War of the Crowns

by Christian Jacq

  The two men set off along a long, sloping corridor which ended in an antechamber. Beyond it was a vault filled with statues, vases and furniture looted from Elephantine. But the most impressive item was the carpet of human skulls covering the beaten-earth floor.

  ‘I don’t like being annoyed,’ confessed Nedjeh. ‘Anger takes hold of me and makes me kill anyone who contests my power. And you have annoyed me a great deal, One-Eye.’

  The Hyksos retreated a pace or two, crushing the bones beneath his feet. There was no way out.

  ‘Listen to me, my lord—‘

  ‘Anyone who angers me does not deserve my pardon. But I shall grant you one favour: your skull will remain in this tomb with those of the slaves I killed with my own hands.’

  One-Eye tried to force his way out, but he was not strong enough to fight the Nubian, who hurled him to the ground, then broke his neck with a violent blow from his heel. Officially, the envoy would have met a peaceful death in the good city of Kerma.

  The emperor would not easily find a Hyksos who knew the region as well as that unbearable lesson-giver. How could vain One-Eye have thought that Nedjeh would tolerate being told how to behave?

  28

  A violent hammering on his door awoke Commander Soped in the middle of the night. Irritably, he got up and opened the door. Outside stood the officer in charge of the night watch.

  ‘What is it?’ demanded Soped.

  ‘A patrol has just found a curse not far from the main gate.’

  ‘A curse?’

  ‘An ivory thro wing-stick with magical signs. Two soldiers tried to pick it up, but it burnt their fingers. The men are very anxious, Commander. They are waiting for you to do something.’

  Soped dressed in haste. In the heart of Nubia this kind of event could not be dismissed lightly, because the black sorcerers had real powers. For reasons as yet unknown, one of them had decided to harm the fortress. The urgent thing was to destroy the basis of the curse.

  Soped strode across the courtyard and left the fortress by the great gate. He found dozens of Nubian and Hyksos soldiers gathered around the throwing-stick.

  ‘Stand aside,’ he ordered.

  The moonlight lit up the ivory, on which signs had been drawn—signs which terrified the soldiers of Buhen, especially the rearing cobra and the griffin with its menacing beak.’

  This is nothing,’ declared Soped, who was shaking like a wind-tossed palm-tree.

  ‘If it’s really nothing,’ objected a Nubian, ‘pick it up and break it.’

  ‘I’m told it burns. I don’t intend to burn myself in order to dispel this magic.’

  Everyone realized that he was afraid. The sentries had left their posts and joined their comrades, who could not take their eyes off the mysterious object.

  ‘The cobra’s eyes … they’re glowing red!’ one of them exclaimed.

  ‘And so are the eyes of Anubis,’ gasped his neighbour.

  ‘Bring me a hammer,’ ordered Soped. ‘I’ll smash the ivory.’

  The man who went to fetch the hammer did not return. He was strangled by one of the Medjai who had just entered the fortress through the great gate, which had been left open and unguarded. The attackers would have taken the risk of scaling the walls, but Ahhotep’s magic spared them this perilous climb. Swift and agile, they slaughtered the guards in the courtyard, then climbed to the tops of the watchtowers, where they soon dispatched the archers.

  ‘Where is that hammer?’ demanded Soped impatiently. He was standing at a respectful distance from the magical ivory, which was still lit by the rays of the moon-god.

  The sound of the great gate slamming shut made them all jump, and they swung round in shock.

  ‘The imbecile who did that will be thrown into irons,’ promised Soped.

  From the tops of the towers volleys of arrows rained down, most of them finding their targets. Soped saw many of his garrison falling around him.

  ‘The Medjai!’ roared a Hyksos. ‘It’s the Medjai—they’ll slaughter us to the last man.’

  To the river!’ shouted Soped. ‘We’ll get away on the rescue-boats.’

  The survivors ran to the riverbank, but there they were halted in their tracks by a detachment of the army of liberation, commanded by Kamose himself.

  Abandoning his men, Soped turned on one of his own officers and killed him, to make it look as if he was fighting for the Egyptians. Then he slunk off towards the Nile. He planned to swim with the current, reach a boat and distance himself from Buhen as swiftly as possible.

  The plan would have succeeded had Moustache not foreseen it. He threw himself into the water at the same time as Soped and grabbed him round the neck. ‘You’re in a big hurry, my friend.’

  ‘I am the commander of the fortress and I have gold, well hidden. Spare my life and you’ll be rich.’

  ‘Where is it hidden, this gold?’

  Over there.’ Half choking, Soped managed to point to a reedbed. ‘In a boat moored in the reeds.’

  ‘We shall go there. But no tricks, or I’ll rip out your throat.’

  Soped checked that he still had a dagger hidden in a fold of his kilt. That precaution had saved his life more than once. Pretending to be defeated, he swam slowly to the boat.

  ‘There are several bags of gold tied to the hull,’ he said. ‘All you have to do is dive down and untie them.’

  ‘Well, go on, then.’

  The commander dived down into the water, but almost immediately darted up again behind Moustache and tried to stab him in the back. Used to hand-to-hand fighting and this kind of trickery, the rebel seized his attacker’s wrist and turned his weapon against him.

  ‘You traitor and coward! It gives me real pleasure to kill you.’

  As the blade ripped open his flesh, from belly to heart, the commander’s eyes grew glassy.

  He was already dead when Moustache cried out in pain.

  The jaws of a crocodile had closed on his left leg. As the great reptile dragged him towards the bottom, the Afghan jumped on to its back and plunged his dagger into its eye. Maddened with pain, the crocodile let go of its prey and swam away.

  With the aid of two Egyptian soldiers, the Afghan got the wounded man back to the riverbank.

  ‘Luckily for you, it was a young crocodile. All the same, the wound is not a pretty sight. We’d better get you back to the fortress straight away.’

  On the first day, the military doctor applied meat to the wound. On the second, he used a poultice of bull’s fat and mouldy barley-bread, whose medicinal qualities were well known. A drug made from extracts of mandragora, jujube and opium ensured that Moustache felt no pain. Honey and myrrh, used to prevent infection, would eventually heal him.

  ‘Be honest, Afghan. Will I be able to walk again?’

  ‘With no problems at all, and you’ll have only a minor scar—it won’t even enable you to show off to the girls. Getting yourself bitten by a crocodile is hardly a daring exploit.’

  ‘Without me, that filthy Hyksos would have escaped.’

  Tharaoh Kamose has decided to decorate you for that; and he’s decorating me, too, for saving you. What’s more, we’re being promoted and we’re going to lead two attack regiments. Because of your exploits, we’re destined for the front line.’

  ‘That’s the only thing that interests you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Stop thinking for me. It wears me out.’

  ‘Who’d have thought that damned traitor could lure me into a trap with his lies about gold hidden under a boat?’

  ‘But it wasn’t lies,’ said the Afghan. ‘There really was a fine haul of it there, and a share of it will come to you when the war is over.’

  ‘If it ever is over …’

  A young Nubian girl with a slender body entered the bedchamber where Moustache was being treated.

  This is your nurse,’ explained the Afghan. ‘She belongs to the Medjai tribe, and knows wonderful herbs which will speed your recovery. Right, I shall leave you now. Looking
at sick people depresses me.’

  When he saw the girl take off her tiny kilt before preparing a potion for him, Moustache thought he must have a fever.

  ‘It’s hot here,’ she whispered in a luscious voice, ‘and I love being naked. Let me take care of you, brave warrior. You won’t be disappointed.’

  Queen Ahhotep and Pharaoh Kamose stood at the top of the main watchtower and gazed out over Nubia. The reconquest of Buhen meant that all river traffic was now barred to King Nedjeh. Moreover, the goods transported by the caravans that halted near the fortress now came within the scope of the Thebans, not to mention part of the gold production, which was washed on-site.

  ‘Mother,’ said Kamose, ‘by persuading the Medjai to become our allies and using that magic ivory, you enabled us to win a great victory, and without losing a single man.’

  ‘It won’t always be so.’ Ahhotep was silent for a moment, then went on, ‘You must appoint a new fortress commander, and administrators who will manage the wealth of the region, and then choose a governor for Nubia.’

  ‘Does that mean that we’re turning round and going back to the northern front?’

  ‘Not yet. Even when he learns that we have recaptured Buhen, King Nedjeh will think he is perfectly safe, because he thinks we’ll never be able to get past the Second Cataract. He is wrong.’

  29

  Even the Medjai did not venture into the Miu region, between the Second and Third Cataracts. Proud that they now belonged to the army of liberation, they were placed under the authority of the new governor of Nubia, and would take on all guard duties in the reconquered territories.

  The general opinion was that it would be best to be content with what had been won, and not to provoke the anger of King Nedjeh, who up to now had been silent. By violating his shrine, the Thebans would provoke a ferocious response.

  And yet, when the council of war met, Neshi strongly opposed those senior officers who recommended a strategic withdrawal.

  ‘When are you going to stop behaving like frightened women?’ he said. ‘And how many victories will it take for you to believe at last in our troops’ abilities? Our enemies’ magic has proved ineffective in the face of Queen Ahhotep’s, hasn’t it? To make Buhen our new southern frontier would be a grave mistake, because sooner or later Nedjeh would attack it. So let us create a barrier across our enemy’s domain and isolate him, as the pharaoh and the queen recommend.’

  ‘But what if nearly all our men are killed?’ asked the oldest general, worriedly.

  ‘We are at war,’ King Kamose reminded him, ‘and we cannot always make progress without losses. Queen Ahhotep’s plan is the only feasible one. Tomorrow we shall cross the Second Cataract.’

  The two new commanders of the attack regiments were proudly wearing their decorations, a little gold griffin attached to their linen tunics. They met at the foot of the flagship’s gangplank.

  ‘All the wounded are to stay here, in the infirmary,’ said the Afghan firmly.

  ‘I’m all right,’ retorted Moustache. ‘But as a precautionary measure I’m bringing my nurse with me. The moment my scar starts hurting, she knows just how to soothe it.’

  It was the first time Moustache had spent so much time with a woman. At first, he was afraid he’d be lulled into a tranquil state of mind and forget about the war. But he underestimated the fighting abilities of his young mistress, who practised the games of love as though they were themselves a contest. With her, there was no question of wasting time on endless preliminaries or pointless debate. So the patient had not been allowed very much rest, particularly since the plant remedies prescribed by this sorceress markedly increased his vigour.

  From time to time, Moustache shivered. If the crocodile had been a little larger, or the Afghan had acted a little more slowly, he would now have only one leg. If he hadn’t been able to fight any longer, he’d have killed himself.

  ‘Stop thinking dark thoughts,’ advised the Afghan.

  ‘And you stop reading my mind. You mountain folk are really unbearable! By the way, how did you occupy your time while I was convalescing?’

  ‘Do you think you’re the only man who knows how to seduce Nubian girls?’

  On the prow of each boat large eyes had been painted, enabling the Egyptian warships to see both the visible and the invisible. Moon appreciated this magical assistance, because he had to stay alert for hours on end in order to ensure that the fleet travelled safely. Ahhotep often stood beside him. She had ordered ivory thro wing-sticks to be fixed to the ships’ rails, so that their signs of power could drive away evil spirits.

  The queen’s presence both intimidated and reassured the helmsman. Without her, the army of liberation would long since have dispersed, for fear was strong within their bellies. The simple fact of seeing the Queen of Freedom, feeling her so close and yet inaccessible, gave courage to the most timid.

  Moreover, young Pharaoh Kamose was gaining more confidence by the day. Like his father, he had an innate sense of leadership, and during attacks he always fought in the vanguard of his men, refusing to heed his mother’s orders to be careful.

  In accordance with the pharaoh’s orders, Neshi ensured that rigorous cleanliness was practised on board the boats. The decks were washed several times a day, the cabins were carefully cleaned, and everyone smeared their skin with ointment to repel insects. To combat eye irritations, they used the froth from good-quality beer, which was also effective against stomach upsets. Each soldier had two mats wound round with a red leather cord, which he assembled to form a comfortable sleeping-bag. Each meal included onions, which were to be chewed, so that the smell would drive away snakes and scorpions.

  ‘Majesty, we are coming to a village,’ said Moon. ‘Shall I slow down?’

  ‘Not yet,’ replied Ahhotep.

  The queen wanted to observe the first reactions of the inhabitants of Miu who were under King Nedjeh’s yoke.

  At first stunned, the villagers hurriedly grabbed their bows and slingshots. The first arrows fell into the water, but the stones almost hit the prow.

  ‘Take shelter, Majesty,’ begged Moon.

  ‘Stop the boat,’ ordered Ahhotep.

  Already, several soldiers were jumping on to the riverbank, at the risk of broken limbs. But the months of training proved their worth, and the young Egyptians were able to position themselves so as to strike down their opponents. As soon as the gangplank was put down, Kamose joined them and led them to the village, whose resistance was soon overcome.

  A lone Nubian had succeeded in escaping by diving into the Nile, just in front of the flagship. He scaled the prow, furiously intent on killing the sorceress who had opened up the way to the Egyptian army. He leapt on to the deck and rushed at Ahhotep.

  Pushing past the queen, Moon shattered the attacker’s skull with his long stick. Ahhotep had not moved, trusting to the helmsman’s skilled and steady hand.

  Moon knelt. ‘Forgive me, Majesty. I might have hurt you.’

  Ahhotep raised him to his feet. ‘I appoint you to command our naval forces. From now on, Commander Moon, you shall take all decisions regarding our ships and boats, and all the other captains will obey you.’

  On dry land, the brief battle was ending. Not a single Nubian warrior had agreed to surrender, and two Egyptians were dead. On Kamose’s order, the women and children were allowed to leave.

  The conquest of Miu province had begun.

  After slitting the throats of a ram and a slave, whose bones would join those of the Hyksos envoy, Nedjeh was preparing for a celebratory feast. There were no fewer than ten dishes, including poultry and an enormous Nile perch. While he was eating, two serving-girls fanned him. As soon as he had finished a dish, one of them washed his hands while the other anointed him with perfume. Nedjeh hated having greasy fingers and liked to smell nice.

  The white wine came from the great Khargeh oasis, in the Western desert, and was excellent. Nedjeh never drank less than two large jugfuls with every meal.


  ‘More,’ he ordered his cup-bearer. ‘Can you not see my cup is empty?’

  How pleasant life was at Kerma! Thanks to the region’s agricultural wealth, one could live as well there as in the most beautiful Egyptian provinces.

  The king’s personal scribe arrived at the threshold of the dining-chamber. 4My lord, may I interrupt your meal?’

  ‘What can possibly be so urgent?’

  ‘The Thebans have crossed the Second Cataract and are invading Miu.’

  Nedjeh’s appetite abruptly vanished. ‘Is this information reliable?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes, my lord. And that is not all.’

  ‘What else?’

  ‘The Thebans have destroyed only one village, but—‘

  ‘That’s excellent news! So the others have resisted successfully.’

  ‘No, my lord. Queen Ahhotep has spoken to each village chief and persuaded them all to change sides. From now on they are to be under the protection of the Egyptian troops stationed at Buhen and of Medjai guards. We thought we had subjugated these tribes once and for all, but they now form the first line of defence against us. And also …’

  ‘Also what?’

  The scribe bowed his head. ‘And also there is no reason for the enemy army to stop when it is making such good progress.’

  ‘Do you mean that this woman Ahhotep and her damned pharaoh might dare attack Kerma? That would be a fatal mistake.’

  Maddened as a fighting-bull, Nedjeh abandoned several very tempting dishes and ordered the city’s officials to be summoned to the vast round council-hut, abandoning their daily business.

  Nedjeh did not hide the gravity of the situation from them. This time, it was no longer possible to regard the Theban army as of no importance.

  ‘Ahhotep will establish herself in Miu,’ he said, ‘and consolidate her position in the hope that we will leave our territory to attack her. But we shall not fall into that trap. On the contrary, we shall lay one for her. The best strategy is to strengthen our town’s defences and to mass our troops north of the Third Cataract. The Egyptians will eventually become impatient and advance towards us. Thanks to our knowledge of the terrain, we shall easily wipe them out.’