River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt (Novels of Ancient Egypt)

by Wilbur Smith

The bandits completely ignored the women who still cowered on their sleeping-mats, their heads covered, wailing and screeching with terror. I wailed with the best of them, but the struggle in the centre of the yard was too uncomfortable for my liking. By this time, there were over a thousand men crowded into the confined space. Choking in the dust, I was kicked and pummelled by the sandalled feet of the battling horde, until I managed to crawl away into a corner of the wall.

  One of the bandits turned aside from the fighting and stooped over me. He tore the shawl away from my face and for a moment stared into my eyes. ‘Mother of Isis,’ he breathed, ‘you are beautiful!’

  He was an ugly devil with gaps in his teeth and a scar down one cheek. His breath stank like a sewerage gutter as he lusted into my face. ‘Wait until this business is over. Then I’ll give you something to make you squeal with joy,’ he promised, and twisted my face up to his. He kissed me.

  My natural instinct was to pull away from him, but I resisted it and returned his kiss. I am an artist of the love arts, for I learned my skills in the boys’ quarters of Lord Intef. My kisses can turn a man to water.

  I kissed him with all my skill, and he was transfixed by it. While he was still paralysed, I slipped my dagger from its sheath beneath my blouse and slid the point through the gap between his fifth and sixth ribs. When he screamed, I muffled the sound with my own lips and clasped him lovingly to my breast, twisting the blade in his heart until, with a shudder, he relaxed completely against me, and I let him roll over on his side.

  I looked around me quickly. In the few moments that it had taken me to dispose of my admirer, the plight of the small group of guards around the altar had worsened. There were gaps in their single rank. Two men were down and Amseth was wounded. He had switched his sword into his left hand, while the other arm hung bleeding at his side.

  With a rush of relief I saw that Tanus was still untouched, still laughing with the savage joy of it all as he plied the sword. But he had left it too late to spring the trap, I thought. The entire band of Shrikes were crowded into the square and baying around him like hounds around a treed leopard. Within moments he and his gallant little band must be cut down.

  Even as I watched, Tanus killed another of them with a straight thrust through the throat, and then he jerked his blade free of the clinging flesh and stepped back. He threw back his head and let loose a bellow that rang from the crumbling walls around us. ‘On me, the Blues!’

  On the instant every one of the cringing slave girls leapt up and flung aside their trailing robes. Their swords were already bared and they fell upon the rear of the robber horde. The surprise was complete and overwhelming. I saw them kill a hundred or more before their victims even realized what they were about, and could rally to meet them. But when they did turn to face this fresh attack, they exposed their backs to Tanus and his little band.

  They fought well, I’ll give them that, though I am sure it was terror, rather than courage, that drove them on. However, their ranks were too close-packed to allow them free play with the sword, and the men they faced were some of the finest troops in Egypt, which is to say the entire world.

  For a while yet they held on. Then Tanus bellowed again from the midst of the turmoil. For a moment I thought it was another command, then I realized that it was the opening bar of the battle hymn of the guards. Though I had often heard it spoken in awe that the Blues always sang when the battle was at its height, I had never truly believed it possible. Now all around me the song was taken up by a hundred straining voices:

  We are the breath of Horus,

  hot as the desert wind,

  we are the reapers of men—

  Their swords beat an accompaniment to the words, like the clangour of hammers on the anvils of the underworld. In the face of such arrogant ferocity the remaining Shrikes wavered, and then suddenly it was no longer a battle, but a massacre.

  I have seen a pack of wild dogs surround and tear into a flock of sheep. This was worse. Some of the Shrikes threw down their swords and fell to their knees begging quarter. There was no mercy shown them. Others tried to reach the gateway, but guardsmen waited for them there, sword in hand.

  I danced on the fringes of the fighting, screaming across at Tanus, trying to make myself heard in the uproar, ‘Stop them. We need prisoners.’

  Tanus could not hear me, or more likely he simply ignored my entreaties. Singing and laughing, with Kratas at his left hand and Remrem on the other, he tore into them. His beard was soaked with the spurted blood of those he had killed, and his eyes glittered in the running red mask of his face with a madness I had never seen in them before. Joyous Hapi, how he thrived on the heady draught of battle!

  ‘Stop it, Tanus! Don’t kill them all!’ This time he heard me. I saw the madness fade, and he was once more in control of himself.

  ‘Give quarter to those who plead for it!’ he roared, and the guards obeyed him. But in the end, out of the original thousand, fewer than two hundred Shrikes grovelled unarmed on the bloody stone flags and pleaded for their lives.

  For a while I stood dazed and uncertain on the fringe of this carnage, and then from the corner of my eye I caught a furtive movement.

  Shufti had realized that he could not escape through the gateway. He threw down his sword and darted to the east wall of the court, close to where I stood. This was the most ruined section, where the wall was reduced to half its original height. The tumbled mud-bricks formed a steep ramp, and Shufti scrambled up it, slipping and falling, but rapidly nearing the top of the wall. It seemed that I was the only one who had noticed his flight. The guards were busy with their other prisoners, and Tanus had his back turned to me as he directed the mopping-up of the shattered enemy.

  Almost without thinking, I stooped and picked up half a mud-brick. As Shufti topped the wall, I hurled the brick up at him with all my strength. It thumped against the back of his skull with such force that he dropped to his knees, and then the treacherous pile of loose rubble gave way beneath him and he came sliding back down in a cloud of dust to land at my feet, only half-conscious.

  I pounced upon him where he lay, straddling his chest, and I pressed the point of my dagger to his throat. He stared up at me, his single eye still glazed with the crack I had dealt him.

  ‘Lie still,’ I cautioned him, ‘or I will gut you like a fish.’

  I had lost my shawl and head-dress, and my hair had come down on to my shoulders. He recognized me then, which was no surprise. We had met often, but in different circumstances.

  ‘Taita, the eunuch!’ he mumbled. ‘Does Lord Intef know what you are about?’

  ‘He will find out soon enough,’ I assured him, and pricked him until he grunted, ‘but you will not be the one to enlighten him.’

  Without removing the point from his throat, I shouted to two of the nearest guards to take him. They flipped him on to his face and bound his wrists together with linen twine before they dragged him away.

  Tanus had seen me capture Shufti, and he strode across to me now, stepping over the dead and wounded. ‘Good throw, Taita! You have forgotten nothing that I taught you.’ He clapped me on the back so hard that I staggered. ‘There is plenty of work for you still. We’ve lost four men killed, and there are at least a dozen wounded.’

  ‘What about their camp?’ I asked, and he stared at me.

  ‘What camp?’

  ‘A thousand Shrikes did not spring up from the sands like desert flowers. They must have pack-animals and slaves with them. Not far from here, either. You must not let them escape. Nobody must escape to tell the tale of today’s battle. None of them must be allowed to carry the news to Karnak that you are still alive.’

  ‘Sweet Isis, you are right! But how will we find them?’ It was obvious that Tanus was still bemused with battle lust. Sometimes I wondered what he would do without me.

  ‘Back-track them,’ I told him impatiently. ‘A thousand pairs of feet will have trodden a road for us to follow back to where they came from.�
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  His expression cleared, and he hailed Kratas across the length of the temple. ‘Take fifty men. Go with Taita. He will lead you to their base-camp.’

  ‘The wounded—’ I began to protest. I had enjoyed enough fighting for one day, but he brushed my objections aside. ‘You are the best tracker I have. The wounded can wait for your care, my ruffians are all as tough as fresh buffalo steaks, very few of them will die before you return.’

  * * *

  Finding their camp was as simple as I had made it sound. With Kratas and fifty men following me closely, I made a wide cast around the city, and behind the first line of hills I picked up the broad track that they had made as they came in and deployed to surround us. We followed it back at a trot, and had covered less than a mile before we topped a rise and found the camp of the Shrikes in the shallow valley below us.

  Their surprise was complete. They had left fewer than twenty men to guard the donkeys and women. Kratas’ men overran them at the first rush, and this time I was too late to save any prisoners. They spared only the women, and once the camp was secure, Kratas let his men have them as part of the traditional reward of the victors.

  The women seemed to me to be a more comely selection than I would have expected in such company. I saw quite a few pretty faces amongst them. They submitted to the rituals of conquest with a remarkably good grace. I even heard some of them laughing and joking as the guardsmen threw dice for them. The vocation of camp-follower to a band of Shrikes could not be considered the most delicate calling, and I doubted that any of these ladies were blushing virgins. One by one, they were led by their new owners behind the cover of the nearest clump of rocks, where their skirts were lifted without further ceremony.

  New moon follows the death of the old, spring follows winter, none of the ladies showed any signs of mourning for their erstwhile spouses. Indeed, it seemed probable that new and perhaps lasting relationships were being struck up here on the desert sand.

  For myself, I was more interested in the pack-donkeys and what they carried. There were over a hundred and fifty of these, and most of them were sturdy animals in prime condition which would fetch good prices in the market at Karnak or Safaga. I reckoned that I should be entitled to at least a centurion’s share when the prize money was divided up. After all, I had already dispensed large amounts of my own savings in the furtherance of this enterprise, and should be entitled to some compensation. I would speak seriously to Tanus about it, and could expect his sympathy. His is a generous spirit.

  By the time we returned to the city of Gallala, leading the captured pack-animals laden with booty and followed by a straggle of women who had attached themselves quite naturally to their new menfolk, the sun had set.

  One of the smaller ruined buildings near the wells had been turned into a field hospital. There I worked through the night, by the light of torch and oil lamp, sewing together the wounded guardsmen. As always, I was impressed by their stoicism, for many of their wounds were grave and painful. None the less, I lost only one of my patients before dawn broke. Amseth succumbed to loss of blood from the severed arteries in his arm. If I had attended to him immediately after the battle, instead of going off into the desert, I might have been able to save him. Even though the responsibility rested with Tanus, I felt the familiar guilt and sorrow in the face of a death that I might have prevented. However, I was confident that my other patients would heal swiftly and cleanly. They were all strong young men in superb condition.

  There were no wounded Shrikes to attend. Their heads had been lopped off where they lay on the battlefield. As a physician, I was perturbed by this age-old custom of dealing with the wounded enemy, yet I suppose there was logic in it. Why should the victors waste their resources on the maimed vanquished, when it was unlikely they would have any value as slaves, and, if left alive, might recover to fight against them another day?

  I worked all night with only a swallow of wine and a few mouthfuls of food taken with bloody hands to sustain me, and I was almost exhausted, but there was to be no rest for me yet. Tanus sent for me as soon as it was light.

  * * *

  The unwounded prisoners were being held in the temple of Bes. Their wrists were bound behind their backs, and they were squatting in long lines along the north wall, with the guards standing over them.

  As soon as I entered the temple, Tanus called me to where he stood with a group of his officers. I was still in the dress of an Assyrian wife, so I lifted my blood-splattered skirts and picked my way across the floor littered with the debris of the battle.

  ‘There are thirteen clans of Shrikes—isn’t that what you told me, Taita?’ Tanus asked, and I nodded. ‘Each clan with its own baron. We have Shufti. Let’s see if you recognize any of the other barons amongst this gathering of the fair and gentle people.’ He indicated the prisoners with a chuckle, and took my arm to lead me down the ranks of squatting men.

  I kept my face veiled so that none of the prisoners could recognize me. I glanced at each face as I passed, and recognized two of them. Akheku was head of the southern clan that preyed on the lands around Assoun, Elephantine and the first cataract, while Setek was from further north, the baron of Kom-Ombo.

  It was clear that Shufti had gathered together whatever men he could find at such short notice. There were members of all the clans amongst those that we had captured. As I identified their leaders with a tap on the shoulder, they were dragged away.

  When we reached the end of the line Tanus asked, ‘Are you sure that you missed none of them?’

  ‘How can I be sure? I told you that I never met all of the barons.’

  Tanus shrugged. ‘We could not hope to catch every little bird with one throw of the net. We must count ourselves fortunate that we have taken as many as three so soon. But let us look at the heads. We might be lucky enough to find a few more amongst them.’

  This was a gruesome business that might have affected a more delicate stomach than mine, but human flesh, both dead and living, is my stock-in-trade. While we sat at our ease on the steps of the temple enjoying our breakfast, the severed heads were displayed to us, held up one at a time by the blood-caked hair, tongues lolling from between slack lips, and dull eyes powdered with dust staring into the other world whither they were bound.

  My appetite was as healthy as ever, for I had eaten very little during the last two days. I devoured the delicious cakes and fruits that Tiamat had provided, while I pointed out those heads I recognized. There was a score or so of common thieves that I had encountered during the course of my work for Lord Intef, but only one more of the barons. He was Nefer-Temu of Qena, a lesser member of the ghastly brotherhood.

  ‘That makes four of them,’ Tanus grunted with satisfaction, and ordered Nefer-Temu’s head to be placed on the pinnacle of the pyramid of skulls that he was erecting in front of the well of Gallala.

  ‘So now we have accounted for four of them. We must find the other nine barons. Let us begin by putting the question to our prisoners.’ He stood up briskly, and I hastily gulped down the remains of my breakfast and followed him reluctantly back into the temple of Bes.

  Although I was the one who had made clear to Tanus the necessity of having informers from within the clans, and indeed it was I who had suggested how we should recruit them, still now that the time to act upon my suggestion had arrived, I was stricken with remorse and guilt. It was one thing to suggest ruthless action, but another thing entirely to stand by and watch it practised.

  I made a feeble excuse that the wounded men in the makeshift hospital might need me, but Tanus brushed it away cheerfully. ‘None of your fine scruples now, Taita. You will stay with me during the questioning to make certain that you overlooked none of your old friends on your first inspection.’

  The questioning was swift and merciless, which I suppose was only appropriate to the character of the men we were dealing with.

  To begin with, Tanus sprang up on to the stone altar of Bes, and, with the hawk seal in o
ne hand, he looked down on the ranks of squatting prisoners with a smile that must have chilled them, even though they sat in the full rays of the desert sun.

  ‘I am the bearer of the hawk seal of Pharaoh Mamose, and I speak with his voice,’ he told them grimly, as he held the statuette high. ‘I am your judge and your executioner.’ He paused and let his gaze pass slowly over their upturned faces. As each of them met his eyes, they dropped their own. Not one of them could hold firm before his penetrating scrutiny.

  ‘You have been taken in the act of pillage and murder. If there is one of you who would deny it, let him stand before me and declare his innocence.’

  He waited while the impatient shadows of the vultures, circling in the sky above us, criss-crossed the dusty courtyard. ‘Come now! Speak up, you innocents.’ He glanced upwards at the circling birds with their grotesque pink bald heads. ‘Your brethren grow impatient for the feast. Let us not keep them waiting.’

  Still none of them spoke or moved, and Tanus lowered the hawk seal. ‘Your actions, which all here have witnessed, condemn you. Your silence confirms the verdict. You are guilty. In the name of the divine Pharaoh, I pass sentence upon you. I sentence you to death by beheading. Your severed heads will be displayed along the caravan routes. All law-abiding men who pass this way will see your skulls grinning at them from the roadside, and they will know that the Shrike has met the eagle. They will know that the age of lawlessness has passed from the land, and that peace has returned to this very Egypt of ours. I have spoken. Pharaoh Mamose has spoken.’

  Tanus nodded, and the first prisoner was dragged forward and forced to his knees before the altar.

  ‘If you answer three questions truthfully, your life will be spared. You will be enlisted as a trooper in my regiment of the guards, with all the pay and privileges. If you refuse to answer the questions, your sentence will be carried out immediately,’ Tanus told him.

  He looked down on the kneeling prisoner sternly. ‘This is the first question. What clan do you belong to?’