Read Online Nefertiti by Nick Drake - Free Book Online

that perhaps after all I could solve this mystery and return to my family.
    Khety drove us at speed away from the central city, along the wide Royal Road and then off on a spur which soon turned into a sinuous and beautiful pathway beside the river, beneath an avenue of mature palm trees.
    'Were these trees already here when the city was built?' I asked. 'No, sir. They came by barge, and were planted to the design.' I shook my head in wonder at the strangeness of things in our time: fully grown trees planted in the desert. 'And Senet - tell me about her.' 'She is the Queen's maid.' 'More, please.' 'She has the Queen's trust.' 'Is that rare?'
    'I do not know. I expect so.'
    'And this is the Queen's private residence?'
    Yes. She likes a less formal environment than the House of the King. She raises the children here. It is quite unusual.'
    We drove on past vegetable gardens with their sparkling irrigation channels, and recently established orchards. The sun had now risen above the eastern cliffs and was immediately hot on our faces. The long shadows were banished. Thousands of nameless workers toiled at the black earth to produce food for the city, directing with their adzes the flow of water through the channels that ran alongside the fields. Thousands more builders and artisa ns laboured on the new construc tions, their skin and hair permanently blanched with dust, the beat of the work drum as constant in their ears as a heartbeat.
    Finally we arrived at the gate of the Queen's Palace. To my surprise it was a house set behind a high mud-brick enclosure, though of unusual, extensive proportions; not a palace in the sense of colonnades and high walls decorated with hieroglyphs and statues, but a place of elegant, human scale and design. Long, low roofs were arranged at different levels, with open spaces between to allow for the circulation of air, the high entry of light and the continually evolving presence of shade.
    I told Tjenry to wait outside. He was not pleased, so I explained: 'I don't want to overwhelm the girl with Medjay officers. She'll be too frightened to speak.' He shrugged, nodded, and found a place to lounge in the shade.
    The entrance was guarded, but when Khety and I approached flourishing the authority they unbarred the way and we passed through into a courtyard floored with alabaster, and with narrow, shallow runnels of water spreading outwards from a central fountain where a pure nub of water pulsed endlessly. The way the light played off the water encouraged sensations of pleasure. For the first time since I arrived in the city I felt almost relaxed. I instantly responded by tensing up again: a seeker's reflex. Nothing is more dangerous than relaxation.
    We were led into the house by a girl dressed in white linen, like all the girls who appeared and then vanished as we made our way through a series of rooms and courtyards. Each room flowed into the next in a way that allowed for variety, juxtaposition, the interplay of inner and outer spaces, of brick and wood, light and shade, giving the highly unusual sense that the two worlds of the house and nature were happily co-existing. The long roofs were cantilevered to provide canopies above terraces, and I could not tell how such constructions were kept apparently floating in space. I noticed children's toys, papyri and drawing materials scattered around, collections of beautiful objects on tables, and varieties of plants gathered together in shady corners.
    We were bidden to wait in a room with two long benches. Then a young woman entered and introduced herself. I expect such girls to be no more than suitably average in their beauty, the better to offset whatever claims their mistresses have to such a thing themselves. But this girl was slim, elegant and sophisticated. She wore her hair under a headscarf. I liked her at once. She had a warmth and sincerity that I found I did not wish to mistrust. And her affection for her mistress was obvious. As was her