“Sargon! Come at once,” Garal said. “Our men have captured some riders coming through the Pass.”
He and Garal jogged across the village until they reached the place where Chief Bekka, Subutai, and the other clan leaders had gathered. Ten or twelve warriors, their horses tethered nearby, surrounded three prisoners kneeling on the ground. Sargon saw the fear on their faces, as they stared wide-eyed at the menacing barbarians encircling them.
Sargon moved closer to the Elamites, but waited until Bekka told Sargon to proceed. Then he turned to face the wretched men, now staring up at him.
“If you wish to live, if you wish to avoid being tortured, you will answer my questions, truthfully and without hesitation. Or you can choose silence, and the torture will begin.”
They seemed surprised that any of the barbarians spoke their language, but they all hastened to assure Sargon of their cooperation. His mother had suggested that not many of the Elamites would be eager to die for their King.
Sargon ordered the men separated. Then he and Garal began the interrogation. This one lasted much longer than yesterday’s, as these men had much more information to divulge. The men were questioned, and each man’s answers compared to the other two. Well before midmorning, Sargon felt certain he had extracted the truth from them.
He and Garal joined the three clan chiefs still in Zanbil, Bekka, Subutai, and Suijan. Den’rack, Virani, and the others had departed to patrol the approaches to the village.
“What did you learn?” Chief Bekka’s voice had a hard edge. No doubt he, too, worried about the Elamite forces that might easily surround him.
“The day before yesterday, Modran’s army reached my father’s battle line and tried to break through. Apparently the fighting lasted some time. The Elamites were repulsed, and with heavy losses. Modran is preparing to attack again. But in case his army is delayed, he sent these three messengers back to Zanbil, to demand more supplies be sent on ahead, especially food and water, and as fast as possible. Then the messengers were to continue on until they reached King Shirudukh at the city of Sushan. They would tell Shirudukh of Akkad’s decision to fight the decisive battle inside the Dellen Pass. The riders took extra horses, and rode all day and into the night. Last night they halted about ten miles away, when it finally became too dark to ride.”
“Two days ago?” Bekka rubbed his chin in surprise. “That means they covered more than seventy miles through the Pass in less than two days. I didn’t think dirt eaters could ride that well.”
Sargon decided that now was not the time to remind Bekka that, in the past, the warriors had frequently underestimated the capabilities of the villagers. “Modran demanded that the messengers travel as fast as they could, even if it meant killing the horses.”
Bekka shrugged. “At least your father has survived the first encounter, and this Modran now realizes it may take some time to break through the Pass. It also means that Modran is not already on his way here.”
“The prisoners didn’t think Modran would attack again for another day or so,” Sargon said. “If this is true, and my father can hold them off in a second battle, Modran will soon be desperate for the supplies he is already expecting. If we can occupy Zanbil for another two or three days, the Elamites may have to retreat.”
“If Eskkar drives them off,” Bekka said, “we may soon have nine thousand Elamite horsemen coming back through the Pass, looking for food and water. Yet if there is nothing here for them to eat, we should be able to out ride and out fight them easily enough.”
If the Elamites were low on food and water, their cavalry would ride as hard as they could to reach this place. The rest of Modran’s infantry fighters wouldn’t be far behind, driven by the same need.
“All the same, his army is not likely to abandon their attack for some time. It will probably be another few days before we learn what happens. .”
The sound of a galloping horse interrupted the conversation. In moments, a sweating warrior on a well-lathered horse pulled up before the Sarum.
“Chief Bekka, we spotted a supply train coming up the trail from the south. At least two hundred pack animals, and perhaps fifty or sixty guards, about half of them mounted. Chief Suijan and Chief Den’rack have moved their men out of sight, to let the dirt eaters approach this place.”
Bekka glanced at Sargon.
“I suggest, Chief Bekka,” Sargon said, “that we let them ride in. You might conceal some of your warriors in the huts, and we could bring out the women and prisoners. Seeing them standing about should help lure the Elamites into the village.”
Bekka never hesitated. “Do it.”
Sargon turned to Garal, and soon the two of them were giving orders, shifting men from place to place, and removing any signs of their warriors. In the center of the village, Sargon stood beside the eight women who had survived the raid. Many of them were scarcely able to walk, after the repeated rapes. Most were bruised as well, but Sargon knew that those signs wouldn’t be visible until the supply column had fully entered Zanbil.
Sargon told the women what would happen to them if they tried to warn the approaching Elamites. Since they knew how many men Sargon had at his call, they nodded dejectedly. They understood that only Sargon’s presence had saved their lives yesterday.
He stood there as the long line of men and animals wended their way into the village. The leader had nearly reached the marketplace before he noticed something was amiss. Sargon shouted the order, then pushed the women back toward their hut.
Warriors burst from the nearby huts, bows in hand, shouting their war cries, and loosing shafts as fast as they could. The Elamite commander leading the column managed to grasp his sword, but two arrows struck him from his horse, his blade still half in its scabbard. Most of the warriors used their bows. Others pulled guards from their horses using their swords or impaled them with their lances.
Many of the Elamites tried to flee, but now hundreds of warriors, previously out of sight to the east and north, galloped at full speed, to cut off any possibility of escape. In moments, a ring of mounted clan warriors encircled Zanbil.
The guards, caught by surprise, had little chance. By the time the last of Den’rack’s warriors arrived, almost all of the Elamites were dead, and the rest died moments later. Garal ordered the men to secure the pack animals and collect the weapons.
Before long Sargon faced another four prisoners kneeling in the dirt, the only survivors of the supply column. By now, Sargon knew exactly what to say and what to demand. His third interrogation took little time, and soon he and Garal stood once again before Chief Bekka.
“The men guarding the supply column say that there is only one more caravan coming behind them. It should arrive here in two days. After that, Lord Modran’s forces will be expected to live off Akkad’s lands, or get supplies from Sumer. The supply caravans were to keep Modran’s men fed until they were through the Dellen Pass and could establish the siege around Akkad. Once there, they were to forage for themselves.”
“Can you be sure they are telling the truth?” Bekka seemed suspicious at how easily Sargon had obtained the information. “How will this second caravan be guarded?”
“Yes, I believe them,” Sargon answered. “I promised that they would live, if they spoke the truth. All the guards were questioned separately, and their stories agreed. As for the next supply group, it will be guarded by about the same number of soldiers. Without a warning from Zanbil, they will ride in as carelessly as these men did.”
“We will stay here and take the second caravan,” Bekka said. “Then we will burn everything that we do not need. Since no more men or supplies are coming to Zanbil, we will be free to raid the countryside.”
And that, Sargon knew, might lead to trouble. His father had asked the Alur Meriki to cut Modran’s supply line, and by capturing the one remaining convoy, they would have accomplished that. Which meant the warriors had completed the task Eskkar had asked of them, as well as fulfilled their oath.