After the death of his men in the disastrous attempt to kill Hanno and take the shield of the sun, Khaian hurried to catch up with the great Army. He now knew that the shield was in the possession of Prince Hanno and that the prince was on his way home to Tyre. Unfortunately he also knew that he would have to face the wrath of his brother Benos – one of the leaders of the Aamu Federation - when he reported his failure to recover the shield. Still, while he shuddered at the thought of the humiliation to come, he knew that if he wanted to get his hands on the shield, he must first take Tyre and to do that he would need an army.And to get that army he would put up with the humiliation and grovel to his brother, but once he had the shield in his possession, his brother would be the one to grovel then.
Three weeks later, when Khaian caught up with the army it was encamped on the east bank of the great river. Apparently there had been a problem finding sufficient boats to ferry the men to the other side and it was only the day before that they had begun the crossing. Impatient to get to Memphis, Benos had crossed with the first of them and finding no opposition, was now ensconced in the city’s Royal Palace.After his trip across the desert on meagre rations Khaian had someone see to his horse, ate and drank with some of the officers from his battalion and slept through to the next evening. Refreshed and feeling that his brother may have mellowed somewhat after feasting for three days in his royal surroundings, he commandeered a space on one of the boats and crossed over the river.
On reaching the other side he made his way through the growing encampment that surrounded the white-walled city and after being waved through by the guards, entered via the river gate. Inside there was little sign that an invading army had taken the city.Relatively few building had been torched and while drunken soldiers appeared to have emptied most of the inns of their content, there were no bodies to be seen in the streets. For this to have happened Khaian deduced that city had surrendered without a fight and had been place under marshal law to protect the citizen against the rest of the army. A fact attested to by the guards on the city gates and the foot patrols he passed as he made his way to the palace. Benos would no doubt have his reasons for this, but it was a move that would cause resentment amongst the army, as their meagre wages were subsidised by the loot and slaves taken from captured cities.
He traversed the sparsely populated streets of the city with little effort and soon found himself at the heavily guarded gates of the royal palace. There had obviously been changes during his absence, as the guards were new and he knew none of them. After identifying himself, he was led to an antechamber and was made to wait, until Lord Benos was ready to see him.This was typical of his brother and while one part of him fumed at being made to wait, another part of him was thankful for the delay in facing the expected wrath of Benos.
Finally after waiting around for what seemed a couple of hours he was escorted through the endless winding corridors of the palace to a set of ornately carved doors with guards either side.His escort stepped forward knocked twice, the doors swung open, the escort stepped back and motioned for Khaian to enter. As he did so, the doors closed behind him and he was left to walk the length of the room to where his brother sat on a throne that was as ornately carved as the door had been. Benos appeared to be alone but no doubt there would be guards close by. As Khaian neared the throne he bowed and addressed his brother, ‘My Lord Benos.’
‘Come, come, Khaian we are alone, call me Benos, after all, are we not brothers.’
Khaian was, to say the least, taken aback by his brother’s friendly tone and wondered what it was in aid of. Still, never one to let an advantage slip by, he decided that now was the time to confess his failure to recover the shield, ‘Bad news My L … ,’ Benos frowned, whether at the, bad news, or at the near use of his honorific and Khaian hurried on, ‘I almost had the shield within my grasp, but we were ambushed by hill tribesmen, my men were killed and I barely escaped with my life.’
Benos frowned again and Khaian braced himself for the outburst, it never came, instead Benos asked, ‘I don’t suppose there is any chance of its recovery now?’
‘Yes there is every chance, Prince Hanno of Tyre has it and he has taken it home with him. I am certain I can recover the shield, however, I will need a small army to do so, that is why I have returned for your help.’
‘The shield must be recovered and you shall have your army, but there are more pressing matters to deal with first. There has been a power struggle between the leaders of the federation and for the moment I seem to have come out on top. However things are balanced on a knife edge and I need your help brother.’
So, now he knew why his brother was being so nice, Benos had obviously succeeded in wresting power from the other leaders, but was struggling to hang on to that power and for some reason needed his help in the matter. What ever help that might be, he decided to give it, after all he had his own dreams of power and they would be easier to implement against a single leader. ‘I will give you all the help I can Benos, simply tell me what you want.’
‘You may not be aware, but there is unrest amongst the men because I prevented them from sacking the city.’
‘But why? It has always been their right to plunder an enemy city.’
‘Not this one brother, of all the cities in Kemet, this one must remain sacrosanct.’
‘Again I ask you why my brother?’
‘Because it is the royal city and once we have cowed the rest of Kemet, I intend to have myself appointed Pharaoh. But that is for the future and my immediate concern is to pacify the army, particularly that part formerly belonging to Lords, Khanum and Saoni.’
‘Formerly?
‘Yes, unfortunately they objected to my taking full power, so I had to dispose of them and now the officers in charge of their men are fermenting unrest.’
‘Why not dispose of them too?’
‘Because they are better liked than their lords were, control one third of the whole army, and I could do without a rebellion at this point in time. Besides, I am appointing you my brother, as their commander in chief and while I raze the north, you will march them south, subduing and looting the country as you go.’
Khaian always knew Benos was ruthless but up until now he hadn’t realised just how devious he was too. Still it suited him to go along with Benos’s plan; after all it fitted in with his own long-term goal.
‘Let me get this straight, I am to take command of twenty-thousand rebellious men, win their officers over to my side, subdue the south of the country and what then?’
‘Once the south is cowed, you can take your army to Tyre, recover the shield and return in triumph to take your place at the head of my army.’
‘That’s very kind of you I’m sure,’ said Khaian.
The sarcasm was wasted on Benos who simply said, 'We need to act quickly, we must move out by the end of the week.'
