Qa'a (The First Dynasty Book 3)

by Lester Picker

  Qa’a, who was too far back in the fleet to intervene in that ambush, was furious. That night in his tent he berated Nebibi for not using his scouts more effectively and Nebibi, to his credit, accepted responsibility and offered to resign his command. Qa’a refused his offer, but made it clear that he was to rally his commanders and take firm charge of the assault.

  But Nebibi went even further than the King commanded. In the depth of the night he sent four of his best scouts along the escape route that the enemy had lined with sticks to keep them out of the mud. By dawn they reported back to Nebibi that they were undoubtedly headed back toward their desert lands to the west.

  The General ordered a group of three hundred soldiers under the command of his most experienced captain to row back upstream and take a direct route to the desert to cut off the enemy’s retreat, while a smaller force followed the escape route to seal their fate. He had commanded Nomti to have the unit supplied with food in hours.

  “Has the main force left yet?” Qa’a asked when Nebibi was done explaining his plan.

  “They will leave within the hour,” Nebibi replied.

  “Good. Prepare for me to accompany them,” Qa’a said, turning to finish his beer. “Page! Bring me my battle gear!”

  “But, Qa’a, you cannot do this! You must stay with the main force and continue…”

  “I will not sit here any longer, Nebibi. I must act. My blood boils with anger. These mercenary bastards must be wiped from our lands. Once we settle the Delta we will advance to the Ta-Tjehenu lands and wipe them out. All of them!”

  General Nebibi quickly assembled his captains and instructed them on what they must do. The General would stay with the main army while the entire King’s Guard would accompany Qa’a. That would swell the main force and slow their race to cut off the enemy, but Nebibi insisted that the King be fully protected. The secondary force that would follow the enemy’s escape route and surprise them from behind would be headed by a young man named Ialu, who had distinguished himself in close combat with Ta-Tjehenus in previous skirmishes.

  As Qa’a dressed to leave, he suddenly called out. “Nomti. A curious question. If the Ta-Tjehenus were peaceful, would you trade with them?”

  I saw that Nomti was struck by this unexpected question. “I… I am not sure, Master. I know not what they have to offer us. Too much desert lies between our peoples.”

  “But not enough for them to nip at us for as long as we have recorded.”

  “Yes, that is true, but then why do you ask?”

  “I wish for you and Urshte and Merkha to accompany us on this mission, as observers. I am all for your ideas about trade, Nomti, but as Minister of Relations With Foreigners, I wish for you to see the Ta-Tjehenus for the blood-sucking pests they truly are.”

  “I have seen enough in what they did to us the past day, my Master.”

  “True, they are well trained in these cowardly attacks. But now you shall see how they are in battle.”

  And so Nomti and I reluctantly accompanied the King’s Guards, while Merkha’s role was to record what transpired. It took a full day to get to the point where we could leave the tributary and make our way through drier ground toward the desert and another day to make real headway in our trek. But on the third day, as we approached low-lying scrub land near to the desert, we noticed dust clouds in the distance. Qa’a ordered that we stop for the night and see if the Ta-Tjehenus would set up camp.

  We did not have to wait long. As soon as Ra sank in the heavens and the cold desert winds blew our way, small campfires began to appear in the distance. The enemy had chosen to camp atop a rocky ridge that afforded them a view. Qa’a sent ahead the same four scouts that Nebibi had used to track the Ta-Tjehenus. Later that night the four returned with detailed knowledge of the plateau.

  After a quick meal of cheese, dried bread and water carried from the tributary, the soldiers set out for the encampment. Under the cover of darkness they crept between the bushes until they were within two hundred cubits of the enemy. From that distance they could hear the Ta-Tjehenus laughing and those soldiers who understood their language interpreted how they boasted of the slaughter and recounted our soldiers’ fright when they unleashed the mut beasts.

  As they had planned, one group of more than one hundred regular soldiers crept around the plateau to a point where a steep path ascended. Qa’a, with his complement of three hundred King’s Guards, approached from the opposite end, where a gradual rise led to the top.

  The enemy slept, except for the lookouts that covered both routes. The scouts, however, had climbed a more hazardous route to the top that placed them in the midst of the camp. Splitting in two, each pair approached the lookouts from behind, daggers at the ready. In seconds it was over. Both lookouts lay dead, their throats slit.

  With that over, the scouts gave a signal. The group that guarded the steep path stayed below, their arms at the ready. Qa’a’s Guards advanced carefully along the narrow path that led to the encampment. When his men were ready, he raised his arm, looked around, and then dropped it quickly. At once all his soldiers began a war cry that the enemy will not forget, even in the hereafter.

  The enemy rose in confusion and grabbed their weapons. As they had rehearsed, the lead men of the King’s Guards raised their shields and advanced, while the men immediately behind them readied their spears and mace heads. Spears flew through the air and several of the King’s Guards fell, to be replaced by the next man behind them. Once into the clearing of the encampment, the King’s Guards spread out, overwhelming the enemy.

  It did not take long. Those that tried to escape down the mountainous path were cut down by the regular army soldiers as soon as they reached the bottom. Qa’a had instructed that no one be left alive, but had forbidden his men to cut down the leader of the Ta-Tjehenus. When nearly all of the Ta-Tjehenu had been killed, the four remaining enemy that surrounded their leader, daggers drawn, stood facing a hundred or more of our King’s Guards. They sweated profusely, fear radiating from their eyes as they scanned the spears of our warriors and the sure death they faced. By now, both Nomti and I, along with Merkha, had arrived on the plateau.

  Qa’a stepped forward then, his eyes riveted on their leader, a man far older than was Qa’a. “Old man,” he began, having recovered his breath from the fighting, “have your men throw down their daggers and I shall offer them a choice.” The enemy looked at each other from the side of their eyes, shuffling as they did so, their hands clenching their daggers before them.

  “Throw down your daggers,” the man instructed.

  “Yours, too,” Qa’a said. One of the King’s Guards picked up the weapons.

  “Now, you four men, move to the side,” Qa’a continued, waving his sword. The Guardsmen made room for the enemy, looks of hatred on their faces.

  “Here is your choice,” he said to the enemy, as he retrieved their daggers from his Guardsman. “You may honorably take your own lives or I shall do it for you. Choose now!”

  The men shook in fear. One of them reached for the dagger with a trembling hand and instructed his men to do the same. Three of them made quick work of it and crumpled to the ground. The fourth made as if to gut himself, but then turned and made an attempt at Qa’a. He lunged, dagger forward, but Qa’a anticipated his move and flayed his arm to the bone with his sword. It hung from the man’s shoulder, twitching, as the man screamed in agony. In another motion, Qa’a cut off his head, while screaming a curse upon the enemy.

  Once he recovered, Qa’a faced the leader. “Now, as for you, I offer you no such honorable choice, for you and your people have forever been a pestilence on the Two Lands. You fight for others and dishonor both by your actions. You are a scourge that must be wiped out both here and in the Afterlife.”

  All eyes were focused on their King. Soldiers from below the plateau began to arrive at the top and silently watched what unfolded. “Remove his clothes,” Qa’a instructed the nearest Guardsmen. They rushed to do so. In his emb
arrassment, the leader tried to hide his manhood.

  “Yes, hide your manhood from us, you mut, but at the same time feel it for the very last time, for I will now deny you the Afterlife.” He turned to his Guardsmen. “Pin him to the ground!”

  They stretched him out and each Guardsman leaned on one limb as he struggled. “You!” he said to one of the soldiers who watched, “hold up his head, for I wish him to witness his fate.” With that, Qa’a knelt and with the man’s own dagger he sliced off his manhood. The man writhed in pain, screaming. Qa’a calmly picked up the man’s penis, stuffed it into the leader’s mouth and then beheaded him.

  “Now, do the same with each of them,” he said, pointing to the dead and wounded enemy that surrounded them. “Leave none alive. We shall send a present back to Ta-Tjehenu that they will not soon forget.” With that Qa’a turned and strode back down the path.

  Word of what happened on that plateau spread quickly and rallied the men and we continued downriver, ever vigilant for enemy movements. Before we got to Dep we met with a few smaller ambushes, but nothing that resulted in large loss of life on our part. After four ten-days of marching, sailing and rowing, we finally reached the plains of Dep.

  For the next five days, every man was conscripted to set up camp and ferry supplies from the boats, all under Ra’s blazing heat. At night, potions were distributed and smokey fires were lit to keep away the infernal flying insects. On the night of the fifth day, Qa’a called a War Council, asking Nomti to sit in the tent and listen to the deliberations. I sat behind him, as was our custom.

  “Where do we stand now?” Qa’a asked of Nebibi.

  The General rose with a grunt and addressed the other men in his gruff voice. “We have done as you asked, Master. The men have been divided up into attack formations. We will march on Dep, surround it and destroy all pockets of resistance. All temples not recognized will be torn down and set afire. We have a list of families your spies have provided for us and we will kill all men, women and children of those families as a lesson to those who oppose us. The governor of the nome will be executed. Once that is done, we will await your wishes.”

  “Well done, Nebibi. Well done. I think of also setting the whole damned city on fire, but we will wait on that until we see what happens. I sometimes think we must destroy that damned cauldron and create a new city elsewhere.” Qa’a stood.

  “Are you all in agreement with the General’s tactics?” All heads nodded and a few assented with their voices.

  “Then…”

  “May… may I speak?” Nomti asked hesitantly, his hand half-raised as if to attract Qa’a’s attention.

  “Of course,” Qa’a said, opening his arms toward Nomti where we sat in the corner of the tent. “Speak.”

  Nomti rose slowly, collecting his thoughts. I could tell from his brow that he was still unsure of what to say. He rubbed his hands together. Finally he looked up at the faces of some of Qa’a’s most trusted, and wisest, advisors.

  “My King, I speak now as your Minister of Relations With Foreigners. You know I have traded with businessmen of many nations, the Assyrians and Hittites and even as far as the slanted-eyed people beyond. I trade now in Pwenet and Kush. I believe in my heart that you, you all, are taking the wrong approach.” The room was so quiet I could hear Nebibi’s throaty breathing.

  “Go on,” Qa’a said, sitting back down on his throne chair. His brow was wrinkled in concentration.

  “I think you risk winning this one battle, but losing the war of the people’s hearts, the only war worth winning.”

  “Explain yourself, for you speak in riddles,” Nebibi called out.

  “Here is what I suggest, then. Make a show of strength. Amass our army in full force and in sight of the gates of Dep, so that the dwellers tremble in fear. But kill no one, for…”

  “You are possessed by muts!” Nebibi yelled.

  “Give him a chance to speak,” Qa’a said, raising his arm.

  “Thank you, Master. I know that what I say now does not agree with all of your hearts. It is not how we have acted toward Lower Kem for generations. But how much has that gained us? We are always sitting upon them like yokes on cattle. We distrust them and keep an army presence here not to protect them, but to protect us from them, all the while exacting taxes.

  “Yet I ask you, how different are our own people here in the Land of the Papyrus from the Assyrians?”

  “Get to the point, man!” Nebibi again interrupted, “You waste precious time. My soldiers wait for my command.”

  “My point is that we have good relations with the Assyrians, even the warlike Hittites, and they benefit from our trade as we do from theirs. It raises us both up. Why should it be any different with our own people?”

  Again the room was silent, trying to make sense of the new world Nomti just proposed. “And what are we to make of these new temples to strange gods that are sprouting up within our land?” Buikkhu asked.

  “Do we judge the gods of other nations?” Nomti asked in return. “Yes, we make fun of how strange they are, but they are no stranger to us than our gods are to them. Yet we do not allow it to hinder our trade. In fact it grows with each passing year. Why care about what gods a person prays to? As long as they bring us the goods we wish to have and buy from us what we have to offer?”

  No one spoke for many moments. “Cattle dung!” Nebibi muttered, loud enough for all to hear.

  “And to you, General, and a man I proudly call friend, I say this. Have you thought of how your King will be viewed by the rekhi and businessmen alike when he saves hundreds, perhaps thousands of their sons from death and mutilation? He will be favored above all men. He will be seen as Horus’ rightful brother.” With that, Nomti turned to sit, but Nebibi called out.

  “He will be seen as weak, his bull form nothing more than a cow in heat!” Nebibi replied, his arms crossed tightly across his barrel chest.

  Nomti stopped and then turned, slowly, as all eyes were upon him. “If you truly believe that, then go ahead and wreak carnage on the people of Dep. Teach them a lesson they will never forget, and believe me, General, they… will… never… forget it. They will use this day to create martyrs for generations to come.

  “No, General, King Qa’a has already proven his strength. He has sent the heads of our enemy back to the Ta-Tjehenus and Merkha here will surely see to it that the story is widely known throughout the lands. He has already proven his bull form in battle, even as a youth. What I speak of now is a different strength, one that demonstrates that he need not raise his arm against weaker, misguided opponents. A strength that seeks to increase trade with Lower Kem so that together we rise.” Once more Nomti turned toward his seat, his legs shaking.

  “Please understand,” he added as he sat down hard in his chair, “I am but a simple businessman. You all understand far better the matters of war and peace. I only ask for Horus’ blessings in whatever the Council advises and whatever our King decides.”

  No one spoke for many moments. Qa’a sat with his elbow on his throne chair, his head in his hand, pondering Nomti’s words. Now the men around the table began speaking to one another in hushed tones. Finally, Qa’a raised his hand.

  “I can see on your faces and hear from your voices that Nomti’s words have weighed heavily on your hearts. They have surely weighed on mine. Here is what I say. You will all continue to talk among yourselves about what you believe is best to do. As for me, there are too many details for me to take in at one time. I will have Nomti stay here with me and explain how he would handle the details of what he proposes. Nebibi, you will stay with us. I will delay my decision for one day. Let the marsh dwellers shake in their sandals wondering. We meet tomorrow at Ra’s setting.”