Pharaoh

I followed their example and reined my own steed down to a halt, facing them but with a few dozen strides separating myself and the leader of the group. We studied each other in silence for the time it takes to draw a deep breath, and then I lifted the visor of my battered helmet to show my face.

The leader of this foreign band of horsemen laughed. It was a most unexpected sound in these fraught circumstances, but at the same time it was hauntingly familiar. I knew that laugh. However, I stared at him for fully half a minute before I recognized him. He was a greybeard now, but big and muscled and sure of himself. He was no longer the young buck with the fresh and eager face searching to find his place in this hard, unforgiving world. Clearly he had found that place. Now he had the air of high command about his person and a mighty army at his back.

‘Zaras?’ I said his name dubiously. ‘It cannot possibly be you, can it?’

‘Only the name is somewhat different but everything else about me is the same, Taita. Except possibly I am a trifle older and I trust a little wiser.’

‘You remember me still, after all these years. How long has it been?’ I demanded of him wonderingly.

‘It has been a mere thirty years, and yes, I remember you still. I will never forget you; not if I live for ten times longer than I have already.’

Now it was my turn to laugh. ‘You say your name is changed. What name are you known by now, good Zaras?’

‘I have taken the name Hurotas. My former name had certain unfortunate connotations to it,’ he replied. I smiled at this blatant understatement.

‘So now you have the same name as the King of Lacedaemon?’ I asked. I had heard that name before, and it was always uttered with the deepest awe and respect.

‘The exact same,’ he agreed, ‘for the young Zaras you once knew has become that king of whom you now speak.’

‘Surely you jest?’ I exclaimed in astonishment, for it seemed that my old subordinate of yesteryear had risen high in the world – in fact to the very pinnacle. ‘But if you speak the truth tell me what has happened to the sister of Pharaoh Tamose, the royal Princess Tehuti, whom you abducted out of my charge and care.’

‘The word you are groping for is wooed and not abducted. And she is no longer a princess.’ He shook his head firmly. ‘She is now a queen, because she showed the good sense to marry me.’

‘Is she still the most beautiful woman in the world?’ I asked more than a trifle wistfully.

‘In the vernacular of my kingdom, Sparta means “the loveliest one”. I named the city in her honour. So now the Princess Tehuti has become Queen Sparta of Lacedaemon.’

‘And what of the others who are also dear to my heart and memory that you took north with you, all those years ago—?’

‘Of course, you are speaking of Princess Bekatha and Hui.’ King Hurotas cut my questions short. ‘They are also now husband and wife. However, Hui is no longer a lowly captain. He is the Lord High Admiral and the commander of the Lacedaemon fleet; the same fleet that you see down there on the river.’ He pointed behind him at the tremendous array of shipping anchored against the bank of the Nile. ‘Right now he is supervising the landing of the remainder of my expeditionary force.’

‘And so, King Hurotas, why have you returned to Egypt now after all these years?’ I demanded.

His expression became fierce as he replied: ‘I came because at heart I am still an Egyptian. I heard from my spies that you in Egypt were hard pressed and on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Hyksos. These animals have despoiled our once lovely homeland. They have raped and murdered our women and children; among their victims were my own mother and my two young sisters. After they had violated them they threw them still alive on to the blazing ruins of our home and laughed as they watched them burn. I have returned to Egypt to avenge their deaths and to save more of our Egyptian people from a similar fate. If I succeed I hope to forge a lasting alliance between our two countries: Egypt and Lacedaemon.’

‘Why have you waited twenty-three years before you returned?’

‘As I am sure you will recall, Taita, when we last parted we were a mere handful of young runaways on three small galleys. We were flying from the tyranny of a Pharaoh who wanted to separate us from the women we loved.’

I acknowledged the truth of this with a nod. It was safe to do so now, for the Pharaoh in question was Tamose and, as of yesterday, he was dead.

King Hurotas, who had once been the young Zaras, went on, ‘We were seeking a new homeland. It took all this time for us to find one and build it up into a formidable power with an army of more than five thousand of the finest fighting men.’

‘How did you achieve that, Your Majesty?’ I asked.

‘By a little polite diplomacy,’ he replied guilelessly, but when I looked sceptical he chuckled and admitted, ‘together with more than a little blatant force of arms and outright conquest.’ With a wave of his hand he indicated the mighty army that he was disembarking on to the east bank of the Nile below us. ‘When one has a warlike array such as that you see before you, strangers are seldom disposed to argument.’

‘That sounds more like your style,’ I agreed, but Hurotas dismissed my retort with a nod and a smile and went on with his explanation.

‘I knew it was my patriotic duty to give you all the succour and assistance in my power. I would have come a year earlier, but my naval squadrons were not sufficient to carry my army. I had to build more ships.’

‘Then you are more than welcome, Your Majesty. You have arrived at precisely the critical moment. Another hour and you would have been too late.’ I swung down from the back of my horse, but he anticipated me and he jumped down from his own mount, as sprightly as a man half his age, and strode to meet me. We embraced like brothers, which was what we were at heart. However, I felt more than mere brotherly love for him, for not only had he brought me the means to save my very Egypt from this marauding pack of vicious predators, but it seemed also that he had brought back to me my darling Tehuti, the daughter of Queen Lostris. Mother and daughter, those two women are still the ones I have loved best in all my long life.

Our embrace was warm but fleeting. I drew back and punched Hurotas lightly on his shoulder. ‘There will be more time for these reminiscences anon. However, at this moment there are several thousand Hyksos waiting at the head of the pass for our attention: mine and yours.’ I pointed back up the ridge, and Hurotas looked startled. But he recovered almost immediately, and grinned with genuine pleasure.

‘Forgive me, old friend. I should have known that you would provide me with generous entertainment immediately on my arrival. Let us go up there at once and deal with a few of these nasty Hyksos, shall we?’

I shook my head in mock disapproval. ‘You have always been impetuous. Do you remember what the old bull replied when the young bull suggested that they rush down upon the herd of cows and cover a few of them?’

‘Tell me what old bull said,’ he demanded with anticipation. He has always enjoyed my little jokes. I did not want to disappoint him now.

‘The old bull answered, Let us rather saunter down at our leisure and cover the lot of them.’

Hurotas let out a delighted guffaw. ‘Tell me your plan, Taita, for I know you have one. You always do.’

I set it out for him quickly because it was a simple plan, and then I turned away and vaulted back into the saddle of my mount. Without a backwards glance I led Merab and my small band of horsemen back up the hill. I knew that I could rely on Hurotas who had once been Zaras to carry out my instructions to the letter; even if he was now a king he was sufficiently astute to know that my counsel was always the best available.

As I crested the hill again I saw that I had not arrived ahead of time, for the Hyksos horde was advancing once more upon the battered and depleted ranks of Egypt, who stood to meet them. I urged my horse into a gallop and reached the shield wall only seconds before the enemy fell upon us again. I turned my mount free and seized the bronze shield that somebody thrust into my hands as I squeezed into my station in the centre of the front rank. Then with a sound like summer thunder the Hyksos front rank crashed, bronze on bronze, into our enfeebled line once again.

Almost at once I was swallowed up in the nightmare of battle wherein time loses all meaning and every second seems to last an eternity. Death pressed in upon us in a dark miasma of terror. Finally, after what seemed like an hour or a hundred years, I felt the unbearable pressure of Hyksos bronze upon our fragile front line ease abruptly, and then we were moving rapidly forward rather than stumbling backwards.

The discordant bellowing of triumphant enemy war cries was replaced by terrified screams of pain and despair in the barbaric Hyksos tongue. Then the enemy ranks seemed to shrivel and collapse upon themselves so that my forward vision was no longer totally obscured.

I saw that Hurotas had followed my orders exactly, as I knew he would. He had moved his men in two wings around both our flanks simultaneously, catching the Hyksos aggressors in a perfect encircling movement, like a shoal of sardines in the fisherman’s net.

The Hyksos fought with the recklessness born of despair, but my shield wall held firm and Hurotas’ Lacedaemons were fresh and eager for the fray. They drove the hated foe against our line, like slabs of raw meat thrown down upon the butcher’s block. Swiftly the conflict changed from battle to slaughter, and finally the surviving Hyksos threw down their weapons and fell to their knees on the ground that had become a muddy quagmire of blood. They pleaded for mercy but King Hurotas laughed at their pleas for quarter.

He shouted at them, ‘My mother and my infant sisters made the same entreaty to your fathers as you make to me now. I give you the answer that your heartless fathers gave my dear ones. Die, you bastards, die!’

And when the echoes of their last death cry had sunk into silence, King Hurotas led his men back across that sanguine field and they cut the throats of any of the enemy who still showed the faintest flicker of life. I admit that in the heat of battle I was able to set aside my usual noble and compassionate instincts and join in celebrating our victory by sending more than a few of the wounded Hyksos into the waiting arms of their foul god Seth. Every throat I cut I dedicated to the memory of one of my brave men who had died earlier that same day on this field.

Night had fallen and the full moon stood high in the sky before King Hurotas and I were able to leave the battlefield. He had learned from me much earlier in our friendship that all our wounded must be brought to safety and cared for, and then the perimeter of the camp had to be secured and sentries posted before the commanders could see to their own requirements. Thus it was well after midnight before we had fulfilled our responsibilities and the two of us were able to ride down the hill to the bank of the Nile where his flagship was moored.

When we went on board Admiral Hui was on the deck to meet us. After Hurotas he was one of my favourites, and we greeted each other like the old and dear friends that we truly were. He had lost most of the once dense bush of hair on his head and his naked scalp peeped shyly through the gaps in the grey strands, but his eyes were still bright and alert and his ubiquitous good humour warmed my heart. He led us to the captain’s cabin and with his own hands poured both the king and I large bowls of red wine mulled with honey. I have seldom tasted anything as delicious as that draught. I allowed Hui to replenish my bowl more than once before exhaustion interrupted our joyous and raucous reunion.

We slept until the sun was almost clear of the horizon the following morning and then we bathed in the river, washing off the grime and bloodstains of the previous day’s exertions. Then when the combined armies of Egypt and Lacedaemon were assembled on the river-bank we mounted up on fresh horses and with both Hurotas’ legions and my own surviving fellows marching proudly ahead of us, pennants flying, drums beating and lutes playing, we rode up from the river to the Heroes’ Gate of the city of Luxor to report our glorious victory to the new Pharaoh of Egypt, Utteric Turo, eldest son of Tamose.

When we reached the gates of the golden city we found them closed and bolted. I rode forward and hailed the keepers of the gate. I was forced to repeat my demands for entry more than once, before the guards appeared on top of the wall.

‘Pharaoh wants to know who you are and what is your business,’ the captain of the watch demanded of me. I knew him well. His name was Weneg. He was a handsome young officer who wore the Gold of Valour, Egypt’s highest military honour. I was shocked that he didn’t recognize me.

‘Your memory serves you poorly, Captain Weneg,’ I called back. ‘I am Lord Taita, Chairman of the Royal Council, and commanding general of Pharaoh’s army. I come to report our glorious victory over the Hyksos.’

‘Wait here!’ Captain Weneg ordered and his head disappeared below the battlements. We waited an hour and then another.

‘It seems that you may have given offence to the new Pharaoh.’ King Hurotas gave me a wry smile. ‘Who is he, and do I know him?’

I shrugged. ‘His name is Utteric Turo, and you have missed nothing.’

‘Why was he not on the field of battle with you over these last days, as was his royal duty?’

‘He is a gentle child of thirty-five years of age, not given to low company and rough behaviour,’ I explained, and Hurotas snorted with laughter.

‘You have not lost your way with words, good Taita!’

Finally Captain Weneg reappeared on the ramparts of the city wall. ‘Pharaoh Utteric Turo the Great has graciously granted you the right to enter the city. However, he orders you to leave your horses outside the walls. The person standing with you may accompany you, but no others.’

I gasped to hear the sheer arrogance of the reply. A retort rose to my lips, but I bit down hard upon it. The entire army of Egypt together with that of Lacedaemon were listening with full attention. Almost three thousand men. I was not disposed to follow that line of discussion.

‘Pharaoh is most gracious,’ I replied. The Heroes’ Gate swung ponderously open.

‘Come along with me, you unnamed person standing with me,’ I told Hurotas grimly. Shoulder to shoulder, hands gripping the pommels of our swords but with visors raised, we marched into the city of Luxor. However, I did not feel like a conquering hero.

Captain Weneg and a troop of his men marched ahead of us. The city streets were hauntingly silent and empty. It must have taken the full two hours’ waiting that Pharaoh had enforced upon us to clear the streets of the customary swarming crowds. When we reached the palace the gates swung open seemingly of their own accord, without fanfare or cheering multitudes gathered to welcome us.

We climbed the wide staircase to the entrance of the royal audience hall, but the cavernous building was empty and silent except for the echoes of our bronze-shod sandals. We marched down the aisle of empty stone seats and approached the throne on its high dais at the far end of the hall.

We halted before the empty throne. Captain Weneg turned to me and his voice was harsh, his manner brusque. ‘Wait here!’ he snapped, and then without lightening his expression he silently mouthed the words which I had no difficulty lip-reading: ‘Forgive me, my Lord Taita. This form of welcome is not of my choosing. I, personally, hold you in the highest esteem.’

‘Thank you, Captain,’ I replied. ‘You have performed your duty admirably.’ Weneg acknowledged me with a clenched fist held to his chest. He led his men away. Hurotas and I were left standing at attention before the empty throne.

I did not need to warn him that we were certainly under observation from some hidden peephole in the stone walls. Nevertheless I felt my own patience under strain from the strange and unnatural antics of this new Pharaoh.

Finally I heard the sound of voices and distant laughter, which became closer and louder until the curtains covering the entrance to the hall behind the throne were jerked aside and the Pharaoh Utteric Turo, self-styled the Great, strolled into the audience hall. His hair was dressed in ringlets which hung to his shoulders. There were garlands of flowers around his neck. He was eating a pomegranate and spitting the pips on to the stone floor. He ignored Hurotas and me as he ascended the throne and made himself comfortable on the pile of cushions.

Utteric Turo was followed by a half-dozen young boys in various stages of dress and undress. All of them were decked with flowers and most of them had painted their faces with blood-crimson lips and blue or green shades around their eyes. Some of them were munching fruit or sweetmeats as Pharaoh was doing but two or three of them carried cups of wine which they sipped from as they chatted and giggled together.

Pharaoh hurled one of his cushions at the leading boy and there were squeals of laughter as it knocked the wine cup from his hands and the contents spilled down his tunic.

‘Oh, you naughty Pharaoh!’ the boy protested. ‘Now, just look what you have done to my pretty garment!’

‘Please forgive me, my dear Anent.’ Pharaoh rolled his eyes in penitence. ‘Come and sit beside me. This will not take too long, I promise you, but I have to speak to these two fine fellows first.’ Pharaoh looked directly at Hurotas and me for the first time since he had entered the hall. ‘Greetings, good Taita. I hope you are in excellent health as always?’ Then he switched his gaze towards my companion. ‘And who is this you have with you? I don’t think I know him, do I?’

‘May I present King Hurotas, monarch of the Kingdom of Lacedaemon? Without his assistance we could never have overcome the forces of the Hyksos who were slavering at the very gates of your mighty city of Luxor.’ I spread my arms to indicate the man at my side. ‘We owe him a deep debt of gratitude for the continued survival of our nation …’

Pharaoh held up his right hand, effectively cutting short my impassioned speech, and he stared at Hurotas thoughtfully for what seemed to me an unnecessary length of time. ‘King Hurotas, you say? But he reminds me of somebody else.’

I was taken off balance and could think of nothing to say to contradict him, which was uncharacteristic of me. But before my eyes this feeble and apathetic sprig of the House of Tamose was being transformed into an angry and formidable monster. His countenance darkened and his eyes blazed. His shoulders began to tremble with fury as he pointed to my companion.

‘Does he not resemble someone named Captain Zaras, a common soldier in the army of my glorious father, Pharaoh Tamose? Surely you remember that rogue, do you not, Taita? Even though I was a very young child at the time I certainly remember this Zaras person. I remember his evil leering countenance and his insolent manner.’ Pharaoh Utteric’s voice rose to a shriek; spittle flew from his lips. ‘My father, the Great and Glorious Pharaoh Tamose, sent this Zaras creature on a mission to Knossos, the capital city of the Supreme Minos on the island of Crete. He was charged with the safe conduct of my two aunts, Princess Tehuti and Princess Bekatha, to Crete. They were to be married to the Supreme Minos in order to consolidate the treaty of friendship between our two great empires. In the event this Zaras creature abducted my royal relatives, and spirited them away to some barbaric and desolate place at the very edge of the world. They have never been heard of again since then. I loved both my aunties, they were so beautiful …’

Pharaoh was forced to break off his string of accusations. He panted wildly in an effort to calm his breathing and regain his composure, but he continued to point his shaking forefinger at Hurotas.

‘Your Majesty …’ I stepped forward and spread both my hands in an attempt to divert his wild and irrational anger, but he rounded on me just as furiously.

‘You, you treacherous scoundrel! You may have duped my father and all his court, but I never trusted you. I always saw through your wiles and machinations. I have always known you for what you are. You are a forked-tongued liar, a scheming black-hearted villain …’ Pharaoh shrieked wildly, and looked around for his guards. ‘Arrest these men. I will have them executed for treachery …’

Pharaoh’s voice sank and dried up. A profound silence filled the royal audience chamber.

‘Where are my bodyguards?’ Pharaoh enquired querulously. His young companions huddled behind him, pale-faced and terrified. Finally the one he called Anent spoke up.

‘You dismissed your guards, darling. And I am not going to arrest anyone; especially not those two thugs. They look like blatant killers to me.’ He turned and trotted back through the curtained doorway, followed immediately by the rest of Pharaoh’s pretty boys.

‘Where are my royal guards? Where is everybody?’ Pharaoh’s voice sank to an uncertain, almost apologetic pitch. ‘I ordered them to wait in readiness to make the arrests. Where are they now?’ But silence answered him. He looked back at the two of us suited in our armour, gauntleted hands gripping the pommels of our swords and our faces scowling. He backed away towards the curtained exit in the rear wall. I strode after him and now his expression became one of unmitigated terror. He sank to his knees facing me, arms outstretched towards me as though to fend off the blows of my sword.

‘Taita, my dear Taita. It was just a little joke. It was all in good-natured fun. I meant no harm. You are my friend, and the dear protector of my family. Don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything …’ And then an extraordinary thing happened. Pharaoh shat himself. He did it so loudly and malodorously that for a stunned moment he stopped me like a statue, with my one foot in the air, suspended in mid-stride.

Behind me Hurotas exploded in a burst of delighted laughter. ‘The royal salute, Taita! The ruler of mighty Egypt greets you with the highest honour in the land.’

I don’t know how I stopped myself from laughing along with Hurotas, but I managed to keep my expression serious and, stepping forward, I reached down and took a firm grip of Pharaoh’s hands with which he was trying to fend off my putative attack. I lifted him to his feet and told him gently, ‘My poor Utteric Turo; I have upset you. The great god Horus knows I never meant to do so. Go up to your royal suite now and bathe yourself. Put on fresh robes. However, before you do so please give me and King Hurotas your permission to take your glorious armies north into the delta and fall upon that rogue Khamudi, the self-styled King of the Hyksos. It is our sworn duty to wipe clean forever the curse and the bloody stains of the Hyksos occupation of our homeland.’

Utteric pulled his hands free of mine and backed away from me, his expression still terrified. He nodded his head frantically, and between his sobs he blurted out, ‘Yes! Yes! Go at once! You have my permission. Take everything and everybody that you need and go! Just go!’ Then he turned and fled from the royal audience chamber, with his sandals squelching at each stride.

King Hurotas and I left the great hall of audience alone and went back through the empty streets of the city. Although I was anxious to begin the next phase of our campaign I did not want Pharaoh to receive reports of our hasty departure from Luxor from his spies and agents. Of course there would be many of them hiding in the buildings and alleyways, keeping us under surveillance. When we finally emerged through the Heroes’ Gate of the city, our combined armies were still awaiting our return.

I heard later that their ranks had been tormented by rumours that had grown more alarming the longer we remained locked away behind the gates of the city. There were even suggestions we two generals had been arrested on trumped-up charges and hustled away to the dungeons and thence to the torture chambers. The reaction of our battle-hardened men to our return was moving and deeply touched the hearts of both King Hurotas and me. Old veterans and young recruits wept, and cheered us until their voices cracked. The front ranks surged forward and some of them went down on their knees to kiss our mailed feet.