‘We came here for a wedding and yet here we are, once again fighting for our lives. We win one war and another seems to spring up from nowhere. There is no end to it.’

  She threaded her arm in mine. ‘Life is struggle, Pacorus. In your heart you know this. When you build something worthwhile there is always someone who wants to take it away from you. When they try, we meet force with force.’

  That was Gallia: hard and unyielding. Tonight, her granite-like attitude comforted me. I wanted to share the remaining precious hours left alone with her but she declared her intention to visit Nergal. I joined her, our wounded friend still unconscious and still being tended by Alcaeus. We crept into the bedroom to find Gafarn and Diana sitting beside a very pale and tired Praxima. I embraced her first, Diana afterwards, shaking the hands of Gafarn and Alcaeus. The Greek physician would remain in Sigal to tend our friend, whom I had to admit looked remarkably peaceful.

  ‘How is he?’ I asked.

  ‘The bleeding has stopped, his breathing is deep and strong and all that remains is for him to awaken,’ replied Alcaeus

  ‘You have done a splendid job.’

  ‘Mm, I wonder. I have lost patients who had similar injuries and yet Nergal lives. Claudia helped, I think, though I would never tell her so.’

  ‘Here we are, then,’ said Gafarn, ‘once again on the eve of battle. How long has it been since we first all fought together in Italy?’

  ‘Too long,’ said Diana, ‘you are getting too old for such nonsense.’

  We all laughed. Her husband frowned at her.

  ‘Who’s too old?’

  We turned to see Nergal looking up at us with a quizzical expression. Praxima closed her eyes to give thanks to the gods and then lifted Nergal’s hand from the bed and kissed it, rubbing it against her face. Tears were running down her cheeks.

  ‘I thought I had lost you.’

  Alcaeus felt Nergal’s forehead. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘Refreshed,’ came the surprising answer. ‘What’s going on?’

  He tried to sit up but Alcaeus stopped him. ‘You must remain in your bed. You have been gravely wounded.’

  ‘What do you remember?’ I asked.

  Nergal appeared confused. ‘Very little. How long have I been asleep?’

  ‘Days,’ a delighted Praxima told him.

  Nergal looked at each of us and saw me, Gallia and Gafarn in our armour.

  ‘It is good that the Companions are together again,’ I said, ‘an auspicious omen, I think.’

  The death of Alaric during the campaign against Mark Antony meant there were no Companions in Dura’s army, aside from Alcaeus, the rest having either died or retired. An era was passing but the veterans of Italy, assembled in this room, still had a part to play in the empire’s affairs.

  I sat on Tegha in the half-light waiting for dawn to break. It was still, quiet and warm, sweat trickling down my neck as I waited. Waited for what? Claudia had told me to break out at dawn and so I awaited my time. Behind me thousands of men also waited. The city streets were deserted of civilians but the huge column of horses and camels filled the concourses from the city gates to the courtyard of the fortress on the hill. Flanking me Azad and Prince Pacorus sweated in their scale armour, their horses similarly attired. Tegha wore no armour and I was equipped in my Roman helmet and cuirass.

  Behind me nearly ten and a half thousand soldiers sat on their horses, together with three and a half thousand squires and hundreds of camels. Gafarn waited at the head of the Hatrans; an angry Spartacus chafed at the bit with the horsemen of Gordyene; Malik and his Agraci were with him; and bringing up the rear were three thousand Saka lancers. I was fairly confident we could force our way through the Kushan siege lines anyway, but with Claudia’s help we could hopefully be far away from the city before Kujula could organise a pursuit.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Azad craned his neck as he heard something. We looked at him then I too heard it: a low scraping sound that turned into an ominous growl. Where before there had been absolute silence, standards now began to flutter as a wind picked up, a wind that grew in strength and intensity until it became a long howl. The cry of Pazuzu.

  ‘Open the gates,’ I shouted at the guards standing in front of the massive, thick wooden barriers.

  A loud crack overhead frightened the horses and made them skittish. I looked up and saw lighting in the sky, a sky that was turning blood red as a mighty wall of sand and dust reared up outside the wall. More lightning bolts shot down from the heavens and an ear-splitting thunderclap filled the sky. Outside the walls was a terrible maelstrom but not a grain of sand appeared to have entered Sigal.

  ‘We are going out into that?’ asked Azad, looking up at the orange wall of dust towering over the city walls.

  The gates were now open.

  ‘We are,’ I said.

  I drew my sword, dug my knees into Tegha and he raced forward.

  Into a corridor of calm. Azad slammed his helmet on his head and followed me, as did Prince Pacorus. And behind them Dura’s cataphracts cantered from the city. I glanced left and right at the towering walls of dust and heard the raging wind and terrible screams that were like nothing I had ever heard before. But in front of me there was a stretch of undisturbed ground, like an avenue between two rows of tall trees.

  ‘On, on,’ I shouted at Tegha .

  He sensed my nervousness and broke into a gallop as I sheathed my sword and tightened the grip on his reins. I focused my attention on the ground ahead, ignoring the raging storm either side of me and praying to Shamash that the tunnel would hold until all the horsemen were safely out of the city and well away from Sigal.

  It felt as if time had stood still and I had been transported to another world as Tegha galloped like fury but seemingly did not cover any ground. A fear gripped my mind that I had left the earth and was damned to ride forever on ground that had no beginning and no end. But just as my mind was about to be overwhelmed by despair I was suddenly riding in clear air, around me dirt and rock but no sandstorm. I continued on for a few minutes, fearful of looking back in case I saw the leering face of Pazuzu pursuing me.

  ‘Uncle,’ Prince Pacorus’ voice was faint, distant. ‘Slow down, uncle.’

  I tugged on Tegha ’s reins; he needed no second prompting to reduce his speed. I could see sweat on his neck and knew I had pushed him hard, too hard. I pulled on the reins again to slow him to a trot as Pacorus sidled up to me. He wore an open-faced helmet and I could see his beard was soaking in sweat. Azad appeared on my other side, shoving up his helmet to reveal a red face. He was panting heavily and his horse must have been fit to drop.

  ‘You must call a halt, majesty, otherwise we will lose hundreds of horses.’

  I pulled up Tegha when I realised we were surrounded by silence. Absolute, blissful silence. On our left flank was the Erymanthus, its waters calm and gently flowing. I had no idea how far we had travelled but Azad gave a fair estimate.

  ‘We must have covered twenty miles in less than an hour.’

  ‘We rest for a while before continuing on,’ I told him.

  Grateful men dropped from their saddles and lay on the ground, gasping, then unsaddled their horses and led them to the water. I was one of them, afterwards rubbing down Tegha and feeding him a small amount of fodder. As I was doing so Gafarn, Malik and Spartacus came to me, all soaked in sweat but well.

  ‘That was some ride,’ said Gafarn.

  ‘I felt a hot breath on my neck, as if a monster was chasing me,’ said an unusually downcast Spartacus.

  ‘We rest for two hours and then continue with our journey,’ was all I said. ‘We need to get to Bam as quickly as possible.’

  ‘At least that sandstorm would have created havoc among the Kushans,’ said Gafarn.

  ‘It will take them days to recover,’ added Malik, who had fear in his eyes. It was the first time I had seen such an emotion in his face. Then again, I was fearful for those inside Sigal as well as for Claudia. What price would the gods exact for their assistance?

  When we re-commenced our journey, the pace was deliberately much slower, much to the frustration of Spartacus who annoyed me so much that I despatched him to the back of the column to organise and lead the rearguard. We had made an excellent start but I and everyone else was aware it was the height of summer, Sakastan was a dry, hot kingdom, and if we pushed the horses too much after the terror and exertion they had experienced earlier, then many would drop down dead before nightfall. So we only made an additional thirty miles that day before making camp fifty miles south of Sigal, our forces spread out along the Erymanthus.

  We posted guards and Spartacus organised a timetable for when sentries should be replaced, which was extremely generous as everyone was fit to drop after what had been a most strenuous and unnerving day. We had brought no tents and little food, so men sat around campfires sourced from trees growing near the river and chewed strips of cured meat.

  ‘So, what is your plan?’ Gafarn quizzed me.

  ‘When we passed the post station earlier,’ I told him, ‘I left a letter signed and sealed by Salar ordering the governor of Bam to muster as many men as possible. It should reach him in three days. With it was another letter that our friend Rogerio is to forward to Silaces at Elymais, requesting he send men to Bam as quickly as possible.’

  Gafarn, his head resting on his saddle, raised an eyebrow. ‘You put much faith in our friend Rogerio.’

  ‘He is fat because he is lazy,’ said Malik, ‘when we get to Bam, you may be disappointed.’

  ‘In that case, my friend,’ I smiled, ‘you can kill him.’

  ‘What of Phanes?’ asked Gafarn.

  I closed my tired eyes. ‘What of him?’

  ‘He is closer than Silaces and so is his army.’

  I opened my eyes and looked at my brother. ‘I suspect that Phanes will wait and see what happens before committing himself. Do not forget he was organising a coalition against Peroz, and for all we know he was behind his assassination. It serves his interests for the Kushans to capture Sakastan.’

  ‘Though not Parthia’s,’ stated Malik.

  Gafarn chuckled. ‘The one thing I have learned sitting on Hatra’s throne all these years, my friend, is that each of the empire’s kings has a different view as to what are Parthia’s interests. Suffice to say that they nearly always coincide with their own. Aside from Pacorus here, of course, who does actually put the empire’s interests before his own. That is why so many find him disconcerting. Of course, he would have made an excellent king of kings.’

  ‘Don’t start all that again,’ I groaned. ‘Get some sleep.’

  I was wrong about Phanes. On the third day, after we had covered fifty miles the day before and twenty more before we rested for three hours to give our horses some respite from the scorching heat, Talib returned to inform us that the King of Carmania and his army were less than fifteen miles to the south. Because a large number of foot soldiers accompanied Phanes, his army moved slowly. I called an immediate council of war, unsure what to do. We had left the river now and were heading west towards Bam. The road, usually filled with caravans and local traffic, was deserted. We had scouted deserted villages, the inhabitants of which had fled when they had learned that thousands of horsemen were heading their way, taking to the hills and mountains before we arrived.

  ‘Did they see you?’ I asked Talib.

  He shook his head. ‘The Carmanians have no scouts, majesty.’

  ‘Do they have any elephants?’ asked Gafarn.

  ‘No, majesty,’ answered Talib.

  Gafarn looked disappointed. ‘Pity, I have grown quite fond of them.’

  Talib gave him a confused look.

  ‘Ignore him,’ I said.

  Gafarn rubbed his hands. ‘Still, elephants or not, Phanes’ appearance gives us an opportunity of relieving Sigal sooner rather than later.’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Spartacus, ‘let us join our forces to his and march back to the city.’

  I looked at Malik. ‘That would be a logical course of action.’

  ‘But Pacorus is not convinced,’ observed Gafarn, ‘are you?’

  ‘No,’ I answered bluntly. ‘But as our route means we must meet Phanes we might as well continue our journey.’

  ‘It would make more sense to wait until he arrives,’ said Spartacus.

  ‘I do not trust Phanes,’ I told him.

  We encountered the king and his army in an arid valley flanked by mountains devoid of vegetation and seemingly life, the odd lizard scampering between rocks the only indication that wildlife inhabited this sun-blasted patch of earth. The heat between the bare mountains towering up on either side the valley was stifling, but at least there was no wind to increase the temperature.

  The Carmanians filled the western end of the valley, their horsemen riding left and right to prevent us outflanking them when they spotted us. I called a halt and urged Tegha forward, Gafarn, Malik and Spartacus joining me, Prince Pacorus providing an honour guard of cataphracts. He was disappointed that the absence of wind meant the banners hung limply. A party of Carmanian horsemen left Phanes’ army to ascertain if we were friends or foe, returning to their king when we had halted to allow them to get a good look at us. Having discovered we were Parthians, Phanes himself rode forward to greet us, a huge banner being carried behind him, sadly not fluttering proudly. I thought it an ill omen.

  I turned to Azad. ‘Ride ahead and introduce us to King Phanes, if you will.’

  The commander of my cataphracts trotted across the pebble-strewn ground and provided information as to who was present. I had hoped that Phanes would have responded positively to our presence, but when we were within conversing distance his tone was short and abrupt to the point of impoliteness.

  It was the first time I had met the King of Carmania. He was perhaps two or three years older than his late brother and looked quite different, with a narrow face, pointed chin and a hooked nose. He dressed like a king, though, his magnificent red leather cuirass sporting an embossed golden peacock and his helmet adorned with huge peacock feathers. When he addressed us, he did so like a strutting peacock.

  ‘As the representative of King of Kings Phraates, appointed his lord high general, I have authority to requisition your soldiers for his highness’ service.’

  I looked at Gafarn who closed his eyes and gave a slight shake of the head. I was going to reply when Phanes looked down his nose at Malik.

  ‘Except the Agraci, of course, who have no business being within the empire’s boundaries.’

  ‘You should take a trip further north and see that the empire’s boundaries are constricting by the day,’ said Spartacus, ‘the more so if it had not been for the valiant efforts of King Malik, whom I am honoured to call a friend and ally.’

  Phanes regarded him coolly. ‘King Spartacus, I have heard much about you and your Agraci wife, truth to tell..’

  ‘Say one more word about my wife and I will kill you right here,’ threatened Spartacus.

  The officers with Phanes were shocked by such language and for a moment were frozen with indecision. I decided to try to lessen the building tension but Phanes was not be deterred.

  ‘How dare you, the son of a slave, speak to me, a man descended from a long line of Parthian kings.’

  ‘You forget your place, Phanes,’ said Gafarn, ‘your position as lord high general does not grant you the privilege of insulting the empire’s kings. My son and I await your apology.’

  ‘Apology,’ spat Phanes, ‘you expect an apology for aiding and abetting a traitor? Where is the usurper Vartan?’

  ‘I think the empire has more important things to worry about than the life of one young man,’ I said, ‘the Kushan invasion being the top of the list. While we sit here, their emperor has overrun two kingdoms and threatens a third.’

  ‘Your kingdom will be next if we fail in our mission,’ Malik told Phanes.

  ‘We are riding to Bam,’ I told Phanes, ‘there to join with reinforcements sent by King Silaces.’

  Phanes was unimpressed. ‘You flee in the face of the enemy? Is this the same King Pacorus who defeated the Romans at Phraaspa, who assisted King Surena in destroying the Romans at Carrhae?’

  ‘What do mean assisted King Surena?’ queried Gafarn. ‘It was Pacorus’ victory alone.’

  ‘That is not what the scribes say.’

  ‘They lie,’ said Spartacus. ‘I was there, they were not. Who is responsible for such mistruths?’

  ‘That was long ago,’ I said, ‘but I would advise you to join us so we can muster a large enough army to defeat the Kushans.’

  Phanes pointed behind him. ‘I march with forty thousand men, sufficiently large to destroy the Kushans, I think. It is you who should join me, and as lord high general I am ordering you to do so.’

  We sat immobile and in silence staring at him. Gafarn broke the impasse.

  ‘Here is the problem, my lord. You have little military experience and as far as I know none when it comes to commanding armies made up of contingents drawn from different kingdoms. All of us, on the other hand, have much experience of war and cooperating during times of conflict. That being the case, you will understand that submitting to your will is problematic to say the least.’

  He turned to glance at the riders behind us. ‘The men behind me represent the cream of our kingdoms’ armies. We are hesitant to place them under the command of a novice.’

  ‘That’s putting it mildly,’ sneered Spartacus.

  Phanes officers growled and murmured angrily but Carmania’s king was unconcerned.

  ‘I do not need you, Parthia does not need you. Before you all I pledged that I will defeat the Kushans, arrest Vartan and place the Kingdom of Sakastan under the rule of my son Babak, after which High King Phraates will decide its fate.’

  Spartacus looked at his officers. ‘Where is your son?’

  ‘At Puta, he has a fever and is too ill to ride.’

  ‘Just as well,’ mocked Spartacus, ‘at last Carmania will still have a king when the present one is killed by the Kushans.’

  Uproar greeted his words as Phanes’ officers threatened the King of Gordyene and challenged him to single combat, which he readily accepted. Phanes curled a lip at my nephew.