The Oasis by Pauline Gedge Read Free Book Online

before Kamose under the shadow of one of the reed boats. “By the time that necessity arises, they must be trained to follow orders without thought. It is a hard lesson to learn.” Kamose did not comment.
    “There are messages from the Princes of Badari and Djawati,” Intef said. “They have finished with the conscription and wish to know when you will arrive. Mesehti reports that the miles below Djawati are quiet. Qes and Dashlut are unaware of us so far.”
    “Send a runner and a skiff to Badari and Djawati,” Kamose ordered Hor-Aha. “Tell them we left here in the morning, for that is what we will do. Aabtu is organized and ready.”
    “It is the first day of Pakhons tomorrow,” Ahmose remarked, and at that they all fell silent. Shemu had begun, the hottest time of the year, when the crops ripened towards the harvest and then Egypt waited breathlessly for the Inundation. Kamose rose abruptly.
    “Bring Ipi to me,” he said. “I want to dictate a scroll to everyone at Weset.” He was seized with an overwhelming need to speak to his women, to be strengthened by his grandmother and reassured by his mother, to touch the roots from which he had sprung. “I will be in the cabin,” he added over his shoulder as he walked towards the ramp. “Pass the word to the officers that we march on in a few hours, General.”
    Once behind the privacy of the cabin’s drapery he exhaled, a long gust of frustration and, undoing his sandals, he pulled them off and tossed them beside him. The town of Qes was well back from the river, huddled against the cliffs. Could they perhaps creep past it unnoticed during the night and so not have to expend the energy needed to deal with it before the undoubted hostility of Dashlut? Ipi knocked politely on the lintel of the cabin door and Kamose bade him enter. He did so, greeting his lord and preparing his palette and brushes to receive the dictation. Kamose, watching the scribe’s calm face and routine motions, felt himself loosen.
    I address my home also, he thought. The vines clinging to the trellises and heavy with dusty grapes, the pool with its scattering of crisp sycamore leaves, the warm curves of the entrance pillars against which I liked to brush my hand before walking into the dim coolness of the reception hall, all of you harken to my voice and remember me, for I love you, and surely the better part of me lingers there, my breath going forth to mingle with the rustle of warm wind in your grasses at morning and my shadow blending with your own as Ra descends behind the western cliffs. He opened his mouth and began to speak.

2
    THREE HOURS AFTER SUNSET on the eighth day, the fleet was easing quietly past the beaten track that ran west from the river to the invisible town of Qes, its ranks now swelled by a motley collection of craft that held all the professional soldiers the Princes could provide. Behind Kamose came Ankhmahor and two hundred Shock Troops on the raft that had once been used to ferry granite, and behind them the Medjay in their reed boats. The remainder of the flotilla beat ponderously after. Prince Makhu of Akhmin had gathered together four hundred conscripts and Prince Iasen of Badari a further eight hundred. Mesehti of Djawati had driven an astounding three thousand to the river so that the army now numbered almost four divisions, the bulk of which marched three days behind the ships in a slow-moving snake whose tail could not be seen by the leading officers.
    In order to preserve his secrecy for as long as possible, Kamose had elected not to wait for them until the Medjay had secured Dashlut. They were in many ways a nuisance, poorly armed or weaponless, barely disciplined and unwieldy, but he knew that they would come into their own in the heavily populated Delta where arrows shot from the river would no longer be enough. By then, if the gods willed it, the richer settlements would have been plundered of their swords and bows and he could leave his boat and