The Forgotten Queen

Chapter 3

      My reign has finally started. It has been one year of festivals and feasts. Apeta says that she surprised that I haven't grown fat with all of the eating I have been doing. She is just saying that. I feel like a hippo. Apeta says that it is just that I haven't looked at my reflection yet. That is true. I haven't seen what I look like since the beginning of all of the celebration. I had Apeta dress me and do my hair and makeup. I can't bear to see my fake smile.

      "Akahalta," Apeta opened the door to my room. "I have found a looking glass for you to look at yourself." she smiled then said, "I am tired of you complaining that you look like a hippo." She smiled mysteriously before adding, "Even though you do look like one."

     I tried to make my voice sound like Aua when she is acting like the queen, "You dare say that to the pharaoh? I shall have your head chopped off..." I burst into laughter and soon so did Apeta.  A guard brought in a looking glass.

    "Well, I guess still look stick thin," I said complaining with a smile on my face. 

    "Oh great!" she groaned, "I'll have to here your complaining about how small you are." We both laughed.

                                                                      ...

      "This man got drunk and killed his children," a small man was going through a scroll of all of the crimes committed that week. It had been a year of this. Criminals sent in. Criminals punished. Repeat.

     "Is he in the prison?" I asked. I sighed.

     "Yes," the man's voice made me tired.

     "Execution," I muttered for what seemed the 500th time. "Only 6,000 more to go" I mumbled.

     "I'm sorry did you say something?" he asked.

     "Oh no," I sighed. 

     "This man tried to steal. He is facing charges for ten years," 

      I rubbed my temples trying to focus. "Bring him in,"

                                                                                    ....

     "What did you steal?" I asked. I flinched as my voice bounced around the room. The man was dirty and I count every rib bone. He wore a nap sack around his waist and chains on his hands. I could tell he had taken a beating.

    "A handful of grain for my family," He croaked.  I looked over his sentence. Aua had sentenced him. He began to look vaguely familiar. He was once her trusted friend and now her greatest enemy.  She made sure that poverty took a toll on him and his family.  For a petty crime like this he would have been beaten. 

     "A crime like that should just be a beating," I said. My body was shaking. 

    "A lesson. Revenge," He mumbled. Tears formed in eyes. I looked over to Aua who was watching this unfold. She smiled with pleasure. 

     "I see you have taken a beating already," 

     "From the guards," 

    "I lift your sentence of ten years. You may go," I looked over and watched Aua's smile fade.