Empires of Bronze by Gordon Doherty

Author:Gordon Doherty [Doherty, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical fiction, Action Adventure, bronze age, hittites, troy, War Story, trojan war, siege, hittite empire, ancient adventure
Publisher: Gordon Doherty
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

Hattu and Aeneas sat by the banks of the Simois, drinking fresh water and watching the mayflies floating over the lazy currents. Tudha and Dagon explored nearby, sending Andor after rabbits. Every so often, Tudha would toss the throwing stick to startle a rabbit from its hiding spot. Oddly though, Andor seemed agitated. Hattu couldn’t help but remember her cry from earlier at the ditch works.

Aeneas glanced over his shoulder, towards the bay and the bluff-end of the ridge where the vine-draped cave entrance. ‘There have been nights where I have considered coming to the springhouse, bringing my family… leaving and never coming back.’

‘Yet here you are still, after ten years,’ Hattu consoled him. ‘I understand why you might think of it. The thought of escape scampers across my mind every hour of every day. Indeed just being out here is a relief.’

Aeneas flashed him a look of gratitude. The pair watched as Dagon, loping after Andor, stubbed his toe on a hidden rock and exploded in a string of Hittite curses. ‘Don’t tell him this, but Dagon reminds me of my father,’ he chuckled. ‘Always grousing!’

Hattu smiled. ‘He prides himself on his complaints.’

‘Your boy, he is quite something. For his age he cuts an impressive figure: strong, fleet-footed, quick-witted… strongly-principled too.’

‘Aye, he is a precocious one,’ Hattu agreed.

‘He worships the ground you tread upon,’ Aeneas said quietly. ‘His greatest wish is for you to hold him in esteem of some sort.’

Hattu looked away.

‘What…’ Aeneas started, ‘what happened at this rebellion in the woods?’

‘Ah, Hatenzuwa. How much did he tell you?’

Aeneas shook his head. Not much, but I can tell there is something in there, something unsaid, that hurts him deeply.

Hattu laughed coldly. ‘What he did hurt others much more deeply and truly.’

Aeneas frowned. ‘Tell me. A smouldering coal on a man’s tongue does him no good. Spit it out.’

Hattu spent a time in silence, the words rising through his throat but jarring in there. To say it aloud would be like letting a demon loose. He stared at the Simois’ surface, but all the time saw that stone shrine in the forest, the old wooden door, saw his hand reaching towards it, pushing it open, heard the throaty creak of the timbers. He closed his eyes.

‘My cousin Zanduhepa lived in those woods. She was a Priestess of the Forest. She and her templefolk lived a frugal life there, offering daily libations to the oldest trees, and sending woodcutters on down the wrong tracks so they would not use their axes on the sacred oaks. Travellers were welcome to stay in the dene by the shrine, or when the snows and rains fell, inside the shrine itself. Zanduhepa would always have root soup bubbling away in a cauldron in there, and enough bowls to feed one hundred passers-by.’ He stretched his fingers and clenched them into fists as he spoke. ‘And then… the rebellion rose from the heart of those woods.’

‘Zanduhepa was part of it?’

Hattu shook his head. ‘She would never have betrayed me.

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