Tiy and the Prince of Egypt (19 page)

Not a single wild bull was in sight when Tiy arrived on the banks of Shetep. She had half expected a swarm of beasts with lowered horns and massive bodies stampeding toward her in greeting. Instead of wild bulls, Amenhotep charged toward her with his arms spread wide. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and lifted her from the boat, twirling her into the air and leaving her dizzy with happiness.

“I’m so glad you came!” he said
. “You got here much sooner than I expected.”

“I was already on
my way when I received your letter.”

He beamed
and then pointed his finger into the grassy field. “Do you see them?”

Tiy
held her hand above her eyes and squinted. She saw only the tall grass, black boulders, and a thick tree line. She secretly hoped the bulls had migrated overnight.

“Over there,” Amenhotep said pointing to the field
of grass again. “I suppose from here they could look like big rocks, but you get the idea.”

Tiy
gasped. “
Those
are the bulls?” Her voice had grown higher with each word as she eyed the things she had believed moments before were harmless boulders. Very large boulders.

“I’
m about to head out for a second hunt,” Amenhotep said. “The horses have been resting for several days, so I’m anxious to get out again. You’re coming with me, right?”

Her v
oice jumped another octave. “What?”

Amenhotep laughed.
“Just for a short hunt. This is something you need to experience! The thrill, the rush, the speed. There is nothing like it. Don’t worry. We shouldn’t have any major incidents.”

“I’d rather not have any minor incidents either.”

“I won’t let you get hurt,” he said with persuasive confidence.

“There are so many of them,
” Tiy said. She had tried to lower her voice, to minimize the attention her previous exclamations had drawn, but she couldn’t control the tremor in her words. She couldn’t believe Amenhotep was putting himself in this kind of danger.

“Over a hundred remain
,” Amenhotep said.

“How many have you captured already?”

“I’ve killed fifty-six.”

Tiy
nodded as if she wasn’t surprised in the slightest, as if she had expected no less of him, but in reality she was reeling in shock. From what she knew of wild bulls, most hunters considered themselves accomplished if they killed a handful over the entire span of a hunting expedition, certainly not fifty-six in a single day. She didn’t understand why he was still planning another day of hunting. Hadn’t he proven himself enough?

“It
wasn’t without effort,” Amenhotep said, clearly unsatisfied by her reaction. “They work together somehow, using group force to defeat their predators. One male nearly gored one of my horses, which would have put me in a precarious situation, but I was able to cripple it with a swift spear to its back.” He mimicked the motion of thrusting a spear toward the ground.

Tiy
shuddered, giving Amenhotep an appropriate reaction he could be satisfied with. He grinned and continued his regaling of the previous hunt’s
fun.

“
They look slow,” he said, “but they’re quick and get mad fast. I had one run right up next to me, keeping pace with the horses, and rammed its horns—”

Ramose
rode in on a chariot, cutting Amenhotep off. She’d never been happier to see Ramose. She didn’t want to hear anymore about the wild bulls and their deadly antics, especially if Amenhotep expected her to join him on the hunt.

The chariot was one of
the new eight-spoke wheeled chariots designed for high speeds and rough terrain. In order to keep the chariot lightweight and maneuverable, the wooden platform was plain, lacking the usual elaborate metal work found in so many chariots. Her father had been coveting one for quite some time, and Tiy regretted not sending one to him before. She certainly had the means to send him a dozen, if he so desired, but it had never occurred to her that she had the power to make it happen. Until now.

“Amenhotep, I want to send three or four of these to my father,” she said.

Amenhotep laughed and rested his arm on her shoulders, pulling her close to him. “And so it shall be done,” he said. “They are a beautiful thing to behold.”

“I agree,” Tiy said, eyeing the chariot again.
A rod extended from the front and harnessed two horses with red, green, and white dyed calfskin yokes. The horses tossed their heads and stamped their feet in anticipation.

“Tiy wants
to join me for a short hunt,” Amenhotep said to Ramose.

Tiy
grumbled to herself.
Want?
At what point did she say she
wanted
to go?

Ramose
seemed disappointed as he jumped from the platform, his shoulders slumped and his lips turned down.

“Don’t worry,
old Ramose,” Amenhotep said. “I’ll bring her back before Ra travels too far in the sky, and then we can go out again.”

“I don’t want to interfere,”
Tiy said. Ramose’s forlorn face was too much for her to ignore. And she had no desire to become bull food. “It’s okay, really, I don’t mind watching.”

“
Nonsense!” Amenhotep interjected before Ramose’s hopeful expression solidified. “You won’t be able to see anything from here and it won’t be as fun for you, trust me.”

Tiy
smiled apologetically at Ramose.

“Are you ready?” Amenhotep said jumping up on
to the chariot’s platform. He held out a hand toward her.

Tiy
gripped his hand and let him pull her up. She didn’t feel any safer in the small wooden enclosure.

“Your hands are cold and sweaty,” Amenhotep said
.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet
my death today. Forgive me if I feel a little unprepared.”

Amenhotep
roared in laughter and caught the reins up in his hands. With a snap of his wrists and a low holler, the horses thundered toward the massive black boulders.

At least the chariot was heavily armed
, Tiy thought. Slung over the waist-high rails were two quivers for arrows and a sheath for bows. Javelins were kept near the front. Tiy gripped the rails and grabbed for a javelin. If she was going to die, she would die fighting. When they grew closer to the living boulders, Tiy grabbed another javelin with her other hand, choosing protection over balance.

Amenhotep’s laugh
erupted beside her and flew in the wind behind them. She was glad she had thought to tighten the scarf over her head, otherwise her wig would have been blown into the high grass and her bare head would have been exposed, something she was not yet prepared to explain. As it was, she stood balanced with one foot in front of the other. It was all she could do to keep from flying out of the open rails on the back of the platform. She didn’t have the coordination to secure a scarf as well.

They
slowed, and Amenhotep pulled the chariot behind an outcropping of trees not far from the herd. They were far enough that the beasts hadn’t noticed them, giving them an opportunity to discern their forms among the tall grass.

Tiy
shivered at the sight. The massive bodies were matted with coarse black coats that thinned toward the rear. Longer, stringy hair clung to their ears, which hung below the hook-shaped horns. Her mouth turned dry as she stared at the horns. They were so big! She swallowed, her tongue thick and heavy. The bull’s horns were the length of her forearm and twice as thick, broadening into what looked like a heavy shield mounted to their foreheads.

A large male
lifted his head, his eyes narrowing at Tiy. He stared at her as if she were his greatest enemy and he was planning the perfect method for her destruction, which most likely involved trampling her under his feet or impaling her with the giant weapons attached to his head. Was it possible for horns to grow any bigger than the ones pointed right at her? She doubted it.

“Don’t let their placid behavior fool you,” Amenhotep whisper
ed.

“Placid?”
Tiy whispered back. She was ready to snatch the reins from Amenhotep at any moment and attempt their escape, and he thought they looked placid? She studied the male again, trying to see him through Amenhotep’s eyes, trying to comprehend what could make Amenhotep think they looked calm.

The male continued staring at
Tiy, at least it seemed like he was staring at her. It wasn’t until he began moving his jaw back and forth in a circular motion that she realized he might not be looking at her at all, but might be simply enjoying his breakfast. In all actuality, he appeared quite bored and perhaps a little annoyed at all the little brown birds hopping up and down on his head, reaching into his nose and ears to find bugs to eat. Tiy glanced at the other bulls and noticed dozens of birds enjoying feasts upon their heads as well. If such tiny little animals could feel safe around a bull, surely they weren’t as dangerous as she had supposed. They appeared calm as they grazed, harmless and...placid.

Tiy
chuckled to herself at her revelation. Amenhotep had been right. They didn’t look like they could be easily excited. It was all a matter of perspective.

“What’s s
o funny?” Amenhotep asked.

“They look
like overgrown cows with horns too big for their heads. I bet they trip over them all the time. I can’t believe I let them frighten me. Really, I think I could walk up to one of them and kiss their wet little noses. Although, that would be disgusting, so I won’t.”

Amenhotep
gaped at her as though she had just admitted that she boiled baby turtles for fun and hand fed them to wild hippopotami. His eyebrows arched higher than she’d ever seen them.

“What,”
Tiy asked. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Look at them with their lazy jaws moving back and forth as if they aren’t even attached to their faces. I’d be surprised if there was half a brain in those overgrown cows.”

Amenhotep raised his eyebrows even higher
. “I said
don’t
be fooled by their placid behavior.”

Tiy
shrugged.

Amenhote
p smirked and picked up the reins. He kept the horses moving at a slow walk as they inched toward the senseless beasts. Tiy set her two javelins down and relaxed against the railing.

The male
she had thought was staring at her began moving his head side to side, his nose in the air. He smelled them coming before he could see or hear them. The poor dumb animals. Their sense of sight wasn’t even as strong as their sense of smell. No wonder Amenhotep had been able to kill fifty-six in one day.

One by one
, the heads of the bulls lifted as the chariot approached and one by one they showed their horns, twisting them from side to side.

“What are they doing?”
Tiy asked, starting to feel a little nervous again.

Amenhotep looked at her and grinned.
“They are preparing to attack.”

Tiy’s heart beat against her chest. She had been fooling herself into thinking they were harmless. She should have trusted her initial instinct and run when she had the chance instead of placating herself with lies. Amenhotep raised his bow arm, his eyes trained on his prey. There was no hope of convincing him to turn back.

Tiy
snatched two javelins with renewed fervor as Amenhotep released his arrow and sent it sailing into one of the larger bulls. The bull grunted and took off at a startled gallop, the rest of the herd following. Amenhotep didn’t miss a beat. He whipped the horses into action and sent another arrow into the bull before it could get any further. It grunted again and fell to the ground in a loud bellow.

The herd
scattered, but upon the call of the distressed bull, the herd regrouped into a dense mass of angry beasts, intent on exacting revenge and protecting their weak. The calves were gathered into the center of the hairy throng and the largest males pushed toward the front. Tiy no longer questioned their mental strength—their quiet lowing and loud snorting a demonstration of their cohesive intelligence.

“Here we go!”
Amenhotep exclaimed. He didn’t seem concerned. In fact, he looked like he was having the time of his life. Tiy wanted to throttle him for bringing her into the field, for bringing them both into such overwhelming danger. All of Egypt counted on them to lead their country, to carry them into prosperity and peace. And just when she felt she had found the strength to rule, she would lose it under a mass of angry hooves.

Amenhotep
steered the horses toward the rear of the herd and, after dropping the reins long enough to send Tiy scrambling after them, launched arrows at blinding speed. Dirt swooshed up around the herd’s thundering feet, filling the air with a brown cloud of choking dust. Somehow Amenhotep could see well enough through the cloud to find the best targets because it wasn’t long before dozens of bellows and calls of distress sounded over the rumble of hooves and clattering wheels.

S
till a good distance from the bulls, Amenhotep took up the reins with one hand and changed the direction of the chariot, coming at them from the rear. He drove to the center of the herd, tossing a few well-placed javelins before the animals could determine the direction of the threat. But the beasts seemed to gather their bearings quickly, turning to face the chariot as a unified herd. Amenhotep pulled the reins to one side and the horses took them into a wide circle that brought them to the rear of the herd again. This tactic worked several times and each time Tiy feared they would be swallowed by the herd’s ranks before Amenhotep noticed it was time to turn the chariot, but each time he was able to pull them away from harm before it was too late.

As Ra pushed the sun across
the morning sky, the bulls began expecting their tactics and turned upon them more quickly. Amenhotep retreated into a thicket of trees and had to take the reins up in both hands to keep the horses from smashing into trees and thick shrubs.

“The bulls
are agitated,” Amenhotep called out over the sound of the chariot’s wheels thumping against the rough terrain. “I don’t want you out here while they are so aggressive.”

“I don’t want you out here either,”
Tiy called out to him.

Amenhotep
glanced at her with an impish grin. “I’m going to find another route back to the encampment. We just need to outrun them for now.”

The bulls
followed them into the thicket of trees, several of them outpacing the slower beasts and becoming bolder as their numbers decreased. A look of alarm passed across Amenhotep’s face and he thrust the reins into Tiy’s hands. Pulling his bow from his back, he sent a few quick arrows into the herd before abandoning the weapon all together for the sharp javelins. There were still several javelins near the front and Tiy kicked them toward Amenhotep as she directed the horses toward a wide clearing in the trees. With a healthy stretch in front of them, she tied the reins to a rail and took up a javelin.

The bulls were nearly upon
them, thundering on either side of the chariot. Tiy glimpsed the gnarled horns of the mature males, the sweat forming on their angry faces. There was no stopping them. Their horns lowered as they pulled closer to the chariot, preparing to slash them into pieces. Tiy hurled javelin after javelin into the hairy throng. Only a few slowed, but the larger, more robust bulls continued charging toward them.

“Amenhotep!”
Tiy cried. But she was too late. An enormous bull rounded a thick grouping of trees and charged at them from the side. With his head down and his horns lowered, he rammed into the belly of one of their horses, thrusting the tip of his horns into the soft flesh. The horse reared and buckled, breaking its harness as it fell. The abrupt motion sent the chariot hurtling forward. Amenhotep shot a protective arm out in front of Tiy, but it was a futile effort. Both of them were thrown from the chariot and into the trunk of a tall tree. Tiy grunted on impact and cried out as her body scraped down the rough bark.

The
bulls trampled over the fallen horse, the animal’s skin stripping off as the stampede crushed and mangled it. They barreled toward the unwounded horse, assuming the overturned chariot dragging behind it was the threat.

Amenhotep
rolled next to Tiy. “Are you okay?”

Tiy moaned.

Amenhotep jumped to his feet and lifted her limp body into his arms. “I need you to climb into this tree,” he said, pushing her toward the trunk.

“I can’t move,”
Tiy mumbled.

“
How badly are you hurt?”

“I mean I don’t want to move,”
Tiy said. She was fairly certain none of her bones were broken, but her entire body was on fire.

“You need to
get in the tree. The bulls could return.”

Tiy
didn’t need any more motivation than that. She let Amenhotep heft her into the tree and she climbed as high as she could manage, ignoring the loud protests from every part of her body. Once she was satisfied with the height she had reached, she looked down, expecting to find Amenhotep right behind her. But he stood at the base of the tree, watching her climb with his eyebrows pulled together, his lips pressed into a line.

“Aren’t you coming?”
Tiy said. Their chests were both heaving with exertion, her breath coming in quick, painful gasps.

Amenhotep shook his head
. “I need to find a way to get you back to the encampment.”

“Someone will
find us soon. Come up here before the bulls return.”

Amenhotep shook his head again
. “There’s no time.” He pointed to her head. “You’re bleeding, Tiy.”

Her
hand shot up to her head and her eyes opened in alarm, not because of the blood oozing above her left ear, but because both the scarf and wig were gone.

“I don’t care about that,” A
menhotep said. “Although I’m interested to know what compelled you to shave your beautiful hair.”

Tiy
shook her head, biting her lip. She couldn’t tell him about Kepi. She still hadn’t figured out how to keep him safe from her threats.

“Not now,” he
said. “I’m more worried about the gash in your head. Hold your hand on it and I’ll return as soon as I can.”

T
iy pressed her hand to the wound, suppressing a shutter as wetness oozed between her fingers. “Don’t go, Amenhotep,” she cried out to him. “Someone will come looking for us.”

“We are too far into the trees
. Too much time may pass before they even begin searching and even longer before they find us.” His eyes flickered to the blood dripping down her arm.

“I’ll be
fine,” Tiy said. “Let me come with you. I can keep up.”

Amenhotep
shifted from foot to foot. “No. Please, just stay in the tree. You are safe there, and I’ll know where to find you when I return. This is my entire fault. I shouldn’t have let the bulls get so agitated while you were with me.”

“Please,
let me come with you,” Tiy said as she began climbing down.

“For once Tiy, let me be the one to care for you.”

Tiy
stopped, surprised by the force of his declaration. What did he mean? He was always taking care of her. Surely he wasn’t still trying to make up for the sandstorm or the other small incidents that seemed to crop up on their adventures together.

Tiy
wasn’t sure how to respond, so she simply nodded and watched him run in the direction of the runaway horse, his hand held to his side and blood running down his back.