She rode a magnificent young black stallion that was obviously bred from the finest stock with his wedge-shaped head, broad forehead, large brown eyes and nostrils and small muzzle. He had the distinctive bulge between his eyes that marked him as a horse of the desert people. Called a jibbah, it gave him additional sinus capacity to help with the dry desert climate.
‘I like your horse, Rasha,’ I said, admiring its compact body with its short back, deep, well-angled hips and laid-back shoulders.
‘It was a gift from my father. He said that he suited my temperament.’
‘What is his name?’ asked Gallia.
‘Asad,’ she replied, ‘which means lion.’
‘Most appropriate,’ I agreed.
We arrived at the tent of Byrd and Noora to discover more large camel corrals in the area behind it and many herders tending to the animals. Byrd’s commercial empire was growing apace.
We spent the next few days in his and his wife’s company, the excited Rasha acting as our guide to the wedding ritual.
‘First Lord Vehrka and my father will sit down with each other and work out the marriage agreement. After that is concluded the bride’s hands and feet will be decorated with henna.’
‘To symbolise beauty, luck and strength,’ added Noora as we ate mansaf — rice covered with stewed lamb cooked in a sauce made from dried yoghurt — with our fingers from huge metal dishes.
‘One day your friends will be painting your hands and feet, Rasha,’ said Noora.
Rasha screwed up her face. ‘I am going to be an Amazon and ride beside Gallia in battle. Is that not correct, Gallia?’
Gallia smiled at her. ‘Let us not talk of war at the time of your brother’s marriage, Rasha.’
I leaned over and kissed my wife on the cheek. ‘A most diplomatic answer.’
I knew that in two summers’ time Haytham would be looking for a husband for his daughter, no doubt the young son of one of his lords. But for the moment all eyes were on his son, and with the successful conclusion of the negotiations between the two fathers the week culminated with the Al Ardha, a war dance performed by dozens of warriors with swords and whips, after which the guests presented Malik and his bride with gifts in celebration of their union. Dura’s gift was a thousand camels that Rsan thought was excessive, but both Gallia and I believed it to be the least we could give in view of Malik’s service to us.
We stood next to Vehrka as thousands of Agraci watched their prince and his new wife leave for the desert to spend some time alone together, and hopefully their intimacy would not be spoiled by the three hundred warriors, fifty camel riders and three score servants that accompanied them. Malik and Jamal rode on a pair of richly attired camels, and Jamal’s had silver bells round its ankles.
‘They make a handsome pair, lord,’ I said to Vehrka as we watched the royal couple and their entourage ride into the desert south of Palmyra.
‘Your shipments all reach their destination without harm,’ he said, keeping his eyes on the long line of camels diminishing in size on the horizon.
‘I am sure they do, lord, though that was not my immediate concern.’
He regarded me out of the corner of his eye. ‘Of course it was. That’s the only reason you came over to stand by me. Well, as I said, the shipments all reach their destination.’
I was slightly taken aback by his brusque manner, but then he was an Agraci lord and they were not known for their diplomacy.
‘It is good that we aid our allies, lord.’
He looked at me with a bemused expression. ‘Allies? I don’t care if the Jews live or die, Parthians too for that matter. It is a business arrangement, that is all.’
‘And a lucrative one,’ I added.
‘For you too,’ he said, ‘unless you are doing it out of the goodness of your heart.’
‘Of course not.’
‘How long will you be sending weapons to the Jews?’ he asked.
‘A few more months yet.’
‘And you hope that they will slaughter the Romans and save you the trouble.’
He really was quite perceptive. ‘I hope that they are able to win their freedom.’
He curled his lip. ‘Only the strong have freedom. The weak and the vanquished do not deserve it. It has always been so.’
There was little point in pursuing this line of conversation so I went back to his daughter’s new husband.
‘Malik is your new son, Vehrka.’
‘He is a brave warrior and will produce many fine sons. I hear that you have no sons.’
‘The gods decreed it thus,’ I replied.
He looked at Gallia. ‘Your child-bearing years are over.’
She bristled at his effrontery. ‘That is an impertinent question. I assume your balls are withered like your face.’
His eyes narrowed for an instant then he smiled at her. ‘I meant no offence, lady. But a man should have sons, especially a great warrior like your husband.’
She sneered at him and then stomped off. I made to follow her but Vehrka grabbed my shirt.
‘I have two more young daughters, very fertile, should you wish for a new queen.’
‘A most generous offer, lord, but I could never leave my queen.’
‘Women are put on the earth to bear children, nothing more. When they can no longer do that then they become worthless. Think on my offer and visit my camp some time. It would be a great honour for one of my daughters to bear the sons of a famous warlord such as yourself.’
He looked at Gallia walking away from us.
‘But come alone next time.’
After Malik’s departure we too left Palmyra and headed back to Dura, and a month later we were in Babylon for the wedding of Orodes and Axsen. Gallia was very happy during this time as the marriage meant that she could be with Praxima and the rest of the surviving Amazons once more. Viper had risen to be Gallia’s second-in-command now, a position that never failed to amuse me, as she still resembled a teenage girl with her small breasts and lithe figure. She rarely heard from Surena, none of us did, but both Vata and Atrax sent me frequent messages that they had regularly supplied his men in Gordyene so at least he was still alive. He had been in the kingdom for nearly a year now and I was considering recalling him; after all, twelve months was long enough for a husband to be separated from his wife, and Gallia did not wish Viper to go to Gordyene and live like ‘a beggar among a bunch of thieves’ as she so eloquently put it. But all that could wait until after the wedding.
I was delighted to discover that the city of Babylon had been transformed since the last time I visited it. The refugees had been persuaded or coerced to return to their villages and the streets and buildings had been cleaned and repaired. The stench that had hung over the buildings had also disappeared and the spring melt waters of the Euphrates had washed away much of the debris that had clogged the river. The area around the city where the armies had conducted the two recent sieges was still largely flat and barren, but at least the replanting of crops and trees had begun. In addition, both my father and Nergal had sent additional troops to Axsen’s kingdom to strengthen its garrisons. Seleucia was still occupied by the soldiers of Mithridates and pointed like a dagger at Babylon but there was nothing that could be done about that at the moment. However, Mardonius reported that there had been no hostile activity along the Tigris.