The Lost Army of Cambyses (69 page)

'Although not very far.'

'No,' he agreed. 'Not very far. But forward at

least.' He took another long draw on his cigarette.

'I shall miss my wife and children.'

They gazed out across the desert, smoking,

silent. The sun heaved itself slowly upwards and

the air began to shimmer. All around dunes

rippled away to the horizon. It was curious to

572

think that only a while ago the world had been

turning itself inside out. Everything now seemed

so serene and ordered. It was beautiful, thought

Tara, the land's curvaceous symmetry, the shifting

colours of the sand. Before she'd looked on the

desert as her prison. Now, even though she was

going to die out here, she felt curiously at one with

it.

She finished her cigarette and flicked it aside.

The tobacco had made her head swim, so that as

she looked down it seemed as if the sand below

was trembling. Or at least a small patch of it was,

close to the base of the great rock. She took a

couple of deep breaths, closed her eyes and looked

again. The tremble was still there, a sort of

bulging, as though the desert was gasping for

breath. She nudged Khalifa and nodded towards

it. He frowned and came to his feet. She did the

same.

'What is it?' she asked.

'I don't know. It's strange. Like water boiling.'

'Is it the heat?'

'Doesn't look like it.'

'Sinking sand?'

'I don't think so.'

He gazed for a moment longer and then started

cautiously down the side of the dune, Tara follow-

ing. The bulging was growing more violent now,

the sand swirling and throbbing as if a giant foot

was being ground into the valley floor. It stopped

suddenly, started again, stopped, and then, with a

loud, bugle-like bellow, the desert's surface

sheered open and a large ungainly figure heaved

itself upwards into the daylight, sand showering

573

all around it. Khalifa cried out in amazement and

began running down the side of the dune.

'Jamal!' he laughed. 'Praise be to Allah! Jamal!

Camel!'

He reached the bottom of the slope and slowed,

anxious not to frighten the creature. It seemed

unfazed by his presence, and allowed him to come

up and take its harness.

'Welcome, my friend,' he said, stroking its

velvety muzzle. 'We are happy you could join us.'

He turned towards Tara.

'It seems my pessimism was premature, Miss

Mullray. My friend here can smell water five

hundred miles away. Whichever is the nearest

oasis, he will lead us to it.'

He came up on tiptoe and whispered something

into the camel's ear. It sneezed and then slowly

lowered itself onto its knees, front legs breaking

first, then the rear ones. Khalifa began un-

strapping the crates on its back.

'I used to work with camels,' he said over his

shoulder, 'when I was young. Some skills you

never forget.'

He pulled the crates off and rolled them aside,

adjusting various straps and harnesses. The camel

nibbled his ear.

'They are wonderful animals. Tireless, loyal and

so beautiful. The one drawback is that their breath

is not nice. But then we all have our faults, don't

we? Aha!'

He held up a small water canteen he'd found

beneath a flap of the saddle.

'Not much left by the sound of it, but enough, I

think, to stop us dying of thirst. Please.'

574

He stepped back and held out his arm, indicat-

ing that she should mount. She came forward,

laughing, and clambered onto the saddle. Khalifa

climbed up behind her.

'My friend warned me to stay away from

camels,' she said. 'The handlers are all perverts,

apparently.'

'I am a married man, Miss Mullray.'

'I was just teasing.'

'Ah, I see.' He chuckled. 'Yes. English humour.

It is, how do you say, an acquired taste. Although

Benny Hill – he was very funny.'

He raised his hand and slapped it against the

camel's rump, letting out a loud shout. The

creature levered itself upwards, pitching Tara first

forwards and then back. Khalifa took the reins

around her waist.

'If we keep going we should make it in two

days,' he said, 'three at the outside. The camel

might be the ship of the desert, but I'm afraid this

isn't going to be a luxury cruise.'

'I can handle it.'

'Yes, Miss Mullray, I have no doubt that you

can. You seem a remarkable woman. I should very

much like you to meet my wife and children.'

He slapped the camel on the flank again and it

started to lope forwards.

'Yalla besara!'
he cried. '
Yalta nimsheh!
Hurry up! Let's go!'

They came to the pyramid rock, towering dark

and monstrous above them, a vast black monolith

erupting from the deep places of the desert, im-

possibly ancient, inestimably powerful, Time's

sentinel. It seemed to throb slightly in the heat and

575

to give off a sound, a sort of deep brooding growl,

as though telling them they could pass, but warn-

ing them never to return. And then they were past

and moving away down the valley.

'I am building a fountain, you know,' said

Khalifa after a while. 'I want my home to be full

of the sound of running water.'

'It sounds wonderful,' said Tara, smiling.

'There will be blue and green tiles, and shells

from the seashore, and plants around the edge.

And at night there will be lights to make the water

sparkle as though it is full of diamonds. It will be

very beautiful.'

'Yes,' she said, closing her eyes. 'I think it will.'

Khalifa flicked the reins and they broke into a

trot, the pyramid rock slowly dropping away

behind them, as if receding in time. All around the

desert shimmered and swelled with the morning

heat.

'Besara, besara!'
he cried.
'Yalla nimsheh, yalla
nimsheh!'

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The Lost Army of Cambyses
was written and

edited well before the appalling events of 11

September 2001. Although the issue of Middle

Eastern terrorism is central to the narrative, the

book is nonetheless a work of imaginative

fiction and should only be read as such. It is in

no way intended to reflect real events.

GLOSSARY

Abu el-Haggag
Patron sheikh of Luxor (born

Damascus
c.
1150). A
moulid
in his honour is held annually in Luxor, two weeks before Ramadan.

Abu Sir
Group of pyramids to the south of Giza,

dating to Fifth Dynasty
(c.
2465–2323 BC).

Afterlife Books
Series of ancient Egyptian texts

describing the afterlife. Most date from the New

Kingdom, although they can ultimately be traced

back to the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom.

Their names – Book of the Dead, Book of Gates,

Book of Caverns etc. – are modern.

Akhenaten
Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh. Ruled
c.

1353–1335 BC. Father of Tutankhamun.

Akhet
One of three seasons into which the ancient

Egyptian year was divided (the others were Peret

and Shemu). Akhet was the season of the Nile

flood, covering roughly June to September.

Akhetaten
City built by the pharaoh Akhenaten

on the banks of the Nile, roughly midway between

modern Cairo and Luxor. Name means 'Horizon

of the Aten'.

579

Al-Ahram
Popular Egyptian newspaper. Title

means 'The Pyramids'.

Al-Jihad
A militant Egyptian fundamentalist

group.

Al-Mukhabarat al-'amma
Egyptian general

intelligence and security service.

Amarna
Modern name for the ruins of Akhetaten.

Amenhotep I
Early Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh.

Ruled
c.
1525–1504 BC.

Amenhotep III
Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh.

Ruled
c.
1391–1353 BC. Father of Akhenaten,

grandfather of Tutankhamun.

Ammonians
Ancient name for the inhabitants of

the oasis of Siwa. Name derives from the ancient

Egyptian god Amun, who had an oracle at Siwa.

Anubis
Ancient Egyptian god, depicted as a jackal

or a man with the head of a jackal. God of the

necropolis and mummification.

Basbousa
Sweet pastry made with semolina, nuts

and honey.

Beit
House, home.

Belzoni, Giovanni Battista
(1778–1823).

Explorer. Discovered the tomb of Seti I in the

Valley of the Kings.

Bes
Dwarf-god. Protector of pregnant women.

Cambyses
Son of Persian emperor Cyrus the

Great. Born
c.
560 BC. Succeeded father as King of

Persia 529 BC. Conquered Egypt in 525 BC,

becoming the first pharaoh of Twenty-seventh

Dynasty. Died
c.
522 BC at Ecbatane, Syria,

possibly by assassination or suicide. Portrayed by

contemporary chroniclers as a mad despot.

Canopic jars
Four jars holding the viscera of a

mummified body.

580

Caria
A region of the ancient Near East, in the

south-west of modern Turkey, colonized by the

Greeks. Famed for its mercenaries.

Carnarvon
George Edward Stanhope Molyneux

Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon (1866–1923).

Collector and amateur Egyptologist. Patron of

Howard Carter.

Carter, Howard
(1874–1939). Egyptologist.

Discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun (1922).

Cartouche
An oval with a horizontal line at the

bottom in which a pharaoh's name was written in

hieroglyphs.

Colossi of Memnon
A pair of colossal seated

statues on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor.

Formerly part of the mortuary temple of

Amenhotep II
I.

Cromer
Evelyn Baring, first Earl of Cromer

(1841–1917). English Consul-General and de

facto ruler of Egypt from 1883 to 1907.

Cuneiform
Ancient Mesopotamian wedge-shaped

script.

Dahshur
Pyramid field south of Saqqara. Site of

the famous 'bent' pyramid of Snofru.

Danishaway
Village in the Delta region of

northern Egypt. Scene of an infamous incident in

1906 in which four innocent Egyptians were exe-

cuted following an altercation with British soldiers.

Djed pillar
An ancient Egyptian symbol of stabil-

ity depicted as a pillar surmounted by four

horizontal branches. Considered to represent the

backbone of the god Osiris.

Davies, Nina MacPherson
(1881–1965). Artist.

Published several volumes on ancient Egyptian

tomb paintings.

581

Djellaba
Traditional robe worn by Egyptian men

and women.

Eighteenth Dynasty
First of the three dynasties of

the New Kingdom,
c.
1550–1307 BC.

Faience
A material made of fired quartz, with a

glazed outer layer. Used extensively in ancient

Egypt for jewellery, small vessels,
shabtis,
etc.

Fellaha
(pl.
fellahin)
Peasant.

Gates of the Dead
Ancient Egyptian name for the

Valley of the Kings.

Hajj
Pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the 'five pillars'

of the Moslem faith. The other four are the
sha-

hada
(declaration of faith),
salah
(prayer, recited five times a day),
zakah
(the giving of alms) and

the observance of the fast at Ramadan.

Hatshepsut
Eighteenth Dynasty queen, wife of

Tuthmosis II, who ruled Egypt
c.
1473–1458 BC

as joint pharaoh with her stepson Tuthmosis III.

Her mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile

at Luxor is one of Egypt's most spectacular

monuments.

Herodotus
(
c.
485–425 BC). Greek historian,

known as 'the father of history'. Famous for his

Histories
outlining the causes and events of the

wars between the Greeks and the Persians.

Horemheb
Last pharaoh of the Eighteenth

Dynasty (although for some Egyptologists he is

regarded as the first pharaoh of the Nineteenth

Dynasty). Formerly commander-in-chief of the

Egyptian army under Tutankhamun.

Imam
Leader of congregational prayer in the

mosque.

Imhotep
Ancient Egyptian architect and

physician. Designed Egypt's first true pyramid –

582

the Step Pyramid of the Third Dynasty pharaoh