‘Why in the name of Seth did you not go to meet Teti and recover the Shield!’ barked Benos, leader of the Aamu federation.
The kneeling figure before him raised his head slightly and looked at his elder brother from beneath lowered eyelids, gauging the depth of his anger. Benos had been ranting, at times incoherently, for the past half hour, ever since he had admitted to not having recovered the shield. But now seemed to have calmed somewhat. Deeming that the worst was past Khaian spoke, ‘The enemy was upon us, there was no time and when there was, You, My Illustrious Brother had already defeated Tutimaios without the shield, so I…’
‘So you thought that we had no need of it.’
‘True, brother I did, yet even so, I still expected Teti to bring the shield to me.’
‘That he did not is the reason you kneel before me now, and I ask you again. What have you done to find him and the shield?’
‘I have ordered a search party to leave within the hour and bring him back.’
‘By all means bring Teti back; only make sure he brings the shield with him. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes, Brother.’
‘Good. Now go.’
Khaian stood without raising his head, turned, walked toward the entrance of the tent and had barely reached it, when Benos spoke again. ‘And, My Brother, go with the patrol yourself.’
When Khaian had gone Benos sighed inwardly, his brother wasn’t stupid, yet still it seemed that he failed to grasp the importance of the shield. He needed the shield not because of its so-called magical powers, but because it might become a symbol to the peoples of Kemet. Having defeated Tutimaios he must now recover and destroy the symbol of the Pharaoh’s power, or it might just come back to haunt him one day.
After leaving the command tent Khaian was in a foul mood, he hated the fact that Benos, his elder brother treated him like an idiot. But he would show him who the idiot was. He would recover the shield and if it did possess the power to protect the user, he would oust Benos and take his place as leader of the coalition. Somewhat mollified by the thought, he hurried to the horse lines where the dozen men of the mounted search party waited.
‘All ready and awaiting your orders sir,’ called out Ephria the captain in charge.
‘Send one of the men to get my chariot and driver. I’m coming with you.’
Trying not to show his surprise at the commander’s last minute decision to join them, the captain turned to the nearest man. ‘You, do as the commander orders.’
‘Now,’ said Khaian. ‘While we wait, tell me how we are to locate Teti in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Fairly easily sir,’ said Ephria flashing a grin. ‘Teti said that he was going to mark the route at regular intervals. One of my men has already checked as far as the second of these and reports that they are marked clearly and are easy to find.’
As he finished speaking the commander’s chariot arrived. Khaian stepped on board and they set off along the edge of the ridge. To their right, they could hear chanting of the priests and see the bodies of those killed in battle being burned on the funeral pyres. While below and to their left, thousands of the enemy dead, with none to mourn them lay on the battle ground and rotted where they had fallen.
It took them close on three hours to reach the meeting point – Due to the rocky nature of the ground they had found it necessary to make several detours to allow Khaian’s chariot a clear passage. They found blood and evidence of a fight having taken place in the camp area and the vultures led them quickly to the bodies in the nearby ravine.
‘How many men did Teti have with him?’ asked Khaian, his voice muffled by the cloak he held over his nose and mouth against the stench of corruption.
‘Two sir, the forth body must be the priest.’
‘I doubt it, not wearing the uniform of a common soldier,’ said Khaian as he moved further along the ravine to escape the stench of the bodies.
‘In that case Sir, it looks to me as if the priest overpowered Teti and the others, and escaped with the shield.’
‘You could be right Captain,’ said Khaian as he stared at a pile of rocks further down the ravine. ‘Except, I think that you will find the priest beneath that pile of rocks down there and that someone else has possession of the shield now.’
While Khaian found a spot out of the sun in which to rest, Captain Ephria had his men remove the rocks covering the fifth body and then reported back to the commander. ‘Sir The body is uncovered; do you wish to see it yourself?’
‘That won’t be necessary, just tell me what you have found.’
‘The dead man is taller than average and of muscular build. Also his kilt and cloak are of the finest linen.’
‘Then we have found the priest. Now all we have to do find the one who has taken the shield and relieve him of the burden.’
‘I’ll have the men cast around for his trail.’
‘Do that, Captain.’
As the Ephria walked away, the commander, as seemed to be a habit of his, called out to him again. ‘And Captain, get them to check carefully all around, but concentrate their efforts in a northerly direction.’
‘Northerly Sir?’ But the River Lands are to the west.’
Khaian frowned at the questioning tone of voice, and then decided to let it pass, after all the man would find out soon enough that he was wrong in his thinking.
‘As I say check in all directions. But I have a hunch that whoever has the shield will head north. After all if he were to travel west our army would soon overtake him. So as I said, concentrate your efforts to the north.’
‘Yes, Sir.’
An hour later Ephria reported back, ‘There were no tracks to the east however we did find the tracks of one man and a donkey going west.’
Khaian frowned at the news and seeing his face the captain hurried on with his report. ‘As you rightly deduced there are tracks of two men heading north.’
‘And too the south?’
‘Three separate sets of tracks, four men and then three men and a donkey, all leading here. Both groups appear to have come from somewhere to the west of the battlefield. Then there is the third set, one man seems to have arrived directly from the battlefield itself.’
Khaian went quiet and lowered his head as he pondered the news and all Ephria could do was wait until the commander was ready to speak or dismiss him.Eventually Khaian lifted his head and spoke. ‘The first group could only be Teti, the two guards and the priest. Since the second group came from the same direction we must assume they were in search of the priest and the shield, the lone man who knows?Now, I still believe that the two going north have the shield, but what if the one going west has it?’
Ephria was not quite sure if the question was rhetorical or aimed at him, but he replied anyway. ‘Since we cannot be sure either way, I would like to suggest we split up and go after both.’
To his surprise Khaian was in agreement and was all for pressing on without delay. But with the onset of nightfall he had to curb his impatience and reluctantly agree to Ephria's suggestion that they make camp for the night. They carried their own supplies and kindling, so they had food and a fire. But still it was a long night with only their cloaks to keep off the desert chill and they broke their fast before dawn and moved out at first light. Ephria and three of the men followed the tracks that led west, while Khaian and the rest of the men followed those leading northwards.
