Richard Blake - The Curse of Babylon

But Shahin paid me no attention and finished his account of how the two ruined sons had screamed reproaches at their father until the blood poisoning got to them, and how Bahram had lived another month as a bag of screaming, maggoty slime. I felt sorry for the poor man, and wondered how many days it might be from here to Ctesiphon. No — I put that straight out of mind. I needed a clear head. I couldn’t afford to think of that grinning fiend, slavering and scratching himself on a mountain of yellow silk cushions.

‘Sad stuff,’ I broke in again. This time, I kept Shahin quiet by reaching down and playing, as if absent-mindedly, with my foreskin. Antonia pretended not to notice. Shahin tried not to look too obvious as he leaned forward, but trembled so much, he spilled wine down his front. Bearing in mind how shrivelled up I was from horror and the cold, there wasn’t much to see. Still, I tried to keep up the impression of a man at full ease. ‘Oh, sad stuff indeed,’ I repeated. ‘But we can be glad you got off lightly. You only got sent to sea. I hope you’re enjoying Beirut. The Aegean is a sight you Persians haven’t had in a very long time, except as prisoners.’ I gave him a sweet smile, and began stroking the ridges of muscle on my belly. ‘Just a few thousand sit-ups,’ I’d once told him between bursts of drugged buggery, ‘and you’d have the same.’ I hadn’t mentioned his flabby thighs or the distasteful flatness of his buttocks, nor the absence of any neck or the lack of symmetry in his nipples. He seemed to have lost weight in the past couple of years. But that must have owed more to some falling out with the sea than to any change in his generally shitty style of life.

Shahin got up and licked very dry lips. ‘I’m going out on deck,’ he muttered darkly. ‘The pair of you will, of course, join me.’

The sun was going down behind me as I looked at the masses of shipping that sailed to and fro in the Propontis, or were scattered at rest along the shore. We’d moved away from the place of ambush but were at anchor again perhaps a few miles to the west.

Shahin leaned on the rail and looked sulkily at an armed convoy of grain ships. ‘Our empires have been at war for years,’ he spat. ‘All trade is at an end with us. The tax gatherers take barely a half of what they’re owed. You’d never think it was your empire that was losing.’ He slumped forward on to the rail and continued watching the endless lines of shipping. I could have given my lecture on how a skilled boxer rolls with every punch he can’t parry and nurses his strength for the eventual fight back. Though past its best, the empire I helped rule was still vast enough to absorb even the hammer blows of an invading army. And I would, in the financial sense, nurse it back to a health that would surprise everyone. But Shahin was now up again and his face was taking on a nasty smile.

‘Oh Alaric,’ he smirked, ‘we’re not a quarter mile from the shore. I should be careful that you don’t step over the side. Haven’t I seen you swim a hundred yards under water before needing to come up? On the surface, I’ve never seen a man swim so fast. You could be ashore before we’d even got our boat ready to go after you. Or you could make for one of the other ships. What trouble you’d make for us then! You know we had orders to take you alive — the best we could do was pull up our anchor and trust to our sail.’ He took me by the arm and led me across the little deck to look at a pleasure boat that was scudding by almost within hailing distance. Leaving me alone there, he turned and went over to where Antonia was held by a leash attached to a leather collar about her neck.

‘Will the Lord Alaric make a successful dash for freedom — and leave this delightful young creature in my charge?’ he jeered. ‘Will you do to her what you did to Bahram?’

‘Jump, Alaric,’ Antonia shouted. ‘Don’t worry about me — just go.’ Her keeper pulled the leash tight and her words ended in a squawk. He pulled again and she went down on her knees. Before she could steady herself, he landed a kick where she’d tied her breasts flat, and looked about for approval as she brought out a cry shrill with pain and fear. He kicked her again and watched her squirm at his feet. He shouted an obscenity in Syriac and uncoiled a whip from about his waist.

I got to him as he had his arm raised. I took him by the wrist and pulled his arm sharply back and to the left. I felt the click of his dislocated shoulder before he could realise what I’d done. I silenced his scream by twisting his arm another half turn and sending him into a spasm that checked even the working of his lungs. But I made sure, as he hit the deck, to smash the ball of my foot into his throat. I’d disabled this piece of human offal for life in perhaps a dozen heartbeats. Another half dozen and I’d have ended his life. But I left him and grabbed Antonia. I was inches from throwing myself over the side with her, when two men took me from behind. They got me on to my back and another put a sword to my throat. Someone else threw himself across my knees.

‘No violence!’ Shahin called in Syriac. I stared up into his gloating face. ‘Whoever harms the Lord Senator gets impaled.’ The sword vanished. My legs were free. I ignored the hand that Shahin offered and got to my feet. I turned to Antonia and helped her up. Someone else had got hold of her leash but was making sure to leave plenty of slack. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be making a big effort not to cry.

‘Keep quiet and do what they say,’ I said firmly. I couldn’t tell if she’d heard me.

‘Oh, Alaric, Alaric, I knew it was a good idea to keep the girl alive!’ Shahin cried, triumphant. ‘You’ll not get away from us so easily this time.’ I repressed a shudder as he rested a hand on my shoulder. The sun was halfway to the horizon and I shivered in the continuing wind. I allowed myself a final look across to the shore, then stood against the outer wall of the deck cabin. It still had some heat from the sun. ‘I’m going to enjoy this voyage, Alaric. I’m going to enjoy it almost as much as I’m looking forward to the closure of a business everyone had thought would remain forever open.’

‘Do I get any clothing?’ I replied. ‘Or are you proposing to keep me naked all the way to Beirut?’

‘I’m having the pair of you tied up in a locked cabin,’ was all Shahin replied. ‘Shahrbaraz will decide what to do with you.’

We were alone in the blackness of the hold. I’d lost track of the time. From the steady creak of ropes and timbers and the regular motions of the ship, I could suppose we were under sail. That meant it wasn’t yet dark outside. Perhaps we’d be spending the night in some quiet inlet on the southern side of the Propontis. Or perhaps not.

‘Alaric, who was that man?’ Before Shahin had done with feasting his eyes on me and gone out, taking the lamp with him, I’d seen Antonia tied to the far wall in the cabin. The first effort I’d made at comfort had gone nowhere. Since then, lost in my own thoughts, I’d barely registered her gentle sobbing. Now, she’d finally pulled herself together. Though her face was eight feet away from mine, her voice seemed much closer in the dark.

I made my lower jaw stop shaking. ‘It’s a long story,’ I began. That was as far as I got. We’d been locked away below the waterline and I was frozen through. That, and I was rapidly falling apart. I’d arched my back and smiled wantonly at Shahin before he withdrew. With just Antonia for company, I could spare myself the strain of concealing what I really felt. Even those few words and my voice shook out of control. I squeezed my eyes shut — it made no difference whether I had them open or not — and felt tears running down my face. I twisted round and wiped them on my shoulders. I sniffed and tried to make it sound as if I were taking in the smell of tar and stale water.