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together, and I thought there wasn’t a man in any kingdom who could refuse her. Her entire body glittered with gold, even her toes.
    The two body servants stepped back. “She’s magnificent.”
    They switched places to inspect each other’s work, and Merit hummed approval as she looked into my face. “Green eyes,” she said. “I have never seen eyes this green before.”
    “I rimmed them in malachite,” Ipu replied, proud of her work.
    “It’s beautiful.”
    I sat straighter and my sister cleared her throat, interrupting my moment.
    “My sandals,” she announced.
    Merit fetched sandals encrusted with gold, then Nefertiti turned to me.
    “Tonight I meet the Prince of Egypt,” she said. She held out her arms and her bangles tinkled at her wrists. “How do I look?”
    “Like Isis,” I said honestly.

    We were led to the Great Hall at sunset and could hear the festivities from several courtyards away. As each guest arrived, they were announced, and as we waited in line, Nefertiti squeezed my arm. “Is Father in there yet?” she asked, thinking that because I was tall I could see over the heads of a dozen people.
    “I can’t tell.”
    “Stand on your toes,” she instructed.
    I still couldn’t see. “Don’t worry. Everyone will see your entrance,” I promised.
    We moved up several places in line, and now I could see that the Elder and Queen Tiye were both within. The prince, too, was there. Men kept turning in line to look at my sister, and I realized that my father had chosen correctly when instructing us to arrive after everyone else.
    The line kept moving, and soon the entire hall was spread before us. Of all the rooms I had yet seen in Malkata, it was easily the widest and most beautiful. The herald cleared his throat and stretched out his arm. “The Lady Nefertiti,” he announced grandly, “daughter of Ay, Vizier of Egypt and Overseer of the King’s Great Works.”
    Nefertiti took a step forward and I heard conversation in the Great Hall falter.
    “The Lady Mutnodjmet, sister of Nefertiti, daughter of Ay, Vizier of Egypt and Overseer of the King’s Great Works,” the herald continued.
    Now I stepped forward, and I watched as the guests turned to see Ay’s two daughters, fresh from the tiny city of Akhmim.
    Women stared as we walked to the dais. Our father stood to greet us from behind a long table, and we were brought before the three Horus thrones of Egypt, bowing with our arms outstretched. The Elder sat forward on his chair, and I could see that his sandals were carved of wood and that the bottoms were painted with images of his enemies. He stared at Nefertiti’s round hennaed breasts, though there were enough pairs in the Great Hall to keep him occupied for the entire night.
    “Rise,” the queen commanded.
    As we did so, Prince Amunhotep’s gaze met my sister’s. Nefertiti smiled back, and I noticed that next to him Kiya was watching us closely. Then, because Nefertiti was not yet queen, we were taken to a table directly beneath the dais where the viziers ate and where my father was sitting.
    Nefertiti hissed through her perfect smile, “It’s an insult, to have to sit beneath her.”
    My father stroked my sister’s golden arm. “In a few days, she will be sitting here, and you will be Queen of Egypt.”
    The men at our table talked over each other to ask Nefertiti about her journey to Thebes, if the weather had been good, whether the ship had stopped at any cities along the way. I watched Amunhotep, and his eyes never left my sister’s face. She must have known this, because she laughed and flirted, tossing her long neck back when a handsome son of another vizier approached her and asked about her time in Akhmim. I saw Kiya try to speak with the prince, to tear her husband’s gaze away from my sister, but Amunhotep would not be distracted. I wondered what he thought of his future wife, and I studied the way Nefertiti held men in her power. She spoke softly, so they had to