Land of the Sacred Fire

Chapter 10

The following morning at dawn, the men of the column climbed the steep path from the valley and filtered onto the golden desert flatland outside the Maratocupreni crevasse. Now they readied themselves to set off once more to the south-east. Izodora had persuaded the elders to provide twenty-five camels from their herd to carry the burden of shields and tents. She had also agreed to let the legionaries with the gravest wounds from the camel raider skirmish remain in the valley to be tended to. Now just over one hundred of the original three centuries would march onwards.

Pavo watched Izodora as she walked amongst the men, flanked by two Maratocupreni riders in their leather cuirasses and helms, handing two water skins and parcels of bread to each legionary. It seemed his words to her last night had convinced her of the nobility of their quest. But there was something else, a finality and sadness in the way she beheld the legionaries. He recalled her words of warning about the Savaran. A shiver gathered at the base of his spine and tried to march up his back, but he shrugged the growing dread away.

A hundred thousand iron riders will not stop me going east.

‘Eyes front, dirty bugger,’ Sura interrupted his thoughts.

‘Aye, are you doing this, or not?’ Zosimus growled, stabbing a finger into Pavo’s chest.

Pavo turned back to his current task. He picked up the clay bowl and swiped his thumbs through the kohl it held. He pressed his thumbs to Zosimus’ scowling features, then rubbed them along under the big Thracian’s eyes, leaving a dark smear of the substance on each cheek. Zosimus glared at Pavo as if he had just spilled his wine cup. Quadratus did not help matters by stifling fits of laughter.

‘This better not be some sort of joke,’ Zosimus growled, shooting nervous glances to those nearby. ‘I’m not some bloody catamite, you know.’

‘If it was a joke, would I be wearing it?’ Pavo added, pointing to his own cheeks. ‘Would they be wearing it?’ he nodded to Izodora and her men. It was Izodora who had advised them to use it. ‘It’ll dull the reflection of the sun — your skin will not burn and your eyes will not tire so swiftly,’ Pavo assured him. Then a legionary from Quadratus’ century strolled up to apply the dark paste to the big Gaul’s cheeks. His fits of laughter ended abruptly and this seemed to calm Zosimus. All around them, other men of the column applied kohl in a similar fashion, fastened their boots and helms into place and slid on their mail vests.

Before the sun had fully risen, the two legionary standards — brushed clean of the worst of the dust and blood — were raised and they were ready to set off. Izodora and her riders escorted them for a few miles, then pointed them in the direction of the next water source. Pavo saw Gallus approach her before she departed. The tribunus lifted the frayed, tawny gold lion purse from his belt and placed it in her palm, offering with it just a few muted words. She seemed to behold Gallus in silence for a few moments, before she and her riders turned back for the crevasse, gradually melting into the growing heat haze.

The march was brisk at first, the men eager to cover as many miles as possible before the midday heat challenged them. But the morning sun was fierce enough. The rawness of Pavo’s ankles came back swiftly, despite the cooling balms the Maratocupreni had applied to his skin that morning. Already, his tunic was soaked through with sweat, his mail stung to the touch and his helmet seemed to be cooking his brain once more. It was a small mercy that they had the camels to carry their shields and some of the ration packs. The biggest discomfort for Pavo, however, was Sura’s incessant questioning.

‘You didn’t? What do you mean you didn’t?’ Sura asked, his face overly smeared in kohl and the skin on his arms plastered in the pale jasmine paste.

‘I mean just that. Nothing happened,’ Pavo insisted again.

‘You were out there for hours with her. What did you do then?’

At this, all the legionaries nearby seemed to cock an ear to the conversation, and Centurion Zosimus looked over his shoulder with an eager eye.

‘We. . ’ Pavo started, then sighed in resignation. ‘We talked, that’s all.’

‘Talked?’ Sura gawped in mock horror.

‘I’d give her a bloody good talking too, I can tell you,’ Zosimus chuckled, his broad shoulders jostling.

Pavo made to defend Izodora’s honour, but hesitated on seeing the mischievous grins Sura and Zosimus wore — eager for Pavo to dig a deeper hole for himself. ‘I’ll be marching at the rear,’ he grumbled, falling back.

He heard Sura’s words trailing off as he fell back. ‘Aye, I bet she’d like that too. . ‘

He berated the lads at the back a little more harshly than they deserved, partly to quell his annoyance and partly because this would keep his mind and theirs from the heat — something Zosimus had suggested. The toll of the camel raider attack had been heavy. Discounting the injured remaining with the Maratocupreni, Zosimus’ century now numbered just thirty-one, and Quadratus’ century had been depleted to just thirty-nine. Likewise, the Flavia Firma had lost nearly half of their number — barely forty marching with Carbo and Baptista.

‘This mission was never about numbers,’ Felix said in a hushed tone.

Pavo looked to the primus pilus. His gaze was flinty.

‘If the emperor sought to seize this scroll by force, he would have scraped together and sent in many legions. So long as one of us marches on, we can still do this.’

Pavo smiled wearily. ‘Aye, one man, one scroll. The future of the empire.’

‘An easy task. . for once,’ Felix grinned then turned to berate the legionaries further before rousing them into a chorus of song.

They carried on at a good pace until the sun reached its zenith. Now the heat was intense — like never before on this journey. Until now, Pavo had felt such ferocity only when stood near the soot-stained smithy furnaces in the fort fabricae, watching glowing new spatha blades passing from the flames to be tempered and honed. The singing had fallen away and a rhythmic gasping had replaced it, punctuated by the popping of corks from water skins and frantic guzzling of water.

‘We’re in trouble again,’ Zosimus whispered when Pavo drew level with him.

‘Aye,’ Pavo agreed, then glanced down at the deeper dust they marched through — it was gradually becoming coarser and sandier. His boots seemed to sink a few inches into this with every stride, then pull at his soles as he made to take the next, ‘and the going is harder underfoot.’

As if sensing the change of fortune, Gallus called back over his shoulder ‘By the end of the day we’ll be at the next spring. Mithras wills us on, men. He and the sun are kin. The brother of Mithras will not spite us.’ At this, a hoarse but raucous cheer erupted from the XI Claudia men. Gallus nodded over to Carbo. The man was withdrawn as usual, his lips twitching in some inner dialogue, but he noticed Gallus’ prompting and took his cue, clutching his Chi-Rho and crying to his men. ‘God marches by our sides. Feel his strength in your every stride.’

The men of the Flavia Firma responded with a baritone roar that reverberated all around and belied their scant number; ‘Nobiscum Deus!’

Days passed and the surrounding land seemed to defy their efforts as they wandered ever-further from imperial territory. The golden flats seemed infinite, the horizon utterly unchanging between dawn and dusk. Dust stung their eyes and clung to the backs of their throats. Every man’s shins and ankles were now red and bleeding. Towards the end of the morning on the fifth day after leaving the Maratocupreni, and the twentieth day of their trek overall, the legionaries could only think back wistfully to the relatively clement lands around that hidden valley. The four springs Izodora had charted for them had been found and nearly drained. But the last of them had been two days’ march previously. Now their skins were drained and utterly dry.

They halted near noon, clinging to the sliver of shade offered by a rare pile of rocks. Gallus and Carbo saw their men close to collapsing from sheer exhaustion, and gave the order for armour to be shed and loaded onto the camels. The camels groaned at their extra burden, but the men gasped in relief at shedding of those heavy garments. When they set off next, they would march in helms, boots and tunics, and carry just their sword belts and spears.

Pavo sat in the dust, his back resting against the rock — hot despite being in the shade. He chewed tenaciously on one of his last slivers of hardtack. Eventually he spat it out — the morsel barely dampened with saliva. He sighed and let his head slump forward onto his knees. Behind closed eyelids he could see the crystal clear waters of the fountains in Constantinople, the endless tumbling torrents of the River Danubius, and he longed to feel the freshness of a winter’s breeze on the plains of Thracia. But the sun glared down on him without pity, gradually dragging the cloak of shade away from the rock until its rays stung at his legs.

Sura nudged him and jolted him from his thoughts. ‘Here, he’s a bit eager, isn’t he?’ he croaked.

Pavo looked up to see Quadratus stepping out from the shade, squinting to the south-east.

‘How many days of marching did you say we had left, sir, before we reach the Persian Gulf?’ the big Gaul quizzed.

All heads twisted to Gallus. Blistered and cracked lips, bloodshot and narrowed eyes, burnt and gaunt faces awaited his response.

Pavo knew the answer would not help morale — not in the slightest. They had spent some twenty days on this march. By Yabet’s estimate — assuming the man had spoken the truth at all — of forty days that meant at least another twenty days left.

‘We have some way to go yet, Centurion,’ Gallus replied cautiously after studying the map.

‘Aye, then what’s that?’ Quadratus stabbed a finger out, smoothing his dust-coated moustache with the other hand.

As one, the men of the column rose, curiosity overcoming fatigue.

Pavo stood with them and squinted at the rippling heat haze out to the south-east. The gold and azure of the horizon seemed to flash with white and. . green?

‘It might be an oasis?’ Felix suggested, stabbing out his tongue in a vain effort to dampen his lips.

Gallus frowned and looked to Carbo. The Flavia Firma Centurion shook his head in doubt.

Pavo thought again of Izodora’s warnings.

‘We will find out soon enough,’ Gallus replied. ‘Lift your weapons and form up.’

The column set off, all eyes trained on the strange dancing colour ahead. Their footsteps were silent thanks to the thick dust, and the exhausted panting of moments before was bated and nervous now. The horizon drew closer, and the strange flickering green seemed to come and go more frequently. Eventually, just as the sun reached its zenith, they saw that the flatland was rising, and a gentle ridge in the land lay ahead. The green shimmering seemed to lie just beyond the ridge.

Pavo and Sura shared a glance riddled with anxiety and hope.

Water or Persian steel?

They crested the rise and every man drew in a breath, then gasped.

Pavo gawped, disbelieving of what lay before them.

Like a shade, the flickering green was utterly gone.

Before them lay only snaking, golden sand dunes. Miles and miles of them, as far as the eye could see.

‘Mithras, no!’ Felix croaked by his side, his face drawn and pale.

Quadratus and Zosimus flanked the little primus pilus and muttered weak, disbelieving curses of their own.

Pavo felt the sun’s glare like never before, his skin crawling as sweat spidered down his back. He heard Carbo’s hushed words to Gallus nearby.

‘It was as I feared,’ Carbo said. ‘A mirage, a trick of the light. Men see water, lush green grass and palms, only for it to melt away into the burning sands.’

Gallus’ head dropped at this. The sight of the iron tribunus in despair tainted Pavo’s thoughts with fear and doubt. Then he looked out over the sea of sand seeking some ember of hope. But all he found were images of the nightmare — Father standing there on the dunes, reaching out for him.

A shiver clawed through the murderous heat and grappled his heart.

By the time he entered the western gate of Bishapur, Jabbah’s breath came and went in shallow, rasping gasps and he could taste the metallic tang of blood on his tongue. The arrow wound to his back had nearly been the end of him, he realised, thinking of the Maratocupreni riders who had felled his band. He reaffirmed his grip around the waist of the leather-armoured Persian scout who had found him. He heard the rider click his tongue, directing the mare, and looked up to see that they were headed towards the acropolis. A blue-domed temple and a tall, fine palace awaited them at the top.

He glanced weakly around the sun-baked lower city streets; high-arched villas, tessellated courtyards and stucco-clad fountains. Persian citizens paused in their daily tasks to gawp at his ruinous state; a group of women dressed in fine, vibrant silks and slippers and carrying baskets of oranges shrunk at the sight of him; men riding wagons frowned, farmers driving herds stared and those slicked in sweat as they repaired a tannery stopped to mutter and point.

They cut across the market square as they headed for the acropolis. Jabbah frowned at the activity there. Sweat-soaked workers hewed timber and erected poles, forming what looked like an arc of seating, nestled into the base of the acropolis. ‘An arena?’ he croaked. He had seen the like before, in Palmyra and the other desert cities that had been touched by Rome.

‘Aye,’ the scout replied. ‘For the Jashan of Shahrevar. The archimagus wants to hold blood games on that day. The Festival of Iron is the talk of this entire city and all of the Persis Satrapy. Ahura Mazda wills that something special is to happen that day.’

Jabbah frowned, gawping at the sheer scale of this arena. Meanwhile, the scout identified himself to the pair of wing-helmed pushtigban warriors standing guard at the foot of the mount. The pair parted and the scout ascended the stone steps carved into the acropolis-side, reaching the plateau and then cantering to the domed temple. There, they dismounted and the scout tethered the mare. The scout then led Jabbah inside the arched entrance of the temple. The shade soothed his blistered and cracked skin and eased the fire in his lungs. Finally, they came to the domed central chamber and the crackling pit of the Sacred Fire in the floor. It was even hotter in here than outside.

The hunched, bald, hawk-faced man who awaited them there rubbed his hands together as if warming them from some bitter cold, his golden eyes seeming to scrutinise Jabbah. The scout rider pressed his hands on Jabbah’s shoulders, forcing him to his knees.

‘He brings word from the west, Archimagus Ramak,’ the scout said. ‘We found him prone on his horse, near-death in the heart of the desert. He claims that his men’s assault on the Roman column failed, and he has ridden for days on end — to get word to you.’

Jabbah nodded. ‘It is true. The Iberian you planted in the Romans’ midst was not with them, but still we fought bravely. We were almost victorious, until the Maratocupreni saved the Romans at the last.’

‘So you rode on the cusp of death, to inform me that the Roman column marches on?’ Ramak asked, crouching and cupping Jabbah’s jaw.

Jabbah felt the man’s gaze rake at his soul. He nodded weakly. ‘I come from a noble line. Like my father and his father before him, when I take coin in return for doing some deed, I will not rest until I see that the deed is done.’

‘Very noble indeed,’ Ramak nodded through taut lips. ‘A noble fool to the last. For only a fool would come before me in failure.’

Jabbah frowned as Ramak’s grip grew fiercer upon his jaw. The archimagus’ lips curled back in a grimace and he squeezed until his hand trembled, his nails splitting Jabbah’s flesh and drawing blood. But Jabbah did not flinch. His eyes darted over the archimagus’ face. It seemed nobility was not a trait shared by this holy man. ‘If I am to die for my failure then so be it.’

Ramak released his grip and stood tall. With a throaty but mirthless laugh, he turned to the fire pit and fumbled with something resting in there. ‘No, you are to live.’

Jabbah frowned, shuffling to catch sight of the archimagus’ hands.

‘You will live,’ Ramak reaffirmed, ‘. . in the deepest chambers of my salt mine.’

Jabbah’s heart froze and then thundered in terror. The dark tales of the mines had spread far and wide amongst his people. They talked of it as the underworld, the antithesis of the wide and endless plains of the living. Where men suffered brutal and short lives in darkness and squalor. ‘No. . NO!’ he gasped, scrambling back from Ramak towards the temple entrance. He saw the light of day outside and reached out for it as he clambered on all fours. But then two wing-helmed silhouettes stepped over the entrance, blocking his path. The Persian scout grappled at his shoulders and hauled him back to kneel again. ‘Kill me!’ Jabbah grasped at the scout’s thigh, his eyes manic and darting. ‘Don’t put me in those mines! No man should face such a fate!’

‘Hold him,’ Ramak said, still tending to something in the fire.

Jabbah’s neck cracked as the scout grappled him by the hair and wrenched his head back. His eyes bulged as he saw Ramak turn round from the fire. The man grinned as he lifted a dual-pronged, white-hot poker, fresh from the flames.

‘And in the dark, airless mines,’ Ramak enthused, ‘you will have little need for your sight.’

The last thing Jabbah saw was the tips of the poker, with Ramak’s animal grin in the sweltering background. The white-hot irons grew closer and closer until they filled his field of vision. Then, with a pair of thick pops and an unearthly pain that filled his head like fire, the prongs lanced into his eyeballs and sunk inside the sockets. Wet, hot fluid spilled from his eye sockets and down his cheeks and he heard his own animal moaning. Eternal blackness was upon him.

As the scout dragged him away by the hair, he heard the archimagus talking, as if addressing the fire itself.

‘The mercenaries have failed me, but my spahbad will not! Ride well, Tamur, and crush those who dare to enter our lands.’

Four days of marching through the dunes saw the legionary column transformed beyond recognition. The banners were stowed on the ever-more burdened camels. Now, to a man, the legionaries wore no helmets, just linen rags tied around their heads and thick smears of kohl on their noses and cheeks. Many had slit their tunics from collar to breastbone to allow a fraction more airflow. They had marched from imperial lands carrying their spears high and proud, now they used them as crooks, to haul their weary limbs up the endless banks of burning sand.

Pavo stabbed his spear butt into one dune as he approached the crest, then afforded barely a glance at the thousand more dunes that lay beyond. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, his rasping breaths mingling with those of the men around him. He wondered if the muddy pool they had come across yesterday had been a blessing or a curse, for the tepid, grainy water they had drank from it served only to prolong this agony. Some men had fallen ill from drinking it, vomiting through the bitterly cold night. They were gaunt, burnt and trembling. None had fallen, yet. But Pavo knew that sixteen days more of this lay ahead before they reached the waters of the Gulf. The desert would have its victims before then, of that he was sure.

He realised his vision was narrowing. He recognised this moment from the countless battles of his time in the legions — the moment when the last drops of energy were ebbing. He blinked and shook his head, clutching the phalera, seeking out the will to go on.

He half-staggered, half-slid down the far side of the dune. The sand kicked up by his clumsy descent clung to his lips and nostrils as he came to a halt at the bottom of the dune, on his knees. He coughed weakly and waved away Sura’s offer of a hand, propping himself up using his spear shaft.

‘Come on,’ he croaked to the swaying, trembling men of the century behind him. ‘Every dune we pass is one more enemy defeated.’

Suddenly, the sand before him puckered. A black, shiny scorpion burst into view, no bigger than his thumb. The creature scurried up the dune then plunged back under the sand near the tip.

Centurion Quadratus gasped from a few paces behind. ‘Maybe we should follow that little bastard — perhaps he knows the way to water?’

A weak, croaking chuckle toppled from Pavo’s chest at this, in spite of his fatigue. Sura joined in and soon the rest of the column did too. Pavo saw Gallus with Carbo, up ahead. The iron tribunus turned his head a fraction at the sound of laughter. A cocked eyebrow was the closest the man came to showing his approval.

Zosimus fired back at Quadratus. ‘Water? Who needs water?’ he held his hands out and looked up as if enjoying the sun. ‘It could be worse than this. . a night sleeping under Quadratus’ bunk. . death by farting!’

Now the column broke out in an even louder chorus of desperate laughter. The noise echoed out over the countless miles of dunes all around them. Even Baptista and his men joined in. At the last, it seemed, adversity had bound them together in some small way.

Pavo trudged on, trying to focus on memories of Felicia, trying to draw inspiration from the phalera around his neck. His gaze hung on the sand before him as they marched over dune after dune, until the sun began to fall. Now the blinding light dulled to a tired orange and the dunes cast long shadows across the land.

Just then, an unexpected faint breeze picked up. Pavo’s skin chilled despite the dry heat. He drew his gaze up and around. The dunes were a dark red now, and the south-eastern horizon was a deep blue speckled with the first stars. But there was something else. A murky shape swirled there, between sand and sky. A colossal, writhing mass — as if the dusk had come to life in a fury.

‘What in Hades?’ Felix croaked, mopping the sweat from his brow and squinting at this billowing mass.

‘What is that?’ Sura added.

All around, the staggering ranks came to a halt atop the lip of one lengthy dune, gawping at the mass. The breeze picked up and lifted the linen rags on their heads. Few thought of the comfort the breeze provided as the shape grew broader and broader, until it was as wide as the horizon itself and stretched high into the sky.

Pavo gawped, seeing dune after dune swallowed up as the thrashing mass came for them at speed. A single sand grain carried by the breeze stung against the burnt skin of his face. He touched a hand to his cheek, then looked up at the approaching dark wall. A howling pierced the air; a gale that brought with it a spray of sand. Pavo’s mind flashed with those haunting images; the nightmare of Father, the storm that always consumed him.

He looked across the lip of the dune to see Carbo, wide-eyed likewise, his linen headscarf whipping in the sudden squall. ‘It is a sandstorm — take shelter!’ the centurion cried out. No sooner had he uttered the cry than the wall of swirling, darting sand raced across the last few dunes like a predator, the roar growing deafening. The ferocious wind cut through the next nearest dune and threw up sands at the gawping legionaries.

Baptista cried out, wide-eyed; ‘God have merc — ’

The roaring gale consumed his words utterly.

It seemed to suck the air from Pavo’s lungs, battering him. White lights flashed in his field of vision as the sand stung at his eyeballs and raked at his skin. He caught only flashes of those around him. Sura, staggering, blinded, trying to wrap his linen scarf over his face in vain. Quadratus, chasing one fleeing camel and clawing at the packs on its back. Gallus crying out to his men, his words for once defeated by the roar of the sandstorm.

Fingers grappled Pavo’s arm. He spun round, shielding his eyes. Through the cracks in his fingers he made out Zosimus, bawling something at him from only inches away. The few words he made out sounded weak and distant.

‘. . the tent!. . Quadratus. . the tent!’

Pavo blinked and looked this way and that. He saw that Quadratus had hauled a tent pack from one of the camels. The big Gaul was flailing at the flat goatskin in an attempt to unravel and provide some kind of cloak that they could shelter under. But the skin was flapping in a fury as if eager to soar off with the gale. Zosimus beckoned him then dipped his head and fought his way through the storm’s ire. Pavo followed. The three used their weight to peg down three corners of the goatskin, and they cried out to Sura to come and secure the fourth. Meanwhile, Gallus and Carbo tried their best to bring the rest of the men together, ready to cram as many as possible under this desperate shelter.

Sura staggered through the tumult and leapt to throw himself onto the goatskin, but before he landed, the storm picked up and showed all its strength. As if being snatched away by a god, the goatskin was gone, sucked up into the air. In that instant, the faces around Pavo disappeared too and the sand grew thick as stone. Every inch of flesh burned under the bombardment of the burning grains and then the squall blew him from his feet. When he tried to stand, he was blown back, one step, then another, then he found himself staggering away. He fell down the side of another dune, tumbling round and round. When he stood, panic raced through his veins as he realised he had completely lost his bearings. How far had he strayed? Eyes shut tight from the blinding sand, he covered his mouth to suck in a breath, coughing as the sand coated his mouth. He roared with all the force he could muster;

‘XI Claudia!’

Nothing but the storm roared back.

Then he trod on something. Something solid. He fell again and saw the staring, dead features of a Flavia Firma legionary. The man was buried up to his chest, his mouth open in a scream, lips blue from the sand that had packed his mouth and asphyxiated him.

Pavo gawped; the nightmare was upon him. He spun in every direction, lifting the collar of his tunic to shield his nose and mouth.

‘XI Claudia!’

A wall of sand threw him from his feet again. He clawed to stand once more, but the sand piled up around him impossibly. In moments, he was waist deep in it. A heartbeat later, it spilled around his chest.

As the sand piled up around his neck, he remembered Father’s words from the dream.

‘Beware, Pavo!’

The words echoed in his mind as darkness overcame him.