Desert God (39 page)

Cautiously the other enemy drivers steered their chariots down the bank into the ford, where the waiting gang shoved and manhandled them across the river. From my perch I had a fine view of the column of enemy chariots backed up behind the ford, waiting their turn to make the crossing. I was able to keep an accurate count of their total number, and I put this at no more than 160 as opposed to the two hundred chariots that Aton had warned me to expect. I knew that the shortfall could be explained by the losses that the Hyksos must have suffered on the long hard drive that they had made up from northern Egypt over the past sixteen days. The design of their vehicles rendered them susceptible to broken axles and shattered wheel rims. There was also the attrition of their horses caused by the long hours of hard driving over torturous terrain and rough roads.

As each chariot made the crossing of the ford and came up the bank to park on the level on this side of the river, the crews hobbled the horses and then turned them loose to graze. Then the men either threw themselves down on the grass to rest and sleep, or they gathered around hastily lit cooking fires to prepare themselves a hot meal.

I was surprised but pleased that their commander allowed such sloppy behaviour and relaxed discipline to prevail while they were in unknown and potentially hostile territory. He posted no sentries or lookouts, and sent no scouts to reconnoitre the road ahead. He even allowed his men to set aside their heavy armour and weapons while they relaxed. Most of them seemed close to exhaustion; and none of them approached the perimeter of the forest in which our chariots were hidden. Even those of them who were forced to answer the call of nature did not wander off too far from their comrades to do their business. Here in this strange and foreign land the Hyksos troops instinctively kept close together for mutual protection.

On the far side of the river the congestion of men, chariots and horses on the road through the forest was gradually relieved. I was counting the chariots as they arrived on this bank. I was anticipating the moment when the enemy had been split into two equal groups and all of them had been completely lulled by the absence of any apparent threat. As the moment drew closer I took the bright yellow silk scarf from my pocket, where I had concealed it, and I unrolled it.

The Hyksos commander in the blue cloak and conspicuous helmet was still standing on the bank above the ford supervising the crossing of his troops. However, I could still see nothing of Zaras or any of his men, although I knew precisely where every one of them was hidden. When he had seen me climb into the tree, Zaras had given me a cheery wave before settling down in his own hide.

The next Hyksos chariot climbed the track out of the river gorge, with the horses lunging against the traces and the men behind it heaving and straining. This was number eighty-five of those who had so far made the river crossing. The Hyksos force was now in the critical position of being divided into two almost equal halves; neither of which was in a position to offer support to the other.

In my tome on the art of war I have written:
An enemy riven is an enemy driven
. This was an opportunity to demonstrate the wisdom of my own teachings.

I stood up slowly, balancing easily on the branch of my tree. I waved the bright yellow scarf three times around my head. Across the river I saw Zaras come to his feet immediately. He raised his clenched fist in my direction, acknowledging my signal. In his other hand he held his war bow, with an arrow nocked and ready.

I waited just long enough to watch the thick undergrowth on both sides of the road come alive with Zaras’ men as they rose from cover. As one man they lifted their bows, poised for the order to release their first volley.

Zaras was first to let his arrow fly. It rose high against the backdrop of the distant blue mountains. I knew which target he had chosen even before his arrow began the drop. The Hyksos commander was still standing on the bank with his back turned to Zaras. He was thrown forward by the heavy strike of the arrow, and he tumbled down the steep bank out of my line of sight.

Zaras already had three more arrows in flight. He is very quick; every bit as fast as I am. His men followed his lead and their missiles rose like a quick dark cloud of locusts and then dropped upon the line of stranded Hyksos chariots strung out along the road between the two companies of bowmen.

In the heat most of the Hyksos charioteers had removed their helmets and body armour. Their horses were protected only by the thick felt battle blankets that covered their backs but left their withers and rumps exposed. I could clearly hear the soft ‘Whump! Whump!’ sound of flint arrowheads striking living flesh, and driving deep.

This was followed immediately by the cries of wounded men and the shrill whinnying of their horses as they also were struck. Pandemonium raged through the closely crowded ranks of our enemies.

Panicking horses reared in their traces and hacked at the men who were trying to lead them with their fore-hooves. Those animals that were struck in the hindquarters lashed out in pain with their back legs, smashing in the bows of the vehicle they were towing and throwing the occupants overboard.

As soon as the drivers lost control of their pain-maddened horses they tried to bolt, but there was no space in which they could manoeuvre. They merely crashed into the chariot which blocked the road ahead of them, and shunted that vehicle into the one ahead of it. Swiftly it developed into a chain reaction that overturned some chariots, tore the wheels off others, maimed horses and drivers and eventually caught those chariots in the front ranks and hurled them down the steep gorge into the river.

Horses, chariots and men slid and rolled down the incline on top of the men and chariots that were already waist deep in the ford, struggling to get across to the far bank. This mass of maddened animals and men, together with the wreckage of their chariots, effectively blocked the ford. There was no escape in that direction.

Each of Zaras’ archers carried fifty arrows and at that close range very few of them missed. I saw one man thrown headlong from the footplate of his chariot who managed miraculously to keep on his feet without being trampled or shredded by the wheel knives. He started to run to get clear of the turmoil, but then he stopped abruptly after only a few strides as three arrows pegged simultaneously into his naked back. The razor-sharp flint heads protruded abruptly from his hairy chest. Elegantly as a dancer, he spun in a pirouette before he collapsed and was sucked from my view into this maelstrom of death.

On my side of the river the Hyksos charioteers who had already managed to cross the ford jumped up from where they were lying in the grass or sitting beside their cooking fires. They stared back in helpless horror at the slaughter of their comrades on the far bank.

I watched no longer, but slid down the trunk of my tree and darted to my chariot. One of my team leaned down and grabbed my arm to swing me up into the cockpit. As I gathered up the reins I gave the order, ‘Cohort will advance. Walk! Trot! Charge!’ My cry was taken up along the line.

In extended line abreast my chariots burst out of the forest at full gallop. Hui and I were in the centre, running wheel to wheel. On both sides of us the squadrons were angled back in arrowhead formation.

Ahead of us most of the Hyksos who had been scattered over the open ground had run back to the bank of the river. Now they crowded there, staring down in helpless horror at the fate that had overtaken their comrades in the ford below them and on the crowded forest road, which was still being flailed by Zaras’ arrow storm.

None of the Hyksos chariots on this bank of the river were manned. There were no horses in the traces to draw them. The knee-haltered animals that had been turned loose were scattered across the open grassland. Most of the enemy drivers turned back from the river, and raced after their animals in a futile attempt to recapture them. The horses were startled by the sudden uproar and confusion and they ran wild. Even their leg hobbles could only slow them to the speed of a running man.

I threw my head back and shouted with laughter to relieve my fear and express my jubilation. Even above the rumble of the wheels and the thunder of hooves on the hard ground I heard Hui echo my laughter. We came down upon them in a solid phalanx, running wheel to wheel with no spaces between us through which any of the Hyksos might escape. Yet still they seemed oblivious to our charge. Most of them were not even looking in our direction. Only those who had given up the race to catch their own teams now stood mesmerized with terror and stared back at us dumbly. They knew that they could not out-run our charge. Our bows were raised, and our arrows were nocked.

When we were less than seventy paces from the nearest of them I shouted the order to let our arrows fly. Even from a racing chariot most of my lads could hit a running man from fifty paces. Most of the fugitives went down before they could reach their vehicles.

I saw only one of them who was able to make it back to where he had parked his chariot. He seized his bow from the weapons bin and a handful of arrows from the quiver. Then he turned back to face us. He was a huge hairy beast of a man, strong and maddened with rage like a wild boar standing at bay before the hounds. He raised his bow and got a single arrow away before our arrows began to strike him. His shaft struck the driver of the chariot three down the line from mine. He was one of Lord Kratas’ sons. He was a fine lad; brave as his father and fifty times more beautiful. He was one of my favourites, and the arrow killed him instantly.

I shot three arrows into the Hyksos brute before he could nock another of this own. Then every second archer in our line was shooting at him, until he bristled with our arrows like a porcupine with quills. But he stayed on his feet and shot one back at me. It struck high on the forehead of my helmet, and glanced away humming, but the shock almost threw me out of the vehicle.

I never suggested that the Hyksos are cowards. In the end it took seventeen arrows to kill this one. Five of them were mine. I counted them later.

After that it was butchery. I am not averse to a little butchery when the opportunity presents itself, especially in circumstances such as these. However, slave-taking is considerably more lucrative than butchery, so I was the first to call to the fleeing Hyksos in their own language, ‘Yield, you whining dogs of Gorrab, or die!’

‘Yield or die!’ The call was taken up along our line of charging chariots: ‘Yield or die!’

Most of the fleeing Hyksos dropped to their knees at my first command and lifted up their empty hands in surrender, but a few of them kept running until my chariot line opened and spread out to encircle them. Then they came up short and panting with exertion and terror. They looked around at the drawn bows which were aimed at them from every direction, and then their terror turned to resignation and one after another they fell to earth with cries of: ‘Mercy, in the name of all the gods! Spare us, great Lord Taita. We meant you no harm.’ The good god Horus will attest that I am by no means a glory-seeker. However, I am honest enough to admit that I was pleased and flattered to be recognized on the battlefield by my own enemies.

‘Put the ropes on these little heroes,’ I ordered Hui. ‘Sweep the field and bring in all their horses. Allow none of them to escape.’

I put my own horses into a tight half-circle and drove them back to the lip of the gorge above the river crossing. I reined in on the crest, and looked down on the carnage that choked the ford and the road beyond it.

Here also the fighting was over and Zaras’ men were taking in their prisoners and gathering the loot. I could see at a quick glance that their casualties had been similar to ours on this side of the river: only light to minimal. I was pleased that Zaras was unhurt and was supervising the work of taking in the prisoners and rounding up the Hyksos horses. These animals were every bit as valuable as the men.

Zaras looked up suddenly and saw me standing on the top of the bank above him. He saluted me and then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the gorge, ‘More power to your sword, Lord Taita! Another good day’s hunting, indeed. I shall soon be able to afford a wife.’

It was a silly little joke. I had already made Zaras a wealthy man with his share of the bounty we had captured at the Tamiat fort. And his quip about taking a wife was not very subtle. Nevertheless I raised a smile and gave him a wave before I turned away.

I sent a horseman out on to the headland behind which the flotilla was hidden with orders to fly the blue recall flag.

By now my jubilation was swiftly evaporating, for the worst part of the day lay ahead of me. I had to deal with the Hyksos horses, many of which were injured. I have always had a deep affection for these animals. I was the first man in Egypt to break and tame one of these marvellous beasts, which only made my duty towards them now more onerous.

Riding ten of the unwounded horses bareback my grooms and I rounded up those surviving horses which were still able to stand. Swiftly I separated out those animals that were unhurt or only lightly wounded and these I sent northwards along the coastal road back to Sidon, with my grooms to herd them along. These were trained chariot animals and therefore particularly valuable.

Those animals which had been grievously or fatally wounded I had despatched at once to put an end to their suffering. First I placed a peace offering of crushed millet before each of them, and when they lowered their heads and took a good mouthful one of my men swung a heavy bronze-headed club down between their ears to shatter the poll of their skull. Their deaths were mercifully swift.

Once this ghastly work was done I turned my attention to our Hyksos prisoners. My order of precedence was clear-cut. As much as I loved the horses, I hated their owners with a deep and bitter loathing. I moved quickly along the ranks of kneeling men examining each of them in a cursory manner. If they were unwounded or were only lightly injured I sent them down to the beach to await the return of my galleys.