I, the Sun

by Morris, Janet

  “Do you understand that I am leaving Alalakh tomorrow to raid Qatna, and that I am giving you a choice: come or stay in Alalakh, to be sent north with the rest of the booty.”

  She shuddered, and pleaded to be taken along.

  “There is always a chance that I might be vanquished: war is nothing if not unpredictable. If you were with me, and I fell, your lot would be difficult indeed.”

  “And if I were not, and you fell, I would be given over to your son Arnuwandas, is that not right?”

  “Exactly so.”

  “Then, I will go with you, and if you are taken, this shall be my salvation,” and she fingered the golden sticker with which she had tried to skewer me when first we met.

  So it was that she happened to be in the king’s wagon among the baggage train while all the army but Telipinus’ command went out plundering in Qatna under the very banner of the Sun.

  I left Telipinus there not on account of our differences, which I was sure would disappear now that I had won Arnuwandas and Piyassilis over to the protection of Malnigal, but to hold Alalakh and Halap and all the other rich trading cities we had taken, to oversee the war fast coming to a close in Nuhasse, and to at all costs keep our line of retreat free from hostile troops.

  He had done as I asked, and formalized Malnigal’s assumption of her new name Tawananna and her Tawananna’s dignities. In his capacity as priest he was most qualified for it after myself. But the look he had given her, plus the fact that he had purposely missed both my early morning meeting with my princes, and the convocation of lords I had commanded to greet her, bespoke his adamant rejection.

  Telipinus, who had been yet a swaddled babe in his cradle when his mother, Daduhepa, died, who owed his title The Priest to Khinti’s tender guidance, who yet wrote to his step-mother, though I had forbidden it, and even made no attempt to hide his transgression from me, was in no way ready to accept a girl of his own age as queen over him.

  With the Priest, I did not force the matter, only assigned him twice as many tasks as he could be expected to handle, and left him administrating in my stead while all the rest of us sacked and plundered in Qatna. Of my displeasure at his displeasure, I made no more indication than that.

  And in Qatna, all was well with us. We despoiled it from one end to the other, and chased its king Akizzi hither and yon, and carried off all the gold and silver and implements of the gods. Even did we hoist up and carry away the golden statues of the Egyptian gods. The Sun God of Egypt we toted out of there, and before I left the country smoking and groaning and denuded of every thing and person the Sun’s armies – and Aziru’s, who had come out to fight alongside me – could carry away, I received word that king Akizzi of Qatna had written to his master in Egypt begging for gold with which to ransom the Sun God of Egypt’s statue.

  We were chuckling over this, myself and my sons and a certain lapsed Sutu who was now a henchman of Egypt, when a brace of chariots bearing the device of Amurru drew up before the tents of the Sun.

  “Here,” rasped Hatib, “I cannot stay. I have only just convinced Aziru of Amurru that those things you told his son of me are not true. What had my royal employer in his mind, to speak so –?” And he was rising, but I commanded his to sit back down, and before my sons and the generals of my armies, he had no choice but to obey.

  “Arnuwandas, sit you beside Hatib, and stay there.” With a grumble, my son, who loved the Sutu, refolded his legs under him.

  By myself, I strolled out to greet Aziru of Amurru, just then handing over his chariot to the Hittite guards.

  “I am here,” observed Aziru, doffing his helm and clapping the dust from his mantle. “I have survived it.”

  “But not with your kingly manners intact.”

  He shrugged, squinted at me in the bright sun, and scratched in his pointed beard. “You could have found a quicker way to kill me, if that is what you are about. What do you want me to do now that I have prostrated myself and my honor at your feet? Are you going to protect my sons if Akhenaten takes my life in payment for this wanton destruction?”

  “If it would ease you, I will grant you that: should you lose your life as a result of what you have done here in Qatna, I will maintain your sons upon the seat of their kingship. And as for destruction, wanton or otherwise, my own sons have been looking to you, rather than myself, for inspiration in that regard.”

  “Better, protect me from Hatib, if you are granting boons today.”

  “Bow down before me, offer your submission, and then I will set things right in the matter of Hatib.”

  “Here? Before the Hittite host?” He growled deep in his throat, made an assortment of uncompleted motions, and with a curse bent knee and head to me.

  When I had dragged a verbal submission out of him, he arose awkwardly, spat into the dust, and asked me why I felt it necessary to demean him so before his men and my own, since he had already made his submission by plundering the lands of his master Akhenaten, and made it so clearly that none could have misconstrued it.

  I thought: so you would feel it. So you would know it in your heart, by its aching; in the back of your neck, by the rising of the hackles thereon; by the heat flooding a vassal’s countenance. Even then, I had still no surety in me that Aziru was coming over to the Sun. Such men do not step meekly into harness.

  I said: “Enter my tent with me, and we will celebrate your submission with my princes, who shall enjoy your loyalty even as I myself.”

  “My son brought me your words about the color of this Hatib’s blood. What have you –?”

  I was watching him very carefully then, as he stooped into the tent’s semi-dark beside me.

  “What? Hatib and you, together! I –” Aziru exclaimed, his right arm flying to his waist.

  I chopped down upon his wrist with the side of my hand. His blade fell from nerveless fingers, even as Tarkhunta-zalma and Piyassilis, like one man, vaulted the distance to aid me.

  But Aziru was standing quite still, glaring around with bared teeth like the wolf at bay which he was.

  In the silence punctuated by the Amurrite’s roaring breathing, the settling of men back upon their haunches, and Hatib’s hissing chuckle, I bade Aziru take a seat.

  Without a word he settled down where he was standing, just within the tent, as far from Hatib as he could get. Piyassilis’ troubled face went not unnoticed by me as I signaled Tarkhunta-zalma to watch the Amurrite and dismissed all others but my sons and the man Hatib, who rocked slightly to and fro like a snake intent on paralyzing a victim with its obsidian stare.

  “I was going to announce to you all that Aziru has come over to the Sun. Perhaps I had better first explain to Aziru why our old friend the Sutu sits among us, lest he think the Sun has gone over to Naphuria Akhenaten.”

  Piyassilis handed Aziru his own cup, and the Amurrite drained it without concern as to what it might hold.

  “Yes, Great King. Explain to me, for I need to know. While I have been hiding from this man and suffering the abasement he has heaped upon my family and the advice he has heaped upon my enemies and the thefts he has made of all that was mine, has he been in your service? Am I now to believe that all this time I have been in training, and Hatib my handler? My lord of Hatti, if this man is your servant then I can only believe that you took my oath from out of a treachery that voids it. It is this person, this – Libyan, whose tongue is as twisted as the braids by his ears, that has imperiled my life and my kingship and even driven me into your embrace, to avoid imprisonment or worse at Egypt’s hands.”

  It was Piyassilis who quieted him before he bought his death there, with whispers, with a touch.

  “I will not notice your outburst, Aziru. It is forgotten. This man, as I told your son and he should have told you, has been in my pay for near as long as you have been alive. Is it twenty years, Hatib?”

  “Glorious master, I make it twenty and three.”

  “But –”

  “Amurrite, wait until I give you leave to
speak. Did you think it a coincidence that you found a way to slip your collar long enough to come and serve the Sun? It was no coincidence.” And it was Hatib’s face I was looking at, for if he had been suspicioned before, now he was certain that he would have nothing on Aziru any longer; or more exactly, as he held an axe above the Amurrite’s head, so Aziru would hold an equal weapon over his own.

  But Hatib was not Aziru: facing the inevitable, his eyes crinkled with amusement even though he was the object of the joke, he refilled his cup and toasted me, silently, as I continued:

  “In Egypt there is a certain official named Duttu.”

  Aziru started, blew his breath out explosively. He had written many letters to Duttu, Mouthpiece to All Foreign Lands, both for his father and in his own behalf.

  “This Duttu,” I continued, “came through Hatib’s aegis to be in the Sun’s employ. Now, if Aziru should find himself summoned to Egypt, Hatib, would not both yourself and Duttu explore every avenue available to each, to insure that this Aziru would not be harmed in any way?”

  “Yes, my lord employer, that is most exactly what Duttu, and myself, and all of our underlings would do.”

  “And if it appeared that this Aziru needed any help while residing in Akhetaten, or even in removing himself from Pharaoh’s hospitality, would not you and Duttu be concerned in aiding him? In fact, are you not both well disposed to Aziru, my vassal, and anxious to help him in whatever way you can?”

  “Great King, my most astute lord, within the guise of my position, exactly that have I been doing. When I steal from Egypt, Aziru thinks I steal from him. But no matter what I have done –” and there Hatib smiled that crocodile’s smile that made Tarkhunta-zalma mutter and begin combing his brown hair through his fingers –”But no matter what I have done, am doing, or in future will endeavor to do, the king of Amurru is not much longer going to be able to avoid answering Pharaoh’s summons; and once in Akhetaten he will be at the mercy of the fates: against Nefer-Kheperure-Wanre-Akhenaten, there is naught that mortal man can do that is of any avail.”

  “But you understand that Aziru is likely to break under the strain and implicate us all,” I said softly.

  “I have understood that from the moment you went out to meet him, O Munificent of Justice,” replied Hatib.

  I turned to Aziru. “All of this could have been greatly simplified if you had given any thought to the message I sent you by way of your son.”

  “All of this could have greatly simplified if you had informed me previously.”

  “Previously, what?”

  “Previously, Great King, my lord.”

  “Better, but not perfect. A vassal king does not criticize his overlord’s methods. Now, in the event that you find that indeed you do visit in the City of the Horizon, this is what I want you to do…”

  And when Aziru understood my wishes, and Hatib, also, was informed of the Sun’s desires, I called a feast in celebration of the sack of Qatna, and while waiting for it I took both of my guests and introduced them to my new queen.

  When we quit the king’s wagons, the night had come upon the land, and namra squealed and torches crackled and pipes whined and girls ran laughing through the wagons with bellowing soldiers close behind.

  “Aziru, gentle charge,” said Hatib, as we were inspecting the perimeter of the campground, “I have long desired to reveal myself to you, though in such circumstances I could not, of myself, speak from my heart. It was I who called the Great King’s attention to your valor while the Sun was visiting in Alashiya. All that has come since, in a sense, was born of my recommendation.”

  Dryly, Aziru thanked him, saying that his life would have been dull indeed without the light from the Sun streaming always over his shoulder.

  And I was amused, and feeling victorious though I was trying not to show it, and all the favor and confidence I could muster I endeavored to heap upon Aziru, for despite what I had said, and Hatib had said, and even what Aziru had managed to say, we all heard what was not spoken: words of men before a trial of deadly proportions. No one of us could deny it. Aziru would likely sample Naphuria Akhenaten’s hospitality, and of what that might be like, no one wanted to think. But it lay there unspoken like a cloud before the moon, darkening the space around us and draining every festive smell and sound from the air: though Akhenaten might be Living in Truth, it was very deadly truth.

  Later, I took Aziru aside, wresting him from Piyassilis’ company with the aid of Tarkhunta-zalma, who was looking like a man whose meal has unsettled his stomach.

  I had drunk a little, and was replete with the successes of the day, and I put an arm companionably about the king of Amurru and drew him off between two horseless chariots.

  “You will do well enough, with this information to aid you. Do not keep looking at me like a sacrificial animal.”

  “How else? But I did not know it showed. I will be returned from there, not by you, or Hatib, but by myself. I am not a man who holds desultorily to life. There is no building built which I cannot climb, no dungeon from which I cannot escape. I know… you think you have dealt fairly with me. And I suppose you have. If I were you and you were me, it probably would have come to be just exactly the same between us. The gods, at New Year, convene; man’s fate is thence decided. My gods are strong; they love me. What I do is a good thing, for the lands, for the Amurrite people, for the homeless and the unwanted whom I have made Amurrites: the Hapiru and their ilk. All of them pray for me. I will not fail. It is just…

  “I suppose I am in a sense competing with you, more now since the vassalage into which you have forced me, more than before. Do you see? I am a man who is no stranger to plot and scheme, nor the true nature of what men call ‘heroics.’ I am not dull of wit. And yet you use me like an arrow you happen to have in your quiver: to serve a purpose, without thought to whether after the purpose is served, the arrow will be broken, or lost. And with no more concern in your heart. I am a man, as you. I have wives and concubines, brothers, sons and daughters, and all the countless children a man takes into his care when he becomes a king.”

  “In that, you are no different than this little king Akizzi whose country you yourself have laid to waste. I had no idea you were inclined to the maudlin.”

  “A man facing death often turns to philosophy. Never should I have bothered.” And he turned sideways, sliding out of contact with me, and leaned up against the further chariot. In the torchlight, he seemed younger than his thirty years, young as Telipinus, and as accusing. “Do you have any further use for me? I would depart back to Tunib with the dawn. I was longer here than I had expected. I will have more troubles when I reach Amurru, for I was supposed to be waiting there for Egypt’s Honorable Lord Hani to come and lecture me about my conduct.”

  “No, I have nothing at all for you to do, for the nonce. Just continue to keep me informed of your faring with Egypt, and remember that if in time you come to me and beg to become formally my vassal, so that all the lands notice that you have separated from Egypt, I will then issue you my full protection.”

  “The price of that protection, my lord Overlord, is exceedingly great. I am neither willing nor able to pay it.”

  “In time, that will change.”

  “Until it does, am I free to depart?”

  “Go in peace, Aziru. And may the Storm God aid your battle, may the Sun Goddess of Arinna put in your mouth the words that prevail in righteousness.”

  In the morning, I struck southward toward Apina in a move that surprised even my generals. I had not forgotten that someone among my trusted might be aiding my enemies, though I had formally put a halt to any attempt at sniffing out any such.

  On the southward push, we heard from Lupakki by way of Telipinus at Alalakh that finally the country of Nuhasse in its entirety was ours, and that the kingship seat was secure under the butt of Takib-sarri Sarrupsi’s servant. Jubilant, I sent back word of my pleasure and orders to Telipinus to begin implementing the withdrawal of troops, sorting
out the border guards who would remain, and seeing to their deployment.

  Now, I did not want to fight with the country of Kinza. They were a dearly beloved Egyptian protectorate, and I was leaving Byblos alone, so I was willing to leave the country of Kinza untouched.

  But its king Shutatarra and his grown son Aitakama and their army came out to fight with me. “Come, let us fight!” they demanded, and I could not find it in my heart to refuse them.

  I defeated them on their borders and they retreated and established themselves in one of their cities, Abuzya. With ninety chariots and nine thousand foot I had the city besieged. And I took prisoner this king and his son Aitakama, together with all the great warriors of his country, and sent them up to Telipinus to dispatch to Hatti. On the journey, the old king died of his wounds, but I did not know of that.

  I was sacking the rich trading city of Apina, and proceeded to do the same to its king: I took the king, and his sons, all his nobles and whatsoever they owned and brought them all as prisoners into my camp. No farther did I desire to penetrate into the south than Apina. Because of the presumptuousness of king Tushratta, in one year I had destroyed the kingdom of Mitanni. I was greatly pleased.

  In fact, but for Malnigal’s constant bemoaning of the savagery of war and Telipinus’ continued hostility toward myself, his sire, all was exceedingly well with me. I had both time and inclination to deal with my queen on the return march, which because of the number of namra, the great multitude of booty, and the recalling of most of the Hittite host, would have been arduously slow without something upon which to fix my attention. Not that I, the Sun, continually marched at the crawling pace of the Hittite armies northward. Once I had satisfied myself that Telipinus’ unfortunate loyalty to my exiled former-queen had not gotten between him and his princely duties, and once I saw for myself that all the fat cities I was keeping fortified were properly manned, and when at last I had looked with my own eyes upon the submitted but yet snarling country Nuhasse, I and my personal troops, with six hundred chariots supporting, raced the autumn’s end northward.