Flail of the Pharoah (25 page)

Neshi already knew that Charmian had been given her own room, and Mira could see he was pleased about it. She guessed that a certain amount of philandering had taken place between them, although she knew her son would not go so far as to breach his father’s pleasure-pot.

‘My son, I need to keep an eye on that girl,’ she continued in a businesslike tone. ‘You see how your father treats her, almost as my equal. If things go on like this he might get a child by her, and that could be the end of your chances of ever sitting on the throne of Egypt.’

Neshi frowned. ‘Surely there’s no way to prevent it.’ He quoted a popular proverb, ‘The Pharaoh does as the Pharaoh does.’

Mira thought of the herbal mixture she added to Charmian’s drink each month. ‘I have done my best to ensure she does not conceive, but I cannot prevent it entirely. We must be vigilant, Neshi. We must find out exactly what goes on between her and the Pharaoh every time she is with him. That way we can be one step ahead.’

‘But how can we find out? My father’s room is out of bounds, unless he invites me.’

‘Yes, even for me these days,’ Mira said bitterly. ‘But you may question Charmian subtly, in her room. I know she is attracted to you, and you to her. She might come to look upon you as a friend and confidant. I have the impression she is very lonely here in the palace. At one time she looked to me for comfort, but lately there has been a distance between us. She is planning to gain the queen’s throne, I am sure of it.’

‘No, mother, she cannot,’ Neshi insisted.

‘I wish I could believe you were concerned for me,’ Mira sighed. ‘But I know you think only of yourself and your prospects. Never mind, you will make a good enough spy for your old mother. Our fortunes are entwined, my dear, and what is good for one is good for the other. Hurry along to Charmian’s room and hang around outside until she appears. I’m sure you know how to do these things.’

He kissed her and sauntered off, the image of manly pride. He had his father’s dark good looks and bearing, and Mira’s only hope of a peaceful old age was to see him firmly placed in the succession. That meant the foreign bitch must be kept in her place, but first it was imperative to discover what new hold she had over the Pharaoh. Mira had not seen her husband looking so happy for a long time, not since their early days together. It was not a good omen.

Charmian was lounging on her new bed with joy in her heart. The room was dark, having only one very small window, but that meant it was nice and cool. Besides, through the little window could be seen a corner of the palace garden with its roses and lilies. The room was quite bare, with just a narrow bed, a stool and a chest for her few possessions, but it was all her own. The only decoration on the stone walls was a painted frieze of birds and flowers, rather faded and with some flakes missing in places, but it was pretty enough.

There was a curtain of faience beads across the door that afforded her some privacy. Suddenly she heard them rattle, and startled she sat up to see Neshi’s face peering through the parted beads.

‘May I come in?’ he asked, and for a moment Charmian hesitated. She was now in the unusual position of being able to refuse entry to all but the king and queen, who must be obeyed. She could tell the prince to be off if she chose. It was a heady delight she felt as she revelled in her power, but then she smiled and beckoned him in.

‘So, you have a room to yourself,’ he said, standing astride with his hands on his hips and looking around. ‘Not much to speak of, but a rare privilege for a female in your position. The king, my father, must think very highly of you. I have never before known him to honour any concubine like this.’

‘Yes, I am very grateful.’ Charmian sat demurely on her bed, averting her eyes, aware of how much her body ached for him, how she craved to feel the slap of his strong hand across her buttocks as a mark of ownership, and then to have him possess her entirely. Although she was used to having such strange yearnings by now she was nonetheless still amazed at their strength.

Neshi sat on the stool, his thighs spread wide so that his pleated white apron fell between them, concealing his manhood. Now Charmian’s gaze was unerringly attracted to the flap of linen, wondering what marvels it might conceal. Was the prince already showing signs of his lust for her? Coquettishly she smiled at him, pushing a lock of blonde hair back from her brow.

The prince leaned towards her, speaking in a low voice. ‘If my father were to catch me in here there would be all hell to pay,’ he admitted. ‘But I could not resist the temptation to see you here, all alone.’ His eyes raked the bed. ‘Now I can picture you lying naked in the night, with the moon falling on your pale skin through that tiny window.’

The erotic image thrilled Charmian, and evidently it had the same effect on him because she was gratified to see something stirring beneath the white linen. Casually she ran a hand across her breasts, stimulating her nipples, and watched the pleats distort as the apron became a tent, supported by an invisible pole. The highly charged atmosphere in the room was making her squirm on the bed as ripples of sensual hunger ran through the lower half of her body. How easy it would be to pull the handsome creature to her, to fasten her lips on his and drink from the sweet well. A brief glance into his dark eyes told her that he was experiencing similar feelings, and the danger of their position only enhanced the thrill. The flimsy curtain at the door barely concealed what was in the room and it would take only a passing glance from a palace guard for Neshi’s presence in her bedchamber to be reported. Yet he seemed not to care, and she was filled with admiration for his daredevil carelessness.

Then came a sound that shocked both of them to the core: the Pharaoh’s trumpeters! They were blowing a fanfare just along the corridor, announcing his presence mere yards from Charmian’s door. Neshi turned white and his eyes flitted around the room like a trapped rabbit’s. No longer the bold lover he was desperate to save his skin.

‘The chest!’ Charmian hissed at him, fully aware that she was in jeopardy too. She scrambled from the bed and lifted the lid. Inside were her gowns, and he hopped in then covered his head with the clothes. She replaced the lid just as she heard footsteps come to her door, and turning she saw the Pharaoh part the curtain just as his son had done. She gave a deep bow and hoped he could not detect her flushed cheeks.

‘My dear,’ he smiled, opening his arms in a magnanimous gesture. ‘I came to see you ensconced in your new quarters. Are you happy here?’

‘Most happy, sire,’ she responded, but her voice trembled – and he noticed.

He frowned and then, coming close, peered into her face. ‘You do not sound happy. You sound alarmed. You are not frightened of me, I hope?’

‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed.

‘Are you quite sure? I think I rather like you when you’re afraid of being spanked. Is that what’s going through your mind now? Are you remembering how it felt to be punished by the great Pharaoh of Egypt?’

Charmian knew that, in a strange way, she had this man exactly where she wanted him. She lowered her lids and said demurely, ‘It felt good, sire. There is a kind of cleansing of the soul that takes place when you suffer punishment at the hands of a powerful ruler.’

‘You think so?’ He was obviously pleased with her reply.

‘Yes, indeed, for me to be so utterly powerless only seems to emphasise your own might.’

‘So you felt it too, that subtle balance? Helpless as you were, yet you still had the power to move me, to make me want you. However much I vented my lust for inflicting pain upon your body, the lust to invade that same body still tormented me. It is a divine paradox; such as we mortals cannot hope to understand. Ah, Charmian, you have reached parts of me that no other woman has ever reached and for that I thank you.’ So saying, he bowed his head and kissed her hand: an unprecedented act of homage from a Pharaoh to a concubine.

‘Come to me tonight,’ he told her urgently. ‘We shall explore these matters further.’

With that he left the room.

Queen Mira was in her favourite shady seat near the rose garden when she saw her son approach, and immediately she was on her feet, asking, ‘Neshi, what news?’

‘Extraordinary news, mother,’ he announced. ‘Where may we talk undisturbed?’

‘Here, in this arbour.’ She drew him back into the fragrant cloud that surrounded her seat. ‘Now, keep your voice down but tell me everything.’

‘By the will of the gods a lucky chance brought my father to the girl’s room while I was there.’

‘What? You were discovered?’

‘No, mother, we heard the trumpets and I hid in her chest, but from there I could hear everything.’

Mira glanced round nervously, as if afraid that they might be overheard in turn, but there was no one anywhere near. They were safe. She urged him to continue.

‘They were talking about the other night. From what they said I guessed he had constrained the girl in some way and then punished her. He said it made him feel more powerful in one way, but not in another. He wanted to possess her, so that meant she had power over him. It was quite complicated and I can’t remember everything, but in the end he called it a divine para… something.’

‘Paradox,’ Mira murmured pensively. ‘Indeed it is so. The desire to be hurt by what one desires, the pleasure in pain, the longing for one’s tormentor.’ She saw that Neshi was looking at her oddly. ‘So that is what is between them now,’ she finished crisply.

‘What do you make of it?’

‘A strong bond has been forged between them, make no mistake. We could fall from the Pharaoh’s favour and she could usurp us. Something must be done, but what?’

Her son looked miserable and she had to console him.

‘Never mind, my dear, your mother shall think of something. I always do. But you have done well.’ She kissed his smooth cheek and squeezed his hand. ‘Now get back to your game if you wish. I shall go to my room and contemplate this latest turn of events. I am sure to come up with a plan before long.’

Once she was alone in her room, however, Mira felt despair seize her. She could see the end of all her hopes – hers and her son’s. Yet there was something more, a knife that twisted in her soul ever more sharply to torment her. In public she ruled at his side, as his equal, but slowly she had come to recognise her own perverse desires. No longer did she wish to be his equal in the privacy of his bedchamber. There, in that private inner sanctum that was almost as holy as the temple, she wanted her husband to satisfy the deep longing she harboured to be mastered completely.

Yet now that girl had usurped her, even there. It seemed Charmian was ever one jump ahead in capturing the Pharaoh’s heart and this latest triumph was the last straw. She could no longer compete with a girl who was young, exotically beautiful – and submissive. And now that Neshi had discovered the delights of striping that foreigner’s pale flesh, her own days as the king’s consort were surely numbered. In a desperate, jealous rage the queen gnawed at her fist, beat her pillow and stuffed her mouth with her bed sheet to stop herself from wailing like a funeral mourner.

Unless… the strangest of thoughts came to her, and with it the faint dawning of a new hope… unless she could somehow get the girl on her side. She had made some half-hearted attempts before to win Charmian over, but always the shadow of the Pharaoh lay between them. What if she could elicit her sympathy in some way? What if she could wipe the slate of rivalry clean so that they might be friends instead of enemies?

The thought excited her. It was easy to think of the girl as a kindred spirit now she knew they shared similar secret desires. If only they could be more open with each other.

The queen summoned Iras and asked her to take special care over her toilet. She dabbed her pulses freely with lotus, the lily scent that confused the reason and allowed other forces to prevail in the human soul, and then she made her way to the temple alone. She needed to make a special prayer to Isis, to pray that a spirit of sisterhood might bring her and Charmian closer together.

Mira knelt before the benign statue of the goddess and began to pray. It was such a private prayer that she scarcely mouthed the words, aware that Tut-Tut was lurking in the shadows making his usual attempt to eavesdrop. This time her prayers took on a new fervency – and urgency.

After her prayer she made her way to the new room that had been allotted to Charmian. Parting the bead curtain she peered in and was gratified to see how small and plain – almost decrepit – the room was. Charmian lay on the bed in her white shift with her eyes closed, a pale ghost. The queen called to her softly and she opened her eyes.

‘Oh, your majesty!’ she leapt up at once and made her obeisance.

‘Please, my dear, relax, I have come for an informal chat, that is all. I have been so busy these past few days that I have not enquired how you are in your new quarters. Do you have everything you need?’

‘Oh yes.’ The girl’s blue eyes beamed with pleasure. ‘And it is so nice to be on my own again. I grew used to my own company growing up in my father’s household.’ Her brow darkened as she remembered her former life.

‘Yes, solitude is good for the soul,’ Mira remarked, sitting down beside her on the bed. ‘Do you find self-contemplation useful?’

‘I am not sure what you mean, your majesty.’

‘Please, call me Mira. I mean, do you look inside yourself and examine what you find there. To discover what you really want in life, that sort of thing.’