Ying Mei had drawn heavily on her uncle’s note at the last possible place, Khotan, and Mansur’s price would seriously deplete her resources. However, there was nothing for it. To leave under eye through guarded gates was not to be considered, even in a disguise of some sort. As part of a caravan perhaps two had some chance of breaking out but as a conspicuous party of four…
‘How will we escape the city?’ Nicander asked.
‘Leave to me. First, you give me your mark.’
This was to be something that would recognisable to them later. ‘Marius! Your Mithras.’
Unwillingly the legionary took off his iron ring and passed it over.
‘Tonight, someone will come with this. You will do as he say! Your baggage – you leave in this room, so. Go with nothing.’ With that, Mansur slipped away.
It proved to be a long wait but, just as the first light was beginning to lift the darkness, a boy appeared at the steps.
He handed over the ring. Nicander gave a nod.
Nervously the lad beckoned. They followed on to the roof and down the rear in the predawn stillness. The boy darted ahead, peered around the corner, then motioned for them to make haste.
Nearby a cock crowed making Nicander’s pulse race but there was no holding back now.
The small group hurried down the street and turned into a narrow lane. It led to a communal well.
Pausing, the boy looked about – then feverishly cranked up the bucket and gestured to Marius.
‘In there?’ he muttered with incredulity.
The boy stabbed a finger at the bucket.
‘Stand on it, hurry,’ Nicander said with urgency.
Marius did so, holding on to the rope and the lad let him down quickly. He leant over to see, then cranked up the bucket and pointed to Tai Yi. She went down too, followed by Ying Mei.
As the bucket was being pulled up, Nicander heard footsteps behind. He whirled round – but it was only a woman with a large pitcher looking at them curiously.
The boy gabbled something and she came forward with a smile and took her time getting a fill of water, then left.
Nicander clambered on and the bucket was lowered quickly into the darkness, past slimed stonework that stank of mineralised water.
At the bottom was a light – a tallow dip set on a ledge giving a ghostly illumination to the three standing together in water to their knees.
‘I didn’t reckon on this,’ Marius quavered. ‘What’re we doing here?’
Nicander recognised the ancient method he’d seen in Petra for bringing life-giving water from distant snow-covered mountains to arid lands. ‘This is a qanat. You see that tunnel?’ He pointed to the low subterranean passage hewn out of rock. ‘It feeds a line of wells that goes far into the desert. I’ve a notion we’ll be going for a long wet walk.’
The boy shinned down the rope and splashed next to them. He picked up the light and led the way into the tunnel.
Bent double, they inched forward, following the wavering light and stumbling on the uneven floor.
In the gloom the sound of their splashing progress was loud and echoing.
Was the crushing weight of rock above them waiting to collapse and bury them?
Nicander had contrived to be behind Ying Mei whose mechanical movements betrayed her fear and in the darkness he ached to hold her, to comfort her. He realised that Marius, too, was affected by the confinement of the narrow, dark passage. He tried to keep up a steady conversation, complaining at the numbing cold of the water, the constant splashing forward and demanding that the sun had better be shining good and hot when they eventually came up.
Then far ahead there was a change in the Stygian blackness. As they made towards it, it resolved into a delicate splash of light from above. They drew nearer until they reached it – they were at another well and far up was a perfect disc of pure brightness.
Marius stared up, the light pitiless on his contorted features. He gave a hoarse cry and pounded on the side of the well.
The boy hurried back and urgently signalled that this was not the right one, they must continue on.
But Marius was near the end of his tether. Nicander pushed over to the legionary and swung him around. He scooped icy water and dashed it into his face. ‘We’re all still here, Marius! Let’s finish it together!’
The man’s chest heaved and Nicander could sense the struggle taking place as his friend strove to conquer his terror.
‘It’s time to march, caligatus,’ he said gruffly. ‘Now!’
With fixed, staring eyes Marius shuffled off down the tunnel.
They splashed on and on. It wasn’t the next well but the one after that when they were motioned to stop.
The boy whistled twice. There was no response.
He whistled again, agitated. No answer drifted down to their echoing dungeon.
Nicander felt panic rising. If there was a misunderstanding and no one was there…
A sudden dark shape broke the blinding circle of light above and a shout echoed.
In a giddy wash of relief the young boy shouted back and soon a bucket on a rope was clattering down.
‘Marius, you go.’ Nicander guided him forward.
‘No!’ he replied in a hoarse, off-key voice. ‘Ladies must.’
Ying Mei was first and the bucket was winched up. Then it was Tai Yi, but Marius would not be budged, it had to be Nicander next.
The squeaking windlass swayed him up into the ever-increasing light until in a blinding flash he reached the surface. Willing hands helped him over the lip of the well and in the warmth of the morning sun he found himself looking out over a parched landscape back to the walls of the city.
He turned to the well but it was the young boy who stepped out.
Marius was the last to emerge. He fell to his knees and kissed the warm earth. ‘I’ll rot in hell before ever I get down there again!’
Mansur was waiting for them with mounts ready saddled up, along with his packhorses and mules and a goods wagon piled high. ‘We stage at Aktash. Your baggage will catch us there.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Nicander’s heart was bursting; there were so many things that he wanted to say to Ying Mei, but she was riding ahead with Tai Yi.
He found his chance at the midday break when they stretched their legs together under the spreading willow trees along the river.
‘My dearest, dearest Callista,’ he murmured, ‘we haven’t had a chance to talk.’
‘Dear Ni K’ou – it’s hard for both of us, but you see-’
They were startled by one of Mansur’s drivers as he brushed past on his way to wash a water skin.
Nicander collected himself. ‘I’m sorry you had to leave Samarkand where you would have been able to listen for news of China.’
She gave a small smile. ‘Don’t worry about that, Ni K’ou. I’ve thought of a way. You told me that the caravans end in Constantinople. Travellers can’t get through Persia, but messages can. I’ll send a letter to Yulduz and ask him to deliver it to my uncle’s agent in Khotan. That way my uncle can get it to my father in Shaolin. You see? So when I’m in Constantinople I can tell him I’m safe and happy – and perhaps that I’m Ni K’ou tai tai,’ she added shyly.
His eyes misted and his hand went out to hers.
‘Please don’t, Ni K’ou.’ She drew away and her face clouded. ‘We can’t be… close… It would shock Tai Yi and I would hate to hurt her. And it wouldn’t really be fair to Marius…’
‘My darling love – how can I-’
She looked at him tenderly. ‘Ni K’ou, I love you and I want nothing to spoil it. Why don’t we keep things as they were until we get to Constantinople? Then, when we’re safe, we’ll tell the world and be married.’
‘B-but it’ll be so long and…’
‘I’ll be strong and you must be too,’ she said, easing away from him as they walked.
‘For you, I’d…’ he gulped.
But a thought came: was she in fact testing him? To discover whether it was love – or lust – that his feeling for her would be the same in far distant Constantinople before she gave her heart?