Copyright © Fred Watson 2007
A serialisation
Part 25
On the night following the battle between the army of Kemet and the Aamu federation, Hanno of Tyre dragged himself from beneath a pile of the dead and walked north towards his father’s kingdom. The army of Kemet was totally destroyed and his friend the Pharaoh Tutimaios was slain. On his journey he met with commander Kefu, discovered that the traitor Abbados, his former friend, and brother to Tutimaios, was dead. Killed by those for whom he had stolen the shield of the sun, the Aamu.
While Kefu headed back to Kemet to find his family, Hanno, the shield now in his possession, continued his trek to the distant mountains and home. What they didn’t know was that horsemen led by Khaian, the brother to Benos, leader of the Aamu federation was tracking them both with the intention of recovering the shield.
Hanno set off in the cool of the evening; he was still heading north and the mountains were near. He could see the blue, grey, green of the scrub covered foothills, backed by the darker green of the cedar forests and the white tipped browns of the mountains beyond. His eyes search for the pass that would take him through to the other side and found what he was looking for to the east. A deep gash that looked almost as if some giant axe had fallen and riven a steep side cleft between two of the peaks.
There would only be a sliver of moon tonight and he would have to set up camp at dark, still he thought as he plodded on, by then I will be amongst the foothills, and so he was. When darkness fell, Hanno encamped in a fold of the foothills, sat by a meagre fire, ate sparingly from the stores given to him by Kefu, and then slept with his cloak around him.
At the very moment that Hanno settled down to sleep, Khaian sat beside another campfire too pent up to sleep. He was close, so close that he could almost smell the man he followed. They would ride at first light abandoning the chariot when they reached the foothills, continue on horseback and the shield should be his by noon.
The next morning they followed the tracks into the foothills and there was an hour yet to go to noon when they spotted their quarry. The tracks had led them into a steep sided ravine that ran towards the mountains and on turning a bend they had spotted him in the distance. The man was in the heart of ravine where the sides were the steepest and had nowhere to go but straight ahead. Way beyond the man the ground began the rise up and the walls of the ravine fell away, but long before then they would be upon him.
Khaian grinned, the shield would be his well before noon and with it, he would gain the power to oust his brother, Benos and take command of the federation himself. He raised a hand, chopped it forward, set off at a gallop and the thunder of hooves as his men followed, echoed from the rock walls either side.
The sun beat down and Hanno with his hood up against the heat didn’t hear the sound, until it drew near and looked first to the sky, before realising the sound wasn’t thunder. He glanced back over his shoulder, saw the horsemen in a cloud of dust and turned to run. Then seeing no chance of escape turned and stood his ground. As the horsemen bore down on him he un-slung the war axe, spread his legs and determined to take as many as he could with him.
The horsemen were so close now that could make out the white crescents of their bared teeth and see the breath snort from the nostrils of the beasts they rode. Then the arrows came from nowhere and first one and then another and another were flung from their mounts as the black feathered arrows struck home. Only the leader and one man behind him escaped the barrage of arrows and came charging on.
Hanno raised the axe; two handed above his head then swept it down and buried it between the beast’s eyes. The animal already dead on its feet ran on a few more paces before dropping like a stone and flinging the leader to the ground. Hanno, who had dived to one side after striking the blow, picked himself up and stood weapon less, expecting the second man to strike him down. But instead the man grunted as an arrow struck him and then despite his wound reached down hauled the leader up onto the horse behind him and rode off.
Unable to stop them Hanno could only watch until they disappeared and then recover the axe, while he waited for his rescuers to put in an appearance.
He did not have to wait long, a lone figure appeared on the edge of the ravine above and without saying a word pointed to where the ground rose and the ravine petered out. Waving a hand in acknowledgement Hanno set off at a jog, while his saviour at first paced him and then drew ahead.
The boy was waiting for him when he at last reached the higher ground. One look at him and Hanno decided his rescuer was a boy, the slight figure and the doe like eyes that showed above the scarf that masked the bottom half of the face convinced him. There were no furrows on the brow above, nor were there any lines in the corners of those soft brown eyes, yes a boy and a young on at that.
Hanno stepped forward intending to embrace his saviour man to man, or rather man to boy, as was the custom. But to his surprise the boy skipped back, raised his bow and within seconds one of those black fletched arrows was notched and pointing at his chest, ‘Hold hard, boy,’ said Hanno, ‘I only meant to thank you for saving my life.’
The eyes twinkled after the first three words as the boy smiled behind his mask and the bow was lowered, although Hanno noted that the arrow was still notched.
‘That’s not a very friendly gesture is it?’ he asked, nodding towards the bow.
The boy still did not speak, but his eyes smiled again, then he removed the arrow and slid it back into the quiver on his belt. After seeing the damage those arrows had done to the horsemen, Hanno had to admit he was relieved. ‘Thank you,’ he said and received a nod in reply.
Hanno looked around he had expected others of the boy’s group to have arrived by now. Then it dawned on him that there were no others, there was only the boy and it was he alone who had killed the horsemen in an amazing feat of archery.
‘It was you, on your own, who dealt with the horsemen, wasn’t it?’
Again the boy nodded, again the eyes twinkled as the boy smiled and Hanno couldn’t help thinking that the boy was in part laughing at him.
He was to find out why later, but for now the still silent boy motioned him to follow and led him via a barely discernable path deep into the cedar forest that covered the slopes below the mountains. It was cool beneath the trees but far from dark as great shafts of light penetrated the canopy turning the air to green and gold. From the length of time they walked and the angle of the ground Hanno guessed they were traversing the lower slopes in an easterly direction and that suited him well, since the pass through the mountains was in that direction.
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