Infinite Blue Heaven - A King and A Queen (10 page)

“Alright. Alright.” I leaned forward conspiratorially and looked from side to side, in a mock show of secrecy. Many of the men leaned forward. I wanted to laugh. It was so comical.

“I have heard the Princess has a mole on her right ... thigh.”

“Ahhh.” The audience sighed in appreciation and many of their eyes glazed over.

“How did you learn this?”

“Ah. Ah. Ah.” I wagged my finger at them. “I can’t give you my sources.”

After a few moments, their questions subsided and they went on drinking, their spirits raised much higher.

I was pleased. The mole was not on her right thigh but her left. Geb had not talked. I knew something like this would have been around the Palace within hours, if it was whispered.

Two hours before dawn, just before I joined Geb and the Generals for one last review of our plans, I visited my chamber, to say good bye to Shakira. I woke her and she looked sleepily up at me from the silk pillow.

“I must have drifted off. I couldn’t sleep earlier, wondering if you would come or not. But then eventually, I decided you wouldn’t and then I must have fallen asleep. Look!”

She lifted the sheets and I could see she had on a new, purple sheer nightdress. It was very beautiful and I could see her body through it, like a vision through a purple mist.

“I had it specially made for you.”

I leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on her lips. She returned the kiss, her lips soft and divining.

She was wondering whether I would move to more intimacy.

I cupped one of her breasts and felt the nipple harden slightly.

“I have heard you are getting very close to that Stable Hand.”

She swung her arms lazily behind her head, resting her hand elegantly against the wooden paneling on the headboard. Her nipple remained as hard, indicating that she felt no guilt.

“Oh. He is nothing. I am just biding my time. Waiting for you to visit me.”

I knew there was no time to make love to her now. In any case, it didn’t feel right.

“I must go. I will be thinking about you all the time.”

“All the time?” She opened her big brown eyes and fixed me with a mischievous smile. There was indeed a question hidden deep, insecurely within those depths.

“You are beautiful,” I said it as if re-stating a fact. Don’t let any of Bulya’s spies get any information out of you. Don’t trust anybody except our servants and the Deputy Captain of the Guard, and Bear, of course.

I swung round and left the room, not looking behind, but biting my lip.

I had asked Geb to put his most trusted Corporal in charge of the Guard but still I was worried for her. She was alone, in a nest of Vipers and Wolves. It was only her cunning and wit that reassured me.

As we had marched through the suburbs of the City, through the poorest districts, skinny kids dressed in strips of rags ran up to us, dodging in and out of the horses and camels, some with the Mothers screaming for them to come back. They were yelling but could hardly be heard over the sound of the marching army. Thousands thronged the sides of the rough streets, some leaning against the wattle or skin walls, some smoking pipes, eying us dubiously, others waving and shouting in encouragement. Most would have heard of the invasion to the north but few, if any would have expected the Army to move today.

Clouds of red dust had swirled around us as we marched, my Standard Bearers and Trumpeters ahead of me. Here the soil was a curious blend of grit and red clay, possibly from the rich deposits on the outside bend of an ancient river near here, long since dried up. After a short ride like this, we reached the Temple of the Three Lakes. Here we had dismounted and watered the horses and camels.

The Palace Guard rode immediately behind me, an unusual addition to the makeshift Army. There were five hundred of them, all dressed in white, with the Royal Crest in Blue, on their shields and tunics, their horses draped in yellow, with blue borders. At the Temple, they dismounted and packed away the bright tunics and horse-coats. They had all had to dig out their old war-armour, shields, boots and gloves. These were never used in the Palace but all the Guards were recruited from the Army. They always knew, that in the direst circumstances, they could be called on to march to war.

We had passed through some foothills, past a few small towns and then out into the desert.

As the King, I was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Army but until now, I had been thinking like a strategist. I began to think like a Commander.

I was at the head of eight battalions, each with one thousand men. It was all I could muster at short notice. All of the Battalions were divided in two, Cavalry and Infantry. Six of the Mounted units were horse and four were camel.

It was a pathetically small number of men, not even an Army. In the past, I had managed to raise an Army of thirty thousand men, all highly trained. Most of these were only half-trained. It would have to do though. I hoped that Korim’s men were not well trained and disciplined in the ways of war.

The previous night had been a very busy and tiring one. One of the other meetings I had was with a very angry Lord Bulya. Atim, for that was his childhood name and few would now remember it as he and I were two of the last of our generation of Noble warriors, had railed when I told him of my plan. I wanted him, with two battalions of camel, to ride across the desert to Geldem Ahmiz Pass and then down the north side of the Kada-Gur mountains to attack Korim from the north at the appointed hour. His eyes burned with something like hatred.

“That is suicide and you know it. I will not go. How can I send two thousand men to certain death?”

“You will go and you
will
succeed. We will win. You are the only general I have who is capable of this great victory.”

This was rubbish of course. I was just making an excuse but it was true that he was a capable general and, given the circumstances, I was sure he would succeed. He could not refuse the mission because he would have to strike now if he was in league with Korim and I did not think he was ready. I look deep into his eyes and knew that I was right. Perhaps he saw my suspicion because he looked away.

My final meeting was with my Quartermaster. He would normally travel with the Army, with his own company of craftsmen and cooks. Most of the craftsmen doubled as cooks and included armourers, carpenters, blacksmiths and milliners. They had one hundred camels and ten wagons, each drawn by either horses of buffaloes, depending on the terrain.

In this case, we would need to travel fast and could not take the wagons. Each camel would have to carry some of the extra equipment; spare shoes for the horses and metal plates to be fashioned into armour and extra water. Each of the soldiers would have to carry his own food and the Quartermaster’s men would simply take spices herbs and utensils, as necessary. I explained this to him and he ordered his men immediately to start tying up bundles of dried meat and fish, for each man, for thirty days, to be picked up in the morning. The final thing to think about was water. We always maintained a series of wells and small reservoirs, each 30 verst apart for a distance of 200 verst north, into this part of the desert. We would have to cross about 700 verst of desert to reach the mountains but this wasn’t too bad for us, as this part of the desert was not the most arid part and had few dunes. There were, in places wadies and some scrub and animals which we could kill for food. Normally, across desert, a horse could carry a soldier 100 verst each day – a man could walk perhaps 30 or forty – so I guessed we could make it to the mountains in seven days if we were only mounted troops. With Infantry it would take 14 days. I instructed the Quartermaster to send twenty of his men, with 40 camels and some equipment we had prepared, to the furthest well and, from there, to set up another five water stations, 30 verst apart for another five days marching into the desert. This should take us to with a couple of days of Korim’s camp. The camels had set off at about 3am. The Quartermaster and I had been experimenting for some years with a new method of provisioning water in the desert and now seemed the right time to try it. Each camel was carrying two large skins of water. The skins were clipped together into manageable sacks for the camels but would fold out into long tubes, about eight feet long. The camels also carried eight light planks and four end pieces. From these could quickly be constructed two water troughs which the water sacks would fit, two sacks to each. When all was ready and the horses about to drink, the sacks would be cut along the top carefully, to open the tops of the sacks. The use of camels in my Army, was crucial of course, as for such a short campaign, they would need little or no water.

We halted at the first well, before noon, for a break of a few hours and to shelter from the Sun. Around the well, were light, ochre-coloured cotton sheets suspended from poles, under which men and horses could shelter. A light breeze from the west ruffled the sheets.

As we moved on in the mid-afternoon, I could see dust from Bulya’s northern Army, way off to the north of us. I had taken the camels from four Battalions, two thousand animals and put these under his command. With his whole army being mounted, he may just be able to cover the ground in time. It was a daunting prospect though. He would have to cover a distance of perhaps 100 verst to reach the Geldem Ahmiz pass, riding first north and then due east after a few days to Tiwa Oasis. From here he would head north to the tiny Hashma Oasis, which he might and might not find. From here he would head north east to hopefully reach the pass. He may well meet Meth’s caravan on the way. I had warned him of this. If he was lucky and all went well, I thought he could be at the pass in twenty days. This would leave him just seven days to ride down the northern flanks of the mountains and prepare for battle north of Korim’s Army. I knew it was near suicide. If he found the Hashma Oasis and if it wasn’t dry and if there were no sandstorms and if he did not encounter enemy troops, he could do it. In the meantime we would travel steadily north, with two wide flanking Battalions hoping to pick up any loose contingents of Korim’s Army in the area and then we would lie, in wait until the appointed time.

In the early afternoon of the second day, we reached the second well. The horses and men were parched and could barely drag their weary bodies under the shelters there after drinking. We were traveling too slowly.

After one hour, resting with Geb, I sent him to call the Generals for a meeting. Lord Abdil’Khan, often the most outspoken was pacing up and down straight away, waving his arms.

“Madness! You marched the army,
your
army, right through the mid-day sun, on the first day. You will kill them!”

Looking at the faces around me, I could see all agreed.

“The men are raw, not yet used to war. Yes, they suffered but they will suffer more later, especially if I have to push them harder. I felt it was important to keep them on schedule this time so they could see what has to be done, every day. In any case, if they hadn’t made it until late this afternoon, then tomorrow, they would find themselves miles from water at sunset. Then where would we be?”

There was silence. I could see I had made my point. The cooks brought us some of the better food, cheese, dried fruit, bread and wine in the early evening and we talked about strategy. There was little time and I trusted few of them so I had decided to discuss only battlefield tactics with them this early, while I myself, considered how I would actually tackle this Korim. There were, however a few points on which they could help.

“Do any of you know anything of this Korim? I know very little. Only that he is obviously from a nomad tribe, probably from the north east of Uman. I have heard a rumour he is an illegitimate son of The King of Uman. I don’t think this is true but in any case he seems to have the favour of the King. Perhaps the King is keeping him supplied. He seems to have had safe passage across Uman. Does anybody know more?”

“I hear he is young, only twenty-five. And that he has three wives but wants more.”

“Hmm. His youth does not surprise me. He was bold, almost reckless at our last meeting. He showed the impetuousness of youth, or perhaps the desperation of an older man. He will no doubt be a very proud man and as with most leaders of his kind, he will not back down easily. He will consider any kind of defeat, no matter how small, as a loss of face. I speculate also that he is of noble blood and well educated. His tactics were good, based on many Mongol traditions although with knowledge of Greek and Roman tactics but I think he has no land of his own and is seeking it here. Land will be very important to him.” My Generals knew enough to see the weaknesses that I was pointing out.

“Tell us what you know of the land and his probable strength.” Lord Edil’bai asked. He was one of the younger Generals, brave and the only one I really trusted. Dark haired, moustachioed and bearded, he had brown eager eyes.

“I think he has about 5000 men now, all with horses. He may even have spare horses.” I started to draw in the sand. “As some of you will remember, we last met him here.” I had drawn an oblique line sloping from northwest to south east. This was the line of the Kada-Gur Mountains. I then drew, below the eastern end, a cross marking the last great battle. Perpendicular to this, running south, was the main road across the desert. We were following this north now, although we would leave it, for safety and surprise sake, later. “This part of the desert is full of wadis in autumn, winter and spring and at these times, has small herd of wild camels and other smaller creatures. Life is hard here, too hard for shepherds, but there is water and Armies can move reasonably fast here. As you will remember, he engaged us with about 12000 men. We had 10000. As you will remember, we were surprised by the numbers and also how early the dry season came. Within days we were out of water, while he still had fresh water. It was the horses that suffered the most and then Parsh’am and his friend decided to take their little trip. General Parsh’am had persuaded two other generals that a day’s ride would bring them to water if they rode west along the skirt of the mountains. They probably didn’t get the water because Korim had already sent his men to defend it and then Parsh’am’s men were cut off and massacred. That left us with 6000 men and only 200 reached Parat City.” I closed my eyes as I thought about the carnage we had suffered. Abdil’khan spat on the ground and uttered Parsh’am’s name. It was a particularly bitter memory for him as he had two nephews in Parsh’am’s Battalions and, with my blessing, tried to fight his way, along with 500 men to Parsh’am. They’d had to turn back and only 57 men returned.