Desert God (34 page)

When at last he spoke his voice was hoarse with incredulity and avarice. ‘Does your Pharaoh indeed have a sum of that magnitude to dispose of?’

‘I give you my assurance that he does, Your Majesty. I have been commanded by Pharaoh to seal the accord of our two nations by immediately delivering into Your Majesty’s hand the sum of three lakhs of silver. This is merely a pledge of what is to follow.’

For a long while Nimrod stared at me in silence. Then suddenly he sprang to his feet and began pacing rapidly back and forth across the floor of the chamber. His face was creased into a murderous scowl and he chewed his lip until a drop of blood dripped from his chin on to his embroidered tunic. He exhibited no sign of pain.

Suddenly he stopped in front of me and glared into my face. ‘Three lakhs immediately and twenty-seven more to follow within the year?’ he demanded. I waited for Phat Tur to make the translation before I agreed.

‘Even as Your Majesty says. However, you must send a regiment of your finest to take delivery of the balance of the treasure in Thebes. Pharaoh will not accept the risk of transporting it with his own men.’

Nimrod spun around and resumed his pacing. His bronze-soled sandals rang on the paving slabs as he stamped up and down the chamber. He began to argue with himself in Sumerian.

‘How can I trust this devious and ball-less freak? It is no secret that he is in league with Seth and all the dark devils. There are even those who believe that he himself is one of the darker spirits from beyond the void,’ he muttered and then when he realized what he had said he spun around and shouted at Phat Tur, ‘Translate my words at your peril! If you do I will throttle you with your own intestines, do you understand?’

Phat Tur paled and dropped his gaze. ‘As Your Majesty commands,’ he acquiesced. Nimrod resumed his march up and down the chamber, and his argument with himself. Then he stopped in front of me again.

‘Tell him I trust him,’ he ordered Phat Tur. ‘But that I must have a binding covenant with Pharaoh Tamose of Egypt before I can agree to an alliance.’ As he stated this condition I saw the flare of lascivious guile in his eyes.

‘If it is at all possible, I know that Pharaoh will accede,’ I hedged cautiously.

‘I wish to unite my own family with the royal family of Egypt,’ Nimrod stated. ‘I wish to take Pharaoh’s two sisters, Tehuti and Bekatha, to be my wives. In that way Pharaoh and I will become brothers-in-law.’

I was amazed at the extent of his greed, gall and randiness. This rogue wanted both the money and the meat. ‘It is a great honour you are offering to bestow on Egypt. In any other circumstances I know my Pharaoh would not hesitate a moment before agreeing with your suggestion.’ In a reasonable tone of voice I concealed my anger from this obnoxious creature who had heaped insults on me and who now was blatantly lusting after my beloved girls. ‘However, Pharaoh has already pledged both his sisters in marriage to the Supreme Minos of Crete to seal the military alliance between our two nations. He dare not renege on this promise. The Minoan would not accept the insult to his honour.’

Nimrod shrugged and muttered something obscene. However, I could tell he was not too seriously irked by my refusal. Both of us knew that it had been an opportunistic attempt on his part to wring the last possible advantage from our agreement. No matter how much some men are offered they will always try for a little more.

Nimrod took another turn around the chamber while he rallied his wits, and then he made the next attempt: ‘I would enjoy the sight of the three lakhs of silver you spoke of earlier; by no means because I do not trust you and your Pharaoh to honour your agreement, but merely because I am interested to see how you concealed them until now …’ Nimrod addressed me directly, hoping, I am sure, to trick me into betraying the fact that I understood Sumerian. I frustrated him once again by looking to Phat Tur for translation. I was beginning to enjoy circumventing Nimrod’s snares. It was not dissimilar to playing the bao stones against Lord Aton.

I sent Zaras and Hui to fetch the silver from our regimental camp beyond the city walls. It took two wagons and fifty men to make the transfer. It was an impressive pile of bullion when it was finally heaped on the floor of the council chamber. Nimrod walked around the glittering pile, fondling every ingot, speaking endearments to them as though they were his beloved pets.

That evening we feasted once more at Nimrod’s board. I found the wine to be eminently more drinkable than the gut-rot he had served us previously. However, its effect on the manners and behaviour of my host and his minions was less meritorious.

King Nimrod had missed his morning exertions in the Temple of Ishtar. Agreeable or not, we were treated to an exhibition of the Mighty Hunter’s insatiability. Half the females in the banquet hall ended the evening in a state of prurient abandon.

I was pleased that I had left my two princesses locked in their apartment with Zaras and a dozen of his men standing guard at their door.

T
he six war galleys that I had purchased from Nimrod were undergoing a refit in Sidon harbour and would not be ready for me to take command of them until the end of the month of Phamenoth.

I employed this hiatus to work with King Nimrod and his staff in planning and plotting our combined campaign against the Hyksos. I had selected Lord Remrem to remain in Babylon and act as Pharaoh’s military attaché.

Reluctantly I had agreed that Colonel Hui would stay with Remrem as his assistant. Under my tutelage Hui had developed into one of the most skilled protagonists of the science of chariot warfare. I knew I would miss him and his expertise sorely when we opened hostilities with the Hyksos hordes in northern Egypt along the coast of the Middle Sea. But Bekatha had made her aversion for him manifest. I knew that she would cause a furore if I took Hui with us to Crete.

W
ithin weeks of Nimrod receiving the silver incentive the workshops of his army were fully employed with the manufacture of new armour and weapons, repairing old chariots and building hundreds more to my own superior design and specifications. The streets of Babylon became crowded with marching columns of recruits, and the souks were tumultuous with haggling buyers and sellers.

Through Phat Tur and his agents I learned that every other city in Sumeria was enjoying this same martial resuscitation. By the thousands the formerly unemployed warriors of Sumeria were flocking back to the royal standard – and the king’s silver coin.

The work I had set myself was difficult and complicated enough without me making it worse by pretending not to be fluent in the Sumerian language. I began to speak a halting and childlike Sumerian to my hosts, which daily became more fluent and grammatically correct. Even His Majesty King Nimrod was forced in my presence to cease his insulting remarks about me to his sycophants. Soon I was able to baffle our hosts with my quick banter and my clever puns and play on their own language.

One morning I watched Admiral Alorus on the far side of the chariot drilling ground remark to Nimrod that my rapid acquisition of the Sumerian language was nothing short of miraculous. When I crossed the wide ground to thank him for the compliment Alorus shrank away from me in superstitious awe, and he made the sign against the evil eye. I don’t think he had ever heard of lip-reading. But of course he believed in witchcraft, as does every educated and sensible person.

In the cool of the afternoons I took the opportunity to swim in the Euphrates or ride through the southern hills beyond the city limits with my princesses for company. It amused me how often we encountered Zaras on our forays to even the most remote locations. It was almost as though somebody had alerted him to our coming. Of course it could not have been Tehuti. Her astonishment at finding him loitering beside the trail almost superseded my own.

In the evenings there were always invitations to dine with our Sumerian hosts or with my own officers. If King Nimrod were present I insisted that my princesses sat close to me where I could watch over them.

When most of the others had retired I sat alone on the terrace outside my apartment, waiting until long after midnight for the return of the hooded lady. Night after night she disappointed me.

With all this bustling employment the days rolled by swiftly. Then a messenger arrived from the naval base at Sidon with news that the six war galleys I had purchased from Nimrod would be ready for launching twenty days earlier than anticipated. It would take our cumbersome caravan almost half that long to reach Sidon on the coast of the Middle Sea. I ordered Zaras and Hui to make the final preparations for departure from Babylon to the coast.

That evening, after I had escorted my princesses to their royal quarters in the eastern wing of the palace, I returned to my own apartment before the moon had set. My slaves had left oil lamps burning in my chamber and on the terrace beside my cot. According to my instructions they had mixed the oil in the lamps with herbs whose fumes drove off the mosquitoes and other nocturnal insects, but at the same time induced restful sleep and agreeable dreams.

Rustie was waiting up to see me to bed. He came to take away my worn garments and place a silver chalice of wine beside my cot.

‘It’s long after midnight, master,’ he reprimanded me. ‘You have not slept more than a few hours since the beginning of the week.’ Rustie has been my slave for so many years that both of us have lost count. Long ago he granted himself licence to treat me as though he were my nursemaid.

With his help I divested myself of my clothing and then went out on to the terrace, and took up the wine chalice. I wet my lips and sighed with contentment. It was a ten-year-old vintage from my own vineyards on the Mechir estate. Then I turned to look across at the terrace of the temple of the goddess. I was disappointed but resigned to find that it was deserted. It was weeks since I last had a glimpse of the hooded lady.

I dismissed Rustie and sent him still grumbling on his way, and then I paced the marble slabs, going over in my mind the salient points of the negotiations that I had held with the king that evening.

Abruptly I paused in mid-stride. The quality of the moonlight had changed, taking on a subtle golden luminosity. I looked up at the moon. I knew at once that there were preternatural forces at play, but I could not immediately ascertain whether they were benign or malignant. I made the sign of Horus with two fingers to avert evil and I waited quietly for the mystic forces to declare themselves.

Gradually I became aware of a subtle and elusive aroma on the warm night air. I had smelled nothing quite like it before, but although I could not place it all my senses were aroused. I felt an unusual but agreeable sensation building up in my neck and shoulders and running down my spine. This alerted me to the powerful presence close behind me.

I turned to face it and I was so startled that I dropped the wine chalice and it rang on the paving. For a moment my heart stilled in my breast, and then began to thump again like the hoof-beats of a runaway horse.

The mysterious lady from the temple stood before me; so close that I could make out her exquisite features in the shadows beneath the hood. If I had reached out I could have touched her but I could not move.

At last I found my voice, but when I spoke it was hushed with veneration. ‘Who are you?’

‘My name is Inana.’

I was struck to the very quick of my being by both the sound and sense of her reply. It resonated in my ears like celestial music. I knew at once that no sound so beautiful could ever issue from a human mouth. The sense of what she had said was even more striking. Inana was the ancient name from the very beginning of time for the goddess Ishtar.

‘My name is Taita.’ It was the only reply that I could think of.

‘Apart from your name you know very little about yourself, do you? You do not even know the name of your father or your mother.’ She smiled in gentle sympathy as she said it.

‘No. I never knew them.’ I acknowledged the truth of her statement. Compassionately she held out one hand to me, and without hesitation I took it. Immediately I felt the heat and strength from it flowing into me.

‘Do not be afraid, Taita. I am your friend, and more than your friend.’

‘I am not afraid of you, Inana.’ She held out her other hand and when I took that one also I knew that a powerful bond of blood and mind existed between us.

‘I know you!’ I exclaimed in wonder. ‘I feel that I have known you from the very beginning. Tell me who you are.’

‘I have not come to tell you about myself. I have come to tell you about yourself. Come with me, Taita.’ Still holding both my hands she moved backwards, leading me from the open terrace into my own bedchamber. Her footsteps, if there were any, made no sound. There was only the soft swishing of her skirts. I sensed that under them her feet were not touching the ground, and that she was suspended just above the surface.

The beautiful lantern-lit room that we entered had been my home for all these past weeks and I thought that I knew every inch of it, but now I saw that there was a door in the facing wall that I had never noticed before. As Inana led me towards it the door swung open of its own accord. There was utter darkness beyond the portals. Still holding hands we plunged into the darkness and it engulfed us. We plummeted downwards, but she held my hands and I was unafraid. The wind of our descent blew into my face with such force that I had to slit my eyes against it. We flew in darkness for what seemed an eternity, but I knew time was an illusion. Then I felt solid footing beneath me and we were no longer moving. There was light, at first only a glimmering. I could make out the shape of Inana’s head again, and then slowly her bodily form appeared beneath it. I saw that now she was as naked as I was.

I have seen the bodies of many beautiful women during my long life, but Inana far surpassed any of them. Her hips were voluptuous but above them her narrow waist emphasized their elegant contours. Although she was as tall as I am her limbs were so delicately smooth and sculptured that I could not prevent myself reaching out to stroke them. Lightly I ran my fingers up her arms from her wrists to the curve of her shoulders. Her skin was silken but the muscles beneath it were adamantine.