B000YQHMGU

by William Dietrich

  We mounted and rode. My Roman dress drew attention, of course, but Skilla was well known even in this vast army, and the light had grown strong enough that he was easily recognizable. Huns sentries rose warily from the meadow grass but stepped aside to let us pass. We reached the great circle of Hun wagons, a laager half a mile in diameter with similar, smaller laagers scattered about it like moons. Weary Hun ponies grazed between in vast herds. Ranks of Hun archers still slept in the shadow of the wagons, ready to be roused if the Romans advanced.

  Our horses jumped one of the wagon yokes and we went on, encountering a second line of wagons inside it, like the second wall of Constantinople. I wondered if Edeco had recommended this from his memories of my home city. We jumped that as well and came to the tents and the awful, carefully prepared funeral pyre of Attila. The pyre towered twenty feet high, a riotous jumble of saddles both fine and plain, silks, tapestries, carved furniture, furs, robes, jewelry, perfumes, staffs, and standards. Much had been looted in just the past few months. Clearly the kagan intended to not only take his own life if the Romans broke through but also prevent them from capturing his possessions.

  I recognized Ilana, huddled against the heap of saddles, and my heart was wrenched. She was asleep, or at least slumped, with her eyes closed. I had expected a beaten and emaciated slave, but instead she was dressed in a spectacular silken gown and dotted with jewelry. What did this mean? Had Attila taken her as a wife or concubine? Was this last journey for nothing?

  I touched Skilla’s arm, stopping him and his horse. “Listen. I want you to promise to care for Ilana and take her far away from this place, far from all these armies.”

  “What?” He looked at me in confusion.

  “Attila is not going to let us go. You know that. But he may let you go, with Ilana, if I offer myself as konoss. My life and the sword in recompense for the fire at his palace, in return for yours and Ilana’s.”

  He looked at me in disbelief. “I did not bring you here to die, Roman. If I wanted that, I’d kill you myself.”

  “It’s not what you want but what Attila wants. Think! This is Ilana’s only chance—to be given to you. Attila will expect you to marry her and serve him. But give me your word you’ll slip away from this madness so she can live a normal life. You’ve seen the Empire, Skilla. Live with her within it.”

  He shook his head stubbornly. “You never understand a thing, Roman! I’ve seen your Empire and I don’t like it! Too many people, too many possessions, too many laws!”

  “But it’s her world. She’ll never be happy in yours. You know this, and you must accept it. This is what you must promise, if I give myself as konoss"

  “And if I don’t?”

  I reached behind my back to loosen the big sword, lifting it clear and laying it across the front of my saddle. “Then I will die trying to kill Attila, Ilana will probably perish, and you yourself will be crucified for bringing me to his tent.” He shook his head in disgust, troubled by my proposal, and it occurred to me that perhaps he felt fellowship for me as I felt for him: that perhaps he had sought me out on the battlefield not just from calculation but from loneliness. It’s also unlikely he fully trusted me. But finally he shrugged. “Very well, sacrifice yourself. I will go wherever Ilana asks me to take her.”

  “Thank you.” I gave a slight bow, strangely content. All my diplomacy had led to catastrophic slaughter, and all my efforts to free Ilana had led to her being imprisoned more hopelessly than ever. Bargaining my own life, after the sacrifice of so many others, felt oddly liberating.

  I’d expected, however, some degree of surprise and gratitude. Instead, he seemed to regard me with irritated impatience. “Just don’t kill yourself until we get Ilana.”

  We rode the last few yards and dismounted. How bizarre this reunion with Attila seemed! Here I was, a lone Roman amid thousands of Huns after the worst battle on Earth. Men clustered around us like sniffing dogs. One, with a bloody bandage, looked particularly familiar and I peered closer. It was Eudoxius, the Greek doctor! Here he was, in the army he’d dreamed of, and his old nemesis Aetius might crush him at any moment. He recognized me, too, and his look was one of loathing.

  Not just Ilana but a dozen beautifully dressed women were linked with light chains to the pyre, awake now and looking frightened. Attila’s lust for conquest had led his people to disaster, and if he must die he wanted to bring those closest to him down with him.

  Ilana herself was looking at Skilla and me with wonder. She’d come groggily awake at the noise of our approach, and then her eyes had widened with recognition in the growing morning light. She seemed bewildered by our apparent partnership: We stood together as allies, both of us spattered with dried blood and grimed with the filth of combat. Then she saw the sword and her eyes clouded. I knew she wanted Roman victory, and revenge on Attila, more than her own life.

  The kagan erupted from his tent.

  If the Scourge of God had slept at all, it was in the battle mail and animal skins of yesterday, spotted with the gore of his enemies. His hair was wild and stringy, his thin beard grizzled, and his piercing eyes rimmed and red from worry, or lack of sleep. I was shocked and I think Skilla was, too: Attila seemed to have aged a decade since I’d seen him, and perhaps a decade in a day.

  “You!” he cried, and I confess I jumped. I’d seen him wield power too often. But now he looked as if the shock of this battle had thrown him from the mount of reason. Never had so many Huns died so quickly. Never had Attila retired from a battlefield, victory not in his grasp. Now he was hunched behind his wagons, waiting for Aetius to finish destroying him. I hadn’t realized until this moment how decisively the Romans had won. The kagan’s spirit had been broken.

  I lifted the sword for him to see. “I come from Aetius, kagan.”

  He looked at me suspiciously, but instantly native craftiness replaced surprise. “He wants to parley?”

  “No, I do.” I pointed at Ilana. “That woman is blameless for what happened in Hunuguri; I stole her from your compound, took your sword, and set the fire. Her only sin was to be kidnapped by me. I’ve come to offer konoss. I’ve brought you back the sword and for her life I offer myself. Kill me, but let the woman go.”

  Attila’s eyes narrowed. He turned to Skilla. “What is your role in this?”

  “I pledged I would bring back the sword. I have.”

  The king grunted. “And do you still want what I promised in return?”

  He nodded. “Ilana is to go with me.”

  She cried out. “Jonas! This makes no—”

  I interrupted. “I’ve come unarmed to save the woman I love. My life is a small price to pay for hers. Give her to Skilla, and let their blessing be on the sword of Mars.”

  He looked from one of us to the other, a trio about to become two. “You care this much for a druugh? It was a Hunnish nickname for her genitals.

  I swallowed. “Put me in the flames instead.”

  Still Attila hesitated.

  “It’s konoss, kagan,” a chieftain spoke up. “You must accept it.” I started in recognition at the voice and realized Edeco had come up. He wasn’t looking at me but at his nephew Skilla with curiosity.

  The king scowled. Was this a trick? “I have to accept nothing.” His look became narrow and greedy. “Give me the sword.” His warlords were nodding, eager to have this talisman back to rally their men.

  “Let her go to Skilla first.”

  “Give me the sword first. Or should I just kill you now?” I hesitated, but what choice did I have? I walked to him, and he grasped the iron haft, resting its heavy tip in the grass. We were inches apart.

  His look was a half smile. “Now it will not be so easy.”

  I put my own hand back on the sword. “I made a bargain.”

  “Which I am going to change.” He turned his head and ordered. “Unchain the girl.”

  I was sweating, despite the cool of the morning. They unlocked Ilana and she rose stiffly, perplexed and wary.


  Attila raised his voice so others could hear. “She can leave, konoss will be paid, but no Roman assassin will dictate the payment.” He grinned at her. “She will choose who goes with her . . . Skilla or the Roman.”

  “What?” she exclaimed.

  “The other will take her place on the pyre.”

  “No!”

  “What madness is this, kagan?” Edeco demanded. Skilla had blanched, looking at his king in bewilderment.

  “She refused a better bargain when I offered it two nights ago. So let her make one now. Which of her suitors does she choose to kill?”

  “I cannot make that choice. It’s monstrous!”

  “Then I will lock you back to that pyre with the other women and set fire to it now! Which one!”

  I felt sick, things spiraling out of control. Where were my allies? Would Attila really kill Skilla instead of me? What kind of unjust game was this, to play with people’s lives, to threaten the three of us with the arbitrary fate he had given poor Rusticius? How many innocents must this tyrant condemn? As I watched Ilana stand there, stricken, horrified, confused, my rage boiled over. Maybe it was Chrysaphius who was right, not Aetius. Eliminate Attila and our greatest problem was solved!

  I shoved, butting him; and because of the surprise, I, Attila, and the sword went sprawling on the ground. Before the surprised older man could gather himself I’d wrestled myself behind him with the blunt but still-lethal sword at his neck, dragging both of us toward the pyre so I could use it as a shield for my back. The sword was so long it was like holding a pike pole against his throat.

  “This sword has become his curse!” I cried. “Harm us and I take off his head!”

  “Roman trick!” Edeco roared. His hand was at his sword. Other Huns raised weapons. But all hesitated because Attila was my shield. Eudoxius, I noticed from the corner of my eye, was slipping sideways out of sight. Now what?

  “No trick, warlord!” another voice cried out. “Beware its curse, Attila!”

  At last! Two figures on horseback were pushing through the small mob of Huns that was gathering around us, ignoring their angry muttering like men ignoring the growl of dogs. They were on a single horse, the smaller one looking at my desperate stance with wonder.

  “So you have found a lover, Alabanda,” Zerco called.

  Hun attention swung momentarily from me to the newcomers.

  “Think what has happened to your people since you found that sword!” the tall one was shouting. “Think where it has been, with the Romans!”

  “What is this?” Attila gasped in frustration against my hold. “Can any man in the world walk into my camp?”

  A chieftain in escort fell to his knees and looked in stupefaction at the tableau we presented: Attila and I locked like wrestlers, Ilana and Skilla white-faced in shock, Edeco looking murderous. “He said he had an urgent message from Aetius,” the Hun pleaded. “He said if I didn’t let them through it would doom us all. I remember the dwarf. He’s a demon, lord. But most of all I remember this holy man.”

  “Holy man?” Attila squinted harder. “By the gods! The hermit!”

  Edeco started, too. He seemed to recognize a man I knew as Bishop Anianus.

  “The halfling I loathe,” Attila said. “And you, I remember you. . . .”

  “As I remember you, Scourge of God,” said Bishop Anianus. I was baffled. Had these two met? “You have scourged the West of its sins as intended. Now it is time to go back to where you crawled from. Leave the sword. The thing you lusted for has been corrupted for your kind.”

  “Corrupted?”

  “Bathed in holy water, blessed by high bishops, and anointed by a vial of blood from the savior. Do you think Aetius is fool enough to let this youth give back a tool of Hun power in exchange for a single woman! This is no longer the sword of Mars, Attila. It is the sword of Christ. For you, it has been cursed, and if you take it with you, your people will be utterly destroyed.”

  Attila twisted angrily, so I pressed the blade anew. “Let us go and I let you go,” I whispered.

  “You dare come here to offer bad prophecy?” the king challenged the bishop.

  “I come here to offer fair warning. Think! Could this young fool steal the sword from the tent of Aetius? Or did the general let him have it? Ask him.”

  Attila twisted his head. “What is true?”

  “Aetius said he wanted you to survive—”

  “Think!” interrupted Anianus. “That sword has brought you no luck, Attila.”

  I could almost feel the king calculating. “Then it curses the Romans as well,” he tried. “Look at the battlefield, warlords. They lost more than we did.”

  Zerco laughed. “Which is why you cower in your laager!”

  Now Edeco’s sword was half out of its sheath, but I shouted warning. “Don’t!” I bent to the king’s ear. “My life for yours. Ilana for the sword. I can’t hold you much longer. I must slice and kill us both, or leave.”

  There was silence. Sweat spotted us both. Ilana seemed to have turned to marble. Skilla seemed dazed by all that was happening.

  Finally Attila grunted. “All right.” None of us moved, not certain we had heard him right. “Go. You and the witch. Go, and be a plague on Aetius instead! You’ve both cursed my camp since you came to it. Leave the sword and I give you safe passage.”

  I sensed movement at the edge of the pyre, coming behind me. We didn’t have much time. “I have your word?”

  “You have my word. But if I see you in battle again, I will kill you.”

  I released him and stepped away, holding the old sword at the ready and careful of treachery. Attila’s eyes were like the point of a spear, but he made no move toward me and issued no command. Eudoxius, I saw, had been trying to sneak behind the pyre to get a shot at my back with a bow and arrow, but now he stopped, too, the arrow half drawn.

  Attila rubbed the red welt at his neck. “The sword, Roman.”

  Stooping carefully, I laid it in the grass, then began backing for Diana. “I need a horse for Ilana,” I said.

  “Give her one,” the kagan growled.

  I swung up onto Diana and Ilana mounted her horse. Skilla looked at us with quiet sadness, finally accepting that he’d never have her.

  “Skilla, come with us,” I tried.

  He straightened then, proud, contemptuous, confident. “I am a Hun,” he said simply.

  “Skilla . . .” Ilana spoke, her voice breaking. “I know what you’ve—”

  “Get out of here,” Attila interrupted, “before I change my mind.”

  Skilla nodded. I wanted to offer my strange enemy-friend something, but what? Not Ilana. She was quietly weeping, tears running down her cheeks.

  “Go,” Skilla said in a choked voice. “Go, go, Romans, and stop corrupting us.”

  "Now!” Zerco whispered urgently.

  I was dazed that I was alive, that Ilana was behind me, that Anianus had appeared, that the sword I had carried so long lay untouched in the grass. Our horses began to move, Huns reluctantly stepped aside, our own lines glinting on the horizon. It might work!

  I heard a familiar voice. “Here’s a better ending, kagan.”

  Our heads swiveled and I saw Eudoxius, his face contorted with hatred, draw his bow. The iron of the arrowhead trembled slightly as he aimed at Ilana.

  "No!”

  He shot as Skilla leaped without thinking, trying to spoil the aim. Instead the arrow struck him and the Hun was pitched forward by the impact, falling onto his back. He looked in disbelief at the shaft jutting from his breast.

  Eudoxius gaped in horror.

  “A Hun keeps his word,” Skilla gasped, a red froth at his lips.

  There was a roar of outrage, and the Greek turned and flinched. Edeco’s sword came whistling down and cleaved the doctor nearly in two.

  “Now, now!” Zerco cried. “Ride! Ride for our lives!”

  Attila howled and picked the great iron sword out of the grass with two hands and came running at u
s like a madman. I kicked my horse between him and Ilana, and he swung, hard, and narrowly missed. I felt the wind of the passage. The massive blade cracked the rim of my saddle, nearly buckling Diana.

  And broke. The old iron shattered into fragments that flew like a broken glass, spinning at the circle of startled Huns and making them duck in superstitious horror. The Hun king looked at the iron hilt in disbelief.

  “You have cursed yourself!” Anianus shouted.

  Then we kicked and bent low over our horses. A Hun had stepped out to grab my reins, and I rode over him. Then another caught at Ilana, dragging. I looked. The German girl Guernna! My love clubbed with her fist and the slave dropped away, braids flapping as she rolled.

  The wall of the inner laager loomed, and we made for the low wagon tongues. Now a couple arrows buzzed past but they were high, the archers fearful of hitting fellow Huns. Shouts rang out, but they were ones of confusion. Who had shot Skilla? Who had Edeco killed? What had seemed to be an orderly parley had turned into chaos.

  I glanced back. Attila and Edeco were frozen, staring at the shards of the sword. My file had done its work.

  I let Ilana get ahead of me and saw her horse bunch and jump. In an instant, I followed her over the wagon trace. Now we had the inner laager obscuring and shielding us from the Huns at Attila’s tent and we sprinted for the outer one, some Huns just now waking up, groggily staggering to their feet as we galloped past.

  We blasted through a campfire, scattering pots and people, and came to the second laager. A few Huns moved to stop us but they were bowled over. Again we leaped, hooves clicking as they nicked the edges of the wagons, and then we were onto the battlefield beyond, racing over the forms of the dead. Something winked up high, and I glanced up to see missiles falling. “Arrows!” I shouted.

  They hissed as they fell around us, but none struck.

  Now Romans were shooting in return. Ilana rode grimly on, arrows plunking the ground, her gaze horrified as she saw closely for the first time the full butchery that had occurred, the endless carpet of bodies. We rode fast amid and over them. Then we were past even that horror, men cheering Anianus, and finally reined up at the compound of Aetius. Winded, I looked back in wonder. Attila’s laager was two miles safely behind, and Ilana was flushed and bright beside me.