Desert God

by Wilbur Smith

  However, neither of us mentioned the three great Cretan treasure triremes and the 580 lakhs of silver bullion that the Hyksos had stolen from the Supreme Minos. It was as though that vast treasure had never existed. I for one would readily have sworn before all the gods that I had no knowledge of it.

  What finally convinced me of Toran’s superior talents and his advanced intellect was his fluent command of the Egyptian language and the fact that he had read and studied much of my own writing on various subjects. He told me that he considered my treatise on naval warfare and tactics to be a work of genius, and that he had translated much of my poetry into the Minoan language.

  It was not until the second day of our deliberations that we broached the subject of the proposed alliance between our two mighty nations, and the manner in which we might confirm and consolidate this treaty. These deliberations took another three days during which the two of us tested all our bargaining powers against each other to the utmost; until on the fourth day we were able to sign an accord which I had written out in both Egyptian hieroglyphics and Minoan Linear A script.

  I deemed it was now the propitious time to introduce my princesses to Toran. I invited him and his suite to dine with us the following evening.

  I personally supervised the selection of the wines and decided on the dishes to be served. My menu was almost as long as the treaty with Crete that I had just signed, but considerably more enthralling. Then I devoted the entire afternoon to preparing my two princesses for the occasion. It was essential for my purpose, not to mention for the benefit of our very Egypt, that Toran should be inveigled into sending a glowing description of all their attributes back to the palace of Knossos.

  With extreme care I chose from the huge wardrobe that I had brought from Thebes those materials and colours that best complemented the beauty of my two girls: pink for Bekatha and green for Tehuti.

  I sat alongside the two beauticians who were applying their make-up. I would not accept anything less than perfection from either of them. By the time I was satisfied with their efforts I had reduced both of them to tears, but the results were well worth all my persistence. The only beauty I have ever looked upon which exceeded that of my girls on that particular evening was the face of the goddess Inana in the moonlight. I knew that neither Toran nor his master in Crete would be able to resist my two girls; just as I had never been able to do so.

  That evening I waited until Toran and the rest of the company were seated at the magnificently decorated table that I had prepared, and all of them had been served with wine, before I gave the signal for the girls to make their entrance.

  When they came gliding in side by side through double doors at the end of the hall an immediate and profound silence fell upon the company. The men were held captive with admiration, and the women with envy.

  My princesses paused in front of Toran and both of them made a graceful obeisance. They were being followed by Loxias. She also dipped into a curtsey. Of course I had not lavished any of my attention on the Cretan lass. She was wearing a rather drab little dress that exposed her knees. Her face and her knees were quite pretty, but not exceptionally so. It was obvious that she had attended to her own hair and make-up. She was after all a servant and very fortunate to have been allowed by me to attend the banquet.

  I glanced sideways at Toran to judge his reaction to this plethora of feminine pulchritude, and I saw he was staring over the heads of my two princesses and that he was smiling. I switched my attention in the same direction as his and saw to my astonishment and chagrin that Loxias was shyly smiling back at him. It was then that I recalled her previous admiration for Lord Remrem. I realized that the child must have a penchant for older men.

  Immediately I moderated my inflated opinion of Toran. He might be a suave and erudite statesman with an elevated taste in literature, but when it came to women it was obvious he could not tell a glittering hummingbird from a drab little sparrow.

  I gestured at my girls to take their places on each side of Toran. They already had my instructions to dazzle him with their command of the Minoan language. Then with a jerk of my head I banished Loxias to the far end of the hall where she was at liberty to exercise her banal charms on some of my junior officers closer to her own age and station in life.

  Over the next several weeks I was obliged to spend a great deal of my time in earnest conclave with Toran, Lord Remrem and the Sumerian high command, planning and coordinating our joint campaign against King Gorrab. The days fled away before us, and it seemed that there was never a moment’s respite for me.

  Two days before the departure of our caravan from Babylon to the port of Sidon I could no longer resist the compulsion I felt to make a farewell visit to the Temple of Ishtar. It was my fervent hope that I might find some lingering trace of Inana within that bizarre building, perhaps a cryptic message from her or at the very least an esoteric trace of her presence.

  I arranged with Onyos, the green-robed priest of the goddess, for him to allow me access to the temple after it was closed to all other worshippers. I went alone, dressed in a hooded grey robe that resembled the one that Inana always wore. It was an hour after midnight when I reached the wicket door of the temple where Onyos was waiting for me.

  ‘I wish to be alone,’ I dismissed him as I placed a silver mem coin in his palm. He backed away from me respectfully, making a deep and sweeping bow, and disappeared into the shadows of the hypostyle nave.

  Without the reflection of the great sun mirror in the roof to light it, the temple was a gloomy and eerie place. Except for a very few green-robed priests and priestesses it was deserted. The stalls in which the women waited to perform their obligatory service to the goddess were empty. A few of the more spectacular frescoes were illuminated by oil lamps with polished copper reflectors.

  The wavering light danced upon the painted figures, imbuing them with a lurid life of their own. I paused before some of them and wondered at the chasm which separated these images from the true nature of the divine and chaste deity to whom they were dedicated. During the voyage of exploration upon which Inana had taken me I learned that what men believe about the gods is mostly their own wishful imaginings. The idea that a man can bend the immortals to his will with prayer and sacrifice or pious confession is ludicrous. The immortals do only what suits them best, and that is care for their own power and pleasure.

  I searched slowly and intently through the cavernous halls and cloisters, but I could not detect even the most tenuous evidence of Inana’s existence in any of them. King Marduk had raised this enormous edifice in an attempt to lure the goddess into it and capture her, but I knew now that the goddess is never the prey; she is the huntress.

  I climbed the terrace that spiralled up the exterior walls of the temple. This was where she had so often appeared to me, but now there was nothing of her remaining here. I reached the flat roof and sat there beside the gigantic metal mirror that in the daylight hours reflected the sun’s rays down into the nave.

  I searched the star-bejewelled vault of the midnight sky above me. But she had left nothing there for me. All I had was my memory of her, and her promise that she would return to me one day.

  King Nimrod had ordered the building of a royal pavilion outside the main gates of the city. It was decorated with flags, flowers and palm fronds. On the day that we marched for Sidon His Majesty took up his station high on the saluting podium.

  He was surrounded by his Sumerian nobles, his senior military officers and the city dignitaries. Lord Remrem, Colonel Hui and the other Egyptian officers who were to remain in Babylon with him also occupied privileged positions on the dais.

  The previous day I had sent all the servants, slaves and other non-combatants ahead of our main force. With them had gone the baggage wagons and the remount herds of horses and camels. So I had with me only the officers and the fighting men when we marched past King Nimrod.

  All our chariots, weapons and armour had been repaired, renewed and polished so
they glittered in the sunlight. The horses and camels had been fed, rested and groomed until they were in peak condition. Zaras had seen to it that the men had received the same attention and had not been allowed to slack off. We looked like the hard little fighting army that we truly were.

  Many of the men had formed relationships within the local population, so there were numerous weeping ladies lining the road that led down to the coast. Some of these were already growing big with child. All this added abundantly to the excitement and drama of the moment.

  Toran rode at my left hand, and my two princesses at my right. Loxias had somehow managed to find herself a place close behind the Minoan ambassador. This no longer surprised or perturbed me. I had learned that she no longer slept in the same chamber as my own girls, and that since Toran’s arrival in Baghdad she had found new lodgings for herself. I made no further enquiries into the matter.

  With the ambassador and my royal princesses riding on each side of me and the regimental band of horns, flutes and drums coming up behind us I led my men out of the city gates. I halted the column when we came level with the royal pavilion. I dismounted and climbed the steps to where King Nimrod stood on the podium.

  The band stopped playing and the crowds fell respectfully silent as I went down on one knee before King Nimrod. His Majesty lifted me back on to my feet and embraced me as fondly as my own brother might have done, if I had one. This was only fitting for I had restored his kingdom and his army to him. I had also made him a rich man and replaced a great part of the fortune that his father King Marduk had squandered.

  We exchanged vows of eternal friendship which on my side were not entirely sincere. Then we parted.

  As I remounted my own stallion I raised my right hand in preparation to give the order to march and the band played the opening bars of the regimental anthem.

  In this fraught moment a well-beloved voice at my left hand uttered a cry that reverberated off the massive walls of the city.

  ‘Stop!’ cried Princess Bekatha and we all obeyed her command. The music of the band together with the cheers of the crowds faltered into an awkward silence. Every eye, including mine, turned and focused upon her.

  ‘What ails you, my darling?’ I asked in placatory tones. I saw that she was on the verge of one of her famous tantrums. Perhaps I am partially responsible for the abandon of Bekatha’s temper. I may have been overly lenient with her in the past.

  ‘What does Hui think he is doing up there on the platform, hiding behind Lord Remrem while I am being marched off on my own to some bleak and godless island at the far end of the earth.’ Bekatha flung out her right hand and pointed out the person who had given her such dire offence. ‘Just look at him skulking there!’ Every head in the gathering, including that of King Nimrod, turned towards Hui

  ‘You said you never wanted to see Hui again,’ Loxias reminded Bekatha.

  Bekatha rounded on her. ‘You keep out of this, or you will be very sorry for yourself!’

  ‘Loxias is right. You said you hated Hui.’ Tehuti came gallantly to the support of the Cretan girl.

  ‘I never said that. I never used the word hated!’

  ‘Yes, you did.’ The other two girls spoke in unison, and Tehuti elaborated a little further:

  ‘You even said you were going to have him beheaded.’

  ‘I never said beheaded.’ Bekatha’s eyes filled with tears of fury. ‘I said punished. I said I would have him punished.’

  Those at the back of the crowded podium began to demand information from those in front who could understand a little Egyptian: ‘What did she say?’

  ‘She says she is going to have somebody beheaded.’ Little children in the crowd began whining petulantly to be lifted on to their parents’ shoulders so that they could have a better view of the execution.

  ‘Even I heard you say that Hui is an oaf and a barbarian.’ I entered the conversation circumspectly under the cover of the hubbub.

  ‘All I said was that Hui shouldn’t have laughed at me.’

  ‘You don’t think he is ugly?’

  She dropped her eyes and her voice. ‘Not really. In fact he is really quite sweet in a funny sort of way.’

  ‘What about his five wives?’

  ‘He promised to send them home to their mothers.’

  I blinked. Obviously matters had already advanced far beyond my control. ‘Perhaps it would be better if we left him here in Babylon, or if you stick to your promise and have him beheaded,’ I suggested.

  ‘Don’t be so horrible, Tata.’

  ‘Are you absolutely certain that you want Hui to come with us to Crete?’

  She nodded, and her smile was irresistible, to me at least. I stood in the stirrups and shouted over the heads of the crowd.

  ‘Hui! Get your kit packed and fall in. I am not going to wait for you. If you have not rejoined your regiment before sunset I will post you absent without leave.’

  I kicked my heels into the flanks of my horse, and we marched for the coast. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Colonel Hui scramble down off the royal podium with indecent haste. Ignoring Lord Remrem’s protests, he rushed towards the city gates to retrieve his kit.

  I wondered why I felt so pleased with myself. I had just made a difficult position almost totally untenable. There was no profit in it for me, except that I now had the best charioteer in Egypt back under my command and I had made my little Bekatha happy again.

  We followed the Euphrates River in a north-westerly direction for the following six days, until we intercepted the King’s Highway at the city of Resafa. Then we turned to follow the highway down through the mountains as far as Ash-Sham, the City of Jasmine.

  Since leaving the Red Sea we had travelled in an enormous circle which had never brought us closer than seven hundred leagues to the Hyksos-dominated lands around the northern reaches of Mother Nile.

  From the City of Jasmine we could at last head directly west for the port of Sidon on the most easterly shores of the Middle Sea. This was the most beautiful and pleasing stage of our long journey. It took us down through the mountains and forests of Lebanon.

  The highway was lined with gigantic cedar trees that had never felt the axe. They seemed to be the pillars on which the sky was suspended, reaching up to the veritable home of the gods. At this season of the year their upper branches were decked with hoary garlands of crisp new snow and the air was redolent with the scent of their resin.

  As we dropped down towards the coast the weather warmed and we could divest ourselves of the furs and heavy woollen shawls that we had purchased in the City of Jasmine. We emerged from the cedar forests to discover another mountain standing before us. My guides assured me that this was the Rana Mountain, which in the Canaanite language means ‘Perfect in Beauty’. It stands upon the shores of the Middle Sea between the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon and separates them by a distance of almost twenty leagues.

  The trade road that we were following was split by the mountain. We took the right-hand fork and as we rounded the flank of Mount Rana we were afforded our first glimpse of the sea. It was a marvellous shade of deep cerulean blue that stretched away to the horizon. Even the bellies of the towering mountains of cloud above it were stained blue by the reflection of the waters below.

  The port of Sidon was one of the most prosperous and bustling trade cities on this coast. The harbour was crammed with shipping. Even at this distance I could make out the double-headed axe emblem of Crete on the sails of many of the larger vessels. These were part of the flotilla which had conveyed Toran from Crete to this place. He came to me to bid me farewell and then rode ahead to the port to go aboard his flagship and take command of her. He would sail ahead of us to alert the Supreme Minos to our imminent arrival.

  I selected an area of open ground bordering the road half a league outside the stone walls of the port. Here a stream running down from the slopes of Mount Rana would provide us with an adequate water supply. I ordered Zaras to set up our regimenta
l camp on this site. Before the camp was ready for occupation a delegation emerged from the main gates of the city and came down the road towards us.

  I saw that the man leading them was dressed in the robes of a high-ranking Sumerian officer. He rode up to where I stood and dismounted.

  ‘I am Naram Sin, the governor of the province of Sidon.’ He held his clenched fist against his heart in a gesture of respect. ‘Of course I know you are Lord Taita. Your name is already known and revered throughout all of Sumeria. I am strictly commanded by His Majesty King Nimrod to accord unto you all respect and to obey your instructions at once and without question. I am to see to it that you and the royal ladies in your care lack for nothing.’

  ‘Thank you for this friendly welcome. My first request to you is that you supply us with fodder for our animals.’

  Naram Sin spun on his heel and rapped out a string of orders for his subordinates. They scurried away to his bidding; and the governor turned back to me. ‘Is there any other way in which I can assist you, my lord?’

  ‘Please lead me to the shipyards where my flotilla is being refitted. I am eager to inspect the work.’

  The six galleys that I had purchased from Nimrod were at first sight a major disappointment to me. They were standing on stocks so that I was able to examine their hulls beneath the waterline. I made the mistake of comparing them to the great Minoan triremes that I had captured at the fort of Tamiat. These Sumerian ships were almost half the size and I could see from the design of the hulls that they would be much slower and not nearly so handy.

  With an effort I thrust aside my disillusionment, and determined to concentrate all my attention on making the best of what was at hand.