by Wilbur Smith
‘She has her own key.’
‘Then keep her there with you.’
‘Sometimes she snores.’
Hurotas shook his head despairingly. ‘Do you think you are telling me something I don’t know?’
However, the hours of lost sleep were a small price to pay for the comfort and utility that these magnificent quarters afforded me. From my terrace on the top floor of the monumental building I could look out at the snow-clad mountain peaks and down the wide valley to the bay. I could monitor the comings and goings of the army and all the activity of the shipping. I love wild birds and every morning I laid out food for the different species on this terrace, and the pleasure they gave me was intense. I used one of the larger rooms as my library and headquarters. Soon the shelves were filled with my scrolls, and the overflow was stacked head-high in the corners of the room.
Captain Weneg, to whom I owed a heavy debt of gratitude for my escape from the Gates of Torment and Sorrow and the brutal ministrations of the dreaded Doog, was out of place here in Lacedaemon. He came to ask me for occupation commensurate with his rank, experience and ability. Within a very short time I made all the preparations for Weneg and his small group of men to return surreptitiously to Egypt, and there to set up an intelligence unit to supply me with up-to-date information as to what travails and tribulations my sorry Egyptian homeland was suffering under the yoke of Pharaoh Utteric Turo.
I saw to it that Weneg was supplied with sufficient silver deben to pay his informers and allies, and I purchased three small but fast trading vessels to carry him and his men on their mission. It was after midnight when they sailed from Port Githion, and of course I was on the wharf to see them off and send my good wishes with them on their southern voyage.
Under a false name and with a dense curling beard disguising his handsome features Weneg had within a very short time set up his headquarters in a wine shop almost in the shadow of the walls of Utteric’s palace in Luxor.
Of course I had supplied him with a number of crates, each containing numerous homing pigeons. All of them had been hatched in the coops of the royal loft by King Hurotas’ pigeon-handler in Lacedaemon. Weneg smuggled these birds with him into Egypt. Within a few months his network was firmly established in Luxor and operating smoothly and efficiently, and I was receiving regular despatches carried across the northern sea by Weneg’s pigeons. The average time it took these doughty birds to make the journey was less than four days. The value of the information they brought me was incalculable.
From the pigeon mail I learned almost as soon as it happened that Utteric had changed his name to Pharaoh Utteric Bubastis, in celebration of his ascension to the pantheon of the gods. Bubastis was the god of masculine beauty and valour amongst his other numerous attributes. The only one of which I was truly envious was that Bubastis was reputed to be able to stretch his erect penis to the length of one hundred cubits, to catch off her guard any female that took his fancy.
The god Bubastis was often depicted as either a male or female cat. Apparently he was able to change his sexual orientation at will – which perhaps explains Utteric’s attraction to that particular deity.
I also learned from Weneg that Pharaoh Utteric Bubastis was building an elaborate temple to himself on an island in the Nile downstream from Luxor. He was spending on this enterprise almost the entire ten lakhs of the silver that I had won for him from Khamudi at Memphis.
This was followed within a short time by the news that Pharaoh Utteric Bubastis’ agents had traced the mighty war trireme the Memnon in which Rameses and I had fled from Egypt to its new anchorage in Port Githion. Weneg reported that Pharaoh’s naval officers had been given the task of retrieving the ship and returning with it to Luxor. Their orders were to make certain that the traitor Taita was on board and in chains when the Memnon returned to Egypt. Pharaoh had placed a reward of half a lakh of silver on my head. Clearly he had neither forgotten nor forgiven me.
Recently I had become rather lax in my personal safety. I had believed that I was secure in my elaborate and comfortable quarters in the citadel, but this news shook me out of my torpor. Up to this point Rameses had allowed a skeleton crew to moor the Memnon in the centre of Githion harbour in full view of anyone with evil intentions towards her. Now at my orders she was brought alongside the harbour wall and beneath the surface of the water she was secured with ropes as thick as my wrist attached to ringbolts set into the stonework of the wharf. At all times she had a picket of twenty heavily armed seamen aboard, and this was changed every six hours. Another fifty men were billeted in a stone building on the wharf only thirty paces from the Memnon’s gangplank. They could be deployed at the first hint of a hostile party coming ashore to try and seize the ship and work her out to sea.
Within two weeks I received another pigeon from Weneg in Luxor. The message this bird carried was that a crew of approximately fifteen to twenty men on a small and unobtrusive fishing boat had left the mouth of the Nile. It seemed highly likely that they were on their way to attempt the retrieval of the Memnon. Weneg had even given me the name of the lieutenant in command of the expedition. He was a slippery fellow named Panmasi, whom both Rameses and I knew by sight. He had become one of Utteric’s favourites. He was a mere twenty-five years of age, but had already earned himself a reputation as a hard man. He was recognizable by a scar on his right cheek, and by the limp he had received from another war wound, which forced him to drag his right leg slightly with each step.
Not long afterwards our lookouts on the heights of the Taygetus Mountains reported a strange fishing boat lurking far out in the great bay of Githion. She appeared to be busy casting her fishing nets, but it was too late in the evening and too far offshore to be certain. When word of this sighting reached Rameses and me in the citadel, we immediately saddled up and rode at full gallop down to the port. Our men guarding the Memnon there reported that all seemed quiet. However, I placed them on full alert and we all took up our battle stations and settled down to wait. I was almost certain that Panmasi would not make his attempt at seizing the Memnon until the small hours of the morning, when he hoped that the attention and the energies of our guards would be at their lowest ebb. In the event I was proven right, as is so often the case. An hour or so before first light I heard a nightjar call in the forest above the harbour, or rather I heard somebody give an amateurish approximation of the nightjar’s call. It is one of my favourite birds and the imitation did not deceive me. Quietly I passed the word to my ambush party to be ready.
There was a short lull. We discovered afterwards that this was while Panmasi’s thugs were creeping up on the sentries at the gates to the harbour, and silencing them either by slitting their throats or beating in their skulls with clubs. Then there was an almost silent rush of dark figures from amongst the warehouses. Brandishing their weapons they raced across the stone wharf towards the side of the Memnon, where I had ordered the gangplank to be left down, in a tacit invitation to the intruders to come on board.
I had also placed a number of water barrels and cargo crates on the jetty as if for loading as soon as work began the next morning. Behind them were concealed my archers and pikemen. I recognized Panmasi at the head of his bunch of pirates. However, I waited until he had led his men out into the open and he had almost reached the inviting gangway up to the Memnon’s deck, and their backs were presented to us, before I gave the order to my lads to engage. They sprang up from where they had been hiding behind the barrels and crates. Every one of them had an arrow already nocked and in unison they let them fly. The range was point-blank and almost every arrow thumped home. To shouts of pain and surprise almost half of Panmasi’s men went down, and the others turned to confront us.
But the element of surprise was in our favour and the fight was over almost immediately. The surviving enemy threw down their weapons and fell to their knees, snivelling and howling for quarter with their hands held high. There had been twenty-five men in the raiding party, but only sixte
en of them had survived the volley of arrows. I was pleased that Panmasi was one of the survivors. I wanted to see him punished fittingly for his arrogance and treachery. But I was soon to be disappointed, and from a totally unexpected quarter.
Rameses’ men had the slave chains ready for our prisoners. First they were stripped down to their underskirts, and their wrists were pinioned behind their backs and their ankles were shackled together so that they were limited to taking short hobbling steps. Then they were loaded aboard two large dung carts and the teams of oxen dragged them up the valley to the citadel.
I sent men ahead to alert the population to the capture of the pirates and they turned out to line the road and mock the prisoners and pelt them with mud and ordure as they passed on their way to captivity, trial and certain execution for their crimes.
It was three days later that King Hurotas found time to try the pirates in the courtyard of the citadel. Of course the verdict was a foregone conclusion. However, there was a fine turnout of spectators for the occasion. This included Queen Tehuti and her daughter Serrena, who sat on a pile of cushions at her mother’s feet.
I gave evidence for the prosecution and a fair and balanced recitation of the facts, which nevertheless was all that was needed to condemn Panmasi and his rogues out of hand. It was not really necessary for the king to hear any evidence for the defence, but Hurotas was a generous man.
‘Does the leader of this band of rascals have anything to say before I pass sentence upon the whole bunch of them?’ the king demanded.
Panmasi, who had been kneeling facing the throne with his forehead pressed to the ground and his men behind him in the same attitude of penance, now rose to his feet. I have already hinted at what a slippery scoundrel he was, but now he surprised and amused me with just what a gifted actor he turned out to be.
His expression was the epitome of abject misery and repentance for his crimes. He made great play with dragging his damaged leg to gain sympathy. Snot and tears ran down his cheeks and dripped from his chin. His voice quavered as he described the family he had left behind him in Egypt: his three wives who were all of them heavy with child; his twelve starving children and the crippled little daughter whom he adored. It was all so preposterous that I had difficulty containing my laughter. I knew for a fact that Panmasi owned four thriving brothels in Luxor, and that he was his own best customer. He beat his wives just for the pleasure of hearing them squeal and his daughter was crippled only because of the blow to the head with a spade which he had given her before she had learned to walk properly. When he came to the end of his recital, choking back his sobs, the king glanced at me for my opinion. I shook my head, and he nodded to have his own verdict endorsed.
‘The prisoners will all rise to hear my verdict,’ he intoned. The miscreants shambled to their feet and stood facing him, but still with their eyes downcast. I think they knew very well what punishment they were about to receive.
‘Sixty days hence is the marriage of my daughter Serrena to Prince Rameses of the noble house of Egypt. On that joyous occasion all sixteen of the prisoners are to be sacrificed to Hera, the goddess of marriage and marital bliss, to secure my daughter’s future happiness. Before they die their entrails are to be drawn out through their fundaments with fishing hooks. Then they are to be beheaded. Finally their remains are to be burned to ashes and thrown into the sea on an outgoing tide; while prayers are sung by the priestesses of Hera in celebration of my daughter’s future marital happiness.’
I nodded my head in agreement with King Hurotas’ verdict. It seemed to me to be fair and completely equitable, bearing in mind the scope and nature of the crimes they had committed.
‘No!’
The cry startled us all, including the king and even me. We were all of us struck dumb and we turned as one towards Princess Serrena, who had sprung to her feet to confront her father.
‘No!’ she repeated. ‘One hundred times, no!’
Hurotas was the first one to recover from this surprise attack by his one and only child, who was probably also his only weakness. ‘Why ever not, my darling daughter?’ I could see he was making a mighty effort to keep his temper under control. ‘I am doing it for your sake, for your own happiness.’
‘I love you dearly, Father. But sixteen headless corpses laid out in a row will bring me little pleasure or happiness.’
Like everybody else in the courtyard, Panmasi and all his men had lifted their heads for the first time and were staring at the princess, and I saw the dawn of hope in their expressions. But more than that there was astonishment bordering on disbelief as they gazed upon Serrena’s beauty. This was emphasized by her animation: by the high colour of her cheeks, the flash of her eyes and the tremor of her lovely lips. Her voice rang like some heavenly musical instrument, captivating and beguiling all her audience, even me who was accustomed to it.
‘What would you have me do with these rogues, then?’ Hurotas demanded in exasperation. ‘I could have them chained to the rowing benches of one of the galleys, or send them to the copper mines …’
‘Send them back to their loving wives and families in Egypt,’ Serrena interposed. ‘You will make many people happy with such clemency and compassion, including and especially me on my wedding day, my darling Papa.’
Hurotas opened his mouth to speak and I saw the sparks of anger crackling in his eyes. Then he closed his mouth and, as so many people do when they are in dire straits, he looked around at me. I wanted to laugh; it was amusing to see the grizzled hero of so many bitter conflicts driven from the field in rout by a young girl.
Long ago I had taught him to read my lips, and I flashed him a single silent word now. ‘Capitulate!’ I advised him silently.
He smothered his grin as he turned back to confront Serrena. ‘That is sheer stupidity,’ he told her sternly. ‘I will have no part of it. I give these rogues to you as part of your wedding gift from me. Do with them whatever you wish.’
A search of the shore on the far side of the island revealed the small fishing boat which had carried Panmasi and his men up from the mouth of the Nile. They had drawn it up the beach and covered it with dead fronds and branches. It must have been more sturdy and seaworthy than it looked to have brought so many men so far and so swiftly. In response to the wishes of Princess Serrena, my men bundled Panmasi and the remnants of his crew back on board, sans weapons and sans sustenance, and I pointed out the way to the south and the mouth of Mother Nile.
‘We are without food or water,’ Panmasi pleaded with me. ‘We will all die of thirst or hunger. Have mercy, good Taita, I beg of you.’
‘I can give you only good advice, but not food or drink, which is costly and in short supply. You should remember to keep your piss cool. It is much more palatable when drunk that way,’ I told him affably. ‘I will give you a start of twenty-four hours and then I will send a war trireme after you to speed you on your way. Farewell, good Panmasi. Give my respects to Pharaoh Utteric when – or rather if you ever reach Egypt again.’ I nodded to my men who were guarding the released prisoners and they dismounted from their horses and prepared to shove the fishing boat off the beach. But they were stopped by a lyrical cry in a familiar voice.
‘Wait, Taita! Do not let them go yet!’ With a sigh of resignation I turned to face Princess Serrena of Lacedaemon at the head of a line of half a dozen pack horses, which were laden with food baskets and water-skins as they came down the path through the forest on to the golden sand of the beach. ‘You forgot the provisions for these poor creatures, you silly man. They would have died of starvation or thirst before they ever reached Egypt.’
‘That was my fervent hope,’ I muttered, but she pretended not to hear me. To add to my chagrin I saw that she had included two large skins of her father’s excellent red wine in the survival stores she was providing for them. This was to my mind the ultimate folly.
Panmasi came and grovelled at Serrena’s feet, praising her beauty, her mercy and her generosity and calling dow
n the blessings of all the gods upon her, but I saw the way he looked at her under his eyelids and it made me uneasy. I walked up behind him and gave him a kick between the buttocks that doubled him over, and I told him, ‘Get you gone, you piece of stinking offal, and never come back or I will make sure you stay forever, buried deep below ground.’
He limped back to his boat massaging his aching organs and screeching abuse at his own men. They plied the oars with alacrity and as soon as they passed the reef they hoisted a sail and bore away southwards. Panmasi and I watched each other until the distance between us was too great, and then I turned away and rode with my beloved princess back towards the citadel. But I expected that it was not the last I would ever see of that abysmal rogue, not by a long arrow shot.
The nasty premonition lingered on in the back of my mind even during the busy and joyous days that followed. More than once I was on the point of breaking my promise to Serrena and pursuing Panmasi in the Memnon to settle the matter decisively. I knew that I could convince Rameses to accompany me. But I am a man of honour, and my word is sacred to me.
It is little solace to me to know that if I had broken it on this single occasion I would have saved the lives of a thousand brave and honourable men, to say nothing of the heartache and misery I would have spared myself and those who are dear to me.
The organization of the wedding of Prince Rameses of Egypt and Princess Serrena of Sparta had been made my responsibility almost entirely. This translated as meaning that if things went well all praise would go to King Hurotas and Queen Tehuti of Sparta. However, should disaster, debacle or calamity occur then all heads would turn immediately in my direction.
The preliminary festivities would run for a month prior to the actual marriage ceremony, and for another month thereafter. At the request of Queen Tehuti they would be dedicated to Apollo, the god of fecundity amongst many other things, including infidelity.
They would include feasting and revelling, worship of the 150 principal gods and goddesses, chariot- and boat-racing, more dancing and copious wine-drinking, wrestling, contests in singing oratory and archery, music and dancing and horse-racing, all with large prizes in gold and silver for the winners.