Parthian Dawn

by Peter Darman

  ‘We do not need bows in the marshes,’ remarked Surena when I questioned him about the subject.

  ‘It would be a useful skill to learn.’

  ‘My friends and I know how to use a bow, but my people are herdsmen and fishermen, not soldiers. They have to tend to their animals and put food in their bellies. There is little time for anything else.’

  On the morning that I prepared myself and Remus for the journey back to my kingdom Fadil came to me, with Surena tagging along behind him hauling a bulging net of fish he had caught earlier. One thing was certain, the Ma’adan would never starve in these watery lands. Surena dumped his haul on the ground and sat beside it. The day was still young but the temperature was already high as the sun rose in a cloudless, blue sky. Around us villagers busied themselves with the daily chores that were essential to everyday life — catching fish, milking the buffaloes before they disappeared into the cool waters, repairing huts, mending clothes and harvesting reeds to make baskets, spears and boats. Surena was right — these people had no time to be full-time soldiers.

  ‘So,’ said Fadil, ‘you are leaving us.’

  ‘I have to get back to my own people, sir. I have been away for too long.’

  He nodded. ‘Of course. But I would ask a favour of you before you depart.’

  I checked the saddle straps on Remus. ‘If it is within my power to grant it, consider it done.’

  He clapped his hands. ‘It is indeed, for I want you to take Surena with you.’

  The youth spun round and got to his feet. ‘Grandfather?’

  ‘You chaff at the bit, Surena,’ said Fadil. ‘You are a good boy and you work hard, but you have a hunger for knowledge and great ambition that living in the marshlands will not satisfy. I believe that the gods sent Pacorus to us for a purpose, and that purpose is to allow you to fulfil your destiny.’

  ‘I am Ma’adan,’ said Surena with pride. ‘I do not wish to leave my homeland.’

  His grandfather laid a hand on his grandson’s shoulder. ‘In your heart you do. Ever since the death of your parents your soul has been restless. You must become what you were destined to be, and that is not a farmer.’

  Surena was far from happy at the prospect of leaving. ‘I do not wish to go.’

  ‘I leave in one hour,’ I told him as he walked off, jumped in his boat and rowed it away. ‘With or without you.’

  Fadil picked up the haul of fish. ‘The volatility of youth.’

  I took my bow from its case and tested the bowstring, then returned it to its cover.

  ‘He seems set on staying.’

  ‘That is because, like all young ones, he does not like to be told what to do. But I think his sense of curiosity will get the better of him.’

  ‘You do know, sir, that I go back to fight my enemies. Surena will be in danger.’

  He unloaded the haul of fish into a large reed basket. ‘He is in danger here, we all are, and I do not wish to see him killed in some fight with the soldiers of Chosroes. He has a certain talent for war but he is young and impetuous, and those two qualities will get him killed if he remains here, that much I know. With you he will learn much, not least how to stay alive.’

  ‘You have great faith in me,’ I said. ‘Perhaps too much.’

  Fadil smiled to reveal a mouth of perfect white teeth. ‘The one, perhaps the only advantage with growing old is that you acquire a certain amount of wisdom. I believe that you are a man in whom one can have faith.’

  ‘Well, if he does decide to come with me I promise you that I will take care of him.’

  ‘I know that,’ replied Fadil, ‘otherwise I would not have asked.’

  To my great surprise, an hour later Surena appeared at his grandfather’s hut with a horse in tow, a rather scraggy looking dun-coloured beast with only a saddlecloth on its back, though it did at least have a bridle and reins. Surena also brought his comrades-in-arms, the youths who had sprung the ambush that had freed me. And then others arrived, men and their families, until each piece of dry ground in the village was packed with sightseers. Surena, dressed in a tan shirt and bleached leggings that ended just below the knee, nodded at me. I nodded back. He had his long knife tucked into his belt and a reed spear in his hand, while over his shoulder he carried a bow and a quiver filled with arrows, no doubt taken from a dead enemy soldier. He walked over to his grandparents standing beside me and hugged them both. I noticed tears in his eyes as his grandfather spoke softly in his ear, and then he brushed the tears away before he turned and faced the crowd. He held his spear aloft.

  ‘Ma’adan,’ he shouted at the top of his voice, and they replied in kind, chanting the name of his people as I thanked his grandparents, shook their hands and then led Remus into the marsh. Surena followed me, leaving his family, his friends and his past behind him.

  With Surena acting as a guide our journey west though the marshes was relatively easy. He had travelled far and wide throughout his land and knew the location of shallow waters, banks of dry land and how to avoid quicksand, the deadly liquid sand that could swallow a man and his horse in no time at all. He speared fish each day and we ate them at night, the horses being fed on the young shoots that grew in the waters. Surena said nothing to me on the first day and little on the second, but on the third day the walls of his silence began to crumble. He had made a fire after our long journey through the endless waters and reeds, and was cooking fish over it as he began to tell his story. I did not interrupt or question him, for in such circumstances I have learned that it is best to let individuals unburden themselves at their own pace. He did not look at me as he recalled events from his past.

  ‘My parents died when I was fifteen, killed by a patrol of Chosroes’ soldiers. They had taken our herd of water buffaloes onto dry land on the far side of the river to eat the herbs and dry grasses. My grandfather has told me that my mother, his daughter, was very beautiful and that was why the soldiers raped her first. They forced my father to watch before they killed him, and when they had finished with her they murdered her too. And then they killed all of their animals. I asked my grandfather how he knew it had happened so, seeing as nobody except the soldiers was present, but he just closed his eyes and told me he knew. Only later, when I had killed myself and had seen the types of wounds inflicted on bodies, did I know that he had told the truth.’

  He turned his face to me, his eyes moist at the memory of his loss but also burning with hate. ‘I should have been with them, but on that day I was helping my grandfather with the nets.’

  We ate in silence and then he spoke some more, again staring into the fire’s flames.

  ‘The soldiers of Chosroes have waged a war of annihilation against my people, that is why there are so few men, mostly just the young and the old. But we learned to fight back and now we kill those who come to kill us.’

  ‘Perhaps, Surena, there will be a time when there will be a new king who will be a friend to your people.’

  He smiled wryly at the thought. ‘I did not realise that you were a dreamer, Pacorus.’

  It took us five days to traverse the marshes and reach the Euphrates. We crossed over to the western side of the river because I did not know if Narses or Chosroes would have patrols out searching for me or whether they would be preoccupied with taking Babylon. I prayed to Shamash that Babylon still resisted them. We rode north for two days, keeping watch for any Agraci tribesmen. I counted Haytham as a friend, but there was no guarantee that any of his people would recognise me as the King of Dura. My tunic and leggings were torn and dirty and Remus was covered in dried mud, and Surena in his poor shirt and half-leggings, barefoot and with no saddle, looked like a horse thief. Our luck held, though, and at length we waded back across the wide Euphrates and then rested on the eastern bank under a group of date palms, before heading north once more.

  We rode hard to outrun any hostile patrols that may have been in the vicinity, and I often looked back to see if we were being chased, but all I saw was empty and bar
ren land. On the second day I eased the pace and was again looking behind me when Surena shouted.

  ‘Riders up ahead.’

  I turned to see half a dozen horsemen heading in our direction, black shapes that shimmered in the heat. Surena grabbed the bow that was slung over his shoulder.

  ‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘We don’t know who they are.’

  ‘They’re getting closer,’ I detected the worry in his voice.

  And so they were, cantering towards us. I could see that they wore helmets and had bows in their hands. I reached behind me and pulled my bow from its case, then strung an arrow in the bowstring. I peered ahead again and saw that the riders wore mail shirts and that the sleeves of their tunics were white. Relief coursed through me.

  ‘You can put your bow away, Surena. They are friends.’

  The six riders were some of Nergal’s horse archers undertaking long-range reconnaissance duties. Fortunately they recognised me immediately and informed me of what had happened since I had been away. Their commander was a dark-skinned man with a long nose who I was surprised to learn was Agraci.

  ‘Lord Nergal and Legate Domitus took the army across the Euphrates and have set up camp a few days’ march from Dura.’

  ‘And Dura?’ I asked.

  ‘The Romans took three weeks to march down the Euphrates before they arrived before the city.’ He stopped and then glanced at me, as if reluctant to convey bad news. I prepared myself for the worst.

  ‘Go on,’ I ordered.

  ‘We have received news from the city each day by carrier pigeon. On the first day the Romans arrayed their forces before Dura and demanded its surrender. Queen Gallia stood on the walls and bombarded them with insults, or so we heard. The next day they assaulted the city with their full might and suffered heavy losses. They have not tried to storm the city again, but sit in front of it like old women.’

  So Gallia had stayed in the city despite my pleading. I smiled to myself. The arrogant Romans had believed that they could take Dura with ease, but my city was like a scorpion and its deadly sting was its queen. Still, a city besieged cannot hold out forever and I had to get back to camp quickly.

  ‘You are Agraci, then?’

  ‘Half-Agraci, majesty, though my mother is ashamed that her son was fathered by a desert nomad many years ago. I live in Dura, so when Lord Nergal was recruiting soldiers I put myself forward. He was pleased to accept me, saying that men are judged on their merits as individuals and not according to which race they belong.’

  ‘Lord Nergal is correct,’ I replied.

  He looked at Surena. ‘Is this man your prisoner, majesty?’

  ‘I am no prisoner,’ spat Surena, causing the others to turn and look at him.

  ‘This man is an ally,’ I said.

  The Agraci captain shrugged. ‘War brings strange allies.’

  I smiled at the irony of his words.

  A tiring ride that must have taken us at least thirty miles left both horses and men exhausted. But with a fierce red sun descending in the west I at last saw that sight that never failed to fill me with awe and pride. On the arid ground, as if conjured up by a magic spell, stood the huge camp that housed Dura’s army. The giant rectangle was protected by an earth mound on all four sides, on top of which stood a wooden palisade. At each corner stood wooden guard towers, on the top platform of which stood sentries scanning the horizon. And within the camp itself stood neatly arranged rows and blocks of tents, each tent the home of eight legionaries. We rode through the main gate and down the central avenue of the camp, which led to the headquarters tent where Domitus resided. Many men spotted Remus and began shouting my name, others chanting ‘Dura, Dura’ as our little group made its way to the heart of the camp.

  I dismounted in front of Domitus’ command tent, who had stepped outside to see what all the commotion was about. I smiled when I saw my old friend, who in turn locked me in an iron embrace. He turned his nose up.

  ‘You smell bad.’

  ‘I’ve had a somewhat eventful journey.’

  He slapped me hard on the back. ‘We thought you were dead, but then I remembered that you are under the protection of that old witch of yours, so I stopped worrying. Come inside and have some water.’

  ‘Just a moment,’ I said, and then walked to where the standard’s pavilion was pitched adjacent to the command tent. The former was a simple square tent, guarded front, sides and rear by chosen legionaries, men who had distinguished themselves in battle. I went inside where four more guards were standing sentry over the legion’s golden griffin. They snapped to attention when they saw Domitus and me enter. I indicated for them to stand at ease once more. The griffin on its pole was held upright in a rack, the gleaming gold creature seemingly about to take flight from its silver plate on which it was anchored. I reached out and touched it its cool metal. Behind me Surena, who had also entered the tent, attempted to do the same. His hand was curtly brushed aside by one of the guards, standing in front of him to bar his way. Surena, aghast that he had been treated thus, stepped back and pulled his long knife from his belt. The legionary smiled at him, but before he could draw his gladius Domitus in a flash had drawn his own sword and now held its point at the neck of Surena.

  I shook my head. ‘Surena, put away your knife and wait outside.’

  Surena, feeling the steel at his throat, reluctantly did as he was told. ‘I was only trying to touch it.’

  Domitus replaced his gladius in its scabbard. ‘It’s not some cheap trinket, boy.’

  Surena jerked his head at me. ‘You let him touch it.’

  Domitus and the guards began laughing. ‘Well, he’s a king, boy, and the victor of many battles. When your blade has tasted as much blood as his has, then you can come back and lay your hands on our griffin.’

  ‘What’s a griffin?’

  ‘Enough, Surena,’ I said. ‘Go and get some food in your belly and make sure your horse is attended to.’

  We went back outside and I told the Agraci captain to keep his eye on the boy. Then I went with Domitus into his tent.

  I flopped down in one of the chairs and drank greedily from the cup of water he offered me. My limbs suddenly ached with frenzy as I stretched out my legs. Domitus sat down next to me.

  ‘Where is the cavalry?’

  ‘Nergal has it scattered over a wide area. There’s no need to keep it in camp as there are plenty of your father’s bases around here to feed men and their animals.’

  He was talking of the small forts that were dotted throughout Hatra. Each one had a tiny garrison, no more than twenty-five men, but they were solidly constructed from mud bricks and had high walls, thick gates and towers at each corner complete with arrow slits. They were both a strongpoint and a place of refuge in times of emergency, and any invader would have to reduce them one by one to conquer the whole kingdom. But to do so would be a lengthy process and would give my father time to muster his army.

  ‘Nergal will be here soon. He reports in every day to hear news of Dura.’

  ‘And what is the news?’

  He smiled. ‘Gallia gave them a bloody nose and since then they’ve done nothing except lob a few missiles at the walls. Perhaps they have decided to starve the city into surrender.’

  I nodded. ‘Good, that is exactly what I hoped for. They do not know that we evacuated the population. Talking of which, where is it?’

  ‘Ten miles north of here. They brought plenty of food with them and there’s an oasis nearby, but a few thousand people cannot remain there for any length of time.’

  ‘I know that.’ I looked at him. ‘They will be back in Dura within a week.’

  He frowned. ‘We could not persuade Gallia to leave the city, I’m sorry.’

  ‘I knew she would not leave, she told me as much. It is her home, the only one she has ever had. It will take more than a Roman army to evict her from it.’

  After I had washed and changed my clothes, I found Surena a new shirt, leggings and a pair of leathe
r sandals. He would have to wait for new boots until we returned to the city. I also found a centurion and told him to take the lad on a tour of the camp. Surena, refreshed and newly attired, was eager to see more of the sprawling tent city and clung to the centurion like an eager puppy.

  ‘Where did you collect him from?’ asked Domitus as I watched Surena being scolded for picking up a javelin without asking.

  ‘Would you believe that he saved my life?’

  Domitus frowned. ‘That’s what happens when you go off on wild goose chases without an adequate escort.’

  Half an hour later Nergal rode into camp. I was delighted to see the commander of my cavalry, with his gangly arms and legs and infectious smile. I had never seen Nergal downcast, even during our darkest moments. The arrival of Byrd and Malik made for a happy reunion and I was glad to be back among my friends and the legion once more. Byrd and Malik had ridden far and wide since the army had left Dura and they reported that the kingdom’s lords were itching to attack the Romans but, true to their word, were waiting until they received orders to do so.

  ‘They are like hungry dogs, lord,’ said Byrd, ‘they thirst to feed on the Romani corpse.’

  As we relaxed around the compact square table in the main section of Domitus’ voluminous tent, I told them about the Roman threat to Media and Atropaiene, of the treachery of Chosroes, the return of Narses and his army, and the inaction of Phraates.

  ‘So you see, my friends,’ I said, ‘all the fighting that we did last year was for nothing, and now the empire faces a greater threat. It is as if the gods have created this situation to test us to the limit.’

  Their faces displayed no outward emotion, though each of them must have been wondering what course of action should be taken. I answered their unspoken question.

  ‘Very well. There is no point in sitting here thinking of the most dire outcome. First of all we will destroy the Romans in front of Dura. Byrd and Malik, you will ride to the lords and tell them to attack any Roman supply convoys or bases within easy reach of their strongholds. Hit and run only. Tell them not to get involved in long, drawn-out fights. After their raiding practice, they are to rendezvous with the army at the stone bridge over the Euphrates north of Dura.’