‘Good to see you, old friend. I was worried about you.’
‘He’s fine now, though when he was brought in yesterday he was done in.’
I recognised the coarse voice of Strabo behind me.
‘No riding him for at least a week. He’s not as young as he was despite what you think.’
He leered at Gallia and bowed his head at her.
‘Majesty.’
She frowned back as he stood beside me.
‘We lost five hundred horses yesterday to fatigue; their hearts just gave way.’ There was great sadness in his voice.
I was astounded. ‘That many?’
‘That is just Dura. The other kings must have lost more, to say nothing of the hundreds of camels that have also been slaughtered. It is a right mess that will take a while to sort out.’
‘Do you think you will lose any more horses,’ asked Gallia with concern.
Strabo faced her and stared at her breasts. ‘If all the fighting’s done then only a few. Those that are down probably won’t get up. But another battle will kill hundreds more, perhaps thousands.’
‘There will not be another battle,’ I reassured him.
Domitus had been right: there had been only one more fight left in the army. It had been a close run thing but we had triumphed, but at a heavy cost. In my state of exhaustion Domitus had handed over control of the camp to Alcaeus and Marcus who set about their new responsibilities with gusto. The first thing the former did was to organise burial details to scour the battlefield to search for Duran dead. The morning roll call after the battle had revealed the names of individuals who were missing from the ranks, and once it had been established that they were not lying in hospital, parties were despatched to find their bodies. It was a grim business but in Dura’s army every man deserved to have a proper cremation if humanly possible. And so thousands of men picked through the dead to retrieve their fallen comrades, who were then consigned to huge pyres that sprang up on the plain.
I gave orders that the body of Narses was to be dumped in the Karkheh, though not before the head was hacked off, taken south to Susa and then stuck on the end of a spear in front of the city walls. When word reached Orodes he immediately countermanded my desire, sending an officer of his bodyguard to explain to me that Narses deserved a cremation according to his high rank and that his men would take the body and deal with it. I was too drained to argue.
The ditch on the eastern and northern sides of the camp was filled with dead hill men whose corpses were already starting to rot and stink, and so Alcaeus ordered that the earth from the ramparts behind these sections of the ditch be used to cover the thousands of corpses. Thousands more dead hill men lay scattered on the ground around the camp so these had to be collected and cremated.
Later that day, in the early evening, Orodes called an assembly of the kings to take stock of our situation. Alcaeus had suggested that we relocate the camp to the River Dez seven miles to the east and I had agreed. To be in such close proximity to huge numbers of dead men and animals was to invite pestilence. There was little point in winning a victory if our army was subsequently wiped out by plague.
‘It does not seem like a victory,’ remarked Orodes, black rings round his eyes and his face dirty and unshaven. He looked as though he had not slept for a week.
Gallia, Atrax, Surena, Viper and Gafarn also looked tired and drained, though Nergal and Praxima were both fresh faced. Orodes had also requested the presence of Marcus, Alcaeus and Domitus at the meeting.
‘The final victory, Orodes,’ I said.
Orodes smiled thinly at me and looked at Marcus. ‘And what is the cost of our victory?’
Marcus stood, cleared his throat and kept glancing at a parchment he held in his hand. ‘Well, sir, I have consulted with the other quartermasters and have arrived at the following totals. Of the foot soldiers, eight thousand Babylonians and a thousand legionaries were killed. Losses among the horsemen total fourteen hundred cataphracts and three hundred Babylonians killed and thirteen thousand horse archers slain.’
‘Thirteen thousand?’ exclaimed Surena with astonishment.
‘I am afraid so,’ remarked Marcus. ‘In addition, nearly four a half thousand squires were killed during the course of the battle. Finally, among the animals we have lost a combined total of eight thousand camels, ten thousand horses and four hundred mules.’
There was a stunned silence. Losses of twenty-eight thousand killed, to say nothing of the hundreds more with serious wounds and thousands carrying minor injuries, represented a staggering number. Domitus had already informed me that a thousand legionaries, three hundred cataphracts and six hundred horse archers of Dura’s army had perished in the fighting. Among these were seventeen Companions whose names would be carved on the memorial in the Citadel to add to the list that was steadily filling the granite tiles. Seven Amazons had also fallen.
‘What about enemy losses?’ asked Atrax.
Marcus picked up another parchment. ‘Well, sir, obviously we do not have access to the muster lists of the enemy. However, we have managed to carry out a rough calculation of the enemy’s losses based on the density of the dead in various parts of the battlefield combined with the area that the corpses cover, including the dead in and around the ditches surrounding the Duran camp. This equates to over eighty thousand killed.’
Orodes looked appalled. ‘Eighty thousand?’
‘Yes, sir,’ replied Marcus without sentiment. ‘We are burning and burying the bodies as fast as we can but I would recommend moving all your camps east to the Dez as Alcaeus has said.’
The other kings nodded their heads in agreement. I could see that Orodes was still shocked by Marcus’ revelations. Nearly one hundred and ten thousand men and boys had been killed over the course of three days — nearly thirty-five thousand a day! I had never taken part in such a bloody battle and prayed that I would never do so again.
‘When do we assault Susa?’
Thus far Domitus had remained silent, but ever the professional he was thinking about our next course of action. Susa still remained to be taken, which meant yet more bloodshed.
‘My machines can effect a breach of the walls,’ said Marcus, ‘to enable the city to be entered.’
‘We need at least a week to recover our strength before any further fighting can take place,’ I said.
Domitus smiled maliciously. ‘Well, the city is not going anywhere. Let them stew while we surround the walls. Perhaps we could starve them out if you want to save more casualties.’
‘That is my city,’ said Orodes sternly. ‘I do not wish to starve my own people into submission.’
Domitus shrugged. ‘An assault it is, then.’
But Orodes deferred making any decision and then pointed out that our first priority was the funeral of my father.
It took place later at sunset, the flames consuming his body as the sun descended in the west and Shamash prepared to leave the world at the end of another day, but not before my father’s spirit ascended to be welcomed into heaven by the sun god. I stood next to Gallia in the company of thousands as the fire roared and burned with a white-hot intensity to cast a red glow on our faces. I looked at the iron visage of Vistaspa, his injured leg supported by splints, as he stood without showing any emotion as the lord he had devoted his life to was cremated. Next to him stood my brother, the new King of Hatra. He had already sent a letter to my mother and sisters informing them of our father’s death. I thanked Shamash that Diana would be by my mother’s side when the news reached her.
The next day Dura’s army moved to be beside the Dez and the forces of the other kings followed, and as the new camp was marked out and the surrounding ditch was dug Marcus and his Romans began checking the component parts of the large ballista that would be used to batter Susa. Parties were despatched to the site of the battlefield to continue consigning the dead to the fires, which included sections of enemy soldiers that had surrendered. The date palm grove was cut down to provide more firewood and companies of horse archers escorting empty wagons were sent north to the foothills of the mountains to cut down trees for more firewood. When they returned they reported seeing no parties of hill men.