‘You raised the alarm?’ Nebamun asked, as he stripped to his loincloth before putting on a linen gown and fastening over it a bronze and leather war kilt. I told him what I had seen. ‘About five or six barges in all,’ Nebamun mused, screwing up his eyes. ‘About five hundred men,’ he added. ‘Possibly more. We have less than half of that.’ He raised a hand. ‘Ah well, my lord Mahu, if we survive we’ll ask how they knew as well as how they got here.’
Meryre came into the courtyard huffing and puffing, podgy fingers clutching his robe, eyes lined with black kohl. He was wearing a silver medallion round his neck depicting the Sun Disc. He acted all surprised and agitated, but I wondered how much he knew. I glanced at the other members of his retinue. They, too, were wearing the Aten disc. Was that some sort of sign to the invaders? Were they under orders to spare anyone wearing the Sun Disc?
‘What is the matter?’ Meryre fanned his fat face.
‘We are under attack, my lord,’ I replied drily. ‘We don’t have to search out the usurper; he has come hunting for us!’
‘You can stay and fight,’ Nebamun offered.
‘I am a high priest!’
‘Then you had best go find a temple and pray, or you’ll become a dead high priest.’ Nebamun turned away and grasped my wrist. ‘I want you to command the archers on the wall,’ he continued, ignoring Meryre’s angry splutter. ‘My house fronts the river.’
I glanced over my shoulder. Meryre was already waddling away.
‘Forget him.’ Nebamun’s fingers dug deep into my wrist. ‘They must have come for the Prince. The sides and back of the house are sheer wall, though they may try and force windows and doors. If they’ve brought battering rams …’ He pointed to the far wall. ‘Some of that’s granite, as is part of the house, but the rest is simply dried mud bricks under a coat of plaster. If they discover a weak spot they won’t need to use the gate.’ He gazed round even as his officers ordered the files of archers slightly forward, away from the foot soldiers. ‘They’ll invade here,’ Nebamun declared. ‘This will become a slaughter yard. I’ve also put men in the house. Already messengers, the fastest runners we have, have been dispatched to the barracks on the other side of the city. It’s only a matter of time.’
Nebamun turned away to confer with his staff officers. Sobeck and I collected our weapons and joined the archers crouching on the parapet. I peered over. The ground between the wall and the river was cut by a pebble-dashed path, then a line of greenery with trees and bushes sloping down to the quayside. The enemy had already landed; their advance party were shadows moving amongst the trees. I crouched back, looking along our line of men. Most of the archers were Nubians, hair cropped and oiled, dressed in white padded loincloths, leather quivers beside them, dark feathered shafts peeking out. Each Nubian carried a bow and a curved sword. They remained silent and watchful. I thanked the Gods that they were veterans, men who would not lose their nerve when the fighting began.
Once again I peered over the wall. It was a stomach-churning sight. The enemy advance guard had already cleared the trees, streaming up through the greenery towards the main gate. Anyone unfortunate enough to be in that area must have been killed silently, immediately. The front ranks of the enemy were Libyan archers, naked except for their leather phallus covers, cloaks of stiffened bull hide or giraffe skin around their shoulders, greasy hair tightly plaited and adorned with feathers or covered with the mask of some animaclass="underline" panther, fox or leopard. They were a fearful sight, bearded faces daubed with war paint. Even more terrifying were the few Shardana warriors, mercenaries from the Great Green, in their leather tunics, strange horn helmets on their heads. They carried long stabbing swords and round bronze shields. Mitanni and Egyptian mercenaries followed next in striped head-cloths, carrying shield and spear: these were the men who would try and scale the walls once the archers had done their task. The Hittite officers were easily distinguishable, dressed in bronze-scale leather armour which fell beneath their knees, faces and the forepart of their heads shaven. They followed the Hittite fashion of allowing their hair to grow shoulder length. Each of these officers carried a standard, a pole with a disc, and above that a blade on which the severed heads of those they had killed were placed. Some of these were dried and shrivelled, others freshly severed, still dripped blood. The arrogant impunity of their surprise attack was astonishing, and Horemheb’s warning came back to haunt me: how, during the seventeen years of Akenhaten’s reign, he had not fielded one regiment or squadron of cavalry to defend our interests in Canaan. No wonder Egypt was regarded as weak and lax.
I crouched with the rest. We could hear the muffled noise of the enemy. The tension grew. I whispered to the standard-bearer in charge of the archers to prepare his men. I glanced down into the courtyard and the silent ranks of our troops. The foot soldiers were formed into an arc to protect the rear and the flanks; even household servants had been armed. I glanced back over the wall. Libyans carrying logs were approaching the gate. Others trotted behind grasping storming ladders, long poles with rungs on either side. They moved silently, still believing they had the surprise. The officer in charge of the archers glanced at me. I nodded. From the courtyard below came the war cry of Egypt. Nebamun clashed his sword, once again shouting the war cry: ‘Horus in the south!’ Our archers rose to their feet, arrows notched.
‘Loose!’ The officer’s yell was followed by a whirl of arrows. Our men chose their targets welclass="underline" those carrying the battering rams and scaling ladders, as well as Hittite officers. The silence was riven by screams and shouts. The range was so close, our archers wreaked terrible damage. Attackers were flung back as shafts caught them in the neck, head and face. The enemy line broke, fleeing back to the sanctuary of the trees. Here they reorganised and under the whip of their officers renewed their attack, waves of men pouring up the grassy embankment, screaming their war cries. They advanced behind a range of shields and a screen of archers who kept up a hail of fire against the parapet wall. Now our men, standing or kneeling, became targets. Brightly coloured shafts found their mark; bodies tumbled from the walls or slid down nursing some hideous wound. The enemy were keen-eyed and skilled; our line of men began to thin.
The attackers brought their battering rams up against the gates and walls; others placed their assault ladders in position and started to climb. Some of these were pushed away, but the flood of men was too great. The archer next to me fell. A Libyan dressed in a panther skin, face daubed and painted, great tattoos across his chest, scrambled over the wall. He slipped in a pool of blood, I dashed his brains out with a war club even as our trumpets ordered us to withdraw.
We left the parapet, hurrying down across the courtyard and into the protection of Nebamun’s ranks. We were hardly in position when the first line of the enemy troops cleared the wall. Most were brought down in a whirl of arrows, but the gate was being forced and eventually broke. The carts were pushed back, attackers climbing over them. More of the enemy now cleared the parapet. Their own archers were brought into play to protect a group of Canaanites who pulled away the carts and obstacles from the gates for a fresh flood of attackers. Nebamun, protected by his shield-bearer, shouted orders. Our archers loosed volley after volley, trying to stem the flood at the gates, but it was impossible. The courtyard in front of us was filling with the enemy; they used the carts, together with the shields, and even corpses, to shield themselves from our archers, as they edged closer and closer.