Amazon

by Peter Darman

  ‘You can watch from up here,’ I told them all, ‘while I demonstrate how to kill a shark.’

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ announced Silaces, ‘I haven’t fished in years.’

  The Euphrates was literally the lifeblood of the fishermen and their families living in small villages on both sides of the river. The river had been fished for generations, mainly for carp and the giant barbels that could grow up to three hundred pounds in weight. Turtles also lived in the river and provided good meat to feed a family. But until the predator was dealt with the river became a forbidden, dangerous place, spelling disaster for villagers eking out a day-to-day existence.

  Word soon spread that the king and his friend King Silaces were going to kill the shark and a throng of people gathered along the riverbank to greet us and watch us deliver them from the beast in the river. For simple, superstitious folk the appearance of the shark was interpreted as an ill omen, a thought that had also crossed my mind, which was why I was determined to deal with it. Chrestus accosted us as we left the Citadel armoury equipped with the close-quarter weapons used by the cataphracts – axes and maces – plus each of us carrying our own daggers.

  ‘Shark hunting in a rickety fishing boat is a dangerous business, majesty,’ he said solemnly.

  ‘He means for two old men with little experience of handling boats,’ joked Silaces, who had brushed away his young wife’s concerns on the terrace, occasioning her to storm off to their bedroom.

  ‘I can organise the tracking down and killing of the shark,’ Chrestus assured me.

  ‘How hard can it be?’ I shot back.

  Chrestus followed us from the Citadel, barking orders to the duty centurion to provide an escort, two score of Exiles chasing after us in full armour and carrying javelins as we strode down the main street towards the Palmyrene Gate, having decided a brisk walk would blow away the cobwebs. They caught up and flanked us, Azad and Sporaces waiting for us at the city entrance, both appearing very concerned. They bowed their heads and fell in behind us as Silaces swung his axe to loosen up his limbs. He breathed in the morning air, which was already warm.

  ‘I feel like killing a shark.’

  ‘Me too,’ I grinned.

  ‘They’re too old,’ I heard Azad say.

  ‘Can’t you have a word with them?’ muttered Sporaces.

  ‘They won’t listen,’ said Chrestus. ‘I mean, they should be riding at their age.’

  We were outside the city and walking parallel to the city’s western wall, which we would follow and then leave to skirt the wadi just beyond the northern walls.

  ‘I am here, you know,’ I said loudly.

  ‘Just because we are older than you does not mean we can’t give you a good beating,’ warned Silaces, now swinging his mace with his other arm.

  ‘I do not doubt it, majesty,’ said Chrestus, ‘but a shark in his own environment is a different prospect.’

  At the river, the Exiles shoved aside excited and curious villagers who created a racket when they spotted us, Silaces raising his arms in acknowledgement. They probably did not know who he was but cheered anyway. The village next to the river comprised mud-brick huts with palm branch roofs. There were no boats moored to the nearby small wooden jetty, which was constructed from palm branches, the vessels having been hauled from the water.

  ‘Why are there no boats in the water?’ asked Silaces.

  Chrestus spoke to a few of the bare-chested men wearing torn leggings, nothing on their feet, standing near the boats. He brought one, perhaps my age, over to us.

  ‘This is the village headman, majesty.’

  He bowed his head and kept staring at the ground.

  ‘It was one of your villagers who lost his life?’

  ‘Yes, majesty,’ he muttered.

  ‘Why are the boats out of the water?’ asked Silaces.

  ‘The shark will chew them up if we leave them in the water, high one,’ answered the headman.

  ‘Put the boats back in the water,’ I instructed, ‘we are going to kill the shark.’

  The headman looked up to give me an incredulous look.

  ‘Don’t worry, we know what we are doing,’ Silaces assured him.

  But we had to wait until a batch of short stabbing spears arrived from the Citadel because the harpoons used by the fishermen had bone heads, which I doubted would make much impression on the skin of a bull shark.

  The boats were simple, crude affairs and looked smaller up close than from the palace terrace, much smaller. They had a crosspiece in the centre, one at the stern and a pair of oars. The nets used for casting from the boats were hanging on drying racks a few paces from the jetty.

  ‘Let’s get on with it,’ said Silaces.

  The boats were hauled back into the water and three cast off into the river, one holding myself and Silaces, a second Chrestus and Azad, the third Sporaces and two of his men who ladled fish and animal guts into the water. The stabbing spears lay in the bottom of the boat as I rowed it into mid-stream, the current very slow so we fortunately did not drift too far downstream. Silaces sat on the crosspiece at the stern. It was a beautiful summer’s day, the water calm and blue, the sky an untarnished blue and the sun warming our backs.

  ‘What have you heard about challenges to Tiridates’ rule?’ I asked.

  He spat over the side of the boat. ‘Rumours of trouble brewing in Mesene and the marshes where the Ma’adan live. This new satrap Tiridates has appointed is determined to subdue them.’

  My head dropped. One of Nergal and Praxima’s greatest achievements had been to grant autonomy to the marsh people, the Ma’adan, thereby ensuring peace and prosperity between the Mesenians and Ma’adan instead of war and mutual loathing. And now some foreign satrap would reverse that policy and condemn the kingdom to years of festering violence.

  ‘That will bring misery to the Ma’adan and people of Mesene,’ I replied, ‘but will be a purely internal affair.’

  ‘Seems odd that we sit here and the only challenge to Tiridates comes from a bunch of marsh dwellers.’

  I heard the bitterness in his voice and knew the regret of not fighting at Ctesiphon was eating Silaces up.

  ‘As I said, my friend, Tiridates planned his move well and implemented it faultlessly.’

  ‘With the help of your sister.’

  ‘Aliyeh?’

  He gave me a knowing look. ‘You know as well as I do that our new lord high general is a mother’s boy. And to think we saved the bitch from Spartacus, no offence.’

  I laughed. ‘None taken.’

  The three boats were drifting slowly downstream, to the accompaniment of fish guts and animal entrails being dumped in the water. I had boarded the oars and sat staring into space, wondering what was to be done about Tiridates. I had no answers to the dilemma and suspected the longer he remained at Ctesiphon the slimmer the chances of restoring Phraates to his throne.

  A loud crunching sound brought me back to the here and now, that and the shouts of men fighting for their lives. The two legionaries who had been heaping guts and entrails into the water were frantically trying to beat off a monster with their oars, the shark biting into the side of their boat and snapping at them.

  ‘Row, Pacorus, row,’ shouted Silaces, who picked up a spear and hurled it at the shark around twenty paces away, the point taking a small chunk out of its dorsal fin.

  That was enough to turn it away from what was left of the boat it had been chewing and disappear beneath the water. I pulled on the oars, searching all around for the shark.

  ‘Get to shore,’ Chrestus instructed his men, who needed no second prompting. ‘Have a care, majesties,’ called my general.

  ‘He must think we’re stupid,’ grumbled Silaces, spear at the ready.

  ‘In a small boat, in the middle of a river around two hundred paces wide and facing a big shark, he has a point,’ I told him.

  I knew little about bull sharks but from what I had seen this one was a big beast, perhaps ar
ound twelve feet long and weighing over four hundred pounds. Chrestus’ boat was now near our own, the damaged vessel nearing the riverbank where dozens of civilians were babbling like a flock of wild geese and pointing at the river.

  ‘He’s tasted blood and will be back for more,’ warned Chrestus.

  I stowed the oars, threaded my hand through the leather strap fixed to the base of an axe and gripped the handle with my left hand. I picked up a spear with my right and waited. Suddenly the surface of the water was disturbed by a dorsal fin heading at speed towards our boat.

  ‘Come on, come on!’ bellowed Silaces, the water foaming as the shark opened its huge mouth to reveal rows of sharp, serrated teeth.

  Silaces howled with triumph when he threw the spear that glanced off the side of the animal’s mouth, causing a gash but having no effect on the shark’s velocity, the beast slamming into the boat, its huge jaws clamping down hard on the side, which suddenly looked papyrus thin as the behemoth chewed through it with ease, I stood and hacked down hard with the axe, the blade bouncing off its light grey snout. Was this an animal or a supernatural beast from the underworld? The blow must have enraged it because it literally picked up the boat and started shaking it. Silaces cursed as he fell backwards into the water and I fell on my belly in the bottom of the boat. I saw the top half of the shark’s jaws crunching down on the side of the boat, gauging a great chunk out of it and causing water to flood in. I rested my right hand on the boards and hacked at the seemingly unending rows of teeth with the axe, knocking out at least half a dozen. I swung the weapon again but this time after I had smashed more teeth into little pieces the jaws closed on the axe and the shark thrashed to the left back into the water, taking me with it.

  I went under the surface as the beast swam away from what was left of the boat, frantically pulling the strap off my wrist to prevent being dragged down to the bottom of the river. I kicked out and swam back to the surface, gasping for air when my head left the water. I looked around and saw Silaces being hauled aboard the remaining intact boat.

  ‘Over here, majesty,’ called Chrestus, ‘quickly!’

  The boat was about thirty paces away and I began to swim towards it, my boots making leg strokes difficult. I saw Silaces and Chrestus beckoning me towards them urgently and grew alarmed when I also saw Sporaces nock an arrow and draw back the bowstring. I glanced behind and saw a dorsal fin. Coming straight for me! My arms and legs moved like the wings of a dragonfly, arrows hissing over my head as the commander of my horse archers earned his pay. His missiles must have had some success because the arms of Silaces and Chrestus pulled me aboard before the bull shark could reach me, Sporaces continuing to shoot until the monster had once again submerged beneath the surface. I lay on my back, panting uncontrollably and unable to speak.

  ‘Get this boat back to shore,’ ordered Chrestus, shoving an oar into Silaces’ hands.

  They both rowed back to shore, Sporaces standing ready with bow primed and his king lying on his back trying to catch his breath. We reached the riverbank safely, Chrestus manhandling me onto the jetty where the two Exiles whose boat had also been smashed to pieces stood trembling with delayed shock. The village headman was fidgeting with his hands, alarm spread across his face as his king stood unsteadily on his feet before him.

  ‘I will see to it you are recompensed for the boats.’

  Sporaces was all smiles beside me. ‘I put at least three arrows into the fish. I doubt he will be back.’

  ‘Make way for the queen.’

  The crowd parted and Gallia appeared with a detachment of Amazons, with her Gafarn and Diana. They jumped down from their horses and paced onto the jetty, the headman bowing and retreating from our presence.

  ‘Been swimming, Pacorus?’ grinned Gafarn.

  ‘We needed Claudia to battle that beast from the underworld,’ grumbled a dripping-wet Silaces.

  ‘We will get some bigger boats back on the river,’ said Chrestus, ‘ones with reinforced hulls. We’ll get him.’

  Gallia shook her head at me. ‘You are too old for such nonsense.’

  ‘I wish everyone would cease going on about my age.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Gafarn. ‘It is an unending source of merriment.’

  But with the shark still at large, the fishermen more reluctant than ever to venture back on the water following my farcical efforts, and the rumour spreading that the creature was not of this world but a punishment visited on Dura by the gods, things were far from amusing. Back at the Citadel I ordered Aaron to reimburse the fishermen for the loss of the boats and priests from the city’s temples went down to the river to say prayers and incantations to drive off the shark. Chrestus, meanwhile, organised a dozen sturdy riverboats filled with soldiers to patrol the river, each one equipped with offal that was tipped into the water.

  After I had changed into fresh clothes I stood on the palace terrace staring at the boats on the river, methodically patrolling up and down as their crews tried to entice the shark to show itself. And yet as the hours passed nothing happened. The boats extended their range up and down the river, periodically putting in to shore to replenish their stocks of offal and exchange crews. But as the sun began to wane in the west they reported seeing no signs of the shark. Sporaces insisted it was dead due to the arrows he had shot into it. I was not so sure but the next day, the river still absent of fishing boats and Chrestus again sending his men out to hunt, the shark also failed to make an appearance. On the third day Gafarn, Diana, their son and his wife departed for Hatra and the next day Silaces and Cia left for Elymais.

  ‘You will be visiting Ctesiphon?’ I asked.

  He clasped my forearm and embraced me.

  ‘Most likely. I have to bear in mind Elymais is surrounded on three sides by potential enemies. Do you have any message for Tiridates?’

  I laughed. ‘Not one that you would want to convey in person. Just be careful, that is all I ask.’

  I embraced Cia and helped her into the back of the cart she had travelled in to Dura. Now her belly was swelling, Silaces did not want to take any chances with her health. Not that she looked frail; quite the opposite, in fact. Silaces hauled himself into the saddle.

  ‘What about this business with the Ma’adan?’

  ‘What of it? They are marsh people armed with sticks and clubs. They pose no threat, certainly not to the satrap of Mesene. I doubt you will hear anything more of it.’

  He raised a hand to Gallia, turned his horse and rode beside his wife’s wagon, an escort of his horse archers falling in behind. The rest of his soldiers were waiting on the other side of the river, their camp dismantled and the tents loaded on to camels.

  Gallia joined me after Silaces had left the courtyard.

  ‘Elymais will probably pledge its allegiance to Tiridates soon, if it has not done so already.’

  I heard the bitterness in her voice but the last thing I wanted was to lose another friend.

  ‘We fought, we lost. There is nothing more to be said.’

  Dura returned to normality. The army trained, the fishermen fished on the river, the trade caravans passed through the kingdom and all was quiet in the empire. A curious incident occurred when Rsan came to the palace to report the shark that had caused us so much distress was dead.

  ‘Washed up near one of the pontoon bridges, majesty,’ he reported, leaning on his stick in the throne room.

  ‘Bring the governor a chair,’ ordered Gallia.

  ‘And some wine for all of us,’ I added.

  It had been long and hot morning hearing petitions, listening to grievances and welcoming the heads of trade caravans, who were in many ways the lifeblood of Dura. The other indispensable element of the kingdom was the army and I always liked to include and award discharge papers to army veterans myself. They were nothing more than papyrus scrolls listing the name, rank and length of service of each soldier, together with a silver disc with a griffin on one side and the words, ‘with thanks’, on the other. As I got
older I cherished such simple affairs: the opportunity to thank and shake the hand of a man who had served his king and kingdom diligently and professionally. I always insisted on a few words with each man, to thank him and to wish him well for the future. Most were in their early forties after twenty years’ service, so had a good few years left in them yet. The veterans also formed a large reserve of men who could be called back to the colours if needed. Gallia, true to form, insisted that she award discharge papers to retiring Amazons.

  A chair was brought for Rsan and wine served to all of us as the governor told us the story of the dead shark.

  ‘The carcass did not stay around for long, the fishermen of the nearest village taking it to feed their families. But, a most curious thing. When the carcass was carved up its stomach contained dead vipers, dozens of them.’

  ‘Vipers?’ I was surprised.

  ‘All snakes can swim, majesty,’ Rsan told us, ‘but the shark having nothing in its stomach aside from vipers is unusual to say the least. I am informed sharks feast mainly on other fish.’

  ‘And kings,’ smiled Gallia. ‘If Claudia was here she would be able to decipher the riddle, Rsan, of that I am certain.’

  Rsan sipped at his wine. He had always been an abstemious man in both appetites and lifestyle, which explained his good health despite his age. He was frail, certainly, but I could not recall a time when he had suffered from a serious illness, or any ailment at all. It was a remarkable achievement.

  ‘May I ask when the princess is expected to return to Dura, majesty?’

  I stared into my wine. ‘I know as much as you do, Rsan.’

  ‘She will return,’ said Gallia, ‘when the time is right.’

  The doors to the throne room opened and the duty centurion, replete in burnished helmet with its large white transverse crest, marched across the stone tiles. He snapped to attention before the dais and saluted.

  ‘Begging your pardon, majesties, there is a courier from Mesene outside with a letter for the king.’

  I looked at Gallia. ‘What business could Tiridates’ satrap have with me?’