The Legion - Scarrow Simon (электронная книга .txt) 📗

'That one's yours, Karim. Work your way round there and silence him. I'll count to a hundred before we move on the other two.'

Karim nodded, and then went down into a crouch and moved slowly past the sleeping Romans as he crept into the shadows of a handful of date palms and disappeared from view. Ajax counted off at a measured pace and then nudged Canthus. 'Come on.'

They eased themselves up and out of the reeds, emerging on to a rough track that ran alongside the channel. Ajax rose to his full height and started to make his way towards the sentries by the horse line. They were still talking and did not detect the new arrivals until almost the last moment. Then the first of them spun round and lowered his spear at the two figures emerging from the darkness.

'Halt! Who goes there?'

'Friends!' Canthus called back.

'Then give me the password!'

'Up the blues,' Canthus called back and strode on, hand clenched round his sword handle.

'Pass, friend!' the Roman responded.

Ajax kept up with Canthus as the two of them continued along the track. They were close now and while the cut of Canthus's tunic was unmistakably military, Ajax did not look like a Roman soldier. The two continued to stride forward. At the last moment one of the sentries craned his neck and squinted into the shadows. 'Who are you?'

Ajax did not break his stride as he approached the Roman. At the last moment he sprang forward, lunging with his sword. The point plunged into the sentry's torso and the man folded up with a groan. His companion was stunned into stillness for an instant, then as he began to lower his spear, Canthus parried it aside and thrust his sword into the man's throat. He collapsed to his knees and bled out quickly before toppling aside. Ajax hurriedly finished his man off and turned towards the last sentry. He had heard something and stood on the other side of the small encampment, spear grasped in both hands. Before he could call out, a shadow sprang up from the ground behind him and there was a brief grunt as Karim brought him down. Ajax stared, poised to dash across to Karim's aid, but then the Parthian rose and lifted his sword.

'All done.' Canthus breathed deeply with relief. He turned back towards the channel and let out a low whistle. At once a score of shadows emerged from the reeds and padded towards them. When they had gathered round Ajax, he gestured towards the shapes of the men sleeping but on the ground a sufficient distance from the date palms to avoid any scorpions or snakes dropping on them during the night. 'Kill them, and kill them quietly,' Ajax ordered. 'Go.'

His men crept amongst the sleeping Romans, kneeling down to smother their mouths with one hand while using the other to cut their throats. Here and there a victim struggled briefly and one managed to let out a gurgling cry before being swiftly silenced. When the last of the Romans was dealt with, Ajax led his men to the horse line. The saddles were arranged neatly to one side and took little time to fit on to the horses. A short time after the killing had begun, Ajax and his men were mounted and only Canthus remained on foot.

'You're certain that you wish to remain behind?' asked Ajax.

'Yes, General.'

'If they discover that you're a spy, and they are bound to sooner or later, then you can expect no mercy.'

'I shall be careful. Besides, I am enjoying the deception. I have never played a role like this before.' Canthus's smile faded and he nodded towards the east where the first glimmer of the coming day was rising into the haze above the Nile. 'You'd better go.' He reached up and clasped Ajax's hand. 'May Fortuna ride with you, my General.'

Ajax nodded his gratitude, then released the man's hand, took up his reins and set his mount towards the hills to the west, intending to ride out into the wilderness, away from the Roman forces surrounding the temple. After that they would head up the Nile and find somewhere to cross the river and rejoin Prince Talmis and his army.

He had done as the Prince wished. The column had distracted the enemy's attention and inflicted heavy casualties. With luck the Romans would be anxious about a threat from either bank and divide their already weak forces. Even so, the column had been lost and Ajax was anticipating a frosty reception from his ally.

Nudging his heels in he urged his horse into a trot as they left the spy behind them, surrounded by the bodies of the Roman cavalry squadron. Canthus watched them briefly, then turned and hurried back towards the temple, to rejoin the Roman force before he was missed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The small column of horsemen had only travelled half a mile or so across cultivated fields before they abruptly gave out on to a sandy wasteland where the peasants' irrigation system stopped. There was no cover here and Ajax reined in as he examined the open ground stretching out before him. To his right the sandstone cliffs and mountains rose up into a barrier that stretched out into the desert in one direction and bordered a stretch of the Nile in the other. The highest rocks were already aglow as they caught the first rays of the rising sun and a thin light spread across the landscape still embraced by the shadows of the failing night.

Ajax clicked his tongue and beckoned his men to follow him as his horse walked out into the desert. At once he felt exposed. There was no place to hide out here and it was vital that they made best use of what little darkness was left. He increased the horse's pace into a gentle canter and his men followed suit, kicking up a small cloud of dust as they headed out across the sand.

'I don't like this, General,' said Karim as he glanced towards the mass of the temple rising up above the grey smears of fields and the spectral forms of clumps of palm trees. 'They must surely see us at any moment.'

'And if they do, they'll assume that we are one of their cavalry patrols.'

'What if they don't?'

Ajax shrugged. 'Then we'll see just how good these horses are.'

The light strengthened and spread its warm loom across the arid wilderness. To their left a Roman trumpet sounded and there was a brief delay before a distant series of cracks announced the opening of the second assault on the temple. Ajax felt a heavy sense of guilt that he had left Hepithus and the rest of his men behind to defend the temple, even though their sacrifice would buy him time to continue the struggle against Rome. With luck, they would sell their lives dearly. He would avenge them in time.

Karim pulled in his reins and pointed ahead. A quarter of a mile away, three mounted men appeared from behind a low dune, heading straight for Ajax and his column. 'What do we do?'

'Nothing,' Ajax replied calmly. 'There's every chance they will take us for their own.'

Karim glanced at the black robes of the eight Arabs who were riding with them. 'Only at a distance.'

Ajax gently steered his horse to one side so that they would not pass close by, but soon saw that the enemy horsemen were making directly for them. 'Shit.'

'We have to do something,' Karim urged. 'We have to stop them raising the alarm.'

Ajax thought quickly and turned to issue his orders. 'Have the Arabs make their bows ready. If we get the chance we'll take them down before they can react.'

Karim nodded and reined his horse in, falling back alongside the Arabs to convey the command to their officer.

As the two parties closed on each other, Ajax tried to calculate their chances of escaping. There was still at least a mile to go before the cliffs opened out on to the desert. If the Romans reacted swiftly enough they could cut him off from the upper Nile. The three horsemen approached without any sign of wariness. Their leader raised his hand in greeting when he was no more than fifty paces away in the half light, and then harshly reined his horse in and called out.