Parthian Dawn (79 page)

Nergal looked at me. ‘We accept, Pacorus, you are a most generous friend.’

He and Praxima went to bed in high spirits that night. I told them to meet us the next morning in the throne room. Gallia was far from happy.

‘It is a ridiculous plan, hare-brained. You think the people of this city will accept Nergal and Praxima?’

‘Why not? They accepted Chosroes and all he brought them was war and misery.’

She was brushing her blonde locks near the gold inlaid wicker doors that led on to the balcony. Her beauty still took my breath away. We had taken one of the bedrooms near the quarters of the new king and queen.

She stopped her grooming and turned to look at me. ‘And what of Mithridates and Narses, do you think they will accept your little arrangement?’

I walked over to her and kissed her on the head. ‘No, but who will they send against me? Mithridates will not leave Ctesiphon and his doting mother and Narses will have to raise a large army before he dares to march against me. And to raise an army will take time.’

‘You have it all worked out, don’t you?’

I cupped her face in my hands. ‘Of course. But enough of politics. Let us talk of giving Claudia a brother or sister, if my queen is agreeable to the notion.’

She placed her hands on my hips and looked at me with her big blue eyes and her mood softened. ‘She is agreeable.’

It was truly a most wonderful end to a great day.

The morning came soon enough, and with it the sound of hobnailed sandals on the flagstones of the palace square. The voices of centurions barking orders and trumpet and horn blasts signalled that it was just another routine day in the life of Dura’s army. After a breakfast of fruit, honey, yoghurt, bread and water, Gallia and I went to the throne room where we found a nervous Nergal and Praxima. Gallia embraced her friend and I laid a hand on Nergal’s shoulder.

‘You are not going into battle, my friend.’

‘I wish I were,’ he said, his face slightly pale. ‘Are you sure about this, Pacorus?’

‘Quite sure. How many years have we fought together? Remember, you have Dura’s army behind you.’

And I made sure that the army’s strength was on show that day. The city walls were lined with legionaries and Nergal’s horse archers made a sweep through the Royal Orchard looking for any remnants of the garrison. They found a large group of them who promptly surrendered themselves in exchange for their lives. I asked Orodes to take the cataphracts attired in their scale armour to the White Temple to act as an escort for Rahim. I kept Surena and his Ma’adan out of the palace and thus out of the way of Gallia, but he approved of my plan to make Nergal king.

‘An excellent choice, majesty. Lord Nergal is a great warrior. Will he expel the population from the city?’

I was horrified. ‘Certainly not.’

‘They have oppressed my people for many years.’

‘That may be, but today is the beginning of a new era for Uruk,’ I said, ‘one in which Ma’adan and Mesenians will live in peace.’

‘Old wounds take time to heal, lord.’

‘But they do heal, Surena, eventually. So I will have no more talk of enmity between your people and the Mesenians.’

He remained sceptical but was nevertheless delighted that Chosroes, the murderer of his parents, was dead. And as the late king’s army had also been put to the sword I foresaw few difficulties in uniting the kingdom under Nergal. The only potential obstacle to the whole project was Rahim, who arrived mid-morning, escorted into the palace by Orodes and accompanied by a dozen other priests dressed in white robes. Also bald like him, they trailed a few steps behind him with their heads bowed. We waited for Rahim in the throne room, Nergal and Praxima sitting on the dais. Nergal sat on Chosroes’ old throne but we had to find another seat for Praxima, as the old king had not shared his power with any of his many wives. We fetched the most richly decorated chair we could find and draped it in a red cloth to give it a mask of authority. Praxima wore her white top under her mail tunic, leggings and boots, her trusty dagger at her hip. Her sword in its scabbard rested against her chair. Nergal wore Chosroes’ crown and kept touching it, more from nerves than anything else. I stood beside him on the dais on his right-hand side, while Gallia stood next to Praxima. Both women let their hair hang free, Gallia’s pure blonde, Praxima’s a fiery red. To me Praxima would always be the wild, fierce warrior who killed with relish on the battlefield with the Amazons when we had been in Italy, but looking at her today I could see that she was also a very striking woman. Not a beauty, perhaps, but proud, strong and uncompromising. She would make a fine queen for her king.

Nergal touched his crown again. ‘Don’t worry,’ I whispered, ‘it won’t fall off. It suits you, Nergal, it really does.’

Around the outside of the room legionaries lined the walls and Amazons in their helmets and clutching their bows were either side of the dais. Rahim may have been surrounded by a host of soldiers but he retained his haughty demeanour, standing proudly in front of the dais with his arms folded. His stance could have been interpreted as a sign of disrespect but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

‘Welcome Rahim, I trust you and the people are well.’

‘They are well,’ sniffed Rahim, his eyes darting from me to Nergal and then Praxima.

I held out a hand towards Nergal. ‘Behold, King Nergal, ruler of this city, and his queen, Praxima.’

I thought I saw a flash of awe in Rahim’s eyes, but then it was gone as the priests behind him started whispering frantically among themselves. One walked forward and uttered some words into Rahim’s ear. The high priest nodded and then looked at Nergal and then Praxima. Then they turned their backs on us all and conferred together. Gallia looked across at me and frowned while Domitus looked bored. Nergal and Praxima both looked confused. Then Rahim and his priests stopped their chattering and went down on bended knees in front of Nergal. Rahim spoke, his voice echoing around the room.

‘Hail, holy one. Your coming was foretold many generations ago. We beg your forgiveness for doubting you. Please accept our humble apologies and our devotion.’

I was stunned. It was certainly more than I expected. I had hoped for Rahim’s acquiescence, a grudging acceptance would have sufficed. But this? I slapped Nergal on the shoulders, which earned me a glower from Rahim when he spotted it. No matter. Dobbai had been right; I must be beloved of the gods.

‘Get up, please, get up all of you,’ said a rather surprised Nergal.

Rahim and his priests rose and bowed their heads at Nergal and Praxima. A priest took two paces forward and whispered into Rahim’s ear once more.

Rahim nodded. ‘Excellent idea.’ He bowed his head to Nergal. ‘Would your highness and Queen Allatu care to visit the temple and inspect your people assembled there?’

Allatu? What nonsense was this? Praxima looked at Gallia, who shrugged.

‘Your idea is an excellent one, Rahim,’ I said.

He glowered at me again. ‘Only the king and queen may enter the temple itself.’

Nergal stood up, which caused Rahim and his priests to gasp in wonderment and once again go down on bended knee.

‘There is no time like the present,’ said Nergal, who now appeared much more confident. He held out his hand to Praxima, who rose from her chair and took it. They both then walked from the throne room with Rahim and his holy men following.

‘Go with them, Orodes,’ I said, ‘make sure they stay safe.’

Rahim turned sharply to face me. ‘I can assure you that they will be quite safe.’

He then scurried after Nergal and Praxima with Orodes walking briskly after them. When they had left Domitus dismissed the guards from the room and Gallia stood down her Amazons, leaving the three of us alone in the great chamber.

‘Does either of you understand what just happened?’ asked Gallia.

‘Pacorus has obviously bribed that head priest,’ said Domitus.

‘I don’t think any amount of money would have produced that outcome,’ I replied. ‘But whatever the cause of Rahim’s change of heart I give thanks to Shamash for it. It has made things much easier.’

‘He obviously saw something in Nergal and Praxima that reminded him of something sacred,’ remarked Gallia.

Domitus slapped me hard on the arm. ‘Whatever it was, Jupiter has smiled on you this day. You are one lucky bastard.’

‘Who is Jupiter?’ asked Gallia.

‘King of the gods,’ said Domitus.

‘The king of the Roman gods,’ I corrected him.

‘Roman, Parthian, they are all the same,’ said Domitus, ‘they demand endless grovelling and buckets of blood. Well, whatever the reason, I have an army to run. How long are you thinking of staying here?’

In fact we stayed for two weeks, during which time we learned more about Rahim’s change of heart. When Nergal and Praxima returned to the palace I was delighted to learn that Rahim had ordered the people to return to their homes. The new king and his queen had been taken on a tour of the White Temple, during which Rahim had taken them to the shrine at the summit of the ziggurat. Inside they had been shown ancient clay tablets and stone carvings on the walls.

The tablets told of Nergal, the god of war who was the eldest son of Anu. As Nergal related what Rahim had told him, I realised why he and his priests had reason to believe that Nergal was the reincarnation of his namesake. As well as his name, Nergal resembled the god in other ways. He was a gangly individual and the tablets told of a god who was a man having the legs of a cock, thus when Nergal stood up in the throne room the priests would have seen his long legs. Rahim had said that Nergal would come to the city at the head of an army for he was the god of war and pestilence and the lord of the half-human demons of the underworld. Rahim interpreted Dura’s legions as demons and, more importantly, worshippers of Shamash accompanied him, for Nergal was the brother of the sun god. Rahim then showed them a stone carving of Nergal on his throne with his wife, the goddess Allatu, a deity of the underworld, seated next to him. Allatu had the head of a lion, and seeing Praxima’s fiery mane Rahim and his priests had interpreted this as further proof that they were indeed the ones that the ancient tablets had spoken of.

Marcus and his men, having been responsible for the destruction of the city’s southern gates, oversaw the rebuilding of the walls and city life began to return to normal. The body of Chosroes was taken outside the city and reduced to ashes on a pyre, the ashes then being tossed into the Euphrates. I left a cohort under Drenis in Uruk to train the Ma’adan recruits that Surena had raised, who was sent back to his people to spread the news that there was a new king on the throne of Uruk. He took Viper with him to show her off to his family. He would stay with Nergal, as would Kuban and his Margianians. Gallia also left half the Amazons with Praxima, the two of them having a tearful farewell in the palace as the Duran Legion and the Exiles were already on the march out of the city. We would take the same route back to Dura that had brought us to Uruk. Orodes said his farewells and then departed the palace square at the head of the cataphracts and horse archers. At the end only Gallia, I and those Amazons who were returning to Dura remained, plus half a dozen new recruits, former members of the harem, now in my queen’s bodyguard. To one side, observing the proceedings, stood the brooding figure of Rahim.

I extended my hand to Nergal. ‘It has been an honour serving with you, my friend.’

He took my hand and we embraced. ‘You too, Pacorus. I owe everything to you.’

‘He would have been proud of you, of both of you.’

‘Who?’ he asked.

‘Spartacus.’

‘You think he watches over us, Pacorus?’

I smiled. ‘I like to think so.’

‘Me too.’

I embraced Praxima and kissed her on the cheek.

‘Remember,’ I said, ‘you are not alone. Dura stands with you always.’

Gallia was silent as we rode from the city and rejoined the army that was winding its way south and then west to the ford across the Euphrates. Byrd and Malik rode ahead to ensure there were no hostile groups in our path, but it was unnecessary. Even before we had left Uruk those lords of Mesene who were still alive had ridden to the city to pay homage to their new king. It would take time to rebuild the kingdom’s army, the more so because Mesene was not rich, but Nergal and his officers were up to the task and when they had finished Dura would have a valuable ally.

The march back to Dura was uneventful, though it was made at a hastened pace as Gallia wished to be with Claudia as soon as possible. Domitus used her desire for hurry as an excuse to push the army hard, the legionaries marching over twenty miles a day and grumbling like fury as they did so. They did not mind hard marching at the beginning of a campaign, but thought that they were entitled to take it easy after they had won another great victory. The oxen pulling the wagons that held Marcus’ siege engines could not maintain such a pace without collapsing in the heat, so I was forced to detach Orodes and half the army’s horse archers to protect them as the rest of the army sped north. After four days the gap between the wagons and the rest of the army had become too great and I called a halt, informing Gallia that the army would march as one. We waited for Orodes to catch up and then proceeded at a more leisurely pace. On the seventh day we bade farewell to Malik and Byrd, who both returned to Palmyra with Malik’s men.

Ten days after we had crossed the Euphrates to head back to Dura, Gallia and I rode through the Palmyrene Gate and into the city. Domitus and his legions returned to their camp and the lords and their retinues continued on to their homes. Crowds lined the streets and cheered as we led the cataphracts and their squires to the Citadel. Orodes rode beside us, the banners of Dura and Susiana fluttering behind. At the Citadel Godarz, Rsan and Dobbai, the latter holding Claudia’s hand, greeted us. Gallia jumped down and raced over to our daughter, then scooped her up in her arms. Godarz and Rsan looked solemn, and then I saw my father at the top of the palace steps. Somewhat taken aback, I dismounted and handed Remus’ reins to a waiting stable hand. Behind me the cataphracts and squires were likewise dismounting and leading their horses to the stables. I walked over to Gallia and embraced my daughter, one eye on my father who still stood at the top of the steps.