out of anyone who even thinks about doing or saying anything stupid.”
Luroc answered a few more questions, until he grew annoyed with the process. Sargat decided that all these things had been discussed before, probably more than once. Luroc had come only to inform his men about the date and time of the attack, and go over the plan one final time. He would slip back into whatever hideout he had prepared for himself, one where his name would not be Luroc.
At last the men grew silent. “Enough then. I’ll meet you at the wall just before the moon reaches its peak.” With one last word of warning to keep quiet and out of trouble, Luroc left the room. The sentry on the roof swung his legs over the smoke hole and skimmed down the ladder, his eyes focused only on his descent.
Sargat waited until the first snore wafted up through the hole. Then one by one he stretched his muscles for the first time, making sure he could move without any problem. Taking his time, he retraced his movements back to the ledge. This time he used the ledge to travel across the back of the huts, until he reached a place where he could drop lightly down to the ground. A dozen paces away, Wakannh and one of his men waited, but neither of them heard or saw Sargat’s approach until he stepped out of the shadows.
“Demons below!” Wakannh swore. “Where did you come from?”
“Did you see someone enter and leave?” Sargat couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice.
“We saw a man enter, but didn’t see anyone come out. Thought it was just one of the men returning from taking a piss. Why?”
“Never mind. Take me back to the Compound. I need to talk to Annok-sur and Lady Trella.”
“It’s the middle of the night. Are you sure…?”
“I’m sure. Now let’s get moving, before any more time slips by!”
L ady Trella sat across the table from Bantor, his face framed by the two thick candles burning at either side, despite the lateness of the night. He’d just arrived from the barracks, at Trella’s summons. Annok-sur sat next to Trella, as she usually did. An excited Sargat, accompanied by Wakannh, had just completed the second recitation of what he’d heard for Bantor’s benefit, before leaving Akkad’s leaders alone.
“And Sargat is convinced the attack will come tomorrow?” Bantor’s face showed his concern. “There’s been no word of any horsemen loose in the countryside, at least not anywhere near here. Our scouts have reported nothing so close. According to them, the barbarians are still many miles away.”
“That’s what he heard them say,” Lady Trella said, “and I believe him. If we had any word of barbarians drawing near, you would have doubled the sentries on our gates and walls. Shulgi must have prepared this attack the same way he plotted the assault on Kanesh, a sudden strike by horsemen without any hint of their movements. Food for the riders and grain for the horses could have been hidden along their way, awaiting their arrival.”
“It is possible, isn’t it?” Annok-sur leaned forward. “If they wanted only to attack Akkad, and not raid the countryside, could they reach here without any word?”
Trella saw Bantor clench his fist on the table. He’d brought the news of the Alur Meriki raiding to the east and coming this way, and he didn’t like the idea that his outriders might have failed to detect their close approach. But despite what he lacked in imagination, he was no fool when the possibility of danger to Akkad arose. He knew the Alur Meriki could travel vast distances when necessary.
“If they swung to the north-east, then rode straight in. They’d have to cover a lot of ground at night, at least fifty miles from daybreak to midnight. That’s a lot of riding in the dark.”
“Skilled riders, with extra horses, carrying torches, and a well-marked trail prepared in advance.” Trella kept her voice persuasive. Bad enough Bantor had to deal with his wife’s authority from time to time. “We’ve done such things ourselves. We’ve no reason to believe Alur Meriki can’t do such things even more efficiently.”
He gave in to their pressure. “I guess they could manage it. But there’s only one direction they could take to make this work. I can have riders out in the morning. As soon as we see them coming, we’ll have plenty of time to prepare.” He glanced up at the window, to gauge the progress of the moon. “Plenty of time left tonight to round up the Sumerians. It won’t take much to make them tell us who their leader is and where he’s hiding.”
Trella took her time replying. In the interval since Sargat had completed his story, and Bantor’s arrival, she’d thought long and hard about the choices facing her. The easiest and safest solution was to do as Bantor said. Capture the Sumerians, put them to the torture. Even if they didn’t know where their leader was, they knew enough of the plan to confirm Sargat’s story. And once confirmed, the city could prepare itself. No force of horsemen, no matter how fierce or numerous, could scale Akkad’s high walls once they were properly defended.
Nevertheless, that solution left her unsatisfied. Like everyone else, she wondered what Eskkar would do faced with the same facts. Unlike Bantor and the other commanders, Eskkar would seek to gain some opportunity from this information, to turn the enemy attack into a defeat. She knew he would not enjoy sitting idly behind Akkad’s walls while raiders — foiled in their attempt to slip into the city — terrorized the countryside.
“Is there something else you would consider, Trella?” Annok-sur realized the time for a quick reply had long passed.
“I don’t want these horsemen destroying the farms and crops,” Trella began, still working out the idea in her head. Eskkar always had his battle experience to guide him, but she had lived and fought beside him for over four years, and in that time, she’d insisted he relate every tale, every adventure, every fight that he’d even been in. And not just once, but time and again, asking him to explain each choice and the reasons behind it, and the likely consequences.
“We’re another thirty or so horsemen coming down from Bisitun,” Bantor said. “They can patrol the countryside around the city.”
She made up her mind. “No. I don’t want these men driven away. I want these barbarians destroyed, or at least defeated. Otherwise they’ll do as much damage to the crops as Shulgi and his whole army. Between them they’ll destroy almost every farm supplying Akkad.”
Bantor shook his head. “They won’t attack in force once they see we’re ready for them.”
“I know.” Trella let the smallest hint of authority strengthen her words. “So perhaps we should let them into the city.”
Even Annok-sur looked askance. “What are you saying? Let them in?”
“Remember during the Alur Meriki siege, when Eskkar proposed the same thing? He had a plan to let them over the walls, then attack them.”
Bantor snorted. “I remember that… idea. Gatus and the rest of us didn’t care for it then. Eskkar likes to gamble, but we all thought the plan too risky. And we had a larger force of bowmen at our command than we do now.”
“Ah, but then we didn’t have the leader of the Sumerians to help us invite them in.” As she spoke, Trella felt her own conviction increasing. Not only was this the right choice, it was what Eskkar would do if he were here. And the risk to Akkad could be managed. “With Luroc helping us, I think we can make it work.”
She went over the ideas sketched out in her mind during the night. Annok-sur sought to find weakness in the plan, improving on some of Trella’s suggestions. By then Bantor, either half convinced or unwilling to argue with both his wife and Trella, decided that it might, just might, be done without too much risk.
“Good.” Trella stood and placed her hand on Annok-sur’s shoulder. “Now all you have to do is find where this Luroc is hiding and bring him here. Bantor, you’ll have to prepare what we need, and all without telling anyone except your most trusted subcommanders what we’re planning.”
B antor got no sleep for the rest of the night, nor did his wife. While Bantor summoned those men he felt certain he could trust for the coming day’s work, Annok-sur started the search for Luroc. By dawn, more than twenty women walked Akkad’s lanes, whispering Luroc’s vague description to dozens of other women, who in their turn spoke to others. In this way, every hut, tavern, shop and residence in the city came under their scrutiny, but without arousing suspicion.
Nevertheless, midday came and went without any sign of the elusive Sumerian. For a man who’d been in Akkad for several days, he’d managed to stay out of sight. As the day grew short and they ran out of places to search, Trella suggested another possibility, namely that Luroc might be staying at the home of some Akkadian merchant.
With that in mind, Annok-sur turned her attention to the upper-class traders and merchants. She soon discovered that only one merchant, Ramal-sul, had departed the city that morning by boat, heading north to Bisitun. And he had taken his family with him, leaving his servants in charge of the household.
With that fact, Bantor gathered some men. Then he went to Ramal-sul’s house and knocked on the door. When the servant opened it, Bantor asked to speak with the master’s guest, and the servant had duly let Bantor
