Desert God (50 page)

Then another bearded enemy face appeared before me and I hacked at it with my blunted blade. By now the cutting edge was dulled and chipped and the point was broken off. My blow was so sloppy and feeble that my new adversary turned it aside with a contemptuous twist of his wrist.

‘Taita!’ he shouted at me, and I checked my next thrust and stared at him dumbfounded. For a moment I did not recognize him through his beard and the ruddy veil of splattered blood that dulled my vision. But now I realized that he was not another Hyksos brute. His features were noble and familiar.

‘Put up your blade, my lord. I am your liege man.’ I even recognized his voice.

‘Nakati?’ I gasped. ‘I thought that I had seen the last of you.’

‘“The gods are not always attentive to our pleas.”’ He grinned as he repaid me in my own words. Then he seized my arm to prevent me falling, but I shrugged his hand away. With fresh hope came renewed strength.

‘You cut your arrival fine, Nakati. Nonetheless you are welcome.’ I pointed over the bows of the
Outrage
to where the surviving Hyksos had abandoned the battle. They were fleeing to the safety of the land; beaching their boats, abandoning them and escaping into the dunes. ‘Catch those fine fleet-footed fellows for me. Then we can turn our attention to the destruction of their chariot depot, if we can find it.’

He laughed at my choice of words. ‘Neither fine nor fleet-footed enough. The Hyksos cavalry lines are less than a league from where we stand,’ he assured me.

‘Are you sure of that?’ I demanded.

‘My informants are not as numerous as yours or Lord Aton’s, but they are at least as efficient. They informed me of this ambush that Gorrab’s men had prepared for you. I sailed to Krimad to warn you, but when I arrived you had already left. I thank Horus and Isis that I was in time to find you still alive here.’

‘I also am grateful for that!’ I wiped the sweat and blood from my face with the tail of my chlamys and stooped to pick up an abandoned enemy sword from the deck to replace my own battered weapon. As I straightened up I shouted to Zaras, ‘Take us in to the beach. Don’t let one of the Hyksos animals escape!’

We ran our own ships aground on the sandy beach. In obedience to my orders Nakati led his men in pursuit of the fugitive Hyksos, while Zaras and Hui unloaded our chariots and put the horses into the traces.

The Bedouin guides that Aton had sent to meet us emerged from where they were hiding in the dunes. Hui and I mounted up and, with half our chariots, followed the guides to the Hyksos cavalry depot.

Zaras joined forces with Nakati’s men. In the remainder of the chariots they set off in pursuit of the Hyksos fugitives from the battle who had escaped into the dunes.

The Hyksos guards at the cavalry depot had been too far from the fighting to have been alerted by the tumult and uproar of battle. When Hui and I drove our chariots up to the periphery fence of the depot I called on them in their own language to open the gates. They took us for reinforcements sent from their main army in the south, and they threw the gates open to welcome us.

By the time they realized how mistaken they were our men were amongst them, knocking down their weapons and forcing them to kneel with their hands behind their backs while they were trussed.

In the parking ground of the depot we found 850 newly built chariots drawn up in neat ranks four deep.

Obviously the Hyksos carpenters had copied the design of our Egyptian vehicles. These were a great improvement on the traditional Hyksos machines. The bodywork was woven from Malacca cane and bamboo, much lighter and more flexible than solid pine or cedar. The wheels were spoked rather than solid; making them faster and more durable.

These vehicles had been freshly lacquered and they were so closely packed that their wheel hubs were touching. We anointed them liberally with lamp oil that I had brought with us for this purpose. When we tossed burning torches into them the flames jumped from vehicle to vehicle; reducing them to ashes in the time it takes for a thirsty man to drink a cup of good wine. I was happy to see them burn rather than arrayed against me for they would have made formidable adversaries.

As soon as we had dealt with the Hyksos chariots Aton’s guides led us to their cavalry lines. There were almost two thousand chargers being held in the reed-thatched stables.

One thing – perhaps the only thing – I will concede to the Hyksos is their excellence in horse-handling. These animals had clearly been carefully bred and selected, then devotedly groomed and trained to burnished perfection. I love horses in preference to any other animal species, including most human beings. At the very least you can trust a horse.

We drove them down to where our ships lay on the beach of the bay. I was not certain how to dispose of them. Two thousand horses is a great multitude. We did not have room for them in our ships, even with the addition of Nakati’s squadron.

When the suggestion was made by one of Nakati’s officers that we slaughter these magnificent creatures rather than allow them to be recaptured by the Hyksos I felt every nerve and sinew of my body burn with indignation. I turned on Nakati.

‘Are there not fifty men amongst these blackguards of yours that understand and love horses?’ I demanded of him.

‘There are, my lord.’ He could see how infuriated I was.

‘Give them to me, Nakati. I will divide the herd between them. Then each of them should attempt independently to drive his animals south into Egyptian territory. They will choose separate routes. I will pay a bounty of a silver deben for each horse they deliver to my estate at Mechir. If any man of them dies in the attempt I will care for his widow and children for life. My oath on it!’

Within less than an hour Nakati had assembled the volunteers. They drew lots for their share of the captured animals and then drove them out into the gathering twilight, splitting up into smaller groups as they went.

Some of them had decided to drive their horses into the Sahara and try to circle to the west around the Hyksos positions to reach our very Egypt. Others were determined to cross the Nile Delta; swimming their horses through the tributaries of the great river to reach the Sinai Peninsula in the east before turning south along the shores of the Red Sea to reach Thebes.

I watched them go and said a devout and fervent prayer to Horus and Inana, begging them to watch over my horses during the perilous journey that lay ahead of them.

N
ow I could turn my attention to the prisoners.

With the garrison of the chariot depot and the survivors of the battle in the Bay of Zin we had captured 793 Hyksos charioteers and sailors. Zaras and Nakati had these prisoners kneeling in long lines on the beach above the high waterline. They had been stripped naked and their arms were tied behind their backs. They were resigned and morose as men waiting at the foot of the gallows for the summons from the executioner.

‘What should we do with these miserable creatures?’ I demanded of Nakati and my officers. None of them showed much interest in the subject. Our ships that had been damaged in the battle had been hastily repaired and relaunched. Those that were beyond repair had been set on fire and were burning on the sands. The battle had been fought and won. Everyone was anxious to go on board and sail away, before fresh Hyksos hordes came howling over the dunes for blood and vengeance.

‘Kill them,’ suggested Hui off-handedly.

‘I agree.’ Zaras nodded. ‘Kill them all.’ He spoke in Hyksosian and loud enough for the nearest prisoners to hear and understand.

‘That is good advice.’ Nakati gave his opinion. ‘If we let them go they will be back tomorrow killing our men and raping our women.’ The others growled agreement, but Nakati held up his hand for their attention and went on speaking: ‘However, Lord Taita, I know you well enough by now to be certain that you will never agree to our very sensible suggestions. You could never kill in cold blood a man who has surrendered to you.’

‘Perhaps you give me too much credit for chivalry.’ I shrugged. ‘I might surprise you.’ But of course he knew my protestation was insincere. He grinned at me.

‘Let me make a suggestion,’ he proposed. ‘Let me show you how we can make certain that these swine never again shoot an arrow or wield a sword against Pharaoh and our very Egypt. Then you can release them to the dictates of your conscience, my lord.’

‘How do you propose we achieve that? Will we ask them to give their parole, and place our trust in that?’ I was irritated by the futility of this debate. I also was anxious to go on board the
Outrage
and head back to Crete, where my princesses were. I had already made up my mind to release the captives just as soon as we sailed.

‘A moment more of your attention, I beg of you.’ Nakati nodded to a group of his own Sea People who were standing guard over the kneeling prisoners. They dragged one of the Hyksos charioteers forward and pushed him face down on the sand with his arms still tied behind his back. Nakati stood over him and drew his sword.

‘Hold up your thumbs, fellow!’ he ordered, and the prisoner obeyed gullibly. With a double flick of his blade Nakati severed the thumbs from both his hands at the second joint. The prisoner screamed with pain and despair as the blood spurted from the stumps and his disjointed parts fell twitching into the sand.

‘I will wager that this man will never again wield a sword or draw a bow against Egypt,’ Nakati said. We gaped at him in shock and dumb amazement for a few moments before all my men let out whoops of delighted laughter.

Then Zaras stepped forward before I could intervene. With his foot he rolled the naked and maimed prisoner on to his back. He drew his sword and slipped the point of it under the man’s flaccid penis. ‘And here is the way to make certain he never again rapes an Egyptian woman or one of our new-born infants.’ With an upward slash of the blade he severed the member at its juncture with the prisoner’s groin. Then he speared it on the point of his sword and flipped it into the surf that lapped the beach.

‘An offering to Poseidon, the god of the sea, if he accepts such a foul piece of swine flesh.’

The men around me shouted with approbation; but my voice was louder than any of them.

‘Cease that brutality at once, Zaras. Put up your sword. You descend to the same level as any Hyksos animal!’

Zaras ran his blade back into its scabbard, but when he turned to face me his chin was up and his eyes were as fierce as mine. ‘My Lord Taita, there is no space in our ships to take them into captivity,’ he defied me. ‘If you release these animals unharmed how many more of our own people will they slaughter? How many more of our children and women will die?’

Slowly I felt my rage wilting before his stubborn logic. I realized that my own judgement was clouded by the memory of the injuries that had been inflicted on me by the gelding knife. I was reluctant to allow those same brutalities to be visited on another human being, however evil and monstrous. I took a long deep breath to calm myself and then I modulated my voice to exclude the anger from it.

‘You make good sense, Zaras. I am going to meet you halfway. We will take their thumbs but leave their pricks for Seth to pick.’ I deliberately used the childish euphemism for the penis. I was attempting to de-escalate the tension that had flared between us. Hui and the others guffawed openly and Dilbar grabbed at Akemi’s crotch.

‘Ain’t your prick feeling a peck peckish? You ain’t seen a ripe cunny since we sailed from Krimad.’ My men were all boys at heart. I forced myself to smile along with them. But when I turned back to Zaras the smile dropped from my lips.

Zaras was glaring at me ferociously. Gradually silence fell over the rest of the men. The only sound was the wind and the whimpering of the wounded prisoner who lay writhing on the sand. When Zaras spoke again his voice was cold and clear. It carried to every one of us, and chilled our hearts.

‘My sisters were seven and eight years of age when the Hyksos overran our village. My father was with his regiment. The Hyksos raped my mother first and then both my sisters, taking turns with them for half a day. I was five years old, but I had managed to escape and hide in the fields from where I could see everything. When they had finished with them they threw my mother and sisters into the flames of our cottage while they were still alive and screaming.’ Zaras drew a long breath, and then he asked me, ‘What would you have me do now?’

There was no answer that I could give him. I shook my head sadly, and said, ‘Do your duty to Pharaoh, and to the memory of your family.’

‘Thank you, my lord,’ Zaras replied. Then he drew his sword and went to join Nakati.

Between them they selected thirty of their best axe-men to perform the amputations. Each of them was given four assistants to pinion the prisoners and drag them forward. The first victims clenched their fists, and refused to present their thumbs for the blade. The axemen wasted no time trying to persuade them to do so. They simply lopped the entire hand off at the wrist. The prisoners that followed were more cooperative.

Then the assistants rolled them on to their backs, and with just as little ceremony their genitalia was hacked away and they were turned loose to stumble into the dunes; moaning and clutching their injuries in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

The seagulls were attracted by the smell of blood. Raucous flocks of these scavengers gathered to squawk and flap over the growing piles of thumbs and sexual organs. They gulped down these titbits almost as swiftly as the axe-men could hack them loose.

I was sickened by it all. I turned away and went to where our ships were drawn up on the beach. I tried to ignore the screams and supplications of the Hyksos captives. Instead I concentrated on supervising the loading of our chariots and horses, together with the amphorae of water and provisions that we had found in the cavalry depot.

When he had finished the bloody work on the beach Nakati came to take his leave of me. In accordance with our agreement, he intended to continue wreaking havoc on the Hyksos ports and towns along the shores of the Middle Sea.