Barbara Cleverly - The Damascened Blade

Undismayed, he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by an excited shout from the Scouts patrolling the area. All turned to look and look again as they took in the sight of the two Scouts. Between them was a third man, a man in Afridi dress. He was being encouraged along with a pistol in his side towards the group by the fire. At the sight of him, Lily and Joe leapt to their feet calling out his name, Joe in puzzlement, Lily with recognition and relief.

‘Iskander!’

‘Joe, you’re not to shoot him!’ said Lily urgently. ‘He’s an outlaw now, did you know? And we’ve got an arrangement. At least I think we’ve got an arrangement,’ she hissed mysteriously.

‘I think I’ll wait to hear what he has to say for himself before I shoot him,’ said Joe easily. ‘Tea, Iskander? I think I can squeeze another one out.’

Aslam handed Iskander’s weapons, a pistol and a dagger, to Joe.

‘Well, this is very jolly!’ said Grace. ‘Anyone else lurking in the rocks you’d like to invite?’

‘No, no,’ said Iskander, completely unabashed. ‘Be reassured! We are alone. I waited here, knowing you must pass this way. This is the place everyone stops on their way to Peshawar or the fort and there is adequate cover for brigands or outlaws as many less careful than yourselves have found to their cost.’

He settled down between Grace and Joe, confident of his welcome. ‘I was hoping to hear your news.’ His eyes flicked to Lily and she was quick to reassure him.

‘Your sister is fine, Iskander. And, thanks to Grace, so is the child. It’s a boy. They both looked very healthy when we left them.’

Joe noticed again the instant understanding between these two and wondered with trepidation what exactly was the nature of the arrangement Lily had mentioned. He began to fear that his career as chaperone might have been compromised. ‘I think we all have many questions but the main one must surely be addressed to Dr Holbrook. What magic did you use, Grace, to prevail on the Malik to release us? Are you able to tell us now?’

Grace looked consideringly at each questioning face raised to hers – Iskander, Lily, Joe and Rathmore – and replied slowly, ‘Yes. In fact there are things I would like to clear up before we get back to the fort. I have things to tell you – a story going well back into the past, a story that starts in a ravine not far from here… ’ Grace looked around her and shivered, ‘… that encompasses the death of Zeman and ends with the birth of that small Afridi boy. But I can see only half the picture and we must look to Iskander to fill in the details that have been hidden from me.’

Iskander nodded. No one interrupted and she resumed, a supreme raconteuse, apparently telling a story by a camp fire but Joe sensed that she was taking no pleasure in the telling. Her eyes were full of pain and fixed on a distant past.

‘Before the war, about four years before the war, a section of the First Peshawar Scouts, based at Fort Hamilton as Gor Khatri was called before it was refurbished, was in the throes of a more than usually bloody struggle with the local Afridi. They’d been having problems for some months – the Afridi had somehow or other got their hands on large numbers of first-class bolt-action rifles and were keen to show their prowess. A barrampta – a punishment squad I believe they called it – was sent out to teach them a lesson but they got into difficulties and had to make a run for it. The whole thing was botched I must think – the patrol was under strength for the job it had to do and the Afridi had been underestimated. They were cock-a-hoop and tails up and giving our chaps a thorough pasting. Several wounded, some dead.

‘They were making their way back, over rough ground, retreating to the shelter of a back-up force that came out belatedly to cover them with Lewis gun fire when an awful thing happened. One of the men – he was their medical officer – fell from a cliff he was climbing with others and was very badly injured. Not walking, not even crawling wounded. Well, I don’t need to spell out the implications. His own men wanted to go in and fetch him out in spite of the thick enemy fire and the difficulties of the terrain. Harry – the MO was called Harry – was lying in an impossible situation at the bottom of a ravine with Afridi lined up overhead ready to pick off anyone attempting a rescue.

‘It would have been a suicide mission had it taken place but it was never attempted. The Colonel commanding ordered the men to stand down and who shall say he was wrong?’ Grace paused, thoughtful.

‘Couldn’t they have shot him?’ asked Lily anxiously. ‘I mean, I think that’s what they would normally do, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it is. But he was at the bottom of the defile and they couldn’t get him in their sights. Well, there was one man in the company who wasn’t prepared to leave it like that. He was a subaltern, only twenty years old at the time and he’d only just joined the unit but he knew what was bound to happen to Harry if no one acted. His name was Jock – his nickname I should say – inevitable, because he was a Scotsman.’

Joe stirred uneasily but made no attempt to interrupt.

‘And, as many Scotsmen do, he carried one of those little daggers they have in the Highlands… ’

‘A skian dhu,’ Joe supplied.

‘Yes, that’s it. It means a black knife, I believe. He also had his pistol and armed with these he set off by himself, disobeying orders, into the gathering gloom. As he crept along he noticed that the Afridi had melted away in their Pathan way and left the ravine apparently clear for him. But when he got to the place where Harry had fallen he found he was too late – others had got there before him. Two Afridi lagging behind the rest had found Harry and were robbing him. They’d taken his gun and were searching through his pockets. They were so occupied with this they didn’t hear Jock approach and he killed them both silently. When he turned his attention to Harry he realized there was little he could do for him. The man was a doctor and knew perfectly well the gravity of his own injuries. He told Jock that his back was broken and he could not possibly survive and he asked him to do what was expected of him.’

‘Poor man! And poor kid! What a god-awful thing to have to do,’ Lily murmured.

‘Yes. Bad enough for Harry but he was a seasoned soldier and medical man. He knew what was what and what had to be done. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for that young subaltern to have to pull the trigger. The first time he’d killed in action and he had to put a bullet in his friend. He’d become very fond of Harry… everyone was fond of Harry.’ Her voice was becoming more indistinct. She rallied and said more brightly, ‘But, at the end, I thank God he met his death looking into a friendly face! If Jock hadn’t made that brave but suicidal dash into the ravine, much, very much, worse would have occurred.’

‘And Jock made it back safely?’ Lily hardly dared ask.

‘Oh yes. He was much applauded, of course, and nobody bothered to remind him that he’d disobeyed an order. They were very relaxed about such things in those pre-war days. He only just made it back though. He was shot at as he ran and was slightly wounded. Shot at by someone firing an old-fashioned musket, a jezail.’

‘And you’re telling us that all this is linked in some way to Zeman?’ asked Lily, trying to understand.

‘I think it must be,’ said Grace. ‘You see, the two Afridi who had discovered Harry’s broken body were young boys no older than Jock, but not just any boys, they were the two older sons of Ramazad Khan.’

‘So it would have fallen on the youngest of all, Zeman, to do this badal thing? To be avenged on the British for his older brothers?’ Lily frowned, working her way through to a conclusion Joe had come to some time ago. ‘But, hang on – what you’re saying is – not just any old Briton – you’re saying the Briton, the one who knifed the Afridi? You’re saying this Jock?’ She fell silent for a moment and then breathed, ‘Grace, this Jock, we wouldn’t all know him by some other name, would we? Like it might be James? James Lindsay?’