Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,68
not see any of my lord Akhnamen, now Akhnaten, in the king. He had none of the dreamy aura which surrounded the Royal Son. He was immensely alive and alert, though old, and if his gaze had been sharper when he was younger then he would have been able to stare holes in a stone door.
I realised that I had been fetched, accidentally on purpose, to a serious meeting which palace procedure would have totally forbidden, and sat up straighter. My dearest friend appeared to be sobering, also. No one ever said that Kheperren was unobservant.
‘General Horemheb,’ said the King, ‘what shall we say to this Great Royal Scribe and this decorated soldier?’
‘We shall say that they hold the fate of the Black Land in their hands, and explain the situation without frightening them too badly,’ replied Horemheb, flicking a blue-beaded tress back over his shoulder.
‘You trust them, despite their youth?’
‘I trust them because of their youth,’ he replied. ‘And because although he has no taste for war, Kheperren saved my life. He did not flinch and he did not run, and that is much for an untried and scholarly young man. And I trust them because they are brothers.’
‘Very well,’ said the King Amenhotep may he live.
‘General,’ said Kheperren, wavering down to kiss Horemheb’s foot, ‘congratulations on your elevation.’
‘Scribe,’ said the general, ‘I thank you. I have here your mark of valour, which you will wear in memory of the Battle of the Mountains.’
He took Kheperren’s hand and slipped a heavy gold arm-ring onto his wrist. It was figured with silver bees.
I knew that Kheperren was about to protest and I wanted to hear what the King had to say, so I pulled him back onto our carpet and said, ‘Congratulations, soldier! My lords, we are at your disposal. What did you wish to say to us?’ I was worried as to how long my sobriety would last and I did not wish to disgrace my office by falling asleep.
‘Egypt,’ said the King, a little amused by my presumption, ‘is at its fullest extent. We control more land than we ever have, and we control it mostly by diplomacy. The army, of course, is important,’ he deferred to the general in a way which was most pleasing to watch, ‘but mostly we have maintained this empire by diplomacy. My entire foreign office spends all its days in writing letters to the surrounding kings and princelings and in patching up alliances and in fostering quarrels between our enemies.’ The old man got up and began to pace the room, occasionally pausing to stroke the cheek of the sleeping child or take a strand of the Queen’s coppery hair between his fingers.
‘Consider,’ he continued, ‘on both sides of the Nile there is Desaret, a bleak waste, where nomads roam. They are not immensely important on their own, being quarrelsome and uncertain of purpose. If they can ever ally one with the other, settle their differences and invade in force that will be a different matter, and I have agents amongst the tribes to warn the throne of the emergence of a new god, which is the only thing which could make them dangerous. Beyond them on one side there are the kingdoms of Mitanni, Babylonia and Khatte, who are bitter enemies of each other and must be kept so. For if they combine, my children, then Egypt will fall before their combined might, and we will be subjugated just as we were under the Hyksos.’
‘How can they be kept at variance?’ I asked.
‘By a sedulous fostering of quarrels, my scribe, by a careful application of flattery and gifts, by marriages and alliances. On the Great Green Sea our messengers sail to Achaea and to Kriti; there is a Princess Merope of that Island amongst the Great Royal Wives, here to bind her father Minos to our treaty. We sail to Ugarit, to Tyre, to Byblos unmolested. Our boundaries stretch across most of the Known World, but take heed of this: no army in the world could protect them if they were assailed at more than one point. However big the army, however well led—and General Horemheb, I mean no insult—they could not get to a troubled spot in time if an invasion in force was attempted. Only diplomacy can keep Egypt, and that is why you are here, young and honourable men. I fear…’’
He was standing by his wife and she reached up and took his hand, drawing it to her