Julian Stockwin - THE SILK TREE

‘How?’

An hour later they were no nearer a solution.

‘We’re going to have to tell Ying Mei,’ Nicander said finally.

The two arriving at her tent was enough to alert her that something was wrong. They quickly let her know what had happened.

‘This is very serious – the Buddhists are jealous of their position with the people and persecute those they think are undermining this. There’s only one way to avoid being taken – we must leave the caravan. Now.’

Marius laughed dismissively. ‘Mountains to the right, a deadly desert to the left. We can’t go forward with ’em, so we have to go back. And that delivers us straight into the arms of the Uighur gangs following us, waiting for stragglers. Without the protection of the caravan we’re-’

After everything they’d gone through. ‘No! We just can’t let ourselves be hauled away in chains again!’ Nicander burst out.

‘So think of something, Nico!’

‘Put it all in the hands of Caravan Master Su.’ Unexpectedly it was Tai Yi making the suggestion. ‘He’s going to know about it, anyway.’

‘No. There’s a difficulty,’ Ying Mei came in. ‘My father is supposed to be on his deathbed. How can I say we now don’t want to go to Aksu?’

She smiled suddenly. ‘I think I have a way…’

Su was not best pleased to be interrupted in his work preparing the caravan accounts and formalities for the next day and listened reluctantly.

‘So you see, Su hsien sheng, I have got myself in a lot of trouble. All this about my father dying in Aksu was just a story – to cover up that I’m really on my way to Khotan to join my lover. Now Taw and his nasty monks are spoiling it all.’

Su frowned grimly. ‘Make no mistake, this is bloody serious. I don’t give a damn about your lover but if you’re convicted in Aksu I stand to be charged with smuggling undesirables, and that’s me finished.’

He glared at them. ‘Why I listened to Kuo and his story I’ve no idea. Now you’ve come at the last minute to ask me how to get you out of this.’

He stood up. ‘You get to Aksu, it’s all up for you. So – there’s nothing else but you don’t get there – you leave the caravan.’

‘To go where?’ Nicander said wearily.

‘Well, you can’t go forward, you can’t go back-’

‘We know all that!’

‘Or into the mountains. So there’s only one way left – into the desert.’

‘What?’

‘You want to go to Khotan, there is a way. Across the desert instead of all around.’

‘How far?’

‘Oh, just a few hundred miles or so.’

‘That’s murder, going into the Taklamakan! We’d never do it!’

‘Yes you could – the old-time travellers did it. See, there’s a river, the Ho T’ien, and it crosses over to this side from Khotan. All you do is follow it. Simple!’

‘If it’s so easy, why aren’t you taking the caravan that way?’

‘Ah, well, there are a few disadvantages, shall we say. First is that this river is fed by snowmelt off the Kunluns. We’re a mite late in the season and by now they’ll be running dry into the sand at awkward places, not reliable, like.’

‘And?’

‘Away from these mountains here, the weather gets… strange. Bloody cold and burning hot, you need to watch it.’

‘Anything else ?’

‘The rivers are very shallow, very wide. When they’re dry you can’t see where they are too easy, where to go. Could get yourselves lost.’

‘I know what that means!’ Nicander said bitterly.

‘Hold on, I didn’t say you couldn’t find ’em again. We know what direction Khotan is, just keep going that way, you’ll find the river again.’

‘How?’

‘You know the stars, don’t you?’

‘No.’

‘Well, that could be a bit more difficult.’

‘This doesn’t sound much of a solution, Su sheng .’ In fact it looked a lot like a move to get rid of them with no complications.

‘It’s got lots of advantages.’

‘Oh?’

‘You set off quickly, by morning there’ll be no tracks to follow, the wind fills ’em in.’

‘And?’

‘You’ll be in Khotan way before we will.’

‘And?’

‘You’ll have no problems with Uighurs and bandits, there’s none out there.’

‘They’ve got more sense than to go where no one else does!’

‘Look, you asked me for a way out! I’ve told you one – do you want to take it or be done up in Aksu?’

There was no choice. ‘We have to do it.’

‘Good. Lets get the details straight first. It’ll be you four? Then you’ll want at least two camels – no horses, they drink too much. I can probably find you extra kit, seeing as how you’ll be on your own. Agreed?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Right. Then let’s tot that lot up… I’ll be generous and only charge you rental for the camels, so long as you check ’em in at Khotan – a little deposit on each against that, of course.’

All in all it was no trivial sum being asked.

‘You forgot to deduct our passage from Aksu to Khotan the long way around,’ Tai Yi said implacably.

‘Well, yes. You always do that afterwards, don’t you?’

Su leant back. ‘As this is a bit irregular, like, I have to ask you for coin in advance – so I can square m’ books with ’em in Aksu, that is.’

The implications began to sink in. It was madness but they had only hours left.

Wasting no time, Su summoned their cameleer, Arif. ‘Change of schedule. These lot will be leaving the caravan. Tonight. Off to Khotan along the Ho T’ien. Get their camels up and harnessed, then load ’em against this list. Oh – and keep it to yourself, got it?’

The man looked incredulous. ‘They going the old desert way? That near dry up, no one go that way now! You can’t-’

‘Get on with it. Smartly, now!’

‘They travellers only, they not know the desert. How you-’

‘I told you to get those camels in harness. Do it.’

‘Su sheng .’ Arif said quietly.

‘Yes?’ Su snapped.

‘I’m… I’m go with them.’

‘What? You bloody fool, don’t you know – forget it, that’s just crazy talk.’

‘I go. They need one who know camels, especially little Meng Hsiao. I’ll be the one.’

‘I’m warning you, Arif, if you go-’

The cameleer stood his ground.

‘Right. You’re off wages as of this moment. Get your kit and throw it in with theirs. You can claim your back wages in Khotan. You’re out of this caravan.’

Touched by the moonlight the spectral shapes of ridges and dead vegetation held a feral menace. The crunch of their footsteps over the gravel desert seemed overloud to imaginations keyed up by their abrupt fleeing. No one spoke.

They had left in the dead of night, out into the heart of the deadly Taklamakan. The tiny flicker of the dying campfire had disappeared quickly behind them and there had been no wakening alarm. They had only to put in sufficient distance by morning to be out of sight.

There were three camels. Arif had claimed his own venture investment, a sprightly youngster he called Ordut. All of the animals were heavily laden – besides food and water for themselves and the camels, they carried extra water skins to be filled at the river, warm gear for the bitter night cold, flatbread and dried fruit for when there was nothing to make a fire and two tents.

If there was something they’d overlooked it could spell a death sentence for them all. There was no going back now…

A night breeze started up, brushing their cheeks with a numbing chill, driving the relentless, shuddering cold into their vitals. With it came myriad sounds – a soughing murmur, taps and clicks out in the gloom.