'Your fame proceeds you, Lord Harrab. I knew your father. He was a man indeed,' he greeted Tanus. 'Although I have heard persistent rumours that you died in die desert not a week since, and that even at this moment your body lies with the morticians on the west bank of the Nile, undergoing the ritual forty days of the embalming process, you are welcome in my humble house.'
While we enjoyed the feast he provided, Tanus questioned him at length on all he knew of the Shrikes, and Tiamat answered him freely and openly.
At last Tanus glanced at me and I nodded. Tanus turned back to Tiamat and said, 'You have been a generous friend to us, and yet we have been less than honest with you. This was from necessity, for it was of vital importance that no one should guess at our real purpose in mis endeavour. Now I will tell you that it is my purpose to smash the Shrikes and deliver their leaders up to Pharaoh's justice and wrath.'
Tiamat smiled and stroked his beard. 'This comes as no great surprise to me,' he said, 'for I have heard of the charge mat Pharaoh placed upon you at the festival of Osiris. That and your patent interest in those murderous bandits left little doubt in my mind. I can say only that I will sacrifice to the gods for your success.'
'To succeed, I will need your help again,' Tanus told him.
'You have only to ask.'
'Do you think that the Shrikes are as yet aware of our caravan?'
'All of Safaga is talking about you,' Tiamat replied. 'Yours is the richest cargo that has arrived this season. Eighty beautiful slave girls will be worth at least a thousand gold rings each in Karnak.' He chuckled and shook his head at the joke. 'You can be certain that the Shrikes already know all about you. I saw at least three of their spies in the crowd at the waterfront watching you. You can expect them to meet you and make their demands even before you reach the first pass.'
When we rose to take our leave, he walked with us as far as his own door. 'May all the gods attend your endeavours. Not only Pharaoh, but every living soul in the entire kingdom will be in your debt if you can stamp out this terrible scourge that threatens to destroy our very civilization, and drive us all back into the age of barbarism.'
IT WAS STILL COOL AND DARK THE FOLLOWING morning when die column started out. Tanus, with Lanata slung over his shoulder, was at die head of die caravan, widi myself, in all my womanly grace and beauty, following him closely. Behind us the donkeys were harnessed hi single file, moving nose to tail down the middle of die well-beaten track. The slave girls were hi double columns on die outer flanks of the file of donkeys. Their weapons were concealed in die packs upon the backs of die animals. Any of die men needed only to reach out to lay a hand upon die hilt of his sword.
Kratas had split his escort into diree squads of six men each, commanded by Astes, Remrem and himself. Astes and Remrem were warriors of renown and more than deserving of dieir own commands. However, bodi of diem had, on numerous occasions, refused promotion in order to remain with Tanus. That was die quality of loyalty mat Tanus inspired in all who served under him. I could not help thinking yet again what a pharaoh he would have made.
The escorts now slouched along beside die column, making every attempt to forsake their military bearing. It would seem to die spies who were certainly watching us from die hills that they were diere solely to prevent any of die slaves from escaping. In north diey were fully occupied widi preventing their charges from breaking into marching step and sounding off a chorus of one of die rowdy regimental songs.
'You diere, Kernit!' I heard Remrem challenge one of diem. 'Don't take such long steps, man, and swing that fat arse of yours a little! Try to make yourself alluring.'
'Give me a kiss, captain,' Kernit called back, 'and I'll do anything you say.'
The heat was rising, and the mirage was beginning to make die rocks dance. Tanus turned back to me. 'Soon I will call our first rest-stop. One cup of water for each?'
'Good husband,' I interrupted him, 'your friends have arrived. Look ahead!'
Tanus turned back, and instinctively gripped die stock of die great bow that hung at his side. 'And what fine fellows they are, too!'
At that moment our column was winding through the first foothills below the desert plateau. On either hand we were walled in by the steep sides of the rocky hills. Now three men stood in the track ahead of us. The one who led them was a tall, menacing figure swathed in the woollen robe of the desert traveller, but his head was bared His skin was very dark, and deeply pitted with the scars of the smallpox. He had a nose that was hooked like the beak of a vulture, and his right eye was an opaque jelly from the blind-worm that burrows deep into the eyeball of its victims.
'I know the one-eyed villain,' I said softly, so that Tanus alone could hear. 'His name is Shufti. He is the most notorious of the barons of the Shrikes. Be wary of him. The lion is a gentle beast compared to this one.'
Tanus gave no sign of having heard me, but lifted his right hand to show that it held no weapon, and called out cheerfully, 'May all your days be scented with jasmine, gentle traveller, and may a loving wife welcome you at your own front door when at last your journey is done.'
'May your water-skins stay filled and cool breezes fan your brow when you cross the Thirsty Sands,' Shufti called back, and he smiled. That smile was fiercer than a leopard's snarl, and his single eye glared horribly.
'You are kind, my noble lord,' Tanus thanked him. 'I would like to offer you a meal and the hospitality of my camp, but I pray your indulgence. We have a long road before us, and we must pass on.'
'Just a little more of your time, my fine Assyrian.' Shufti moved forward to block the path. 'I have something which you need, if you and your caravan are ever, to reach the Nile in safety.' He held up a small object.
'Ah, a charm!' Tanus exclaimed. 'You are a magician, perhaps? What manner of charm is this you are offering me?'
'A feather.' Shufti was still smiling. "The feather of a shrike.'
Tanus smiled, as though to humour a child. 'Very well then, give me this feather and I'll delay you no longer.'
'A gift for a. gift. You must give me something in return,' Shufti told him. 'Give me twenty of your slaves. Then, when you return from Egypt, I will meet you on the road again and you will give me half the profits from the sale of the other sixty.'
'For a single feather?' Tanus scoffed. "That sounds like a sorry bargain to me.'
"This is no ordinary feather. It is a shrike's feather,' Shufti pointed out. 'Are you so ill-informed that you have never heard of that bird?'
'Let me see this magical feather.' Tanus walked towards him with his right hand outstretched, and Shufti came forward to meet him. At the same time Kratas, Remrem and Astes wandered up inquisitively, as though to examine the feather.
Instead of taking the gift from his hand, suddenly Tanus seized Shufti's wrist and twisted it up between his shoulder-blades. With a startled cry, Shufti fell to his knees and Tanus held him easily. At the same time Kratas and his men darted forward, taking the other two bandits by as much surprise as their chief. They knocked the weapons out of their hands, and dragged them to where Tanus stood.
'So, you little birds think to frighten Kaarik, the Assyrian, with your threats, do you? Yes, my fine vendor of feathers, I have heard of the Shrikes. I have heard that they are a flock of chattering, cowardly little fledglings, that make more noise than a flock of sparrows.' He twisted Shufti's arm more viciously, until the bandit yelled with pain and fell flat on his face. 'Yes, I have heard of the Shrikes, but have you heard of Kaarik, the terrible?' He nodded at Kratas, and quickly and efficiently they stripped the three Shrikes stark naked and pinned them spread-eagled upon the rocky earth.