Imperial Fire

XII

The remainder of the enemy, still formidably strong, stood arrayed in battle formation with their backs to the sea. Both dromons had floated free on the rising tide and the other enemy galley had landed its complement of soldiers and was loitering offshore. Thraco, the Greek leader, stepped out of the front rank.

‘We still have a crushing advantage in numbers and hold your ship, horses and supplies. Surrender the duke, the prisoners and the gold and we’ll leave you to go your own way. That’s my final offer.’

Vallon strolled forward, followed by two troopers dragging the duke by his bound hands. ‘If you have the beating of us, why waste time talking?’

Thraco didn’t answer. A muggy breeze rippled the Outlanders’ banners. Thunder growled inland. Vallon advanced another step. ‘Here are my terms. Land all our horses and supplies. When that’s done, you’ll let Pelican sail away without interference.’

‘Once you’re on board, any promise I make is void. There’s no way back for you.’

‘Who says we’re going back? When Pelican has sailed over the horizon, I’ll release all the prisoners except the duke. Refuse and I’ll kill them one by one in front of you. You’d better be quick. I’ve lost five men to your treachery and my temper threatens to get the better of me.’

‘Even if you kill them all, we’d still have the beating of you.’

‘Hear that?’ Vallon called to the Greek troops. ‘That’s how little your lords value the lives of your comrades.’ He let silence stretch. ‘So be it. Lead the first prisoner forward.’

Two Turkmen hustled a wounded officer out of the ranks, pushed him to his knees and slid swords from their scabbards. The prisoner raised his bloodied face towards Thraco. ‘Is this how you reward the men who fought and died on your behalf? Are we just pawns in a game designed to line the pockets of the duke and his relatives?’

Ugly murmurs of agreement bubbled through the Greek ranks.

‘Thraco, your men will die for nothing,’ Vallon shouted. ‘You’ll never get the gold. It’s cached miles inland. To reach it, you’ll have to wade through the bodies of the prisoners and a hundred other soldiers we’ll kill if you embark on that futile task. You’ll be forced to sail away empty-handed in the company of three hundred armed men who watched you sacrifice their comrades to your greed. Believe me, you won’t sleep easy on your voyage to Trebizond.’

‘Give him what he wants,’ yelled a prisoner, and two or three Greek marines echoed his demand before officers lashed them into silence.

Vallon laughed. ‘You can stop their mouths, but you can’t blow away that rank odour. Smell it? It’s the stink of mutiny.’

Thraco pawed his mouth. ‘Release the duke and then I’ll consider your demands.’

Vallon shook his head with slow finality. ‘Oh, no. The duke is never going home.’

Skleros lunged against his tethers. ‘Let me go,’ he begged. ‘I’ll plead your case.’

‘You’ll plead it from here,’ Vallon said. ‘And in the most abject terms.’

Skleros raised his hands. ‘Do what he says.’

‘Louder,’ Vallon ordered.

Skleros made a last appeal to venality. ‘I was too greedy. Half the gold for you.’ He shrank from the flame in Vallon’s eye. ‘Three-quarters.’

‘Kill him and have done with it,’ Vallon said. He flexed his sword. ‘No, by God, I’ll shear his head from his neck myself!’

‘Please!’ Skleros shrieked. He pumped his bound hands. ‘Accept the general’s demands in full.’

Capitulation sat ill with Thraco but the duke’s craven appeal and the troops’ simmering dissent left him little choice.

‘What I pledge today doesn’t hold for tomorrow.’

‘Right now I command my fate, and I order you to return to your ships, get your men off Pelican and allow her and my transports to tie up. I won’t release the prisoners until we’ve secured all our supplies and all the horses — the duke’s as well as our own.

Thraco’s features writhed. He turned with an airy wave as if he’d just lost a trivial bet.

Foul weather was brewing and the afternoon was all but done by the time the ships had worked their way to shore. Vallon and his aides climbed aboard Pelican and handed Captain Iannis a sealed letter.

‘Deliver it to the Logothete tou Dromou in person.’

‘Aren’t you returning with us?’

‘No,’ said Vallon. He measured the remaining daylight. ‘Leave now and use the night and rain to put distance between yourself and the enemy.’

He was at the gangplank when he checked, his gaze stopping at the Greek Fire siphon in the bow. ‘Take that,’ he told Josselin, ‘together with half a dozen barrels of the fire compound. And while you’re about it, dismantle the trebuchet. That’s coming with us, too.’

‘General, we have only enough pack animals to carry a week’s rations and other essentials.’

‘We don’t know what’s essential on a journey such as ours. We can always discard unnecessary baggage.’

All through the twilight Vallon strode from ship to ship, exhorting his men to greater efforts. They landed the last barrels and bales in a drenching mizzle and it was full dark before they’d loaded the supplies and the baggage train stood ready to depart. Vallon walked down to the sea’s edge.

‘Can you hear me?’

Faint and far came Thraco’s reply. ‘I hear you.’

‘We’re leaving. You’ll find the prisoners unharmed on the causeway.’

Thraco’s response followed them into the soggy night. ‘You’re going nowhere. You’ll never get through the Caucasus. Either the natives will slaughter you, or what’s left of your squadron will straggle back to Trebizond. And we’ll be waiting.’

The column crawled across the causeway in pelting rain, the flames of their torches reflected in the water and frogs croaking on all sides. Mosquitoes plagued them. Several times the wagons bogged down to their axles and had to be unloaded before they could be hauled free. Voices rose in complaint. Why hadn’t they sailed back on Pelican? Where was Vallon leading them?

A warning shout at the head of the column heralded the return of a scout. It was Wayland. Vallon scuffed mosquitoes from his face. ‘Where in Hades are we? How much further before we get out of this swamp?’

‘Only about a mile, but it would be safer to camp in the marsh. The villagers who fled have probably raised the alarm. I’ve found a patch of firm ground where we can pitch tents. The wagons will have to remain on the causeway.’

He led the way to the site. Vallon slid stiff-limbed from his horse and handed the reins to Wulfstan. ‘Tell the officers to report to my quarters when they’ve eaten.’

His own meal was hardtack soaked in wine, chewed outside in the rain while servants struggled to erect his command tent. It must have been around midnight before his centurions crammed in, along with Wayland, Hero and Wulfstan.

Vallon slapped his neck. ‘Damn these blood-sucking fly-by-nights.’ He settled on a camp stool. ‘Well, let’s hear what you have to say.’ He indicated Hero and Wayland and managed to overlook Wulfstan. ‘You know I respect their judgement as much as I value yours,’ he told the officers.

Josselin spoke first. ‘Why didn’t you sail back to Constantinople on Pelican?’

Vallon’s laugh could have come from a coffin. ‘Even if we eluded the warships, I doubt that the emperor would shower us with honours for abandoning our mission after little more than a week.’

‘Does that mean you intend to continue?’

Vallon stared into space for a moment. ‘That’s what we have to decide. In some ways, nothing has changed. We still have the treasure and the traitors haven’t reduced our strength by much. I count myself better off without the duke in charge. He was only a figurehead, after all, and a damned unpleasant one at that. The Chinese won’t know our rank or pedigree. We can give ourselves any titles we please.’ He grinned at Otia. ‘How would you like to be the Byzantine ambassador to the Song court?’

Otia’s demeanour remained grave. ‘What are you going to do with Duke Skleros?’

‘I’ll settle his fate in good time. I take it that he’s well-guarded.’

‘By four men, sir, night and day.’

Wulfstan sniffed. ‘Kill the bastard, sir.’

Vallon eyed him asquint. ‘I’m not sure in what capacity you’re attending this meeting.’

‘Right-hand man, sir. Loyal servant and bodyguard.’

Vallon let it pass. ‘He certainly deserves to be executed, but he might still serve some purpose as a hostage.’ He swivelled and looked around the cluttered interior. ‘The maps,’ he said. ‘I need to establish our position.’

Hero rummaged in a chest and unearthed a goatskin scroll. Vallon unrolled it on a camp table, weighting the corners down with oil lamps. ‘We’re a long way north from our planned line of march through Persia.’

In tactful silence, Hero turned the chart the right way round. It was a copy of Ptolemy of Alexandria’s map of the known world, updated with material borrowed from the best Arab cartographers. Hero tapped it. ‘We’re roughly here,’ he said. ‘North of Armenia, south of Rus, between the two main ranges of the Caucasus.’ His finger slid south-east. ‘Persia lies here.’

The others gathered round, trying to make sense of the world flattened into two dimensions. ‘Otia,’ said Vallon, ‘which route would you recommend?’

It was apparent that the centurion couldn’t make head or tail of the chart. He scratched his head. ‘If I wanted to get to Persia, I wouldn’t start from here. The easiest way is south, following the coast. The problem is that course would bring us to Armenia, only a few days’ ride east of Trebizond. It’s the route the duke’s men will expect us to take and that’s where they’ll be waiting for us.’ Giving up on the map, Otia pointed towards where he imagined Persia to lie. ‘Take the direct route and we’d have to fight our way through mountains, a dead end every second turn and tribesmen contesting every mile.’

‘He’s right,’ Hero said. ‘That’s the route Xenophon took on his retreat from Persia. He lost hundreds on the march.’

Vallon made an impatient gesture. ‘Why can’t we head east and follow the Caspian shore until we reach Persia? Surely that’s the shortest way.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Otia said. ‘But it would take us through Kutaisi, the Georgian capital. Even if the king granted us a safe conduct, we’d still have to pass through Tiflis and the eastern provinces — all of them held by the Seljuks.’

Vallon stirred in irritation. ‘Are you saying there’s no way off this coast?’

Otia hesitated. ‘The only way to avoid the main Georgian and Seljuk strongholds would be to follow the Phasis upriver into Svaneti, deep in the Caucasus. From there we’d have to take mountain trails east and then cross the northern Caucasus by a high pass before descending towards the Caspian.’

‘Anyone got any better ideas?’ Vallon demanded. ‘No? Then that’s the route we’ll take. Why didn’t you say so before, Otia?’

The Georgian winced. ‘General, the Caucasus is savage country inhabited by wild clans. Each valley is a world to itself, with its own language and customs. Blood feuds run like a spurting vein through society. The only thing the mountain men hold in common is a murderous hostility to outsiders — and that can mean folk from the next valley. Something else you should know. Many Georgians fleeing from the Seljuk invaders have taken refuge in the mountains. They won’t look tenderly on a force containing so many Turkmen.’

The rain had hardened, falling on the tent with a steady hiss that eventually made its own silence.

Vallon scratched his neck. ‘You wouldn’t have suggested the route unless you thought it was passable. You know the country and you know the perils. That’s a great advantage compared to the unknown alternatives. Now then, from this Svaneti can you lead us through the mountains — following some pass known only to a few shepherds?’

Otia shook his head. ‘Not a path our baggage train could follow. There’s only one way through the Caucasus for a force as heavily laden as ours. It’s a high pass called the Daryal Gap — the Gate of the Alans.’

Hero nodded. ‘Also known as the Caucasian Gates, Alexander’s Gates and the Scythian Keyhole. Actually, Alexander never crossed that pass, but King Mithridates escaped from Pompey’s legions through it. In legend, the country beyond the pass was the home of Gog and Magog.’

‘Save the history till later,’ said Vallon. He stared at the map. ‘Who controls the pass?’

‘The Georgians still held it when I left fourteen years ago,’ said Otia. ‘The Seljuks probably control it now. When I say “control”, I mean they occupy the forts at the southern end. The higher reaches are in the hands of mountain tribes — brigands who exact tolls on travellers or simply rob and kill them.’

The muggy atmosphere and voracious insects were making Vallon tetchy. ‘It can’t be that hazardous if armies have been crossing it for centuries.’ He stooped again over the map. ‘The Gate of the Alans, you said. I take that to mean the land of Alania lies on the northern side.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Our last emperor was married to an Alan princess,’ said Vallon. ‘She adopted Alexius as her son — and her bedmate, say some. Whatever the case, Constantinople and Alania are allies. Reach Alania and we should be among friends.’

Otia pulled at his beard. ‘Sir…’

Vallon looked up, his cheeks cavernous in the lamplight. ‘Go on.’

‘I fear you’re underestimating the dangers. I’ve campaigned against the Caucasus tribes and learned from bloody experience how formidable they are. From the moment we leave this camp, we’ll become targets for every brigand and warlord we encounter. If we fail to cross the mountains, they’ll pursue us all the way back to the sea. To win any sanctuary, we’d have to capture it by force. Even the smallest villages are fortified with towers built to resist an army.’

Vallon straightened. ‘Then we mustn’t fail.’ He ground his index finger into the map. ‘When we reach Alania, what next?’

‘Head east to the Caspian and try to find ships to carry us to the Persian coast. From there it’s only a short journey south before we strike our planned route.’

Vallon might have left it at that, but Hero could read the map better than anyone else and had spent a considerable time consulting with the Logothete’s geographers. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, easing Vallon aside. His hand traced a tentative course across the Caspian. ‘Whatever route we take, we have to reach Turkestan and join the Silk Road in the lands across the Oxus. Even allowing for errors on its maker’s part, the map shows that Transoxiana lies due east of the Caspian.’ He glanced at Otia. ‘How long would a sea voyage take?’

‘I’m not sure,’ said Otia. ‘About a week.’

‘Only a week? Even if the voyage was twice that length, it would be considerably shorter than a march across Persia.’

‘There must be a good reason for avoiding the sea,’ said Josselin. ‘Otherwise the Logothete would have sent us that way.’

‘Not with Georgia hostile to Byzantium and infested by Seljuks.’

‘Some of our Turkmen troopers are from Transoxiana,’ said Vallon. ‘Fetch Yeke.’

The Turk entered the tent with his face shiny from the rain. He appeared a most affable fellow, but Vallon had seen him in battle engaging the enemy while holding between his teeth, suspended by its hair, the severed head of an opponent he’d slain moments earlier. His grasp of Greek only extended to military commands, and Vallon left the intelligence gathering to Wayland. The exchanges lasted a long time, with much hesitation and head-scratching on Yeke’s part.

At last Wayland made his report. ‘Yeke says there are no ports on the Caspian’s eastern coast. The hinterland is virtually uninhabited, nothing but desert for hundreds of miles — one desert called the Red Sands, the other the Black Sands. We’d never find our way through without guides who know where the wells lie, and we’d have to move fast to cross the deserts before the heat of summer makes them impassable.’

‘But it’s possible,’ Vallon said.

Wayland glanced at Yeke. ‘If we don’t perish of thirst, a month’s hard travelling should bring us to the city of Khiva on the River Oxus. It’s called the Amu Darya in Turkic and lies on the caravan trails to Bukhara and Samarkand.’

Vallon pondered. ‘Say three weeks to reach the Caspian, a week to sail across it and a month to reach Khiva.’ He frowned. ‘Hero, we calculated that it would take three months to reach Bukhara by way of Armenia and Persia.’

‘At least.’

‘Plus another month just to make our way through Armenia. Four months in total, compared to only two if we take the Caspian route.’

‘The sea-road’s the road for me,’ said Wulfstan.

‘Forgive me, sir,’ Josselin said. ‘It seems to me that you’re placing too much reliance on this map and our ability to conjure up several ships.’

‘I trust Hero’s interpretation and Yeke’s first-hand knowledge. There’s another consideration. During the journey through Persia, our lives will be dependent on the safe conduct negotiated with the Seljuks. Flimsy protection to be sure. I’d put more faith in a clipping of our Lord’s toenails purchased for four solidi from a tout in the Neorian Market.’ Vallon placed both hands on the table. ‘Gentlemen, I believe the duke has done us a favour by forcing us to diverge from our original course. Otia, I’m putting you in command of the advance party. You’ll be our pathfinder and negotiator. Take three squads.’ Vallon switched to French. ‘Wayland, I’d be obliged if you accompany Otia’s squad.’

The rain had increased in intensity, drubbing on the tent with a force that discouraged speech. Vallon didn’t need his officers to tell him what they thought. Their expressions made it plain that he was taking an appalling gamble on the flimsiest of intelligence, the wildest of hopes.