“He is out motivating his army,” said Nakhtifi. “I do not know how he does it, but he motivates men to be happy to go and die.”
“They are already dead!”
“They may well be dead, Kate, but it is through them that their family enjoys the afterlife. When they are removed from the afterlife, then so is their family. If I was a soldier, I would want to run and hide rather than risk my family.”
“Then you are not Ramses,” said Alex.
“That I am not. Do you know he told me to stay here, because if I spoke to the troops we would lose the battle? I find that not only rude, but also very hurtful.”
Kate went over and gave Nakhtifi a hug. As she did, she said, “There is nothing wrong with not wanting to go into battle.”
“Oh, I want to go into battle all right. I want to rip that warlock’s head off his shoulders with my bare hands, for all the rotten things he has done.” Nakhtifi looked down at his long slim fingers, then started to laugh. “Metaphorically speaking of course,” he added as he continued to chuckle.
“I think it best if you leave the ripping off of heads to Ramses,” said Gadeem as he sat at the breakfast table.
Ramses made the grand entrance. He pronounced that they were ready for war whilst waving a heavy sword. He then also sat at the breakfast table, before picking up his wine and saying, “Hope you all have a good battle and win the war. I look forward to hearing how you got on. Should any of you decide to die, could it be only those who drink red wine? I am down to my last three hundred bottles, and I do so hate having to share.”
“Ramses, sometimes I despair of you,” said Bast with a smile.
“Only sometimes? I must be doing something wrong, as you used to tell me I made you despair all the time!”
“Ramses, you know that I love you like a sister. You may act the fool, but we all know that you are deadly serious about this battle. You know just how important it is to win today. Families in the afterlife need to be able to live without fear.”
“I second that, Bast,” said Rose, “but there are quite a few of us who are not in the afterlife, who also want to live without fear.” There was a general mumbling and nodding, all of which was in agreement.
“Come on, Gadeem, where is your pep talk?”
“You know the plan, Ramses, and you know it to be the best we can offer in the circumstances.”
“What you mean is that we failed to obtain the final ingredient,” said a slightly dejected Alex.
“Well, you did fail us all, as we were relying on you … the three of you!”
“Gadeem, that is terribly unfair,” said Rose as she stepped over to reassure a now tearful Kate.
“I say it as it is. If we had the spell, we would have a fair chance of success. Without it, all we can do is beg the warlock to either let us live in peace, or just plain let us live. We all know that without magic we cannot defeat him. After today, Egypt will never be the same again.”
“Gadeem … that is enough! I do not want to hear another word out of you.” Despite Rose’s best efforts Kate was now crying like a baby.
“Well, you will hear more from me. David?”
“Yes?”
“You are in no fit state to go into battle.”
“I lost my best friends in the last battle with the warlock,” said David with raw anger in his voice. “I have struggled to come to terms with why I was the only one to survive. Now is the time to face the warlock on my terms.” There was a slap of steel upon flesh. David recoiled as his hand went up to the side of his face. Blood trickled through his fingers.
“You are staying here,” said Ramses, having made his point. The slap from the flat side of a sword proved to everyone that a man who was only able to see out of one eye was of no use in battle. Ramses regretted that he had managed to draw blood, but now was not the time to start apologising.
“If you do not start eating, you will all be leaving here with empty stomachs. Everybody, except you of course, Cairo.” He looked up at Bast, smiling as best as he could, through a mouthful of something that neither Kate nor Alex were willing to try.
As they ate, Gadeem told everyone, including Ramses, what was expected from them, what they should or should not say, and where they should stand as they approached the warlock.
Alex could see that Gadeem was trying as hard as he could to well up anger and aggression in the run-up to battle. He wished that he could not have seen this, as this stopped him from becoming angry. Once he realised what the game was, it was difficult, nigh impossible, to rise to the bait.
“I thought you were going to attack at dawn. Aren’t we a little late?”
“We are attacking at dawn,” said Ramses, “so we will be leaving within the next fifteen minutes. It will then be dawn in London.”
“But we are not in London.”
“Technicalities, I really cannot be bothered with technicalities.”
Chapter 37
-
Life is a Fragile Thing
“Are you two ever going to stop arguing? You both need to focus on the battle ahead,” said Gadeem to Kate and Alex in a stern voice, as he pointed ahead to the line of troops on the horizon.
“Well, are you going to stop arguing?” asked Kate as she pointed an accusing finger at Alex.
“Me? … You have done nothing except moan since we left Ramses’ tent.”
“Enough!” shouted Gadeem, which caused the straight line of marching soldiers to become a wavy line of soldiers, as they looked to where the shout had come from. At least Kate and Alex were no longer bickering.
The marching soldiers were dragging the ends of their spears whilst kicking at the ground. They had been ordered to produce a cloud of dust, the like of which would be made by a much larger movement of troops. Even with the knowledge of how few troops they had, Alex looked about him and thought that it looked to be a very intimidating sight … when viewed from a distance.
An arm was raised and the soldiers came to a halt. “To victory,” Ramses shouted. The reply instantly came back from his troops, “To victory.”
Five chariots moved forward. Ramses, who had a chariot to himself, took the lead. He was closely followed on his left by Gadeem who had Kate and Alex with him. To his right was Nakhtifi who had Cairo and Rose in his chariot. He also had Bast, in cat form, hidden from sight. Some way behind them were the final two chariots. Each was driven by one of Ramses’ elite charioteers, and each had with him an elite archer. A long while ago the young adventurers had found out that it was best not to talk of these elite troops. Not because they were super-secret, but because Ramses resented how much they cost him!
They were all relieved to see the warlock approaching them with the same number of chariots. This was the typical pre-battle formation, where the leader of both armies would talk directly to each other prior to the commencement of battle.
“What is going on? Why have we stopped?” asked Kate.
“This is the point where we agree to leave the elite chariots behind,” said Gadeem quite calmly, as he surveyed the scene ahead.
The warlock was still too far away to be able to shout to, let alone talk to. He and Ramses were communicating by giving hand signals. Ramses raised his arm and pointed forward, and his chariots moved forward. The warlock raised an arm, his palm forward with his fingers splayed. The sign for stop. Ramses had no option except to stop; he fumed.
“We are still too far away for our archers to be of any use,” whispered Gadeem to Kate and Alex. Though why he felt the need to whisper was beyond them. They were in the middle of a desert and the warlock was so far away that hand signals had to be used.
The warlock now gave the sign for his chariots to move forward. Ramses immediately gave the halt sign.
“This is nothing more than posturing.” Gadeem did not take his eyes off the warlock as he spoke. “The warlock is trying to show the people with him that he is stronger than Ramses. Ramses is doing likewise. Before we go into battle, we have
to go through this every time.”
“Every time?” asked Alex.
“Yes, though sometimes, just a few times, it has allowed for a misunderstanding to be sorted out and a battle, with its resulting loss of life, avoided.”
“Not today, I suppose.”
“No, Alex, definitely not today. Our worry was that the warlock, in his eagerness for power, would not follow protocol and go straight to battle. That would have ruined our plans.”
“Don’t you mean your plans?” asked Kate with the accompanying attitude.
“Yes, alright, my plans.” Ramses and the warlock gave the same hand signal. “Now we must move forward, though we must stay just behind Ramses. Nakhtifi will be doing the same.”
Kate and Alex saw the warlock’s chariot start to move forward, followed behind by the chariot either side of him.
“None of these chariots can contain weapons of any kind,” said Gadeem as he pulled on the reins to keep their chariot behind that of Ramses. “For my sins, I am the one who has to walk around behind his chariots to confirm that there are no weapons. It is all a bit of a farce really, as protocol dictates that I cannot search them. Knives, daggers and even swords can be hidden under a galabeya. He will send one of his people around to do the same to us.”
“What about Bast?” asked Kate.
“Don’t worry about her, she will be well hidden.”
“What about Ramses?” asked Alex as the fuming pharaoh became ever redder.
“It may look as though he will explode,” said Gadeem, as he momentarily took his eyes from the warlock, “but he knows what we have to do. He will keep a lid on it, and so should you, Kate.”
Kate did not want to ‘keep a lid on it’, because she did not know what she was doing here. She wanted to be with her father. She said nothing, but if looks could kill, Gadeem would have been turned into a pillar of salt.
“Do you really expect the warlock to play fair?”
“Not at all, Alex.” Gadeem had to do all he could to not to break out into fits of laughter at the thought of the warlock playing fair. He never thought he would ever hear the words ‘warlock’ and ‘play fair’ in the same sentence.
The three lead chariots on each side moved forward, leaving the elite soldiers behind. Their protection was now too far away to be of any effective support. Ever so slowly the gap between the two opposing sides closed. So much so that eventually the horses pulling the chariots stood virtually head to head. Nobody attempted to step down from their chariot, except for Gadeem and his opposite number. Upon his return, he was far from happy.
“Unless both the warlock and Nefertiti have metal prosthetic legs, they have swords hidden.”
“Who are they with Nefertiti?”
“I do not know, Alex, but it is only the warlock we are concerned with.”
Alex looked directly ahead of him. Nefertiti looked straight back. They were separated by no more than the length of two horses. She had two very powerful looking Egyptians with her. Protocol demanded that everyone’s status was read out. According to the warlock, these were advisers. Alex thought, “There is so much brawn and so little brain over there, that those two would have difficulty in finding their way into the British Museum even if they were standing in front of it, the doors were open, and there was a flashing neon sign.”
To his right, and directly in front of Ramses, was the warlock. Beyond him, and directly opposite Gadeem, Rose and Cairo were Ay, Merenptah and Bordin. Still nobody made any attempt to step down from their chariots.
“Why, warlock, are you dressed as a pharaoh?” bellowed Ramses. “Are you trying to insult me, the greatest pharaoh in the world? I am Ramses the Great!”
This immediately threw the warlock onto the defensive. Nobody missed his look of hatred directed at Bordin for giving him incorrect information. Bordin just shrugged his shoulders. “I am pharaoh by right,” the warlock stuttered as he said this, “and this is attested to by Ay and Merenptah.”
“What … attested to by Ay, a murderer, someone who illegally took the crown of Egypt from its rightful owner, and Merenptah, my thirteenth son, who tried to kill me? That, even for you, warlock, is a low point in your lowly career. Who are you to stand before me?”
Ramses looked magnificent as he spoke. Kate was at a loss as to why the warlock was not shaking in his boots. Alex was keeping his eye on Nefertiti, not because she was beautiful, but because he thought that she would give the signal for any trap that was likely to be sprung. She was easily the most intelligent of those opposite. Cairo just wondered why they could not have all talked over a table which just happened to be full of food!
“I am pharaoh by right,” shouted the warlock, only his voice did not carry the power or authority of Ramses. “I am,” he protested like a whiny child. This was not going as he had thought it would. Bordin would have to be dealt with later, as he had convinced the warlock that Ramses feared him.
Gadeem and Ramses glanced at each other, an almost imperceptible nod was shared. Part one of the act was over. Time for a change of tack.
“I accept,” bellowed Ramses, “that you are the chosen pharaoh. I feel that now is not the time for war, but a time to ally ourselves against false pharaohs. Ay, I condemn you as a false pharaoh. I will speak with my true father, the god of gods, Osiris, to have you removed from the afterlife and all your worldly goods transferred to the true pharaoh.” Ramses gestured from Ay to the warlock.
“Yes, oh yes,” said the warlock, who jumped up and down as he clapped his hands together.
“But, you cannot do that,” Ay started to say. The warlock told him to shut up, and he did.
“As for you, Merenptah, my thirteenth son, who tried to kill me, that act alone forfeited you the right to be pharaoh. I shall speak with my true father, the god of gods, Osiris, in order that everything you own is passed to the true pharaoh.” Ramses gestured from Merenptah to the warlock.
Despite Merenptah’s protests, the warlock was almost beside himself with joy. Such unbelievable wealth would be coming his way, and it would be coming with the power he craved, though Ramses had not yet finished speaking.
“I feel that my true father, the god of gods, Osiris, would want you to be pharaoh of your own city.”
The warlock was salivating at the thought of having his own city.
“Yes, you will be the absolute ruler. The gods would want you to rule for all eternity a city which would adequately reflect your power. A city, which is presently not run as the gods would want, as it is ruled by an evil force.”
The warlock was now begging for Ramses to tell him which city would be his.
“That city is Amarna, and that evil force is Nefertiti.” Ramses stood high on his chariot. His finger shook in anger, as he pointed his outstretched arm towards her.
It took a second or two before the warlock realised that Ramses had caused him to make enemies of all those around him. Alex saw Nefertiti give a hand gesture, though before he could say anything, soldiers were appearing out from the ground behind them. “There is another tunnel,” thought Alex just as a hand grabbed at him in an attempt to drag him from the chariot.
Gadeem withdrew a three-quarter length sword through the side pocket in his galabeya. There was a swish, along with a flash of sunlight, from the moving sword. Alex was no longer being dragged from the chariot. He was now struggling to remove a clenched fist from his arm which had no person attached to the end of it.
Both Ramses and Nakhtifi had also produced three-quarter length swords. Several of the warlock’s soldiers already lay slain, though as nobody was removing names, they would be able to remain in the afterlife. However, this battle was over for them.
It was then that Kate lost it. She screamed and shouted at the warlock. He raised his hand, a clear sign that magic was about to be used. He had to raise his body above the cover of his chariot, if he was to have a clear shot at Kate. This was exactly what Rose had been waiting for. She had one chance to hit the warlock with m
agic, just the one. Gadeem had assured her, during their many hours of training, that the warlock would be paying attention to him, as well as Ramses, Kate and Alex. He would not perceive Nakhtifi, Cairo or her as posing any threat. That is why the chariots were arranged as they were.
With Rose being left-handed, the warlock was unlikely to register the raising of a left arm as a sign of potential magic, potential danger. Not from Rose, not until it was too late. She fired her spell, and absolutely nothing happened. A slight tingle went through the tips of her fingers, but apart from that, nothing, absolutely nothing.
The warlock, oblivious to the actions of Rose, moved his arm slightly away from Kate, sending a green ray of energy towards Gadeem. It took his arm clean off at the shoulder. Spinning three or four times before falling off the back of the chariot, Gadeem landed face down on the desert. He lay motionless. Rose raced over and fell to her knees. She rolled Gadeem over and sobbed as she held his lifeless body in her arms.
Kate was so incensed that she tried to climb out of the front of the chariot and across the backs of the horses, in an irrational attempt to go and thump the warlock. Alex did his best to hold her back, but she was having none of it. In the end he gave up and let her go. He bent down to pick up Gadeem’s sword as soldiers were still emerging from three holes in the ground right behind them. Ramses and Nakhtifi were coping well, but Alex could now see more soldiers emerging from further holes in the ground, though these then had to sprint across the desert.
The warlock aimed his hand squarely at Kate. “Now, you troublesome girl, you die.” He sent another green ray of energy. This time he was not going to remove an arm, he was going to blow a hole in her chest. She was too far away for Alex to be able to do anything. Everything turned into slow-motion. The beam split into two, just a centimetre or so before reaching Kate. It rolled back on itself in two distinct streams before combining into a single stream which headed back towards the warlock. His expression changed three times. Firstly, the joy on his face at getting rid of the troublesome girl, secondly, the look of confusion as her chest failed to blow apart, and thirdly, the realisation that he was about to die.
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