By the time the sun had set last night, every body the militia could muster had been given a position on a wall or tower or in one of the makeshift temporary redoubts in the port. No one returned home now. Should it be days waiting, the men of M’Dahz would wait in place on the walls, huddled in blankets against the cold desert night and sweating through the heat of the day.
But the wait would not be long. Outlying scouts had returned around dawn to report a Pelasian army on the move and already in Imperial lands. The desperate and wild-eyed rider had reported a veritable sea of black-swathed bodies on the move and, when the commander had asked how many the army numbered, the scout had merely replied “all of them” and gathered his own gear to flee the town.
There had been a few desertions during the night. In fact, from their current position, the boys could see gaps that had opened in the line of defence. Even now, some of the men on the defensive circuit glanced wistfully over their shoulder at the dubious safety of the narrow streets.
It seemed curiously fitting that the brothers found themselves stationed with five other men on the very tower where uncle Faraj had begun their sword training those months ago. Now, though, as they glanced left and right, the wall was clear of obstructions and, where there had been open land before, there was now a new gate and a hastily-constructed wall, all with their own guards.
“Do you think their navy will attack the port at the same time?”
Samir shrugged at his brother’s question.
“Who knows? They’d be stupid not to, but that’s if they have a navy. I heard Cronus talking about them. There are three satraps around the border area, but only one of them rules coastal land, so what we’re facing depends on who it is that’s coming. It might be one satrap, or two, or possibly all three.”
He sighed.
“The one thing the commander said is that this must have been started without the consent of the Pelasian crown. Apparently their God-King is an ally of the Emperor.”
“Was an ally,” the taller brother corrected. “There is no Emperor now. As they say in the gambling pits at the port, ‘all bets are off’.”
The boys fell silent. Indeed, no man on the walls spoke in the eerie and oppressive morning light. The only sound that accompanied their tense anticipation was the gentle rumble of the wind blowing over the sand dunes and through the empty ways of the city. Samir shuddered.
“The dunes are noisy.”
Ghassan frowned.
“Too noisy. That’s not just the wind.”
As Samir fell silent and held his breath, the taller brother shaded his eyes and gazed into the distance. In their current position, they were on the highest part of the defensive circuit of M’Dahz, with the road into the deep desert heading out in a diminishing line before them, marching off to the oases and their date farms. The dunes came very close to the city here, where the desert met the sea. More than a century ago, an enterprising civic leader had created a levee of stone to keep the drifting sands away from the town. The levee had been buried beneath the endless dunes for many years now, so high were their crests and so deep their troughs. Sailors from the north who bothered to venture to this side of M’Dahz were often amazed by the desert. It was said that the sands south of M’Dahz formed waves higher than were ever seen on the seas.
And it was from one of the deep troughs that Ghassan watched the first Pelasians emerge. Tales of the Pelasian armies abounded in the folklore of the south. They were said to go to war with more pomp and splendour than the retinue of most Kings. In the old stories, the column of black-clad warriors was preceded by chariots bearing banners and effigies, musicians and acrobats. High-stepping, painstakingly-trained horses would convey the army’s leaders to the conflict.
The old tales were wrong.
There was nothing splendid about the flood of black that washed like a sick tide from the deep sands. Like a million locusts swarming across the sea of gold, so thick that hardly a grain was visible between them, descending on M’Dahz to strip it bare.
No musicians; no banners and acrobats. Just company after company of black-clad death-bringers. Spearmen, then archers, then heavily-armoured infantry; three varieties of predator in waves, over and over again. And alongside, escorting them in long-filed companies, came the cataphracti: cavalry so thoroughly armoured that every inch of both man and horse was covered with shining steel plate. Untouchable. And along the periphery, the light skirmishing cavalry in small parties.
The sight was breathtaking; terrifying and marvellous at the same time. And despite the certain dread of death that grasped Samir’s heart and pulled it down deep into his gut, all he could find to think was how hot those cataphracti must be under the desert sun.
Ghassan was breathing heavily close to his ear. Groans could be heard along the wall from the less disciplined militiamen. In his head, Samir performed a couple of swift calculations based on the size of each infantry and cavalry unit he could see. He whistled through his teeth. Even counting only the enemy he could see, and there were clearly more yet to arrive, the Pelasians must number more than ten thousand men. He had performed a head-count at the market meeting and estimated the militia to number a little less than three hundred. The odds were around thirty-five to one. While he had been under no illusion that the militia could hold the forces of Pelasia away from the town, the truth of their predicament suddenly struck home. It was like a rat trying to hold back the sea. If this satrap simply wished it, he could dismantle the entire town in less than a day with no appreciable loss of men.
“Are we foolish, Ghassan?”
His brother blinked in surprise.
“What?”
“Are we making a brave last stand to prove our worth as men” he asked, “or are we simply throwing ourselves onto the pyre of our pride?”
Ghassan opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound was forthcoming. He stepped next to his brother and watched as the last of the enemy came into view.
At the rear of the great army came a small mounted party, with one man clearly at the centre. As the army drew itself to a halt beyond the missile range of the wall, the man on his single, gleaming black steed rode forth from his group, accompanied by half a dozen riders with large oval shields. They trotted through the deep sands past the many units and out into the open land before the walls.
As the man came closer, the brothers peered down at him, assessing this man who posed such a great threat. He was tall, dressed in fine, though understated, clothes and armoured only with a shirt of interconnected steel leaves. A black scarf wound around his head and neck and covered the lower half of his face against the abrasive sands. A long, curved sword hung at his side.
Though he had several men with him armed with great shields, he rode alone into arrow range, apparently unconcerned, and finally stopped ten yards from the gate, his horse snorting and prancing impatiently. The impressive satrap looked up at the defences. For a long time there was a tense and uncomfortable silence and then, finally, he unwound the black scarf and leaned back in his saddle, rubbing his smooth, clean-shaven chin.
“Boys!” he called out in a strong, surprisingly light and almost musical voice.
“Boys, old men and merchants!”
There was another uncomfortable silence.
“I have claimed M’Dahz and its surrounding lands as part of my demesne in the name of Pelasia and the God-King. I care not what you think or call yourself, but you and your land and possessions are now Pelasian.”
There was a low rumble of dissent among the defenders, but with no identifiable source or audible words. The satrap nodded as though answering some internal question.
“I give you a very clear choice. You many fight to defend your precious hive, though if you choose to do so, you will all die; I will take no prisoners. Then your women and children… those few of you old enough to have children…” a condescending smile crossed his face. “Will have to face a life without you, poor and alone until they die unremembered.”