Peter Darman - Parthian Vengeance

‘We are out of arrows,’ she said frustratingly.

I looked at the phalanx of spearmen that were now rooted to the spot.

I smiled at her. ‘Do not worry. Marcus brings his ballista to thin their ranks. You have done what was required.’

I heard horn blasts and the low rumble of thousands of hooves churning up the ground and turned to see Orodes and the cataphracts smashing into the enemy’s centre, followed by a loud crunching noise as the heavy horsemen struck.

I smiled. The day may still be ours.

With the Babylonian guards we rode back to where the camel trains holding spare ammunition were located to the rear of our left wing. When Orodes had charged Surena had launched the horse archers against those on the enemy’s right wing, inflicting many casualties but his men also suffered significant losses. Now he too rode to the camels with his men to acquire fresh quivers. Meanwhile, to the north of our camps, my father and Vistaspa led over eleven thousand horsemen against the Zagros hordes.

Surena’s lion banner fluttered behind him as he rode over to Gallia and me, his men being handed full quivers by the camel drivers whose beasts were sitting on the ground.

‘The Medians holds the line while we restock our quivers, lord. The enemy has suffered many losses and falls back.’

‘What losses have you suffered?’ I asked him.

He looked pensive. ‘We also have many empty saddles, lord. Atrax’s men charged most valiantly and suffered the most.’

Gallia and the Amazons received fresh quivers from Dura’s camel train as a lull descended over our left wing. After we had replenished our stocks of arrows she and I rode with Surena to where Media’s horse archers were deployed in their companies in a long line that extended for at least half a mile eastwards. In front of them stretching south the ground was littered with dead men and horses, many of the corpses resembling pin cushions so many arrows did they have in them. In the distance, well out of bow range, enemy horse archers were being attacked by Orodes’ companies who were wheeling left to strike the enemy horsemen’s right flank.

I nodded. ‘Orodes has destroyed the enemy’s centre.’

Now it was time to send forward Surena and his horse archers to support Orodes to complete the rout of the enemy’s centre and right wing. After that the legions could attack once more to finally destroy the enemy foot soldiers in front of the date palm grove. We finally had victory within our grasp.

‘Can you hear that?’

I looked at Gallia who was sitting up in her saddle trying to look over the heads of the Amazons behind her. Then I heard the sound, an ominous rumble of thousands of cheering voices. Remus stirred nervously and I also became aware that the ground was shaking. Surena looked at me with concern and I knew that the battle was about to take another twist.

All thoughts of reinforcing Orodes disappeared as Surena, Gallia and I led Gordyene’s horse archers through the camel train to where my father’s men were battling the hill men. What I saw took my breath away.

As we halted and the horse archers formed into their companies behind us the land to the north of our position was filled with hill men being led by groups of horse archers. Directly ahead of us my father’s horsemen had driven deep into the enemy ranks and were now scything down the hill men around them. My father and Gafarn led over eleven thousand men against these heathens, but were vastly outnumbered by an enemy that now seemed certain to overwhelm them. Looking left and right I estimated that each formation of enemy horsemen numbered around a thousand men, and behind them came more than that number of hill men on foot.

Either side of my father’s army I counted ten such groups of horsemen — twenty thousand horse archers — not counting the ones that the Hatrans were fighting. If each one was accompanied by three times that number of hill men then there were at least eighty thousand enemy troops heading our way!

I turned to Surena. ‘We must aid my father else he will be surrounded.’

‘Yes, lord.’

He gave the command to his officers to prepare to charge as I passed word to the Babylonians to move forward as my father’s horsemen disappeared among an ocean of hill men. The enemy now surrounded them. Something caught my eye on the right and I saw two enemy groups peeling off to head towards Surena’s camp.

‘Surena,’ I called, pointing towards his camp, ‘who is still in your camp?’

‘Farriers, grooms, veterinaries, the wounded; four hundred or so.’

The enemy, who would butcher all those inside, would soon overrun his camp. Surena’s camel train and its drivers were located behind us, along with the camels of Hatra and Dura. The only chance of saving those inside the camp was to evacuate them via the western entrance and get them inside Dura’s camp, whose ramparts were manned by squires armed with bows.

‘Send a thousand of your men to intercept those soldiers heading for your camp,’ I ordered him, forgetting he was a king, ‘otherwise they will be slaughtered.’

He nodded and called forward one of his officers who then rode back to his men. Within minutes a thousand riders were galloping to intercept the enemy before they reached the camp.

‘Gallia,’ I shouted, ‘get the camel trains back to our camp. Take the Babylonians with you.’

She pointed her bow ahead. ‘I would rather fight that horde.’

‘Do as you are told,’ I shouted. ‘The battle hangs in the balance and I don’t have time to argue with you.’

She did not respond but tugged savagely on Epona’s reins to wheel her away, followed by the Amazons. I nodded at Surena who dug his knees into his horse to urge it forward. Behind us seven thousand horse archers from Gordyene galloped forward to save my father.

The air was thick with arrows as we charged among the enemy masses. The enemy horse archers broke left and right to avoid our arrowhead formation but the hill men were not so lucky. As we galloped forward the front ranks shot arrows in quick succession at those men on foot before us. The hill men had little discipline and fought as part of a rabble, relying on weight of numbers to overwhelm an opponent. Against disciplined soldiers in formation they were easy meat. Most tried to get out of our way, scattering left and right, though others attempted to make a stand and formed a ragged shield wall in front of our charge. Loosing up to seven arrows a minute we shot their flimsy defences to pieces before we reached them, and then we were through them to reach the Hatrans.

Surena rode off to order his men to deploy left and right behind my father’s troops to create a corridor of horsemen along which the Hatrans could withdraw.

I rode forward past companies of Hatran horse archers who were darting at the hill men with their swords drawn, obviously out of arrows. The enemy horse archers deployed behind the seething mass of hill men still had ammunition, however, and were thinning Hatran numbers with their accurate shooting. Fortunately this ceased abruptly when Surena’s companies began to shoot back at them, forcing them to retire.

I rode on to where a group of my father’s bodyguard was standing, my father’s banner being held by a dismounted cataphract next to them. I felt a knot in my stomach and knew something was terribly wrong. Other members of my father’s bodyguard faced outwards on their horses to form a cordon around this group, and beyond them the rest of my father’s heavy horsemen were keeping the enemy at bay with their swords, maces and axes, launching short, disciplined charges against the hill men, riding among them to split heads and pierce unarmoured bodies, before withdrawing to reform.

I rode up to the group of men on foot and slid off Remus’ back. They recognised me and parted, bowing their heads as they stepped aside, and then my knees nearly gave way. Lying on the ground in front of me, being cradled by Gafarn, was the bloodstained body of my father. I fell to my knees beside him and looked in despair at the ashen-faced Gafarn.