The Blood-stained Belt (10 page)

I leaned back
against the wall and put my hands against Dana’s shoulders to put
space between us. I said, ‘I am thinking about it.’

‘Well?’

‘I’m thinking
that it could mean big trouble.’

Dana pressed
one of my hands against her cheek. ‘Trouble? How?’

‘Damn it, Dana,
she’s the king’s daughter!’

‘Well, what of
it?’

‘What of it?
Man, this isn’t like something between you and me, or just any –
hey! What’s that for?’ Dana had been nibbling at one of my little
fingers, playing it between her teeth and lips. When I tried to
withdraw my hand, she looked me straight in my eyes and nipped the
tip of the finger. I tugged my hand away, shook it vigorously – it
wasn’t the gentlest of bites -- and said, ‘Hey! Careful!’

Dana chuckled.
‘Have I got your attention now?’

‘You didn’t
ever not have it.’ I was still shaking my hand as the pain
subsided.

‘Good. Now
answer me – are you going to be a soldier all your life?’

‘I don’t know.
Maybe I will be. Why not? Or maybe I'll go back to Osicedi one day.
Who knows? Anyway, why are you asking?’

Dana stroked my
chin, passing the tips of her fingers lightly to and fro across it.
‘I mean, are you going to stay a plain, simple soldier all the time
you’re in the army? Just a plain, simple soldier? Don’t you have
any ambition?’

‘Sure, I have
ambition.’

‘How much
ambition?’

‘I have plenty
of ambition.’

‘Exactly!’

‘Exactly
what?’

‘Exactly what
you should be thinking about – ambition!’

‘What do you
mean?’

‘Mecolo is the
king’s daughter – right?’

‘Which is why
–‘

‘Oh, Jina,
Jina, you only see the problem. You don’t see the possibility.’

‘Which is
--?’

‘That Mecolo
will be grateful for any favour that you do for her.’

I said, ‘Sure,
she might be grateful. But there’s also a possibility – a big one –
that the king, not to mention a few other people, might not be so
grateful.’

Dana laid her
hands alongside my face and said earnestly, ‘It’s her risk, not
ours. All we’re doing is arranging the meeting. The rest is up to
her.’

‘And
Sharma.’

‘Yes, and
Sharma. But he can make up his own mind, can’t he?’

‘I don’t know.
I still think –‘

‘Look, Jina, I
can’t speak for you, but speaking for myself, I’m not going to be a
seamstress all my life. No ways!’ Dana pressed herself against me
again, pulled my head forward, and kissed me. It was a long kiss,
moist and luxurious. I found myself responding even while my mind
told me that I was being drawn into this matter much too quickly.
Then, still with her body against mine, Dana leaned back and asked,
'Do you remember the clouds, Jina?’ I nodded. ‘You remember what
you said about how we could float together over the Endless Ocean,
or any other place we chose?' I nodded. Dana said, 'Well, Jina, a
plain, simple soldier and a poor seamstress aren't free to follow
their dreams – not if the dreams are worth anything. To do that,
you need something behind you, something big, something that will
set you on the right road.’ Still leaning back but holding our
bodies close with one arm around my back, Dana rubbed the tip of my
nose half playfully and half forcefully. She asked, ‘Do you
understand me?'

I nodded,
blinked, and pressed against her. The fire was up and I wanted her
body to be moulded with mine. Bright-eyed, licking her lower lip
speculatively, Dana held me away from her and said, ‘Think of the
possibilities, Jina. Think of the possibilities for both of
us.’

‘I am
thinking.’ It was true that I was trying to think about the future,
even if my mind and other parts continually veered away towards
possibilities that were more immediate and a lot closer to hand. I
murmured 'Yes! Possibilities!' and tried to pull Dana to me but she
leaned back with her hands against my chest and asked, ‘You’ll do
it?’

‘All right. I
guess I will.’

‘You’ll do it
tomorrow?’

‘Tomorrow? So
soon?’

‘Mecolo is
impatient. She likes to get what she wants.’

‘I’ll see what
I can do.’

‘Oh, Jina,
thank you.’

‘Hold it! I
want you to promise that you won’t talk about it.’

Dana chuckled
and said, ‘What's salt for the lamb is salt for the beef, isn't
it?’ She stood back, put both hands on her heart, and said, ‘I
promise by the wrath of Zabrazal.’

‘May Zabrazal
punish you if you break the promise?’

Dana nodded and
completed the oath.

When I told
Sharma that the king’s daughter wanted to meet him, Sharma just
laughed at me. He punched me on the shoulder playfully and said, ‘I
thought you could come up with a better practical joke than
that.’

‘It’s not a
practical joke, man!’

‘Oh, come on,
Jina – give it up. I’ve got better things to do.’

‘Damn it, man,
I’m telling the truth!’

Sharma stopped
chuckling and looked at me narrowly. He pursed his lips and asked,
‘You're not kidding?’

‘No. I'm not
kidding. I’m serious. I am completely serious.’

Sharma gave me
his sidelong look with his left eye half-closed. He flicked his
tongue across his top lip, looked at me speculatively, and asked,
‘How come you’re the go-between?’

I explained and
Sharma said snorted sceptically, saying ‘A princess and a baker’s
daughter?’

‘Why not? Who
do you think Vaxili’s daughter has for friends? Do you think
they’re going to import some true-blue aristocrat-friends from the
Dornites, or from the Usserdites, or what?’

‘All right, all
right, I accept that Dana and Mecolo are friends. But how do you
know that Dana isn’t playing a practical joke?’

‘Because I know
Dana and I can see that she's serious! Anyway, so what if it's a
practical joke? Let’s say that we arrange a meeting tomorrow and no
one turns up? So what? Or some other woman turns up instead of
Mecolo? Again, so what? What have you got to lose?’

‘And what if
only Dana turns up?’

‘By Zabrazal,
Sharma, that’s a remark in poor taste!’

‘I was just
teasing. Hey, man, don't --’

‘I don’t like
that sort of teasing! You hear me? I do not like it!’

‘I’m sorry. I
apologise. Let’s forget about it. All right?’

I grunted,
‘Apology accepted. Forget about it.’ However, Sharma’s imputation
rankled with me for a long time after that.

In spite of
Dana’s schemes, Sharma and Mecolo had to wait a while longer to
meet. That night, the bugles sounded just before midnight. Their
shrill notes hauled us out of the depths of sleep and dumped us in
the rough discomforts of the world around us. Cursing and
complaining, we tumbled out of bed, trying to light lamps, falling
over each other, tripping over our boots, and scratching around for
our weapons and equipment. Commanders bellowed instructions, raging
at the muddled confusion and trying to get their units together in
the dim, flickering light of torches. It took nearly an hour for
the whole army to assemble on the parade ground and even then there
was still a lot of shuffling, bumping, coughing, swearing, hitching
of belts and straps and adjusting of equipment.

Finally, when
the army settled down into a semblance of order, Vaxili addressed
us briefly. He told us that a Dornite army had swept in from the
south-east, looting, taking captives and occupying a large tract of
territory. Tersely, he reminded us of what we had learned during
our period of training. This, he said, was our first big test and
for the sake of Keirine and ourselves we dared not fail it.

So this was it!
This was the big one – us against the Dornites, the first
head-to-head between the army of the Kingdom of Keirine and the
ancient enemy. All of us were excited and some were even elated.
However, those feelings were buried under the discomfort of broken
sleep, the weight of our packs, and the usual chaffing of soldiers
under discipline. Yawning and muttering, the army trudged out of
camp and took the road that led south from Koraina – the same road
that Dana and I had wandered along a few days earlier. There were
shouts and curses in the dark as the commanders tried to keep order
and more curses as men stumbled over obstacles or collided with
each other. To add to the confusion, messengers on horseback forced
their way through the ranks. Most of my comrades had never been
near horses before and were terrified of them. At the sight of
these dark forms, huge and alien against the dim night sky, men
scattered to left and right. Zaliek cursed at them and shouted,
‘How the hell do you think you’re going to stand up to the Dornite
cavalry when you run like children from a single horse?’ It was a
pertinent question.

By
mid--afternoon, we were marching through countryside that had been
pillaged by the Dornites. Hearing that the army was approaching,
the inhabitants began to come down from their places of refuge in
the hills. As we marched through a large village where just about
every house had been damaged or destroyed, people lined the
roadside, grim-faced, shouting and jeering at us:

‘What good is
an army that arrives when the Dornites have already left?’

‘What are we
paying taxes for – just to feed your fat stomachs, eh?’

‘When you’ve
finished fighting the Dornites, come back and rebuild our houses,
if any of you survive.’

An old man was
sitting on a stool in front of his house surrounded by pieces of
broken furniture. As our unit marched past him, he heaved himself
to his feet and shouted in a high, thin voice, ‘May Zabrazal damn
you to deepest darkness!’ He tried to pelt us with stones but he
was so feeble that the missiles didn’t reach us. When he exhausted
his supply of stones, he shouted, ‘You should have your faces
smeared with cow dung.’ It was an extreme insult. Zaliek heard the
muttering in the ranks and shouted, ‘Eyes front! Pick up the pace –
hup, hup!’

A young woman
came out of the house next door, made a derogatory gesture with her
fingers, and shouted, ‘They raped his wife and then cut her throat.
A woman of sixty years of age and him nearly seventy! They made him
watch. Where were you? Are you here to protect the living or to
bury the dead?’

Zaliek didn’t
even flash a glance at her. He just bellowed at us, ‘The next man
who doesn’t keep his eyes to the front will be put on heavy duty!
Hup, hup!’

Sharma hissed,
‘We’ve killed three Dornites already, you and me, but I’ll be a lot
happier when we’ve killed three hundred of the bastards.’

‘Or three
thousand?’ I said it ironically but Sharma flicked an approving
look at me and nodded.

I quoted
Zaliek’s maxim: ‘Forget about revenge. Forget about resentment.
They get in the way of clear thinking.’

Sharma said,
‘Don’t worry, my friend, I’ll be thinking clearly when we get to
grips with them.’

‘That’s good.
Keep it like that.' The destruction all around us brought it home
to me that the enemy was close at hand. Dry-lipped, I said, 'You’ll
need a clear head and steady nerves. Facing those bastards isn't
going to be easy.’

‘Are you
worried?’

‘Worried? No,
I’m just scared out of my mind, that’s all.’

We marched
along in silence for a while before Sharma said, ‘Me too. But don’t
worry – we’ll be all right when we get to grips with them.’ Then,
after a few seconds, he said quietly, ‘When we meet them, I won’t
forget what they’ve done to our people.’

CHAPTER
SEVEN: SOLDIERS OF KEIRINE

Next day, we
met the Dornites at Gandonda. Shivering in the morning chill and
blanketed in mist, our army advanced down the valley from the
north-west. Dornite bugles sounded somewhere in front of us,
muffled in the thick air, and from time to time through drifting
gaps in the mist we could see signs of distant movements. Then, as
we advanced and the mist began to lift, we saw that the Dornites
had formed up at the shallow head of the valley. From our position,
the Dornite army looked like a gleaming belt that stretched across
the floor of the valley. They stood there in complete silence,
immobile except for the occasional movement of a horse or the light
wafting of breeze-blown plumes. It was eerie, like confronting a
life-sized, life-like, petrified frieze.

At a distance
of about one thousand paces, Vaxili halted the advance and
re-formed our line, strengthening the centre and drawing our flanks
forward so that they advanced along the sides of the valley. At
that point, Zaliek planted himself in front of our squad and said,
‘Good luck! Remember your training. This is where I leave you.’

There were
protests but Zaliek silenced us with a gesture and said firmly, ‘My
contract calls for me to train you not to fight against the
Dornites.’

Someone called
out, ‘Are you afraid?’

Zaliek’s eyes
narrowed as he replied, ‘No, Nadali, I’m not a coward. But I’ll
tell you one thing – if the Dornites capture you, they won't kill
you. In fact, they’ll be only too happy to take you alive. But if
they capture me, they’ll kill me in ways that you don't want to
know about. I need to be paid double if I’m going to face danger
like that. Anyway, it’s not my fight, is it? You’re the soldiers of
Keirine, not me.’ He saluted us, hitched his sword over his
shoulder, Dornite-style, and moved towards the rear.

Sharma broke
ranks and followed Zaliek. He trotted back within a few minutes,
looking bleak. He pulled me towards him and whispered, ‘It’s like I
thought. Zaliek says this is crazy.’

‘What’s
crazy?’

‘We’re fighting
in level country. The Dornites have all the advantages – cavalry,
chariots, and room to maneuver. We’re playing into their
hands.’

‘Thanks,
Sharma, you’ve just made me feel a lot better.’