Peter Darman - Parthian Dawn

I looked at him, and then took a deep breath. ‘Very well. Sound assembly, you will take all the foot back to Dura as quickly as you can.’ He raised his arm in salute and then began barking orders at his officers who had gathered behind him. Orodes and Nergal looked at each other in confusion.

‘Dura is under siege,’ I said to them.

‘Under siege?’ they looked even more confused.

I threw up my hands. ‘You know as much as I do.’

Then Byrd and Malik arrived on their horses. I pointed at Byrd.

‘What is going on?’

‘We received news from a courier sent from one of your forts earlier. Dura under siege.’

‘Who is besieging the city?’ asked Orodes.

‘The Romans?’ I said.

Byrd shook his head. ‘Chosroes.’

‘Chosroes?’ I did not believe it.

‘That was the message,’ said Byrd flatly.

Surena arrived on his horse with Remus in tow. I went inside the tent and began donning my equipment. I felt sick, tired and confused. I strapped on my sword, leather cuirass and picked up my helmet. Nergal and Orodes stood waiting for orders.

‘Orodes, assemble the cataphracts and bring them south. I will ride ahead with the horse archers. Nergal, how many of your men are already mounted?’

‘No more than two hundred.’

‘It will have to do,’ I said, ‘I ride at once. Nergal, you will follow with the rest, and bring the lords as well.’

They nodded and left.

‘Orodes,’ I called after them.

‘Pacorus?’

‘Before you leave, be so kind as to inform my father and the other kings of what has happened.’

He nodded and then followed Nergal.

‘Byrd and I will be riding with you,’ said Malik.

Half an hour later we were heading south along the Euphrates, two hundred horse archers plus me, Byrd and Malik. I thanked Shamash that we had built the forts along the river; otherwise we might not have received the terrible news until it was too late. Perhaps it was already too late. Do not think that! Chosroes, the miserable rat. He had obviously been watching events carefully, no doubt encouraged by the nest of cockroaches at Ctesiphon. He must have believed that the Romans would defeat me, perhaps even kill me, leaving Dura defenceless. But still, even if that had been the case, he would have had to deal with a victorious Roman army. His ragtag forces were no match for the Romans and he must have known that. Unless, of course, he had allies. I suddenly saw the hands of Narses and Mithridates pulling the strings of their puppet.

Gallia set a cruel pace. We had thrown some food and fodder in sacks and tied them to our saddles and then followed her. She had collected Kuban and his men, whose camp stood empty and deserted. A horse can comfortably cover around thirty miles a day, but that first day we travelled over thirty and still did not catch up with my queen. We halted for the night at one of the mud-brick forts where the commander, a fresh-faced centurion on crutches, told us that she had visited them earlier.

‘They took all the fodder but left most of our food, sir.’

I pointed at his crutches. ‘What happened?’

‘Got crushed under a testudo during training, sir. Occupational hazard.’

‘Indeed,’ I said. ‘How was the queen when you saw her?’

‘Like a snake that has just been stepped on, sir.’

The garrison of each fort had been greatly reduced when the army had marched north, but a small number of men had been left behind, including any that were infirm or generally unfit for duty. In this way the fort’s stores would be secure and communications maintained between the city and the army. We slept under the sky outside the fort that night and, after what seemed only five minutes of sleep, saddled the horses before dawn and were riding south again as the first red shards of light were seen in the eastern sky. Unwashed and unshaven, we picked up a quick pace once more and thundered ahead. There was no conversation as we headed for Dura, but throughout the day I began to worry what we would find when we got there. If the city had fallen… Do not think, keep moving, stay focused.

The second night our bodies ached and our horses were lathered in sweat. So we halted, unsaddled them and led them into the cool waters of the Euphrates. Once more we grabbed a pitiful amount of sleep and rode south again in the pre-dawn light. After three hours of hard riding we finally caught up with Gallia. Her horses were tied together in the shade of a large group of date palms a hundred paces from the Euphrates. Most of Kuban’s fierce warriors were similarly in the shade, many lying asleep on the ground beside their leather armour. But Gallia had also ensured that she would not be surprised and had thrown out parties of guards to keep watch, and a dozen of Kuban’s men had ridden up to our column before we arrived at the main body, escorting us down the road to where Dura’s queen was standing with a group of the Amazons. I dismounted, handed Remus’ reins to Surena and walked over to them. They parted when they saw me, bowing their heads as I walked up to my wife.

‘You took your time,’ was all she said, looking at a semi-naked man spread-eagled on the ground in front of her. His wrists and ankles had been lashed tightly to wooden stakes that had been hammered into the ground. The figure of Kuban was kneeling beside him, a bloody knife in his hand.

‘This wretch has told us that the army of Mesene is besieging Dura,’ she snapped her fingers and one of her Amazons handed her a round shield. She then passed it to me. ‘But this carries the bird-god symbol of Persis.’

‘Narses is at Dura?’ I said.

Gallia smiled and then nodded to Kuban, who ran the blade of his knife across the victim’s chest, drawing blood as he did so. The man’s body contorted with pain and Kuban stopped cutting. The man turned his head and spat at him. Kuban wiped his face and then cut off the man’s left ear, causing him to scream and thrash wildly at his bonds.

‘You heard his majesty,’ barked Kuban. ‘Answer his question.’

The man’s eyes were full of fear as they looked at me, blood pouring from his ear socket.

‘No Narses,’ said weakly, ‘he sent us to reinforce Chosroes. Water, please.’

Gallia walked away. ‘Kill him, Kuban.’

I winced as Kuban drew his blade across the man’s throat. He passed from this life as blood gushed from his neck onto the earth. I followed Gallia.

‘We ran into a patrol earlier and killed all of them except that one. Kuban has some very useful skills when it comes to extracting information.’

I stopped her and placed my hands on her shoulders. There were black rings round her eyes and she looked very tired.

‘You must rest.’

She shook off my hands. ‘I will rest when my daughter is safe.’

Gallia looked at my men leading their horses to drink from the river. ‘Is that all you brought?’

‘More are coming. More to the point, how many do we face?’

‘Fifteen thousand, according to that piece of carrion we captured.’

‘When did they arrive?’

‘Five days ago. They have yet to assault the city but it cannot be long before they do so.’

Fifteen thousand was a big army, but I was not as worried now as I was when I first heard that Dura was under siege. Parthians have no knowledge of siege warfare, save surrounding a city and starving it into surrender. Then Gallia dashed my hopes.

‘He told us that Chosroes knew that the city would be weakly defended because its army had marched north, and he has brought siege towers with him.’

‘Siege towers?’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘but they had to be dismantled and then reassembled once at the city. He told us that the assault would take place tomorrow. We have to get to Dura today.’