Read The Oasis for Free Online Page A

surface and rocking the lotus pads resting there.
    Ankhmahor sank down beside Kamose with a grunt, and for a moment he glanced across the fragrant serenity of his domain before his gaze returned to his guest. “I do not like your General Hor-Aha,” he said at last. “I think that his imperturbability comes from an overconfident estimation of his importance to you and an overweening belief in his invincibility as a military strategist. Thus he is not predictable, Majesty. Such excesses usually have their roots in a secret fear of failure. He may make a wrong decision and be unable to take the advice of others in order to change it.”
    “Yet I am Commander-in-Chief and I am not so much in his thrall that I would not make such a change if it became necessary,” Kamose objected. He knew that the Prince’s words did not come from the murky well of a prejudice against Hor-Aha’s foreignness and he had no wish to thank Ankhmahor for the virtue. To do so would have implied that he had expected less from a member of Egypt’s oldest aristocracy. “Besides, Ankhmahor, our strategy will be plotted together; I, the Princes and the General working as one. I understand the Princes’ fear that I owe this man a debt that may weaken my ability to lead with clearsightedness. It is true that I owe him a great deal, but Hor-Aha knows his place. He will not step outside it.”
    “I hope you are right.” Ankhmahor pulled a cushion under him and reclined, his elbow in its soft depths. He sipped his wine. “There was some grumbling on the part of the others on our way north from the council,” he said frankly. “I grumbled myself. But let this man prove his worth to us as he has done to you and we will gladly accept his authority in the field.”
    “I do not anticipate the need for any sophisticated battle plans until we reach the Delta,” Kamose said. “It is a matter of sailing from town to town, overcoming any resistance, weeding out any Setiu, and making sure that the mayors and governors we leave behind are fully loyal to us. I think our first problem will come at Dashlut.” Ankhmahor nodded.
    “Of that I have no doubt, but it is Khemmenu that will try the mastery of the Medjay archers and the obedience of the soldiers. Teti does not love you, Majesty, in spite of his ties with your mother, and of course there is the Setiu garrison a mere nine miles downstream from the city.”
    “A good testing place,” Kamose agreed. “Tell me, Prince, how many men have you gathered here? The number seems large.”
    “It is.” Ankhmahor sat straight. There was a pardonable pride in his movement and in his words. “I have eighteen hundred for you from my own nome and a further eight hundred gleaned from Quena. Two hundred of them are volunteers. That warms my heart. I have also expropriated thirty craft of various kinds, everything from fishing skiffs to a raft for the transportation of granite from Swenet. It was on its way to Het-Uart, heavy with a piece of undressed stone to be used to construct a new statue of Apepa in honour of his forthcoming Jubilee, I believe, when the load shifted and the raft was damaged. Another raft was sent for from Nekheb and the damaged one left here. I have had it repaired.”
    “Thank you,” Kamose said evenly. “I intend to take the professional soldiers from each nome and group them together as Shock Troops. I would like you to command them.” Ankhmahor, his cup halfway to his mouth, paused. The cup was lowered.
    “Your Majesty is generous,” he said in a low voice. “I am humbled at your trust. But what of Prince Ahmose? Should he not be their commander?”
    Kamose gripped his knees. He sighed, looking up at the roof of white stars blazing in their black setting and then closing his eyes. Ahmose should not be placed with men who bear the brunt of any attack, he wanted to say. Ahmose is still in many ways a sunny youth, uncomplicated and innocent, given to flashes of surprising maturity, it is