‘An old wound, lady, that has never left me.’

  She wore little makeup and her only jewellery comprised a simple silver necklace and a silver ring on her left hand. But she had no need to paint her skin because her oval face was framed by long, auburn hair. Her blue eyes went from me to the sparse interior of the hut, which nevertheless was free of dust and cobwebs.

  ‘I like to come here from time to time. I own the orchard and it is nice to escape the bustle of the city.’

  She looked at me. ‘Though I will have to endure the oppressive heat of the city uninterrupted this summer, it would appear.’

  I thought of her living a life of luxury in a palace filled with slaves and officials attending to her every need. Hardly a taxing existence, even during a siege.

  ‘How may I help you, lady?’

  ‘Straight to the point, I like that. You should know I have full authority to treat with you as the representative of my son, King Archelaus.’

  ‘May I enquire as to the whereabouts of your son and his army?’

  She ignored my request.

  ‘It grieves me to see a Parthian army outside my city, King Pacorus, especially as Cappadocia has no quarrel with you or the other kings who currently sit outside its walls.’

  ‘We are here due to an unhappy sequence of events, lady, and you are right, Parthia has no quarrel with Cappadocia. But may I remind you that your son was part of the army that attacked us at Corum.’

  ‘Cappadocia has a treaty of friendship with Pontus, King Pacorus, under the terms of which my son is obliged to provide military aid if Pontus is attacked by a foreign power. You must appreciate that obligations must be honoured. After all, is not your presence here the result of your pact with Gordyene?’

  I did not wish to engage in a conversation about treaty obligations, especially as I believed Dura had been deceived into joining what was turning into an ill-judged campaign.

  ‘You are well informed, lady, but I am still at a loss as to why you requested this meeting.’

  She smiled alluringly. ‘I have a proposal for you.’

  Surely she was not going to attempt to seduce me.

  ‘What kind of proposal?’

  ‘A monetary kind.’

  I had to admit I was disappointed. ‘Oh?’

  ‘I know you are incorruptible, King Pacorus, so I humbly request you act as an intermediary between King Castus and myself. If the new King of Gordyene refrains from attacking Kayseri, I will pay him twenty thousand talents of gold.’

  The sum caught me by surprise. It was the equivalent of six hundred tons of gold.

  ‘That is a lot of gold. But I am reluctant to mention it to Castus, that is King Castus.’

  She was surprised. ‘May I ask why?’

  ‘For the simple reason, lady, that he will conclude Kayseri is filled with gold, which will merely intensify his efforts to take the city by storm.’

  ‘Kayseri does not hold such a treasure,’ she told me.

  Now I was confused. ‘Making promises you cannot fulfil is guaranteed to incur King Castus’ wrath, and believe me you do not want that.’

  ‘He is cast in the same mould as his late father?’

  ‘Very much so,’ I informed her.

  ‘We have gold, King Pacorus, but not all of it is in the city. However, if you promise to restrain your soldiers for a period of two weeks, the balance can be collected and brought to Kayseri. I am eager to save the city of my birth from destruction, King Pacorus.’

  I believed her, but whether Castus would be convinced or indeed interested in her offer I doubted.

  ‘Mark Antony believed you were a man of honour,’ she said suddenly.

  ‘Mark Antony?’

  ‘We were lovers once, and he often talked of you, about how you had shown him mercy and friendship when he had been captured in Syria. He respected you as a great commander, king and moral man.’

  ‘I liked him,’ I admitted. ‘I had no idea you were a close friend of his.’

  She tossed back her auburn hair and laughed. ‘How upright and proper you are, King Pacorus, which is why I desired to meet with you. Everything I have learned about you leads me to believe that you would not purposely butcher civilians, but that is what will happen if your army, and those of Hatra and Gordyene, storm Kayseri.’

  She looked at me with pleading eyes. ‘I beg you to show mercy, if not for me or my son, then for the tens of thousands of innocents within Kayseri’s walls.’

  She reached over to grab my hand. ‘I beg you.’

  I doubted not I was being manipulated. However, twenty thousand talents of gold was an enormous sum. Castus was young and impressionable; perhaps he too could be manipulated.

  ‘I cannot speak for King Castus, or indeed King Gafarn,’ I told her. ‘But I believe I might be able to avert more bloodshed. But I will need a gesture from you, lady.’

  When I ordered the work on the siege ramps to be halted, I received a visit from Castus and Haytham, their tunics drenched in sweat after a day spent hunting ibex in the hills to the north. They were joined by an equally rank Spadines, his clothes so tatty, his hair and beard so unkempt I thought a pack of ibex must have ambushed him in the hills.

  ‘General Motofi has told me you halted the work on the siege ramps,’ panted Castus, clicking his fingers at Klietas to indicate my squire should pour him and his two companions cups of water. Klietas obliged.

  Gallia regarded the ruler of Gordyene coolly, clearly unimpressed by his lack of manners.

  ‘And good afternoon to you, too, Castus,’ I said sarcastically, ‘I trust you had a successful hunt?’

  He looked at me and then Gallia, snatching the cup from Klietas before nodding at Gallia.

  ‘Great aunt.’

  ‘Take the weight off your feet,’ I said to all three, ‘and allow me to explain myself.’

  Spadines, showing his age, was sweating profusely and so I tossed him a towel to prevent him dripping all over the carpet that covered the tent’s wooden boards. I then lifted a sheet that had been placed over eight gold bars that had been stacked on the floor. Castus’ eyes lit up when he saw them.

  ‘A talent of gold, Castus,’ I said, ‘a gift from the good people of Kayseri. Two days ago I met with the mother of King Archelaus, who informed me her son is willing to pay you twenty thousand talents of gold if you march your army back to Gordyene.’

  I doubt Castus could even conceive of twenty thousand talents. But he would have seen the gold his father had extorted from Phraates, and that had been ‘only’ thirteen hundred talents. Then there was the gold plundered from the Armenians, but that was a mere trifle compared to the vast sum Glaphyra had promised. His blue eyes, filled with excitement, looked up at me.

  ‘Twenty thousand talents?’

  ‘That is what she said.’

  ‘When we take the city, it will fall into our hands anyway,’ said Spadines, whose breathing had almost returned to normal.

  ‘Except it will not,’ I told him. ‘The gold will have to be collected from other parts of Cappadocia, which will take at least two weeks.’

  Castus rose from his chair and squatted beside the gold, and then proceeded to run his hands over the illustrious metal. He stopped and peered at me with narrow eyes.

  ‘How much do you want?’

  ‘Nothing, Castus. Dura has its own gold. All I desire is to be out of this kingdom and back in my palace among my friends and family.’

  The answer pleased him and he returned to his chair, though a scowl soured his handsome features when Gafarn and a pale Diana entered the tent. Klietas pulled up two more chairs for the rulers of Hatra, Gafarn’s eyes alighting on the pile of gold.

  ‘Been mining, Pacorus?’

  ‘It’s mine,’ snapped Castus, who instantly regretted speaking to his grandfather in such a curt manner, blushing in embarrassment.

  ‘A tidy sum,’ said Gafarn, ‘a gift?’

  ‘More a bribe,’ I said, accepting a cup of water from Klietas.

  I provided details of my meeting with Glaphyra and her generous bribe in return for our withdrawal from Cappadocia.

  ‘And you believed this woman you have never met before, Pacorus?’ asked Diana, her eyes red from weeping over the death of her son.

  ‘I believed she wanted to save her city from destruction, yes,’ I answered.

  ‘Twenty thousand talents of gold is a tidy sum,’ admitted Gafarn.

  ‘Very tidy,’ agreed Spadines, rubbing his hands.

  ‘This woman, this Glaphyra, will provide more gold as surety for the soldiers of Gordyene halting work on the siege ramps,’ insisted Castus, ‘as a sign of her good faith.’

  ‘Excellent idea, brother,’ agreed Haytham, ‘a thousand talents should suffice.’

  I frowned at the young pup but Castus thought it an excellent idea.

  ‘A thousand talents, delivered to my tent,’ insisted Castus. ‘In two days. Your friend in the city can arrange that, lord?’

  ‘She is not my friend, Castus,’ I emphasised, ‘but I will convey your demand.’

  ‘One thing, Pacorus,’ said Gafarn, ‘how did this Glaphyra exit the city unseen past our patrols?’

  I shrugged. ‘I have no idea, though if I was to hazard a guess I would say a secret passage from the palace, constructed to allow members of the royal family to flee in times of peril.’

  ‘Or perhaps it was a sewer,’ suggested Gafarn.

  I thought of Glaphyra’s perfect skin, her alluring perfume and her long auburn hair.

  ‘It was not a sewer.’

  A message was shot into the city tied to an arrow, which prompted a similar reply from the besieged, a letter from Glaphyra tied to it stating she would deliver the amount demanded by Castus, but it would require one of the city gates to be opened and would I ensure there would be no storm of Kayseri when they were unlocked.

  On the allotted day, the city’s northern gates were opened and half a dozen large carts, each one with four thick wooden wheels and pulled by a pair of oxen, trundled from the city and drove between the quarter-finished but now abandoned siege ramps. Their nervous drivers kept glancing left and right when the party of King’s Guard flanked them as they left the city and then halted the convoy four hundred paces from the gates, which had been hurriedly shut after the last cart had exited Kayseri. Castus, Haytham, Shamshir and Hovik then examined each of the carts, Castus instructing the drivers to walk back to the city on foot. After the gold had been meticulously counted and recounted, Shamshir allocated a King’s Guard to drive each cart, which continued their journey to the tent of Castus. The young ruler was beaming from ear to ear when he passed me and Gallia, being barely able to contain his excitement. He had only been king for a few weeks and already a thousand talents of gold had fallen into his lap, with another nineteen thousand due in less than a fortnight. It made his father’s prizes look paltry in comparison.

  The days passed and the spirits of the army soared. Not only had the soldiery been spared a potentially bloody and costly storm of the city, they would be setting off for home in a matter of days, with the largest sum of booty ever won by a Parthian army.

  And it was all illusion.

  Chapter 16

  It was Talib who brought news that a Roman army was approaching from the southeast, the route we would have to take to return to Parthia, and specifically the Kingdom of Hatra. It was with a heavy heart I called a council of war soon afterwards, the knowledge I had been duped by the enticing Glaphyra uppermost in my mind.

  Gafarn was surprised ‘A Roman army?

  ‘I have identified seven Roman legions, majesty,’ said Talib. ‘They are accompanied by auxiliary foot soldiers and horsemen.’

  ‘How many?’ asked Castus.

  ‘At least thirty thousand in total,’ my chief scout informed him.

  The young king shrugged. ‘We still outnumber them. We have a strong position here. I say send horsemen to harry them and interrupted their march. How far away are they?’

  ‘Two days’ march, majesty,’ said Talib.

  ‘My warriors could slow them up,’ proposed Malik.

  ‘And mine,’ added Kalet, winking at the Agraci king.

  I discounted the idea. ‘Even if you delay their march, it will give us two days instead of one. I would rather use our light horsemen to form a strong rearguard to allow us to leave this place.’

  Castus was unimpressed. ‘Why would we want to leave? We defeat this new army, take Kayseri, put all the inhabitants to the sword and then continue our march back to Parthia.’

  How simple and straightforward the world seems to the young. He failed to realise that a Roman army meant we would be fighting Octavian himself indirectly, the first occasion in a long time when Parthian had faced Roman across the battlefield.

  ‘We have no choice,’ said Diana bluntly. ‘The Romans want us dead, all of us, and that includes you, Pacorus. Phraates colluded with Octavian to bring about the death of Spartacus, and now they both sniff an opportunity to deal with the other members of his family.’

  ‘I say we fight,’ growled Gallia. ‘Let’s send a message to Octavian and Phraates that their unholy alliance will fail.’

  ‘I’m with you, princess,’ smiled Kalet.

  I looked at Kewab and Karys, who together commanded a total of seven thousand horsemen.

  ‘You two are quiet.’

  We were all sweating as we sat at the table, the tent warm and airless, despite Klietas’ efforts to cool us down with copious amounts of water.

  ‘In my deliberations, majesty,’ replied Karys, ‘I have always considered what my lord and his wife would have expected of me. To them, there would be no hesitation. So I and my men will fight beside their old allies.’

  Gallia smiled triumphantly, and Diana gave a cool nod. The Queen of Hatra turned her brown eyes on Kewab. They were no longer red and blotchy but cold and determined. She wanted revenge for her dead son; nothing else mattered.

  ‘My horsemen are at King Pacorus’ disposal,’ he stated matter-of-factly.

  ‘I still do not understand how seven Roman legions have seemingly sprung from the earth,’ I complained.

  ‘ Evocati, probably,’ explained Kewab.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Haytham.

  ‘Romans who have fulfilled their terms of service and obtained their discharge,’ explained Kewab. ‘However, such veterans can voluntarily enlist again if asked to do so, enticed by the promise of reward.’

  ‘Old men,’ sneered Castus.

  ‘Roman veterans,’ I said firmly, ‘men with vast military experience. Our four legions will be outnumbered by the Romans.’

  ‘The Immortals are not legions,’ hissed Castus.

  I was tiring of his immaturity. ‘Very well, Castus, my two legions, plus the Immortals who fight, dress and are equipped in an identical manner to Roman legionaries, will be outnumbered. Is that more pleasing to your ears?’

  ‘We will see who triumphs between the Romans and our Immortals,’ boasted Haytham.

  Castus nodded, Malik frowned and Gallia roller her eyes. There was silence as everyone reflected on the coming battle. For Castus and Haytham it was an opportunity to win glory; for Diana, simple revenge against the enemy. Any enemy.

  ‘Are there any other routes we might take to extricate ourselves from the predicament we find ourselves in?’ I asked Talib.

  He shook his head. ‘The road south leads to Cilicia, a Roman province, while the road northeast would take us back to Pontus.’

  ‘The only way is east,’ insisted Castus.

  ‘It is settled, then, we remain here and await the enemy,’ I said with little enthusiasm.

  After the council meeting I desired to get some fresh air and be away from the tiresome bravado of Castus and Haytham. Their young age and volatile natures bothered me, especially as Castus commanded a third of the army. Whatever his faults, Spartacus always had a calculating head on his shoulders when it came to battle. He had created the army of Gordyene, lavished it with high-quality weapons and equipment, and ensured good officers staffed it. And he was always careful to ensure it was never committed to battle unless the odds were stacked in its favour, though even he had been out-smarted at Corum. I worried Castus would show no such restraint.

  ‘May I walk with you, majesty?’

  I turned to see Kewab following me. I nodded to him.

  ‘Something is bothering me, majesty,’ he said after catching up with me.

  ‘Apart from being deep in enemy territory, cornered like a rat in an alley, and about to ignite a war between Rome and Parthia, you mean?’

  He flashed a half-smile. ‘Kayseri is located at a crossroads, majesty, and as such it is an ideal place for separate armies to converge on. We know there is a Roman army approaching from the southeast, but what of the forces of Pontus, Galatia and Cappadocia?’

  ‘You think they will join with the Romans before the battle?’

  ‘No, majesty, I believe we will be assaulted on multiple fronts.’

  We walked to the stable bloc to the rear of the royal tent and those of the Amazons, a sizeable area of sheeting and poles arranged to create stalls, with canvas roofs to provide shade for horses. Squires were shovelling dung into wheelbarrows and rubbing down horses, while others were leading mounts away to the workshop area of the camp to be re-shoed by farriers.

  ‘That assumes a high level of coordination, Kewab, and a central directing hand.’

  ‘Exactly what I was thinking, majesty.’

  I walked over to the stall holding Horns, an old stable hand about to commence brushing his shining black coat. He bowed, I held out a hand and he passed me the brush. I began to brush my horse from the head to neck to begin with, the strokes being in the direction of the natural lie of his hair.

  ‘Please elaborate,’ I said.

  ‘I believe Queen Glaphyra is coordinating the movement of enemy forces, majesty. My men have detected pigeons flying into and out of the city, leading me to believe they are carrying messages for the kings converging on Kayseri.’

  I stopped brushing. ‘Or they could be just birds doing what birds do.’

  His hazel eyes narrowed. ‘I do not believe so, majesty.’