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Thutmose II was a sickly, weak man with pus oozing out of his festered skin. By some accounts, his mind wasn’t entirely whole either. Perhaps whatever ate at his body devoured his brain as well.
His condition could also be due to inbreeding, the mess with his head if not his body. Shai did not understand the royals’ need to marry siblings to one another. This was not the case amongst commoners or even nobles. And certainly not where he and his parents came from.
A flicker of distaste passed over her face before it was quickly gone. Heba obviously did not look forward to the matrimonial pact.
“If only my other brothers yet lived. They were at least hale and hearty. Thutmose is the only remaining male heir. What a waste.”
She was silent, then, for a long while. A gentle breeze sifted through the feathering tufts of her loose hair, cut short to better fit her many elaborate wigs.
He liked her natural hair the best, not that his opinion mattered.
He wondered what it would look like if she grew it out. It framed her heart-shaped face tenderly, making her take on a kittenish look, emphasizing her large, slightly tilted cat eyes and small nose.
Free of kohl and rouge, her fine skin shone almost alabaster in the moonlight, her full lips pursed in thought like the petals of a budding rose.
Pain radiated from his caged groin as less than innocent thoughts flooded Shai’s mind. He ignored it. He’d had plenty of practice, after all.
Seven years of wearing the cage, and for the rest of his life. He supposed he should be thankful he was allowed to keep his manhood in exchange for forced chastity and the excruciating agony that throbbed in the root of him whenever he was aroused.
He was a healthy, robust male. He was aroused often. But strangely, never around anyone else but the princess.
Just as Heba was surrounded by masses of people all day, so was Shai by extension. Many of them were scantily clad, given the heat and the Egyptians’ lack of modesty, apparently.
Sex was not something to be ashamed of, and not something to be hidden for private consumption only. He’d seen plenty of nude forms, male and female, in this vast foreign land. But none of them affected him. Not even a twinge.
He pushed his reaction to the princess to the back of his mind.
It was merely their constant close proximity, he told himself. She was the female he spent every waking and even unconscious moment with. Perhaps he’d imprinted on her light, flowery scent, so different from the heavier musk that most people wore.
He was a fully-grown man now, at nineteen years of age. Unruly erections were bound to happen. For his own sake, he must exert better control over his bodily urges. And failing that, he’d simply endure it as he always had.
“Papa said…” she started on a whisper, her breath catching, making him lean slightly toward her to better hear.
“He said: ‘This daughter of mine, Khnumetamun Hatshepsut, may she live, I have appointed as my successor upon my throne. She shall direct the people in every sphere of the Palace; it is she, indeed, who shall lead you. Obey her words, unite yourselves at her command.’”
She sighed shakily, as if the words were both a blessing and a curse.
“He said this on his deathbed. We were all there. Thutmose, my brother and soon-to-be husband. The royal council members. The priests. The historians. But not an hour after Papa dictated his commandment, they announced Thutmose as Pharoah. Not me.”
She tilted her chin at a defiant angle as she took a bracing breath.
“Now, I am expected to support my brother’s rule by bedding him and producing an heir. That is my only role. To mount that diseased body, suck his disgusting seed into my womb and…”
Suddenly, she beat her fist against the stone ledge.
“Ridiculous!”
She turned to him then, her blazing eyes finding him unerringly in the shadows of her chamber.
“Have you seen him? My brother? If his manhood could ever harden for the act of procreation I will eat my wig! He is an imbecile as well as impotent! But by virtue of having dangly bits between his thighs he is now Pharoah. Arrrrggghhhhh!”
Shai grunted in sympathetic righteous indignation as she pushed away from the balcony to pace furiously to and fro across the chamber.
“If I don’t produce an heir, I could be made irrelevant. I could be replaced with another Queen. And then what? Papa wanted me to rule. He always had. I am taught in the way of Pharoahs. I excel in all my lessons. No one is better prepared than I. Oh, why wasn’t I born a male!”
She stopped before him in the middle of her tirade, her hands lifting to cup her small breasts through her shift.
“Look at these tits!”
