Desert God (38 page)

Suddenly a chariot of Hyksos design came dashing down a rutted track through the scrub above the beach. There were three men in it. All of them were clad in distinctive Hyksos armour with bowl-shaped bronze helmets. The driver reined in his horse before they reached the treacherously soft sands at the edge of the sea. All three of them jumped down from the carriage and started out in pursuit of the running women. They paid very little attention to our vessels. We were too far offshore to offer them any obvious threat. It is strange how landsmen understand so little about ships, and what they are capable of. All their attention was fixed on the women they were pursuing. I knew from bitter experience that, when they had finished with the mother, they would use her infant every bit as brutally.

‘Are you going in to rescue those women?’ Toran cupped his hands around his mouth to shout up at me from the quarterdeck.

‘There is no place to land safely. Better to let those Hyksos swine live now if we can slaughter them and two hundred of their brethren later,’ I called down to him, and then gave the order to the helm to lay the ship on an offshore course. Toran remained at the ship’s stern rail staring back at the beach, watching how the charioteers treated the women they had captured. I ignored his outraged shouts of horror and fury.

I did not even glance back at what was taking place on the beach. I had seen it all a hundred or more times before, but that in no way made it any easier to watch. Instead I concentrated all my attention on taking my little flotilla well clear of the land and then heading back parallel to the shore, the same way we had come.

A few hours previously we had sailed past a small bay guarded by rocky headlands. This had been gouged out of the mainland by a sizeable river. In this dry season the river itself had been reduced to a trickle. The coastal road crossed it at a ford guarded by steep and rocky banks on each side. These would offer a serious obstacle to the column of chariots coming up along the road towards the port of Sidon. The Hyksos would be forced to manhandle each individual chariot across the ford. Deprived of their manoeuvrability, they would be vulnerable while this was happening.

Earlier in the day as we sailed past this bay I had taken note of a narrow beach of yellow sand, tucked in behind the northernmost headland. This was protected from the main thrust of the sea by the headland itself. The slope was gradual and the sands looked to be firm enough to allow our chariots to pass over them and reach the hard ground beyond.

I headed back along the coast towards this natural site for an ambuscade. As I passed each of my other galleys I steered close enough to shout my orders across to the men on board. One after the other they went about and followed the
Outrage
back to the landing I had chosen. We had all canvas set and the oarsmen had increased the stroke from cruise speed to attack speed. Cruise is the stroke that the men on the oars can maintain for three hours without respite, while attack speed will exhaust them completely in an hour.

The wakes churned white and curling under our sterns as we raced for the landing ground. We were moving so fast that I doubted the oarsmen could keep up the stroke rate. However, their blood was up and they never faltered until we saw the bay open up ahead of our bows.

I studied it eagerly and realized that it was even better suited to my purpose than I had at first imagined. The beach was wide enough to accommodate two of my galleys simultaneously. This would speed up the task of getting my force ashore.

In addition to this benefit, I saw now that the road along which the Hyksos chariot column would be forced to approach the ford was lined with thick and almost impenetrable bush and trees. This would severely hamper the deployment of the rear echelon of their chariots. They would be unable to advance because the ford would be blocked by the leading vehicles being dragged through it. They could not retreat swiftly because the track was too narrow to allow the chariots to manoeuvre handily. If I concealed my archers in the bushes on each side of the track they would be able to shoot their arrows from murderously close range into these stranded vehicles.

I signalled to Hui to bring his galley up alongside me as we approached the bay. I shouted my orders across the narrow gap between our ships. He understood at once what I was asking for and as we came behind the protection of the headland we dropped our sails in unison and used opposing thrust on our banks of oars to spin our ships through a half-circle so that we were stern on to the beach. Our chariots were now facing the stern loading ramp. The horses were in the traces, and the crews were in the cockpits of the chariots, fully armed and armoured.

At the last moment Toran rushed down from the upper deck and demanded to be allowed to ride with me in the leading vehicle. I admired his courage, but he was no warrior. Ashore he would only be a hindrance. He was my contact with the Supreme Minos and I dare not risk having him killed in the impending battle.

‘Stay on board, and observe the action so that later you can report to the Supreme Minos!’ I dismissed him brusquely. At that moment the ship’s stern came up so hard on the hard wet sand that Toran was thrown off his feet, and he rolled into the scuppers. This solved my problem and I left him to fend for himself.

‘Go! Go! Go!’ I shouted as the stern ramp dropped open with a crash. I whipped up my team and steered them down the ramp. The horses splashed through the water that reached no higher than their hocks. As soon as they lunged up on to the dry sand, my crew and I jumped down from the cockpit and put our combined weight to the frame, helping the horses to drag the chariot up the beach on to hard dry land. Then we immediately jumped back into the cockpit and headed inland at a canter. Chariot after chariot rolled down the ramp and followed mine in quick succession.

Before we reached the coastal road we came suddenly upon a shabby little village that up to this moment had been hidden from my view by a fold in the ground. It consisted of no more than a dozen squalid hovels. As we galloped between them the occupants came rushing out. The women and their brats were squealing with terror. There were ten men with them. All of them were dressed in rags and they were so filthy that their features were barely recognizable as human. But the men had armed themselves with wooden clubs, and they faced us in a pathetic show of defiance.

Without stopping I bellowed at them in Sumerian, ‘Take your women and children and run for a safe place in the forest! An army of rapists and killers is coming up the road from the south. They will be here before noon. Run! Get out of here quickly as you can.’ I knew that they would have a hideout in the forest not too far away. They would not have survived this long without one. I looked back and saw them already acting on my warning. Carrying the children and a few meagre bundles of their possessions, they had abandoned their huts and were scurrying into the scrub like a pack of terrified wild animals. I paid them no further heed, but headed for the coastal road which I could now see ahead of me.

When I reached it I halted without crossing over. All seventy of my chariots had come ashore safely and were bunched up behind me in close order. I looked out to sea and saw that my flotilla of ships was already half a league down the coast and aiming to round the next headland behind which they would anchor. Of course their oars were shipped, for they had insufficient men to row them. Every man who was not needed to work the sails had taken up arms and come ashore under Zaras’ command. They were following my squadron of chariots at the double.

I could only guess at how long it would take the Hyksos column to arrive at the ford, but unless they were delayed by the pleasures of pillage and rape my guess was that it would not be much more than two or three hours, only just sufficient time to make my dispositions to meet them. While I waited impatiently for Zaras to come up with his foot-soldiers, I studied the terrain on both sides of the river carefully.

Beyond the ford the forest was too dense for my chariots. I would send Zaras and his infantry across the river to take advantage of the thick cover there. However, on this side of the river there was open ground from the beach where we had landed right up to the edge of the forest two hundred yards beyond the road along which we were now parked. Here I would have space to deploy my chariots to the greatest advantage.

Once I had decided on my plan of action, I ordered Hui to take his squadron across the dusty road and conceal them along the verge of the forest, there to await my further orders. Hui was a grand master of chariots. I knew I could place my trust in him. I watched as he ordered his drivers to dismount from their vehicles and walk the horses slowly across the road, so as not to raise a dust cloud to alert the Hyksos to our presence.

As soon as each vehicle was safely across the drivers remounted and then trotted over the springy turf to the edge of the forest. Here they dismounted again and reversed the chariot into the cover of the thick undergrowth. Then they went back into the forest to cut leafy branches, which they dragged forward to build a screen in front of the line of chariots. I walked back with Hui to the edge of the road, and we made certain that the chariots were completely hidden.

While all this was taking place Zaras arrived at the road with his archers. In addition to the powerful recurved bow each of them carried, every man had a hank of spare bowstrings draped around his neck and three leather quivers packed with arrows slung over his shoulders, fifty arrows for each man.

I gave them all a few minutes to catch their breath while I pointed out to Zaras where I wanted him to position himself on the far side of the ford. Then I sent them away again, and watched from the high bank as they waded across the stream two hundred yards below the ford.

As each of them reached the far bank they smeared their faces and the backs of their hands with black river mud, before they climbed the far bank. Zaras and Akemi, his trusted lieutenant, were the last two men up the slope, making certain that they had left no sign to alert the Hyksos to their presence.

Once they reached the level ground above the gorge Zaras concealed his men in the dense forest that bordered the road, placing them at intervals of twenty paces down each side of the track. They were hidden even from close range by the dense foliage and their masks of black mud. The Hyksos column would have to pass between these double ranks of deadly skilled archers.

When Zaras’ men had taken up their ambush positions I hurried back towards the edge of the forest where my line of chariots waited in ambush.

Once I was satisfied that they were completely hidden, I selected a tall tree which grew close behind where my own chariot stood. Without much difficulty I climbed to its upper branches. From this vantage point I had a good view of the road on both sides of the ford. I was pleased that even from this height I could not make out any trace of Zaras’ men on the far side of the river.

I was at last satisfied with our preparations to receive the Hyksos raiders, and I looked out to sea only to find that my flotilla of warships had also completely disappeared behind the rocky promontory to the north of the river mouth. The sea was empty and the forest around me was still and silent, not disturbed by even the rustle of a wild animal or the call of a bird.

I waited on my branch until I judged by the changing height and angle of the sun that another hour had passed as slowly as a cripple without his crutches. Then at the limit of my field of vision I picked out a pale smear of dust rising above the forest far beyond where Zaras waited with his archers.

This cloud of dust gradually drew closer and became more substantial. Suddenly at the base of the cloud I saw a flash of reflected sunlight off a polished metal surface, a helmet or perhaps the blade of a weapon.

Shortly after this I saw the first pair of chariots appear around the distant bend in the road. There was no doubt that they were Hyksos. The high and ungainly design of the carriage and the clumsy wheels with the gleaming knives set into the rims were all distinctive.

The Hyksos column entered that section of the road along which Zaras waited with his archers. When the head of the column reached the bank of the ford the Hyksos officer in the leading chariot raised his gloved fist to signal the squadron coming up behind him to halt.

Then the commander very carefully studied the ford below him and the ground on our side of the river. Even from this distance I could tell that he was a fop. His cloak was dyed a vivid Tyrian blue. Three or four sparkling necklaces hung at his throat. His helmet was of polished bronze, with hinged silver cheek-pieces that were cunningly engraved, and I coveted it.

Satisfied at last that there was nothing untoward waiting for him, the Hyksos officer jumped down from his vehicle and ran down the rocky track to reach the river at the bottom of it. He did not hesitate but with three of his men following him he plunged into the water and waded across to the opposite bank. Satisfied that it was fordable, he turned and climbed back to where he had left his chariot. He mounted up, and with shouts of encouragement to his horses he steered them down the bank.

His horses balked on the verge of the river, but he cracked his whip over their heads and reluctantly they edged forward until the water lapped their bellies. Then suddenly the offside wheel struck a submerged rock and the chariot was thrown over on its side. The horses in the traces were dragged down on to their knees and pinned there by the weight of the capsized vehicle and the pressure of the running water. The driver and his two crewmen were flung overboard and pulled under by the weight of their armour and accoutrements.

Immediately the men in the following vehicles jumped down and waded out to the floundering men and horses. With a hubbub of shouted orders and counter-orders they pulled the men to the surface before they drowned, and then they lifted the chariot back on to its wheels. Once the horses had regained their footing they heaved the vehicle out of the water and up the steep bank on to level ground directly in front of where our own chariots were hidden.