Fall of Empires

Chapter 26

Anna propped herself against the side of the barge as it made its way downriver and screwed up her eyes against the low sun which threw dancing sparkles across the swift flowing waters. The Tigris had widened as they had headed south, until it grew so broad that in the early morning mist which had now burned away to reveal a clear blue sky, Anna had not been able to see the far bank. Today was the first day that she had taken any interest in her surroundings for more than a few moments.  For much of the journey she had remained slumped in the bottom of the flat bottomed river barge as it had nosed its way downstream, shaking and sweating and clutching at her insides in pain. Peroz in those days had shown her more kindness than anyone had since her captivity had begun, covering her with a thin blanket and holding a cup of water to her lips.

The other women had continued to shun her, regarding her with venomous looks and then resuming their downcast demeanour whenever she held their gaze. Only once during the journey had they become animated, their cries of dismay rousing Anna from her torpor for the first time to find herself aboard the boat with no memory of how she had come to be on the river. She had looked around desperately for Antonina in her waking moments before the sickening, crushing memory of their forced parting had caught up with her. Gripping the gunwale of the boat she had hauled herself up sufficiently to see the cause of her fellow captives’ distress.
The boat had been approaching a long sandbar in mid-stream, the steersman taking them towards the left bank in order to keep clear of the obstacle. Strewn like broken dolls along its length had been the bodies of some of the girls who had succeeded in taking their lives in the river, white and bloated. They had been a pitiable sight. Anna shuddered as she recalled it.
She had lost track of the days since that moment but at last her fever had abated and the terrible gnawing in her guts had slackened to a dull ache. Only the pain of her failure to protect Antonina gave her no respite and wrapped in her guilt she no longer cared for whatever fate awaited her in Ctesiphon.

The city stole up suddenly upon her as the boat made its way around a bend in the river and she saw the top of a great dome, rising above the swaying reeds and the tops of the palms like a giant stone egg. As the boat continued downriver she could see the high walls and stout towers of the royal city. They filled her with foreboding as she contemplated that such walls could keep those within a city trapped inside it as well as they could keep enemies out. She swallowed as she realised that she may never see the world outside of those walls again after this day. Instinctively she turned away from the city and watched the far bank of the river instead where herons stalked amongst the rushes and small boys fished from flimsy platforms erected over the shallows. 

The boat made its way between a cluster of sandy islets in mid-stream and then turned for the bank and made its way up a canal just wide enough for two such craft to pass each other. The narrow waterway was crowded with boats and the rickety wooden jetties along its bank thronged with bustling boat men and traders. Slaves with skins of every hue, stripped to their waists and glistening with sweat, laboured to unload all manner of produce. Sacks of grain, baskets of dates, jars of oil and bundles of cloth all piled up on the quayside and the chatter of thronging humanity was punctuated by the bleating of goats and the squabbling of chickens. The boat made its way alongside a sturdier jetty served by a flight of stone steps which led up from the river to the sprawling warren of mud-brick dwellings and ramshackle lean-tos that occupied the plain between the city walls and the river bank. Here Peroz alighted and was greeted by a pompous looking official in an immaculate white tunic. After a few moments of conversation, Peroz gestured for his men to bring the women up from the barge. Anna staggered as her feet found dry land and the ground seemed still to be moving beneath her as she trudged after the other girls. Peroz’s soldiers, who were no doubt eager to sample the delights of the capital such as they were, shooed them up the stairs like livestock on the way to market.