I have already sent Hui to gather them up," he assured me. "Don't worry that battered head of yours". They are our only hope for eventual victory."
If I am given the time and the material, I can build new and better chariots with wheels that do not burst, but I cannot replace the horses. Salitis will overwhelm and destroy us very easily. My chariots are swifter than those of Salitis, but my men cannot match his in skill and training. "Your Majesty, I have forty chariots that I can send in to meet him. His chariots are so fast that he can swing around our positions as he did at Asyut. We can wait for him behind walls of stone, or behind barriers of the sharp staves that Taita has equipped us with. "I can slow him down, perhaps," he replied frankly. Their horses are in the traces and they are coming on a cloud of dust, swiftly as the flight of the swallow. They swam the horses over as they did before, but this time there were none of our galleys ready to turn back their boats.
The messenger stuttered in fear of his life, "Divine Majesty, while our fleet was busy at Asyut, the barbarian made another crossing at Esna. However, there must be droves of renegade Egyptians from the usurper's navy available to Salitis, and even if that were not the case, it would certainly be possible to recruit enough mercenary Syrian sailors in Gaza and Joppa, and the other ports along the eastern coast of the great sea, to man several hundred of these galleys and transports. Those ships were lying abandoned in the docks of Memphis and Tanis in the Delta. We knew that when he swept through the Lower Kingdom, Salitis had captured most of the fleet of the red pretender intact. It was the enemy's logical move, and both Salitis and Lord Intef should have made it much earlier. Secretly, I had expected and dreaded what would happen next. THE SUCCESS OF MY CHARIOTS AT ESNA, and the feeling of confidence that it instilled in us all, were short-lived. Tanus ordered him into the council chamber, and the messenger fell to his knees before Queen Lostris. He had fled to us on the current and the wind, so his news was only a day old. While we thus debated, another messenger arrived, this time from the south. All our galleys could do was to ny to keep pace with the dust-cloud he threw up, as he raced for the funerary temple of Mamose and all its treasures. There was nothing to stop him now, as his chariots came bowling southwards along our side of the river. These regiments comprised nearly three hundred of Salitis" fast war chariots, his elite divisions which he led himself. He would even ride with me again, if only I could fix my wheels. My orphan chariot squadron was at last to be part of the standing army, and he would give me the men and gold to build five hundred more. Tanus had quashed his pride, and given in to me. As soon as he saw that I was conscious, he masked the expression of concern and worry that had twisted his features.įor a moment it did not penetrate my aching skull, then I realized that it had happened. I found myself lying on a sheepskin mattress, with Tanus leaning over me. Iwoke again under the awning on the deck of Tanus" flagship. "The gods cannot desert this very Egypt now. "No" my mistress's voice shook with the force of her denial.
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