Fortune's stroke

Well said, chimed in Aide.

Belisarius was not inclined to argue the point. He just waited long enough to be certain that Maurice was far enough ahead that he wouldn't be climbing down onto his head before he struck flame to the fuse. He took a second to make sure the fuse was burning properly before tossing it onto the floor. Then, after climbing into the well and lowering himself a few feet, he reached up and knocked aside the beam. The heavy wooden cover slammed back down over the shaft opening. Belisarius barely managed to jerk his hand out of the way, saving himself from broken fingers.

The interior of the well was completely dark, now. Hastily, feeling for the wooden pegs, Belisarius began lowering himself.

He was twenty feet down when the charges went off. The force of the explosion shook the walls of the shaft. For a moment, Belisarius froze, listening intently. He could hear the slamming of stones and heavy beams on the well cover above him, and he feared that it might give way. An avalanche of rubble would sweep him off the peg ladder. He had no idea how far he would fall.

Far enough, said Aide gloomily. Too far.

In the event, it would have been forty feet.

When he finally reached the end of the well-shaft, his feet flailed about for a moment, searching for pegs which weren't there. A hand grabbed his ankle.

'That's it, General,' came Valentinian's voice out of the darkness. 'Anastasius, get him down.'

Huge hands seized Belisarius' thighs. The general relinquished his grip on the pegs, and Anastasius lowered him easily onto a floor. A gravel floor, Belisarius thought, from the feel of it.

He began to stand up straight, then flinched. He couldn't see the roof, and feared crashing his head.

That brought to mind a new problem. 'Damn,' he growled. 'I forgot it would be pitch-black down here.'

'I didn't,' came Maurice's self-satisfied reply. 'Neither did Vasudeva. But I hope you had the sense to bring that striker down with you. It's the only one we've got.'

Belisarius dug into his tunic and withdrew the striker. His hand, groping in the darkness, encountered that of Maurice. The Thracian chiliarch took the device and struck it. A moment later, Maurice had a taper burning. It was a short length of tallow-soaked cord, one of the field torches which Roman soldiers carried with them on campaign.

The smoky, flickering light was enough to illuminate the area. Belisarius began a quick examination, while Maurice lit the taper which Vasudeva was carrying.

Valentinian, staring around, whistled softly. 'Damn! I'm impressed.'

So was Belisarius. The underground aqueduct they found themselves in was splendidly constructed-easily up to the best standards of Roman engineering. The aqueduct-the qanat, as the Persians called it, using the Arabic term-was square in cross section, roughly eight feet wide by eight feet tall. The central area of the tunnel, about four feet in width, was sunk two feet below the ledges on either side. That central area, where the water would normally flow except during the heavy runoff in mid-spring, was covered with gravel. The ledges were crudely paved with stone blocks, and were just wide enough for a man to walk along.

Except for a small trickle of water seeping down the very center, the qanat was dry. It was still too early in the season for most of the snow to begin melting.

'What do you think the slope is, Maurice?' asked Belisarius. 'One in three hundred? That's the Roman standard.'

'Do I look like an engineer?' groused the chiliarch. 'I haven't got the faintest-'

'One in two hundred,' interrupted Vasudeva. 'Maybe even one in a hundred and fifty.'

The Kushan smiled seraphically. In the flickering torchlight, he looked like a leering gargoyle. 'This is mountain country, much like my own homeland. No room here for any leisurely Roman slopes.' He pointed with his torch. 'That way. The steep slope makes it easy to see the direction of the mountains. But we've a long way to go.'

He set off, pacing along the ledge on the right. Cheerfully, over his back: 'Long way. Tiring. Especially for Romans, accustomed to philosopher slopes and poet-type gradients.' He barked a laugh. 'One in three hundred!' Another laugh. 'Ha!'

An hour later, Valentinian began complaining.

'There would have been room for the horses,' he whined. 'Plenty of room.'

'How would you have lowered them down?' demanded Anastasius. 'And what good would it have done, anyway?'

The giant glanced up at the stone ceiling. Unlike his companions, Anastasius had chosen to walk on the gravel in the central trough of the qanat. On the ledges, he would have had to stoop.

'Eight feet, at the most,' he pronounced. 'You couldn't possibly ride a horse down here. You'd still be walking, and have to lead the surly brutes by the reins.'

Mutter, mutter, mutter.

'So stop whining, Valentinian. There's worse things in life than a long, uphill hike.'

'Like what?' snarled Valentinian.

'Like being dead,' came the serene reply.

They passed a multitude of vertical shafts along the way, identical to the one down which they had lowered themselves. But Belisarius ignored them. He wanted to make sure they had reached the mountains before emerging.

Three hours after beginning their trek, they reached the first of the sloping entryways which provided easier access to the qanat. Belisarius fought off the temptation. He wanted to be well into the mountains before they emerged, away from any possible discovery or pursuit.

Onward. Valentinian started muttering again.

Two hours later-the slope was much steeper now-they reached another entryway. This one was almost level, which indicated how high up into the mountains they had reached.

Again, Belisarius was tempted. Again, he fought it down.

Further. Onward.

Valentinian's muttering was nonstop, now.

An hour or so later, they reached another entryway, and Belisarius decided it was safe to take it. When they emerged, they found themselves in the very same pass in the mountains from which they had begun their descent to the plateau. Night had fallen, but there was a full moon to illuminate the area.

It was very cold. And they were very hungry.

'We'll camp here,' announced Belisarius. 'Start our march tomorrow at first light. Hopefully, some of Coutzes' cavalry will find us before too long. I told him to keep plenty of reconnaissance platoons out in the field.'

'Which could have done what we just did,' grumbled Maurice. 'A commanding general's got no business doing this kind of work.'

Quite right, came Aide's vigorous thought.

'Quite right,' came the echo from Valentinian, Anastasius and Vasudeva.

Seeing the four men glaring at him in the moonlight, and sensing the crystalline glare coming from within his own mind, Belisarius sighed.

It's going to be a long night. And a longer day tomorrow-if I'm lucky, and Coutzes is on the job. If not-

Sigh.

Days! Days of this! Slogging through the mountains is bad enough, without having every footstep dogged by reproaches and 'I-told-you-so's.'

'I told you so,' came the inevitable words from Maurice.