Two days of hard riding brought them to within a day of Yanzhou, where the Yan River joins the Hwang He in its southbound journey, picking up the fine powdery grit of the Loess Plateau that gives the river its characteristic color and its name – the Yellow River, so thick with fine grit it was sometimes more like a fast-moving mudslide than a river. They stopped for the night and camped in an eerie, uninhabited landscape of wind-carved steeples of not-yet-eroded dirt, above flat alluvial plains.
After most of the rest had retired, Marcia and Antonius retired a hundred yards away for privacy, and much later, they lay naked on their backs on the cool grass in the warm August night, their bodies savoring the afterglow of their lovemaking. The sky was moonless, and there was no human light except the banked campfire, far off by the rest of the group. Their eyes had long ago adjusted to the darkness so they had no trouble seeing by the preternaturally bright starlight from a sky frosted with stars. A shooting star drew a thin ruler-straight white line across the sky, vanished, and a few seconds later, another big one flared and broke up, leaving a trail of red, blue and green fragments tumbling in its wake, each winking out at its own pace.
Marcia sighed and hugged Antonius’ biceps, holding it firmly to her chest. “Looks like the gods are cheering us on, they are putting on quite a show!” she said.
“They are indeed.” he replied.
“The shooting stars are all coming from the same place in the sky – there. I wonder why?”
“That’s the constellation Perseus, I don’t know why… We found a shooting star, many years ago when I was a young soldier in Germany.”
“What happened?”
“That bright one we just saw flaring is called a bolidus, and one like it fell all the way to earth, about two miles from our camp. Big boom before it hit, then a bigger one when it hit the ground, a few seconds after the flash. Like lightning and thunder, I guess. It started a fire, so we all got our dolabra shovels and went over to see what it was. Knocked over a bunch of trees, dug a big crater. We dug in the crater, and we found a fist-sized chunk of iron that looked liked it had come out of a forge, too hot to touch.”
“Amazing! Jupiter’s thunderbolt?”
“If it was, he either couldn’t aim or he had it in for the trees, because he missed us.”
“So what are we going to do when we get to Rome, carus meus?”
“If we get to Rome. It’s a long way and we just got started… I don’t know. I can’t imagine Trajan will be too happy with how this mission went, but Aulus thinks he will approve of what we did. My next tour should be praefectus castrorum, prefect of camps, but I don’t know if I want to do that.”
“Why not?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I am quite taken with being around you, and helping you make babies someday, if you want. I followed the eagles for twenty-six years and I’ve had all the adventure on this trip I need.”
Marcia snuggled against him, fitting her body into the curve of his. “So what you want to do instead?”
“I don’t know. I could teach swordsmanship, or go into medicine, since I am a medic. I could do what my father did, tutor upper class brats, as long as I could cuff them when they got uppity. Or I – we – could teach han-yu.”
“We? You and I teach together?”
“Why not? You know the language, and can write it, you even know Hanaean poetry. We could be a good team.”
“You know what I love about you, carus meus? You always make me want to do more than I think I can.” She kissed his shoulder tenderly.
“You’ve already done more than any woman I ever met. Let’s see… taken from home, concubine at twelve, trained in the Hanaean court, bilingual in Latin and han-yu, left for a world jaunt at sixteen, crossed all of Asia overland to meet Trajan in Rome, then back again by ship, survived a hijacking, bad storms, two firefights, been sentenced to death, was in a bandit attack that left six dead, and a now you’re on a journey to take tea with the savage Xiongnu. You haven’t lived a dull life, domina mea, not at all!”
“Mmmh. Thank you. Do you mind if I talk about Ming?”
“There are things you need to talk out. So speak.”
“He always made me feel like nothing. Our first night when I became his concubine … is it all right to talk about that?”
“Go ahead.”
“He came in, took off my clothes, lifted up his cloak, and got on top of me without saying a word. He was… in me long before I was ready, it hurt, and he just finished, got up, arranged his cloak, and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow night.’ I had no one to talk to. I didn’t know the other concubines, and they were much older than me.”
Antonius put his arm around her, and she sobbed a bit into his shoulder, then continued. “He always made me feel worthless. Just that one time, when I helped him to meet with the Emperor, he was happy, and I was worth something for a while. Then, it went back to the way it was, and when the beating started again… I had been treated with respect for the first time in my life on the Europa by everyone, and especially by you. I wasn’t going to go back to being nothing again, and if I had to break that jar on his head again, I’d do it, but harder!” She laughed through her tears.
Antonius laughed with her. “Yer’ll never be nothin’ again, not as long as I am around.”
“And you almost weren’t! I thought I had you forever, then I almost lost you, when I saw the arrow in your stomach. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
She hugged him, then she sat up. “There is something I need to talk about, Antonius. Back in Tongchuan, when the fighting was going on, I was in the barn with Marcus. And if you had lost that fight, Marcus… he wasn’t going to let me be taken alive. You know what would have happened.”
He nodded; he had given Marcus a dagger during the pirate raid last year, to kill her to prevent her capture.
“They would have had their way with me, and when they were done, they would have killed me or made me their slave. That can never happen again, Antonius. I need you to teach me how to fight. If I am going to die, I want to die by your side, not hiding somewhere waiting helplessly for whatever comes next.”
“Domina, you don’t know what yer askin’ fer. You’re a woman. I can teach yer how to use a knife, sure, but fight in the line… yer can’t do that! Yer’ll just git yersel’ killed.”
“Antonius, knowing how to use knife is a start, but it isn’t enough. Even if I had a sword, and knew how to use it, those bandits would have just overpowered me. I might have gotten one or two, but in the end... I don’t ever want to feel helpless, ever again.” She collected her courage, preparing to defy him for the first time. “When you train the men tomorrow, I’ll be there. Just think of me as another soldier.”
“I don’t think I can picture that.” He put his arm around her and they cuddled as the sky blazed with shooting stars, until sleep took them.
CHAPTER 60: THE WILD SAVAGES OF THE NORTH
Back in Luoyang, the weiwei noted the report from Shaanxi province about some disturbance near Tongchuan involving some itinerant strangers and a local bandit group. Details were scarce, but those who had seen the strangers described several of them as bald, accompanied by a woman. He was sure it was the Da Qin.
The Da Qin must have become aware of the search mounted for them in Chang’an, and bypassed the city. A local trader had procured a cart and a large amount of food and fodder, too much for a man known for traveling in small groups in his dealings with the Xiongnu up north. So perhaps the Da Qin were heading north to Xiongnu lands.
The news was too late for the weiwei to use, and the Xiongnu area too wild and inhospitable to follow them. But if the Da Qin were to come to ground in the Middle Kingdom again, it would likely be in Liqian, the translators’ hometown. The frigid howling winter winds from the North Asian plains would certainly blow them south again. That, and family ties.
Marcus was formally inducted as part of Antonius’ little ‘army,’ along with Aulus, a fe
w days after leaving Tongchuan, having successfully completed Antonius’ essential training drills. They could now take regular watches with the group, rather than acting as reserve back-up. Marcia took great pride in her brother’s induction; he had not even been allowed to own a sword as an Hanaean. But after the ceremony she abruptly turned away from the camp and walked off several hundred yards.
Gaius watched her departure, noting that she looked a bit downcast. Trouble with Antonius? I doubt that. I think she is finding the training harder than she expected. Maybe now is the time to get that foolish notion out of her mind. He followed discretely. She was sitting on the ground, her knees drawn up to her chest, quietly contemplating the world.
“Marcia?” he asked. “Do you mind if I join you? You look concerned about something.” Latin seemed appropriate, if she had something difficult to express.
“No, Gaius. Please, sit.”
“First, congratulations on your brother.” Gaius said, seating himself cross-legged beside here, and picking up a dry weed on which to chew. “He made great progress, starting with no experience at all. And he handled himself well in his first fight last week.”
She smiled. “Yes I am very proud of him.”
“He is a good man.”
“Thank you.”
“But I think there is something else on your mind, as well. Can I help?”
She sighed. “Yes. My training… it is not going well.”
“It’s taking you longer than you expected?”
“Yes. I am clumsy, slow, and it seems that, my sparring partner, whoever it is, just casually bats my sword out of my grasp and sends it flying. I have been practicing for weeks, and it’s not getting any better. Do you think I am a fool for trying to do this?”
The answer Gaius gave was not the discouragement he intended to give. He asked rhetorically, “Do you think you are?
She paused and smiled. “I expected you to tell me I was.”
“It’s certainly going to be harder for you than it was for Marcus.”
“Then I guess I will have to work harder. Thank you, you remind me of my father, what I remember of him. He always encouraged me to do the hard things.”
Gaius laughed ruefully. “Being a father and a husband are the two things I haven’t done well. I haven’t been with my family for two years and I don’t know when I will again. My children won’t remember me.”
“They won’t forget you. I never forgot Papa, and they won’t forget you.
“Thank you. And let me give you a tip. Drill a hole through the pommel of your sword, run a leather lanyard through it and grasp the sword through the loop. If someone knocks it loose, it won’t go flying. Old army trick.”
She laughed, a bright cheerful laugh that took the tension out of her. “I’ll do that!”
“Well, I’ll be off now. Good luck!” Well, that didn’t work out like I expected.
About a week out of Tongchuan, the party reached the Hwang He, now flowing east through the Baotou region of the Hetao plateau. From the higher hillcrests, they could occasionally glimpse the Ordos Desert’s barren terrain behind them to the southwest.
Several months had passed since their heads had been shaved to make their escape, and much of everyone’s hair had grown back. Marcia, without Mama Biyu’s wig, could now pass as a twelve year old boy with scraggly locks, though her hair was still a far cry from the three-foot-long black silken tresses that had previously adorned her head. And Demosthenes, after a great deal of meditation and introspection, had decided to let his hair regrow also. His shaved head had symbolized his rejection of the things of this world, things and friends which he now, however reluctantly, embraced. It was more honest to no longer pretend to ascetic detachment, though it saddened him greatly to leave that life behind.
From a hill overlooking the Huang He valley, Bohai, Gaius and Ibrahim surveyed the countryside. Like most of the Huang He’s long course, the river here meandered through a broad flat alluvial plain several tens of miles wide, dotted with the yurts of various groups of nomads and their flocks and herds. Here was the border of Han control, tenuous at best, with a constant ebb and flow of nomadic herders across it from all directions.
Bohai was a smuggler, and he knew many ways to cross the Huang He without having to answer too many questions from the Han officials who pretended to exercise control over this area. His band of refugees was hot cargo.
Bohai sat in his saddle and pointed ahead. “We’ll turn west along that road there, about a mile from the river. About five miles on, there we will find a reliable and not too curious ferryman.”
On reaching the location, they indeed found a ferry, a flat-bottomed boat with railings to contain animals, big enough to hold ten or so horses. Bohai exchanged some brass coins with the man for his trouble, and two trips got the party and their cart across.
“The band we are looking for are on the other side of Yin Mountains up ahead,” he said, pointing to the rilled hills looming ahead.
On the north side of the mountains was a treeless grassland watered by streams. Bohai identified an encampment in the distance as their target, and they began a descent to the steppe below.
They neared the camp about nightfall. Horsemen clattered up to the group several hundred yards before they reached the camp, clad in leather breaches, wool jackets, and black conical hats, a sword and a bow crisscrossed across their backs. Some carried long spears at the ready under their armpits, the shafts decorated with feathers or animal pelts. Their skin was like worn leather from years in the steppes and deserts, but the Romans recognized among them familiar round eyes, aquiline noses and light hair. One of that group was a powerfully-built red-haired woman, well-armed with a forbidding expression. Others in the group had more familiar Asiatic visages, almond brown eyes with epicanthic folds, their skin, too, was burned brown by the sun. They halted about twenty paces from the group and waited.
Bohai trotted off to greet them alone, pulling to a stop ahead of what appeared to be their leader, to greet him in their own language. Bohai seemed to allay the party’s suspicions, as the leader smiled and raised his hand in greeting, relaxing a bit in his saddle. Those with lances lowered their butt ends to the ground. Bohai turned and signaled to the group to come forward, and the group’s mounted riders and the cart proceeded to the encampment. Outside the encampment, horses, goats, sheep and camels grazed, under the attentive eyes of herdsmen, aided by dogs.
The encampment consisted of about thirty white felt yurts, each about twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high. A larger one in the middle, decorated with various flags, pelts, and symbols, was apparently the leader’s tent. As the group passed into the camp, dogs barked and children ran up to stare at the strange visitors. Men stared sullenly at their Hanaean clothing, clearly not happy to host such visitors.
They trotted to the large central yurt and dismounted when their escorts did. Bohai beckoned them into the big yurt. They were followed by five of their escorts, including the big woman, who stood about six feet tall.
The inside was illuminated only by light from the open door, which showed a man seated at the rear in an intricately carved chair, overlaid with gilt. Like the others, he was clad in felt leather breeches stuffed in calf-length boots and a felt shirt, under a blue silk vest. Bohai greeted him again in Xiongnu with some familiarity, they exchanged some words, and then he turned to Ibrahim… “Introduce yourselves. This is Shanyu Bei of the Huyan clan of the Xiongnu. He speaks han-yu, as do most of the people here, though reluctantly… they are fierce enemies.”
Ibrahim introduced himself first. “I am Ibhim, son of Yusuf, a nomad of the sea, leading my companions here to safety in the west. Aulus?”
“I am Aus Gawba of the Da Qin far to the west. I led a diplomatic expedition to Emperor He, who treacherously imprisoned us, and would have executed us were it not for Ibhim. My cousin Gis is my second in command, An-Dun my strong right arm, and our translators Si Nuo, and his sister Si Huar. We all five owe our l
ives to Ibhim’s companions, Dim, Yak, Simul and Gisga.” Each bowed in turn as they were introduced.“Dim is a most heroic follower of Buddha, Simul, Gisga and Yak fearless fighters from the west. And Bohai has been our most gracious escort to your lands.”
The Shanyugreeted them.“Welcome to the sad remnants of the once-proud Huyan clan of the Xiongnu. Once we would cover the plains with our numbers, but after the battle of Ilkh Bayan this is all that is left, just a few thousand. Please, we are poor and informal here. Have a seat on the pillows on the floor, as we do.” He clapped his hands.“Food and kumisfor our guests!”
He returned to his guests.“You wish to return west to the land of the Da Qin?”
“That is our intent, sir,” replied Aulus.
“You are fortunate then, as we are beginning our final trek south to better weather, but we will not return to this, our home, ever again. We are too few to continue living here. We will rejoin the other clans at Dzungaria to the west, between the Tien Shan and Altai Mountains. You are welcome to travel with us. We will be leaving in a few days to trade at Yinshuan and then Liqian in the Qilian mountains, then on to our destination.”
Marcia’s heart leapt. She interrupted, “Liqian? In Gansu?”
“That is the one, why?” answered the shanyu.
“That was my home. And Si Nuo’s. We have not been there for ten years.”
The Eagle and the Dragon, a Novel of Rome and China Page 45