The Eagle and the Dragon, a Novel of Rome and China

by Lewis F. McIntyre

  Bad Teeth swung into the saddle behind Marcia, and secured her leash to a saddle ring. “Don’t try to jump off, or I’ll just drag you along behind me.

  Bad Teeth smelled as bad as he looked, and it wasn’t too long before his hand around her waist began to explore things. Don’t give him any reaction. Focus on what is going on. I think the Thin Man is in charge, they call him ‘Boss’.

  One of the riders pulled alongside them. “Hey, Anteater! You got the Hanaean bitch! She’s cute!”

  I wonder how Bad Teeth came by that name?

  Back at the palace, King Vima was beginning to become nervous. Aulus’s party was gathered for lunch, but neither Marcia nor Ranisa had returned. “It’s not like her,” he fretted. “She knows I don’t like her riding alone.” Cassandra sat beside him, holding his hand, looking worried, but saying nothing. She kept glancing at the outside stairs, hoping Ranisa would burst through in her usual ebullient fashion, but she did not.

  “Well, she’s not alone,” said Antonius, offering some encouragement. “Marcia is the next best thing to me out there with her. She is a damned good fighter. They may have had some mishap, a thrown shoe or something. Give them another hour.”

  “I will, but I am going to alert Boni now. If they don’t show up soon, we are going to go out after them while there is light.” He motioned for a servant. “Take this lunch away and you servants enjoy it, Cassandra and I are not in the mood for eating right now. Send for Boni.”

  Antonius snagged some grapes and bread before the tray disappeared. The king went off into his quarters with Cassandra.

  Aulus looked concerned. “Antonius, you’re not really that unconcerned, are you?”

  “No, I am concerned as hell, but he didn’t need to hear that. I am sure hoping it’s some minor accident, but I agree, if we don’t hear anything in an hour, we ride. Let’s get into our gear. I’ll go down to the stables and get the horses ready.”

  About an hour later, the entire group assembled in the stables in fighting gear. The king appeared with Boni, both clad in white linen uniforms with breast plates and riding helmets.

  “Let’s mount up,” said the king. “The rest of the men are outside.”

  They led their horses, snorting and stamping, outside where five more mounted riders awaited them. Boni introduced one to the king as Berzad. “Your Excellency, he is our finest tracker, nicknamed ‘Sniffer’ for his ability to read the road like a book. If the girls can be found, he will find them.”

  Berzad dismounted and inspected the road out of the stable, and eventually announced, “Two horses, early this morning, one unshod.”

  Antonius nodded. “That would be Excelsior, Marcia’s Mongolian stallion. No shoes.”

  Berzad nodded. “Good. That cue will help a lot.”

  They exited the north gate, riding beside the road so as to not disturb the tracks. Berzad verified that Excelsior had come that way heading north, along with several other shod horses, normal for a busy road. There were no indications he had returned that way.

  After about an hour and half, constantly verifying that they hadn’t lost the trail, they came on a heavily disturbed area in the road ten miles north of the city. Berzad waived everyone off to the side. “Five to ten horses here, milling around. Hmm, Excelsior reared, his hoof prints landed hard several times. These are fresher, much fresher than the ones we have been following, just a few hours old. They were intercepted by several men on their way back.” He scanned the sky, watching a single buzzard wheel in the updrafts. “That bird is looking for something to eat, but sees nothing. There are no bodies around here, so they left together.”

  Another mile up, they found Excelsior’s northbound morning tracks, overlapping some southbound tracks. “He was galloping southbound, walking without a rider northbound.”

  Boni pointed northward. ‘About a mile or two that way, there is our lake where we used to go.” As soon as he said it, he tried to catch himself. “I taught her to fish and hunt there.”

  The entrance to the lake was unremarkable, two horses went in, two came out, one shod, the other unshod. They had begun a gallop before joining the main road, probably for fun, Berzad opined, for there seemed to be no indication at this time of pursuit. “That is probably why they didn’t try to escape the group that rode up on them. They’d already exhausted the horses, and knew they wouldn’t be able to outdistance them.”

  North of the lake, the group of five to ten horses and Excelsior continued on, not riding hard. Two horses, both shod, were heavily loaded, Excelsior and one other shod horse carrying no one. “The girls were riding double on two horses with men, Excelsior and the Princess’ mare in tow,” said Berzad

  Near sunset, the horses had turned east onto a small trail that led up into the mountains. Overhung with brush, they found several strands of long black hair that looked like Marcia’s. The trail was harder to follow on the rocky ground, and light was failing when Berzad called a halt. “I won’t be able to follow the trail without a torch, and that will alert them that we are following. And we might step all over their trail in the dark. I suggest we camp here, dark, no fires, and quiet. They could be fifty yards away, or five miles.”

  They dismounted and tended the horses, while the king, Boni, Berzad, and Aulus’ party huddled to assess the situation. The others took a light dinner with the soldiers, and began to unroll their sleeping blankets. Without a fire, it would be chilly.

  Boni volunteered that they were probably not far away. “They start up the Salang Pass tomorrow, so they will start early and ride eight to ten hours. I suspect if the kidnapping went down around noon, they stopped for the night before sunset, and not moving fast, so… twenty or twenty five miles. We stopped a lot to check the trail, but in between rode hard so I guess twenty or so miles for us. So we’re close.”

  “Why do you think they took them? Is this political?” asked the king.

  “I don’t think so,” answered Boni. “For one thing, there is almost no unrest about anything. All local issues. Kidnapping the king’s family is a big step, and not likely to turn out in any opposition’s favor. Even if they do the worst. Especially if they do the worst.” Everyone understood what he meant, and were silent a bit. “I don’t think they know who they have.”

  “Ranisa would have told them.”

  “And Ranisa doesn’t look like a princess right now. They probably didn’t believe her. We have had a number of girls go missing over the past few years, so many that the authorities started looking into the cases more closely. We thought it might be some demonic individual preying on lone girls, but this looks like an organized group. Probably selling them into slavery. Which means they want them alive and reasonably healthy. This gang may give us a lead into the other disappearances, so we want to leave at least a few alive when we find them.”

  “Thank you, Boni. We will get her back, and Marcia for Antonius.” King Vima paused for a little water from his leather bag, and passed it around. “Berzad, what time to you want to start tomorrow?”

  “Let’s saddle up the horses at first light,” he said, taking a sip from the king’s waterbag and passing it on. “Thank you, your Excellency.”

  “No, I must thank you. No one else could have gotten us so close so fast.”

  They sat in silence for a while, each thinking their own private thoughts about the missing girls. Then the king spoke up again. “Boni, did you know Ranisa loves you?”

  “And I love her, as though she were my real niece. She calls me Uncle Boni.” He smiled fondly, the starlight barely catching his wistful look.

  “And as a woman loves a man, Boni.”

  “Your Excellency, I have done everything to discourage her. She is royalty, and deserves a marriage to royalty. I have nothing to offer her, and… I swear, I have never taken advantage of her feelings!”

  “And I know you haven’t. She has also told me that. Have you noticed she is a hard-headed woman? Her idea of marrying into royalty is to ‘refuse to b
e a marriageable pawn on my royal chessboard’. That’s one of her more polite expressions on the subject.” He paused, then choked up. “I am sorry… I miss her so much, and love her so much.” The darkness hid his tears but did not stifle his sobs. And it hid Antonius’ tears, his fists clenched at his helplessness, unable to defend Marcia or even find her.

  Where the kidnappers had left the road to enter the trail, there was a low-hanging leafy tree branch. One would have normally ducked to clear it, but Marcia instead stood up as best she could with Anteater pawing her waist, and let her head go straight through the branches, shaking her hair as she did. She felt the twinge of hairs being pulled out. Hopefully, a good tracker might notice.

  The kidnappers halted a bit before sundown, a few miles into the hunting and smuggling trail. The girls were taken down, their leashes tied to two trees, sufficiently far apart that they could not collaborate on working each other’s knots loose. Other than that, they could stand, stretch, and lie down, as best one can with hands tied behind one’s back. Anteater undid their gags long enough for them to rinse their mouths, dry, dusty, and foul tasting, with several mouthfuls of water, then he fed them some bread. Then the hated foul gags went back on.

  Marcia listened, hoping to pick up as much information as they could.

  “…have a little fun with them!” The men cheered, “Yeah, nice pieces! I want the ‘princess!’”

  The Boss was having none of this. “The buyer in Baghlang wants his goods clean and undamaged. If these girls get the price I think they will, then I’ll buy you all a romp with both of them. Break them in right for their first night on the job. But leave them alone till then. He checks, and if they’re already used, the price goes down by half or more.”

  Goods, that what we are, just merchandise to be sold. The good news is we’re going to Baghlang, three or four days’ ride. The bad news is we’re going to be sold into a whorehouse and gang-raped when we get there. Antonius, I hope you are in a hurry!

  Many thoughts came unbidden. I’m coming into my fertile period! This can’t happen. How would Antonius deal with me if I got pregnant by these animals? Would he still want me after other men have had me? What if we were never found?

  Hina’s counseling took over from her momentary panic. Take a deep breath, let reason control the panic. Deal with what you have now, and that is three days to get you and Ranisa out. Don’t panic, because she is much more terrified than you.

  Rock and pebble, she thought of Marcus, her and her brother in Luoyang. Well, this is more pebble and pebble right now, but I have to keep her spirits up. She caught Ranisa’s ashen face, she too had heard the men’s conversation. Marcia gave her a big slow wink, and as much of a smile as she could manage with a dirty rag in her mouth, and slowly shook her head negatively. No!

  She explored the knot securing the rope around her wrists. The hemp rope was raw and scratchy, but she worked it. Try as she could, she could not find the knot, but she counted five loops around her wrists, and the leash wrapped three times around the bundle between her wrists. She tried to visualize the knot in her mind, turn it around in her head to see how it could be undone. She found a granite rock and sat down in front of it, trying to saw the rope against it without moving enough to attract attention. It was a new rope, and would take a while. Ranisa watched her, and got the idea as well.

  The sun went down, the men built a fire about fifty or a hundred feet away from where the girls were tied, ate, drank and talked, mercifully not about them. Finally, after it had gotten quite dark, the Boss told Anteater: “Go take care of the girl’s business. Get ‘em up, walk ‘em around to go pee, then give them some more water. Tell ‘em we leave the gags off unless they get fussy. Fussy, they go right back on. And give them some blankets for the night.”

  “They’ve been real quiet. Not like the last couple. Screamed and cried all the way to where we were going. Even behind the gags.”

  Anteater came up to Marcia first. He tossed a blanket down beside her, untied her leash from the tree branch, and helped her to her feet. Pins and needles tormented her legs as the circulation came rushing back, but in a moment she was able to take some uncertain steps. He led her off behind a bush, then crouched down in front of her to pull down her pants, spending entirely too much time doing so. Then he stood, and Marcia mercifully squatted to relieve herself, long overdue. She stood, he crouched again, and she could see the leer in his face from the reflected fire glow. “I think I’m goin’ to have some fun anyway, you and me. Nobody can see us behind this bush. Been wantin’ some of you all day!” he said, knocking her feet out from under her. She landed with a thud, her pinioned shoulders agonized by the awkward fall onto her back. He climbed on top of her, trying to pry her knees apart, struggling with his salwar bottoms.

  Marcia looked up at his face. She could smell, no, taste his foul breath, like rotting garbage. His face loomed over her like a rising moon in the dark, his bulbous nose… she arched her back for leverage and whipped upward, smashing her forehead into his nose with a satisfying wet, squishy crunch. He pulled back and howled in agony. She recoiled and launched a second lunge, missing his nose, but hitting him in the mouth. She felt a sharp pain in her forehead, but heard a distinct crack, hopefully from those rotten teeth of his. He howled again, rising to a sitting position, and raising his balled fist to strike her. All right, I know the drill from here. Quiet place, quiet place, let it all go on around me. She smiled to herself at her small victory, waiting for the retaliatory blow to land.

  It didn’t. Out of the darkness a hand grabbed Anteater’s paw, pulling him erect, whirling him around to receive a fist solidly on his damaged nose, which cracked loudly. He howled yet again, this time in extreme agony. If I didn’t break his nose, it certainly is broken now!

  It was the Boss, and he was angry, yelling at him in a loud voice. “I told you to leave the damned girls alone till they were paid for! You think I was just talking? Get back to the campfire!” He spun Anteater in that direction and launched a swift kick to his backside that sent him tumbling. Anteater scrambled back up to his feet and scuttled back to the campfire, making little sobbing noises.

  The Boss helped her to a sitting position, took her gag off and gave her a water bag. She took a mouthful, spat the taste of the rag out of her mouth, and then took several more swallows. “Thanks,” she said, uncharacteristically polite to her kidnapper.

  “If you girls are quiet, the gag can stay off. Are you – uh – done yet?”

  “Yes.”

  He helped her to her feet, lifting her trousers back up modestly from behind without ogling or groping. “Let me see your wrists,” he said, as though she could offer them to him for inspection. He loosened the knot a bit and she could feel pins and needles there also, as circulation returned to them. She would have been grateful, but she had just heard him planning their gang rape a few days hence. He led her back to her tree, retied her leash, and then took care of Ranisa. He then went back to the campfire, leaving the girls to talk quietly.

  “What was that all about?” asked Ranisa.

  “Anteater thought he would get a free sample. Got a broken nose, and I hope some broken teeth!”

  “Good job, girl! Tomorrow, I am going to convince them that I really am the king’s daughter. They’ll have to release us then.”

  “To the wolves they’ll release us. If you convince them you are King Vima’s daughter, they’ll know they are dead men. They can’t take us anywhere we could be recognized, they can’t let us go because we could identify them. They’ll have their fun, then dump our bodies where they can’t be found, and go back and get some safer girls. Be a farmer’s daughter, a merchant’s daughter, think of something, but don’t for all the gods be the king’s daughter!”

  “Right, I will!”

  “I don’t know about you, but I am going to get a little sleep. G’night, Ranisa.”

  Anteater’s howl carried a great distance through the night-silent woods, to where the resc
ue party lay in darkness, preparing to sleep till daylight. “What the hell is that, some sort of animal?” asked Antonius, cocking his head to the noise. The howl was followed quickly by one shorter and sharper, more like a bark.

  “Nothing I’ve heard before,” said Boni.

  A few seconds later, a third howl echoed through the woods, longer, and ending in a sobbing sort of sound. This was immediately followed by angry words, something about “…leave the damned girls alone!”

  Both were on their feet. “We found ‘em!” said Antonius, “Everyone up, quietly.”

  Antonius and Boni assembled their men and geared up, no need for bows, too dark, and shields would be an encumbrance getting quietly through the woods.

  “Boni!” said Antonius in a hoarse whisper. “They are not more than a few hundred yards off. Let’s get everyone in a bit closer, then Gaius and I will scout all the way to their camp. We need to see if the girls are there and all right, how many we are up against, and if they posted guards. We’ll signal, and I‘ll send Gaius back with details. Owl hoot, they’re there. First frog, count the croaks for the men, second frog, count croaks for the guards. Then we rush them!”

  “Good, let’s go!” answered the king, speaking for Boni. “Try to identify the leader, and keep as many alive as possible. I want to know what they intended!”

  The group entered the woods slowly and carefully, moving like smoke through the branches. Their eyes had not seen light since sunset, so the trees were perfectly visible just by starlight. At some point, Antonius signaled a halt. “Gaius and I from here on. We’ll be slow, very slow, so don’t get impatient. The two of us can crawl into their bedrolls if we want. Ready, legatus?” Antonius had not called Gaius by title in a very long time.