Domitus frowned. ‘I thought Peroz’s father was marching to aid Aschek.’
‘He is,’ I agreed, ‘but Aschek is apt to panic and so it is wise to support him in his hour of need.’
‘I don’t know how he became king,’ sneered Domitus.
‘The same way my father and Atrax did,’ I replied. ‘Their fathers died and they inherited the throne.’
Domitus pulled out his dagger and began toying with it. ‘The Romans did away with their kings over four hundred years ago. Their republic is much more efficient.’
Peroz was shocked. ‘Rome killed its kings?’
Domitus smiled maliciously at him. ‘That’s right, and since then Rome has gone from strength to strength.’
‘Even though Domitus has lived in Parthia for twenty years there is still a part of him that is forever Roman,’ remarked Gallia, ‘is that not correct, Domitus?’
‘Old habits die hard,’ he replied wistfully.
‘You can take the man out of Rome but you cannot take Rome out of the man,’ I added mischievously.
Domitus bared his teeth and pointed his dagger at me. ‘What will you do if the Armenians do not turn up and this Apollonius turns out not to be a traitor?’
‘In those happy circumstances,’ I replied, ‘then we will meet Crassus and after we have defeated him we will march north, retake Nisibus and then invade Armenia to teach Artavasdes a lesson in manners.’
Peroz thumped the table in triumph and Malik smiled at him.
‘He reminds me of Surena,’ said the Agraci prince.
Domitus placed the point of his dagger on the table and began turning it. ‘Talking of him, can we expect your former squire to make an appearance in our hour of need?’
I held out my hands. ‘I have no answer to that.’
‘Impudent boy,’ snapped Gallia, ‘you should order him to attend you here.’
‘I could do that,’ I smiled at her, ‘and he would probably ignore me. He stormed out of a meeting with the high king so I hardly think he is going to obey a command from his lord high general.’
Gallia shook her head. ‘You say this Apollonius is a traitor but Surena’s actions are just as criminal. His troops could be the difference between defeat and victory.’
Domitus stopped turning his dagger. ‘She has a point, Pacorus.’
‘Surena, for all his faults, liberated Gordyene, raised an army and now spends his time killing Armenians. For all his insolence I cannot find it in myself to condemn him for his actions.’
‘That is because you found him, raised him up from the swamp he was living in, made him a warlord in your own image and unleashed him into the world,’ said Domitus. ‘I admire you for your loyalty, Pacorus, but he has reverted back into a wild savage, only this time he has an army and a kingdom to back him up.’
‘Surena is loyal,’ I insisted.
‘To you, yes,’ said Gallia, ‘but not to Parthia.’
Her hostility towards Surena had not abated since the first time she had met him and he had inadvertently touched her hair, so fascinated had he been by her blonde locks. Their relationship had deteriorated further when he had pursued Viper, one of her cherished Amazons. That he had gone on to marry the girl had infuriated my wife further but I knew Surena to be both brave and capable and I had viewed his achievements with a mixture of pride and admiration. If that was construed as weakness on my part by some then so be it.
The rest of the meeting was more agreeable, with Marcus reporting that his siege engines were all in working order and the camel train was loaded with not only replacement bronze-tipped arrows but also quivers full of Arsam’s new steel-tipped missiles. I gave orders that the latter were to be issued only when we faced Crassus, when we would put the theories of my chief armourer to the test. The arrival of Dura’s army meant that there were twenty-five thousand troops at Hatra, not including Kogan’s garrison of two thousand. To the west were Herneus’ ten thousand horse archers and another seven thousand under Silaces, which would swell our numbers to just over forty thousand men, enough to at least hold the Armenians until Orodes, Nergal and Atrax arrived.
At the end of the day, as I lay beside a sleeping Gallia in the palace, much of the anxiety that had gripped me since my journey from Syria had disappeared. The arrival of my troops and old friends had done much to dissipate it and the fact that no enemy army had been detected made me think that perhaps I had indeed let my imagination run away with me. I had, after all, based all my assumptions on the words of Marcus Roscius, the lover of Queen Aruna who had no doubt tutored him in the arts of deceit. What were the words of a Roman to me? Outside the warm night air was scented with the nectareous fragrance of the palace gardens where peacocks strutted, white doves roosted and fountains gushed sweet water from the eternal springs that gave the city life. This was Hatra, the impregnable fortress in the middle of the desert whose walls had never been breached by an enemy. As my wife’s chest rose slowly and subsided as she slept beside me I drifted into a sleep of contentment.
The next day the Armenians arrived.
I was standing in the palace’s large throne room in the presence of Hatra’s king and queen seated on their thrones with my mother looking very regal on the other side of Gafarn. She was wearing a long white gown with a crown on her head. Her black hair was loose and hung around her shoulders and she was had a gold belt around her waist and gold jewellery on her fingers. To the right of the dais upon which all three of them were seated was the severe Assur and his white-robed priests, and to the left Vistaspa and the commanders of the Royal Bodyguard and horse archers, plus Kogan and his senior officers. Diana’s son, Prince Pacorus, now thirteen years old, stood nervously next to Spartacus. Tall like his father, he had brown shoulder-length hair and a kindly face like his mother. When he caught my eye I smiled at him.
I stood beside Gallia in front of the dais and bowed my head at my brother and his wife, Diana rising to embrace her friend and Zenobia standing next to her. Diana also kissed Byrd and Domitus, much to the discomfiture of the latter, who stood as straight as a spear shaft beside me in his full armour, helmet in the crook of his arm. The hushed room was filled with the aroma of incense that had a calming effect. Spartacus smiled at Peroz who faced him.
‘Welcome Prince Peroz,’ said Gafarn, ‘brave son of King Phriapatius, our ally who holds the east of the empire.’
Peroz bowed his head. ‘Thank you, majesty.’
‘And welcome Pacorus, King of Dura,’ continued Gafarn, ‘whose martial fame is known throughout the world and who brings the great and undefeated army of Dura to stand by our own.’
‘It is an honour to be here, brother,’ I replied.
The exchanges were all highly formalised but Hatra was a very traditional city where Assur and his priests held great sway, believing that adherence to time-honoured rituals would win the favour of Shamash and benefit the city and its rulers. My father had been a stickler for rules and regulations just as his father before him and I realised that Gafarn had followed in their footsteps. Some of the city’s nobles may grumble but while Gafarn had the support of Assur, whose priests controlled the masses, there would never be an outright challenge to his rule. Most of the city’s great nobles were standing near him now, in the uniform of the Royal Bodyguard, while their sons rode in the ranks. But I did not see any sign of Apollonius among them, the man responsible for losing the west of my brother’s kingdom. Despite the despatch of couriers no word had reached the city of the errant lord’s whereabouts, or the twenty thousand horse archers he had led out of the city, but at least news had reached us that Silaces was on his way from the city of Assur.
The high priest who had been named after the city where Herneus was governor had just finished reciting a prayer when the doors of the throne room opened behind me, and all eyes focused on the guard who marched stiffly towards Kogan. Even before the contents of the sheet of folded papyrus that he carried in his hand were read I knew that something was awry. Where before there was calm and reassurance there was suddenly apprehension. With every step that the guard took towards Kogan the tension palpably rose until it became almost unbearable as he handed the note to his commander. Kogan did not read it but instead walked in front of the dais, bowed and then held it out for Gafarn to take. My brother did so and read its contents, then handed it to Diana to peruse.