Shadow of Death (Book 2 of Hanthalah)

Chapter 23

          The moon was a sliver of itself perched in the sky, gleaming off the surface of distant waters, illuminating crests of hills that dotted the horizon. The campfires of the Muslims crackled in the night, and the men huddled around them drowned out the night's noises with their murmurs of conversation.

I yanked the hair of the severed head with my fingers and tread carefully in the shadow of Heliopolis' walls. There was torch lit atop the gate, and a sharp cry followed my steady approach to the looming doors, heavily studded with iron and bronze.

'Amr ibn al-'Aas was reluctant to follow through with this plan. Perhaps he thought I would betray them to the Romans. But when Zubayr heard of it, I was immediately dispatched. It was the key to Heliopolis, and in the process, Egypt.

And Mundhir.

I heard the clatter and creaking of bows above. I was beginning to regret volunteering for this. I raised both hands as a gesture of goodwill, and in the process further illuminating the severed head I clutched.

"I come bearing good news," I called out to them in Greek. "I bring the end of the invaders."

There was a brief pause as no doubt my knowledge of the Greek tongue had caught the defenders by surprise. Yet, thankfully, there was not an arrow let loose either. I took a deep breath and wished I was yet a pagan to take comfort in an idol or something of substance. Muslims did not allow idolatry, and I was finding it difficult to find such comfort in the mere abstract thought of Allah.

"Name yourself," a man finally responded from above.

I shuffled uncomfortably. "My name is Hanthalah, of the Ghassanids. I am of the auxiliary."

"You are of Babylon?"

"Pelusium."

"How is it you have come here?"

"I was captured by the Muslims at the siege of Pelusium," I replied. "I feigned conversion and bided my time, waiting for the opportunity to defect."

"And you chose now?"

"I would speak to the commander, if you please."

"You speak to me."

"I chose now because their demise is nigh."

"How is that?"

My breathing was ragged, and I started doubting this damned plan. I contemplated darting away from the gate and returning to the relative safety of the camp. I needed to live to fight another day. To find Mundhir.

Instead, I hefted the head and spoke.

"Their commander is dead."

________________________

I was not allowed inside the city proper. Instead, I was seated on the ramparts, with the flickering torchlight and the bristling of a dozen defenders that had been eager to riddle me with a flurry of arrows only moments before. Their hostile attitude had not evaporated, however. I was, after all, a barbarian in their eyes.

I waited a long while there, suffering the accusing gazes of the Roman soldiers. Instead of meeting their gazes, I studied the city beyond. It seemed Heliopolis was bereft of any citizens at this hour; I remembered Martha speaking of this Sun City, the meaning of the Greek word Heliopolis.

It was a place once revered as a holy place in olden times, she'd claimed, when the Egyptian people were subject not to Greeks nor Romans, but their own gods.