CHAPTER 11
THE FIRST DUELQueen Tiye dies and the country goes into mourning almost more for her than it had for her husband. For so many years she has been a force in the Two Lands. Small, wiry, energetic, no longer beautiful, but always fascinating, her voice has been heard in almost every decision her husband made in his last years. I have never seen the best of her, but I know Akhenaten is devastated by her death.
“The umbilical cord is finally cut,” he says sadly to me. I am surprised that he has recognized how closely he has been tied to her. I stand beside him as he watches her belongings being taken to her tomb, and see the expression on his face as her bed is carried past, her favourite chair, her fans, her mirrors, her wigs. On huge stone scarabs throughout the Two Lands Amenhot
