"Rise," she said briefly, and he sprang to his feet. "We have made what speed we could, and we thought we had come too late. What is your name?"
"Zeserkerasonb, Commander in Chief, late of the Division of Ptah."
"Lead us within, Zeserkerasonb, for night fafls. Nehesi, order that food be distributed and the tents pitched, and make sure that the horses are fed. Is there water here?"
''Yes, Mighty One. The ehffs yonder are full of springs, and we have dug a well in the eompound."
''Good."
Nehesi bowed and went swiftly to the ordering of the camp. Then he, pen-Nekheb, Hapuseneb, and Hatshepsut were ushered to the commander's quarters.
The garrison was bare and functional, a place of work. They walked wearily into a wide room that had no cushions or hangings. The floor also was naked, a hard earth floor and the commander's eating bowls and utensils and cot were of polished wood. Through the one window the night wind blew, stirring the flames of the new-lit torches.
Zeserkerasonb brought forward his chair for Hatshepsut and sent his servant for meat and beer. He and the other men gathered around her.
The evidences of recent combat were everywhere, even within the room. A pile of dirty linen lay beside the cot, maps littered the desk, arrows and two bows stood in a corner, and the incense before Amun's little shrine had gone out, leaving a stale smell in the room that mingled with another odor, acrid and unpleasant, that made Hatshepsut's nose twitch in disgust.
''My men are beyond the walls, burning the bodies of dead Nubians," Zeserkerasonb said apologetically. "Unfortunately, there are not many of the enemy who did not escape us."
He was a handsome man, dark, a dour man of few words, but a good soldier and a harsh commander, typical of all Pharaoh's desert men. He wondered where Pharaoh was as he spoke, his curious eyes on his Queen, but he knew better than to put any question to her. She was very beautiful, more beautiful than the picture of her that he carried in his mind, formed five years ago at her coronation. He put his musings away, walking quickly to the brazier and throwing more charcoal on it. It did not matter where Pharaoh was. His army had arrived, and that was the only thing of importance.
"Where are your men?" Hatshepsut asked him sharply.
He turned to her, noting the square, forceful jaw, the shoulders tensed, even in rest. This was no pretty, pampered palace Queen, he thought, and he answered her with a new respect. "They pursue the enemy, but I fear it is a fruitless quest. I have only a few hundred stationed here, and though we patrol the border and settle endless disputes and bloody little insurrections, we are not equipped for full engagements. I ordered the men only to harry the flanks of the men of Kush. We had had word of the burning of the first garrison. We were ready for the enemy and held them off until they saw that we would not fall. We beat them from the walls, so they
have turned inland once more, whether to go around us or to retreat, I do not know. Not to retreat, I think. There were many of their chiefs and bowmen gathered, and in my opinion they wish to plunder Egypt herself."
*'Vain and foolish hope!" pen-Nekheb snapped. ''Why the Nubians endlessly revolt only to be endlessly crushed is quite beyond me."
'They deserve constant occupation," Hatshepsut remarked, "for they are too stupid to govern themselves. Well it is for them that Egypt is in the midst of them! We see to their welfare, we receive them in Thebes, we interest ourselves in their domains, and why? When they steal our cattle and murder our defenseless villagers and slay our soldiers, we wonder."
The servant returned with smoking meat and jugs full of cheap, bitter beer, and they ate and drank without ceremony as full night fell. When she had finished, Hatshepsut sent Nehesi to summon the other generals and commanders, Djehuty, Yamu-nefru, Sen-nefer, and the rest; he returned before long. Zeserkerasonb cleared his desk with one sweep of an arm, and they had more chairs brought and clustered around it.
The scene was becoming familiar to Hatshepsut. The serious, tired faces of the men, the flickering of the lamps, the sounds of the army settling for the night, the bare and simple place in which they sat, room or tent or open fire, and she felt a new kind of peace fill her. She tried to think of her palace—the golden floors, the chased and figured silver walls, the bright-painted tiles, the mounds of flowers, the tall lotus columns, the pools, the lovely green of the gardens, and the stars on the breast of the river—but it seemed a strange, warm, ghostly place, without reality, a place of softness and ease. She turned her thoughts to the hard faces around her, glancing at the spitting brazier and feeling the uncomfortable wooden chair in which she sat.
"Begin," she said to Hapuseneb.
They bowed to her and then settled to the discussion, but they could not ignore her, sitting quietly but alert to every word, her hands folded under her white woollen robe, her dark eyes passing from one to the other.
"At what strength do you put the Kushites?" Hapuseneb asked Zeserkerasonb.
The man smiled faintly. "This question is of course of the utmost importance to you," he said. "Know then that I number the enemy at about three thousand five hundred men, mostly infantry of a sort and armed with rude clubs and axes, but of the three thousand five hundred some eight or nine hundred also have bows."
Eyebrows were raised, and the younger generals shifted uneasily in their seats. The host set against them was larger than they had thought.
"Squadrons?" pcn-Nckhcb shot swiftly.
11ic commander lifted a sneering lip. ''No chariots. And no discipline. The chiefs lead their men and make a great noise, but the rabble run here and there and kill where they please. It will be a simple matter to round them up."
"And wipe them out." Hatshepsut's words dropped icily among them, and they looked up at her. "I want you to understand, every one of you," she went on, hands clenched under the cloak, "that the order of Pharaoh will be obeyed. No man is to be spared. All will be put to the ax. I do not want to spend my reign swimming in a river of Egyptian blood, and these people must be an example to all who would defy the right and true power of Egypt. It will be a very long time before the inhabitants of this filthy and uncomfortable land again raise their unworthy hands against their lords, and I have better things to do with my gold and my soldiers than make endless war. I have no intention of letting the army go soft." She smiled briefly at Zeserkerasonb. "The numbers of the standing troops will be maintained, but war I will not have!" The last words were emphasized by her hand, which came crashing down on the table, her rings glittering wickedly at them. "My grandfather made a war of recovery, and my father made a war of survival, but I make no more war! Let Egypt live in peace while I rule. Understand, all of you. I have spoken."
Nehesi nodded. "You speak wisely. Majesty. No male shall live."
"But no women or helpless children shall die." She held up a warning hand. "I will not have my troops looting and pillaging as the heathen do. All reward shall come from my hands at the proper time."
They nodded, and she felt the cool, speculative eyes of the Negro fixed on her; but when she looked at him, he was already watching Zeserkerasonb with his unblinking, level stare.
"How far ahead is the enemy?" Djehuty asked.
The commander answered quickly. "No more than one day, and they will travel slowly, worn from fighting and harried by my men."
"Then we will march again in three hours," Hapuseneb said. "Let the men rest while they may. If Amun is with us, we may make battle in the morning."
Hatshepsut watched a slow, secret smile spread over Nehesi's face.
Pen-Nekheb grunted in satisfaction. "So be it," he said. "We will need no complex battle plan if we sweep upon them from the rear. It might be as well to put the Shock Troops way in front, together with the Braves of the King, placing a squadron of chariots on either wing and the Infantry to the rear. In this fashion they will be quickly encircled and destroyed. Majesty, will you ride well to the rear also, in the midst of the spearmen?"
It was a plea, but she tossed back
her hair and shook her head. '*I am Commander of the Braves of the King, and where they go, I must go also. Do not fear, Nehesi, that you will be occupied with my safety instead of smiting the enemy. As the God, I fear nothing. I order you to see only to our troops."
''As Commander of the Braves of the King you are also my officer, and I obey only you," he replied, and she read approval in his black eyes. ''But as General I put the Braves of the King where it is right for them to be. They shall march behind the assault troops, and in any case it is their duty to guard you at all times."
She inclined her head. "Then let us sleep if we can, for we are all weary. I shall send your men back to you, Zeserkerasonb, when all is accomplished. Their bravery and yours shall not go unrewarded."
They rose and quickly scattered, bowing their good-nights to her.
She spent the next three hours in an uneasy sleep on the cot of the commander, dreaming that the hyenas were running with the body of Senmut and that blood stained the sand from deep gashes in his throat and his breast. He still lived and called to her desperately, but her feet would not leave the spot where she stood crying. In the end he stopped calling, and the hyenas slunk over the horizon, dragging him behind them like a limp, shapeless doll.
In the depths of the chill desert night Menkh woke her, and they prepared to begin their last march. The men stood in battle formation, and their officers moved among them with words of instruction and encouragement. On either side of them the chariots rolled, the drivers checking and rechecking harness and maneuvering in a last practice, the riding soldiers behind them adjusting their stance in the bucking vehicles and unslinging their weapons. The tents were quickly and silently taken down, and the fires were put out. Hatshepsut took leave of Zeserkerasonb outside the gates. It was still full dark, and there was no sign of the dawn.
"My brother, Wadjmose," she said. "Did you know him?"
She spoke, unconsciously, as if he was dead, and the man beside her noticed grimly.
"I met him often," he replied. "He was a fine man, a worthy and much-loved officer."
"Tell me in truth, Zeserkerasonb, as you love me, do you think that he was overpowered by might alone?"
Zeserkerasonb was silent for a long time, looking past her chariot, the shuffling horses, the shrouded figure of Menkh, to the massing host beyond. At last he shook his head reluctantly. "No," he said slowly, and Hatshepsut felt her heart turn over. "Wadjmose would have held the
garrison easily, for weeks, until he and his men starved for want of supplies. But it is not of defeat through starvation that I heard. My scouts tell nie that the garrison was burned to the ground and the men within slaughtered while they yet sought their weapons."
A sickening picture flashed through Hatshepsut's mind, the creeping, silent figures flowing through an open gate and spilling from room to room, the sentries overpowered and killed, and the angry flames eating hungrily, suddenly, as startled men groped for their spears and died before they could leave their dreams behind.
''Someone opened the gates?"
'Tes, I think so."
''Unhappy men!" she whispered softly, her voice venomous. The horses shifted uneasily. "I will find them, and when I do, they will wish that they had never been born. I will tear their bodies apart and give them to the jackals, and not even their names will remain so that the gods may find them."
She swung herself up behind Menkh, and her runner handed her her spear and her bow.
"Farewell, Zeserkerasonb! Have no fear that the gods will not remember you, worthy servant of Egypt!"
Menkh slapped the reins, and she was gone, the darkness swallowing her up as he bowed. He turned swiftly and walked back inside, the doors thudding shut. The army left him quickly behind, already devouring the desert miles like a giant mouth.
The trail of the enemy was not hard to follow, and as pen-Nekheb had surmised, it led the Egyptian troops away from the track that ran between the garrisons and back into the desert. The Nubians were obviously trying to make a wide detour and cross the border farther south, and the scouts skillfully led the army after them. All around them the sand was churned, and often they passed pools of shadow that turned out to be discarded and broken axes, old pots, arrowheads, or the remains of food. Twice they came upon vast, blackened heaps of wood ash, but the scouts reported that the fires were long cold, and the soldiers pressed on. Once Hatshepsut's horses reared suddenly, whinnying, and Menkh got down and ran to see a family of scorpions scuttling for the nearest rock, their stings raised. But otherwise the desert lay calm and still, a fantasy land of darkness without shadow, the sky a blaze of stars without a moon.
Dawn broke, and they camped briefly, sitting in the sand to eat. But before the light had turned from gray to pink, they were moving again, a mood of expectancy quickening their pace as they sensed their prey drawing nearer. There was a cloud on the horizon, and Menkh pointed with his whip.
'There they are, the scum. That is surely their dust, and we will catch them before the morning is out!''
Hatshepsut nodded briefly, her lips compressed, and their pace quickened. The sun was up now, riding low on their left like a great orange ball, and with its rising the air began to warm. The cloud of dust spread, grew ever closer, and orders began to be shouted. Hatshepsut felt her pulses race, as once more the assault troops passed her and fanned out. The chariots went past also, saluting, then dividing to roll beside the Shock Troops. Around her the Braves of the King gathered, and beside her Nehesi leaned over to speak tersely to his charioteer. She could not see, but she knew that behind her the infantry was spreading out. Then all at once, at a shout from Hapuseneb, the pace quickened, and her horses began to trot.
'Tighten the reins!'' she shouted to Menkh. ''Keep their heads up!"
For a moment she leaned over the side to watch her wheels spin, golden, in the morning sun, and she felt the wind in her face. She then unslung her bow, counted her arrows, and laid her spear beside her on the floor of the chariot. She wanted to be able to shoot unencumbered, and she hoped fleetingly that she would not have to use the spear.
Suddenly the mood of the men reached her, and she felt a fierce excitement rise. The rear guard of the rabble of Kush could be discerned now, a thick, black mass of stumbling men.
Nehesi raised an arm. "Sound the horns!" he shouted, and the hot air was cut by the hoarse braying.
Far ahead, to her left and right, Hatshepsut saw the sun catch the chariots. The assault troops dropped their spears forward and began to run. Suddenly the Nubians realized that they were pursued, and they began to mill about, shouting. She saw wave upon wave of bowmen shoulder through their ranks and ring them, and she chose an arrow with trembling fingers and fitted it to her bow.
Nehesi shouted a third time. "Full forward! Attack!" Her horses broke into a gallop as Menkh's whip whistled and fell about their ears, and they thundered across the plain as a roar went up from the Nubians like the booming of floodwater rushing down a narrow valley.
Menkh was bent nearly double now, sand from the horses' flying hoofs spraying in his face, and Hatshepsut could see the chariots running headlong at the enemy, flowing smoothly over the desert, washing up on the banks of battle. Her ankles and knees ached as she tried to keep her balance. "Mark your man," she heard the voice of her trainer come from far away, still steady and firm through the years, and she drew back the string on her bow. All at once the clean, rushing lines of the Egyptian juggernaut broke up, the chariots becoming islands in a sea of black
bodies, the white and yellow and blue helmets of charioteer and spearman alike engulfed, and the tumult of war rushed to meet her. Nehesi shouted something to her, some warning that was torn from his mouth by the speed of their approach, but she had no time to heed him. She found her man; he was holding an ax, his black arm raised, his head back. Suddenly the shaking in her arms and leather-clad hands was gone, and she shot coolly. Before he dropped, screaming, to the sand, she was fitting another arrow.
Th
ey were surrounded, deafened by the violent cacophony, the horses brought to a standstill by the press of gasping, shouting, cursing bodies. Menkh desperately tried to force a way through while Hatshepsut loosed another arrow, but they were caught, and he could do little more than hold the frightened horses. On their right an opening suddenly appeared as the battle eddied and swirled, and as if in a wild dream she saw Yamu-nefru, his horses fallen and pierced by arrows, swing his ax in a glittering arc, bringing it down and burying it deep in the chest of the man below him. As she watched, he leaned out the back of his chariot and placed a booted foot on the man's belly, kicking to free his ax as the body fell under the wheels. He was singing. She heard his voice, deep and strong above the noise of the battle, but she had no time to wonder at the haughty, perfumed youth who had drifted so daintily through the palace. A rain of arrows clattered against her chariot, and she ducked quickly, picking up her spear. All at once she saw Nehesi bound from his chariot while another officer took his place. Then he was beside her, arrows spent and spear gone, swinging his ax to guard her rear while she stood and aimed her own spear.
I cannot! she suddenly thought, appalled, the first rush of exultation over, and she looked around her in a tide of panic, sweat suddenly gushing and drenching her. The spear slipped in her wet palm, and she grabbed at it frantically, wanting to scream and scream and run away. Below her a face appeared, its slavering, panting mouth and bloody hands grappling at the side of her chariot. Her head cleared, and she raised the spear again and drove it deep into the open throat. She reached for the ax that hung on Menkh's belt, tugging at it furiously. She heard Nehesi laugh behind her, but the chariot began to move and before the ax was free, he had jumped down, and the melee swallowed him up.
Menkh was thrashing at the horses now, cursing them in a high-pitched stream of foul language, and the Braves of the King, seeing their Commander begin to move, began to close ranks and follow.
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