gripped the edge of the bed, gritting her teeth as the discomfort tightened and tightened, causing her belly to become taut and filling her groin with unbelievable pressure. Just as she was certain the pain would send her to her knees in addition to stealing her breath, it abruptly began to ease up. Suhad slumped forward in relief, air leaking from her lungs in labored pants.

Suhad was cautiously waiting for another pain and vacillating over whether or not she should call for the physician when Nahkt suddenly entered the bedchamber with a cheerful smile. His smile instantly collapsed, however, when he saw her standing alongside the bed and looking as if she might faint at any given second. "What are you doing on your feet?" he admonished, immediately rushing to her side to usher her back into the bed, "It was my understanding that you are to be on strict bed rest."

"I've been confined to this room for far too long and it's beginning to drive me mad!" Suhad huffed in aggravation, "I need a change of scenery!"

"I well understand your frustration with being confined as I've had my own recent experience with that," Nahkt sympathized, "But it's quite obvious to me that you're still very weak, Suhad. You cannot go traipsing about the palace whenever you please."

"Have you become yet another person who thinks they can tell me what to do?" she demanded tartly.

"I wouldn't dream of it. To do so would be a colossal waste of my time as you would be unlikely to heed any advice I imparted to you."

"Good. Then you will allow me to do as I intend." However, when Suhad made yet another attempt to climb from the bed, Nahkt quelled her efforts. She favored him with a displeased glower. "Is it your aim to serve as my prison guard now?"

"It is my aim to keep you safe. I am your friend," he whispered in a firm tone, "I look out for your interests only."

"Are you, Nahkt? Are you truly my friend?"

He fell back a step, his expression wounded. "I don't understand. Have I done something to cause you to mistrust me, Suhad?"

"It's not that at all," she sighed, tears welling in her eyes unbidden, "I just...I feel so alone here and I need...I really need someone I can rely on fully. I need to know that I can trust you because I have no one else."

"You can," he insisted fiercely, "I would do anything for you."

"What of your father?" Suhad challenged, "Does he exert control over you as he exerts control over everyone in this palace?"

"If he did, you and I would not be friends, Suhad."

She bit her lip in uncertainty, desperately searching his features for any signs of deceit before finally turning aside to pull a parchment scroll from beneath her pillow. She leveled him with a beseeching look. "If I asked you to do me a favor, no questions asked, would you do it?"

"What do you need?"

"I need you to deliver this message to man in the city," she said, "His name is Nefekare. He's a soldier in the army. Take this to him personally. He will know what to do."

"How do you know this man? How can you be certain he did not accompany the Pharaoh on his military campaign against the Mitanni?"

"I'm not certain. But, if he is there, you must give him the message. All you need to know is that I trust him and that I need him here...as soon as possible. Please deliver it personally. Now, if you can."

"What does it say?"

"I...I cannot tell you that...and I'm trusting you not to read it. Just know that it is sensitive information and it is important that he receive it immediately. There can be no delay."

Nahkt's eyes darted between the scroll and her face before he extended his hand and murmured, "Of course. Whatever you ask."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Suhad placed the message in his palm. "Thank you, Nahkt."

Upon leaving the Pharaoh's bedchamber with the scroll in hand, Nahkt waited until he was well beyond the perimeter to unroll the parchment and read what Suhad had written. His first reaction to what he had read was shock and disbelief but those feelings were all too soon replaced by anger. He tucked the scroll into the waistband of his tunic and went stalking directly for his father's chambers. He barged inside just as Ay was pouring himself a cup of wine. The vizier regarded him in wordless expectation.

"You tried to have her killed?" he snarled, throwing the scroll onto a nearby chaise in disgust, "That is not what we discussed, Father!"

Vizier Ay set aside his drink and surveyed his son with an impassive stare, careful to keep his emotions neutral. "Is that what she told you?"

"She wrote it in a letter actually," he said, "To a man, a soldier named Nefekare. She told him that he is the only one she can trust and the only one who can protect her and her child at this difficult time...because there are those in the palace who seek her death! Is it true? Did the queen deliberately send her out into quarantine to die?"

"We have discussed this, my son," Ay bit out, "You know there cannot be an heir!"

"Yes! I know that the child must not live, but Suhad... I never agreed that she should be harmed!"

"What did you imagine this would come to?" Ay demanded hotly, "The queen is not a threat. Her womb is poison. She will never bear the Pharaoh a child that lives. Suhad is different! She is young and obviously fertile! Should this child not survive, there would be another to follow it and another and another! Eventually, she will bear the Pharaoh an heir and everything we have worked to build will be for nothing!"

"I don't want her to die," Nahkt uttered thickly, "I care for her, Father. I...I love her."

"Love her?" Ay closed the distance between them, framing Nahkt's face tightly between his hands. "Do you imagine that she will choose you, my son? It will always be him. Even when he is dead, you will always be second! She was never within your grasp. You must harden your heart against her."

"You mean as you hardened your heart against my mother?" Nahkt spat.

"She would have left you...she would have left us both in the end. I spared you pain," Ay insisted, "As I am trying to spare you pain now. You cannot allow your actions to be dictated by sentiment. We have come too far and we are too close to hesitate at this juncture. Let this play out."

Nahkt shrugged away from him, blinking back the tears that formed in his eyes. "What will you do?"

"I will do nothing," Ay told him, "I will give this message to the queen and she will carry out what she deems is necessary."

"You mean she will kill her!"

"I know nothing, except our hands will be clean. That is the truth."

"Your truth is always a matter of perception, Father."

"Nevertheless, it is the queen's decision. We are only to serve her interests as loyal servants."

"Suhad does not trust her. She will not fall for the queen's tricks again."

"But she trusts you."

"No," Nahkt replied with a revolted sneer, shaking his head firmly in response to his father's implicit expectation, "I won't be a part of your schemes against her any longer!"

Before Ay could open his mouth in an attempt to reason with Nahkt, the queen slipped surreptitiously into the chamber, causing both Nahkt and the vizier to start guiltily. "My queen!" Ay burst out in surprise, "I was not expecting you."

"Clearly," Ankhesenamun intoned with a glower directed in Nahkt's direction, "Is there a problem?"

Ay mentally groped around for a response to her demand, fearful over the possibility that Ankhesenamun had overheard certain aspects of his conversation with his son that he'd wanted to keep secret. "I don't understand what you are asking, my queen."

"Does your son intend to betray us?" she demanded shortly, "Because that cannot stand, Ay."

"I never agreed that Suhad should be harmed in this," Nahkt declared, "I will not have it."

Ankhesenamun's brows shot up in challenge. "Yes, you will," she determined, "Do not forget yourself, boy! You will have what I say, when I say or I will have your head. It is as simple as that."

"Please, my queen..." the vizier pleaded, "Have patience with the boy!" He gestured to the scroll lying across his chaise. "He only just learned of the events the night of the quarantine and he is upset."

With a wary expression, Ankhesenamun bent to retrieve the fallen parchment and unrolled it, her eyes scanning across the contents. Her haughty veneer slipped in gradual degrees as she digested the full implication of what she'd just read. She pivoted to regard Ay with a stricken expression. "Who else knows about this?" she demanded.

Ay stepped forward and plucked the paper from her fingers, placing it on a nearby torch to burn. "Only the three of us," he said, "And that is how it shall remain."

The queen watched the parchment burn with unseeing eyes. "Not as long as Suhad lives."

Nahkt regarded her with a superior look. "She will tell the Pharaoh everything you have done, my queen. Where do you imagine that will leave you?"

"Where do you imagine it will leave you?" Ankhesenamun countered coldly, "Should you give me up, I shall give you up just the same. The Pharaoh's affection for me might very well be enough to spare my life but what will spare yours?" She leveled Ay with a steely stare. "Or your father's?" Nahkt's bravado crumbled quite easily in the face of her implied threat, not only against him but against his father as well. He ducked his head in defeat. "The facts are clear...if we are to protect ourselves, then Suhad must die. Now this is what must be done..."

An hour later, Nahkt returned to the Pharaoh's chambers, reluctantly prepared to carry out the queen's command. He was to deliver a poisoned tray of food to Suhad and ensure that she eat it. According to his father and the queen, the poison would dispatch her within minutes of digestion and she would feel no pain when the end came. The reassurance wasn't quite enough for Nahkt. He couldn't help but feel torn between his desire to protect Suhad and his loyalty to his father. When he entered the inner chamber, he was still locked in an internal struggle over whom he should choose.

Suhad scrambled upright on the bed at his unexpected entrance, confused and dismayed to see him standing there with a tray of food balanced in his hands. After spending the better part of the day dealing with sporadic contractions and general discomfort, seeing him standing provoked a plethora of contrasting emotions in her already anxious state. "What are you doing here?" she burst out, "Have you already delivered the message? Did Nefekare accompany you? Where is he?"

Nahkt placed the food tray on a nearby table, deliberately impervious to her growing alarm. "I brought all of your favorites," he told her, "So that you have a variety from which to choose. You don't have to eat just now. I thought, perhaps, that we could talk first."

"What are you doing here, Nahkt?" Suhad enunciated again, more stridently this time, "I would have imagined you would be with Nefekare at this time."

"There is no need for you to be anxious. It is being handled as we speak."

Rather than assuaging Suhad's fears, his words heightened her anxiety to new degrees. "You cannot mean to imply that you sent my message by third party?" she gasped.

"I thought it best that I remain here with you given the circumstances."

"I specifically asked that you deliver it personally," Suhad cried, "I thought you understood how important this was to me, Nahkt!"

"I do understand," he insisted fiercely, "Why do you imagine I stayed? I am not the one who abandoned you and left you vulnerable to the murderous machinations of the queen! That would be our precious Pharaoh Tutankhamun! I would never leave you unprotected as he has!"

Suhad jerked to attention, as stunned by his outburst as she was by the implications it created. "Oh, please no..." she muttered in disappointment, "You read it, didn't you? After I specifically asked you not to do so! Why? Why would you do that? You broke my trust!"

"You speak to me about trust? What about you? You've done nothing but keep secrets from me from the very beginning! You didn't even tell me about your child! I had to discover that thrilling truth through palace gossip! You say we are friends but then you prove by your actions that you do not trust me at all!"

"Is it any wonder?" Suhad cried, "When you do things such as this? Did you even deliver the message to Nefekare at all?" The guilty diversion of his eyes was more than answer enough. "No, do not tell me..." she moaned in horror, "Please, tell me you did not give it to your father, Nahkt."

"You don't understand, Suhad. My father has a plan for the future that is bigger than the two of us. It is in motion now and I cannot stop it! But, if you will only trust me, I can protect you. We can be together! I will love you and your child!"

"Be with you?" Suhad gasped incredulously, "Is that what you thought all this time? I could never be with you even if Tutankhamun did not claim my heart so completely! Have you no scope of the danger in which you have placed me and, most importantly, my child? You are a liar and a betrayer! You are no better than your father! Tutankhamun warned me against trusting you and I was a fool not to listen to him! You have broken my heart, Nahkt!"

"I have broken your heart?" he bit out furiously, "How can you say that to me? How can you look at me with disgust when I am the one who stayed behind? I have always been here, Suhad! I am the one protecting you while he has neglected you again and again! I was the one who listened when he was too preoccupied to hear you. Yet, inexplicably he remains your hero!"

"He has gone to risk his life on behalf of all Egypt, to fight for your freedom! Don't you dare speak an ill word against him! You don't have the right! You're not even worthy to speak his name!"

Nahkt suddenly snapped to attention, an eerie calm befalling him with furiously impassioned words. It was just as his father had told him earlier. Suhad would never choose him. He would always be second in her eyes, always less. She would never love him as he loved her. He had to harden his heart.

With calm resolve, he stooped to retrieve the tray and carried it over to the bed, placing it at the foot. "You should eat," he advised her in a flat tone, "I brought everything I knew you would like. You are overwrought at the moment. It cannot be good for your child."

"I'm not hungry. I want you to leave."

"I care for your well being, Suhad. I have only ever wanted what was best for you."

She fixed him with a hard, unyielding glare. "I don't believe you and I never will again. Leave me now."

Suhad watched him leave, unmoved by the remorseful glances he directed back at her over his shoulder. Her countenance remained resolved, stony and unforgiving. She dissolved into broken sobs only when she knew he was well out of earshot. She cried for the mistaken trust she had placed in him, for her own stupidity and mostly for the loss of the friendship she thought they had shared. Once her tears were spent, however, Suhad recognized that she had little time to grieve over losses. The time had come to act. She could no longer wait for a savior. She had to save herself.

With only the immediate thought of escape most pertinent in her mind, Suhad started to climb from the bed with every intention of gathering up whatever parcels she might need for a long journey. She never made it beyond packing. Almost the instant she went started to swing her bag up onto her shoulder, an powerful contraction seized her, tightening so forcefully in her abdomen that it caused her to drop her load and stumble back towards the bed with a ragged groan.

She bunched her fists in the sheets, biting her lip against crying out as she waited for it to pass. "Please, little one, not now," she panted harshly as she sank to her knees, gritting her teeth against the mounting pain, "Could your timing possibly be worse?"

Alarmed, but no less determined, Suhad stumbled to her feet after most of the pain had abated, resolved to continue with her plans to flee the palace that very night even if she risked having her child unattended in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately, the baby proved to be just as stubborn as its mother. Suhad had traveled no more than six feet from the bedchamber entrance when she suddenly felt a strange internal pop followed by a wet trickling sensation between her thighs.

A low groan of consternation shuddered from her chest. With great reluctance, Suhad tipped a glance down at the floor. One glance the growing puddle at her feet told her all she needed to know...her opportunity to escape had now been lost.