In all his kingdom there was only one person with the blend of courage, honesty, and disregard of consequence which allowed him to live in the king’s presence without shrivelling.
‘I need him,’ Lannon thought. ‘I need him much more than he needs me. Everybody loves him, but he is the only one who truly loves me.’ And he grimaced as he remembered how Huy had defied him, and it was he, Lannon Hycanus the forty-seventh Gry-Lion of Opet, who had suffered most during the estrangement.
‘I will not let him go again,’ he vowed. ‘I will not let him draw away from me like this.’ And his self-honesty persisted. He saw that he was jealous of his priest. ‘I will destroy anything which comes between us. I need him.’
He thought of this latest journey of Huy Ben-Amon’s. Was it truly a matter of such urgency that the High Priest must travel 400 miles, taking with him two cohorts of his legion and the priestess and oracle of Opet, to consecrate some minor shrine to the goddess at a desolate garrison outpost in the northern kingdom? Lannon thought it more likely that Huy was leaving Opet for some devious reason of his own, and the result was that Lannon was bored, lonely and irritable. Huy knew that Lannon had planned a feast for his name-day.
The clash of urgent armoured feet interrupted Lannon’s thoughts. He turned from the window as three of his high officers burst into the room. With them was a centurion in dusty cloak and unburnished armour. There was dust in his beard and dust coated his sandals and greaves. He had travelled fast.
‘My lord. News of the worst possible kind.’
‘What is it?’
‘A slave rising.’
‘Where?’
‘At Hulya.’
‘How many?’
‘A great many. We are not sure. This man,’ indicating the centurion, ‘has seen it.’
Lannon turned to the weary officer. ‘Speak!’ he ordered.
‘I was on patrol, Majesty. Fifty men on a sweep to the north. We saw the smoke, but by the time we returned to the mine it was finished. They had opened the compounds, slaughtered the garrison.’ He paused, remembering the dead men with their bowels ripped open and the bloody mush of castration between their legs. ‘They had gone, all except the sick and the lame. Those they left.’
‘How many?’
‘About 200.’
‘What did you do with them?’
‘We put them to the sword.’
Good!‘ Lannon nodded. ’Continue.‘
‘We followed after the main party of slaves. There were more than 5,000 when they left Hulya, and they moved northwards.’
‘Northwards,’ Lannon growled. ‘The river, of course.’
‘They are moving slowly, very slowly. And they plunder and burn as they go. We could follow them by the smoke and the vultures. The population ahead of them flees, leaving all to them. They devour the land like locusts.’
‘How many? How many?’ Lannon demanded. ‘We must know!’
‘They have opened the compounds at Hulya, and Tuye and a dozen other mines - all the field slaves have flocked to join them,’ the centurion answered.
One of the officers hazarded. ‘There must be 30,000 of them, then?’
‘At least, Majesty,’ the centurion agreed.
‘Thirty thousand, in Baal’s holy name,’ whispered Lannon. ‘Such a multitude!’ Then his anger came and he spoke harshly. ‘What force have we to oppose their march? How many legions are mobilized.’
‘There are two legions at Zeng,’ an officer volunteered,
‘We could not move them in time,’ Lannon answered,
‘One legion here at Opet.’
Too far, too far,‘ Lannon growled.
‘And two more along the south bank of the great river.’
‘And they are scattered in garrisons spread over a distance of 500 miles. All the others are disbanded?’ Lannon asked. ‘How long to call them up?’
‘Ten days.’
‘Too long,’ Lannon snapped. ‘We must put down this rising with the uttermost ruthlessness. Rebellion is a plague, it spreads like fire in dry papyrus beds. We must isolate it, and quench it. Every spark of it. What other force have we?’
‘There is His Holiness,’ one of the officers murmured diffidently, and Lannon stared at him. He had forgotten Huy. ‘He is at Sinai, directly in the slaves’ line of march to the north.’
‘Huy!’ said Lannon softly, and then was silent while his officers plunged into an animated discussion.
‘He has only two cohorts with him - 1,200 men - he would not engage an army of 30,000.
