by Sam Barone
“If you say we can win, then I will believe you and heed your words.”
“We can win, Sabatu. It won’t be easy, and we’ll need some luck. But luck favors those who are most prepared for battle, and when the time comes, Akkad will be more than ready. And I for one, would not like to face you and your bow in battle. Until the day arrives, keep practicing your archery.”
Sabatu bowed. When he lifted his head to meet Eskkar’s gaze, all the strength of the soldier within had returned. “That I will, My Lord, that I will.”
Chapter 1 3
Sargon swung down from his horse and tossed the halter to one of the swarm of young boys who rushed to greet him. He needed only a few steps before he joined the circle of warriors who’d gathered in front of Subutai’s tent. Sargon’s arrival at the Ur Nammu camp was two days late, but he didn’t bother to explain. They would have endured the same rains that slowed his ride north.
His escort of fifty Akkadians hadn’t even settled into their campground. Sargon had ridden straight in, pausing only long enough to rid himself of most of the grime and mud of the journey. Despite the invasion already on the move toward Akkad, Sargon wanted to deliver his words in person. Nor was now the time to allow any possible insult to a free and proud people like the Alur Meriki and Ur Nammu. He would not send an underling to order them to give battle.
He knew all the chiefs waiting for him. Subutai, Fashod, and Chinua of the Ur Nammu. Bekka and Suijan and Unegen from the Alur Meriki. The chiefs, and all their warriors, had gathered at a campsite agreed upon months ago. Far to the north, and at the base of the mountains, its location would save many days of riding when the ride east began.
Sargon bowed to those present, but ignored the usual pleasantries. “The Elamites are on the move. Our spies inform us that they are massing their soldiers and making their final preparations before marching west. Their plan is cross the mountains in two fronts at nearly the same time, to sow confusion in our lands. By now the eastern mouths of both the Jkarian and Dellen Passes have been sealed off to our scouts, and no more word of their actions will be coming through. I expect they’ll start moving toward these lands soon, if they haven’t already started.”
“Then it is time for us to ride east.” Subutai turned to Bekka. “I am ready to join Chief Bekka’s forces.”
In the last two years, the leaders of their respective peoples had grown closer. Much of the old resentment between the two Clans had died out. The food and supplies from Akkad had helped bring them together, of course. But in the last few months, the knowledge that they would soon be again confronting a common enemy had drawn the Ur Nammu and Alur Meriki into something more than a fragile peace.
The old steppes saying had proved true once again – the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Elamites held only hatred for all the steppes warriors.
Bekka nodded approvingly to Subutai. “My warriors are ready. I am bringing almost eleven hundred warriors and boys with me. As well as many extra horses, though I expect we’ll find enough of them in the east.”
“I have readied two hundred and thirty warriors,” Subutai declared. “Together we will strike a heavy blow against the Elamites.”
“The warriors of the Alur Meriki and Ur Nammu are brave,” Sargon said, “but my father asked me to remind you that you need not risk your men’s lives in unnecessary battles, or challenge their forces directly. Your presence in their rear will do much to disrupt their preparations and cut Modran’s supply line.” Sargon took a deep breath. “My father also said to tell you that he wishes he could ride with you into battle.”
Sargon knew his father meant the words. All his life, Eskkar had wanted to ride to war with his warrior clan. But Eskkar, after the murder of his family by the Clan’s sarum, had fled his people before Eskkar had the chance. Now, once again, the opportunity would be denied him.
“You will ride in his place, Sargon, and do us much honor.” Bekka, too, meant his words. A king’s son would face the same dangers as his warriors.
Sargon bowed again. His father had reluctantly accepted that decision, but now was not the time to bring it up again. Sargon had insisted on riding with his adopted Ur Nammu kin, and none of Eskkar or Trella’s arguments had changed his mind. Sargon might have grown up and accepted his parents and his responsibilities, but in their eyes, he remained as stubborn as ever.
“You will be a great help to us.” Subutai knew of the many heated discussions between father and son. “You know your father’s plans, as well as the minds of the Elamites. And you now speak their language. That will prove useful.”
Sargon, along with his friend Garal, had spent more than two months learning the Elamite’s main tongue.
“I am glad that I can ride in my father’s place.” Sargon didn’t trust himself to say more. Subutai knew that Eskkar would have preferred Sargon stay behind, or at least join him defending Akkad. But Sargon had declared that he could be the most help to Akkad by riding with the warriors. In the end, Eskkar had shrugged his shoulders and given in.
The King’s son had turned into a man, and was entitled to make his own choices, even if that meant riding into battle in a distant land against a mighty empire.
“The supply arrangements for your women and children are in place,” Sargon went on. “And I’m leaving my fifty men behind to guard the supply camp, along with the older Hawk Clan warriors. Most have too many seasons to fight in this campaign, but they should do well enough to help guard your camps.”
“Both our clans will keep scouts out far and wide,” Bekka said. “If an enemy approaches, we will fall back to your supply camp.”
Soldiers and laborers had established a large campsite surrounded by a palisade, a small village, really, to store the food and herd animals needed to support the two Clans while their warriors rode to war. The fortified village would also provide protection in case of the sudden appearance of some enemy.
“My mother’s people have created a new map to guide you, Chief Bekka.” As leader of the majority of fighters, the Alur Meriki sarum would command the raid. Sargon drew the cloth from his pouch and spread it out on the blanket. “Remember, you should avoid the Elamites in the Jkarian Pass. If they find their way blocked, they may turn back.”
The chiefs exchanged glances, but no one spoke for a long moment.
“You still believe you have a way to stop that force?” Subutai asked the question that all the clan leaders wanted to ask.
Until recently, only Sargon knew of Alcinor’s plan to topple a mountain, which might or might not succeed. It wasn’t that Eskkar didn’t trust his allies, but the fewer who knew the details the better. Any man could be captured and tortured into revealing what he knew. But the time for that secrecy had passed.
Sargon told Subutai and the others of the plan to seal the Jkarian Pass. “If our Engineer can’t close the pass, we at least hope to slow the invaders down enough to keep them out of the fighting for a few days. If they do get through, they can devastate the countryside. Or they might even attack my father’s supply line. They should be no threat to your people. General Jedidia won’t bother coming this far north. His plan will be to isolate Akkad and loot the countryside.”
When Sargon finished, no one spoke. The idea of moving a mountain didn’t come easily to such men.
“I know Master Engineer Alcinor well,” Sargon said, breaking the silence. “If anyone can accomplish this task, it is he.”
Sargon’s words would carry more weight than his father’s. “No man can be certain of such things, but, yes, I believe Alcinor will find a way to block the pass. For how long, I don’t know. Hopefully long enough to make them turn back to resupply their men.”
“How many Elamites do you expect your father to face in the Dellen Pass?” Bekka had heard the earlier estimates, but he knew that Sargon would have the latest information.
“Between twenty-five and twenty-eight thousand men. Over five thousand mounted.”
“And Eskkar will have h
ow many to oppose them?” This time Subutai asked the blunt question.
“A little more than six thousand,” Sargon answered. “Plus another thousand or so for a rear guard and to deliver supplies to the battleground.”
None of the chiefs met his gaze. The numbers foretold a grim story. Finally Subutai lifted his eyes. “Can you stop them with so few?”
Sargon shrugged. “It is all that we have. My father does not need to defeat them, just force them to turn back. With your help, he should be able to hold them off.” Sargon wasn’t as confident as he sounded, but he had no intention of voicing any doubts.
“And the enemy force that marches toward Sumer?”
“King Naxos of Isin and Hathor have ridden south with five thousand horsemen to deal with the invaders. Our cavalry will be greatly outnumbered, but all they need to do is make sure the siege of Sumer is broken.”
“What happens if this King Naxos is defeated, and Sumer falls?” Subutai persisted.
“Then the war is lost. Isin and Akkad will fall in turn, and after them the rest of the Land Between the Rivers. If that day comes, the Alur Meriki and Ur Nammu will be alone.”
“The situation then is grave.” Chief Bekka of the Alur Meriki added his worries to those of Subutai. “There is much that can go wrong.”
Again, Sargon nodded. These leaders knew as well as any of Akkad’s commanders that battle plans drawn up months in advance and far from the actual fighting often led not to victory, but disaster. All the same, he had little more to offer them. But every clan leader there had reason to respect Eskkar’s ability to plan where and when he gave battle.
“Yes, it is true that much can wrong. But Sumer will not fall easily, not with a large army of our fighters loose in the countryside and striking at the enemy’s rear. My father will only need to hold the Dellen Pass for ten or fifteen days. If Chief Bekka can disrupt their supply caravans, then Lord Modran and his army will have to fall back, and the invasion will have failed. My father can then move south and deal with any Elamites still besieging Sumer. By then, even if the enemy gets through the Jkarian Pass, they won’t have enough numbers to attack Akkad.”
Bekka nodded. “Your father will face the heaviest fighting, Sargon. He will indeed need the blessing of the gods.”
“It is a way of fighting that my father has learned well,” Sargon agreed. “His men are well prepared for this fight. Now much depends on whether we can get into the Elamite lands in time.”
“When should we leave?”
“At once, Chief Bekka,” Sargon said. “The enemy appears to have moved his forces a few days earlier than we expected.”
“Then tomorrow, we will also begin our ride,” Bekka said. “At least we are well prepared with food and horses along the way. I will dispatch messengers to gather the men. We will have a long ride before we reach the lands beyond the mountains.”
“My father’s last words to me were to bid you both good hunting, Chief Bekka, and you, Chief Subutai.” Sargon rose. “Eskkar said that it may be some time before he speaks to you again, but he knows that you will strike a heavy blow. And that Akkad will not forget your help in our time of need.”
The three men knew that it was likely none of them would ever see Eskkar alive again.
After a moment of silence, Subutai turned to Sargon. “You will stand in your father’s place during our battle. Of that, I know he would approve.”
“We will begin our journey tomorrow, at dawn,” Bekka said. “The Alur Meriki and our allies ride to war together, and the Elamites will feel our wrath.”
“Then I will return to my tent and make my own preparations.” Everything Sargon needed waited there. He wanted one last evening with Tashanella. This was the first time since their marriage that he rode to war.
Chapter 14
Fifty days after Orodes and his diggers went south to clear the way to the Great Sea, Engineer Alcinor, son of Master Builder Corio, accompanied another troop of men and soldiers. This caravan also departed the city in secret, collecting men, supplies, and pack animals waiting at farms well away from Akkad. Once assembled, they headed north, toward the mouth of the Jkarian Pass, just over a hundred and eighty miles to the northeast.
The Elamite invasion loomed, but at least now the city’s inhabitants knew the name of the enemy that threatened to destroy them. Talk of war had long disturbed the peaceful lives of the people of Akkad. Fresh rumors swept through the lanes and ale houses, each story contradicting another. The Elamites would be outside the walls tomorrow. The Elamites were attacking Sumer. The Elamites were rampaging through the northern lands.
The tales spread so rapidly that few could keep up with them. One fact remained – Akkad’s soldiers trained from dawn to dusk, as they prepared for the coming invasion.
For the second time in his life, Alcinor left a troubled city and rode toward danger, when every instinct urged him to turn the horse around and run for his life. Of course Alcinor knew there was no place to flee.
The Elamites would overrun the Land Between the Rivers, and no city or village would be safe for long. Not to mention that he would be recognized wherever he went. Still, the irrational impulse kept reappearing, disrupting Alcinor’s sleep and adding to his private doubts about his mission.
Thoughts of his wives and children stiffened Alcinor’s resolve. He’d risked personal danger before, at the Battle of Isin, and survived. For his family, his city, and his own sense of honor, he would risk it again.
Alcinor had helped make the victory at Isin possible. He remembered how, at Lady Trella’s request, he’d visited Isin a year earlier, to secretly study its defenses. While examining Isin’s walls and surrounding terrain, Alcinor had conceived the idea to flood the city.
When Eskkar and his army reached Isin, with the vast Sumerian army in pursuit, Alcinor personally supervised over a thousand soldiers who dug the great ditch. The day before the battle, when Eskkar rode out to meet King Naxos under a truce, only Alcinor had accompanied him.
Alcinor had described his plans to move the river and destroy the city to Isin’s King. For a few moments, Alcinor thought that Naxos in his rage would attempt to kill both Eskkar and himself. Instead Isin’s ruler had yielded to Alcinor’s all too real threat to drown Isin, and Naxos remained neutral in the Great Battle that took place the following day.
By that stroke, Alcinor had nullified over two thousand soldiers of Isin, whose presence surely would have meant the difference between victory and defeat in the close-fought battle that destroyed Sumer’s attempt to invade Akkad’s lands. After seeing the aftermath of the bloody fighting, bodies torn asunder, the overpowering stench of blood and worse, and the wretched cries of the wounded, Alcinor felt relief that he had lessened the carnage for the soldiers of Akkad.
At Isin, Alcinor had relied on Eskkar and an entire army of soldiers to protect him. Now he rode into the Jkarian Pass with an escort of only one hundred cavalrymen. If they encountered anything larger than an Elamite scouting party, the Akkadians stood a good chance of ending up dead. Alcinor had to hope that for the next fifteen or twenty days, the soldiers of Elam continued to ignore the Jkarian Pass, until he had time to seal the passage.
Despite the danger, Alcinor looked forward to the challenge. If he succeeded, he would be the first man to move a mountain, truly an achievement worthy of Akkad’s foremost Engineer.
Now the time to make good on his boast had arrived. Alcinor was returning to the Jkarian Pass for the third time. But this expedition included an enormous pack train of supplies, as well as an assortment of artisans and laborers. The war with Elam would start in thirty or forty days, and he’d known all too well that he might need much of that time to accomplish his mission.
Instead, bad luck dogged the expedition from the start, as Alcinor’s caravan encountered one delay after another. They had started later than he wanted, waiting for the oak logs, now carefully trimmed, to dry. After only two days on the road, heavy rain held them up for three days
. A day after they resumed traveling, a bout of illness, doubtless from some food supplies contaminated by the downpour, swept through half the men. That cost the cavalcade another two days.
Nine more days of slow traveling ensued before they reached the primary supply site. There, too, they encountered another setback. The same rains that had impeded Alcinor had also prevented some of the supplies he needed from arriving early. Gritting his teeth, Alcinor endured another three days of waiting before the expedition resumed its progress.
Even then, the caravan, burdened with the odd supplies he needed for this task, moved slower than Alcinor wished. Nevertheless, they finally reached their first destination, the mouth of the Jkarian Pass, which lay at the base of the Zagros Mountains. They turned east and entered the pass, beginning the gradual climb into the foothills, along the oldest known trade route to the Indus.
As soon as Alcinor’s caravan headed east, they were moving directly toward the lands of the Elamites. The enemy might easily have dispatched their own soldiers to guard the pass. In that case, Alcinor would be lucky to get back to Akkad alive, and the intricate plan he had concocted would be in ruins.
Alcinor forced himself to ignore his worries. The soldiers trusted Eskkar, and the King and his wife trusted Alcinor. It would not do to show fear or doubt in front of Commander Draelin and his men. While Alcinor might not have the courage of a soldier, to stand and face an enemy with a sword, at least he knew he had the respect of the men. Some of them held him in awe, remembering what he had done at Isin.
Draelin commanded the one hundred cavalrymen, and the presence of one of Akkad’s senior commanders indicated the importance of this mission. Eskkar obviously anticipated they might run into trouble, so Draelin’s horsemen were comprised of some of the finest cavalry in Akkad’s army.