Desert God

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘I know that area!’ Herakal exclaimed as he turned back from the window; his tone had changed. ‘It runs along the shore of the Middle Sea between the cities of Zin and Dhuara.’

  ‘That is correct!’ I agreed. ‘Over the past year my Pharaoh and Lord Kratas have concentrated their offensive on the westerly bank of the Nile. They have advanced as far north as Lake Moeris, which is only eighty leagues south of Zin.’ I spread the yellow silk square on the table, and Herakal and his staff gathered around it. Aton had written his message on one side, but on the reverse side he had drawn a detailed map of northern Egypt which showed the disposition of the armies: both Hyksos and Egyptian.

  ‘My sources report that Gorrab is planning a major flanking manoeuvre, swinging down the eastern border of Egypt to strike our extended line here at Quam.’ I touched the silken map. ‘It’s a cunning plan, but his assembly area at Zin is extremely vulnerable to attack from the sea. It seems that Gorrab is still ignorant of our combined fleet now waiting at Krimad for just such an opportunity.’

  ‘You say Gorrab has a thousand chariots?’ Herakal demanded. ‘That means he probably has more than three thousand charioteers. You will be heavily outnumbered. If Gorrab becomes aware of your plans you will be annihilated if you attempt to attack them.’

  In rebuttal I tapped the scrap of yellow silk. ‘Yes, indeed, Gorrab has a thousand chariots concentrated at Zin, but my information is that he has not yet detached his charioteers from his main force facing Pharaoh and Lord Kratas at Lake Moeris. As it stands now he has fewer than five hundred men guarding the chariots.’ I read the figures from Aton’s silken message. ‘Five hundred men and twice as many horses.’

  Herakal smoothed his moustaches thoughtfully. ‘That is roughly equal in strength to your own force.’

  ‘My flotilla is ready for sea and we can be off Zin in six days from now; before Gorrab is able to bring up the rest of his men. I can beach my chariots in their rear, and attack them before they know we have landed. We will have the advantage of complete surprise which is worth a thousand fully manned chariots.’

  ‘I will tell you straight, Lord Taita, that I don’t like it. It all seems too neat and fortuitous. It smells to me like a bear trap. However, the Supreme Minos has given you an independent command. You do not have to have my sanction for this hare-brained scheme.’

  ‘Then we have nothing further to discuss, Lord High Admiral. I thank you for your advice and good wishes, and I will take my leave.’

  I rode alone over the mountain and I pushed my horses hard. I arrived at Krimad an hour before sunset and found both Zaras and Hui at the stables. They were astonished to see me, but their surprise turned to unholy joy as I told them what I had in mind.

  ‘Get the horses on board while it is still light,’ I told Hui. ‘Zaras, take as many men as you need and make sure the chariots on all the ships are securely lashed down before we sail.’ Bellowing orders at their men they rushed to follow my orders.

  I went to the coop which was the new home of Aton’s pigeons which had survived the perilous voyage from Egypt. I selected two of the plumpest and strongest of them and tied the identical message on to each of their legs. Then one at a time I kissed them on the top of their heads and tossed them fluttering into the air. They circled the harbour four times to get their bearings and then headed south-south-east; and disappeared into the gathering dusk. A night run was safest for them. Hawks and falcons do not hunt during the hours of darkness. But I had repeated my message to Aton to make doubly sure.

  I had asked him to have guides waiting for us on the beach at Zin in six days’ time. They were to meet us when we landed and lead us to where King Gorrab had assembled his chariots.

  An hour before midnight my flotilla of six galleys left the harbour. As soon as we had made our offing we turned to the south in line astern, heading for Egypt and the Bay of Zin.

  In the darkness of pre-dawn we missed the squadron of twelve fighting galleys led by Nakati, prince of the Sea Peoples, in his own ship, the Dove. Nakati was hurrying to Krimad to warn me of the morass of treachery and betrayal into which I was blithely sailing with my little squadron.

  Nakati reached the port of Krimad a few hours after sunrise to find me and my ships vanished. However, I had left five of my men who, due to wounds and sickness, were unfit to sail with me. These invalids had been with me on the voyage from Sidon in Sumeria when I captured the Dove and chained Nakati to the rowing bench. They had also been present when I unchained him and reinstated him to command of the Dove. Thus they knew he was one of us, and so they did not hesitate to tell Nakati where I was headed and the purpose of my sortie to Zin.

  Nakati lingered in the port of Krimad just long enough to take on water and provisions from my warehouse. Then almost three hours after sunrise he set off again with his flotilla in pursuit of mine; but I had an eight-hour head start.

  Of course at this stage I had no way of knowing that Nakati was following me at his best speed. On the contrary I had heard nothing from him since I turned him free on trust. Now I was inclined to regret that hasty decision. I was starting to believe that he had duped me and returned to his role as prince of the Sea Peoples, and that I would never set eyes upon him again; except over a naked blade.

  It was not until much later than the events I am describing here that I learned that Nakati had stood by our agreement. However it had taken him all this time to recruit crews for his ships from amongst the ranks of the pirates and freebooters that made up the tribe of the Sea Peoples.

  In retrospect I should have known better, but I had always believed the Sea Peoples to be a disorganized rabble; lacking the organization and structures of a modern navy. I had overlooked the fact that many of the pirate princes were trained and skilled fighting seamen who only by force of circumstances had become renegades. It followed they had at their disposal an extensive and tightly organized intelligence network that was certainly more efficient than that which my old friend Lord Aton was running. Nakati had double agents placed amongst Aton’s people, but he also had his spies in the headquarters of the Hyksos in Memphis. I do not doubt that he had even penetrated my own network. Through these sources he was fully aware of the correspondence that Aton and I had exchanged. He knew of my intention to raid the Hyksos chariot depot at Zin, and he knew that the Hyksos were also aware of my intentions. However, Nakati did not have pigeons to send to warn me of what was taking place. He had come in person to save me from disaster, but he had arrived too late.

  In the Outrage we made our landfall on the African coast in the half-light an hour before sunrise on the fifth day after leaving Krimad. I had navigated deliberately on a course with slightly westerly deflection. There was no navigator alive who could sail a ship for five days out of sight of land and arrive at a destination as precise as the Bay of Zin. To have made my landfall on the easterly side of the bay would have been dangerous. The coastline closer to the Nile Delta was heavily populated. We would have been spotted as soon as we showed above the horizon. If I could not be certain of sailing directly into the Bay of Zin then it was safer to err to the west. The western shore was the Sahara proper, inhabited sparsely by a few roving Bedouin.

  More importantly I was absolutely certain of my headings as soon as I sighted the land. Without hesitation I gave the orders for the flotilla to turn in succession to port and sail in line ahead with the desert close on our starboard side. We sailed for three hours parallel to the shore, before it became clear that I had overdone my deliberate error. This was of great concern to me at the time, but it proved to be fortuitous. It gave Nakati that much extra leeway to close the gap between our two squadrons.

  At last we came up level with the mouth of Zin Bay, which I recognized by the prominent headlands that shielded the interior from the northern approaches. I gave the order to tack in succession and we ran in through the entrance to the bay.

  The Hyksos were waiting for us. They came at us in a mass as soon as we passed between
the headlands of the Bay of Zin. They must have assembled everything that would float for a hundred leagues along the shore and the delta of the Nile. They were too numerous to count. There were craft as small as luggers and as massive as the single trireme which led the attack on our flotilla. The closest vessels blanketed those behind them; the larger ships screened the smaller ones. But at a hasty estimate I judged that there must be at least twenty-five Hyksos vessels opposing our six.

  All their decks were thronged with armed men. Their helmets, cuirasses, blades and shields glittered in the blaze of the rising sun. Their war cries and challenges carried clearly across the water as they came to meet us.

  The early-morning wind was blowing briskly from the open sea, through the entrance to the bay directly behind our squadron and into the faces of the Hyksos. This prevented me from reversing my course and attempting to escape the way I had come.

  On the other hand the Hyksos ships were headed directly into the wind, as close-hauled as their hulls would allow. They were loafing along, barely maintaining steerage. Our six vessels were charging forward with the wind filling our sails and white water foaming under our bows. Within a dozen strokes of our oars we were at full ramming speed.

  I could see that the decks of the enemy vessels were so closely packed with men that their archers were hampered by the press of bodies and shields. On the other hand Zaras and Hui, Akemi and Dilbar and my other captains had taken full advantage of our more sparsely manned ships. Even before we passed between the headlands of the bay and ran into the ambush, our archers had been prepared for any eventuality. Their bows were strung and their arrows were laid on the stocks of their bows. As soon as the range between the enemy and our leading ships closed to long arrow shot Zaras gave the order to loose. The wind coming in directly over our stern was our ally: it gave us an advantage of better than a hundred yards. Our archers were able to loose ten volleys before the Hyksos could loft their arrows high enough to reach us.

  The dun cloud of our arrows swept over their decks and the slaughter was prodigious. The shrieks of the wounded were counterpointed by the ‘Thump! Thump!’ of the striking arrows.

  The enemy trireme was larger by almost half than any of the ships in my squadron, but in these contrary wind conditions her bulk was much more a liability than an asset. I saw that she was paying off before the wind. The great bronze ram on her bows was no longer pointed at us menacingly. As she yawed she was exposing her tumblehome and her midships where her planking and her treble banks of long oars were most susceptible to our assault.

  ‘Ram her as she turns!’ I snapped at Zaras, and he leaped to obey my order. Our drummers increased the beat to attack speed. The men on our rowing benches were fresh and eager. They pulled until their eyes bulged from their sockets. Before the thrust of the wind and the impetus of our oars the Outrage hurled herself forward. I prompted Zaras to continually make fine adjustments of our helm so that the bronze spike of our ram was always aimed at the most vulnerable point in the trireme’s hull.

  We thrust aside the smaller Hyksos luggers and longboats that were between us and our target and at the last moment before we struck the trireme Zaras bellowed the order: ‘In oars!’ Our rowers shipped their oars neatly and with a rending crash our bronze ram shaped like the beaked head of an eagle smashed through the hull of the trireme and rolled her over on her side. The screams of her men blended with the crackle of rending timbers and splintering oars. Both her masts snapped off at deck level. She rolled past the point of no return. The waters poured in through her open rowing ports. The slaves chained to the benches drowned almost at once, and the fighting men crowded on her top deck were poured into the sea alongside the floundering hulk.

  Zaras and I were thrown to the deck of the Outrage by the force of the impact. The Outrage had been stopped dead in the water, so that by the time we had hauled ourselves to our feet the smaller Hyksos craft had been able to cluster around us and hurl grappling hooks over our sides. Their armed boarders were already scrambling furiously aboard the Outrage, howling like a pack of wolves around the carcass of a deer. They were coming over both our gunwales, swinging battle axes and thrusting with swords. We were surrounded.

  Zaras and I and the other deck officers formed a circle back to back, facing outwards. We were consummate swordsmen who had fought together on numerous occasions. We outmatched the Hyksos attackers with their wild swings and crude lumbering rushes. But as fast as we cut them down others came swarming over the sides of the Outrage to take their places.

  Almost at once the deck beneath my feet was slippery with blood and my arms were wet with gore to the elbows; but still the Hyksos barbarians came at us and died. Zaras at my right hand seemed indefatigable; but I was tiring rapidly. My arms were growing heavy and my feet were losing their grace and agility.

  I killed another man and as I kicked him off the point of my sword I glanced over the ship’s side and saw that all the other vessels of my flotilla were heavily engaged, surrounded by enemy vessels and fighting for survival. Then to my horror I saw that another dozen enemy vessels were entering the bay from the open sea, big fighting galleys filled with cheering men who pulled lustily at their oars. I knew that we were about to be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and we could not survive much longer. I considered for an instant how we might disengage and make a run for the open sea. But I realized that the thought was not only the last resort of the craven spirit, but it was also the fantasy of despair. There was no escape from this bloodbath. We fought on as fresh waves of enemy poured aboard us. At last I was reeling on my feet with exhaustion. Zaras jammed his shield against mine to steady me, but by now even to lift my sword required brutal effort. My face and arms were splattered with the blood of the men I had killed.

  Then another bearded enemy face appeared before me and I hacked at it with my blunted blade. By now the cutting edge was dulled and chipped and the point was broken off. My blow was so sloppy and feeble that my new adversary turned it aside with a contemptuous twist of his wrist.

  ‘Taita!’ he shouted at me, and I checked my next thrust and stared at him dumbfounded. For a moment I did not recognize him through his beard and the ruddy veil of splattered blood that dulled my vision. But now I realized that he was not another Hyksos brute. His features were noble and familiar.

  ‘Put up your blade, my lord. I am your liege man.’ I even recognized his voice.

  ‘Nakati?’ I gasped. ‘I thought that I had seen the last of you.’

  ‘“The gods are not always attentive to our pleas.”’ He grinned as he repaid me in my own words. Then he seized my arm to prevent me falling, but I shrugged his hand away. With fresh hope came renewed strength.

  ‘You cut your arrival fine, Nakati. Nonetheless you are welcome.’ I pointed over the bows of the Outrage to where the surviving Hyksos had abandoned the battle. They were fleeing to the safety of the land; beaching their boats, abandoning them and escaping into the dunes. ‘Catch those fine fleet-footed fellows for me. Then we can turn our attention to the destruction of their chariot depot, if we can find it.’

  He laughed at my choice of words. ‘Neither fine nor fleet-footed enough. The Hyksos cavalry lines are less than a league from where we stand,’ he assured me.

  ‘Are you sure of that?’ I demanded.

  ‘My informants are not as numerous as yours or Lord Aton’s, but they are at least as efficient. They informed me of this ambush that Gorrab’s men had prepared for you. I sailed to Krimad to warn you, but when I arrived you had already left. I thank Horus and Isis that I was in time to find you still alive here.’

  ‘I also am grateful for that!’ I wiped the sweat and blood from my face with the tail of my chlamys and stooped to pick up an abandoned enemy sword from the deck to replace my own battered weapon. As I straightened up I shouted to Zaras, ‘Take us in to the beach. Don’t let one of the Hyksos animals escape!’

  We ran our own ships aground on the sandy beach. In obedience to my ord
ers Nakati led his men in pursuit of the fugitive Hyksos, while Zaras and Hui unloaded our chariots and put the horses into the traces.

  The Bedouin guides that Aton had sent to meet us emerged from where they were hiding in the dunes. Hui and I mounted up and, with half our chariots, followed the guides to the Hyksos cavalry depot.

  Zaras joined forces with Nakati’s men. In the remainder of the chariots they set off in pursuit of the Hyksos fugitives from the battle who had escaped into the dunes.

  The Hyksos guards at the cavalry depot had been too far from the fighting to have been alerted by the tumult and uproar of battle. When Hui and I drove our chariots up to the periphery fence of the depot I called on them in their own language to open the gates. They took us for reinforcements sent from their main army in the south, and they threw the gates open to welcome us.

  By the time they realized how mistaken they were our men were amongst them, knocking down their weapons and forcing them to kneel with their hands behind their backs while they were trussed.

  In the parking ground of the depot we found 850 newly built chariots drawn up in neat ranks four deep.

  Obviously the Hyksos carpenters had copied the design of our Egyptian vehicles. These were a great improvement on the traditional Hyksos machines. The bodywork was woven from Malacca cane and bamboo, much lighter and more flexible than solid pine or cedar. The wheels were spoked rather than solid; making them faster and more durable.

  These vehicles had been freshly lacquered and they were so closely packed that their wheel hubs were touching. We anointed them liberally with lamp oil that I had brought with us for this purpose. When we tossed burning torches into them the flames jumped from vehicle to vehicle; reducing them to ashes in the time it takes for a thirsty man to drink a cup of good wine. I was happy to see them burn rather than arrayed against me for they would have made formidable adversaries.