Empire of Lies

66

The undergrowth in the forest was heavy and slowed them down, but at least they had more cover than on open ground, from both enemy eyes and the high sun that was blasting the landscape with its omnipotence.

The woods were eerily, oppressively quiet. No hum from a distant motorway, no occasional planes streaking overhead and breaking the silence, however faintly. The silence was absolute, which only increased the sense of vulnerability infecting its dark corners.

Still, they were moving with renewed vigor, the fruits of their foraging and the sense of drawing nearer to the castle all helping to spur them on.

“Tulln is close, perhaps half an hour from us,” Kolschitzky announced. “With a bit of luck, we’ll be at Stetteldorf within two hours.”

“We can’t spend too long at the castle,” Kamal told him. “I hope you’ll be able to convince Sobieski quickly.”

“Don’t worry, I know what to say,” he assured Kamal. “I’ve been Starhemberg’s messenger since this whole disaster began. He’ll believe me.”

Kamal nodded and walked on.

Nisreen edged closer and moved beside him. He glanced at her and gave her a smile that didn’t quite disguise the anxiety simmering behind his eyes.

“It’s going to be tight,” he told her. “You’ll need to answer whatever other questions Sobieski might have after I leave.”

“I was paying attention—don’t worry,” she told him. Her tone turned more morose. “It’s the moment I’ve been dreading.”

Without stopping, he reached out and took her hand.

“We’re going to be fine,” he told her. “You’ll see.”

She tightened her grip around his, but didn’t reply, then she let it go.

For a long moment, they didn’t say anything. They just weaved their way through the trees, in silence, their feet crunching down on the thick carpet of twigs and leaves, their glances meeting occasionally.

Kolschitzky was several paces ahead of them, and they were dropping back.

“It’s so… weird,” she told Kamal, speaking low enough that the Pole wouldn’t hear. “Being here. All this. Isn’t it?”

“It does feel very, very strange,” Kamal said. “I mean, we’re here, now, walking through this forest, and it feels… normal somehow.”

“Ramazan, Tarek, Noor… so much is happening, it’s crowding out my mind. It’s putting more distance between us and the past. And I don’t want it to.” She paused, then added, “It feels like a lifetime ago. And in a way I suppose it is. But I don’t ever want my life before all this to drift away. Even if it’s painful. I don’t want to ever let go of it. But if you’re not around, I’m worried their memories will eventually drift away. And that would be awful.” She stopped, signaling him to look at her. “Promise me you’ll come back so they’ll always be with me, too.”

“I don’t want to forget them either. And we won’t. Ever. No matter what happens.”

“On the train… you promised you’d never jump without me. What happens if you need to, if you get in trouble in the camp? How will we find each other?”

He stopped walking and turned to face her. “I’m not going to lose you, hayatim. Not in this life or in any other. You can count on that.”

She focused on his eyes, as if willing herself to never forget them. “What about after? What happens if we manage to pull this off? What are we going to do? Where do we go?”

“I don’t know. Let’s get it done first. Then… who knows?”

“I don’t want to stay in this time,” she declared. “It’s too… savage.”

“Then we won’t.”

“If we’re going to go back to a more civilized time, you’ll need to get the forward incantation from him.” She pulled back the sleeve on her shirt to present him the tattoo on her forearm. “We still don’t know if I got it right.”

“I’d better get it then,” he said with a faint grin. Then he glanced up ahead.

Kolschitzky hadn’t noticed that they’d fallen behind and had kept on walking.

“Come on,” Kamal told her. “Let’s stick together.”

They caught up to Kolschitzky and followed him down a heavily wooded incline. The air felt palpably cooler given the proximity of water.

“We’ll be able to start cutting inland up ahead,” he told them. “But we should drink before we set off. On open ground and under that sun, we’ll be glad we did.”

They marched on in single file across the virgin wilderness.

Before long, the babble of a stream came into earshot, and they headed in its direction.

Kamal was walking just behind Kolschitzky when the Pole slowed down just enough to allow Kamal to come up right behind him.

Without turning back, he told Kamal, in a low voice, “We’re being watched.”

Kamal tensed up. “What? Where?”

“Up ahead, to the right. I saw one. But there’ll be more.”

“Who?” Kamal asked.

“I couldn’t tell.”

“What do we do?”

“We keep walking as if nothing’s happened. If they’re out there, there’s no point hiding or putting up a fight. They rarely travel in small packs.”

As if to emphasize his words, an arrow whizzed by and implanted itself in a tree a few feet away.

A man appeared in the pathway up ahead. Then another. Then more of them emerged from behind the trees.

Kolschitzky stopped walking, as did Kamal and Nisreen.

“Bashi-bazouks,” Kolschitzky murmured to them.

Beware of what you wish for, Kamal thought, ruefully remembering what he had told Kolschitzky under questioning the first time they’d met: that the “damaged head” mercenaries were the reason that he and Nisreen were naked when caught in Vienna.

“Stay calm and let me do the talking,” Kolschitzky added. Then he raised his arm to the men in greeting. “Easy, brothers,” he called out. “We’re on the same side.”

The men stepped closer.

There were six of them. They weren’t dressed in uniform. Instead, they had a ragtag look, from the loosely wrapped scarves around their heads to their flowing capes and robes. Some wore hoops through their ears, and a couple had very dark skin and African features. What they all had in common, however, was that they were armed to the teeth. Most had two flintlock pistols strapped to their waist in leather holsters, bandoliers, and several daggers and sabers.

One of the marauders, a man with an eclectic black moustache that speared outward and eyes with all the warmth of a coal mine, stepped closer and flicked the tip of his saber at Kolschitzky and his friends, gesturing for them to show themselves more openly.

Kamal and Nisreen understood and stepped out from behind Kolschitzky, standing on either side of him.

The man eyed them suspiciously.

“You say we’re on the same side,” he bellowed. “Then why are they wearing the uniforms of the infidel?”

“They’re our spies from inside Vienna. They just managed to escape after they were discovered,” Kolschitzky yelled back.

The man stepped closer, still studying them curiously.

Kamal eyed him, scrutinizing him. Years of training and work had honed his instincts in how to read people, and he didn’t like what they were telling him about where this interrogation was heading.

“Whose spies?”

This wasn’t going well. Kamal could see it escalating badly very, very quickly. Then an idea blasted its way into his head. A desperate wild card.

“Ayman Rasheed Pasha,” he called out, his tone forceful and challenging.

The bashi-bazouk scowled at him doubtfully. “Who? I’ve never heard of him.”

“He’s the special advisor to the grand vizier,” Kamal replied.

“I know of no special advisor by that name.”

“You wouldn’t,” Kamal replied. “But he’s the reason Vienna is about to fall into our hands, and we answer only to him.”

The raider’s face darkened further, visibly affronted by Kamal’s insolence. “You speak with a strange accent.”

“Years of living among the infidel will do that to you,” Kamal said. “We’ve been spies for a long time.”

The man frowned, clearly processing what he was hearing. “You say you work for this special advisor?”

“Ayman Rasheed Pasha, yes,” Kamal told him.

“Let’s go meet him together then,” the man said, “and we’ll soon find out if what you say is true.” He took a few steps closer and raised the blade of his saber so that it hovered right under Kamal’s chin. “Which I sincerely hope it isn’t.”