The fights were to take place at dawn to take advantage of the cooler air and in the grey predawn of the third morning, commander Ayi led the royal trio to the centre of the parade ground. As the sky began to lighten and the night shadows fled they found themselves facing the three fighting rings.The rings marked by a circle of white stones were ten paces across and separated by the same distance. Each pair must fight within the ring and since it was to be a fight to the death. Any man leaving the ring, either by accident or design, before the conclusion would be killed by the guards that ringed the outside. Once you stepped inside, there was only one way out alive, and that was to kill your opponent.
Every man in the garrison, with the exception of those on guard, was out in force. The mind numbing boredom of a peacetime posting in a desert outpost was gone and there was a carnival atmosphere. Men bet amongst themselves as to the outcome and all around the parade ground bloodthirsty men jostled for the best positions. On Ayi’s order the contestants moved into place outside of the rings, Abba as he requested facing the Nubian. Tuti faced one of the Libyan’s and Hann the other.
Hann looked from one Libyan to the other and at first couldn’t tell them apart. They were both sons of the desert with the same sun darkened skins and hooked noses. Then as he looked closer he spotted two barely discernable distinguishing marks.While they both had the hooded eyes of a pair of hawks, the left eyelid of the one facing Tuti drooped a fraction lower than the other. As to the one facing him, his right earlobe was split vertically as if someone in the past had torn out an earring with great force. The observations wouldn’t be of any use in the upcoming fight, but it served to occupy his mind until it was time to step into the ring.
‘Right boys, now is the time to put everything I taught you into practice and Amon will guide your arm,’ said Ayi, as he nodded to Khety at the other side of the rings. As one, the opponents stepped into the rings facing each other. Weapon wise they were evenly matched each man armed with a battle-axe, to maim and a dagger to kill. In such a situation only the skill of the wielder would carry the day and yet each man believed he had the skill to win through.
As the order to begin was called and opponents squared up, the crowd surged forward pushing and shoving to get the best spots behind the guards surrounding the rings.
In ring one, Abba was taken on the back foot, as the Nubian charge straight at him hoping for a quick kill. But he recovered in time and the crushing blow barely scraped the skin from his upper arm as he spun away. The Nubian however, had barely started and came back at him immediately and Abba was forced to stop another overhead blow with the shaft of his axe. Arm numbed by the blow he danced away trying to hold onto the shaft with nerveless fingers. For the next few minutes he back-pedalled manically around the ring, giving his arm the chance to recover and at the same time weighing up his opponents method of attack. The Nubian like most powerfully built men, relied on brute strength to overcome his opponents and so attacked again and again, wearing them down. Abba had the strength to match him but that wouldn’t be enough, he could carry the attack to his opponent and they could trade blows and wounds all day without a satisfactory outcome and that just wouldn’t do.He decided to end the fight and end it now. As the Nubian came at him again he swapped the axe to the other hand ducked beneath a blow that was meant to take off his head, drove his axe into the Nubians side, chopped into the back of his neck as he double over, and finished him off with his knife.It all happened so fast that the crowd who had been jeering him for backing away a moment ago, fell silent, before bursting into an excited babble of amazement.
In the next ring Tuti and Droop eye circled each other warily both were wounded, droop eye with a wound to his upper arm and Tuti with a raking slash running diagonally across his chest. Neither of the wounds were serious, but they served to teach each a grudging respect for the other. Droop eye sprang forward feigning a right handed, over head blow with the axe and as Tuti raised his axe in defence, Droop eye swept his knife in from the left intent gutting him where he stood. Tuti leaped back and the knife left a thin line across his belly that welled with blood. This second cut made him realise that if he was to survive the fight he must use what he had been taught to turn the tables on his opponent.As the next axe blow descended he dance away and as droop eye attempted the same slashing move again he slipped to one side and danced back in to stab forward into droop eye’s kidney. The shock and pain of the blow doubled Droop eye over and threw him backwards at the same time. He tried to recover but his momentum was such that he was flung mortally wounded from the ring and dispatched by a spear thrust from one of the guards.
Hann and Split ear in ring three, were evenly matched and Hann, the only one of the trio to fully remember all he had been taught by commander Ayi, had spent the last fifteen minutes in weighing up his opponents method of attack. He had feigned, stabbed, attacked and retreated and every move he had made had been countered by Split ear, but all the time he had watched and he had learned.Now he believed he was ready and moved in raining blows on his opponent, who as expected countered each move, then pulling back a little he waited for Split ear to signal his intentions. He had observed that before the Libyan began to draw back his arm for an overhead blow his eyes flickered to the expected point of impact on the upper body and for a split second as his arm went back his chest and throat were exposed.The eyes flicker the arm went back and Hann darted in and rammed his knife at angle under the Libyans chin and up into his brain. Slit ear dropped like a sack and lay still. Hann turned and left the ring sickened, it was one thing to kill in the heat of the moment on a battlefield, but it was another to kill a man face to face in cold blood.
Pushing his way through the crowd, every man of whom seemed to be vying to pat him on the back,he made his way to where Tuti and Abba stood next to commander Ayi.
‘Another one with a gloomy face,’ said Ayi. ‘ What is the matter with you all? You’ve gotten what you asked for and if you are feeling guilty over the men you have killed. Don’t. The Libyans were due to be executed three days ago and according to commander Khety, the Nubian would follow soon. So now why don’t we get those wounds seen to and then go and get something to drink?’
After their wounds were dressed commander Ayi led them out to The Golden Palm and after sharing a couple of glasses of wine with them, he left claiming a prior engagement with commander Khety. Needless to say they got roaring drunk and when they passed out, Ayi had arranged for under commander Huy and a squad of men to carry them back to the barracks.
A few days later they left the oasis behind and two weeks after that arrived back to the palace, where with great ceremony the Pharaoh presented each of them with a gold chain of valour. Three months later, on his eighteenth birthday Hanno said goodbye to his friends, Tutimaios and Abbados and returned to his family home in the island city-state of Tyre.
He wouldn’t see his friends again for another two years and by then the old Pharaoh would be dead, Kemet would be at war and his old friend would be the new Pharaoh Tutimaios, who was calling on his old friends for help to drive the marauding Aamu from his lands.
