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 down next to Prince Zannanza and Simut, who were both bound and gagged. Simut stared at me in amazement and something like contempt, and then turned his face away.
The compound buildings were on fire. Gusts of bitter smoke drifted into my eyes. Beyond the walls, in the great opium fields, fires raged hugely, turning the great sky dark red and black. The sun was a pale disc, trapped among the thick, billowing clouds of smoke. Everywhere, I heard screams and cries. I knew then that Nakht could not have escaped alive.
The Egyptian troops moved confidently and swiftly around the destroyed ground of the compound. I watched them pick up crying children, and the women who held them close, and hurl them by the arms or legs into the burning pyres, where they fell screaming amid little explosions of bright sparks, and rushes of crackling flame. It seemed to me the God Seth had truly returned to the world, destroying everything in his rage.
Horemheb strode among the horror, issuing orders, and calmly assessing the progress of the massacre. He turned to a line of Inanna’s men, and one by one smote each of them like a king, caving in the backs of their skulls. Their bodies were cast on to the pyres as well. Inanna watched the execution of her army and the destruction of her kingdom with her head held high. On her face I saw a noble melancholy that touched me. And when it was all done, Horemheb ordered his men to hold her up by the hair. Her face was lit by the light of the fires. She looked around her world, knowing this was the end of her life. Finally, her gaze rested on me, and she gave me a look I will never forget, of pity and of loss. And then Horemheb slashed his sword across her throat; blood flowed down her bare breasts, and slowly she slumped forward. Then, in a final act of remorseless triumph, before she was dead, an officer hacked her head from her neck, impaled it on a pole, and stuck the pole in the ground. The soldiers cheered obediently.
And then Horemheb turned his attention to us. His blue-black hair was combed precisely from his imperious forehead. He wore a cuirass made of many overlapping black leather scales that imitated the feathered wings of a falcon. His shield, slung over his shoulder, was covered in cheetah skin, gilded along the edges, and with a gold plate in the centre bearing his name and office. These were the self-conscious trappings of a King; and he looked utterly self-possessed and confident wearing them.
His eyes were stony with contempt as he glanced at the three of us. He nodded to one of his men, who quickly removed the gags from Simut and Prince Zannanza. They coughed and spluttered, gasping at the smoky air.
‘The Prince Zannanza, pointless son of our great enemies, the Hittites. The Commander of the Palace Guard, Simut. And Rahotep, Seeker of Mysteries,’ he said. ‘I remember you well. You are a loyal servant of the Queen. And that of course is why you are here.’
‘I am here by her command,’ I said. ‘Life, prosperity, health to her. I am truly her loyal servant.’
‘Much good it will do you now. For with those futile words you have condemned yourself. And speaking of loyal servants, where is the Royal Envoy Nakht?’ he said.
None of us replied.
‘I know he was here with you. He cannot have escaped. My soldiers have conquered this valley and encircled this miserable hovel; they have orders to bring him to me alive. He will then be interrogated and executed. Stand up, Prince Zannanza, son of the Hittites.’