Falling for the Pharaoh

Whati - [The Most Important Person]

I woke up late the next morning, and then sat in bed wondering what had happened between Atemu and Nathifa.

And to add to my already bad morning, I had a horrible headache.

After taking a long, warm bath, I covered my body with some cold oils and while I was drying my hair, I found myself staring at my reflection in the water.

My lips were a little swollen.

I started to think of the maid.

After kissing her, I refused to kiss the woman who slept with me last night. She stormed out, furious, but I didn’t really care.

I sat on my bed and sighed, all of a sudden too lazy to do anything.

It took me a long while to get back up and leave my room. I had to talk to Atemu. I had to push my needs away for a while and worry about my friend.

When I walked through the garden in the direction of the throne room, I was stopped by Atemu’s stepmother. His father’s second wife.

“Whati.” She called.

I debated on whether I wanted to ignore her or not, but I decided not to. If I did, she would nag at me about it forever.

So I stopped walking and turned to face her. “My Lady.”

She was a tall woman, beautiful, yes... but her personality made her ugly.

She had long black hair which was braided into multiple braids. Her eyes were small, brown and harsh and her lips were thin. He features were very defined and her skin was a light shade of brown with barely any blemishes.

“I’ve been hearing some rumours...”

Ah, great. “Really?”

She nodded and pointed her sharp nose into the air so that she could look down at me. “Is it true that the Pharaoh and his queen did not make love last night?”

I took a deep breath. “My lady, whether they did or not is none of your concern—”

“Of course it is, Whati.” She cried. “All of Egypt is waiting for her to give birth.”

“And all of Egypt will get what they want.” I said. “But only after the two are ready.”

“Ready?”

“If they were ready last night then her Majesty will give birth in nine months. If not, we will have to wait.”

“If he was a man then he would have been ready.”

“My Lady...” I said, getting impatient. “You don’t know enough about my Pharaoh to be deciding when he should be ready and when he shouldn’t be. Do you understand that?”

“Is that any way to speak to me, Whati?”

I smirked. “Let’s put it this way. If my Pharaoh had to choose between you and I, we both know who he would choose.” And with that, I walked away.

And when I was at a far enough distance, I shivered.

I hated that woman.

Always wondered why Atemu’s father married her.

As I continued to wonder about Atemu’s fathers choices, I was suddenly surprised by a hand grabbing my wrist.

When I turned around, my heart stopped.

Anat stood there, staring angrily at me. “Why did you tell him?” She asked.

My heart sank. “I thought you were going to ask me to kiss you again.”

She openly expressed her disgusted expression. “You dirty scoundrel. If you ever touch me again I swear—”

I held my pointer up and cut her off. “Just to remind you, you are speaking to someone of much higher class than you.”

She angrily bit her lip, and when my eyes dropped to her lips my heart started to race.

I turned my head and looked away, what was wrong with me?

“Why did you tell the Pharaoh?” She repeated.

I looked back at her. “He is my best friend. Do you expect me to just let him go in there and either be deceived or heartbroken by the Queen?”

“Really?” She asked. “You don’t exactly seem to be the type of man to care so much about a friend, you scoundrel.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” She asked. “The Pharaoh is furious, he is furious with her!”

“And does he not have a right to be?” I asked. “Your mistress deceived him.”

“She did not!” She argued. “She had no idea of what she was going to do. And I told you! I told you that if we gave her time she’d open up to her—”

“You don’t seem to understand what marriage means—”

“And you do?!” She asked, raising her voice. “You... you pervert! You!” She scoffed. “You... the man who got me drunk and almost raped—”

My eyebrows shot up. “Whoa, whoa! Hold on. I got you drunk?”

“Yes! What, do you think I got myself drunk? Me? Who’s never once taken a sip alcohol before?”

“Listen, woman. I did not get you drunk. I don’t work like that.”

“Yeah right.” She said. “I’ve heard about you and what you do with the women around here. You’re the talk of all the young slave women around here, you... womanizer!”

I narrowed my eyes, but before I could speak, I placed my hand on her stomach and pushed her into a corner, away from the noblemen who were walking by.

After making sure the men were gone, I looked back at her with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, I’m a womanizer.” I said. “But you cannot deny that you enjoyed last night just as much as I did.”

We stared at each other for a moment, but then she looked away. “Why did you tell him?”

The fact that she didn’t deny the truth behind what I was saying pleased me, but the fact that she ignored me got me annoyed.

“I already told you,” I started as I stepped away, “I can’t hide something like this from my best friend.”

She looked back at me, face twisting into a glare. “You expect me to believe that—”

“Listen.” I said, raising my voice. “You’re right, I’m a womanizer, I’m not serious, and everything I say probably sounds ridiculous... but when it comes to Atemu... he’s the most important person in my life and I swear I will do anything to make sure he’s happy.”

She watched me carefully.

“And I think you should know that no matter how ridiculous I seem, I’m the Supreme Commander of Egypt’s military and have been for the past five years of my life. And in those five years, Egypt has fought two wars, one great and one small... but we won both of them.” I said, watching her. "And I can't even count all the little rebellions that I've had to supress, or even arrange."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise.

I smiled, I had obviously impressed her. “My point being that I can be serious when I need to be.”

“Well then...” She started, “be serious and tell me, what are you going to do now?”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“The Pharaoh refused to sleep in the same bed as her, and he isn’t speaking to her either. What are you going to do about that?”

“Whati, there you are, I’ve been looking...”

I turned around when I heard Atemu’s voice and I realized it had faded away because he saw Anat.

She bowed right away. “My Pharaoh.”

He nodded his head at her and when I turned around to look at her again, she had already rushed away.

I had to force myself to look away and when I did, I regretted it. I’d rather see her run off then see Atemu upset.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s true... she didn’t approve...” He kept his eyes on the floor.

“It doesn’t mean that things won’t change.”

“But Whati—”

“I just talked to her maid too.” I said. “She said that Nathifa just needs some time.”

Atemu shook his head.

“Did you sleep well?”

He scoffed. “No, the girl was crying the whole night.”

“You made her cry?” I asked, shocked.

He shrugged, keeping his shoulders raised. “I didn’t mean too! I was mad—”

“Atemu!” I put my hand on my forehead.

He sighed.

“Does your mother know?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Are you going to say anything?”

“Yes.” He looked at me. “I need to talk to Lord Asim.”

I hesitated.

“I want to ask him what he was thinking when married her off to me.”

“Don’t get feisty, Atemu.” I said. “You must remember that he is your most trusted Vizier.”

“Most trusted... he definitely betrayed—”

“Atemu.”

He scowled at the floor. “Whati, you’re forgetting what my problem is.”

“I’m not. I swear.” I said. “I’m just trying to make sure that you don’t do anything that you’re going to regret.”

He stopped walking. “Whati... she’s my wife now.” He said. “The only way that any of this can be fixed is through divorce—”

“And no one is going to let you do that.” I reminded him. “Divorce is not a good thing with Pharaohs. It’s why they marry more than once instead.”

“And I won’t do that.” He said. “That would be me going against my promise—”

“I’m not saying you will or have to.” I sighed. “Atemu, I’m just saying that you need to let some time pass. Arranged marriages like this happen all the time and they almost always work out.”

Atemu took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

“Just work your magic.” I said, winking at him. “You’ll have her falling madly in love with you in moments.”

That made him laugh. “I guess I should apologize?”

I shrugged. “Well, I guess. And talk to her. Girls love guys that talk to them.”

“About what?”

I held my hand up. “Sorry, I said that wrong. Listen to her.”

Atemu raised both of his eyebrows, seemingly impressed.

I felt my cheeks warm up in embarrassment. “They never let you talk anyways.” I said, walking faster and trying to make myself sound more like Whati.

Atemu laughed. “I knew you had that romantic side in you, Whati.” He yelled as I walked farther away from him.

I turned around and saluted him.

“Where are you going?” He asked.

“I’ve got to go talk to Abasi.” I responded.

“Have fun!” Atemu yelled.

I rolled my eyes.

He was mocking me. I hated Abasi.

I sat on my chair with my face in my hands as Abasi spoke. “So we spent the last week sending home soldiers in order to reduce the amount of money we are spending to train them.”

I looked at the minister of foreign affairs, Lord Semni, who looked back at me. I then turned to Abasi. “General... how many soldiers remain on guard?”

“About one thousand, Supreme Commander.”

“One thousand?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes, sir. There is no need—”

“The Pharaoh is eighteen and was just crowned king. Do you honestly believe that our enemies are not even considering an invasion?”

“We cannot just assume that they will invade, Supreme Commander.”

“You’re right.” I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms. “But do you think that we shouldn’t be concerned?”

The bulky, dark skinned man pressed his lips into a thin line.

“We must invoke some fear in the enemies, and we will not do such thing with a number as measly as one thousand.”

He scratched his bald head. “Yes, but—”

“I think the Supreme Commander is right.” Lord Semni said.

I nodded my head.

He looked at me with his strong brown eyed stare, the grey hair on his head and his short beard made him look wise, but at the same time, harsh. “Actually, the reason I called this meeting was to discuss just that.”

“What do you mean?” Abasi asked.

He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “I’m quite worried about the current position of the Hittites.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I feel like they are planning something, as the Supreme Commander predicted.”

I took a deep breath, letting my elbow sit on the arm of my chair, and propping my head up with my hand. “Are you sure?”

“No.” Lord Semni said, honestly. “I came back from meeting their king last night... I’ve just been hearing things.”

I let out a small laugh. “Nobles from Hittites came to the wedding too.”

Lord Semni smiled. “As I said, I’m not accusing them for preparing to attack, I’m just trying to express that the Supreme Commander is right.” He turned to Abasi. “We need to be ready, now more than ever.”

“So what should I do?” Abasi asked, looking annoyed.

“You should have informed me before you made any adjustments to the size of our military.” I said. “Now you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

“Pardon me?”

“By tomorrow, I want to see the soldier count up to five thousand.”

Lord Abasi’s eyes widened. “By tomorrow?”

I got up from my seat, Lord Semni did as well and bowed. “Yes, by tomorrow. And by the day after, I wish for the... by then... ten thousand men to be split into five battalions.”

He scoffed.

“Those are my orders, General Abasi.” I said as I turned to walk away. “And those are the Pharaohs orders as well.” I would tell Atemu later, he would understand.

I heard Lord Semni chuckle. “Don’t worry, this will be a good way to provide many men with jobs, which is what they want. You’ll be done in no time.”

Abasi grumbled something, but I had already left the room.

Outside was a group of young boys, most were tall and skiny and looked to be probably twelve to fifteen. Young boys tended to hang around here a lot, since most of them wanted to join the army.

They all stood up and saluted me the second they saw me. I chuckled. “Hey boys.” I called.

“Yes sir!” They said together.

“Pretty good.” I said, nodding my head with approval. “I could use some men like you.”

They all started to grin widely.

“Now, do me a favour.” I said.

“Yes sir!”

“Give the general in there a hand and go pass around the news that the Great Pharaoh Atemu’s army is recruiting men. If a man wants to join, he must make his way to the nearest recruiting booth and sign up. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” They shouted.

After most of them ran away to complete their missions, a few came up to me. “Can we be recruited too Supreme Commander Whati, sir?” One boy asked.

I chuckled, ruffling his hair. “In a couple more years... I’d be pleased to have you in my army, soldier.” I looked at the other boys. “All of you. But first, you’ve all got some work to do.”

They laughed a bit and then saluted me before they ran off.

I sighed, turned around and started to make my way to the throne room. I found myself chuckling to myself.

That’s how I was when I was a kid.

My father had said that to me once... “I’d be pleased to have you in my army.”

I smiled. Every moment, I was becoming more and more like my father.