Egypt

‘The truth has never passed your foul lips,’ he said, a nasty grin on his face.

Inanna shook herself free. He nodded to his men, who dragged Nakht apart from the other two men. Simut attempted to defend him, but he was kicked and punched to the ground. Then they dragged Nakht away by the feet, his head bouncing against the hard ground, until they disappeared into the main building of the compound.

‘Keep them here in the sun, and give them no food or water. I will deal with them later,’ ordered Aziru, nodding at Simut and Prince Zannanza. He disappeared into the building, his arm possessively around Inanna.

I ran around to the back of the compound buildings. Women and children were cowering there, terrified; they huddled away from me. I found a doorway and slipped into the rear of the building. A golden statue stared at me, its yellow eyes unblinking, accusatory.

I could hear distant voices. I slipped along the shadows of the passageway, away from the unreal light of the day. The voices were closer now.

‘You are a traitor.’

‘You trained me well. You thought you could send me back to the Hittites, as your trusty spy. And I made you believe I was loyal. All those reports I sent to you? I made them up. They were all lies.’

‘I always knew your reports were lies. Do you think you were the only contact I maintained in Hattusa? Did you think I was ever fool enough to trust you?’ It was Nakht’s voice.

Then I heard the sound of a deep punch, and a sudden series of gasps. I glanced around the corner and saw Aziru squatting down over Nakht while Inanna watched. He grabbed him by the hair, yanking his face towards him.

‘You offered me my freedom in exchange for betraying my own people. My father died at the hands of Akhenaten, and yet still you believed I could be controlled by Egypt. But I am my father’s son. Amurru will be great again. Chaos will rule. Know this: all your plans have come to nothing. Egypt and the Hittites will always be at war until the stones of Egypt’s temples are fallen. I will take pleasure in cutting off the pretty head of the Hittite Prince and sending it in a box, with my compliments, to your hopeless Queen, so that she will know her last chance has gone. She carries the future of Egypt in her empty womb; and that future is a desert.’

Nakht looked at him.

‘You fool,’ he said, with a new, dark contempt in his voice. He sounded unlike himself. ‘You have understood nothing. You will never know the truth.’

‘Oh noble Nakht, orator and master, your skills are of no use to you now. Words will not save you. I am going to make you confess all your secrets, so-called envoy of the royal court, spider at the heart of the web of secrets. And you will tell me them all, as I cut off your fingers, and then your hands, one by one.’

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.’

34

My hands and feet were bound like a captive of war, and I was dragged out into the courtyard, and thrown