The Pharaoh's Daughter

Chapter One: The Court of the Sun

Nefertari stood at the window of her quarters and watched the Nile catch fire in the dawn light. Below, the palace was already stirring—servants carrying water jars, priests chanting in the temple courtyard, her father's war chariots being polished for the parade that would not happen because the Hittite ambassador had arrived a day early and diplomacy, as always, trumped spectacle.

She was twenty-three, educated in the House of Life, fluent in four languages, and trained in the medical arts by the royal physicians. She was also, as her father reminded her weekly, unmarried, which in the court of Ramesses the Great was less a personal failing than a strategic liability. Princesses were currency. Unmarried princesses were currency losing value.

A knock at her door. Her handmaid, Kiya, entered with a face the colour of limestone. "My lady, the Hittite ambassador is dead. They found him in the guest quarters. Poison." Nefertari closed her eyes. When she opened them, the Nile was still burning and her father's dynasty had just moved one step closer to war.