On the flagship, seven sturdy fellows hoisted the topsail using two halyards, while an eighth climbed to the top of the mast to help them. His clambering amused a young monkey, which proved swifter than he and teased the crew with little cries.
Laughter barked, warning the monkey to behave itself. Perched on the top of the mainsail, the animal did not have to be told a second time.
Pharaoh himself took charge of the steering-oar when the boat headed into a channel which would enable it to avoid the rocks of the First Cataract and rejoin the Nile.
Using his long forked stick, Moon measured the depth of the water; there was no scope for error. And slowly the boat continued on its way. Moon had an uncommon capacity for concentration; he was one with his craft. With all his being, with all his senses, he experienced each movement of the water and detected all its many snares.
Ahhotep saw that Moon’s brow was deeply furrowed, as if the dangers were growing greater by the moment. She looked down into the channel, which sparkled in the sunshine, and offered a prayer to Hapy, the life-energy of the river, asking him not to hinder the war-fleet’s progress.
On the poop of the flagship, Moustache noticed that the Afghan looked ill at ease: his face was taking on a strange green tinge. Moustache grinned and said, ‘I have a feeling you don’t much like sailing.’
‘Turn away. That’ll make me feel better.’
‘Be sick in peace, Afghan. We only have a few weeks’ travelling ahead of us, interspersed with murderous battles. Let’s hope for your sake that some of them will be on dry land.’
The Afghan’s stomach was heaving so much that he couldn’t reply.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Moustache. ‘I hear the river is rather calm in Nubia. That’s better for delicate constitutions like yours, isn’t it? Oh, watch out! We’re going over some rapids, and that might shake us up a bit. Just don’t look. I’m not even sure if our boat can withstand the shock.’
Little by little, the lines on Moon’s brow relaxed and disappeared. Although watchful as ever, he handled his measuring-staff less apprehensively.
Queen Ahhotep stopped gazing at the water and instead looked at some clumps of palm-trees sparkling in the sun.
‘Good news, Afghan!’ exclaimed Moustache. ‘We’ve just entered Nubia.’
26
The riverbed was narrower than in Egypt, and lined with palm-trees which had their roots in the water and their crowns in the sunshine. Most of them lived for a hundred years, and the best gave up to thirty clusters of dates. Ripening with the flood, between July and September, they were a useful source of food during the hot season. The doum-palms were as tall as ten men and had one special feature: their trunk forked twice or more, and each branch ended in a sort of crown. Apart from their red-brown fruit, with its soft, sweet flesh, they provided welcome shade, and their kernels contained a refreshing liquid which Moustache was fond of.
‘Are you feeling better, Afghan? I think the boat is pitching a bit less.’
The Afghan was still greenish7 and hardly eating anything. ‘One day,’ he said firmly, ‘I shall take you into my mountains in the middle of winter. We’ll see how proud you are when you have your feet in the snow. From what I know of you, you’ll have an attack of vertigo and won’t be able to climb up or down. And don’t rely on me to help you.’
‘At the moment we’re in Nubia, and you’d do better to look straight ahead. We have visitors.’
They were very black-skinned, very tall, very strongly built, and were armed with spears and bows. They wore only a simple kilt, while their faces and torsos were painted with warlike insignia.
Ahhotep gave orders for the flagship to halt and for the gangplank to be put out.
‘Mother,’ said Kamose anxiously, ‘don’t leave the boat.’
These are warlike men, but they have a sense of honour. They will not kill a woman who comes to meet them alone and unarmed.’
Moustache was not so sure.
The Afghan laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Don’t threaten them, and let her do as she wishes. She knows what she’s doing.’
‘Those brutes will slaughter her.’
‘People don’t kill a woman like her. Look at them. It wouldn’t take much to make them prostrate themselves before the Queen of Egypt.’
Surprised by Ahhotep’s actions, a tall man wearing gold bracelets pushed through the ranks of his soldiers to confront this unexpected adversary.
‘I am Ahhotep, Queen of the Two Lands, and I am travelling with Pharaoh Kamose, at the head of his army.’
‘I am the chief of the Medjai tribe and I thought the only pharaoh was Apophis. What do you seek to do on my land, Queen of Egypt?’
‘To fight the allies of the Hyksos, who are occupying my country, and to retake the fortress of Buhen, which was handed over to the enemy by traitors and collaborators.’
‘Have you decided to wage war against the King of Kerma?’
‘Since he is the faithful friend of the Emperor of Darkness, I shall destroy him.’
‘King Nedjeh is invincible.’
‘Pharaoh will vanquish him.’
The chief looked troubled.
‘What do you Medjai desire?’ asked Ahhotep, whose serene beauty fascinated the Nubian.
‘The Medjai inhabit a large part of this land, between the First and Second Cataracts. For a while, we thought that Nedjeh would be our liberator. In reality, he is nothing but a tyrant, and he wanted to turn us into slaves. When we resisted, with the aid of the Hyksos he killed many of us and destroyed many of our villages. We took refuge in the desert and only re-emerged a few days ago, when we learnt that a fleet from Thebes had liberated Elephantine and entered Nubia. We killed the soldiers of King Nedjeh who were preparing to attack you. We want to fight at the side of the Pharaoh of Egypt.’
While Kamose, Moustache and the Egyptian soldiers looked on in astonishment, the Medjai prostrated themselves before Queen Ahhotep.
The Afghan was only modestly triumphant, for he had not really believed his own prediction. ‘That woman is a miracle in herself,’ he murmured.
Soped, the Egyptian commander of Buhen fortress, listened attentively to One-Eye. The Hyksos knew Nubia better than anyone, and scaremongering was anathema to him, so his warning was not to be taken lightly.
‘So, One-Eye, an army from Thebes has taken Elephantine. A serious blow to the Hyksos, I agree, but it’s only a temporary reverse. You know as well as I do that the emperor’s reaction will be terrifying. He will raze Thebes and Elephantine to the ground and station garrisons there to prevent any future unrest. Now, I am a loyal servant of the King of Kerma. I have washed my feet in my master’s water,*and I belong to his entourage, so I am safe and sound.’
I’m sure you’re right, Commander, but nevertheless you should strengthen your defences.’
‘Buhen is impregnable.’
‘So was Per-Hathor,’ said One-Eye drily.
‘The comparison does not hold water. Buhen is a small town, and I have a large enough garrison to resist an attack. Besides, the troops of King Nedjeh and the Medjai tribe must already have sunk most of the ships belonging to that ridiculous pharaoh Kamose. Believe me, my friend, no enemy boat will reach Buhen.’
‘Probably not,’ conceded One-Eye, ‘but Queen Ahhotep is a formidable force.’
‘A woman! Are you joking?’
‘This woman seems to be in league with the gods.’
‘The gods didn’t protect Egypt during the Hyksos invasion, and they won’t protect her today.’
‘I shall go to Kerma to alert King Nedjeh and ask him to send you reinforcements.’
‘He will simply laugh in your face.’
‘I think it advisable to take every precaution,’ said One-Eye.
‘Why are you so worried? These are just the last efforts of a Theban faction which is mad enough still to believe in Egyptian freedom.’
‘I shall feel less worried when that woman Ahhotep is dead.’
&
nbsp; ‘She’s probably dead already, even as we speak. Take your time in Kerma and give King Nedjeh my greetings. It seems his palace grows more beautiful by the day and that his court will soon shine more brightly than that of the pharaons.’
With some relief, the commander watched the Hyksos leave for the south. One-Eye was beginning to fall prey to an old man’s fears, and was no longer capable of dealing with new situations. The emperor would not leave him in office for much longer, and would replace him with a younger, more dynamic man who was not afraid of his own shadow.
One-Eye’s advice had not pleased Soped in the least. Nobody knew the fortress’s capacity for resistance better than its commander! That very evening, he would write a highly critical report about One-Eye’s behaviour and send it urgently to Kerma, so that the king could demand that the emperor dismiss him.
Commander Soped could be proud of his achievements. As a junior officer, he had quickly realized that the Hyksos were the new masters of Egypt and that their work must be facilitated as much as possible. So he had denounced all his superiors as accomplices of the Thebans.
The emperor had proved not ungrateful: in exchange for this spontaneous collaboration, he had appointed Soped commander of Buhen fortress, charged with turning it into an impregnable bastion and beheading anyone suspected of opposing the Hyksos, even in thought. Soped had taken advantage of this to kill everyone he disliked, in full agreement with his assistant, who had come from Kerma to keep watch on him. From time to time, the Nubian was obliged to restrain the commander, whose thirst for executions seemed never-ending.
Today, Commander Soped was the unchallenged ruler of the stronghold, which provided shelter for caravans, acted as a tax-post for goods, a workshop for washing gold and a postal centre. Obeying orders from both the emperor and the King of Kerma, Soped succeeded in annoying neither. And if things were quiet for too long he could always torture a civilian, who would duly be forced to confess that he was conspiring against Apophis.
By appropriating small amounts of gold during each washing operation, the commander was, little by little, amassing a modest fortune. His only worry was the possible emergence of a rival who might try to oust him; but he was so vigilant that it was a very small worry indeed.
‘Dinner is served,’ announced his cup-bearer.
Another quiet evening lay ahead.
* An Egyptian expression denoting absolute loyalty.
27
Nedjeh, all-powerful King of Kerma, was being massaged with oil of shea made from the fruit of the ‘butter tree’, which contained an oily nut. In the last two years, the handsome, athletic Nubian had gained a lot of weight and he was becoming almost fat. But he could never resist the sauces and desserts prepared by his cooks.
When he seized power in the fertile region of Dongola, just above the Third Cataract, Nedjeh had been a warrior hungry for conquests. Ruler of an extensive river basin where cereal crops grew in abundance and livestock thrived, Nedjeh had thought he would be able to take Elephantine, then Thebes, and so conquer Upper Egypt. But Emperor Apophis’s clear-sightedness had decided matters otherwise, and the Nubian felt it preferable not to go to war with the Hyksos.
By remaining their faithful ally and sending tributes to Avaris, Nedjeh ensured his lands were left in peace, and he was able to rule despotically and mercilessly.
He had made spectacular improvements to his capital by having a fortified brick temple built in the very centre, as tall as twenty men. A monumental staircase led to its summit, which looked out over the whole city. To the south-west of the city a vast circular hut served as an audience chamber; to the east there was a burial-ground, whose principal tombs were decorated with bulls’ heads. Defensive earthworks, watchtowers and heavy gates ensured the security of Kerma, where slaves were sacrificed as readily as rams.
Nedjeh’s latest whim was glazed porcelain tiles and friezes depicting lions. Thanks to the gold mines, the prince’s wealth continued to grow, and he took advantage of it to make Kerma magnificent, in accordance with his taste. Apophis, with whom he communicated via inscribed scarabs borne by the imperial messengers, had sent him some undeniably talented carpenters. So his palace was filled with refined furniture in the Egyptian style.
The inhabitants of the new capital lacked for nothing. Trading-relations with the Hyksos were good, and consignments of Minoan and Cyprian jars arrived regularly at Kerma, where the tribal chiefs came to pay allegiance to Nedjeh.
Other people, too, had noticed that the king had put on weight, but no one complained. Good food and luxury made him forget his warlike ambitions in favour of comfort. The price to be paid was only an unconditional alliance with the Hyksos, but would those predators be content with exterminating the Egyptians? Nubia’s gold was so tempting …
Nedjeh reassured himself by increasing, each year, the quantity of gold he presented to the emperor. In this way Apophis kept a tight rein on far-off Kerma, which did not threaten him in any way.
When the king’s steward announced the arrival of One-Eye, Nedjeh frowned. The Hyksos was a master of trickery and manipulation, and it would not be easy to lie to him. He had probably come to demand more gold, so the king would have to persuade him that the miners had already produced all they could.
‘You look very well, One-Eye,’ he said.
‘Appearances are sometimes deceptive, my lord.’
‘Come, come. Surely you aren’t the bearer of bad news?’
‘The Theban army has taken Per-Hathor and Elephantine.’
‘I know; I received your messages. It’s annoying, of course, but they’ll both soon be retaken by the emperor’s soldiers, won’t they?’
That is a certainty.’
‘Then why worry?’
‘Because Ahhotep and Pharaoh Kamose have entered Nubia.’
Nedjeh burst out laughing. ‘A woman and a boy! Their folly has condemned them to death.’
One-Eye seemed depressed. ‘I am not so sure.’
‘But how can you doubt it? I have troops stationed close to the First Cataract, and they and the Medjai tribe will make short work of your Thebans.’
‘Lately, the Medjai have seemed less and less reliable. Your men have bullied them, and I know they are resentful.’
‘They would never dare disobey me. You can be sure that the Theban army has been wiped out.’
‘But what if it hasn’t? Wouldn’t it be sensible to strengthen the defences at Buhen?’
‘Buhen cannot be taken. If Soped hadn’t betrayed his own kind, I’d have had to besiege it for an eternity—and even then I might not have taken it.’
‘I believe we would be making a grave mistake by underestimating the Thebans. Ahhotep is a true war-leader. For an army regarded as of no account, is it not a remarkable achievement to take Per-Hathor and then Elephantine?’
‘Don’t exaggerate,’ said Nedjeh scornfully. ‘They took advantage of favourable circumstances, that’s all.’
‘My lord, I strongly advise you to send reinforcements to Buhen.’
‘To be frank, that seems pointless.’
‘I very much regret it but, as representative of the Hyksos emperor, I find myself obliged to order you to do so.’
Hiding his anger, Nedjeh bowed. ‘As you wish. But I think you’re being very alarmist.’
‘If the Medjai have turned against your troops, Ahhotep and Kamose have had free rein. Their main objective can only be Buhen. If they retake it, they will pin you down in Kerma.’
This is all merely conjecture.’
‘My instinct rarely deceives me. I know that that woman Ahhotep is dangerous and that you must take action.’
‘You need say no more. The emperor’s orders shall be carried out, as usual. Has Apophis ever had cause to complain about me?’
‘Never,’ agreed One-Eye, satisfied with the outcome of the interview. ‘And you, the King of Kerma, shall have the privilege of crushing the Theban rebellion. Of course, you will acquire important privileges by d
oing so. In the report that Apophis will demand, I shall write about you in glowing terms.’
‘You will always be welcome in my town, One-Eye. Do you think the emperor will be satisfied if his envoy takes him the heads of Ahhotep and Kamose on the ends of spears?’
‘He would certainly appreciate that kind of homage.’
‘Then it is agreed, my friend. Now, shall we go and amuse ourselves a little?’
Nedjeh’s favourite entertainment, after lavish banquets, was women. And in that respect One-Eye felt capable of rivalling him, especially since Kerma housed some splendid, hot-blooded creatures.
One of the vast bedchambers at the palace was reserved for the prince’s new conquests; despite his plumpness, he remained a vigorous lover. There were four of them, all young, pretty and smiling.
‘I shall leave the choice to you, One-Eye.’
‘My lord, you are too generous!’
‘Please: it is a gift to celebrate our perfect understanding.’
What the Hyksos liked best about Nubia was its girls. At once challenging and docile, disturbing she-panthers and languorous cats, they fascinated him. If he had an attachment to this rough, sun-scorched land, he owed it to them.
And One-Eye took great delight in the King of Kerma’s sumptuous gift.
Night was falling when Nedjeh shook One-Eye awake. ‘You have had a good sleep, my friend. Before we dine, I should like to show you my latest project.’
One-Eye stretched. Two Nubian girls had drained every last drop of moisture from his body, and he would gladly have lapsed back into restorative sleep. But he could not displease the king.
Accompanied by two bodyguards, Nedjeh led the envoy to the burial-ground, where vast tombs reserved for officials were hollowed out.
‘I am going to grant you a new privilege, One-Eye: to visit my tomb, which will be worthy of a great pharaoh. You, the Hyksos, attach little importance to your final dwelling; here, it is different. I have a palace in my lifetime, and I want another for my death.’
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