Ying Mei gave a little smile. ‘What if I’m a Chinese princess who’s been taken with a lover. I flee from the palace but my father is so angry he vows to slay me. I fly, but his vengeance follows me everywhere I go. In the end, accompanied only by my faithful attendant and two foreign slaves I find I have to seek exile in the only place he cannot reach – beyond the mountains.’
‘A disgraceful tale!’ remonstrated Tai Yi.
Nicander beamed. ‘That’s just the story we want! How can such as we be business spies? And it shows we have to move fast and secretly – well done, Ying Mei!’
Early the following morning Marius and Nicander hired two horses and headed towards the foot of the mountains.
They had a name and a place and quickly found the outlying compound. A modest collection of snug timber buildings, it had a bare pasture at the back with many horses and a few donkeys. Was this an operation that could cross those titanic snowy peaks and take them to the Western Lands?
They were met outside the largest building by a young man in red and black with ornate boots and tassels. He was not of any of the races of people Nicander had come across and his fierce, dark-tanned features had no trace of the oriental. He carried a whip which he passed from hand to hand as he snapped a question at them in a strange tongue.
Ignoring it, Nicander asked in Chinese, ‘We come to offer business. Who shall we speak with?’
‘In here!’ came a reply.
They entered a smoky room and sitting at a table was the most ancient old man he had ever seen. He barked something at them.
Taken aback by his vigour Nicander repeated what he had said.
‘Who are you to come here asking stupid questions?’ The man replied in near-faultless Chinese.
‘Are you still crossing the Terek Davan Pass?’
‘If I am?’
His heart skipped a beat. Dare he hope?
‘You were recommended by Kashgar to take a late freight. I’ve got one that has to get over before the end of the season. Can you do it?’
‘Why aren’t you using an agent?’
‘Because this is a special, I want to organise this myself.’
‘No.’
‘Why not? You’re crossing still, aren’t you?’
‘You’re new around here, stands out like a tree in a desert. The Sogdians have a hold on everything here, that’s why. Don’t want trouble with ’em, they spying me taking a freight away from them. See?’
‘I can understand that. But this isn’t cargo, it’s people. Let me explain…’
Before the man had chance to interrupt he launched into their story, telling of harrowing times fleeing unjust retribution, the constant fear, the trust they were putting in himself at that very moment.
‘… so all she asks is to be taken beyond the mountains until his wrath is spent. Surely you have enough pity in your heart? Your Sogdians wouldn’t care if you took just four across – they’re only being taken there into exile, it’s not as if you’re robbing them of freight.’
The man stroked his straggling beard then shook his head. ‘I’ve never taken travellers. It’s too hard on them who aren’t used to it. And a princess! No, this is not for me.’
Nicander, however, saw an opening for a commercial negotiation. Names were exchanged and within the hour a deal was done.
He, Yulduz, would take them for a fee and on conditions they dress as Kyrgyz and supply their own gear, which he specified. It would be a freight run, the usual when not hired by the Sogdians, which comprised goods needed by the mountain folk on the way up and taking theirs to sell down the other side. Therefore there’d be no fancy treatment as they’d enjoyed in a proper camel train.
‘Osh! Did you hear that, Ah Lai? We’re going to Osh!’
‘Now, don’t get too excited, Ying Mei,’ Nicander cautioned. ‘Yulduz told me it’s going to be the worst journey we’ll ever take and he can’t do much about it. And there’s not long to get the gear he said we’ll need.’
‘Why can’t I be excited? We’re saved!’
‘How do you know? Where’s this Osh anyway? – I’ve never heard of it,’ Marius rumbled.
But there was no suppressing the general optimism.
They quickly arranged to purchase new kit – mainly warm clothing; leather boots, a double-thickness padded coat and a peculiar felt pyramid that wrapped around the body. With a pair of fur-lined leather gloves and their existing sheepskins, they were ready.
Yulduz met them with a gap-toothed grin. ‘Which one’s the princess?’
Ying Mei froze him with a glance.
The smile disappeared and he gave a clumsy bow. ‘Is Your Highness ready to depart, M’ Lady?’
Their mounts were led out to barely stifled gasps of dismay. They looked like runts; donkey-coloured, they had bushy manes and long tails. Nicander heaved himself up on one, which didn’t appear to be troubled by the burden.
Their baggage went on a pack mule and with the other ponies, five drivers and Yulduz they got under way.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
As they skirted the base of the mountains, they were overawed by their dark bulk thrusting vertically to arrogant heights. The limitless immensity of the desert floor stretched out to the other side.
After an hour or so a river valley opened up and they entered the world of the mountain.
Bare, forbidding grey cliffs dropped precipitously down to the narrow valley floor and a small jade-coloured river.
On each side the cliffs began closing in and before long they were threading their way along an uneven rocky track by the side of the river. Ahead through the winding defile Nicander caught breathtaking glimpses of snowy peaks.
A constant cool wind funnelling down from the uplands through the ravines obliged them to find warmer clothes. As they wound ever deeper into the mountain fastness it turned to a sun-bright cold that was piercing.
Sure-footed, their ponies made their way forward on the rough terrain, delicately, like cats. It was now obvious why these were used in preference to the big-boned horses of the plains.
By the end of the day their track was appreciably steeper. They stopped at a flat area, a saddle between two valleys. It had spectacular views of the interior, the soaring peaks now tinged with a delicate rose as the lower areas shadowed before nightfall.
On this caravan there were no crew to take care of the domestics and while Nicander and Marius set about rigging a heavy black tent Tai Yi and Ying Mei took their pot to where a tiny cooking fire crackled.
Quite swiftly the mountains turned purple and then all disappeared into the shadows of night.
With no campfire, no entertainments and no fellow travellers there was nothing for it but to retire. To reduce the load, a single communal tent had been brought – and sleeping arrangements agreed. The ladies would enter first and when decency allowed, call out, on their honour to face away as the men did likewise.
The tent was roomy but stuffy with a strong odour of animal. Nicander threw the door flaps wide but the night air was frigid, feeling far colder than the desert and with a humid edge to it, much more cutting. He quickly laced them up again.
They lay back in the dark and after a round of stilted ‘good nights’ each was left alone with their thoughts.
Across the saddle they descended to another valley floor trending in a different direction. It widened and after a while they took a steep path that led out on to a sparse meadow. The ponies were given their head to crop the grass.
Without any warning a squall came up and fat drops of rain began falling, icy cold. It passed as quickly, leaving the grass wet and glittering and the sun beaming in warmth.
Suddenly Ying Mei pointed to the sky. A pair of great eagles circled high up. ‘Wild creatures!’
They were the first such they had seen after months in the dead heart of the desert.
‘And there.’ Marius’s keen eyes spotted a montane sheep perilously picking its way along the side of the far mountain.
They spied more and the time passed agreeably until they found themselves entering some kind of upland kingdom between the crags and peaks. Pleasant grassy sward, trickling crystal brooks and here and there the tiny dash of colour of a wildflower.