09:21 (Caucasus Time)
Friday, June 17, 63 B.C.E.
Caravanserai inn, Tanais
Western shores of the Tanais (Don) River Delta, South Caucasus
Maeotis Lake (Sea of Azov)
The inn of the caravanserai was nearly full at this hour with merchants, caravan guards and camel drivers who had arrived in Tanais late in the evening two days ago and had slept late for two consecutive nights, tired by their long trip from the East. Now, over thirty men were sitting around the tables of the inn and eating a late breakfast while discussing business with a few local merchants. When Nauca entered the inn, she heard at least four different languages, including Greek, being spoken around the large hall. After more than three years spent in Tanais and thanks to Artemisia’s teaching, Nauca was now fluent in Greek and could even read and write in it, on top of being able to count and do basic arithmetic. She had also picked up quite a lot of Sogdian, the language spoken by a large portion of the merchants and traders plying the Silk Road and who often ended their westward trips in Tanais. Sogdians, who came from an old kingdom situated southeast of the Sea of Oxus{15} and who were widely recognized as masters of trade, made up the majority of the merchants and traders traveling along the Silk Road and often showed up in Tanais with their wares from the East, looking for profitable sales and exchanges of goods. Seeing a dozen of them in this caravanserai was thus quite common for Nauca, who liked to listen to the stories of their long trips and who frequently asked them about the countries and places they went through. However, this morning Nauca was not here simply to listen to stories.
‘Artemisia is going to kill me when she will learn about this.’ thought Nauca to herself as she headed towards the man she knew to be the master of the caravan which had arrived two days ago. That man, a Sogdian merchant named Hiram, was actually discussing business with Thanos and two other local merchants, using Greek. Nauca knew that Hiram could speak at least four different languages, including Greek, and probably knew even more languages. Under a rather unassuming and unremarkable appearance, Hiram hid a very sharp mind, with a special talent to judge the persons he met and made deals with. If you lied to him, Hiram would catch on to it quickly and would turn that against you. He was also a master haggler with few equals but was known to always respect a deal after it was concluded in good faith. For all that, Nauca had quickly grown to respect him during his previous visit to Tanais with his caravan of goods.
Hiram, like Thanos and the two Greek merchants sitting with him, looked up at Nauca and stopped speaking when she halted next to his table, dressed in a short Greek tunic but with her sword and gorytos in her back and with a dagger and purse at her belt. The Sogdian couldn’t help smile with delight as he admired for a second Nauca’s long, graceful legs, put in evidence by her short tunic.
‘’Yes, young girl?’’ he asked in Greek.
‘’My name is Nauca and I wish to travel eastward with your caravan. I am thus offering you my services as a guard and as a hunter.’’
Hiram exchanged a quick glance with Thanos, who had grown sober at once on hearing Nauca’s words, before looking back at the tall, athletic-looking teenage girl standing in front of him.
‘’And you feel qualified to act as such for such a long, arduous and risky trip, young Nauca?’’
‘’I was born and raised in the steppes and hunting has no secrets for me, while I am no stranger to fighting.’’ replied at once Nauca in a firm voice. That was when Thanos cut in on the exchange, speaking to Hiram.
‘’I have known Nauca for three years now, Hiram, and I can vouch to you that she is a first-class hunter, a deadly archer and also a brave and resourceful girl.’’
Hiram mused on that for a second while eyeing Nauca and her weapons before speaking to her.
‘’You should know that I must keep my traveling costs as low as possible in order to maximize my profits for each trip. I already have two guards for my caravan, good men who are also excellent archers. If I hire you as a guard, then I can’t promise you much in terms of wages. Also, our trip to Samarkand will take more than four months. Are you ready for such a long trip, girl?’’
‘’Yes! As for my wages, my main goal is to be able to see more of the World. I am not asking for more than food during the trip and lodging when stopping at caravanserais along the way.’’
Hiram nodded his head slowly at those words.
‘’Your demands are quite modest and reasonable, I must say. So, you want to travel in order to see new things? Are you planning to return to Tanais afterwards? Know that my caravan will not go further than Samarkand, my city of origin. Once there, if you wish to continue further eastward, you will have to negotiate passage with another caravan going towards China. Depending on the weather, our trip to Samarkand could take over five months. If you decide to go all the way to Chang’ an, the capital of the Chinese Empire, then you are looking at a trip taking close to a year.’’
‘’I am a nomad!’’ replied Nauca, undaunted. ‘’My home is where I am!’’
She then looked down at Thanos, with her voice noticeably softening up.
‘’Please don’t take this as some dissatisfaction with your hospitality, Thanos: I consider you as near to being family as one can be. I am just growing restless of living in one place and want to learn about the World.’’
‘’I understand your motives for wanting to go and I accept them, Nauca. We will miss you.’’
‘’Thank you, Thanos!’’ said Nauca before looking back at Hiram. ‘’So? Are you ready to hire me and let me go with your caravan to Samarkand?’’
Favorably impressed by her, the Sogdian merchant needed only a second to take a decision.
‘’I will take you with my caravan, young Nauca, with food and lodging as wages for your services. If we encounter bandits on the way and you are able to protect my caravan from them, then you will have the right to half of the loot taken from every bandit you will kill. Is that satisfactory to you?’’
‘’Yes! When are you planning to depart for Samarkand?’’
‘’In two days, once I will have concluded my business here. Make sure to bring both light and warm clothes for you for the trip: the weather on the high mountain plateaus can be frigid, while we will have to cross a number of vast arid deserts.’’
‘’I will be ready, Hiram. Thank you for letting me come with your caravan.’’
Nauca then turned around and left the hall, watched by Hiram. The Sogdian then looked at Thanos, a slight smile on his lips.
‘’That girl looks quite interesting, and I am not talking about her beauty, even though she is a truly fine-looking girl.’’
Thanos nodded his head slowly, his mind reviewing what had just happened.
‘’Oh, you won’t meet many girls like her, Hiram. On the other hand, I will miss her: she has caught many nice furs for me during the last three years. She also happens to be quite a likeable girl. My own daughter, Artemisia, is a very good friend of her and she will be devastated to learn that Nauca is going to leave Tanais.’’
10:06 (Caucasus Time)
Thanos family’s residence
Tanais caravanserai
Having searched for Artemisia around Thanos’ residence, in which she had been living herself for three years now, Nauca found her friend in the weaving room, busy weaving wool treads into a cloth. Artemisia’s smile on seeing her enter the room only made more difficult to Nauca what she wanted to do. In turn, the sober expression on Nauca’s face made Artemisia’s smile fade and she stopped her weaving work while staring at her.
‘’What? What is it, Nauca?’’
‘’Artemisia, I told you many times in the past that I would not stay here in Tanais for all my life and that I wanted to travel and see the World. Well, the time for me to leave has come.’’
The hurt and sadness which appeared on Artemisia’s face at those words in turn saddened Nauca, who hurried to her friend to hug her.
‘’I love you, Artemisia, truly, but I need to move on and travel. Besides, you know as well as me that, sooner rather than later, your father will have you married to some local man, in which case our relationship will have to be terminated if you don’t want to be shamed and punished because of our liaison. Be assured that I will have fond memories of our friendship together.’’
Tears appeared in Artemisia’s eyes as she looked up at her friend and secret lover.
‘’When…when will you be leaving Tanais?’’
‘’In two days. I will leave towards the East with the caravan presently in the caravanserai.’’
‘’Will you ever return to Tanais?’’ asked Artemisia, having to swallow a ball in her throat in order to speak. Nauca shook her head slowly in response.
‘’I don’t think so, except for passing by on my way to another place. My trip to the East will probably take a year or even longer. By the time I pass by here again, you will probably have been married already to some man.’’
Artemisia nodded once her head to acknowledge the truth of those words. In Greek traditions, girls and young women had to obey their fathers or suffer some harsh discipline or even disavowal from their family. Once married, a Greek woman had no say in her future and would be mostly relegated to her husband’s house, where she would be expected to be an obedient wife who would take care of the domestic chores and of producing and raising children. However, knowing that Nauca was right didn’t make the present moment less painful. Returning Nauca’s hug and pressing her tightly against herself, Artemisia started crying silently while Nauca gently caressed her hair and head.
‘’I will miss you so much, Nauca.’’
‘’And I will miss you too, Artemisia.’’ replied Nauca, equally moved. Her friend then looked up at her, tears still flowing on her cheeks.
‘’Be careful during your trip, Nauca. I would hate to hear that something would have happened to you during your voyages.’’
‘’That would only be life, especially for a nomad like me, Artemisia. As for you, I will pray that your father finds a kind and considerate husband for you, a man who will respect you as much as he will love you.’’
Artemisia did not reply to that, as she knew too well that she could not really expect such an outcome. Marriages were mostly decided in terms of either financial benefit or family prestige. Marriages of true love were in fact a rarity and, when they happened, were widely derided as delusional and contrary to accepted norms and customs.
‘’Still, please be careful, Nauca. Could I see you tonight?’’
‘’Yes, but we will have to be even more careful than usual about our activities together: now would be a truly bad time for our relationship to become known. How about taking a bath together late tonight?’’
‘’That would be nice, Nauca. I will make sure that only my two personal slave girls will be around then.’’
Nauca was then tempted to say something about this business of slavery, a thing which she, as a freedom-loving nomad, abhorred, but restrained herself. Slavery was unfortunately a practice that existed everywhere around the World. From what she had heard from passing caravan merchants, no country was free of that practice and she doubted very much that slavery would ever disappear, so she had to accept it, even though she hated the institution. Kissing Artemisia on her lips, Nauca then stepped back from her.
‘’I will see you again tonight. In the meantime, I have to prepare for my trip and procure a few things to facilitate it.’’
She then left the weaving room, her heart heavy.
05:03 (Caucasus Time)
Sunday, June 19, 63 B.C.E.
Courtyard of the Tanais caravanserai
In traditional fashion for a caravan, the merchants and camel drivers of Hiram’s caravan were all up very early in the morning, in order to be able to start their long journey with as many hours of light possible for their first day of travel. Thankfully, the weather was nice, with a blue sky and a breeze from the sea that helped refresh from the hot Sun. Thanos and his whole family, including Artemisia, were on hand to watch the caravan leave for its long journey. Nauca, atop her horse Tamat and with her second horse, Minad, carrying her provisions and equipment and tied by a long rope to her saddle, waved goodbye for a last time to Artemisia and her family as the long line of camels, heavily loaded with large bundles, started filing out of the courtyard via the main gate of the caravanserai. That prompted fresh tears from Artemisia, with her mother then taking hold of her to console her. Nauca herself felt sadness at leaving her friend, something that Timur, a young Mongol man who was one of the three guards of the caravan, noticed and made him speak to her as he rode next to her.
‘’You are leaving a good friend behind, Nauca. Am I right?’’
‘’Yes, you are, Timur. However, that is a common occurrence for us nomads and we must concentrate on the present moment and near future.’’
Timur nodded approvingly at her words.
‘’Well said! Time is too precious to waste it on moments already gone.’’
‘’Timur, you told me yesterday that this is your second trip between Tanais and Samarkand with Hiram’s caravan. Which way will we go by?’’
‘’Well, normally we would use the established road going through Persia but, with the war in the Pontus still fresh and with the Romans still busy looting the region and chasing down the remnants of King Mithridates’ army, that way is presently too risky. Romans have the nasty habit of taking whatever tempts them and Hiram has no wish to stimulate the greed of those Romans by parading a rich caravan down their noses. So, instead of heading Southeast towards Armenia and Persia, we will go straight East and follow the old Steppe Route towards the Sea of Oxus{16}. Once we reach its northwest shores, we will bifurcate southward and follow the Oxus River towards the cities of Urgench and Bukhara. Once in Bukhara, we will then get on the main Silk Road trail and follow it towards Samarkand, the terminus of our caravan.’’
‘’What about the Tanais River? It is quite deep and wide at this time of the year.’’
‘’Hiram knows a fording site a few hours north of here. Don’t worry about it.’’
Nauca then fell silent, concentrating her attention on the way taken by Hiram, who was leading the caravan on his horse, accompanied by Gorudos, the third guard of their group of travelers.
The caravan followed at first the northern shores of the Tanais River, going through grassy plains sprinkled with trees. It stopped for lunch near the banks of the river where Hiram claimed there was a fording site practicable by his camels. As Nauca ate a quick, frugal meal of dried fish with the other members of the caravan, Gorudos was sent by Hiram across the river, to verify if the sand bar he had used previously was still usable as a fording site. To everybody’s relief, the short but beefy man came back with only the belly of his horse being wet from the crossing. Hiram smiled at that sight and looked at Nauca and Timur.
‘’Timur, Nauca, cross the river now and make sure that no bandits are hiding on the other side. Then, you will stay on that side to protect our caravan while we cross the Tanais.’’
‘’Right away, Hiram!’’ replied Nauca, jumping on her feet at once and then walking towards her horse. Timur, slightly slower than her in reacting, followed her to his own horse, tied near Tamat. A few seconds later, both were galloping towards the water, slowing down to an amble before entering the river.
On her horse Tamat, Nauca kept scanning carefully the opposite bank of the river as she was wading across: Hiram had been correct in wanting to inspect the other shore for bandits, as such a crossing point would be a natural focal point for marauders intent on attacking a caravan in order to steal its precious merchandises. However, her acute eyesight did not locate anything suspect during her crossing of the Tanais River. Still, she was on alert as Tamat trotted out of the river and started climbing the soft sand incline of the southern bank.
‘’I’M GOING TO GO RIGHT AND CHECK THE SHORELINE ON THAT SIDE, TIMUR. DO THE SAME ON THE LEFT.’’
At first, Timur felt a bit insulted on having a girl give him orders, but her directive was a correct, logical one, so he turned his horse to the left without making a comment or protesting her ordering around. He did take his time to check his portion of the shoreline, intent on doing as thorough and careful a job as he could. When he returned to the crossing point, Nauca had herself just returned to it and was waving for the caravan to start crossing the river. She then pointed to Timur the nearest patch of woods, some forty meters away.
‘’I am going to check out that patch of woods, in case someone would hide in it.’’
‘’Good idea! Be careful, though: you would make a nice target to an archer hiding behind a tree.’’
‘’I know, but someone has to do it, right?’’
Not letting time to Timur to reply to that, Nauca then galloped away towards the line of trees. The young Mongol man smiled in appreciation when he saw her gallop in a zigzag pattern, in order to offer a more difficult target to any potential archer: that girl sure had both good instincts and lots of common sense. It didn’t hurt that she also happened to be a beautiful girl.
Hiram, at the head of the line of camels, had just reached the southern shore when Nauca came back at a gallop, to stop next to Timur.
‘’The woods are clear.’’
‘’Good! Let’s go take a point position some 200 paces ahead of the caravan, in order to be able to detect in advance any possible ambush by bandits. I know the way, so just follow next to me.’’
‘’Got it!’’
Timur then informed Hiram of their intent before galloping forward with Nauca, slowing to a lazy trot once well ahead of the caravan. The clearing they were in however soon changed to a sparsely wooden area that also contained many bushes and lots of long grass, so they had to redouble their degree of attention once in it. Without needing to communicate together, both Timur and Nauca grabbed their bows at the same time and put arrows in place, in order to be able to react faster in case of a sudden ambush while guiding their horses via pressures from their knees and feet. The young Mongol man, who prided himself in being an expert horseman, was pleased to see that Nauca displayed a degree of expertise at least equal to his own.
‘Decidedly, any Mongol man would be proud to call such a girl his wife.’ thought Timur to himself.
Things were quite uneventful for the next couple of hours, except for the occasional sighting of a deer or boar among the trees. As the duo was crossing yet another grassy area, Nauca suddenly pointed at something to their left while speaking urgently.
‘’There! I see a horseman hiding among that line of trees, some 300 paces away.’’
Timur barely had time to locate the said horseman before the latter turned his horse around and fled among the trees, making Nauca growl in frustration.
‘’Damn! We can’t pursue him without risking to fall into some trap. However, I am sure that this man was acting as a lookout. For whom and why, I don’t know, but it all appears suspicious to me.’’
‘’The same here. Stay here, while I gallop back to inform Hiram of this. We may have to be extra vigilant when we will stop for the night to establish our camp.’’
Nauca simply nodded her head at that and kept scanning the tree line on both sides as Timur galloped back. The young Mongol was back after a few minutes and spoke to Nauca as soon as he stopped his horse next to her.
‘’Hiram knows a good spot for a camp along the shores of a stream, some two hours ahead. We will stop there for the night. Once near that spot, Hiram wants us to thoroughly check the woods around it ahead of the caravan’s arrival.’’
‘’A good idea. Hiram is indeed a cautious, experienced merchant and traveler.’’
That made Timur smile to her.
‘’You would be cautious as well if all that you possessed was traveling with you. If this caravan did get robbed and looted, then Hiram might as well slit his own throat, as he would then have lost about everything.’’
Nauca nodded at that: it may sound cruel, but such was life these days. She herself had lived that way, free to move around but also vulnerable to all kinds of threats, before coming to Tanais after the loss of her family to marauding bandits.
Two and a half hours later, as the Sun was already quite low on the horizon, they arrived at the spot described by Timur, a large clearing with a four-meter-wide stream running through it. Nauca looked critically at the woods surrounding the clearing before speaking.
‘’Well, this clearing may give us a clear field of view against anyone emerging from those trees, but it also makes us plainly visible to any lookout or passersby.’’
‘’That’s why we will now do a full circle around this clearing, in order to smoke out any hidden man before the caravan’s arrival. Let’s stay together for that: this is no time to split up and be alone to face any surprise attack.’’
‘’I concur! Lead on!’’
Timur then turned his horse towards their left and started trotting just short of the tree line, his eyes scanning the woods past the first trees. They had crossed the stream and were halfway down the tree line on the left side of the clearing when Nauca suddenly stopped her horse.
‘’STOP! I SEE SOMETHING!’’
She then jumped off her horse, her bow ready to shoot, before entering the woods at a cautious step. With his own bow at the ready, Timur anxiously waited while scanning the thick woods. Nauca came back a few minutes later, a concerned expression on her face.
‘’I found a spot just beyond the first trees where some kind of lookout position had been made by cutting branches and forming a camouflage wall with them. The position was empty but I found some feces and urine which smelled like they were quite recent. I believe that one or two men were hiding there for a while before leaving only a few minutes ago. I could track them, but that would leave the caravan short by one guard.’’
‘’You are right about that. By the way, you do have some great talent in spotting things around a forest, Nauca.’’
Nauca could not help smile at that compliment.
‘’Well, I was born and raised in a region of the steppes covered by the Taiga, which is made mostly of thick coniferous forests. I am accustomed to hunt and track through dense woods.’’
‘’Your talents are proving to be quite useful right now to our caravan, Nauca. While we can’t do much right now about those lookouts, at least we will be on our guards tonight. Let’s go to the caravan and inform Hiram of this.’’
Galloping back to the caravan, which was starting to circle its camels around a spot next to the stream, where they would be able to drink, Nauca and Timur stopped next to Hiram, who had dismounted and was directing the setting up of their camp. Nauca let Timur speak to Hiram while listening on as he described what she had discovered. Worry appeared on the merchant’s face, who caressed his short beard while thinking.
‘’Well, the Sun will soon come down, while we won’t find a better spot than this for the night. We will still establish our camp here, but we will have to be extra vigilant tonight. You two better grab some sleep right now after making your horses drink, so that you could be rested for the incoming night watch shift.’’
Both Nauca and Timur nodded their heads at that judicious decision and led their horses to the stream after unloading them and taking their saddles off. They then tied down their horses to a lone tree via long ropes, to let them eat the surrounding grass. Nauca didn’t bother to deploy her small tent for the night, simply lying down in the grass and using her saddle as a headrest before quickly falling asleep, quite tired by her long hours of riding.
It was completely dark, with only the light of a half-moon to provide visibility, when Gorudos, who had been on the evening watch shift, awoke her and Timur, shaking them gently while speaking in a low voice.
‘’Wake up! Time for your night shift!’’
Still groggy at first, Nauca sat up and stretched herself to fully wake up, then got on her feet and started putting on her scale armor vest and helmet and grabbing her weapons, buckling the wide belt supporting her sword, dagger, war axe and purse around her waist and slinging her gorytos containing her bow and arrows. Lifting her saddle up from the grass, she fitted it back on Tamat and finally grabbed her ‘Pelta’ half-moon-shaped shield and her long lance before taking position behind one of the big bundles which had been carried by the camels of the caravan. Her position was actually on one flank of the camp, well away from the campfire that was still slowly burning: only an idiot would stand watch near a fire, where the flames would silhouette him to attackers and would also ruin his night vision. Timur, no young fool, did the same but at the other extremity of the camp.
The night was quiet at first, with the clear, starry sky offering a fascinating view to anyone who would care looking up and eye the wide swath of the Milky Way crossing the night sky. However, Nauca kept her eyes firmly towards the trees surrounding the wide clearing, scanning back and forth from one side to the other and looking for any glint of movement. At night, both movement and noise were much better as warning signs than actual sighting, at least at first. Such a warning sign came well past midnight, when Nauca’s eyes caught on moving branches among the tree line facing her. Concentrating her vision in that direction, she soon was able to distinguish the dark silhouettes of over a dozen horsemen emerging from the trees while trying to stay as silent as they could. Her senses now going to full alert, she turned her head towards Timur’s position, some fifty paces away from her, and imitated the cry of an owl, their prearranged signal that something was approaching. On hearing that, Timur hurried at once to Gorudos to wake him up, then returned to his position and readied his bow. By then, the newcomers were fully out of the woods and were quietly advancing in the long grass of the clearing, going towards the stream that separated them from the caravan’s camp. Nauca tightened her jaws on seeing that their attackers numbered a good fourteen men, all holding either bows, lances or war axes: that made for heavy odds indeed. Wanting to cut down on that number as soon as possible, Nauca pulled her bow and aimed carefully at one of the silhouettes, then let fly an arrow. She was already putting in place a second arrow when her first projectile hit, striking one of the horsemen in the chest and making him bowl off his horse with a scream of pain. The other horsemen, surprised by that sudden outcome, took a full second to react to it, giving time to Nauca to aim at a second target. That horseman barely had time to start shouting orders in a Sarmatian dialect Nauca recognized as Circassian before being killed by an arrow in his left eye. Barely a second later, a third horseman fell from his horse, shot by Timur. The remaining horsemen, forgetting about stealth, then started shouting war cries while pushing their horses to full gallop, charging towards the campsite. Shooting arrows at a rhythm of one arrow every four seconds, Nauca still managed to stay deadly accurate, the attackers being well within 200 meters, her usual limit for pinpoint accuracy. With Timur proving nearly as deadly as her, the attackers’ number melted quickly, with only six of them still on their horses by the time that they started splashing across the small stream. Gorudos then added his fire to the rain of arrows, shooting dead the leading horseman at the same time that yet another attacker was bowled over by one of Nauca’s arrows. Now down to four men, the attackers understood that they stood little chances now and decided to turn around and flee. However, neither Nauca, Timur or Gorudos felt like showing mercy, as they knew full well what those bandits would have done to the people of the caravan if their attack had proved successful. They thus continued to shoot arrows, until the last of the attackers fell down from his horse. That was when Nauca shouted out loud at her companions.
‘’TIMUR, GET YOUR HORSE AND LET’S CATCH THOSE RIDER-LESS HORSES! WE WILL ALSO FINISH OFF ANY WOUNDED MAN WE WILL FIND STILL ALIVE. GORUDOS, KEEP WATCHING THE CAMP.’’
Running to her own horse, on whom she had put back her saddle when she had awakened, she jumped on top of it and pushed it to a gall