“Now, let’s talk. Shall we begin with the first time you were approached and asked to provide information for Elam?” She smiled pleasantly at her guest.
Question followed question, and only once more did Rue-el need to prompt his victim’s memory.
At last Annok-sur leaned back, satisfied. Over the last two years, she and her agents had uncovered all of the Elamite spies working for Zahara. One by one, she already had twisted all of them to her side. Fortunately, an offer of even more gold to reveal what they knew often sufficed to make them collaborate.
The threat of returning to this chamber helped keep them loyal, of course. They knew that Annok-sur could find them anywhere within the Land Between the Rivers. And should they attempt to flee to Elam, they could expect nothing more than a quick death. Faced with those choices, they had cooperated readily enough.
Those who resisted, or she deemed untrustworthy, had died screaming on the same bench now occupied by Zahara. But only after they revealed every secret and gave up every name they wished to hide.
Today, the final stage of the campaign of misdirection and lies against the Elamites had begun. And so Wakannh and his men had swept up Zahara, as he left his favorite ale house. A member of one of Akkad’s Noble Families, he knew much about what was discussed in the ruling council chamber. His occupation as a trader gave him access to many of Akkad’s training camps and made him the perfect, well-placed spy for the Elamites. But now he would be forced to work for Akkad.
With the threat of war only months away, the Elamite King and his war leaders had come to trust what information his spies had collected. After all, everything they learned had proven true. From today, however, all that would change. Those planning the invasion would receive only that information Trella wished them to know.
In a few days, Zahara would dispatch another courier to Elam, detailing the open distrust and suspicion between Akkad, Sumer and Isin, along with the latest preparations for the anticipated siege. Even more intriguing would be the description of Eskkar’s plan to abandon Akkad in the event of an invasion and flee to the north, taking all his gold and most trusted retainers and soldiers with him.
By the time King Shirudukh of Elam learned he’d been duped, he would have committed his forces, his armies would be in the field, and it would be too late.
Chapter 4
The morning after Trella and Eskkar met with the kings of Isin and Sumer, another meeting took place, this one in the upper room of the Compound. There private matters could be discussed without worrying about anyone overhearing.
“Welcome, Alcinor.” Trella motioned their visitor to a seat across the table. “We didn’t expect you back so soon.”
Tall and thin, with hunched shoulders that emphasized a narrow face beneath a serious brow, Alcinor did not resemble someone raised in a wealthy family. He looked more like some over-worked apprentice, one who rarely received enough to eat. Nevertheless, in his twenty-eight seasons, the oldest son of Noble Corio had already faced danger once before, when he had traveled with Eskkar’s army and participated in the Battle of Isin.
“Always good to see you.” Eskkar smiled as he took his seat, facing their visitor.
Trella noted the warmth of Eskkar’s greeting. Her husband had not smiled much in the last few days, but a special bond existed between Eskkar and Alcinor. The two men had fought together, after a fashion, during the conflict.
Not that Alcinor had ever swung a sword at anyone in anger. His weapon at the Battle of Isin had been a shovel, or rather, hundreds of them. Alcinor’s threat to flood the city of Isin had forced King Naxos out of the battle, and out of the war.
And Eskkar, Trella knew, placed great value on such bonds. Any man, he’d often said, who fought at your side deserves to be treated as a friend.
Alcinor bowed as he sat. “Lady Trella, Lord Eskkar, it is good to be back in Akkad.”
“You must be weary after your long journey,” Trella said. “You could have waited until tomorrow to see us.”
Alcinor’s face turned somber. “No, I dared not waste a moment.” He took a deep breath. “I must report what I discovered in the Jkarian Pass.”
Two months ago, Trella had dispatched the young man to the Jkarian Pass, the northern passage to the lands of the Indus. According to her spies, the Elamites planned to send a major cavalry force through the old trade route, to harry Akkad’s northern borders and cut supply lines to the besieged city. Such havoc would be devastating to the farms and small villages in that region, not to mention Eskkar’s plan to defend the city.
She had tasked Alcinor with finding a defensible place where a few men might hold back the coming invaders, at least until Eskkar could free up enough soldiers to deal with them. From the signs of unease on his face, Trella knew he had failed.
Eskkar, too, recognized Alcinor’s expression, and his smile faded. “You did not find a suitable site?”
“No, my Lord.” Alcinor took a deep breath. “I traveled the length of the pass, nearly all the way through the mountains, almost to the lands of the Indus. I mapped the route, and identified several places where the Pass might be defended. I even retraced my steps several times, just to be certain. But each defensible position I found would require a large force of men. I calculated it would take at least two or three thousand soldiers.”
Trella watched her husband’s shoulders slump. For almost a year, a key component of Eskkar’s plan to stop the Elamite invasion depended on holding the Jkarian Pass with a small force. Now Alcinor was saying it couldn’t be done.
She knew her husband did not have an extra two thousand men, let alone three thousand. Not to mention the vast amount of supplies needed to support such an army at that distance from the City, or the fact that the Elamites would be sending at least five or six thousand men through the Pass. Every man Akkad could raise and outfit would be needed elsewhere to repel the main invasion.
Eskkar broke the silence. “I suppose we’ll have to find the men somewhere.”
Trella, however, had detected something else in Alcinor’s demeanor. She leaned forward, her gaze fixed on her visitor. “What else did you find, Alcinor?”
Alcinor hesitated. “There is one place. . I found one place where it might be possible to close the pass. Permanently.”
Aware of the young man’s nervousness, Trella leaned closer even as she allowed herself a glimmer of hope. “And how would you do that, Master Engineer?”
She used the formal and recently invented title for their guest. In the almost ten years that had passed since the Battle of Isin, Alcinor had become the most famous and skilled of all the builders in Akkad. He’d even surpassed his father, Corio, who had built the great wall that saved the City — it was still a village back then — from the first barbarian invasion by the Alur Meriki.
Both father and his apprentice son had learned much about the construction of large and complicated structures from that enterprise. Afterwards, Alcinor helped design and build Akkad’s newest walls, gates, towers, and fortifications. In so doing, he showed such skill that he soon earned an even greater accolade than any his father ever received.
In the ensuing years, Akkad’s other builders and master craftsmen used a new title to describe him — Engineer. The word came to mean someone who understood not only how to build structures, but who also delved into the study of all materials, and understood how they worked together.
Over the years, Trella had observed with interest as Alcinor developed more efficient ways to utilize wood, stone, and even the omnipresent mud bricks. He had already discovered several new techniques that permitted the building of higher and stronger structures, and had created standards of measurements now used by almost all the builders in the land. Even more important, Alcinor possessed a special skill that allowed him to imagine something new, and transform that mental picture into a physical reality.