'They've heard of us, it seems,' said Rana Sanga to the emperor.
'I prefer to think it's the majestic aura of my imperial presence.'
'Yes, Your Majesty. Though I'm not sure I understand the difference.'
Damodara smiled. 'Neither do I, as it happens. You'd think I would, since I believe I'm now semi-divine. Maybe even three-quarters.'
* * *
The Bihari miner straightened up from his crouch. 'They're getting close, master. I think so, anyway. It's hard to tell, because of all the echoes.'
The term 'echoes' seemed strange to Valentinian, but he understood what the miner meant. At the first dogleg, they'd dug two short false tunnels in addition to the one that led-eventually-to the exit in the stables. What the miner was hearing were the complex resonances of the sounds being made by the Malwa miners as they neared the end of clearing away the rubble that the Romans had left behind when they blew the charges.
'Will you know when they break through?'
'Oh, yes. Even before the charges go off.'
The miner grimaced as he made the last statement. As someone who had spent all of his adult life and a good portion of his childhood working beneath the earth, he had an automatic sympathy for men who would soon be crushed in a series of cave-ins. Enemies or not.
Valentinian didn't share any of his sentiments. Dead was dead. What difference did it make if it came under tons of rock and soil, the point of a lance-or just old age?
He turned to Rajiv. 'Are you willing to do this? Or would you prefer it if I did?'
The young Rajput prince shrugged. 'If everything works right, the charges will go off automatically, anyway. I won't have to do anything.'
' 'If everything works right,' ' Valentinian jeered. 'Nothing ever works right, boy. That's the cataphract's wisdom.'
* * *
But Valentinian proved to be wrong.
When their miners finally broke through the rubble into a cleared area, two Malwa officers pushed them aside and entered the tunnel. For all the risk involved, they were both eager. Emperor Skandagupta had promised a great reward for whatever officers captured Damodara's family.
Both of them moved their torches about, illuminating the area. Then, cursed together.
'Three tunnels leading off!' snarled the superior officer. 'But which is the right one?'
His lieutenant gestured with his torch to the tunnel ahead of him. 'I'll explore this one, if you want. You take one of the others. We can leave some men to guard the third, until we have time to investigate it.'
'As good a plan as any, I guess.' The captain swiveled his head and barked some orders. Within a minute, three guards had entered the tunnel along with one of the mining engineers.
'Make a diagram of the three tunnels,' he commanded the engineer. 'Nothing fancy. Just something that shows us-the emperor-what direction they lead.'
He ordered the guards to remain at the head of the third tunnel, while he and the lieutenant explored the other two.
The engineer was done with his task in less than two minutes. 'Nothing fancy,' the man had said-and the engineer didn't want to stay there any longer than he had to. His sketch completed, he crawled back through the opening into the area that had now been cleared of the rubble left behind by the great explosions.
He straightened up with a great sense of relief.
* * *
The lieutenant spotted the booby trap in his tunnel just in time to keep his foot from triggering the trip- wire.
His superior was less observant.
The charges in all three tunnels were wired together, of course. So the lieutenant's greater caution only gave him a split-second longer lifespan, before the tunnels collapsed. The guards at the third tunnel were just as surely crushed.
The engineer was knocked off his feet by the explosion, and then covered with the dust blown through the opening. He had just enough presence of mind to keep a grip on the sketch he'd made and protect it from harm.
* * *
That caution, also, proved to be of no value.
'This is useless,' snarled Skandagupta, after a quick study of the sketch. 'They could have gone anywhere.'
The emperor crumpled up the sketch and hurled it at the engineer. 'Impale him,' he commanded.
Chapter 28
Kausambi
'They'll be doing another search of the city,' Anastasius said. 'For sure and certain.'
Lady Damodara looked around the stall in the stable that had been turned into her personal chamber. Then, she smiled very crookedly.
'Who would have thought the day would come that I'd regard a stable stall as luxurious surroundings?'
Lady Sanga was smiling just as crookedly. 'Living in a tunnel gives you a sense of proportion. Anything is better than that. Still, Anastasius is right. We can't take the risk.'
Lady Damodara sighed. 'Yes. I know. The next search might be more thorough. There's really no way to keep soldiers out of this stable if they insist on coming in. As it is'-she gave Valentinian a sly glance-'we'll have to work hard and fast to remove any traces that we were here.'
Valentinian returned the glance with a scowl. He'd argued against moving into the stable at all, preferring to remain the whole time in the enlarged tunnel below. Eventually, he'd given in, for the sole reason that providing the hideaways with enough edible food was too difficult if they stayed for very long in the tunnels.
The problem wasn't money. Lady Damodara had a fortune in coins and jewels, and had brought all of it with her into the tunnels. She had more than enough money to feed them all with the world's finest delicacies for years.
The problem was that large purchases of anything beyond simple foodstuffs would eventually be noticed by the city's authorities. And, unfortunately, the sort of cheap and readily available food that the stable-keeper's family could purchase without notice needed to be
Cooking in a stable was easy. Cooking in a tunnel was not.
Valentinian had then had to wage a mighty struggle to keep the Indians from decorating the stable so much that it would be impossible to disguise their occupancy.
Anastasius was more sanguine. 'No problem. One full day of horse shit will disguise anything.'
Both women laughed. The horses who'd formerly occupied that stable had been moved into adjoining ones, of course, but they could be moved back quickly and easily.
The stable-keeper had explained to the one customer who'd inquired that the move was due to his doubts regarding the structural soundness of the stable. Doubts which, truth be told, weren't entirely faked. The stable that the refugees were using as a hiding place
'No help for it,' Lady Damodara stated firmly, when she was done laughing. 'We'll make the move back into the tunnel this evening. And stop scowling, Valentinian! If we tried to move immediately, we'd be too careless in covering up all the signs that we've been here for weeks.'
That was true enough, but it didn't stop Valentinian from scowling.
'Something will go wrong,' he predicted.
* * *