done?”
“Perhaps. Let Annok-sur and me think about that one. What else will your marching armies need?”
“Maps.” Eskkar remembered the maps they had used to fight the Alur Meriki. “If we had good maps, we could mark our progress against the landmarks, and know how far we’ve traveled, and how far we had to go.”
“Isn’t that a lot to ask?” Bantor said. “Can we show that much information on a piece of cloth?”
“No, not one piece,” Trella said. “But a dozen or more would be enough to show everything. You will need to take a few clerks with you to war, Eskkar. They could keep track of the maps and landmarks, and mark off each day’s progress.”
Eskkar groaned and everyone laughed. Since he’d become Akkad’s ruler, and even before, the clerks of the nobles and Trella’s own people followed him everywhere, marking down every expense on a pottery shard, a permanent record of every activity. Already the shelves in the storage rooms creaked under the weight.
“Clerks going to war.” Eskkar shook his head at the idea.
“All this is well and good,” Gatus said, “but what happens when we reach Larsa? We’ll have to besiege it, fight our way in. And from what Yavtar tells us, all of Sumeria is building walls around every dung heap, let alone Larsa and Isin and the other large cities.”
“Yes, you’re right, Gatus.” Trella thought about that for a moment. “I think we need to send Corio’s people to visit all the cities in Sumeria. They should examine the walls for weak points, and determine the best method and place to attack each city. That way, when the army arrives, it can get right to work without having to worry about what to do.”
“You’re fighting the war in advance, Lady Trella,” Hathor said. “But all these ideas are good ones. The more prepared we are, the more the men will want to fight.”
“Men always fight better when they think they have some advantage,” Eskkar said.
“I’ve one more suggestion to make.” Trella turned to Annok-sur. “Actually, Annok-sur suggested it. You need a special place to meet and talk about your plans, a private place. A place with only one purpose. We could build another room here on the second level, and dedicate the new chamber to planning the war. We would enter it only from the workroom, so only the most trusted servants will ever see the inside.”
“And we can display the maps there as well,” Bantor said, “perhaps even paint them on the walls.”
“Remember the model of Akkad that Corio’s apprentices built for the first wall?” Eskkar had looked at it in astonishment: a miniature city displayed in perfect detail on a long table. “If we had something like that, something that stretched from Akkad to Sumer, we could use it to plan the marches, and even mark possible battlefields.”
“That will take a big room, indeed,” Gatus said, drawing another laugh.
“I’ll speak to Corio about it,” Trella said. “He’ll have to build the new room anyway, so he’ll be spending plenty of time here.”
“If we can do all or even most of the things you’ve said,” Hathor leaned forward, unable to conceal his eagerness, “I think we’ll be able to wage a new kind of war. Such advantages would be worth a great number of men.”
“The more we know about our enemy,” Eskkar said, “the easier this fight will be. If our spies can learn about our enemies, how many men they have, how well trained, what weapons they prefer, how they’re fed and resupplied, we can use that knowledge to help plan for battle. That will make our soldiers fight even harder.”
“And if we train them,” Gatus said, “really train them well, they’ll stand up to anything Sumeria can send against us.”
“You’ll take charge of that, Gatus,” Eskkar said. “No one understands how to train men as well as you do.”
Everyone nodded agreement. During the battle with the Alur Meriki, Gatus’s training had transformed more than a few Akkadians into the equal of even the strongest barbarians.
“So, Gatus, you will need to outdo yourself this time,” Eskkar said. “And all of you will have more ideas on how to make our forces stronger in the months to come. I’m sure we can think of even more ways to aid the soldiers.”
They continued speaking long into the night. Hathor had more to impart about cities fighting against each other, and Eskkar knew something about that, too, from his days as a soldier for hire. Trella asked many more questions, committing to memory every word that was spoken, every useful fact that she could glean from the men’s words. In the coming weeks and months, she would know, or soon learn, everything that would be needed to prepare for and support such a war.
At last Gatus yawned and declared he needed to get to sleep. A glance up at the moon showed that midnight had come and gone.
Trella had the last words. “Let us hope war never comes. But if we must fight again, then let us be well prepared. Remember, like the days when we faced the Alur Meriki, this is a war we dare not lose.”
11
Before retiring to their bedroom, Trella checked on little Sargon. The boy slept well, secure in his bed and with his nurse watching over him. She blew out the candle and slipped beneath the blanket, where Eskkar held her close against the darkness.
“I’m sorry that war must come again to Akkad. Trouble seems to follow wherever I go.”
“War would come here whoever ruled,” she answered. “The southern lands are needed to provide food for our people, and allow us to expand to the north and west. Without those farms, Akkad will not be able to grow, and would slowly begin to starve. That must not happen, especially now that we have Sargon to worry about.”
“Yes, he will rule over all these lands someday. If our luck holds true.”
“It’s more than luck that has brought us this far, Eskkar. Say what you will, but the gods favor you.”
“Yes, they brought you to me. Or my luck did.”
She knew he believed more in his luck than any of the fickle gods, who needed constant appeasement through prayers and offerings provided by the greedy priests. Or so they claimed to those who believed their every word. Nevertheless, she knew fate or some higher purpose of the gods had brought the two of them together.
Eskkar kissed the curve of her neck and she relaxed against him. Each day is a blessing, she remembered her father saying. Death may come through your door at any time, my little daughter, so live and enjoy your life as much as you can.
Death indeed had come for her father in the middle of the night, when he least expected it. She was glad that for many years he had enjoyed his life and his family so much, finding some joy in whatever each day brought.
Eskkar’s hands touched her breasts, and she put thoughts of her father aside. Instead, she sighed and arched her body against her husband’s. His strong hands always aroused the fire in her loins.
“Do you still enjoy my touch?”
“Yes, master,” she whispered. “This slave enjoys your attentions. I will try to please you.”
He laughed. “You already have, Trella.”
She laughed, too, and returned his kiss with one of her own.
A fterward, Trella remained in the circle of Eskkar’s arm. Somehow she always felt safer sleeping beside him. To know that someone would fight to protect you, would risk his own death if necessary, meant so much more to her now. Trella knew how easily a life could cease. In the space of one day, she’d seen her parents murdered, her brother carried off to the mines, and herself sold into slavery. Her comfortable life had ended in an orgy of blood and tears.
Just when she thought all that was behind her, Korthac had done it again. After a single night of fighting, he forced her to kneel at his feet and beg for the life of her coming child. That time, Eskkar had rescued her, and he’d fought a desperate fight to save her life and that of little Sargon right in this very room. Korthac would have tossed the baby into the fires before turning Trella over to his brutal soldiers for their amusement for a few days before he put her to death.
Now another threat had arisen, this one less immediate perhaps, but just as dangerous. The thought of the Sumerians being a danger seemed odd. She herself was from those lands, as much a Sumerian as anyone born in
