Hann set of at a trot, the men he’d picked keeping pace either side. At first the trail doubled back towards Kharga but after half an hour’s travel it veered off not into the desert as he expected but angling back towards the Nile and more or less in the general direction of Akhmim. Another two hours of travel through the desert scrub and the trail petered out as the ground became rocky underfoot. Spreading out they moved forward and just when they thought they had lost the trail they found some discarded baggage ropes at the entrance to a wadi.
Reasoning that the Hawks would soon make camp for the night and fearful of running into them accidentally, Tuti posted one man at the entrance to the wadi, sent the other to warn the commander and set off to scout the enemy positions. Half an hour into the wadi he heard rather than saw the Hawks. Dropping into a crouch Tuti crept forward and climbed amongst a jumble of rocks, an elevated but hidden position that allowed him to watch as they set up camp.
A thin hook nosed individual was giving the orders and whoever he was; he had obviously used the campsite before. It was sited inside a four sided, chest high, boulder wall that formed a fortress in the centre of the wadi floor. Despite their height if there were enough well armed and determine men on the walls it would be a hard place to take. The same applied to the only entrance it was so narrow that any attacking force would be at the mercy of the defenders, as they would have to enter in single file.
The Desert Hawks were a large group, Tuti counted over two hundred of them. Mind you, he mused, they’d have to be; to attack a large heavily guarded merchant train carrying the rich pickings of Nubia. They were well armed too. Most of them carried a bow, a spear and either axe or a long dagger. Tuti studied the dispositions of the men within the camp, turned to leave and froze as a man called from camp and was answered by others behind him.
The voices, there were two of them, came from the rocks at either side of the wadi. The men, who had been acting as lookouts, looked as if they were returning for their evening meal. They must have been well hidden in the rocks for him to not see them and must also have been asleep at their posts not to see him creeping towards the camp. The men were deep in conversation and stopped to argue beneath where he was hidden. Holding his breath he listened as he willed them to move on.
‘I don’t see why we need guards in the middle of nowhere,’ one of them moaned.
‘Tell that to Nebamun if you dare, or do you think he doesn’t know what he is doing?’ said the other.
Tuti was stunned. Nebamun was the local Nomarch a local official tasked with ruling the district on behalf of his father the Pharaoh. Surely a man in such a high position couldn’t be the leader of this band of brigands. There again, he thought, who was in a better position to know the movements of a merchant train travelling through his district. Yet commander Ayi had met with the nomarch only yesterday and Nebamun wouldn’t be so stupid as to carry out an attack with an armed force on the same road. It was a puzzle and he decided to leave it until he could speak to the commander.
By now the men had moved on towards the camp and he groaned softly, as two more men left the camp heading in his direction. They had to be replacement lookouts and it looked as if he had missed his chance to get away.Luckily they stopped to confer with the other two and he managed to slip away unseen. He hurried by back the way he had come and had almost made it to the beginning of the wadi, when he was grabbed from behind. With a hand clamped over his mouth and a blade at his neck he ceased to struggle and slid his hand towards the knife in his belt.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you little brother,’ a voice hissed in his ear.
The hand and the knife were removed and he swung around. ‘You… you…’ he spluttered, ‘nearly frightened me to death, you great lummox.’
Abba grinned and said, ‘That’ll teach you to take more care. Now can we go, you need to make your report to the commander?’
Tuti cursed himself for not taking care and followed his brother to a dip in the land, where commander Ayi and Hann waited, some way from the rest of the troops.
Hann handed him a water skin and when he had quenched his thirst the commander got down to the business in hand, ‘I take it you found their camp.
‘Yes, Commander.’
‘Good. Now make your report.’
Tuti took a moment to organise his thoughts and then began, ‘The Hawks have made camp in a fortified position on some flat ground in the middle of the wadi.’
Tuti paused expecting the commander to comment but he only nodded for him to continue.
‘They have placed the slaves and the pack animals under guard at one end of the fortress. The walls of the fortress are chest high and I counted just over two hundred well-armed men, more than enough to defend the walls. They also have two lookouts in place further up the wadi.
‘Good,’ said the commander. ‘Now let’s get down to details. Draw me a map on the sand.’
‘Wait Commander, there is more. While the lookouts were changing one of them mentioned that the name of their leader was Nebarmun.’
The Commanders eyes widened, ‘The Nomarch? Surely not a man of his position; still he is well placed to know the movements of goods coming in from Nubia.’
‘I thought that too, but he would hardly carry out an attack while he knew we were on the road too.’
‘But he didn’t,’ said the commander, ‘he was asking so many questions about who we were and when we were leaving that I became suspicious and told him we weren’t leaving for three days.’
‘Then in that case it could be him leading the Hawks.’
‘Whether it is or not, we still have an attack to plan, so let’s draw that map.’
