God, they had learned, was good. God provided all.
God, they had learned, was the Aten, and Neferkheprure-Sole-One-of-Re Akhenaten was his only son.
All eyes observe you in relationship
to themselves.
At last, at the direct command of the King, Aziru came south from Tunip. He bowed low and lower before the King, and never did Horemheb's archers lose their sight on him. Horemheb himself never ventured farther from Aziru than arm's reach, and his dagger was always near to hand. From the cities he had seized, the Amurrite chief brought gifts and, by the King's demand, his own young son as another hostage for the Royal Academy.
Akhenaten received him in the palace of Sumura. In exchange for Aziru's gifts, Akhenaten presented a large offering table bearing a single loaf of bread.
"I have heard," Akhenaten said, "that you have shared food and strong drink with Aitakama of Kadesh."
Aziru raised his hands in supplication. "O, but I am like a son to his majesty of Egypt. We were youths together in the Royal Academy."
"As was Aitakama. Then the Hittites took him in."
"O, but I am a vassal anointed by his majesty of Egypt," Aziru protested, touching his forehead to the ground at the King's feet. "I am loyal."
"Aitakama says the same, and Aitakama is an enemy. He and his father were captured years ago by Suppililiuma, King of Hatte, and now Aitakama is as a son of Hatte's royal academy. While protesting his loyalty to me he honors a treaty with the Hittites. Ribaddi and Abimilki and others say that Aziru does the same. They beg me to deal with him, just as they begged me to deal with his father. Remind Aziru of his father, Horemheb."
Horemheb, who remembered how Abdi-Ashirta had died, grabbed up Aziru by the shoulder. His dagger touched Aziru in exactly the same place it had pierced his father, near the liver.
Aziru shook with fear, but fear was not loyalty.
At the King's nod, Horemheb released the Amurrite, but not before pressing his blade a little into Aziru's flesh. Aziru cast himself at the King's feet, seven times on the belly and seven times on the back. "It has been so long since your majesty's forefathers came forth into Asia! Aitakama has firsthand seen the strength of Hatte and forgets the might of Egypt!"
"The sun is everywhere," Akhenaten said. "He created the earth according to his own desire. Without the Aten we would not exist. How can Aitakama doubt the Sole-One-of-Re?"
"He is an ignorant dog, my lord."
"And Hatte holds his lead. You will break bread with him again."
"My lord! I would not break your trust, not even give the appearance."
The King held out the loaf of bread. "You have perceived the Aten, Aziru."
"It is the sun, my lord, your god, the creator of life."
"You observe the Aten in relationship to yourself. Every man does." The King dropped the loaf to the ground and crushed it beneath his heel. "When the Aten is gone, nothing can exist. There is no perception, for there is no thing."
The King dismissed everyone from the hall but Aziru. Horemheb began to protest-this was the bandit chief of Amurru! — but what could he say against the King's command? Obedient, Horemheb made his way back to his tent that night, keenly aware of his own hunger, and keenly aware of the dark.
Aziru's troops departed Sumura with Horemheb's, heading for Kadesh. They displayed no knowledge of military discipline in the Egyptian fashion, but Horemheb did not underestimate their effectiveness. They had, after all, seized a great deal of territory under Aziru's command, and some had served Aziru's father equally well. Their proficiency, in fact, caused him some concern, which he made known to his officers. The Amurrites were not prisoners in tow. They were fighting men, properly armed, to be treated as such.
Six days they marched, six days in which the sky was as dull as tarnished silver. "Is this the strength of your Aten, that he cannot even shine in summer?" Aziru said. "For a long time Syria has been like this, cool and damp. There is illness afoot, too many rats."
Horemheb said, "Too many Amurrites."
Each night they camped with the Amurrites in the midst of the Egyptians. Aziru dined with Horemheb and his officers, hostage as much as guest, and slept under Nubian guard. Without Aziru the Amurrite army was like a brick without straw, and the Amurrites themselves knew this.
Three hours' travel from Kadesh, the army made camp for the night. Again Horemheb dined with Aziru, for perhaps the last time. Dislike the King's command though he did, Horemheb was about to cut Aziru's leash.
"We will be an hour's ride behind you; scouts will be even closer."
"I rely on that," Aziru replied. "Aitakama may have Hittite troops with him."
"And do you rely upon that too?"
Aziru smiled around the meat in his mouth. "General, do you doubt my intentions to do the King's will?"
"Yes."
Aziru's smile faded. "The King of Egypt resides in Sumura and I am to defy him? He speaks of the oneness of god, rebuilds a city nearly overnight, and I am to disobey? He is the Son of the Sun. I do not doubt him."
"He has paid you."
Aziru shrugged and laid aside his meal unfinished. "What is gold compared to Righteousness?"
That evening Horemheb prayed that the King was right, that the Aten alone was god, because if the other gods were not false, then the Hittites, the Amurrites, none of them were hindered by heresy.
The King had instructed Aziru to lay a trap, and indeed he was doing just so. But, Horemheb wondered, for whom?
The Egyptians lay beneath cover in the pass that led through the hills to Kadesh. Like so many before it, this day too dawned cool and damp, the sky veiled by clouds as it almost never was in Egypt. On the plain before them, west of the River Orontes, Aziru and Aitakama had joined their troops and exercised together like brother princes. As brothers they once might have been in Egypt, but they were no longer sons of the Royal Academy. Aitakama had among his troops Hittite chariotry.
Horemheb ordered Sety forward with a light force, the sort that would pursue a fleeing enemy on the road. Aitakama's men saw Sety at once. Troops fell into a defensive formation about Aitakama with startling precision.
"In the name of the King of Egypt, Neferkheprure, I come for Aziru son of Abdi-Ashirta!" Sety called. "Aitakama, you swore loyalty to the King of Egypt. Aziru is a dog who has slipped his lead. Return him to prove your loyalty to the King in deeds rather than words."
The audacity of this challenge-in the face of Hittite troops at Aitakama's flank-amused the prince of Kadesh. Not, however, Aziru, who fervently begged Aitakama's protection.
Horemheb admired how well Aziru was playing his role, if indeed it was a role at all. Suspecting nothing, Aitakama moved his troops between Sety and the Amurrites. "It would violate the laws of hospitality to surrender one who is as my brother. Would you take him by force?"
Sety's troops-six chariots, twelve men in all-fanned out in a line. As Sety raised his hand, his archers raised their bows. When his hand dropped-
Horses of Aitakama's guard fell or bolted as arrows struck them. Confusion seized the enemy, who had not expected so small a force to attack. Aitakama quickly restored order and commanded the Hittite chariots to swing about.
The heavy Hittite chariots charged the light Egyptian ones, raining arrows before them. They came around wide and drove eastward, forcing the Egyptians toward the Orontes, where Aziru's troops blocked the ford. If Aziru's men did not give them quarter at the riverbank, Sety would have to make a stand, and with such numbers a stand would be brief and fatal.