Apophis’s will had been done. Deprived of the protection of their glorious ancestors, Ahhotep and Kamose would find their momentum destroyed.
Nevertheless, the desecration of the royal remains was carried out in heavy silence. Jannas’s soldiers were unaccustomed to fighting dead men, and the mummies’ serene faces disturbed more than one soldier.
The operation has been completed, sir,’ said Jannas’s second-in-command.
‘Perhaps …’
‘Have we forgotten something, sir?’
‘Look at those pyramids. You would swear they’re alive and defying us, as if violating the tombs had served no use.’
‘What do you suggest we do?’
‘We ought to destroy them stone by stone, but we haven’t the time. I have received new orders.’
* Lisht is about 50km south of Cairo. Its ruined pyramids date from the twentieth century BC.
49
As the Theban army advanced towards Per-shaq, they knew that a head-on clash with Hyksos forces was inevitable. In the ranks, there was talk of monstrous animals which the emperor controlled with his mind, of long spears which could run through three men at once, and unknown weapons against which even Queen Ahhotep had no defence.
At the head of the war-fleet, Moon had taken up his helmsman’s staff again to sound the Nile. As alert as a cat, he watched for the slightest sign of danger. At his side were Moustache and the Afghan, who knew the region well.
‘We’re very near Per-shaq,’ said Moustache, who was getting increasingly edgy.
‘Still nothing,’ said Moon. ‘But they may well have laid an ambush for us.’
‘The best way of finding out,’ suggested the Afghan, ‘would be to send out scouts.’
Moon halted the boats. Ahhotep and the pharaoh agreed with the Afghan’s reasoning, but refused to let him command the patrol himself.
‘You’re too senior,’ Moustache pointed out, ‘and you have too many decorations. I’ll go instead.’
‘No, you will not,’ replied Ahhotep, ‘because you hold the same rank and decorations as the Afghan.’
‘Majesty, we cannot send a few inexperienced boys out.
Without a skilled leader, not one of them will get back alive.’
‘Do you consider me a skilled leader?’ asked Kamose.
Moustache and the Afghan stared, open-mouthed.
The king bowed to his mother. ‘Queen of Egypt, it is my responsibility, and mine alone, to lead my men into battle. Then they will know that I am not afraid, and that the commander of the army of freedom will face all the risks they do. My father and you yourself have always acted in this way.’
The man who stood in front of Ahhotep was neither a braggart nor irresponsible. He was a twenty-year-old pharaon who was insistent upon carrying out his duties to the full. Although, as a mother, she felt her heart was breaking, the queen could not oppose his decision.
‘If I fall,’ whispered Kamose, ‘I know you will pick me up again.’
The king had disembarked with a hundred men, less than an hour’s march from Per-shaq. As soon as the enemy was spotted, he would release Rascal with a brief message outlining the situation.
‘Still nothing,’ fretted Moustache, pacing up and down the deck of the flagship, ‘and they’ve been gone for ages.’
‘It may be a good sign,’ said the Afghan.
‘Supposing the king’s been taken prisoner? Supposing Rascal’s been killed? We must do something.’
But only Ahhotep could give the order, and she said nothing.
There’s something wrong,’ declared Moustache. ‘I can feel it.’
‘I am beginning to agree with you,’ said the Afghan. ‘Let’s go and see the queen.’
At that moment, Rascal appeared above them with a flutter of wings, and landed gently on the queen’s forearm. His bright eyes shone with the joy of a job well done.
The message, written in the king’s hand, was decidedly surprising.
‘He says there’s nothing to report,’ said Ahhotep. ‘He is waiting for us at the gates of the town.’
Per-shaq was deserted. There was not a living soul in its narrow streets, not even a stray dog. Profoundly suspicious, Emheb ordered some of his men to inspect all the houses. All had been abandoned. In the cellars food had been left, untouched.
‘The Hyksos must be hiding,’ said Emheb. ‘They’re waiting for a large body of our troops to enter the town, and then they’ll encircle us.’
Kamose deployed his men. This time, Moustache and the Afghan walked at the head of their regiments, ready to fight. But there was not a single Hyksos to be seen.
Outside the city, Moustache spotted significant tracks in the damp earth. There were footprints, hoofmarks—much larger than those of donkeys—and strange furrows.
‘They have left and headed north,’ he said after studying the tracks.
‘The Hyksos have fled!’ declared the pharaon incredulously.
This bloodless victory unleashed joy in the whole army. So this was all the emperor’s terrifying forces amounted to: a band of cowards who ran away at the enemy’s approach and did not even try to hold their positions!
Ahhotep, however, did not join in the jubilation. True, the Hyksos had left Per-shaq, but where were its citizens?
Embheb came hurrying up to her. ‘Majesty, come quickly!’
He led Ahhotep and Kamose to the area where the granaries stood. There was blood everywhere, and a terrible stench filled the air. Emheb’s archers took up their positions, as if the enemy was at last about to emerge from the shadows.
Open the doors of the granaries,’ ordered Ahhotep.
Several young soldiers did so. Instantly, they bent over and vomited. One of them cried out, and beat his fist so hard against his forehead that an officer had to intervene to stop him injuring himself seriously.
The pharaon and his mother went to the granary doors. What they saw brought them to the brink of fainting. Hollow-eyed, hearts pounding and breath coming in gasps, they could not believe such barbarity.
The bodies of the inhabitants of Per-shaq were heaped on top of each other, together with those of dogs, cats, geese and little monkeys. Not a single human being, not one animal or bird, had been spared. All had had their throats cut. All had been flung on to the piles like rubbish.
The pharaon picked up the misshapen body of an old man, which lay across a fat man’s back. Before murdering him, they had broken his legs.
Kamose could not weep. ‘Remove these victims, human and animal, from this charnel-house with respect,’ he ordered, ‘and bury them in the earth. The Wife of God will conduct a funeral rite so that their souls may be reunited and at peace.’
A slow procession began, while the artificers started digging tombs.
Most of the soldiers were in tears, and even the Afghan, who had seemed to have no chinks in his armour, could not hold back his sobs as he carried the body of a young woman whose belly and breasts had been slashed to ribbons.
Twenty granaries at Per-shaq were emptied. The queen and the pharaoh looked upon each of the victims. Most had been appallingly tortured before being killed.
Ahhotep could sense her son faltering. But she could not hide from him a fact which she alone seemed to have noticed: ‘Among these unfortunates, there is not a single child.’
‘They must have been taken away to become slaves.’
‘There are still three granaries left,’ said the queen.
His head reeling, the king himself opened the door of one of them. He gave a sigh of profound relief. ‘Jars—nothing but jars.’
For a moment, Ahhotep wanted to believe that the Hyksos had been merciful, but she had to check. She removed the coarse stopper of clay from an oil-jar. Inside lay the body of a three-year-old girl, her skull smashed.
Every single jar contained the body of a child; each child had been tortured before being killed. The Hyksos troops had carried out the emperor’s orders to the letter.
50
The burial ceremony was conducted with a fervour which united the living and the dead through their shared faith in the justice of Osiris. Afterwards, everyone felt as if they’d plunged into a kind of abyss, from which only the comradeship of battle could offer an escape. The soldiers gathered in groups to talk about their dear ones, and to prove to themselves that, despite the horrors of Per-shaq, a future still existed.
Alone in her cabin with Laughter, who was lying in front of the door, Ahhotep called upon Pharaoh Seqen’s radiant soul to give her back the strength she had lost by offering all her love to the victims of the Hyksos. After the slaughter of those innocents, after the torture of women, children, men and animals, the face of this war had changed.
If there still was a war. The emperor’s intentions were clear: if the Theban army continued to defy him, thousands of Egyptians would be slaughtered with unparalleled cruelty. Could the twenty-year-old king live with the responsibility for that happening? Deeply scarred already, he wanted only to return to Thebes.
The murderers of Per-shaq had not struck at random, and their appalling crime would prove as effective as even their most destructive weapons of war.
So Ahhotep must stand in the path of her own son, and show him that any backward step would lead to defeat.
*
‘Your attitude is unworthy of a pharaon,’ declared Anat.
‘If you had seen—’
‘I did see. I also saw Tita cut the throats of innocent people to establish his reign of terror. Those are the methods the Hyksos use.’
‘If we continue our offensive,’ said Kamose, ‘the emperor will order more massacres.’
‘If you take refuge in the illusory safety of Thebes, first he will order more massacres, and then his army will charge south and destroy you. The more you hesitate, the more Apophis’s fury will be unleashed upon innocent people. Once you attack the Emperor of Darkness, you can never go back. That is what Queen Ahhotep thinks, and it is what I think, too.’
‘Has my mother confided in you?’
‘No, Majesty, but all I needed to do was look into her eyes. Even if she had to continue the fight alone, or with just a handful of supporters, she would not hesitate. Apophis knows now that he will never subjugate the Egyptians, so he has decided to kill them all. Your army’s retreat would not save a single life.’
‘So our early victories were nothing but illusions,’ said Kamose bitterly.
‘Illusions? Breaking through the front at Qis, taking Nefrusy and Khmun? Of course they weren’t.’
‘When the Hyksos use their heavy weapons—’
‘They may be too confident in those weapons’ power. You must strive to be worthy of wearing the White Crown when the sons of the light confront those of the dark.’
Ahhotep gazed up at the full moon, the symbol of successful rebirth. Once again, the sun of night had vanquished the forces of chaos, to light up the starry sky and become the interpreter of the hidden light. But from this day onward, the Jar of Predictions had no more to say.
Kamose came up to her. ‘Mother, I have made my decision. In the voice of Anat, the woman I love, I heard your voice. And you have set out the only possible way.’
‘Destiny is asking a great deal of one so young - perhaps too much. A whole lifetime of suffering and drama has been imposed upon you in a few weeks, and you have been given no chance to regroup. But you are the pharaon, and your age is of no importance. The only thing that matters is your office, for it is the hope of an entire people.’
‘At dawn, I shall inform the army that we intend to continue northwards.’
The small town of Sako, where the army next halted, had suffered the same fate as Per-shaq. Their macabre discoveries once again horrified and sickened the soldiers, and it took all Pharaoh’s authority to maintain order in the ranks. The Wife of God conducted the funerary rites, and her nobility calmed the men. Everyone realized that they were fighting not only to free Egypt but also to destroy a monster whose cruelty was limitless.
The king and queen were finishing a frugal evening meal when Moustache came in, pushing in front of him a small, frightened-looking man in a black breastplate.
‘Look what I found,’ said Moustache. ‘He was hiding in a cellar. If Your Majesties permit, I shall hand him over to my men.’
The Hyksos fell to his knees, eyes lowered. ‘Don’t kill me,’ he begged. ‘I’m only a messenger. I haven’t hurt anyone—I’ve never even carried a weapon.’
‘Why did you not leave with the others?’ demanded Kamose.
‘I hid in a house so as not to see what they were doing, and I fell asleep.’
‘Who is in command of these murderers?’
‘Commander Jannas himself.’
‘And where is he now?’
‘I don’t know, my lord, truly I don’t know. I’m just a messenger and—’
‘Deal with him, Moustache.’
‘Wait a moment,’ cut in Ahhotep. ‘It’s possible that he might be useful.’
‘You wished to see me urgently, little sister?’ The emperor was surprised. ‘You look upset.’
Face to face with Apophis, who was colder than the north wind in winter, even Windswept felt uneasy. But it was too late to go back now.
‘I … I have some information.’
‘The name of a conspirator?’
‘Exactly.’
‘You’re wonderful, little sister, far more efficient than my spies. Tell me quickly, who dares devise dark plans against my august person?’
Windswept remembered Minos’s body, his caresses, his fervour, the hours of pleasure which only he could give her. ‘Someone important, someone we’d never have suspected.’
‘Come on, don’t keep me waiting. The traitor will enter the labyrinth this very evening and you shall sit beside me to watch him die.’
Windswept took a deep breath. ‘He is one of the officials in charge of weapons,’ she said.
The arrest warrant had scarcely been signed when a furious Khamudi came in and presented the emperor with a papyrus. ‘Majesty, it’s a letter from Pharaoh Kamose.’
‘How did it reach us?’
‘It was brought by a messenger the Thebans captured but then released. I tortured the imbecile, of course, but he died without saying anything interesting.’
‘Well, read me the message.’
‘Majesty, I don’t think—‘
‘Read it.’
Khamudi did so, in an indignant voice.
I, Pharaoh Kamose, regard Apophis as nothing but a petty warlord who has been driven back, together with his armies. Your speech is miserable. It calls to mind the headsman’s block on which you will perish. Terrible rumours are circulating in your city, where your defeat is already being announced. You desire nothing but evil, and by evil you shall fall. The women of Avaris will no longer be able to conceive, for their hearts will no longer open in their bodies when they hear the war-cries of my soldiers. Look behind you as you flee, for the army of Pharaoh Kamose and Queen Ahhotep is advancing towards you.
Khamudi was quivering with rage. ‘Majesty, should Jannas not immediately crush this vermin who dares insult you?’
The emperor was unperturbed. This contemptible letter is intended to provoke me and draw me into a trap. The Egyptians would like us to fight at Sako, on their terrain. But we shall not make that mistake, and Jannas shall continue his cleansing. We shall destroy the rebels at the right place and time, just as we have planned.’
51
‘Nothing to report, Majesty,’ said the commander of the scouts; he was as disappointed as the pharaoh and Queen Ahhotep.
Although his vanity must certainly have been wounded, Apophis had not reacted as they had hoped, so all the measures they had taken around Sako had been for nothing.
‘Nevertheless, we have learnt something important,’ said Ahhotep. ‘Apophis has a specific plan, and nothing will divert him from it, not even insufferable insults to his power.’
‘Massacring innocent people and pretending to retreat,’ said Kamose furiously, ‘that’s all his vile plan is.’
‘There may be more to it than that,’ warned the queen.
Her words worried the king. ‘What do you suspect?’
‘We must not underestimate Apophis, even for a second. Although we are advancing, he is still in control of the situation. There are three vital questions. First, how far back will he withdraw, and where will he finally join battle? Second, do these tactics mask preparations for a surprise attack? Third, we have still not caught the Hyksos spy: what is he plotting?’
‘He must have gone back to Avaris, or else be dead. Otherwise he would have done us serious harm.’
Kamose’s argument seemed convincing, but the queen was still doubtful.
‘This is what I advise,’ she said. ‘Soon we shall have to face Jannas, and we have no idea what form the confrontation will take. So I propose dividing our troops into two: one half will remain at Sako, while the other makes for Fayum. The carrier-pigeons will enable us to remain in constant contact, and if we need to join forces we shall be able to do so quickly.’
‘Then I shall leave for Fayum.’
‘No, Kamose, I shall go.’
‘Mother, I don’t—’
‘It must be so.’
The governor of Fayum, Joseph, was a Hebrew. After suffering the jealousy and hatred of his brothers, who had tried to kill him, he had found happiness, wealth and respect in Egypt. As he was not suspected of collaborating with the enemies of the Hyksos, Apophis had appointed him to govern the little paradise the pharaohs of old had created by irrigating the area, which was about three days’ march southwest of Memphis. Criss-crossed by canals fed by a tributary of the Nile, Fayum was an immense garden and a haven for game and fish.
Joseph was an excellent administrator. He now lived in opulence, in a big house surrounded by gardens and palm-trees, but he had never forgotten the unhappy times, or what it was like to be hungry. He cared about every inhabitant of his province, and intervened personally to help anyone who was in difficulties. His people lived a pleasant life amid the greenery, far from the ferocity of the desert and the ferocity of war.
War of the Crowns Page 22