Bronze Summer

34

After leaving the town the party continued to track the river, heading upstream, roughly south. This was the way to the Spider’s main camp, according to Kurunta.

Kurunta rode with Kilushepa. Noli allowed the young priest Riban to tend to Kurunta’s wounds, his ruined eyes, the crudely cauterised stumps of his arms, and to give him infusions of herbs to dull the pain. The drugs made Kurunta light-headed, and he talked and talked, like a lost child. Milaqa, curious, walked alongside the cart, following his stilted Hatti tongue as best she could.

‘My father was a court scribe, and his father before him. We lived in a fine house within the walls of Hattusa. Once my father met the King himself, and took down his personal account of a battle. He was served food… little birds stuffed with olives… he said he never tasted the like. I married, I had a family. Two boys. Oh, we knew about the famine, the drought. How could you not, with the records we clerks kept and copied? But it always seemed remote. Not for us in Hattusa, fed on grain from Egypt.

‘But then I was sent to the north coast, to a city called Lazawa.’ A place Milaqa had never heard of. ‘There had been a rebellion, raids by the Kaskans — a mess. I was one of a party sent to gather facts on how the country was recovering now that the rebellion was put down, or so the governor had told the King. This report would be brought back to the court.

‘So we went out into the country. We had a corps of the Standing Army of the Left to accompany us, under an overseer who reported to the King’s own brother. I felt safe.

‘We had a great deal of trouble on the way, but we reached Lazawa. And there we found that everything we had been told about the outcome of the rebellion was an utter lie. The town was a smoking ruin, the grain stores looted, the people driven off or enslaved by the Kaskans. There was not even food for us. Not even for our horses!

‘And it was as we considered what we should do that the Spider fell on us…’

The Spider had been a regional governor, a ‘Lord of the Watchtower’ as the Hatti called it. As the years of drought wore on, the commands from the centre had grown sporadic and contradictory, and the cycle of supply and troop replenishment slowly broke down. Then the fire-mountain clouds closed in, and people started to starve, and the man had gone rogue altogether.

‘I do not know his name,’ Kurunta whispered. ‘He wears the uniform of the army, the chariots are as the army ride, but he has painted or dyed everything black, so that all will know it is he who descends, his sword that flashes — his laugh you hear when you die…’

‘And he descended on you,’ Kilushepa prompted.

‘Yes. Our troops fell, or fled, or defected on the spot. We scribes and our servants were playthings for the Spider and his soldiers. You can imagine what happened to the women, and the younger boys. Not one of them survived the first night. The rest of us were used for — amusement. One man was let loose, naked, and hunted like an animal. Practice for the archers, the charioteers. I knew him. He told good jokes. Another, who fought back, was tied to a post. They rode at him on their horses taking swipes with their swords, until nothing was left of him. And so on. I had never fought, but you can see I am a bulky man, Tawananna. They put me in a kind of arena of spears and ropes, with two others, and made us fight. Only one of the three would live to leave that ring. I had not struck another human being since I was a child.’

‘Yet you survived,’ Kilushepa murmured.

‘I survived. The Spider told me that if I fought with him, with his troops, he would let me live. And I did,’ he whispered. ‘I did, Queen! And I have committed terrible crimes, or watched them. All to save my own skin.’

‘It is nothing to be ashamed of. You see how it is,’ she said to the others. ‘The times we live in. And all this has come to pass under the nominal protection of the Hatti, still the greatest empire in the world. This is why we must work together, Annid. Lest the darkness fall over the whole world, for good.’

‘I was educated,’ said Kurunta. ‘I was a scribe. The Spider has told me that that time has gone. That nobody will ever write or read again, as long as the world lasts, and that soon people will even forget that such a thing was possible. Even my sons, who I have not seen since I left Hattusa. Is it true, Tawananna? Is this the end of it all? Is it true?’

She took the bloody stumps of his arms in her hands. ‘Not if I can help it.’

He subsided, muttering, turning his eyeless head as if looking for the light.

They came upon the camp of the Spider late the following day. It was visible from far off as a smudge of smoke on the southern horizon. It looked to Milaqa like the most substantial settlement they had seen since Troy itself.

Yet when they approached, it was not a town at all.

The centrepiece was another watchtower, guarding another road. On the plain around this tower bonfires burned, sending columns of smoke up to the sky, and there were tents and shacks of timber and reeds. Male laughter carried on the breeze, and a clang of metal, sword on sword.

‘This is the place,’ Kilushepa murmured, as she clambered down from her cart. Kurunta was sleeping now. ‘Just as our mutilated clerk described it.’

‘I will go in alone,’ said Qirum. ‘We mustn’t challenge them.’

‘That’s foolish,’ Deri snapped, in the broken Hatti he had learned. ‘Let me go with you, at least. Tibo is my son.’

‘No.’ Qirum dug into the heap of stuff on the cart, found his bronze breastplate, and with quick fingers tied it in place. ‘I know these people, remember — men like the Spider.’

‘Because you are one yourself,’ said Kilushepa with a faint sneer.

Qirum grinned coldly and said nothing. He set his ox-horn helmet on his head, fixed his sword in its scabbard on his back, and strode out towards the camp, heading straight for the watchtower at its heart.

Those left behind started to make a camp of their own. The men built a fire. Deri paced, as tense as a clenched fist. Kilushepa waited, silent and still. Milaqa thought it was quite likely the Spider already knew all about this petty force of Qirum’s. She imagined some armed man’s calculating gaze on her even now, and she tried not to shudder.

The light was fading by the time Qirum returned. He sat by the fire, and took a cup of wine from one of his warriors.

‘He will talk to us,’ he said. ‘The Spider. I was only able to negotiate with him through his generals, his closest circle. The Spider is sharper than I imagined. I had to give away a lot.’

Deri frowned. ‘A lot of what? Gold?’

‘Information. I was getting nowhere. He was intrigued when I told him the Tawananna was here.’ He smiled spitefully at Kilushepa. ‘Although he asked, which Tawananna.’

‘And the boy — what of him?’

‘The Spider himself may not know. I got the impression he takes many prisoners, for many purposes. He will speak to us, however.’

Deri said, ‘Us?’

‘The Tawananna,’ said Qirum. ‘He was a governor, remember. I think it flatters his vanity to have one of the court come to his camp. And he will speak to a relative of the boy.’

‘I will go,’ said Deri.

‘No,’ Qirum said. ‘No men. A woman. It must be a woman.’ And he looked at Milaqa.

Deri shook his head. ‘It isn’t safe.’

‘He’s right,’ Teel said. Suddenly he and Deri were Milaqa’s uncles, looking out for the safety of their niece.

But she said, ‘I will go.’

Qirum nodded. ‘He will not harm you. Well, I don’t believe so. If he intended to, he could have set his warriors on us already. He is more curious than aggressive. I think he seeks — amusement.’

Kilushepa stood. ‘More practically, this Spider is the only authority in the area just now, isn’t he?’

Teel frowned. ‘What exactly are you planning, Tawananna?’

She would not reply.

Qirum swilled another mouthful of wine, hurried behind a rocky outcrop to take a quick piss, and then returned, rubbing his hands. ‘Are you ready?’

Qirum led them back the way he had come.

As the Trojan walked boldly through the camp, the Spider’s warriors watched them pass. They were Hatti warriors, Milaqa saw, or a semblance of them. They were relaxing, and many had their boots off, their black-dyed tunics loosened, their long hair worn loose rather than plaited. They sat around the fires, worked at their weapons with sharpening stones, rubbed their feet with bits of rough rock. There were neat heaps of spears, leather helmets, shields of leather and wood. Subdued-looking women, many very young, prepared food and brought the men drink. Milaqa was selfishly glad they were here. She would not have liked to have been the only woman in the camp.

As they neared the watchtower they saw stranger sights. In a cage of wood and rope a group of women, girls and boys sat in the dirt, many naked, waiting in silence. A few warriors were gathered around another cage, laughing and shouting, gambling with bits of gold and precious stone, goading the cage’s occupants with shouts and waved fists. Milaqa got close enough to glimpse what was going on inside the cage: two men, both naked, both without feet, their legs crudely wrapped in bloody cloth, were crawling in the dirt, dragging their bodies, trying to fight each other.

They came to the watchtower itself. Kilushepa pointed up at a standard of wood and bronze that had been fixed to its roof: an eagle, once apparently two-headed, now headless altogether. ‘A sacred symbol,’ Kilushepa murmured. ‘Mutilated. How the world has fallen into decay…’

A hefty guard stood by a narrow doorway. He recognised Qirum, ushered him through. Milaqa and Kilushepa followed. The watchtower was half-wrecked, Milaqa saw, peering around in the reduced light. On the ground floor there was a space for a hearth, heaped up with wood, unlit. A set of steps carved into the stone wall led up to the remains of a platform where, in more orderly times, soldiers of the King at Hattusa would have watched over the roadway. Now a loose canvas had been stretched over the open roof.

‘To keep out the rain,’ came a voice from the shadows, speaking precise Hatti. ‘Should it ever fall again… Come forward. You. The girl. I won’t bite; I’ve already eaten today.’

Milaqa glanced at the others. Both Qirum and Kilushepa seemed utterly calm. She, however, was trembling. She took a step forward, then another. She had never felt so far from home. She kept seeing the pirate in her mind, his cleft tongue.

As her eyes adapted to the dark she saw a man sitting on a tall chair, his back to the stone wall. He was slim, not bulky, but she sensed he was strong, whip-like. He wore a black-dyed tunic like his soldiers, but embroidered with gold thread. His hair was long at his back, in the Hatti fashion. Clean-shaven, no older than his mid-thirties, he might have been called handsome. But one eye was a blackened ruin.

‘What is your name?’

‘Milaqa.’

‘You are a Northlander, I am told. Yet you understand Hatti.’

‘All Northlanders are educated.’

He laughed. ‘I don’t doubt it. I wonder if they are all as brave as you. Why have you come here?’

‘You know why.’

‘Tell me anyway.’

‘I come for my cousin, Tibo. You took him from-’

‘Yes, yes. And now you are here — now you see me — what is the one question you wish to ask me?’

She considered. ‘What happened to your eye?’

‘Ah. Good question.’ He sat back. ‘You understand I was governor here — we call it the Lord of the Watchtower — before the sky clouded over and the world ended? There was drought, famine, rebellion in my province.

‘So a man was sent from the King’s household in Hattusa to inspect the trouble. He had once been the Chief of the Wine Cellar, which is an old ceremonial title — very close to the King, an important man. He decided that all the trouble was my fault. His men jumped me before I could react. The punishment he ordained was blinding.’ He smiled. ‘A favourite of us Hatti. The men got as far as destroying one eye, before I got a hand free.

‘This chair, by the way, belonged to that former Chief of the Wine Cellar. He had it carried all the way from Hattusa. Imagine that. Fine piece of furniture, isn’t it? Even better now it is upholstered with the skin off the Chief’s own back.’

Kilushepa stepped forward now. ‘Are you done frightening children?’

The Spider hesitated. Then he stood, almost respectfully. ‘You were the Tawananna.’

‘I am the Tawananna. Tell me your true name.’

‘I am the Spider.’ He grinned, and spread his arms wide. ‘A good name for the ruler of this land of the dead, don’t you think? Where people live like flies off the carcasses of the dead, and I, the Spider, consume the flies-’

‘Your true name.’

Again he seemed to hesitate. ‘Telipinu,’ he said at last. ‘I call myself Telipinu.’

‘You call yourself after a god?’

‘I was born in Hattusa-’

‘I can tell that much from your accent,’ she said, dismissive. She turned away to inspect the tower, as if no longer interested in the man. There were piles of goods in the shadows here, gold artefacts, iron perhaps, amber, bronze. ‘You take the last of everything. You loot cities already ruined. You make people turn on each other — you make children into whores, you make cripples fight. What is it you want?’

He grinned. ‘I am Telipinu. The Vanishing God, whose absence causes the rain to fail and crops to wither. Whose rages cause the very earth to shake. Look around. This is a world of destruction and decay, Queen. After decades of drought, and now the desertion of the sun, there’s nothing else left. What is a man to do but revel in it, while it lasts?’

Qirum murmured, ‘We came here for a purpose.’

‘The boy?’ The Spider grinned. ‘I had him found. Your description was enough. He was a good fighter, as it turned out.’

Milaqa wondered what that meant, what Tibo had gone through. She said, ‘So we can take him away.’

‘Well, I didn’t say that. He belongs to me now. Why should I give him back to you? What have you in exchange?’ His glare, though one-eyed, was probing.

It was Kilushepa who broke the moment. ‘We have this.’ She dug into the pouch at her belt, and produced something small and pebble-like that she handed to him.

He inspected it curiously. ‘What is this?’

It was a potato.

‘We have more,’ Kilushepa said. ‘It is a seed. It is simple to grow, and produces ample food. As soon as this weather relents-’

‘I have eaten Northland food.’

‘This is what Northland food is grown from. This is their secret. Now I am giving it to you.’

Milaqa turned on her. ‘Tawananna, are you insane? You give our treasure to this man?’

Kilushepa deigned to look at her, and spoke in her broken Northlander. ‘I know exactly what I’m doing, child. First, I am trying to secure your cousin’s release, for until that is done we will not be able to move on to matters of importance. And second, this crop is the secret to recovery for the Hatti empire. For the whole world, perhaps. But for the first year, the second, its distribution must be controlled. Rationed. Surely you see that, for otherwise the hungry will eat even the seed stock, and all will be lost.’

‘But this man-’

‘Is a monster. I know. But he is the only functioning authority of any kind we have encountered since Troy. And until I return to Hattusa, until the centre imposes its control again, this is how it will remain. This is the kind we must deal with, like it or not.’ Kilushepa turned to the Spider and spoke in her own tongue. ‘For your people — in a year or two, if not now — this represents survival. For you, it represents redemption. Will you take it?’

He stared at the root, holding it in both hands. Then he nodded, curtly. ‘The boy will be brought to you outside.’

Kilushepa bowed. ‘Then our business here is done. Good luck, Telipinu.’ She turned away and made for the doorway.

Qirum and Milaqa followed the Tawananna out. Milaqa whispered to Qirum, ‘That story about covering the chair with the skin of its owner. Was it true?’

‘Try not to think about it.’

Tibo was brought from the back of the tower, his arm gripped by a burly warrior. His face was grimy, his clothes reduced to rags, his feet bare. He was struggling. ‘Get off me… get off!’ The warrior shoved him towards Qirum’s party. He fell and sprawled in the dirt. Immediately he was on his feet, and would have launched himself straight back at the warrior if Qirum hadn’t grabbed him around the waist. ‘I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!’ Wild with rage, Tibo had to be dragged every step of the way out of the camp.

And he told the story of his abduction, in enraged, tearful fragments.

How those who bundled him on the slave carts almost killed him, casually. And had just as casually spared him, on a whim.

How he had been thrown into a kind of pen with other boys, and women and girls. How a boy, another prisoner, had tried to rape him, and he fought.

How the guards thought this was amusing, and, drinking, laughing by the fire, they pulled him out of the cage and lined him up against one of their number. If he could throw the man to the floor first, before being thrown himself, he would be spared. He threw the man. But then there was another, and he threw him, and a third. The fourth man threw Tibo. And he was the one who raped him, at last.

He told this story over and over, until they had got him away from the Spider’s camp, and into the arms of his father. And Deri wept. Milaqa had never seen her uncle weep in her whole life, because, he said, he had broken his promise to his dying wife that he would keep their only child safe.