Parthian Dawn (61 page)

‘Keep them together,’ he shouted, ‘if we get separated in this crowd it will take hours to get you all together again. And we are on a tight schedule. Use your sticks!’

I walked up behind him, Remus following. ‘A busy day, friend?’

He turned to look at me, shielding his eyes from the sun as he did so. He had a dirty brown turban on his head and grey stubble on his chin. ‘I blame the idiot who built this bridge for all this mess.’

‘But surely,’ I replied, ‘it is quicker crossing here than further upstream?’

He looked at me as though I was a simpleton. ‘Of course, but they should have built two bridges, one for eastern traffic and one for western traffic. Quite simple, though I suppose that king in his palace up there,’ he gestured at the Citadel sitting atop the escarpment, ‘thinks it’s great fun to see us all struggle like this. Charges us for the privilege as well.’

By this time my men had made the congestion worse, as mules, horses, camels and dozens of men and women tried to get on the bridge. It was chaos, and soon people were arguing and pushing and shoving each other as tempers ran high.

‘You see?’ said the merchant, shaking his head, ‘if he had built two bridges we wouldn’t have all this. Keep those camels together, you sons of whores.’

Then we heard a blast of trumpets and whistles, which startled the beasts and briefly made everyone forget their grievances. Remus flicked his tail nonchalantly — he had heard those sounds many times before. Seconds later a century of Dura’s legionaries pushed its way through the crowd, the men ordering some to retreat back down the road and others to continue with their journey over the bridge. They used their shields to herd people back, while the centurion at the front employed his vine cane to ‘persuade’ the more recalcitrant to move aside. Then they were in front of me.

The centurion frowned and then his eyes widened as he recognised me. He stopped and bowed his head.

‘Majesty, forgive me, I did not know that you were back at the city.’

‘Why should you? A lot of people on the road, I see.’

He shook his head. ‘It is easier fighting than keeping control of this mob, majesty.’

He turned around. ‘Clear a path, clear a path for the king.’

The merchant’s mouth opened as I mounted Remus. ‘I will think on your suggestion of a second bridge. Shamash keep you safe on your journey.’

I raised my hand to the centurion as his men cleared a path on the bridge and we rode across it and back to the city. The watch-outs on the towers saw us coming and sent word back to the Citadel, so that when we rode through the Palmyrene Gate a guard of honour was waiting for us, as was another in the Citadel itself. And there, on the steps, in boots, leggings and a white shirt edge with blue, her long blonde hair shimmering in the light, stood Gallia, my gorgeous Gallic queen. I vaulted from Remus, ran up the steps and embraced her, locking my lips on hers. The Amazons arrayed behind her began rapping the ends of their bows on the flagstones in salute and my men began cheering. Claudia, in the arms of Dobbai, began crying due to the din. I released Gallia and scooped up Claudia kissing her forehead, then wrapped an arm around Gallia’s shoulders.

‘You have been gone too long,’ said Gallia, struggling to hold back the tears.

I too was choking with emotion. ‘Yes. I have done with the empire and politics. This is my home and this is where I stay from now on. No more adventures for me.’

We held each other closely as I dismissed the men and went into the palace with Claudia in my arms and Gallia beside me. Dobbai trailed after us. I had hoped that I could spend some time alone with my family, but Rsan arrived after dealing with a trading dispute in the city, followed by Godarz.

‘It is good to see you again, majesty,’ remarked Rsan, bowing his head, spreading his arms out wide in front of him in homage. ‘The financial affairs of the city are in order, you will be glad to hear.’

‘I don’t doubt it,’ I said, one leg drooped over the arm of my throne. ‘Trade appears to be thriving if what I saw on the road today is anything to go by.’

‘Indeed, indeed,’ smiled Rsan, ‘though our overheads are still high.’

I embraced my old friend Godarz when he arrived, who likewise expressed his happiness at my return.

‘Last we heard you were in some god-forsaken hole near the Caspian Sea.’

‘No place is god forsaken,’ I replied.

Later Domitus and Nergal arrived at the Citadel, the former giving me a hearty hug.

‘You are forbidden to go away again without the army at your back.’

He noticed my purple top. ‘What’s this, gone all oriental on us?’

‘No, Domitus, it was a gift from a friend.’

‘You should burn it,’ he sniffed, ‘the lads will think you’ve gone soft.’

‘And how are they?’

He grinned. ‘Lean and mean and ready for another fight.’

The next day, after I had spent the night hours and the morning alone with my wife, I called everyone together on the palace terrace. In the early evening the heat of the day had abated. Dobbai attended, as did Orodes, now a prince without a home, Malik and Byrd. I told them what had happened in Media and how we had been saved by Musa and Khosrou. Of how we had journeyed to Ctesiphon, where the rumours about Dura being given up to the Romans were confirmed to me by the high king himself.

‘What of it?’ said Gallia, ‘we are here and will defend our home no matter what an idiot king says, no offence meant, Orodes.’

‘And none taken, lady,’ he replied. ‘Would that there were more kings in Parthia who had your courage and determination.’

There were murmurs of approval from all present. Even Rsan managed an enthusiastic nod.

‘Phraates is not long for this world,’ said Dobbai, suddenly. She looked at Orodes.

‘You were lucky to escape with your life; your father will not be so lucky.’

Orodes was outraged. ‘You are wrong. No one would dare strike down the King of Kings.’

Dobbai laughed. ‘What is the King of Kings but the guardian of a meaningless title who sits in his palace at the behest of the other kings? You think your brother…’

‘Half-brother,’ Orodes corrected her.

Dobbai ignored him. ‘You think your brother will wait until your father is dead before he wears the high crown? And you think that viper of his wife cares about Phraates, whose weakness is apparent throughout the whole world? Mithridates wishes to sit on Ctesiphon’s throne.’

‘So does Narses,’ I added.

Dobbai stood up and began pacing the terrace. ‘You are right in that, son of Hatra, though the only thing you have been right in of late. Narses and Mithridates are united in their ambition, but their alliance is only temporary.’ She stopped and jabbed a bony finger at me. ‘You should have killed them long ago. Now they will return to haunt you.’

‘I have more urgent things to think about, the Romans for one.’

She raised her eyes to the heavens in despair. ‘The Romans, what of them?’

‘They will be marching on Hatra again soon enough,’ said Orodes, ‘now that my father has ceded Dura to them.’

Dobbai waved a hand at him. ‘The desert will rise up and see them off. You should look to the east.’

‘Speaking in riddles again, Dobbai?’ I queried.

‘The only riddle is why you let your enemies live?’ She then walked over to Gallia, kissed her on the cheek and shuffled from the terrace.

We resumed discussing matters at hand. It was agreed that Malik and Byrd should ride to Syria to discern the movements of the Romans, and to gather news of any new army that they were raising to throw against us. Rsan reported that Haytham had sent a large amount of gold to Dura’s treasury, half the proceeds of the sale of the Roman prisoners that we had taken at the battle near the city last year.

‘What about their engineers?’ I asked Domitus.

‘Growing fat and lazy on the food we give them,’ he replied.

‘And their siege engines?’

‘All safe and in working order.’

Nergal reported that he had visited Babylon as ordered and that Vardan and Axsen were safe and their city unharmed.

‘The walls of Babylon are high, Pacorus. Chosroes could not take it and so retreated after burning all the outlying villages.’

‘Will Vardan march against Chosroes, Nergal?’ I asked.

Nergal shook his head. ‘Not unless Dura marches beside him, but even then I suspect Babylon has no appetite for war.’

‘Chosroes will have to wait,’ I said, ‘we must look to our own defences first. Especially as we have a new lord high general who might just be tempted to try his luck against us.’

‘The last we heard,’ remarked Nergal, ‘he was preoccupied with subduing rebellious tribes in Sakastan.’

‘Perhaps someone will stick an arrow in him,’ said Gallia.

‘Alas, my love,’ I replied, ‘I doubt that we will be that lucky.’

‘The Romans won’t take kindly to have been given a good thrashing here, Pacorus,’ remarked Godarz. ‘They will be back.’

He was right, of course, but the question was — when would they return? It was late spring now, and I estimated that there would be no campaigning until the fierce heat of the summer had disappeared.

During the days that followed I went to see Dura’s lords to tell them the news of developments at Ctesiphon. I could have ordered them to attend me at Dura, but it gave me an excuse to visit them and to take Gallia and her Amazons with me. They liked entertaining their queen and I liked to show her off to the kingdom. Her blonde hair and her women warriors endlessly fascinated them, the more so since her exploits in defending Dura against the Romans. No Parthian woman had done such a thing before.

‘But I’m not Parthian,’ she whispered to me one evening as we were being entertained by a group of jugglers throwing swords above their heads as though they were scrolls.

‘You are now, my love. They have adopted you.’

My own escort included Surena, now a fully fledged cataphract, and Orodes, whose banishment from his own kingdom had been announced throughout the empire. It was a terrible slight but one which he took in his stride. Everyone made him welcome at Dura and Gallia wanted him to stay with us permanently. But though he maintained his jovial, endearing manner, I think his father’s abandonment of him cut him to the core. Surena, on the other hand, walked around without a care in the world, though I noticed that he always gave Gallia a wide berth. He never let an opportunity slip to be near Viper, though, and his boyish charm and confidence began to weaken her defences, just as a besieging army grinds down a city.

On the way back to Dura we diverted our journey to pay Haytham a visit. We found him at a much-enlarged Palmyra, which had become a veritable tent city. Trade was excellent and the Agraci had obviously profited handsomely from it. Indeed, there was even some discourse between Dura’s lords and Haytham’s people, a thing previously unheard of.

‘Trade means profit and while there’s money to be made there’s no point in slitting each other’s throats.’ Haytham may have been a king but his tent was austere and his clothing functional. No decadent comforts for him.

‘You should erect some buildings, lord,’ I suggested. ‘I can send you some of Dura’s architects if you wish.’

He shook his head. ‘We can pack up and disappear into the desert if the need arises. The whole of Palmyra can vanish like a mirage.’

‘Why would you wish to do that?’ asked Gallia, Rasha snuggled up in her arms.

‘We still have many enemies,’ said Haytham. ‘Romans to the west and Parthians in the east.’

‘The Parthians are not your enemies, lord,’ I said.

Haytham smiled wryly. ‘I like you, Pacorus, I really do, but sometimes my Rasha has more common sense than you do.

‘The Romans are like ravenous wolves. They will not be satisfied until they have conquered the whole world. And there are many Parthians who see the Agraci as cockroaches, to be stamped on.’

‘Not this Parthian, lord.’

‘No, not you. But few have your foresight. We have heard that your new lord high general has vowed to rid the earth of the Agraci.’

‘I would not worry about him,’ I said, ‘he would not dare venture near my kingdom, not unless he wants another mauling.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘the Agraci know who their friends are and we know how to survive.’

Our stay in Palmyra was extremely pleasant and we took the opportunity to visit Noora, Byrd’s woman. Once again Gallia asked her to come back with us to Dura but again she refused. I said that I was sorry that I was responsible for her husband being away for long periods. She just shrugged and said that Byrd came and went as he pleased.

‘It does not matter, lord, for we will be together when we are old and frail, and then the days will be filled with nothing but each other’s company.’

Gallia was moved by these words.

‘I hope that we are still together when we are old.’

‘Why wouldn’t we be?’ I asked, as we were riding back to Dura.

‘Because it seems that you are always away fighting on behalf of the empire.’

I smiled. ‘I told you, I am done with all that. Now I shall stay in the Citadel and become fat and indolent and sire lots of children.’

She looked at me. ‘Is that right? A queen’s duties are endless, it seems.’

I smiled at her. ‘Duty? I thought it was a pleasure.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself, Pacorus.’

I had hoped that Dura would go unnoticed while Narses and Mithridates played their games of intrigue at Ctesiphon, and that the Romans would stay away after they had been given a bloody nose at the gates of my city. But when I told Domitus this he merely laughed and said that Mars had not finished with me yet. He himself seemed happy enough. The Duran Legion had been brought back up to strength, the Pontic contingent had been replenished with exiles from Armenia and more from Pontus itself, so that we now had nearly ten thousand foot soldiers, all trained and equipped in the Roman style. In fact we had so many legionaries that we were forced to billet them along the Euphrates in small mud-brick forts, each one having a watchtower and a small barracks for half a century — forty men — together with stables for four horses. We built fifty of these forts; the legionaries themselves carrying out their construction, each one spaced at five-mile intervals along the riverbank both north and south of the city. In this way two thousand soldiers were garrisoned outside Dura who also provided eyes and ears right up to the kingdom’s northern and southern borders. Not that they needed to do so, as the lords and those who lived on their lands kept a close watch, but it alleviated the crowded conditions in the camp outside Dura.