Week 5 Story: A Jewel For a Jewel

Nefertiti was always wary when the King called upon the girls of the harem, as one could never know what it could be for. She usually sat around, painting, admiring the scenery in the elaborate cage that he kept the other women and herself inside, but today, she was to meet the King at the river, with nineteen other girls – all virgins. She could not even imagine what he wanted them to do.

It was not that the King was a particularly cruel man. Nefertiti knew that everything he did and chose to do for his kingdom was a precise and calculated choice. That didn’t mean that she was not aware that this was the same man that was keeping her captive for his pleasure. She could not overlook that.

The girls were brought to the river and instructed to get into boats. There was five of them, all craved intricately with hieroglyphics and appeared to be hand painted. Nefertiti was tasked with rowing, while three other girls sat around her. She did not mind too much, because that would give her an excuse to ignore the King as he flirted and stared at his other concubines. She was only worried that the wood of the oars would give her blisters, and she could not risk harm to her body, as the overseers of the harem would notice and there would be consequences.

The people that ran the harem oftentimes told her of her beauty, jeering and laughing as they passed by; she was never able to say anything about it. She knew that she was attractive. Her parents had blessed her with a dark mane, which could have been made of satin, tanned skin that was not just from her time in the sun, and jade eyes that had been said to pierce into a person’s soul. When she grew into herself, the older women of the harem said she would be the King’s favorite.

The King was late, which was not unusual, and he watched the boats row by his place on the riverbank. There was a young man at his side, watching the girls as well, but without the same hungry look that the King wore. The other girls in her boat waved and called out for their Majesty, and it must have done the trick, because he called them forth and proceeded to get into the boat with all of them.

Despite her reluctance, as one of the other girls started a song, Nefertiti joined in, and the rest as well. It was a few long minutes of singing, the King watching them with a satisfied smile, when one of the girls became overexcited and knocked into one of the oars in Nefertiti’s hands. It smacked against her, stinging, and caught the necklace that she wore around her neck. It had been a gift from her mother, before she had passed away from fever.

It fell into the water with a sickening plop.

Her arms froze, and she had not even realized that she had stopped singing until all the girls, and the King, were staring at her. She heard the King’s voice in her head, asking her a question, but she was staring at the place where her necklace had fallen into the water.

“Girl,” The King snapped, and Nefertiti was pulled out of her daze. She looked up to see him scowling at her, and her hands tightened on the oars. “Do not stop. Continue rowing.”

“I can’t,” Nefertiti gasped, letting go of the oar and looking back at the water. “I lost… my necklace.”

The King rolled his eyes, and he waved his hand. “I will buy you another, girl. I have enough wealth.” He laughed at his joke, which was followed be titters from the girls around Nefertiti. She did not laugh, but instead, shook her head.

“It was from my mother.” She forced out, her gaze sharp on him while she clenched her teeth to keep herself from speaking more out of term.

Suddenly, the water beside the boat moved, causing them to rock gently. Nefertiti gasped as she watched the river part at the spot where she had watched her necklace fall. A small crocodile darted into the side of the parted water to hide; there was seaweed and shells and other misplaced items on the sandy bottom of the river. There was also her necklace.

She dared not get into the gap in the river herself, afraid that the magic of the moment would somehow break and she would lose her necklace forever. Instead, she stared, and only blinked out of her daze when she saw the young man from the riverbank walk through where the river was divided. Bending down, he picked up her necklace, and looked back up to her.

Smiling, the young man handed her the accessory, and their hands brushed lightly. “A jewel for a jewel.” He said, and the girl could not help but think that he was teasing her.

Nefertiti smiled back, a blush on her cheeks, and she nodded in thanks, unable to think of the words to say that would be enough. She held her necklace tight in her hand, and watched as the young man walked back to the water’s edge, and the water came together just as it had been before.

The King rolled his eyes again at the antics, and gestured at her. “Well, there you go, girl. Now let us continue.”

Tucking the necklace into the folds her robes, Nefertiti nodded sharply and began to row once more. Her hands were tight on the oars, but not in agitation like they had been before. It was to force herself to keep her eyes on the King, and not on the young man who had so magically returned her necklace to her.

Her actions did not work.

(979 words)

Necklace similar to what Nefertiti's necklace looked like. Found on Pinterest.

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Bibliography: The Green Jewel, from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie, link to online reading.

Author's Note: The original story is about a king who is bored with his life, and an adviser to him says that he should take twenty virgins from his harem and go boating for the day. When he does this, a nameless concubine loses a ring in the lake that they are rowing on, and he tells her that he can get her a new one. However, the girl does not want a new one, but the one that she had already, and asks him to retrieve it for her. A scribe comes to the King and the girl's aide, retrieves the jewel by muttering a spell, and gives it back to the girl. The story ends with the King and the girls continuing to row around. In my tale, the story is told from the girl's perspective. I have given the girl a name so that she is obviously more important to the story. The King is given more personality, where the readers see him more like an antagonist rather than the protagonist like in the original story. I provided more background as well as a description of the main character, and I made the jewel embedded in a necklace rather than a ring. With this, as well, I added more depth to the relationships with the characters (the King and Nefertiti, Nefertiti and the scribe), and this took a turn into adding a little forbidden romance, as Nefertiti is the King's concubine and would not have been able to be with another man. I made the language more modern so that it was easier to understand, with keeping the magical element in the story there for show.