Julian Stockwin - THE SILK TREE

‘Su sheng ?’ Nicander asked.

‘I can’t have a view, I’m not paying, it’s not my risk.’

‘Nevertheless, you have a duty to your caravan and its people,’ Ying Mei’s cool voice interjected. ‘To assist them with their decision it’s of value to have your estimate of our position. Do please let us hear it.’

Su flushed. ‘My Lady, you have to understand-’

‘Your opinion in this is as much to us, as the worth of your judgement is to our course through the desert. How can it be different?’

‘Well said, Lady!’ a merchant called.

Su frowned darkly. ‘How we go on has to be your own decision! That’s the way of it in a caravan.’

He sniffed importantly. ‘Yet I’ll give you my feelings about it. That’s all!

‘Well, you’ve got only a few choices. The first is, you don’t go on, therefore the caravan terminates here. All advance fees and monies returnable at this point. The second, you go on – but retrace and go for the northern route right around the Taklamakan desert – get to Khotan the long way.’

Mutterings arose which he stopped with a glare. ‘If you do this, there’s a few things to think on. It’ll be high summer across the other side and there’s some who’ll see it a torment too far, Turfan in summer.’

He let it sink in.

‘And, it’ll cost you. Not only is it longer that way but there’s transit fees to pay for more oasis kingdoms, although it’s likely they’ll be modest, they wanting to attract more caravan trade.

‘Then there’s those here who’ll tell you, the northern route is not pleasant. In fact it’s bloody hard. No horses, certainly no carriages,’ he said with a glance at Ying Mei.

‘No horses means no cavalry. The Hsien Pei Mongols have been quiet so far this year but we’ll be passing their territory and we could get unlucky. Those of a nervous nature should think about it.’

‘But I’m understanding from all this you recommend we should do it,’ Korkut said.

‘I’m not saying you should do anything. And as well, there’s another decision you have to make.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Don’t go around the edges to get to Turfan and the other oases – strike out across the desert directly, the Loulan route.’

‘Is it easier?’

‘It’s worse – but it’s quicker.’

‘How worse?’

Su rubbed his chin speculatively. ‘Well, now, and I’m not the one to put you off… but Loulan is suffering. Their lake Lop Nor is playing tricks on ’em, retreating away and letting the dunes swallow ’em up piece by piece. I’ve not been that way for years, can’t say for sure they’re even still there, so if we go that way we could find ourselves gasping for water – at a ghost city in the dunes.’

Korkut stood up and looked about him. ‘So. You’ve made things clear for us, thank you. As I see it, there’s only two alternatives. Give up right here or go the long way around the Taklamakan. No other. Am I right?’

‘Can’t argue with that.’

‘Then I suggest we put it to the vote. Those who want to call it all off now.’

The monks voted for it to a man, as did one or two others, but when hands were counted for the longer route there was no doubt about the sentiment of the majority.

‘Seems you have your answer, Su sheng .’

The caravan left the pleasures of Dunhuang and headed out. To cross where two deserts collided.

To the right: the hideous extremes of the Black Gobi stony desert; left: the vast sea of dunes so parched and lifeless that its name meant ‘he who goes in never returns’, the Taklamakan.

The sounds of squeaking leather, the muffled tread of camel feet and the desultory dinging of bells that every animal now carried seemed overly loud in the awesome stillness.

Several of the merchants rode a tarpan, the stocky steppe pony with much endurance, but they had paid Su dearly for the privilege, some were on camels but most walked at the easy pace of the caravan.

Ying Mei was in a camel howdah, a light structure between the humps with hanging veils for privacy. Tai Yi kept pace with the animal on foot, while behind, Nicander and Marius walked alongside Meng Hsiang.

It was hot, but a heat so dry that perspiration evaporated immediately. More bearable than humid heat but hard going over the sun-blasted ground. Nicander was grateful for his ox-hide calf boots that insulated and cushioned.

He felt for his water gourd. It was barely half-full still short of midday, with the hottest part of the day to come. Those unable to control their thirst would be given no extra. The next fill would not be until the evening at the water skins.

Next to him the splotched brown bulk of Meng Hsiang moved on in long deliberate paces, the splayed toes sure and firm in the sand. The beast could go for a week or more without water, and the shaggy coat that looked so hot in fact kept the burning heat of the sun at bay.

On impulse he reached out to pat his muzzle. The camel swung his head about, looking at him in mild interest.

Something resolved out of the rumpled dunes ahead. Trees! With the miracle of green on them! Some quirk in the lie of the desert had brought water to the surface – a modest spring that gouted from under a rock ledge to meander lazily on gravel for a hundred yards or more before dissipating into the sand.

The camels were released and lined the watercourse. They drank swiftly, some with deft flicks throwing water over their backs and snorting with pleasure.

At the source drinking gourds were refilled and like the others, Nicander drank thirstily, revelling in the life-giving coolness. It had a faintly sulphurous tang but at that moment it was the best water he had tasted in his life.

Suddenly aware that he was being watched he looked up and saw Dao Pa standing apart from the others.

The man was leaning on his staff, wearing a peculiar wide hat with two flaps that hung down over his ears.

‘Master Dao!’ Nicander exclaimed, ‘I didn’t know you were with us!’

‘Quite so. Yet surely this is to be expected.’

‘Because you…?’

‘That I need to reach Khotan and this is the only course open to me, yes. But more to your understanding is to perceive that of all the substantiality and conditions of this world only a very small proportion are permitted a frail mortal to know. There is an unknowable infinity of others he will never be aware of, yet most surely exist independent of his rational observation.’

‘Without evidence of their existence.’

‘You are progressing well on your path to the Tao, Ni K’an Ta.’

‘Thank you, Master. If we-’

‘Mount up!’ Su’s voice broke through impatiently.

Nicander reluctantly found his place in the line and waited while the caravan got under way.

He vowed to seek out Dao Pa that night; they would talk more and the frightful wasteland would retreat, if only for an hour or two.

When the sun lost its ferocity and began its slow dip towards extinction, Su called a halt by a long weathered ridge.

‘As far as we go on this easy stretch. We’ll leave the harder for tomorrow.’

There was speculation at his words at the evening camp.

‘He means the heat. Have you noticed? As we went north from Chang An it’s got hotter and hotter. Stands to reason it’ll be worse the further we go.’

‘And colder – at night, I mean. I don’t think it’s that. More like the water’s going to give out.’

‘Or the Hsien Pei will be waiting and we’ll have to fight our way through.’

‘If they’re out, I don’t give much for our chances – we’ve an escort as will see off any bandits but the Mongols are a different matter. Why, four years back – or was it five, they took a caravan and we didn’t find the bodies until last year.’