Peter Darman - Parthian Vengeance

Haytham nodded. ‘And so he has.’

Aaron then looked at me. ‘Then how is it that a Roman leads your soldiers?’

‘It is a long story,’ I replied, ‘but suffice to say that he is a man whom I trust with my life.’

‘It is most strange,’ mused Aaron.

‘No stranger than some regarding King Pacorus as a messiah,’ said Orodes.

‘There is only one messiah,’ snapped Aaron.

‘Who is that?’ I asked.

Aaron stared into the distance. ‘The one who will deliver us from oppression.’ He shot a glance at me. ‘And the Romans.’

‘Where is this messiah?’ asked Malik.

‘He has not come yet, but God will send him. It is written.’

‘What god?’ I asked casually.

‘The god of Abraham, the one true god.’

‘There are many gods,’ I replied, ‘what is his name?’

Aaron’s eyes blazed with determination. ‘No, there is only one.’

The next day Haytham took Orodes and me hunting. He also brought along his daughter Rasha. Now in her years just before womanhood, she had grown into a beautiful albeit wilful young lady. Her hair was as black as night, her eyes dark brown and her olive skin flawless. Like most of her people she was tall and lithe and had been raised to the saddle from an early age.

‘One day, lord,’ I told him as we rode into the rock and sand vastness south of his huge settlement, ‘there will be great buildings and temples at Palmyra.’

He eyed me suspiciously. ‘We have always lived in tents and always will.’

‘Would you not like a palace to receive your visitors?’

‘Palaces can be besieged and reduced to rubble. If I give the command Palmyra can vanish like a desert mirage.’

‘Who would sack your palace, lord?’ queried Orodes, riding on the other side of the king.

‘The Romans,’ he replied.

‘Have you heard reports of the Romans making preparations for war?’ I asked with concern.

‘No, but with Romans in Syria and now Judea a Roman province in all but name I have potential enemies to the north and west. As Palmyra grows richer then it becomes a greater prize to possess for those with envious eyes.’

‘We turned them back once, we can do so again,’ I said.

‘What do you think of Aaron?’ he asked, changing the subject.

‘He needs feeding up.’

Haytham laughed. ‘He may look like a thief, but I think you will find him useful. Besides, if he stays here he will cause problems for us. We are too near to Judea I think, and if he foments trouble then the Romans will turn their attention to Palmyra.’

‘What sort of trouble?’

‘Aaron tells me that there are still rebels, freedom fighters he calls them, in Judea battling the Romans and their Jewish allies. He is one of them and burns to go back there.’

‘Then why doesn’t he?’ I asked.

Haytham smiled grimly. ‘He hopes to recruit others to his cause. He asked me whether the Agraci would support his friends.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said no, of course. The fate of Judea does not concern me.’

‘And you think it concerns me?’ I asked.

‘Of course not, but Dura is further from Judea than Palmyra. I think Aaron could be useful if his attention is turned elsewhere. And I wish to be rid of him. If you don’t want him then I will have him killed. It is nothing to me.’

‘I have offered him a place at Dura, lord, so let it be so.’

Rasha suddenly squealed and dug her knees into the sides of her horse as a gazelle broke cover from behind a collection of large boulders ahead and bolted for its life. She already had an arrow nocked in her bow as she galloped after her prey. We followed hard on her horse’s hooves. I reached behind me and pulled my bow from its hide case then extracted an arrow from my quiver. Beneath me Remus powered ahead, straining to reach the gazelle as it tried to outrun us. I nocked the arrow in the bowstring as Remus caught up with Rasha’s mount. Haytham and Orodes were immediately behind. Orodes shot his bow and the arrow cut through the air beside us as the gazelle suddenly darted right and then left. The arrow missed as Remus thundered across the baked ground in the wake of our prey. I brought up my bow so the bowstring was next to my face. I had done this a hundred times on the battlefield and on hunting expeditions. Keep looking at the target, lean slightly forward; let the bow become part of your body, as one with your soul. Time crawled as Remus closed on the gazelle and my breathing slowed as I aimed at the animal’s hindquarters and released the bowstring. In the blink of an eye the gazelle changed direction once more and I missed him. Rasha pulled her horse right to follow the gazelle and shot her arrow, the iron head slammed into its side and caused the beast to stumble and roll over and over. She pulled up her horse and then lightning fast, shot another two arrows into the prostrate animal. It lay motionless, dead.

Elated, she leapt from her horse and ran over to the gazelle to stand beside it, raising her bow in triumph at her victory. I halted Remus in front of her.

‘I’m glad all that time spent with Gallia and her women on the training fields did not go to waste, Rasha.’

She grinned at me. ‘One day I will be an Amazon and will slay the enemies of your people and mine in battle.’

Haytham, Malik and Orodes rode up to join us.

‘Did you see, father? I beat Pacorus, the greatest warrior in the Parthian Empire.’

She suddenly looked at Orodes. ‘I meant no offence, Orodes.’

Orodes smiled at her. ‘And none was taken, little princess. Well done.’

‘Did your hand slip, Pacorus?’ asked Malik. ‘Perhaps we can invent a fiction that will save your face, for I fear that all Palmyra will soon learn that you have been bettered by a girl.’

‘Thank you for bringing that to my attention, my friend.’

Haytham leaned forward. ‘Well done, daughter. We shall eat your catch tonight in celebration.’

The king’s entourage arrived, a score of warriors on horseback and attendants on camels. They slung the dead gazelle on one of the ill-tempered humped beasts and took it back to Palmyra. We continued with the hunt but came across no more gazelles, so Haytham ordered a halt at a small oasis surrounded by date palms. It was now blisteringly hot and we were glad of the shade and the opportunity to eat and slake our thirsts. After we had tethered our horses beneath one of the trees Rasha threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.

‘Will you tell Gallia about the gazelle?’

‘Of course,’ I replied, ‘she will be delighted.’

‘I have asked her if I can join the Amazons.’

‘Really?’ I looked at Haytham, who was frowning.

‘She said I would have to ask my father. I was hoping you could speak to him on my behalf.’

‘Oh, I see.’

She looked imploringly at me with her big brown eyes.

Haytham saved me. ‘You should not pester Pacorus so. He is a king and has better things to think about than the fantasies of a young girl.’

Rasha stuck out her tongue at him and sauntered off to supervise the meal that was being prepared for us. I doubted that Haytham would allow his daughter to join my wife’s band of women warriors, not least because she was a princess of her own people. The Amazons were mostly former slaves, runaways, prostitutes, thieves and the like, all united by a bond of sisterhood. And they were lethal. Gallia and her band were mounted on the finest horses, clothed in helmets and mail shirts and armed with bows and swords. I knew Rasha idolised them and they viewed her as a sort of younger sister, a lucky mascot. I also knew that her dream of being one of them was as her father had said, a fantasy.

Afterwards as we rode back to Palmyra, Haytham and I watched as Rasha and Orodes competed against each other in a series of short sprints on horseback.