Parthian Vengeance (2 page)

I had just finished tightening his straps when a mounted courier halted his horse in front of me and raised his hand in salute.

‘Hail, majesty. Your presence is needed at the palace urgently.’

I was suddenly alarmed. ‘Who has made this request?’

‘Your sorceress, majesty.’

I had feared that one of my children had been taken ill, but if it had been so the queen would have summoned me. As I heaved myself into the saddle I felt more curious than apprehensive. I galloped from the camp and made my way to the city. The courier followed me as we galloped east along the road that led to Dura’s main entrance – the Palmyrene Gate. Over the gate was a great stone arch, on top of which was a large stone statue of a griffin, Dura’s symbol and protector. The city had twenty-four other towers along its circuit wall and from each one flew my banner of a red griffin on a white background. I slowed Remus as we entered the city. The guards at the gates and on the walls snapped to attention as I passed them. As usual the city streets were thronged with tradesmen, citizens and beasts of burden and it took us a while to thread our way through the multitude to reach the Citadel.

Dura’s Citadel could never be described as a beautiful or ornate place, with its thick walls, solid, squat buildings and its barracks, stables and armouries; but it was strong, built to withstand and defeat assaults and sieges. Perched high on the rocky escarpment on which the whole city was built, it radiated strength.

I dismounted and handed Remus’ reins to a stable hand, then walked up the stone steps that fronted the palace. The courier bowed and left me as I walked through the entrance hall and into the throne room. At the far end, sitting on my throne – which in truth was nothing more than a simple high-backed wooden chair – was Dobbai. She had been the one who had foretold all those years ago at the court of King of Kings Sinatruces of my going to Italy and my return with Gallia my wife. Dobbai had made my city her home, and her gift of foresight and closeness to the gods had made her feared and respected throughout the kingdom. Now she was sitting on my throne as she regarded me with her black eyes. Queen Gallia was sitting next to her.

‘May I know the reason you sent a courier to fetch me like an errant schoolboy?’ I enquired.

‘Do not be churlish, son of Hatra,’ replied Dobbai, ‘it does not suit you.’

‘Then I will ask again. Why did you send for me?’

‘Your life is in danger, Pacorus,’ said Gallia.

My eyes went from Dobbai to my wife, from ugliness and old age to beauty and youth. How contrasting they were: Dobbai old and foul, her black hair lank, while Gallia’s long blonde hair and beautiful face with its high cheekbones and slim nose were perfection.

‘It is true, son of Hatra,’ continued Dobbai. ‘I was taking my afternoon sleep when a vision appeared to me, of a griffin limping and afraid, a blade in its belly and blood gushing from the wound.’

‘Every time I fight on the battlefield I am in danger.’

Dobbai scowled. ‘I did not mean that. I sense an assassin’s dagger in your belly.’

I must confess a chill ran down my spine. The prophecies of Dobbai were not to be dismissed out of hand.

‘You must have a personal bodyguard,’ said Gallia, looking alarmed, ‘soldiers who will be with you at all times.’

‘At all times?’ The idea filled me with horror. ‘I have guards enough. They fill the Citadel and the city. There are also thousands of soldiers camped half a mile away. I do not intend to spend my life looking over my shoulder.’ I smiled. ‘Besides, the servants in the Citadel have been with us for years. I trust them.’

‘With your life?’ asked Dobbai.

‘They have not poisoned my food or stuck a knife in my guts yet; why should they do so now?’

My words were met with stern countenances. Gallia started shaking her head.

‘The risk is too great. We will have more guards in the palace.’ She pointed at me. ‘And you will not be riding alone in the foreseeable future. I shall organise an escort for you.’

Dobbai nodded approvingly at her. ‘It is well that you take my words seriously, child.’

‘I did not say that I did not believe you,’ I reproached her, ‘merely that I will not live my life in fear.’

‘Perhaps the Amazons should protect you,’ mused Gallia. ‘At least I know I can trust them.’ In Italy she had recruited a group of females that had served in my cavalry and named them Amazons. Now a queen of the Parthian Empire, Gallia retained her Amazons as a bodyguard. There were always one hundred of them but the idea that I would be protected by a group of females was ridiculous. It would lead to derision.

‘I will not require the services of the Amazons,’ I said curtly, then looked at Dobbai. ‘Was it revealed to you when an attempt would be made on my life? What he or she will look like?’

Dobbai glowered at me. ‘If I knew that then I could send someone to kill the assassin myself.’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘let us keep this matter among ourselves. There is no need to burden others with something that may not occur.’

‘It will occur unless we are vigilant,’ insisted Gallia.

‘Your queen speaks the truth, son of Hatra.’

‘Nevertheless,’ I replied, ‘we will keep this our little secret. The matter is closed.’

I may have seemed untroubled by Dobbai’s revelation, but for the rest of that day and the day after I was uneasy. I began to see danger everywhere and became a bag of nerves because of it. Gallia increased the number of guards both inside and outside the palace and had them stationed behind and beside the dais in the throne room when I received foreign embassies or heard the petitions of Dura’s citizens. Dobbai took to attending all these gatherings and after a while I looked to her first to see her reaction when a visitor was presented to me. With each one I expected her to nod alarmingly to indicate that the assassin stood before me, but after examining each individual carefully she just shrugged and shook her head. After a month of this I grew tired and stood down the extra guards. Things returned to normal. Perhaps not all Dobbai’s dreams came true after all!

Shortly afterwards, at the weekly council meeting held in the headquarters building in the Citadel, the official home of Domitus, he brought up the subject of the additional guards. In attendance as usual were Godarz the city governor, Rsan the royal treasurer, and Prince Orodes a dear friend, now an exile from his homeland. Gallia also liked to sit in on these meetings, but today she and Dobbai had taken Claudia on a visit to the tiny harbour positioned at the foot of the escarpment directly under the Citadel. They had promised to take her fishing on the river, and as the day was clear and the waters calm they had left early in the morning, promising to return with a basket full of fish for our evening meal.

‘So,’ said Domitus, ‘would you care to enlighten us about why the Citadel was suddenly filled with additional guards?’

‘I had hoped to keep the matter discreet.’

Domitus laughed. ‘No chance of that with your palace walls lined with soldiers.’

‘Well, if you must know Dobbai had a vision and told me that I would be the target of an assassin’s dagger.’

Rsan, who had taken to bringing a clerk with him to these meetings, a tall, pale youth with light brown hair, immediately instructed the boy not to make a note of that. My treasurer was an able, conscientious man but was prone to take alarm at the slightest provocation. It was so now.

‘Assassin, majesty? That is grave news indeed.’

I raised my hand at him. ‘I’m sure it is nothing. In any case I do not intend to go skulking round in my own kingdom.’

Domitus was frowning. ‘You should have told me.’

‘And what would you have done?’ I asked.

‘Tightened security.’

‘Which means more guards.’ I shook my head. ‘No, that would not do at all. There are thousands of people who travel through Dura every year. They cannot all be stopped and searched. That would interfere with trade and soon the caravans would start to avoid us and we can’t have that. Is that not correct, Rsan?’

Rsan began shaking his head vigorously. ‘Yes, majesty. It is most important that trade is not interfered with.’ He looked at his clerk. ‘Make a note of that.’

Rsan regarded anything that threatened the kingdom’s profits with abject horror.

‘So that’s an end to the matter,’ I said. ‘On another subject, I have been thinking for a while of establishing in the kingdom a breeding centre for horses.’

‘Sensible idea,’ remarked Godarz, ‘at the moment we have to hire studs from your father’s kingdom or further afield, such as Media and Atropaiene.’

‘Exactly,’ I said, ‘it makes more sense if we can establish our own herds to supply the army. Cheaper as well.’

I could see Rsan nodding approvingly.

‘Of course,’ I continued, ‘it will be expensive to start with.’

Rsan stopped nodding. ‘Expensive, majesty?’

‘Naturally, I’m only interested in the finest bloodstock. And I would prefer if we could have a herd of pure whites, such as the horses of my father’s bodyguard.’

Godarz the governor of Dura and the city’s father figure exhaled loudly. ‘That will take a lot of time and a lot of money. Creating such a herd will not be easy, Pacorus.’ Godarz lent back in his chair and ran his hands over his scalp in contemplation. ‘It could take many years. Purchasing suitable studs will be very expensive, and even when you have them there is no guarantee they will produce pure whites.’

‘Nevertheless,’ I said, ‘I want you to make a start, Godarz. Contact the breeders in Hatra, Media and Atropaiene.

‘And the funds will be made available?’

‘Pay whatever it costs.’

Rsan went ashen faced. ‘I really must protest, majesty.’

‘There’s a surprise,’ muttered Domitus.

‘After all,’ said Rsan, ignoring Domitus, ‘surely one horse is much the same as another.’

I, Godarz and Orodes looked at him with horror. What he had said equated to sacrilege.

‘I can assure you, Lord Rsan,’ said Orodes slowly and purposely, ‘there is a great difference between horse breeds.’

Orodes was a prince of Susiana, a kingdom in the centre of the empire. He was a brave and loyal friend to me, and that loyalty had cost him his crown for supporting me.

‘What Prince Orodes says is true, my old friend,’ added Godarz. ‘The finest breeds of Parthian horses are the Przewalski, Karabair, Akhal-Teke and Nisean. Remus is descended from Carthaginian stock, of course. You wish to breed from him as well?’ he asked me.

‘I would like him to sire a line, yes.’

Rsan wore a blank look and I could tell that we might as well have been talking in a foreign tongue, but I was excited by the idea and so was Godarz.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘I will get started straight away.’

Rsan cleared his throat, which was usually the signal that he had something to say but was hesitant to speak his mind.

‘Spit it out, Rsan.’

‘Well, the thing is, majesty, with the beginning of a new year there arises the matter of the annual tribute to Ctesiphon.’

‘No tribute will be paid to Ctesiphon,’ I replied. ‘I will draw up a letter to that effect, inviting King Mithridates to come and take what is owed to him should he so wish.’

Every year I always hoped that when Ctesiphon was notified of my refusal to pay any tribute, Mithridates would take umbrage and send an army again Dura, but he never had, much to my disappointment. I would welcome the chance to defeat him and his lord high general, King Narses, the man who had once rebelled against King of Kings Phraates. I had defeated Narses in battle. But Narses and Mithridates had forged an alliance and whereas I had bested them both on the battlefield, they had triumphed over me when it came to intrigue. Thus it was that the Kingdom of Dura and its king were now outcasts from the Parthian Empire and Mithridates was Parthia’s high king. I had once been the empire’s lord high general but now I was viewed with contempt by those who held the highest positions within the empire. It never ceased to rile me.

‘There is no point in sulking, Pacorus, nothing will happen despite your desire that it be otherwise,’ said Godarz.

Rsan looked decidedly uncomfortable and Domitus laughed. Orodes appeared stern.

‘You know he won’t take the bait,’ said Domitus. ‘I don’t know why you bother.’

‘To annoy Mithridates, of course, and to goad him into action.’

‘My stepbrother is full of malice, Pacorus,’ said Orodes ‘He will send Narses only when his enemies are weakened.’

‘Dura will never be weak,’ I growled, earning a murmur of approval from Domitus.

‘Enough talk of that traitorous little bastard Mithridates,’ said Domitus, ‘let’s talk about Godarz’s wedding.’

‘What?’ I was most surprised.

I looked at my governor who was blushing. Orodes was smiling at him and Domitus gave him a hearty slap on the shoulders. Because of his age I had assumed that Godarz was happy being a single man, but it appeared that I was wrong. Rsan instructed the clerk to stop writing.

Godarz held up his hands. ‘Domitus is exaggerating, I can assure you.’

‘No I ain’t. Byrd told me all about her. I had to work on him to get any information out of him, mind. We all know how tight-lipped he can be.’ Byrd was a Cappadocian and my head scout. We had known each other for over thirteen years.

‘So, Godarz,’ I said, ‘are you going to enlighten us further on your romantic adventures?’

‘Certainly not,’ he answered, and with that he folded his arms and said nothing further.

The meeting over, afterwards I managed to winkle a few details out of Godarz as I walked with him back to the governor’s mansion just beyond the Citadel’s walls. Apparently he had become acquainted with a woman who was the daughter of the head of one of the richest transport guilds in Anauon, a kingdom on the eastern edge of the empire. She and her father had arrived in Dura a few weeks ago and had presented themselves at the governor’s mansion. Her father had rented a well-appointed house in the city and they had invited Godarz to dine with them on several occasions. I thought it odd that a transport guild from the eastern frontier of the empire should want to establish a presence in Dura, but Godarz told me that the woman’s father was expanding the length of the route along the Silk Road that his guild controlled. This woman’s father must have been very wealthy indeed to organise caravans that operated between Anauon and Dura and beyond, a distance of over a thousand miles. Godarz informed me with pride that her father’s caravans could number up to a thousand camels and horses, each one had its own guards and they carried not only silk but also ceramics, bronze, spices and medicines. It was a most impressive summary.