I slapped a huge, stinking beast on its rump, causing it to grunt and amble forward. The wounded Kaspar lay on the ground but I was still tied to Remus’ saddle. I shouted his name and he turned his head; I was desperate for him not to bolt forward and drag me under the hooves of the water buffaloes. I reached him and patted his neck, but his eyes were wild and I could see that the events swirling around us had unsettled him greatly. With my hands tied behind my back I was helpless.
A figure appeared in front of me, a youth no more than eighteen years of age or younger. He was slightly shorter than me but with broader shoulders and thicker arms. He had a square, clean-shaven face with a thin nose. His shoulder-length hair was black and his eyes dark brown, and now they regarded me cautiously. He held a long knife in his right hand that was smeared with blood. He wore a simple light brown shirt and frayed leggings that ended just below his knees. He wore nothing on his weatherworn feet.
The killing had mostly stopped now, judging by the absence of screams and shouting. The boy continued to watch me as several of his companions appeared by his side. They were dressed in similar threadbare clothes and armed with a variety of knives or short swords. Together they looked lean, proficient and pitiless, like a pack of hungry wolves. I had the feeling that my fate was about to be decided. One spoke to the youth whose eyes were still upon me.
‘Surena, a few escaped. They might be back with reinforcements.’ So his name was Surena and I guessed that he was their leader. He turned to the youth who had spoken.
‘Gather up anything of use and get the animals over the river and into the marshes. We leave immediately. Go.’
The youth nodded and disappeared, leaving Surena and four others facing me. Then he spoke to me.
‘What’s your story?’
‘Release me and I will gladly tell it.’
‘Why should I release you?’
‘Because the men you have just killed were also my enemies.’
Kaspar suddenly groaned and Surena looked at him.
I nodded at Kaspar. ‘That man stole my horse, weapons and armour and was taking me to a place of execution. He is my enemy, just as he is yours. Does that not make us allies at least, if not friends?’
Surena looked at Kaspar and then me and then laughed to reveal a mouthful of white teeth.
‘I will give you the benefit of the doubt, stranger.’ He walked over and cut the ropes binding my wrists and neck with his knife.
However old these young men were, they went about the business of stripping the dead and dying of anything that could be of use to them — weapons, food, clothing and horses — with skill and speed. Most of the horses were stripped of their saddles, which were dumped on the ground, and then gathered up into groups. One horse in each group was left saddled and this animal was ridden by one of the herdsmen, who gathered the reins of the others and led them away. By now the water buffaloes were being directed back over the river and into the marshes, the lumbering beasts grunting in disapproval at having to exert yet more energy.
I walked over to the now dead Kaspar and relieved him of my helmet, cuirass, boots, sword and dagger. Surena looked at me in surprise as I put them on.
‘They are mine,’ I said. ‘He stole them from me. That was a well-planned ambush. My congratulations.’
Surena grinned boyishly. ‘We had been watching them all morning, but then a great host of other horsemen arrived, and those men were well armed. I was going to cancel the attack, but then the men whose horses wore armour rode north and the odds were better than even once more.’
I finished pulling on my boots and then put on my cuirass and buckled my sword belt. I felt like a Parthian once again, though many of the goose feathers in my helmet’s crest were dirty and damaged. I then checked over Remus for wounds. He had none.
‘A fine horse,’ said Surena.
‘He’s mine too.’ I looked at him. ‘You are one of the marsh people?’
‘Yes,’ he pointed at the expanse of wetlands over the river. ‘That is my homeland.’
‘Well, Surena, my name is Pacorus and my homeland lies far to the north. I must get back there quickly as it under attack from the Romans.’
‘Who are the Romans?’
I smiled to myself. Would that all of us had never heard the name of that race. ‘A warlike people who kill and enslave others. I have to get back to my family to protect them.’
Most of the horses and water buffaloes were now wading across the slow-flowing Tigris, which was wide and shallow at this spot. Behind them Kaspar’s dead men lay on the ground where they had fallen, flies already buzzing around them. The subordinate of Surena ran up.
‘We have collected all that we can carry.’
Surena nodded. ‘Good. Keep a watch for any enemy horsemen.’
‘What happened to the soldiers who were better equipped than the others, the ones who wore bronze armour?’ I said.
The subordinate eyed me aggressively.
‘He is not an enemy,’ said Surena.
The subordinate, a wiry youth with a long face and brown hair, twisted his mouth in annoyance. ‘They beat us off and got away.’
‘Then I suggest you make your way home speedily,’ I said. ‘Most likely they will return with reinforcements.’
‘They will catch you again if you ride north,’ Surena said to me. ‘We have seen many soldiers marching north these past few days. You should come with us.’
‘Into the marshes?’ The idea did not appeal to me.
He shrugged. ‘It is nothing to me, but how far will you get on a tired horse and in your state?’
He had a point. My back, stomach and chest ached from the kicks I had received, to say nothing of the punishment that had been inflicted on my face, and Remus hardly looked fresh.
‘Very well, Surena, I accept your offer.’
The water buffaloes were herded into the marshes and after a while were abandoned, much to my surprise. I was informed by Surena that they would make their own way to dry land before darkness fell, and until that time would content themselves with wallowing in the water and eating plants. He also told me that they actually preferred the herbs and grasses found on dry land, but that it was dangerous for a herdsman to take his beasts any distance from the wetlands.
‘The soldiers of Chosroes like nothing better than to use us and our animals as targets for their arrows.’
‘Are you not the subjects of King Chosroes?’
He and those immediately around us stopped and turned to look at me, appalled at the suggestion. ‘We are not under the yoke of any king. We are a free people who have lived in these parts for hundreds of years.’
Surena and his comrades were experts at finding a way through the marshes, keeping to where it was shallowest and avoiding the deep waters. Even so, by the time we reached his village, a collection of large huts built on small spits of dry land, my boots and leggings were soaked. It was late afternoon and very hot and I was plagued by mosquitoes that swarmed around us. But as soon as we emerged from the water to once again set foot on dry land the mosquitoes seemed to disappear.