Egypt (33 page)

But Nakht's response to this was simply to close his eyes. Aziru was incensed.

‘Don't you
dare
close your eyes,' he screamed, brandishing his polished scimitar. ‘I am Aziru. I am a King! Look upon me. And know this: there is a force of darkness awake in this world. There is a great man whose shadow will fall upon this world, and none shall escape his vengeance.'

Aziru's face bore the mad grin of an enchanted fanatic, as he raised the blade high into the air, and held it there, the more to torture Nakht with fear and anticipation; but Nakht's eyes still remained closed. From where did my old friend find such strength to face his own death? He looked like a man at prayer, invoking from deep within himself the support of his God. Suddenly I felt anger rising up inside me like a storm. Aziru, too, was now beside himself, shouting: ‘He will destroy all that has been. He will bring his darkness to the world. Do you know his name? You, envoy, keeper of the secrets, Scribe of all Truths? You do not know his name. Names are powers, and I invoke his name…'

Neither he nor Inanna saw me as I ran at him, tackling him from behind, and throwing him to the ground. His scimitar clattered away across the floor. I gripped his head in my hands and beat it with all my strength against the floor. He struggled like a demon, but rage gave me strength, and, though he turned to face me, I held his writhing body down like a snake's. My knees on his arms, I smashed his skull against the ground, over and over; his expression went from astonishment to rage, and as the back of his skull cracked open and caved in, to agony, and finally emptiness.

‘You can stop now. He is dead,' said Nakht quietly.

Blood spread silently all around Aziru's shattered skull. I looked up. Inanna had disappeared. Nakht was standing very still, with Aziru's scimitar in his hand, a strange look on his face.

‘Your loyalty is commendable,' he said.

‘Come, let us find Prince Zannanza and Simut,' I said. ‘Now is our chance to escape.'

But then, out of the blue, the remarkable, long, splendid note of a single Egyptian war trumpet reverberated through the air; and in the silence that followed, the sound of a thousand furious, hissing serpents rising up from the valley floor; and then we heard cries and shouts of confusion from inside the compound walls.

I ran to the entrance in time to see a second glittering volley of arrows rain down into the compound, thudding into the bodies of more of Inanna's men who fell like slain animals. The attackers had set fire to the compound gates.

‘Who is it?' I shouted.

‘
Horemheb
,' replied Nakht. There was a new light shining in his eyes.

If that was true, then everything was lost.

Without warning, units of Egyptian archers armed with magnificent bows and elite soldiers with shields, spears and curved swords leapt through the flames that had already consumed the wooden gates; the archers quickly and accurately picked off Inanna's men as they scrambled in wild confusion towards the compound buildings. More units of soldiers followed, fanning out with perfect discipline, killing everything that moved with merciless, scrupulous precision.

‘Give me the scimitar!' I shouted. ‘I'll hold them off for as long as I can.'

Nakht hesitated.

‘I can't let you do that,' he said.

‘You have to. Get back to Thebes. Warn the Queen. Look after my family. Tell them I love them.'

We stared eye to eye. For a strange moment I felt I was looking at the face of a complete stranger; something in his expression and in the poise of his body had changed, and I did not know him. He glanced along the blade of the scimitar, admiring it in the light, and fleetingly I imagined he might even strike me dead. Smoke was everywhere, and behind Nakht, along the corridor, I could see the red glow of fire. Suddenly he smiled.

‘It is only by dying that we find everlasting life,' he said, mysteriously.

‘This is no time for philosophy. Go now!' I shouted.

He grinned, and then, brandishing the weapon, he turned and ran into the billowing smoke.

Suddenly the chamber was full of Egyptian soldiers. They surrounded me, their swords at my throat; but I shouted: ‘I am Egyptian! My name is Rahotep. This is the body of Aziru of Amurru. I killed him!'

‘Don't move!' shouted one of them. ‘Face down on the ground. Now!'

I complied. Then, from a side chamber, I heard Inanna shouting, as the soldiers dragged her out by her feet. She stared wildly at me and Aziru's corpse.

Another trumpet blast sounded the call of victory from inside the compound. I heard the clatter of more soldiers running in, hurriedly assuming a formal position; and then, when all was absolutely silent, someone entered the chamber.

‘You have deprived us of the pleasure of capturing and interrogating this great enemy of Egypt,' said Horemheb, General of the Armies of the Two Lands. I was about to reply, but he pressed his foot down on my face. ‘Be silent. Say not a word. I know exactly who you are, Rahotep. Your own interrogation will come soon enough.'

And then he turned to Inanna.

‘Bring this revolting creature outside,' he said. ‘And put that man in chains.'

My hands and feet were bound like a captive of war, and I was dragged out into the courtyard, and thrown down next to Prince Zannanza and Simut, who were both bound and gagged. Simut stared at me in amazement and something like contempt, and then turned his face away.

The compound buildings were on fire. Gusts of bitter smoke drifted into my eyes. Beyond the walls, in the great opium fields, fires raged hugely, turning the great sky dark red and black. The sun was a pale disc, trapped among the thick, billowing clouds of smoke. Everywhere, I heard screams and cries. I knew then that Nakht could not have escaped alive.

The Egyptian troops moved confidently and swiftly around the destroyed ground of the compound. I watched them pick up crying children, and the women who held them close, and hurl them by the arms or legs into the burning pyres, where they fell screaming amid little explosions of bright sparks, and rushes of crackling flame. It seemed to me the God Seth had truly returned to the world, destroying everything in his rage.

Horemheb strode among the horror, issuing orders, and calmly assessing the progress of the massacre. He turned to a line of Inanna's men, and one by one smote each of them like a king, caving in the backs of their skulls. Their bodies were cast on to the pyres as well. Inanna watched the execution of her army and the destruction of her kingdom with her head held high. On her face I saw a noble melancholy that touched me. And when it was all done, Horemheb ordered his men to hold her up by the hair. Her face was lit by the light of the fires. She looked around her world, knowing this was the end of her life. Finally, her gaze rested on me, and she gave me a look I will never forget, of pity and of loss. And then Horemheb slashed his sword across her throat; blood flowed down her bare breasts, and slowly she slumped forward. Then, in a final act of remorseless triumph, before she was dead, an officer hacked her head from her neck, impaled it on a pole, and stuck the pole in the ground. The soldiers cheered obediently.

And then Horemheb turned his attention to us. His blue-black hair was combed precisely from his imperious forehead. He wore a cuirass made of many overlapping black leather scales that imitated the feathered wings of a falcon. His shield, slung over his shoulder, was covered in cheetah skin, gilded along the edges, and with a gold plate in the centre bearing his name and office. These were the self-conscious trappings of a King; and he looked utterly self-possessed and confident wearing them.

His eyes were stony with contempt as he glanced at the three of us. He nodded to one of his men, who quickly removed the gags from Simut and Prince Zannanza. They coughed and spluttered, gasping at the smoky air.

‘The Prince Zannanza, pointless son of our great enemies, the Hittites. The Commander of the Palace Guard, Simut. And Rahotep, Seeker of Mysteries,' he said. ‘I remember you well. You are a loyal servant of the Queen. And that of course is why you are here.'

‘I am here by her command,' I said. ‘Life, prosperity, health to her. I am truly her loyal servant.'

‘Much good it will do you now. For with those futile words you have condemned yourself. And speaking of loyal servants, where is the Royal Envoy Nakht?' he said.

None of us replied.

‘I know he was here with you. He cannot have escaped. My soldiers have conquered this valley and encircled this miserable hovel; they have orders to bring him to me alive. He will then be interrogated and executed. Stand up, Prince Zannanza, son of the Hittites.'

Zannanza did so, mustering all his courage to confront the general.

‘So this is the weak boy they thought to marry to the Queen of Egypt,' he said. ‘They thought with this trivial juvenile they could prevent my great victory.'

He paused and glanced at his men. They laughed subserviently, coldly. But Horemheb did not laugh.

‘What should I do with you?' he said, his face now very close to Prince Zannanza's.

‘Let me go home,' whispered the Prince. ‘Let me go home…'

Horemheb cupped his ear, as if he had not heard properly.

‘Speak up! Don't whisper like a girl.'

‘Let me go home!' cried Zannanza.

‘The Hittite prince wishes to go home!'

Horemheb's men sniggered. Horemheb made an exaggerated gesture to the Prince.

‘Go, then. Please, sire. You are free! Do you know which way is home? I suppose it is a long way, so you had better start now.'

Prince Zannanza's face took on a new depth of despair.

‘
Go!
' yelled Horemheb, whacking him hard on the back of the head. The Prince shuffled forward, his ankles and wrists still bound, taking tiny, terrified steps. Horemheb's men, in silence, opened up a path for him to pass through, towards the gates. Once he fell, but was hoisted to his feet, and pushed on. Finally he lost all strength, and sank slowly to his knees in despair. Horemheb came to stand before him.

‘Are you still here, Prince?' he said mockingly.

The Prince raised his face. Horemheb slowly produced his sword. It was long and sharp.

‘What are we going to do with you?' he said, as if to a truculent child.

‘He is innocent. Do not kill him. Release him to his people!' I shouted.

Horemheb turned to me.

‘None of you will be released. You are all traitors.'

And then he turned back to the Prince.

‘Your time has come. Pray to your Gods now.'

Prince Zannanza uttered a few words of a prayer in his own language, and then the sword sang through the air, separating his head from his body, with a gust of blood, which spattered across the ground and raised a grim, mirthless cheer from the assembled soldiers.

Horemheb picked up Zannanza's head by the hair.

‘Send this to his father, Suppiluliuma of the Hittites. And tell him there will be no marriage between Egypt and Hatti. Tell him there will never be peace. Tell him I, Horemheb, hold the royal crook and flail of the Two Lands, and Egypt has no need of his weak son!'

The officer bowed briefly, ran to a horse, and swiftly galloped out of the compound, Zannanza's once-beautiful head dangling from his fist and staring back sightlessly, as if he wanted to tell me something. The hairs on my neck bristled; I suddenly remembered Khety's screaming head in my opium dream; and an idea came to me.

Horemheb turned to Simut and me. The opium was betraying me again. I felt an intense frustration in my skin. I was crawling with something–it felt like spiders, or ants. I desperately needed to scratch myself, but my hands were bound.

‘And here we have the leftovers. Kill them, and then burn everything. Leave nothing but ash,' said the general, and turned away. His men approached us, calmly unsheathing their swords for yet more bloodshed.

‘If you kill us, you will never hear what I know,' I shouted to his back.

Horemheb turned back to me.

‘What has happened to you, Rahotep? You are an opium addict–look at you, shaking like a lunatic. You are a disgrace to Egypt,' he said.

He turned away again.

‘A platoon of the Egyptian army is smuggling opium into Thebes,' I said.

An expression of authentic surprise slipped unguarded across his haughty face.

‘What did you say?'

‘The General of the Armies of the Two Lands would wish to know if one of his own platoons had betrayed him,' I said.

‘You are lying to save your skin,' he sneered. ‘Besides, I have heard this story before. It was not true then and it is not now.'

‘I am not lying. It is a platoon within the Seth division,' I said.

‘You dare to accuse the Seth division of such corruption?' he drawled.

‘Release me, and I will tell you why,' I said.

He hit me across the face.

‘Do not bargain with me.'