The Golden Queen

Twenty Six

Twenty Six

TWO evenings later, I roused to Ahmose's gentle voice in my ear. "We're about to dock in Thebes," he said. I lifted my head from his chest and gazed out the window over the Nile. The port in Thebes had come in sight, and the great metropolis was as silent as the stars above us.

On the other side of the river was the deep gorge that held the Valley of the Kings. There was a burst of orange light coming from the gorge, causing shadows to flicker on the mountainside. "What's happening over there?" I asked.

Ahmose followed my pointed finger to the light from the gorge. "It's the tomb builders," he replied. "They are constructing my tomb as we speak." His lips tightened into a thin line, his jaw clenched.

I nearly fell out of bed. The secret of Ahmose's lost tomb had evaded me for so long now. I was close to fulfilling Father's dream. "May I see?" I had forgotten how cold it was, but the excitement of this discovery warmed my blood.

Ahmose smiled at me. "You wanted to discover my tomb," he replied, remembering my words from the other day. "If I show you my tomb, will you give my name back to history in your time?"

His words were bittersweet.

"No," I replied. "I'm never going back to my time."

His eyes brightened as he smiled and leaned in to kiss me. He instructed the captain to dock the boat on the other side of the river.

The moon was a bright silver orb in the sky against the backdrop of stars and perpetual blackness. There were no clouds, nothing to hinder the night of its beauty. It shined down on the expanse of the desert like a ghostly embrace of silver light, casting a haunting glow over the gorge.

Ahmose held a lantern to light our path from the port. Along the riverbank were torches that blazed through the darkness, creating a guidepost to Thebes under the stretch of night. Ahmose took my hand in his and held it gently.

We came to the edge of the cliff and examined the burning firelight down in the valley. Torches were scattered throughout the narrow gorge and into the cavern of the tomb. I remembered sitting on this very edge in the twenty-first century, casting my eyes over the valley, wondering where Ahmose lay buried. As we stood at the edge together, I followed his pointed finger to the lighted tomb below. But the location seemed familiar, and foreboding at the same time. The tomb was carved in the side of the mountain that had already been excavated. In the twenty-first century, his tomb wasn't located there.

"Can we get closer? Can you take me to it?" I asked, squeezing his hand.

"There is a trail that leads into the valley over here," he said and led me to the passage that snaked down between the mountains.

The workers coming out of the tomb for more supplies fell into deep bows when they saw Ahmose. Their lanterns cast eerie shadows over us as they came to their feet. He handed me the lantern and I scanned the valley around us, which appeared to be very much the same as it was in the future. I shook my head as I examined the mountainside holding his tomb.

"This is not your tomb," I murmured, horrified.

"Of course it is! Why would you say that? If it does not belong to me, then to whom does it belong? I have built it," Ahmose replied, offended. The tombs were built to serve as homage to the deceased kings as they journeyed into the afterlife. To desecrate the tomb in any away was the most despicable and heinous crime in Egypt.

I took Ahmose's hands and gazed into his eyes. "I need you to do something for me," I said. I handed the lantern back to him. "Go into the tomb and stand in the first antechamber."

Ahmose took the lantern from my shaking hand.

"As you can see, I have never stepped foot inside," I added.

Ahmose was hesitant and very confused at first, but went into the tomb anyway. I turned my back to him as he progressed into the antechamber to observe the paintings on the wall. I had stood within this tomb so many times before in the twenty-first century, searching for clues of Ahmose's existence. I knew all the details by heart, the vibrant images deep in my memory. "I am inside," he said. "What do you want me to look for?"

"Look at the ceiling; are there stars?"

There was silence as Ahmose paused, shuffling his lantern around to look at the ceiling. "Aye," he replied.

"Now cast your eyes upon the wall to your left. Is there a depiction of His Majesty as a deity, with skin as black as the fertile soil of the Nile Valley?" He needed to trust me, to understand I knew what was to come, that I had knowledge he did not. "In his hand, is he grasping a long golden flail?"

"Aye," Ahmose replied again, frustrated and confused. He came out of the antechamber and joined me outside. "Is there a purpose for this?"

"I know everything about this tomb," I explained. "I know exactly how each wall in every chamber looks. I described the walls to you exactly as they are, and as you have seen, I have not stepped foot in there once. How is this possible?"

Ahmose was silent for a moment and then answered, "You have been here before, in your time." A few more moments of silence followed, and then he realized what I had been trying to tell him. "But you said my tomb was lost, that it has never been found in the valley."

"Exactly," I replied. The tomb before us was KV 34, the tomb of Thutmosis III. "This tomb will belong to Thutmosis."

Ahmose dropped the lantern, and it shattered to pieces, the cool sand beneath our feet snuffing out the flame.