Egypt

29

Sunlight broke in splinters through the slats of the battered wooden door. We slept or dozed on piles of filthy straw, and were thrown only gnawed bones and dirty cooking pots from which to eat the burned scraps; there was a jar of stale water in the corner, and a cracked chamber-pot. We had not washed for several days now, and already the chamber-pot in the corner was overflowing.

Nevertheless, my stomach rumbled incongruously. Hunger is no respecter of disaster. Prince Zannanza still lay turned to the wall, hiding his disfigured face. The ruin of his beauty seemed to cause him more distress than the fear of losing his own life. Nakht had been unable to console him. Simut stirred, and groaned quietly, and raised himself slowly to sit next to me. I passed him a dish of the stale water and he drank slowly.

‘We’re in trouble,’ he said, quietly, wiping his mouth.

I nodded in agreement.

‘No one knows where we are,’ I replied.

‘Even if they did, what could they do?’ he said. ‘We could be held here for months, and meanwhile, Ay must be dead by now, Horemheb will march on Thebes, take power from the Queen, and there’s not a thing we can do about it… We’ve failed.’

We were interrupted by voices outside the door. The door slammed open, and a couple of Inanna’s henchmen entered the cell. Prince Zannanza huddled deeper into his corner. They made some extravagant joke about the stink. They were munching on legs of roasted meat, luxuriating in the good food and our hunger. We watched them with hatred. When they’d chewed off as much as they wanted, they threw us the bones-as if we were dogs. Prince Zannanza grabbed one quickly, and began gnawing the tiny scraps that remained. I picked up another bone, and threw it back with all my strength in their faces.

‘Bring us food fit for human beings,’ I shouted. They just laughed. So I grabbed one of the discarded cooking pots they’d thrown into the cell, and advanced on them, whirling it around my head. They retreated, laughing, and slammed the door shut. I threw the pot, but it just clattered uselessly against the door.

‘Why has that murdering bitch taken a shine to you?’ asked Simut, darkly.

‘It’s not my idea of a good time,’ I muttered. ‘Next time they come back, we could attack them together, make a break for it, steal four good horses from under their noses, and be out through that gateway in a moment.’

‘And then come back with an Egyptian division and raze this place to the ground, and her in it…’ added Simut, for good measure.

‘We’re locked in a cell, we have no weapons, we have no knowledge of this valley, and even if we did escape, we would be hunted down very quickly,’ said Nakht.

‘So what do you suggest?’ asked Simut angrily.

Nakht stared at him.

‘I suggest you remember who you’re talking to,’ he said. ‘I am still in command of this mission.’

Simut said nothing.

‘They’re going to kill us all,’ said Prince Zannanza, quietly, from his corner. Simut rolled his eyes, but Nakht, once more the diplomat, turned to console the Prince.

‘You are far too important for that. You will be ransomed, I assure you. The Queen of Egypt will soon know we are missing. I was to have sent fast messengers at every stage of our journey, to keep her informed of our progress. She will interpret our silence, and she will have some knowledge of where we disappeared.’

Simut and I exchanged a brief look. There was absolutely nothing Ankhesenamun could do to save us. Our mission was secret. She had no troops to send out to rescue us. Only Horemheb had his divisions in the north. And help from him would spell death. We were on our own.

‘Your father will also know we are missing,’ continued Nakht to the Prince. ‘He will have had spies prepared along our route, to watch your progress. He will be very angry. He will come to rescue you.’

Zannanza stared at Nakht disconsolately.

‘My father despises me. I appal my brothers. None of them will rescue me. They will simply cultivate the advantage of my death for their own ends. The Crown Prince was always opposed to this alliance. Now he will be able to claim my father was wrong to trust Egypt. The King will be shamed before his people, and he will easily be goaded into adopting my brother’s plan to renew Hittite attacks upon Egypt. But what does that matter to me? For I will soon be dead.’

And he turned again to face the wall. He was right. If any harm came to the Prince, then the Hittite kingdom would make good on its threat and take revenge against Egypt. The war of the last thirty years would seem like the prelude to a far greater calamity. Egypt would be held responsible. We would all be held responsible.

‘We are still alive for a reason,’ I said.

‘And what is that?’ asked Simut.

‘There are two possibilities. There are two men who would wish to destabilize the prospect of peaceful relations between the two empires by means of the Prince’s death. One is Horemheb himself…’

‘Horemheb would never commission the Army of Chaos to undertake such an act of kidnapping and assassination. If he had knowledge of our mission, and our return route, he would simply do it himself,’ said Nakht.

‘I agree. So that leaves Aziru,’ I said. ‘Aziru hates Egypt because his father was executed by Akhenaten. Aziru is the King of Amurru. Aziru has changed allegiance from Egypt to the Hittites. Aziru has almost certainly maintained secret contacts with the Army of Chaos. He wants us.’

‘Aziru will be dead by now. My request to the Hittites was absolutely clear,’ said Nakht.

‘But how can you be sure the Hittites have done what they said they would do? What if they have not assassinated Aziru? The Crown Prince proved himself a strong ally of his, and the Crown Prince now has the upper hand with his father,’ I said. ‘Aziru is probably still alive. And if he is…’ I left the thought unspoken.

Nakht’s face was dark. He was thinking.

‘It seems to me we have one chance left to save ourselves,’ he said eventually.

‘And what’s that?’ asked Simut.

‘Inanna’s interest in Rahotep. She likes you. So we must consider how to play the throw of the dice to our best advantage, for it may make the difference between success and failure. Between life and death.’

‘You’re asking me to seduce her?’ I said, astonished.

‘Not asking. Ordering.’

Simut guffawed with amazement at the idea. But Nakht was staring at me seriously, coldly.

‘You know my wife. You know my family. You cannot ask me to do such a thing… It would be a betrayal of all I hold dear,’ I stammered.

‘I am not ordering you to sleep with her. But her attraction to you is a prime vulnerability. We must exploit it. You must find out anything you can about her plans for us. Above all, it would give you a chance to persuade her of the advantage of doing a deal with Egypt for our safe return. She is avaricious. She wants only the best return for her possessions. She might be persuaded to take a better deal than Aziru-if he is alive-could offer. But be quick. Whether Aziru or Horemheb, or some other, as yet unknown person, is behind our kidnapping, they will soon be arriving to claim the prize,’ he said. ‘And either way, at that point I believe we will be killed.’