‘The Jade Empire is no longer a safe place for me, Cinna.’
The western general’s eyes narrowed. ‘The Jade Emperor is not particularly forgiving of failure, I would suspect.’
‘Precisely. There is civil war in the east, but neither side favours me, and I would lose my head there whoever comes out on top.’
‘I am not certain that is adequate reason to ride into the lands of your more direct enemy.’
‘We were a little stuck for choices, Cinna. Given that our empire is riven at its heart, the horse clans would skin us on sight and the Inda territories are full of rampaging imperial troops, north to the mountains seemed the obvious choice.’
‘We could not risk leading your countrymen to the monastery,’ added Jai, eyes locked on his brother, ‘so the south was clearly not an option.’
‘Quite,’ Cinna replied. ‘We had similar thoughts. However, the monastery must be your destination now.’
Jiang’s eyebrow shot up. ‘We thought to seek out this Sizhad and determine whether he might be negotiated with.’
Now Dev shook his head. ‘The Sizhad will not negotiate. Nor will he compromise. All that will satisfy him is conquest in the name of his living sun god.’
‘You have spoken to him?’
Dev nodded. ‘Some time ago.’ He glanced at the western general for permission. Cinna nodded, and so he continued. ‘We thought to save further depredations here and preserve what we could of the empire. We rode north to the Sizhad and his men to goad them into coming south. The sight of the fanatic’s army would likely send the marshals running back across the Oxus with their armies. It would be a winning move in a number of ways. The empire gets its absent military strength back before being entirely overrun with barbarians, the Inda get the oppressor’s heel removed. The only unknown is what the Sizhad will do then.’
‘You succeeded in persuading the Sizhad, then?’ General Jiang asked, and Jai remembered now the decurion’s odd phrasing. The enemy are gaining on us.
‘Persuasion was not exactly required,’ Cinna replied. ‘We moved north and almost walked straight into them. They were coming south already on a warpath. I believe they are aware of our presence slightly ahead of them, but we are far enough in front that it is too much trouble for them to press hard to deal with us. Besides, I suspect they are hoping we will spread the word of their coming. You know what sort of panic that could create.’
‘If they are already coming south,’ Jiang frowned, ‘why bother goading them further? Why not just head to safety and let them get on with it?’
Cinna rubbed his neck wearily. He looked travel-worn and tired. ‘Because once they are down from the hills and onto the plains on the Nadu’s west bank, there is a very good chance that they will ignore the army here entirely and simply head west to ravage and conquer the poorly protected empire. We must do all we can to draw them into the sight of the marshals. What happens then is up to those lunatics running my army and the madman leading his fanatical one. Who can say how that will turn out, but it is the only way I could see that granted all of us even a chance of survival.’
‘How do the lands stand to the west of the Nadu?’ Jiang asked.
‘I have only second-hand reports and rumour,’ Cinna replied. ‘If they are to be believed, then the west is relatively calm and empty at the moment. The bulk of the imperial forces are in the east pursuing your countrymen and imposing the imperial peace upon new Inda territories. We already largely control the west, so there are just a few garrisons in place. You’re not thinking of travelling on the west bank?’
Jiang laughed an empty laugh. ‘Where else shall I go, Cinna? Back to the east bank where your former army is hunting me for profit? These marshals of yours will not look for me in their own lands. We can, with a little luck and the favour of the gods, slip through imperial-controlled lands and to the south, seeking out the monastery.’
Cinna pondered this with a furrowed brow. Finally, he straightened. ‘It sounds utterly insane, but I cannot fault your logic, Jiang. Would that we could join you, but I must walk meekly into the lion’s mouth to guide the Sizhad there.’ The stocky westerner turned to Dev. ‘But there is no need for you to risk your neck with me. I do not mean to denigrate your value, Dev, but the Sizhad’s forces will pursue me whether you are with me or not. And I needed your knowledge and skills in the north, but I know the lands back towards the south and have to do little but lead the enemy across them.’
Dev shook his head, though his eyes were on his brother. ‘Respectfully, General, I intend to see to it that you get out of Jalnapur alive again. We have come too far now for you to fall so late in the game. I am coming with you, and we will both survive it.’ Besides, thought Dev in the privacy of his head, I suspect it is more my presence that is drawing my insane brother than yours…
Cinna looked at his adjutant in silence for some time, allowing plenty of opportunity for a change of mind. Once it became clear that Dev was resolute, he nodded to Jiang. ‘You are seeking sanctuary with the old man in the dead lands, then. It is an eminently sensible move. My colleagues will not violate the sanctity of that. We are a pious and superstitious people, and Dev tells me he believes the Sizhad will be even more so. It seems that these mysterious lands are the only ones that will be safe for any of us.’ He chuckled. ‘How strange. I am sought by my own peers, considered an enemy by yours, and will face trial and death if I return to my home. It seems that we are oddly tied to a path, Jiang. Dev and I, and our guard, will seek you out at the monastery when we have finished at Jalnapur.’
Jai looked deep into his brother’s eyes. It seemed incredible that after all these years the two of them should find one another again, face to face across a battlefield, and yet be destined to seek a place of peace together. Fate. Their father had always been wise.
But could fate overcome even the gravest dangers? For the journey south would be perilous for the men of the Jade Empire, and no easier for Dev and his general.
It would have to.
Chapter 20
They made an incongruous group as they travelled south – a true meeting of cultures. Two great generals and two elite bodyguard units, each drawn from one of the world’s oldest and most powerful cultures, and with them two Inda brothers. Strange to think that if the world had managed to achieve what these four hundred men had done, there would be peace and harmony everywhere. But it had not. And there was not. And as long as there were men like the lunatic Bassianus, the frenzied Sizhad and the disputed rigid overlordship of the Jade Emperor, there never could be.
Dev had marvelled at the strange glory of fellowship between such intransigent parties – an odd bond forged by necessity and mutual peril. It struck him as odd and yet entirely appropriate how much at ease the two generals seemed in one another’s presence, and he remembered how respectfully Cinna had talked of Jiang even in the early days of Jalnapur, after their initial parley. While Jiang’s Inda was strongly accented and a little shaky, his command of the western tongue was impressive, and as they rode and discussed the differences and similarities of their armies and their worlds, Dev caught a sense of sharing, even hearing his own general using occasional Jade Empire terminology. More interesting still was how often he heard both of them using Inda terms and phrases. A year of cultural clashes had taught everyone a great deal. It was sometimes easier to learn from an enemy than from a friend.
It had been a nervous journey, though, despite the fascinating ease between former enemies. While the vast majority of the imperial army were on the far side of the Nadu now, laying claim to Inda territory and chasing the last remnants of the beaten Jade army back across their borders, the western Inda lands were still staunchly under imperial control. Food was scarce after half a year of constant war and depredation, many regions were largely depopulated, once carefully tended towns and villages were now empty, broken and overgrown. Everywhere were signs of imperial ravages, despite Cinna’s policy of clemency and care. It seemed that a month
or so under careless men had undone any good the general had achieved in his time in command.
As they journeyed, the travellers suffered more with each passing day. What rations the men carried had long since been exhausted, and though hunting and foraging was fine for a party of half a dozen men, half a thousand were significantly harder to feed. They had become used to eating bread hurriedly made from rat-infested grain stores, augmented with rotting, overripe vegetation and a few chunks of meat from the poor pickings in the countryside.
And if constant slogging south and increasing hunger were not enough to dishearten a man, there was the need for subtlety and a measured pace. The western empire had left garrisons in each former Inda kingdom, at major crossings and junctions, in cities and fortresses, and there was the constant danger of falling foul of one of them. For the most part Cinna and Dev were aware of the likely locations, and after months of studying the maps could pick out the safest route with relative ease, but once or twice they still failed, for things were beginning to change under the new commanders.
On those few occasions, they had been exceedingly lucky. The vast majority of imperial cavalry had been deployed to the east, where they could be used to speedily hunt down the enemy, while the land west of the great river was largely garrisoned with infantry. The result was that whenever the strange multinational party stumbled across a garrison for which they were unprepared, they were able to race away at a gallop and outdistance the soldiers before their insignia could be recognised.
That was paramount, lest the Sizhad’s army lose interest in them and turn west.
They had maintained a uniform distance ahead of the zealot force and had on occasion been forced to slow and essentially taunt them into pressing on south. Parts of the great white army had split off at times and moved west, and that had made Cinna and Dev wince, but there was nothing they could do about it. They just had to draw the bulk of the zealot army south against the main force of the marshals and hope that the empire could raise the strength to deal with the smaller group moving to take control of its border. Thus Cinna and his men had been forced to maintain their identity, despite the inherent danger that carried, what with half the imperial army on the lookout for them. It was, Cinna believed, their identity that drew the Sizhad and his army on. Not so the men of the Jade Empire. Before they had even left the northern hills, the officers and the Crimson Guard had packed away their uniforms and armour on the back of their horses, adopting stolen or traded native clothes and binding their heads with turbans to help conceal their nationality.
From a distance they appeared to be a unit of imperial cavalry with a native levy contingent, and it was only closer examination that would give them away. If anyone got close enough to tell the difference they were in trouble anyway. It was sufficient, or it had been thus far anyway, for the tense journey south.
The greatest benefit of that long, hungry, nervous trek was the chance for Dev to speak to his brother. While the former generals passed the time on their ride pondering best-case scenarios, the chances of any of them coming to fruition infinitesimally small, Dev and Jai spent day after day discussing the years of their separation, comparing their experiences and laughing or commiserating appropriately. It was oddly cathartic for both, despite their current desperate situation. When they had last met for the night at the monastery, they had talked and even reconnected in many ways, but there had been a tense, underlying strain that had prevented a relaxing openness. Now the pressure to maintain the position of their empires had lifted. As fellow fugitives, there was nothing to lose, and the pair were rapidly becoming brothers again in more than just name.
They had talked of their years of separation, of their growth and changes as they became men of empire rather than sons of the Inda. Of how Dev’s natural talents in administration and control had led him to find a place in the military of the west that capitalised on his abilities and had made him something of a strategist, while Jai’s physical skills had been honed by the killing academies of the east, turning him into a formidable warrior. They talked of their changed tastes, of the friends and lovers they had both found and lost along the way, of how they had both dreamed of finding their family one day, when the chance arose. Neither of them had ever truly believed it might happen, and if anything hinted at the existence of fate, this was it.
And the more they shared and opened up, the more they realised that despite the differences between the east and the west that had influenced them over the years and those between them and the Inda, there had always been a common thread. Humanity. That, it seemed, was the true division in the world. Not a matter of east and west or of noble and poor. But of good and ill. Men who sought the best in the world and men who revelled in the worst. And nothing had brought that to the fore better than this awful war.
Thoughts of good and ill repeatedly dragged Dev back to his time in the north among the Faithful. Dev had still not revealed the true nature of the dreadful Sizhad who followed them doggedly. It was not that he was precious about the secret, or that he felt he needed to protect Jai in the way he had his father. In fact, when he thought about it there was no good reason not to tell Jai about Ravi, yet still something made him hold his tongue.
Now Jai was momentarily distracted, fishing in his bags for some dry, hard morsel he had been saving, and Dev’s reverie was shattered by the sound of General Cinna’s voice.
‘Stop!’
Dev reined in along with the other officers, Jai abandoning the search of his bag for a moment. They looked to the stocky general in anticipation as the column sat astride their mounts on the road through the rolling green with birds chirruping in the background and the gentle sizzle and hum of an Inda autumn afternoon. Flies buzzed around the horses the moment they became stationary, tails flicking and riders swatting away the pests.
‘When we cross the next hill, we will be within view of the Jalnapur plain,’ Cinna said. ‘We will begin to encounter trouble there. From here on in, it will become increasingly dangerous for all of us, but while among the imperial army there may still be officers and men sympathetic to our plight, and others unaware of the importance of our insignia, not one man down there will be under the impression that Jiang and his men are anything but soldiers of the Jade Emperor.’
‘Which Jade Emperor?’ snorted Jai irritably, earning himself a disparaging look from his general.
‘All our lives will be more difficult with you alongside us,’ Cinna said flatly. ‘This is the place we must part company for now. Jiang? Jai? Take the road just over there by the burned tree. It is one of the lesser routes south, not part of the supply chain or the garrison system we set in place. I cannot guarantee that my successors have not put new forces in place, but with what information we have, that is the most likely safe route south. Once you reach the line of markers, travel east until you find the one that has my eagle, crown and spear insignia scratched into the moss on the base. That is the one that will lead you to the monastery from this direction.’
General Jiang walked his horse across and grasped his peer’s hand. ‘Thank you, Cinna. We will maintain the same approach we have used by your side thus far, avoiding all contact and outrunning anyone we cannot avoid. I have no intention of finding myself embroiled in some insane mini-war in your hinterland. We will make our way to the monastery and there await you, or word of your exploits. With luck and the gods at your back, you will be with us within a day or so. And if luck and the gods fail, there is always fate, which seems to be ever more active in these lands.’
Cinna smiled. ‘We each have our troubles, eh, Jiang? Be careful and try to reach the markers without a trail of hunting soldiers following close.’
‘And you, Cinna. Be very, very careful. I fear the men by that river would rather have your head than mine. You are playing a dangerous game. In my land, the artillerists call it “lighting the taper blind”.’
Cinna frowned in incomprehension.
‘A blind man with a flame trying
to fire a cannon,’ explained the tall, elegant easterner. ‘There is as much chance of him being gathered up in a bucket as his enemy.’
‘Thank you for your words of encouragement.’
‘He’s right, General,’ Jai added. ‘To attempt to draw one foe against another and escape from the middle unharmed is truly a madman’s quest. Be careful.’
‘I have not reached this age navigating the court of the mad emperor without care,’ smiled Cinna.
‘May the Nine Spirits of Righteous Truths guide your hand and your tongue,’ Jiang said, straightening in his saddle.
‘And Pardus, God of Journeys and Beginnings, watch over your travels.’
The two generals issued commands to their officers, and the blue-clad imperial riders began to separate from the drab, incognito Crimson Guard. It was strange to feel the palpable air of regret at the units’ parting, not all of which was born of the old adage ‘safety in numbers’. Over the many days of travel the two groups had managed to shed their initial wariness, gradually becoming better acquainted until they began to treat one another more as allies than opponents. They then began to intermingle, though there was still a significant language barrier. Perhaps one in ten of the easterners spoke the western tongue, and not one of the imperial soldiers spoke the language of the Jade Empire. Still, they were learning a few words of each other’s language gradually. It had been fascinating to watch and, as the two units made to go their separate ways, Dev smiled to hear them departing with words of encouragement in each other’s tongue.
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