Usurper by Peter Darman

Author:Peter Darman [Darman, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action, spartacus, action book, ancient rome, parthia, ancient warfare, parthian shot, action fiction, parthian, parthians
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

I went straight to the fortress, to the palace where Alcaeus was tending to Nergal. The streets of the city were crowded with soldiers, horses, camels and frightened citizens, though I was strangely detached from the doom-laden scene. My only concern was for my friend. Other wounded lay in the fortress’ courtyard, groaning with pain as slaves and too few physicians tried to bandage their wounds and give them water. The cobblestones appeared to be slowly turning red as the sun waned, though perhaps it was just my tired eyes and imagination that conjured up the scene. In the palace, worried stewards fussed around and slaves offered to relieve me of my armour, but I brushed them away. We did leave our weapons and helmets outside Nergal’s bedroom, a distraught Praxima, her eyes red with tears, looked pale and wan as we entered.

Rasha rushed up to her and wrapped her arms around her, Spartacus kissing her cheek and Gafarn smiling kindly at her. I embraced her and glanced at the bed where Alcaeus was finishing tying off a large bandage that encased my friend’s injured leg. Gallia was seated on a couch holding the hand of a distraught Diana. Our Greek friend sighed and examined his handiwork. I was surprised to see Claudia appear from the balcony carrying a silver bowl from which smoke was emanating. She brushed past me to place it on the table beside the unconscious Nergal.

‘Is that necessary?’ asked Alcaeus.

‘Entirely necessary,’ my daughter shot back. ‘It is crushed tamarisk bark mixed with frankincense. A gift for Damu, God of Healing, who sleeps by rivers among tamarisks.’

‘I thought Gula was the deity of healing,’ said Alcaeus.

Claudia smiled. ‘Very good, Alcaeus, it gladdens me to know you have taken an interest in the gods. And you are right, Gula is indeed the Goddess of Healing. But Damu is the intermediary between Gula and mortal physicians.’

Alcaeus did not bother to reply but merely observed Claudia as she stood over Nergal, mumbled a prayer that none of us could fathom and then walked over to Praxima, ignoring the rest of us.

‘Have no fear, he will make a full recovery.’

She then walked from the room. We all looked for confirmation of her prognosis from Alcaeus. He puffed out his cheeks.

‘I have managed to stop the bleeding and fortunately the arrows did not shatter the bone in the leg. So I am hopeful of a full recovery, though he may have a permanent limp.’

There was a collective sigh of relief and Diana burst into tears.

‘But Nergal will have to stay here for a considerable amount of time,’ warned Alcaeus, ‘a few weeks at least.’

‘Well, none of us are going anywhere in the near future,’ said Gafarn, ‘unless the Kushans decide to march away.’

It was late before I managed to grab a few hours’ sleep, beforehand assisting Salar in organising the manning of the walls with his soldiers. We ordered every other horse archer to stand to arms on the walls in case the Kushans tried a night assault.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.