Screams echoed through the night sky. The air was stained with the smell of blood and death. It was diabolical. Beyond the archway I could see the horror on the streets. It filled me with fear and disgust, but above all, shock. Shock at how swiftly it managed to startle and paralyse me. It was a violent disturbance of the mind.

"Watch out!" before I could register what was happening, Kituzda pushed me away, hitting my head against the limestone wall. The pain echoed through my brain, making my vision blurry for a moment.

With no time to shake the pain, Kituzda took my hand and began to run. The second arrow hit the wall where my head had been a second ago. All thoughts were banished in the smoke-filled air. My mind gave me half the time to observe our surroundings. This ambush must have been planned so carefully, right under my nose, but as it progressed, it unfolded its treacherous vile wings.

The obligation and responsibility I had imposed on this city, moreover, the trust and confidence that I had in the goodness of its people, was shattered like shards of baked clay. Broken and unfulfilled emotions rolled down my cheeks.

Soldiers rushed forward, shouting orders as we neared the central market. Doors were ripped off their hinges, swords clashed, earning new screams with each strike. I couldn't look. I couldn't listen. Fear kept me in a paralyzed state, unable to open my eyes, until shock forced them open.

"There she is! Kill Enheduanna!"

No sooner had I realized the soldiers rushed towards us or I was pulled into an alleyway, crashing onto the stone floors.

"Anna, stand up. We have to get back to the temple."

Dingira reached her hand out to me, a burning fury in her eyes. In her other hand she held the sword of Nanna leveled with her shoulder, using the force of gravity to slice into the soldier who came up behind me.

As I scrambled to my feet, I saw his body falling limply to the floor, a pool of crimson flooding beneath him. Before I registered that he was dead, we were running again. Joints cracked, shooting jolts of pain through my body with each movement.

Two fleeting figures caught my eye for a moment, when an arrow was shot from beside. In the blink of an eye, one figure collapsed to the earth, while from the other emanated the heart wrenching cry of a child.

Without thinking twice I broke free from Dingira's grip and ran towards the child that crawled to the motionless form of her mother. I scooped the child up into my arms; her cries turning to screams as the girl let go of her mother's corpse.

Dingira cut down the archer with a deadly blow, while Kituzda pulled us to the safety of the shadows. "Are you insane? You could have been killed."

"We can not leave these people to die. We vowed to protect them."

The city was under siege, but Lugal-ane's men were fighting without a protocol, without a plan, just slaughtering everything that moved and plundering the rest. Resulting in a chaos, the likes of which even hell itself had never seen. Blood flooded the earth. Screams echoed through the street and everyone scrambled to just save their own skin.

"Are you hurt?" Dingira inquired. I shook my head. The child's eyes shifted uncontrollably, unable to comprehend what was going on. She held onto my skirt like it was the only thing keeping her sane, her mother's blood smearing the fabric.

"We must bring them to the Ziggurat." I concluded, praying that Lugal-ane would not forsake the holy ground of the temple.

"All of them?" Dingira asked, out of breath, the sword shaking in her hands. "I can't possibly take down all of those soldiers."

"We'll save as many as we find," Kituzda said. "Enheduanna and I will take care of the people. You guard our backs."

"I'll do my best. But I can't be in two places at once."

No, she couldn't. If we stayed together, we would draw too much attention. Especially when my attire was shining like a beacon. Loosening the straps of the silver breastplate, I took the bulky piece of metal off.

"Give it to me," Kituzda demanded before adding, "It's you they are after. I'll lure them away from the temple."

I shook my head. It was too much. Idal had offered himself up for me, and I was unable to stop him. But I could stop Kituzda. There was no way I would lose someone else.

The fire-haired priestess wrapped her hands around mine, prying the breastplate from them as kindly as she could. "If you don't sacrifice for what you believe in, your believes will be sacrificed."

I dropped my eyes to the gravel, breathing deeply, before I raised them to meet Kituzda's glossy stare. "Be careful. I don't want to lose you."

"Don't worry, you won't get rid of me that easily." There was a single tear of mortification that fell unchecked from her eyes, but her face was set in determination. And like that, she ran in the opposite direction. The silver breast plate shining brightly in the flames.

The air was heavy with the smell of burnt flesh and smoke hung in a haze, staining the eyes. Throughout the street, soldiers chased the people, slaughtering them like cattle. With all the lords held up in the palace, the people below didn't stand a chance. The cries of children, women, and men were deafening to the ear and devastating to the heart.

In the shadows, people of all ages hid from the horrors of the flames. We had barely made it down two streets or our group had gone from three to thirty and counting.

Her legs were shaking, her breathing was ragged, but Dingira still held her sword perfectly straight, like a daunting horizon. Blocking another strike, the blade flashed like lightning around her, cutting through a soldier with raging force.

"You'll pay for that, thief. Those priestesses can't protect you forever." One of the soldiers hissed.

Nanna's sword struck his heart. Pushing it up to the hilt, she wretched a stained grin as her hands shivered under the brutality of the compelling strength.

"You'll die demon woman, we all die," he throatily crooned as Dingira pulled the blade back. For a moment, the hatred in his eyes muted out the screams behind me as I saw the life slipping from them.

I didn't know how many more opponents Dingira could take. Their blades and blows kept raining done on her without mercy. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, her entire chest imploding with each breath. Still, she kept fighting each soldier that raised his weapon against an unarmed person.

In a reflex Dingira pulled me behind her back, instinct warning her of the danger behind. She charged without even looking, using the length of her arms to swish the sword around.

"Wow, easy there! It's just me." Shula screamed out, barely dodging the strike.

The blade flashed over our heads, humming a low, swift tone before it was pulled back to Dingira's side. Her amber eyes took a moment to comprehend what they were seeing, giving Shula the opportunity to explain. "We saw you from the Ziggurat, with them." She pointed to the string of people cowering behind us. "I've come to help."

"Great. You'll bring the people inside. Dingira and I will hold off the soldiers."

Shula took me in with disbelieve, "I can hit harder than you. No offence."

Dingira hissed from behind us. "I could really use some help right about now." The venom in her voice was more deadly than her sword, striking its foe like lightning.

Shula picked up a fallen wooden pillar, striking down three soldiers with one long stroke. She threw another across the alleyway with a strength fueled by rage. "Let's go."

Taking this opportunity to escape the chaos with the people, I started running as fast as I could with two children at my hands and one clinging around my neck. At the threshold, the other priestesses came running to bring in as many citizens as they could.

As we ran through the halls, screams seemed to die down with the light. The moonlight was completely obscured by the smoke in the sky, leaving us to navigate the courtyard by touch. I ushered the people onwards to go down the narrow pathways towards the storage of the temple as Dingira and Shula came rushing in.

"That was the last of them," Dingira sighed. As the moonlight broke through the cloud of smoke, I could see the blood-spatters across Dingira's skin, sticking in her hair and staining her clothes. The gashes across her bare arms told a story of survival. It was either kill or be killed. That is what she would have told me. It was exactly what her amber eyes told me when she handed me the sword.

"Enheduanna!" an all too familiar voice of fury screamed across the courtyard.

At the threshold stood a large looming figure, holding something up in his right hand. A row of soldier lined up behind him, the flames of their torches outlining the figure of Lugal-ane holding Kituzda by his side, a dagger pressed against her throat.

"Come out and die, Enheduanna! Or your little imposter will pay the price."

The pressure on her throat increased, drawing out a pained scream through her clenched teeth. Her feet kicked frantically, in a desperate attempt to get free.

"No," I ran into the view of the soldiers. At least a dozen arrows were pointed right at me. "Let her go, Lugal-ane. She is Sumerian, just like you."

"She is a traitor, the whole lot of them are. Bowing down to our invaders, it's revolting." He spat.

I took another step forward. "Your fight is with me. These people have done nothing wrong."

"Yes, they have. They let this happen. They let an Akkadian stroll in her like she owns this place and start writing about herself as if she were some goddess. And they did nothing to stop it."

I steadied my shaking hand to point towards Kituzda. "Kituzda did try to stop me. She warned me many times about my way of writing."

"It's not enough." Lugal-ane screamed at the top of his lungs. His feet shoveled back and forth, never crossing the threshold.

He was afraid.

"You Akkadians will never get this city. I will burn down all of Ur if I have to, leaving you to be the high priestess of corpses."

"Then you shall be the Lugal of ashes," I responded in a calm voice.

"Not if you come out here and face your death. I'll even sing a lament for you; To the dark house, dwelling of Erkalla's god with you! To the dark house which those who enter cannot leave, on the road where travelling is one-way only, to the house where those enter are deprived of light, where dust is their food, clay their bread. They see no light, they dwell in darkness."

Even for an enemy, that lament sounded more like a celebration of their demise than anything else. This man was so focused on death there was nothing else he could see. It was the flame, and he gravitated towards it like a moth.

I swallowed a lump as my eyes flicked over to Kituzda. Fear paralyzed her, but at the edges kicked her will to life. She wasn't ready to face death, neither was I, but there was no scenario in which Lugal-ane would let us both live.

Or was there?

"My death is not going to fix anything for you, Lugal-ane," I started, watching his face burn up in fury before continuing, "If you kill me within the holy ground of Nanna, you will ensure his wrath. If you kill me outside the holy ground of Nanna, you will ensure the wrath of king Rimush and his rampaging army."

"Are you threatening me right now?" he wheezed.

"No, I am just laying out the possibilities of what would happen if you killed me."

Pressing the dagger so forcefully into Kituzda's skin that he drew blood, Lugal-ane hissed. "Do you think that is going to save your life? Or hers?"

"Mine most certainly not. My life is already marked. Which is why I am willing to offer you an ultimatum in which you will get rid of me and neither Nanna nor Rimush will come after you?"

This got his attention. Burning eyes searched me suspiciously, scanning my entire being before he nodded, expecting an answer from me. I looked once more to Kituzda, a rogue tear rolling down her cheek, mixing with the blood as it reached her neck.

She didn't deserve to die for me. None of them did. I wanted this position, begged for it. It was my responsibility, mine alone.

"I will go away from Ur. I'll go into exile if, and only if, you will harm none of the citizens in Ur, regardless of birth, gender, age or status. You will harm neither the priestesses nor the beggars and anyone in between. Only then will I take my leave into the desert."

A grin of self-absorbed smugness molded his face when he realized he had won. The dagger slowly fell away from Kituzda's neck and she ran towards the safety of the temple as soon as she could. I gave her a hopeful smile, convincing her it would all be okay. But the moment I stepped foot towards that evil grin, I lost all courage.

Nevertheless, I crossed the threshold.

Fat fingers snatched the horned crown from my head. Tossing it back into the Ziggurat like a piece of used cloth.

Lugal-ane gave me a knife and a dagger and said, "These are now appropriate accessories for you."

My way out of the city was like walking through a nightmare. All throughout Ur fires were still smouldering, the remnants of the buildings. Survivors salvaging what little they could, their pained eyes meeting mine with sad gazes. I stopped at the city's gate, building up the courage to leave.

"I'm coming with you," Dingira said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "If you're banned, and so am I."

As much as I wanted to tell her she didn't have to do this, I could do nothing but smile in silent acceptance. Her being there gave me strength.