‘Where is Orodes?’
‘Staying in Babylon for a while. He sends his regards.’
Surena brought his horse to a halt in a cloud of dirt. ‘Hail, lord.’
‘Good to see you are alive, Surena. I trust you took care of my horse archers.’
Yes, lord,’ he beamed and then pointed to where the lords were gathered. ‘I bring you reinforcements, lord.’
I was confused. ‘Reinforcements?’
‘You and Gallia better get yourself settled and then all will be revealed,’ said Domitus.
‘We heard you nearly got eaten by a lion, lord,’ said Surena, grinning at me like an idiot.
‘Don’t believe all you hear, Surena,’ I replied.
‘So it’s true, then,’ said Domitus. ‘That’s what happens when you don’t have me to watch your back.’
The parade was dismissed and the various contingents returned to their quarters, the legions, minus those legionaries who had been on garrison duty in the city and Citadel, to the tented camp that stood west of the Palmyrene Gate; the horse archers and cataphracts to their stables and barracks in and near the Citadel. In the days following companies of horse archers would be assigned to the mud-brick forts north and south of the city to both alleviate the need for barracks inside the city and to provide the kingdom with security. As in Hatra the forts were not designed to be major strongholds but rather to be the eyes and ears to any hostile incursions.
It was late by the time we were reunited with our children in the Citadel after being welcomed at the foot of the palace steps by Rsan and had washed the Mesopotamian dust from our bodies. I told him to convene the meeting of the council for the next day. We took our evening meal on the palace balcony with our children and Dobbai, who laid a bony hand on my arm and told me that she was glad I was back where I belonged. When the children had eaten and fallen asleep in our arms we carried them to their bedrooms and returned to the terrace as the sun set in the west and turned the desert beyond the river blood red.
I looked at Dobbai, this frail old woman swathed in black robes sitting in a great wicker chair stuffed with cushions, Gallia fussing around her and wrapping her in a blanket as twilight enveloped the earth and the temperature began to drop. Known throughout the empire as the feared sorceress at the court of King of Kings Sinatruces, I had first met her some fourteen years ago when I had accompanied my father to Ctesiphon after I had captured a Roman eagle near the Kingdom of Zeugma. Her appearance, lack of manners and conduct at that time had disgusted me, but then I was a naïve, arrogant young fool who judged people on appearances. I had seen her briefly after I had returned from Italy and again when she had appeared one day at Dura shortly after I had assumed its kingship. She had stayed ever since, becoming the confidant of my wife and the guardian of our children. And for that I thanked Shamash for her presence.
Servants brought us warm wine to drink and lit oil lamps on stands to illuminate the terrace as the sun departed the world for another day.
‘You were right,’ I said to Dobbai. ‘I underestimated Mithridates and Narses and nearly got the army wiped out.’
‘And yourself killed,’ added Gallia.
I chuckled. ‘If I had led the army to disaster I would have deserved to die.’ I looked at Dobbai, then Gallia.
‘I have my two favourite women to thank for my salvation.’ I raised my cup to them. ‘So I salute you both.’
Dobbai waved away my gesture. ‘You have learned a valuable lesson, son of Hatra. The two vipers who rule the empire have many weapons in their armoury whereas you have but one, your sword. You think too much of your soldiers. I heard that you could have escaped with Prince Orodes but chose to stay and play with them in the desert.’
I frowned. ‘What kind of king deserts his soldiers?’
She laughed. ‘A living one.’
‘I would rather die alongside them than do such a base thing as to save my life at the expense of theirs.’
She pointed a bony finger at me. ‘And that is your weakness. Did you know that Narses murdered his own parents so that he could become king?
‘By the look of disdain on your face I see that you did not. The lives of others mean nothing to him, or Mithridates for that matter. They laugh at your attachment to mere soldiers.’
‘One day, my mere soldiers as you call them will destroy those two and restore the empire to its former glory.’
‘Have you noticed, my dear,’ said Dobbai to Gallia, ‘that men always take comfort in an imagined past when truth and justice ruled the world and there was no famine, plague, war or tyranny.’
Gallia looked at me sympathetically. ‘Alas, I fear there has never been such a time.’
‘And nor will there be,’ said Dobbai, sipping at her wine.
‘Then why do we bother to fight at all?’ I asked.
Dobbai drained her cup and then rose from her chair, Gallia walking over to assist her and then linking her arm in the old woman’s.
‘You fight, son of Hatra, because you enjoy it and because you will save the empire from a great danger. That is your destiny.’
I noticed that Dobbai took short steps and leaned on Gallia for support. She suddenly seemed very old.
I looked into my cup of wine, the red liquid appearing thick like blood.
‘Vardan is dead,’ I said suddenly.
Dobbai stopped and turned. ‘I heard. Kings die, it is the way of things.’
‘It is my fault and Axsen is alone because I asked her father for help.’
‘He died saving his kingdom. I would have thought you would be pleased by such a death,’ she retorted. ‘Better that than a frail old wreck lying in a bed of his own piss and dung waiting for the end. As for the princess, the seed of her future greatness and happiness has been planted in the blackness of her misery.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said.
‘Of course you don’t,’ she snapped. ‘You are not meant to.’ She smiled at Gallia. ‘Help me to my bed chamber, child, and leave him alone with the riddle he has neither the wit nor wisdom to fathom.’
The next morning the council assembled in the headquarters building in the Citadel. It felt good to be home and among friends once again. I thanked Shamash that Dura did not have great temples such as in Babylon where powerful priests and priestesses could weave their magic and indulge in intrigues. My visit to the Temple of Ishtar still played on my mind but I still said nothing about it to anyone.
Any thoughts of the dead wife of Spartacus soon disappeared as Rsan read from a great list he had drawn up pertaining to the state of the army and its provisioning. He may have been made the city governor but his years spent as its treasurer had accustomed him to seeing everything in terms of outgoings and income. Domitus adopted his usual habit of toying with his dagger as Rsan lectured us all. Behind him sat Aaron with parchments and no less than two scribes took notes of the meeting. Rsan had clearly made these meetings his own during my absence.
In addition to Domitus, Kronos, Gallia and Dobbai attending the meeting, I had also asked Surena to be present as the commander of my horse archers so that he could give an account of his expedition east of the Tigris. But it was Rsan who spoke first.
‘I have yet to receive reports from the commanders of the horsemen who returned with you yesterday, majesty, but thus far the expenditure of your recent campaign has been most costly.’
‘How costly?’ I asked.
Rsan looked at the parchment in his hand, then turned and held out his hand to Aaron who passed him another.
‘Let me see. Well, first of all the legions,’ he nodded to Domitus, ‘required four thousand new shields, five hundred swords, over four hundred mail shirts, in addition to the five thousand that required repairs, four hundred and fifty wagons that were apparently left in the desert — quite extraordinary — six hundred dead mules and hundreds of other tools and utensils that have mysteriously disappeared.’