‘Who would sack your palace, lord?’ queried Orodes, riding on the other side of the king.
‘The Romans,’ he replied.
‘Have you heard reports of the Romans making preparations for war?’ I asked with concern.
‘No, but with Romans in Syria and now Judea a Roman province in all but name I have potential enemies to the north and west. As Palmyra grows richer then it becomes a greater prize to possess for those with envious eyes.’
‘We turned them back once, we can do so again,’ I said.
‘What do you think of Aaron?’ he asked, changing the subject.
‘He needs feeding up.’
Haytham laughed. ‘He may look like a thief, but I think you will find him useful. Besides, if he stays here he will cause problems for us. We are too near to Judea I think, and if he foments trouble then the Romans will turn their attention to Palmyra.’
‘What sort of trouble?’
‘Aaron tells me that there are still rebels, freedom fighters he calls them, in Judea battling the Romans and their Jewish allies. He is one of them and burns to go back there.’
‘Then why doesn’t he?’ I asked.
Haytham smiled grimly. ‘He hopes to recruit others to his cause. He asked me whether the Agraci would support his friends.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said no, of course. The fate of Judea does not concern me.’
‘And you think it concerns me?’ I asked.
‘Of course not, but Dura is further from Judea than Palmyra. I think Aaron could be useful if his attention is turned elsewhere. And I wish to be rid of him. If you don’t want him then I will have him killed. It is nothing to me.’
‘I have offered him a place at Dura, lord, so let it be so.’
Rasha suddenly squealed and dug her knees into the sides of her horse as a gazelle broke cover from behind a collection of large boulders ahead and bolted for its life. She already had an arrow nocked in her bow as she galloped after her prey. We followed hard on her horse’s hooves. I reached behind me and pulled my bow from its hide case then extracted an arrow from my quiver. Beneath me Remus powered ahead, straining to reach the gazelle as it tried to outrun us. I nocked the arrow in the bowstring as Remus caught up with Rasha’s mount. Haytham and Orodes were immediately behind. Orodes shot his bow and the arrow cut through the air beside us as the gazelle suddenly darted right and then left. The arrow missed as Remus thundered across the baked ground in the wake of our prey. I brought up my bow so the bowstring was next to my face. I had done this a hundred times on the battlefield and on hunting expeditions. Keep looking at the target, lean slightly forward; let the bow become part of your body, as one with your soul. Time crawled as Remus closed on the gazelle and my breathing slowed as I aimed at the animal’s hindquarters and released the bowstring. In the blink of an eye the gazelle changed direction once more and I missed him. Rasha pulled her horse right to follow the gazelle and shot her arrow, the iron head slammed into its side and caused the beast to stumble and roll over and over. She pulled up her horse and then lightning fast, shot another two arrows into the prostrate animal. It lay motionless, dead.
Elated, she leapt from her horse and ran over to the gazelle to stand beside it, raising her bow in triumph at her victory. I halted Remus in front of her.
‘I’m glad all that time spent with Gallia and her women on the training fields did not go to waste, Rasha.’
She grinned at me. ‘One day I will be an Amazon and will slay the enemies of your people and mine in battle.’
Haytham, Malik and Orodes rode up to join us.
‘Did you see, father? I beat Pacorus, the greatest warrior in the Parthian Empire.’
She suddenly looked at Orodes. ‘I meant no offence, Orodes.’
Orodes smiled at her. ‘And none was taken, little princess. Well done.’
‘Did your hand slip, Pacorus?’ asked Malik. ‘Perhaps we can invent a fiction that will save your face, for I fear that all Palmyra will soon learn that you have been bettered by a girl.’
‘Thank you for bringing that to my attention, my friend.’
Haytham leaned forward. ‘Well done, daughter. We shall eat your catch tonight in celebration.’
The king’s entourage arrived, a score of warriors on horseback and attendants on camels. They slung the dead gazelle on one of the ill-tempered humped beasts and took it back to Palmyra. We continued with the hunt but came across no more gazelles, so Haytham ordered a halt at a small oasis surrounded by date palms. It was now blisteringly hot and we were glad of the shade and the opportunity to eat and slake our thirsts. After we had tethered our horses beneath one of the trees Rasha threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.
‘Will you tell Gallia about the gazelle?’
‘Of course,’ I replied, ‘she will be delighted.’
‘I have asked her if I can join the Amazons.’
‘Really?’ I looked at Haytham, who was frowning.
‘She said I would have to ask my father. I was hoping you could speak to him on my behalf.’
‘Oh, I see.’
She looked imploringly at me with her big brown eyes.
Haytham saved me. ‘You should not pester Pacorus so. He is a king and has better things to think about than the fantasies of a young girl.’
Rasha stuck out her tongue at him and sauntered off to supervise the meal that was being prepared for us. I doubted that Haytham would allow his daughter to join my wife’s band of women warriors, not least because she was a princess of her own people. The Amazons were mostly former slaves, runaways, prostitutes, thieves and the like, all united by a bond of sisterhood. And they were lethal. Gallia and her band were mounted on the finest horses, clothed in helmets and mail shirts and armed with bows and swords. I knew Rasha idolised them and they viewed her as a sort of younger sister, a lucky mascot. I also knew that her dream of being one of them was as her father had said, a fantasy.
Afterwards as we rode back to Palmyra, Haytham and I watched as Rasha and Orodes competed against each other in a series of short sprints on horseback.
‘Rasha presents me with a problem.’
‘How so, lord?’ I replied.
‘She is restless, Pacorus, she wants more than tents and the desert.’
‘She is a princess of your people, lord.’
‘But she has mixed with your people, has talked with merchants from distant lands and heard their tales of mythical beasts and strange tribes. More than that, she wants to be like your wife.’
‘Gallia?’
‘Of course, why not? Who would not want to be like the fabled warrior queen of Dura? To ride as well as any man, to fight as well as any man and be more ruthless than most? All these things she desires.’
‘I had no idea that she was so besotted, lord. I apologise.’
He held up a hand. ‘There is no need. Your wife, Pacorus, bewitches us all. Why do you think I let you live all those years ago when you and she came alone into my kingdom to return Rasha to me.’
He looked at me with his black, emotionless eyes then laughed aloud. He reached over and slapped me hard on the shoulder.
‘And she shoots a bow better than you.’
But Haytham had been wrong about that day when we had brought his daughter back to him, for there had been another with us, a man who had made his home among the Agraci and had taken one of their women as his wife. Orodes and I went to see Byrd the next day. He knew we were in Palmyra, of course, but had no interest in hunting or the conversation of kings. He also knew that we were immensely fond of him and would call on him and Noora his wife. We found him shaking hands with a merchant over a dozen camels he had just purchased. He saw us and nodded, then continued with his conversation. The merchant became most intrigued by the two richly appointed individuals who dismounted and waited patiently behind Byrd as he conducted his business. There was no need for him to engage in such trade as he was given gold every month from the treasury in Dura. He had at first refused, saying that he had always earned his own keep. But I prevailed when I told him that it was unbecoming for the best scout in the Parthian Empire to be scratching a living in the desert. Gallia was always pestering him and Noora to come and live with us in the palace at Dura but he always refused. He was happy enough with his Agraci woman. But as he was also very fond of Gallia they both visited us often and as with Rasha, we had set aside a room for them in the palace.