
Many had lost hope that Egypt would ever be free. Most importantly, they had those damnable beasts that so terrified Hannu – the horses, powerful and well trained, able to pull gleaming chariots from which each warrior could loose a hundred arrows as they advanced. They had the greater weapons – those cruel swords and bows that were three times as powerful as any in Egyptian hands. The barbarians had superior numbers – what appeared to be an endless supply of the best fighting men in the world. This interminable war had been rolling back and forth along the valley of Mother Nile for nigh on half a century. What were the barbarians planning to do next? That was the question he needed to answer. So many of the experienced soldiers had been killed in the fi ghting that they were recruiting boys who a short while ago had been working in their fathers’ fields. They were young, their blades wavering in their hands as they crouched, waiting for an order. Piay glanced back at the six soldiers who had been sent to accompany them on this spying mission. ‘And we can get closer! I will not return to my master empty-handed.’ See how courage helps when you’ve got one of their beasts thundering towards you and a crescent sword hacking off the heads of your friends.’ If that was all it took, we would have been victorious fifty years gone, when they first came here. ‘Faint hearts will not drive these invaders back to their distant home.’ ‘The Hyksos swarm across this land like rats at harvest time.’ ‘Go much further and you will not return,’ Hannu grunted as they halted to search the way ahead. As he looked around, he glowered with eyes like hot coals. He was squat, with a thatch of black hair covering his body, and a jagged scar carved down his left cheek to an unkempt black beard. Hannu, his assistant, walked with a limp. Piay was tall and muscular with a strong jawline, high cheekbones and dark eyes that turned the heads of the women who served the Pharaoh. The men choked on the reek of burning, their ears ringing with the cries of the dying which shred-ded the stillness like the howls of wild cats. Along the horizon a red glow wavered from the blazing farms littering the lush Nile Valley, and a warm desert wind whipped sheets of smoke across the stars. Fingers were tightened around the hilts of bronze swords and their eyes darted. Sweat trickled down their taut bare backs. The two men crept along the edge of the moonlit barley field.
