Warrior Heroes: The Pharaoh's Charioteer

by Benjamin Hulme-Cross

  “But how did you find us?” Arthur asked eventually. Nefi replied that Caro’s father had assumed they were all part of the same hunting party as he had heard from soldier friends of two hostages being brought in from the desert the night before they arrived. Shaharqo had asked the soldier who had tracked Nefi and Finn to put out word on the quiet that he was looking for a boy and a girl from the hills, and they had soon been tracked down. Then when the escape was set, Shaharqo had sent a message to Caro’s father that his guests were in danger and would be taken away to safety if they met him by the side of the road at the appointed time.

  Conversation soon turned to the group’s plans for Thebes. It was agreed that they would all need to enter the palace in secret. In order to benefit from the element of surprise it was crucial that the high priest should not know they had returned until the moment of confrontation. This would be challenging as the temple guards, who operated throughout the palace and temple complex, would be sure to report back to the high priest as soon as either Thami or Nefi was recognised.

  After much deliberation, it was decided that they would lay their trap in the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaoh’s tomb was being hewn into the rocks. Work had been going on for several years, but the pharaoh took every opportunity to check on its progress, and Thami felt sure that if war was imminent then a visit to the tomb would be on the pharaoh’s mind.

  They agreed that Finn, Thami and Shaharqo would hide in the valley while Arthur and Nefi continued to the palace to try and reach the queen. They would tell the queen everything, and enlist her help in persuading the pharaoh to bring the high priest to the tomb, where they would confront him.

  Plans thus outlined, they settled down beneath blankets in the back of the cart, with Shaharqo promising to wake Thami and change places with him midway through the journey.

  Arthur, for one, did not feel tired. He was all too aware that the whole plan relied on him and Nefi getting into the palace undetected by the temple guards. Also, he was troubled by the very idea of the high priest, a man he had never met, yet one who was pulling the strings of two kingdoms and steering them towards a war that could cost thousands of lives. The prospect of meeting such a man, let alone confronting and defeating him, was daunting indeed and when he finally drifted away his sleep was darkly restless.

  Arthur jolted awake to the sound of raised Egyptian voices.

  “And where have you come from?” someone demanded.

  “We were separated from my master, an oil merchant, travelling along the oasis route,” Shaharqo replied. Arthur pulled the blanket down off his face and noticed that the sky was beginning to pale. “We hope to rejoin my master at Thebes.”

  “You are a Nubian!” said somebody else. “And your general holds captive one of the pharaoh’s sons and has killed one of his daughters. Why should we not kill you now, just as we will kill your brothers on the battlefield?”

  So they think Nefi was killed in the raid… thought Arthur.

  “Sirs, please!” Shaharqo whined. “I am my master’s slave. You have many Nubians in Thebes, no? What the general does has nothing to do with the rest of us.”

  “He’s right!” said Thami, sitting up in the back of the cart. “This man belongs to my father, who we are hoping to meet in Thebes. You are soldiers. You must see that we are not soldiers!”

  “And what about this pale creature?” said one of the men, gesturing in Arthur’s direction as he too sat up.

  “My father adopted him on his travels,” Thami lied smoothly. There were four soldiers standing at the front of the cart, but looking around Arthur could see they were in big trouble. Their route had taken them into a valley, bounded on one side by the line of hills they had been following from the oasis, and on the other by a second, converging ridge. The men questioning them were Egyptian sentries, behind whom were row upon row of tents. Looking up to the ridge lines on either side of them, Arthur could see more tents along the tops of the hills. Shaharqo had driven the cart straight into the middle of an Egyptian army camp!

  The soldiers whispered to one another. Finn and Nefi were awake too by this time, and all five of the travellers were now sitting up in the cart, waiting nervously to learn their fate. Finally one of the sentries ordered them down from the cart.

  “You will wait until after sunrise when we will speak to our captain.”

  Thami began to protest but was cut short.

  “Do as you are commanded, or it will be worse for you!” There was little choice but to obey, so they climbed down from the cart and allowed two of the sentries to steer them into a large, empty tent. The guards remained outside, and the five travellers were forced to accept the possibility that their adventure might be over.

  “I am sorry,” said Shaharqo, slumping down on the floor. Thami was unforgiving.

  “How did you not see the danger?” he hissed. “And why didn’t you wake me in the night as we agreed?”

  “I did not realise it was so late,” Shaharqo replied gloomily. “Suddenly it was almost dawn and the camp was right there in front of us…”

  “It would have happened whoever had been driving,” said Nefi. “We picked the straightest route from the oasis to Thebes. We should have known our father might already have posted his advance guard here.”

  Thami relented, although Shaharqo remained disconsolate. Soon the sounds of the rest of the camp beginning to wake up drifted in through the walls of the tent.

  “We should be quiet in case anyone overhears us,” said Finn. “And we should listen to the soldiers’ conversations. We may learn something useful about what is going on in Thebes.”

  “Yes,” Thami agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “That is a very good suggestion.” Finn soaked up the praise. It was the first time he had felt useful since falling off his horse.

  They lay down as if resting, and listened attentively to the chatter of the wakening camp. In amongst the coarse joking and practical communication they gleaned three valuable pieces of information. First, an army of nearly five thousand men had already been mustered from Thebes and the surrounding farmland. Second, the pharaoh himself had decided to lead his army into battle. And third, later that day the high priest would conduct sacred rites in the palace temple in Thebes before blessing the pharaoh and his army. In hushed whispers, the group changed their plans to focus instead on the blessing ceremony.

  Without warning, a lean, grizzled man entered the tent followed by the sentry who had detained them. He cast an irritated eye over the group on the floor of the tent.

  “Idiot!” he barked at the sentry. “Is this what a Nubian attack looks like? Let them go at once.”

  EXTRACT FROM WARRIOR HEROES BY FINN BLADE

  THE GODS

  The Egyptians worshipped a huge number of gods – nobody really knows how many. Here is a list of some of the best-known ones.

  1.Amen-Ra – Appearing as a man with a hawk’s head, Amen-Ra was really a combination of two gods – Ra, the great sun god, and Amen, the local god of Thebes. The Egyptians believed that he was reborn every day with the sunrise, sailed across the sky during the day, and every night did battle with the forces of chaos in the underworld!

  2.Sobek – The crocodile god of the Nile, Sobek had the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. He controlled the waters of the Nile and he represented the might of the pharaoh; he was fiercely protective of his children and lethal to his enemies.

  3.Osiris – Believed to be the first pharaoh of Egypt, Osiris married his sister, Isis. He was killed by his brother, Set, who chopped him up into lots of bits and distributed the body parts along the Nile.

  4.Isis – Legend told that after her brother and husband Osiris had been killed by Set, Isis travelled the length of Egypt to find the parts of his body and bound them back together with cloth, creating the first mummy. Osiris became the god of the dead!

  5.Set – The murderous brother of Osiris and Isis. Their son Horus defeated Set, though, who was banished and became the
god of the desert.

  CHAPTER 9

  As they trundled out of the camp, the group put the finishing touches to their plan. Arthur and Nefi would aim to reach the queen as previously agreed. The other three would try to find the Nubian spies, whose evidence would help persuade the pharaoh that the high priest was manipulating everyone. They would then converge on the blessing ceremony at the temple, when the high priest could be denounced in public. They would follow Thami’s lead when it came to the moment of confrontation.

  Shaharqo continued to drive as he was the least likely to be recognised by any temple guards who had strayed beyond the palace complex. They reached the brow of a small hill and from there they could see their route descending steadily towards the western side of Thebes, and behind it the Nile. Shaharqo brought the cart to a halt and they stared at the scene. On the river they could see dozens of huge barges, crowded with men, and from the banks of the river at various points there snaked long lines of soldiers, some on foot, some in chariots, all heading towards them. There were thousands on the march already.

  “This is what your general is going to lead his men against,” said Thami.

  “No,” said Shaharqo hoarsely. “We will stop it.”

  They pressed forward towards Thebes, and soon were carving through a tide of Egyptian soldiers coming the other way. Arthur was surprised at how many of them were Nubian, judging by their dark skin, but Shaharqo said that even if they were of Nubian origin, those who lived in Egypt thought of themselves as Egyptian.

  At length they reached the first of the temples of Thebes, and here they were able to get away from the swarming army. Shaharqo brought the cart to a halt and they all climbed down. They agreed to split into their two groups immediately so that if one were caught the other might still have a chance to reach the pharaoh. Shaharqo reached into the cart and ripped away a panel from the inside to reveal a stash of weapons. He handed swords to the boys, and passed a dagger to Nefi, and they each took a final drink from a water skin. Then, after wishing each other good luck, they set off in different directions.

  Finn made good speed leaning on his shepherd’s crook, but it was hard work and he was soon sweating and panting as he tried to keep pace with the others. Thami was asking about the spies.

  “We have two loyal Nubian men who are servants to the temple guard,” Shaharqo confirmed.

  “Then we will start by going to the temple barracks,” said Thami. “That is where they are most likely to be. When we get there Finn and I will stay hidden – the guards may recognise us despite the dust and my ordinary clothes. You will need to ask after the spies, Shaharqo.”

  Finn wanted to know what they would do if they couldn’t find the spies at the barracks.

  “We won’t keep looking for them,” said Thami. “They will make it easier to persuade my father but they are not essential. If we don’t find them we will head straight for the palace temple of Amen, stay hidden and wait for the ceremony.” It all sounded very easy.

  Five minutes later they arrived at a long, simple, flat building.

  “This is it,” said Thami. “You ask at that door. We’ll wait around the back.”

  Shaharqo stepped forward and knocked. There were footsteps from within and the other two turned and began walking away, following one side of the building. They heard Shaharqo ask for the spies by name, and he was told to wait at the door.

  Finn glanced back over his shoulder before they turned the corner. He saw Shaharqo being ushered inside just as he and Thami disappeared behind the barracks. They were well hidden and in shade, with a windowless wall on one side and a high bank of earth on the other creating a narrow corridor barely two metres wide.

  There they crouched down and waited. To begin with they didn’t speak but concentrated instead on any sound of disturbance coming from the barracks. But as the minutes passed, their uncertainties grew. Was Shaharqo in trouble? Should they have tried to find the spies in the first place? Worst of all, what would they do if Shaharqo didn’t come back?

  Their questions were answered when they heard the door open. Finn peered around the corner, careful to keep his body well hidden by the building, and stiffened. Striding towards them were two temple guards.

  He darted back out of sight and motioned to Thami to run the other way along the back wall. They fled as fast as Finn’s foot would allow, drawing their swords as they did so. They were half way along the length of the wall when they heard shouts behind them. Finn risked a glance back and saw that there were now four guards following them, swords drawn, running hard. Then there were more shouts, this time from in front.

  With a sick feeling in his stomach, Finn turned to see yet more guards coming towards them from up ahead. With the barracks wall on one side and the natural bank on the other they were completely trapped. Putting up a fight was obviously useless, and the boys wisely threw down their weapons as the guards approached. There was no recognition on any of their faces. Perhaps they were so used to seeing Thami in princely attire that this battered, dirty, travel-weary youth seemed a different type of person entirely. In any case, there were no words. The first guards grabbed each boy by the shoulders, and the next thing Finn knew was the nasty sensation of a hood being pulled over his eyes, followed by a sharp blow to the head, and complete darkness.

  * * *

  While this was happening, Arthur and Nefi were following the banks of the Nile towards the point where they had landed the night they first met. There seemed little chance of them being recognised. For one thing Arthur was now covered in so much dirt that his skin was no longer pale, and Nefi’s once-white linen dress was so grimy it was impossible to imagine that she was a princess. Her green eye paint had long since been washed away, and the pair of them looked just like the hundreds of other busy figures who jostled their way along the banks of the river.

  “Why are there so many people here?” Nefi wondered out loud. “This side of the river is usually for people on royal business only.”

  “War. We’re all on royal business now,” replied a passer-by, barely turning his head.

  As they neared the palace complex they grew ever more alert to the danger of being spotted. But when a group of temple guards strolled past they did not give the grubby pair a second glance. Listening to other people’s conversations on the way they learned that the high priest was to bless the pharaoh and the war within the hour. The crowds of people that Arthur and Nefi were part of had been shipped across from Eastern Thebes to witness the blessing, and they were all heading for the palace complex.

  They followed the surging crowd into the square at the heart of the royal buildings, and straight ahead of them they saw the palace temple, its painted stone guards towering over the crowd. They were about to head for the door into the queen’s quarters when Arthur’s eye was caught by a flash of dazzling green.

  “Wait! Look!” he cried, pointing to the temple entrance. There, sitting on a podium near the base of one of the statues alongside two other women, was the Nubian queen.

  “Mother…” Nefi whispered.

  Arthur’s mind raced. “If we go to her now the high priest will know what’s coming. We have to wait until the ceremony starts, and then find a way through.”

  Nefi thought for a moment. “I know a way. Follow me.”

  She led Arthur towards the palace, which bordered one side of the square. A small alleyway cut through the building and on the other side, where it was far less crowded, Arthur found that they were now looking at the back of the building. Nefi headed towards an unassuming little doorway. A temple guard was positioned on each side of the door, looking on as a cart full of loaves of bread was unloaded and servants began to carry the bread inside, balancing baskets on their heads. They were overseen not just by the guards, but also by a tall Nubian woman, who seemed to be in charge. Nefi was visibly delighted.

  “That’s my mother’s cook,” she said quietly. “She’ll help us!” And before Arthur could stop her, Nefi had run ac
ross to the cook and grabbed her arm. Arthur stayed back, unsure what to do, but whatever conversation passed between Nefi and the cook seemed to work. Nefi beckoned Arthur over to join them and, her face betraying not the slightest surprise, the cook casually handed a basket each to Nefi and Arthur, and herded them inside.

  “It is good to see you alive, little one,” said the cook once they had found a quiet space. “Everyone but your mother believed you were dead!”

  “It is good to see you too, Mery,” Nefi replied. “But we have no time to speak. The pharaoh is in danger. The whole kingdom is in danger and we can help. Just don’t tell anyone that you have seen us. Promise!”

  “Of course, little one. But wait, before you go there are things you should know. Your mother fears for her life now that Nubia and Egypt are at war. She tells me that the high priest has tried to persuade the pharaoh that she is loyal to Nubia. If you are trying to reach her in secret it will not be easy. She is watched constantly by the temple guards.” The woman’s face was creased with worry, and she held both of Nefi’s hands tightly in her own.

  “I have a way,” was all Nefi said. “Come with me, Arthur.”

  They ran along a sequence of servants’ corridors at the bottom and to the rear of the palace, passing only the occasional servant on the way, until Nefi turned sharply and led the way upstairs and out into a grand chamber. Arthur’s jaw dropped at the riches on display. Everything seemed to be made of gold. Even the bed at one end of the room was painted in gold leaf.

  “The pharaoh’s chambers,” Nefi said. “Unguarded while the pharaoh is in the temple for the blessing. Hurry.” She lifted a torch off its wall hanging and stepped up onto the golden bed, reaching a hand up and pressing the nose of a jackal that was carved into the wall above. A panel slid open to reveal the opening to a hidden passage. They stepped through and Nefi pushed the door closed behind her.

  “There are lots of secret passages in the palace,” she explained and then dashed ahead before Arthur could ask where they were going. They followed the passage down some stairs and then on in a long straight line for perhaps fifty metres before they came to a fork.