Desert God (14 page)

‘Lord Aton!’ he called down the length of the table. ‘The wine is excellent. I know that the banquet will be no less.’ Aton has the reputation of being the greatest connoisseur in the land. Some say that this is the main reason he had reached the exalted status of Master of the Royal Household.

Reputations are not always deserved. Aton is good but not the best. The fillets of Nile perch he served had been insufficiently salted, and the desert bustard was a trifle overdone. In addition he had allowed the palace chef too liberal a hand with the Baharat spice. If I had been given the task I suspect that the fare would have been better prepared, but the wine was good enough to dilute these trivial shortcomings.

The company was in fine and boisterous fettle by the time Aton rose to introduce the eulogy. I had given passing thought as to which poet I might have chosen if I had been in his sandals. Naturally I was disqualified from selection by the fact that I was the subject of the composition. So I expected it would probably be either Reza or Thoiak that Aton had selected for this great honour.

In the event Aton stunned us all. Although he gave credit and praise to the recognized bards of Egypt, he tried to justify his final decision by emphasizing the fact that the one he had chosen had been an eyewitness to the actual events. Of course, this was a preposterous idea. Since when have the facts been of any great importance to a good story?

‘Great Pharaoh and royal ladies, please draw close and lend your ear to a valiant officer of the Blue Crocodile Guards who sailed with Lord Taita.’ He paused dramatically. ‘I give you Captain Zaras.’

The assembly was unmoving and unmoved as Zaras stepped in through the curtains of the tent and bent the knee to Pharaoh, who looked as surprised as any person present. I thought that I was probably the only one in the assembly who had ever heard of Captain Zaras of the Blue Crocodile Guards. Then something snicked into place in my mind as neatly as a blade into its scabbard.

I glanced quickly at Princess Tehuti where she was placed between Lord Kratas and Lord Madalek, who was Pharaoh’s treasurer. Now she was sitting forward on her stool with her face aglow and her expression rapt, staring at Zaras. She was not so blatant as to draw attention to herself by applauding or in any other manner signifying her approval of Aton’s choice; but I knew she had done it. Somehow she had forced Aton to make this ridiculous decision.

I have never underestimated the diplomatic skills of my two princesses but this seemed to smack of witchcraft. I switched my attention to Bekatha and I saw instantly that she was part of the conspiracy.

From the opposite end of the banquet table she was rolling her eyes and pulling inane faces, trying to catch her elder sister’s attention. Tehuti was studiously ignoring her.

I was as angry as I have ever been. But also I was filled with compassion for Zaras. He was a fine young man and a good officer and I had come to love him as a father might love a son. Now he was standing up before all the world to make himself into a laughing stock. These two heartless royal vixens had contrived this terrible cruelty.

I looked back at Zaras. He seemed to be oblivious to the disaster that was rushing down on him. He stood tall and handsome and composed in his uniform. I wished that there was something I could do to save him, but I was helpless. Perhaps he might be able to stumble his way through an awkward recitation like a schoolboy, but forever his efforts would be compared by these strict judges to those of Reza and Thoiak or even, the gods and goddesses forbid it, to the acclaimed masterpieces penned by my very own hand.

Then I was aware of a soft susurration of female voices, a sound like bees on a bed of spring flowers in my garden as they sucked up the nectar. I looked back at the company and I saw that Tehuti was not the only woman who was appraising Zaras. Some of the older women were even more blatant in their interest. They were smiling and whispering behind their fans. Zaras had never been at court and thus they had never laid their lascivious eyes upon him before.

Then Zaras made a commanding gesture and the tent went still and quiet so I could hear a distant jackal wailing out in the desert.

Zaras started to speak. I had heard his voice giving orders to his men, commanding them in the din of battle or encouraging them when they faltered, but I had never realized the timbre and depth of it. His voice rang like a bell and soared like the khamsin over the dunes of the desert. It thundered like the storm sea on the reef, and soughed like wind in the high branches of the cedar.

Within the first few stanzas he had captivated the entire company.

His choice of words was exquisite. Even I could probably not have greatly improved upon them. His timing was almost hypnotic, and his narrative was irresistible. He swept them along like debris caught in the floodwaters of the Nile.

When he described the flight of the three arrows with which I slew the Hyksos impostor Beon, all the lords of Egypt leaped to their feet and shouted their acclamation, while Pharaoh seized my upper arm in a grip so fierce that the bruises it left on my flesh persisted for many days thereafter.

I found myself laughing and weeping along with the rest of the audience and in the end I stood up with them to applaud him.

As Zaras uttered the final stanza he turned towards the entrance of the great tent and spread his arms.

‘Then cried aloud noble Taita to all the gods of Egypt and to his Pharaoh Tamose,
This is but a token of the prize I have won for you. This is but a thousandth part of the treasure I lay before you. This is the proof and testimony of the love and duty I bear towards you, Pharaoh Tamose
.’

Out in the desert a solemn drum began to beat and through the entrance of the tent paced ten armoured and helmeted warriors. They bore between them a pallet on which was piled a glittering pyramid of silver bars.

As one person, the entire audience came to its feet in a tumult of praise and exaltation.

‘All hail to royal Pharaoh!’ they cried, and then, ‘All honour to Lord Taita!’

When he had finished speaking they would not let Zaras go. Pharaoh spoke with him for several minutes, the men shook his hands or pounded his back, while a few of those women who had taken wine giggled and rubbed themselves against him as a cat will do.

When he came to me we embraced briefly and I commended him, ‘Well written and well spoken, Zaras. You are both a warrior and a poet.’

‘From a bard of your renown, Lord Taita, I rejoice to hear it said,’ he replied and I was touched to see that he meant it. He left me and moved on through the company. He did not make his ultimate destination obvious, but finally he bowed in front of Princess Tehuti.

The two of them were on the far side of the tent from where I sat; however, I am able to read the meaning of words on the lips of others without having heard the sound, as readily as I can read the hieroglyphics on a roll of papyrus.

‘Shame on you, Captain Zaras! Your poetry made me weep!’ Those were her first words to him, and they brought him down on one knee before her. His face was turned away from me so I was unable to see his reply. However it made Tehuti laugh.

‘You are gallant, Captain. But I will only forgive you on one condition. That is if you will promise to sing for us again one day soon.’ Zaras must have acquiesced, for she went on, ‘I shall hold you to that promise.’ He came to his feet and backed away from her respectfully.

Good! I thought. Come away from there, you silly boy. You are out-matched. You are in deeper danger right now than you will ever be on the field of battle. But Tehuti stopped him with a graceful gesture.

‘How clumsy of me!’ I read her lips again. ‘I seem to have dropped one of my rings. I had it on my finger but an instant ago. Will you find it for me, please, Captain Zaras?’

He was as eager as a puppy. He went down at her feet again, searching the ground in front of her. Almost immediately he picked up something; and when he came upright he was facing half towards me so I was able to read his lips.

‘Is this the ring you lost, Your Highness?’

‘Yes indeed. That is it. It was given to me by a very special person; the man whom you eulogized so beautifully this very evening.’ She made no immediate move to take the trinket back from him.

‘You speak of Lord Taita?’

‘Indeed!’ She nodded. ‘But look at the stone in the ring you are holding. See how clear it is.’

‘It is as clear as water,’ he agreed, holding the ring to the light of the nearest lantern. She had forced him to examine it minutely, so now she was satisfied and she held out her hand to him.

‘Thank you, Captain.’ He placed the ring in her cupped hand, and she smiled up at him.

I thought to myself, Even if there is no magic in the ring itself, there is sufficient magic in your smile, Princess Tehuti, to bring the walls of both Memphis and Thebes crashing down. How can a callow youth like Zaras possibly resist your wiles?

T
he first and most urgent task that faced me was to make the three great Cretan triremes disappear without trace. I had to leave no doubt whatsoever in the mind of the Supreme Minos of Crete that Beon of the Hyksos was responsible for the theft of his treasure. His rage would be exacerbated by the knowledge that the culprit was a supposed ally of his.

My first thought was to burn the three ships, and to throw the ashes into the Nile so that the mystery of their disappearance would be perpetuated for all time. But then I considered the huge amount of timber that I would have to destroy.

Egypt is a land almost without substantial forests. For us timber is almost as valuable as gold and silver. I thought about the warships and chariots I could build from the three trireme hulls, and I could not bring myself to put a torch to such hard-won booty.

I discussed this with Pharaoh and Lord Kratas as the supreme commanders of our army.

‘But where in all of Egypt would you hide that amount of timber, Taita, you old rapscallion?’ Kratas demanded. ‘You have not thought about that, have you?’

Pharaoh rallied to my side. ‘One thing you can be absolutely certain of, my Lord Kratas, is that Taita has thought about it. Taita thinks of everything.’

‘Pharaoh is too kind to me. But I do try my humble best,’ I murmured, and Kratas roared with mirth at my protestations.

‘There is nothing humble about you, Taita. Even the smell of your farts is conceited and ostentatious.’ Lord Kratas is my favourite lout; in all of Egypt there is no one who can outdo him in sheer unmitigated boorishness. I ignored him and addressed myself to Pharaoh.

‘Pharaoh is right, as ever. I did have a few ideas on the subject. The fact of the matter is that we will have to station a full regiment at the tomb of your deified father, the god Mamose, to guard the silver bullion stored there. The regiment can be made to serve a dual purpose.’

Even Kratas was listening with attention now.

‘Proceed, Taita!’ Pharaoh urged me.

‘Well, Pharaoh, I have remeasured the ante-chambers to the tomb. If we were to strip the hulls of the triremes down to individual planks, there is space to repack them in those underground chambers where they would be hidden until we had call to use them in some other warlike endeavour.’ I turned to challenge Kratas. ‘No doubt Lord Kratas has a better plan. Perhaps we could take the hulls out into the deep waters of the Red Sea and my Lord Kratas could sink them for us under the sheer weight of the excrement that issues so profusely from between his noble lips?’

‘By the nits in Seth’s matted pubic hairs, Taita, that’s one of your best quips yet. I must remember it!’ Kratas bellowed with laughter. He can take a joke against himself. That’s one of the many things about him that I admire.

It took many weeks and half a regiment of men to break the triremes down into their individual planks and then to number each plank and stack them away in the subterranean ante-chambers. But at last I had completed my disappearing trick and the great ships had vanished completely.

For myself there was an extra benefit in the subterfuge. I was able to manoeuvre Pharaoh into placing Zaras in charge of the task of dismantling and storing the ships, with strict orders to remain within the precincts of the tomb until the task was completed. So when both the princesses, Tehuti and Bekatha separately and in concert, enquired after his whereabouts I was able in all honesty to inform them that Pharaoh had sent him on a very secret military mission from which he was unlikely to return for some considerable time.

The palace of Thebes was for Zaras a far more dangerous place than any Hyksos battlefield. I lay at night sweating in terror for my protégé. Quite apart from the fact that I looked upon him as a loyal friend who had risked his life for me, he was an intrepid soldier, a scholar and now he had revealed himself to be a poet. We had much in common. However, like all men of his age he had an overriding weakness which was in no way mitigated by the fact that most of the time he kept it out of sight, tucked up under his kilt.

I also know just how ruthless and reckless young women can be when their ovaries overheat. My darling little Tehuti’s gonads had caught fire at the first sight of him. I could think of no feasible way to quench the flames.

I
n the days that followed my return to Thebes I found myself overwhelmed by circumstances that assailed me from every direction I turned.

Pharaoh demanded my attendance at all hours to discuss the political storm that was boiling up between the Hyksos and the Supreme Minos.

Aton and I had agreed that in view of the urgency and danger of the situation we should declare a truce between our rival intelligence operations and that for the time being we should pool our resources and cooperate with each other for the safety and perhaps the ultimate survival of our very Egypt.

Strange and nameless men and women appeared and disappeared at our separate doors at all hours of the night, bearing messages and information from the north. Their numbers were only exceeded by those of the carrier pigeons making the same journey. I sometimes fancied that there were so many of our birds aloft at the same time that the sky might actually turn as purple as the colour of their plumage.