The Sword and the Dagger by Robert Cochran

Author:Robert Cochran
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

25

Conrad made a quick estimate of their chance of escaping and realized immediately that there was none. Their own horses had drifted a few paces away, grazing. It would take precious seconds to remount and spur them on, and in any case they weren’t built for speed. They would be quickly overtaken by the onrushing cavalry. He had a sudden vision of three more skulls added to the pyramid. He looked at Elaine, who had risen to her feet by now. He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward her horse.

“Get on, hurry!”

“We’ll never outrun all of them,” Rashid said.

“You and I will slow them down, maybe she can get clear,” said Conrad, and started to boost Elaine into her saddle, but she pushed him away.

“No! If we’ve learned anything it’s that we should all stay together no matter what,” she said.

“Elaine…”

But she’d already turned back to face the oncoming riders, and took the sling from her pocket, her expression both frightened and determined.

Damn her stubbornness! But at the same time Conrad had to admire her courage, which strengthened his own. He drew his sword.

At that moment Rashid said, “I don’t think they’re Mongols.”

Since none of them had ever seen a Mongol, Conrad wondered how Rashid could know. But as the riders got closer he realized what he meant: whatever a Mongol might look like it would surely be something different and strange, yet the approaching riders didn’t look very different from the Muslim warriors Conrad had seen on the other side of the Zagros Mountains.

“Persians, maybe,” Rashid said. “Don’t provoke them.” He put his knife back inside his shirt and Elaine replaced her sling. Conrad, reluctantly, resheathed his sword.

A moment later the soldiers, two dozen in all, were at hand. They wheeled their horses and formed a circle around Conrad, Rashid, and Elaine, every rider holding a lance leveled directly at them. A sharp-eyed man with a crest on his helmet that apparently signified command barked an order in what sounded like Persian. Conrad and Rashid spread their hands to indicate that they didn’t understand.

The commander pointed to the west, where the peaks of the Zagros Mountains could still be seen, then pointed at Rashid and Conrad. Then he pointed again at the mountains with a lift of his chin. Rashid and Conrad stared back in confusion. The commander repeated the gestures impatiently and spoke again.

Conrad shifted his feet and his sword hand twitched. Elaine noted the movement—he was always ready to fight, even if the odds were hopeless. The thought focused her mind and she suddenly guessed what the commander was getting at.

“I think he’s asking if we come from beyond the mountains,” she said. Rashid pointed to the west and nodded vigorously, hoping that this was the answer the commander wanted.

The man looked at the three of them for a long time, his gaze lingering a little longer on Elaine, then he issued commands to two subordinates, who brought the three travelers’ horses over and indicated that they should climb on.

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