Garmat frowned. “The coastal route? But that was an even greater disaster for the Macedonians, Belisarius!” He began to continue, then closed his mouth.
“Yes. Precisely. It was a disaster for the good and simple reason that Alexander did not understand the monsoons. But we do, today. And so do the Indians.”
“Persia, through Mesopotamia. Then Rome.”
“Yes. That is the Malwa plan. I am as certain of it as I am of my own name. I had suspected as much even before we arrived at Bharakuccha and saw the shipbuilding project. Now, after hearing your explanation of it, I am positive. That great fleet of giant ships is not designed for sea battles, Garmat. As you surmised, they are not really warships at all. They are the logistics train for a huge land campaign. The conquest of Persia, beginning in Mesopotamia. Taking advantage of the monsoons to supply an army through the Gulf of Persia, and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.”
“Those rivers are not—”
“—are not particularly useful for an army marching upstream. Yes, I know. Unlike the Nile, where travel in either direction is always easy, because the current takes you north and the winds always blow south, the prevailing winds in Mesopotamia usually follow the current. The Tigris and Euphrates are easy to travel in that direction, to the south. But they are difficult to go upstream.” He shrugged. “But you exaggerate the difficulty. They are still much—much—better logistics routes than hauling supplies overland. Trust me, Garmat. It can be done. I’m no seaman, but I’m quite experienced at using rivers. I can think of several ways I could haul huge amounts of supplies up the Mesopotamian rivers.”
He arose. “So. Now we know.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“For the moment, nothing. I need to think over the problem. But good strategies require good intelligence. This trip to India is already paying off.”
Garmat arose also. “You do not intend to revisit the harbor?”
Belisarius shook his head. “There’s no need. Instead, Garmat, I think we should spend the next few days simply wandering about the city. I want to get a feel for the attitude of the populace.”
“The Malwa will think we are spying.”
“So what? They expect us to. I want them to think we are simply spying. Instead of using our spying to conceal another purpose.”
For the next week, Belisarius and Garmat did just that: explore Bharakuccha. And, in the case of Belisarius, perfect his knowledge of Kushan and Marathi.
Most of this latter task, however, was done at night, in his quarters at the hostel. Each night, one of the Kushan or Maratha girls was assigned to him. The girls were surprised to discover that the general was not interested in their normal services. He simply wanted to talk. It was a strange fetish, but not unheard of. Although, usually, the conversation of such customers did not range across the breadth of Indian society, culture, habits, mores, and history.
But the girls did not complain. It was easy duty, and the general was quite a pleasant man. An altogether better situation than the Kushan girls were accustomed to. And it was vastly superior for the Maratha women, who were outright slaves in their own brothel.
By the end of their first week in Bharakuccha, therefore, Belisarius could understand spoken Kushan and Marathi perfectly, and could speak it himself quite well. The women were astonished, in fact, at his progress.
A problem remained, however, which Belisarius had not anticipated. He also needed to be able to write Marathi, and none of the Maratha women were literate. Over the following three days, he made inquiries in various quarters of the city. Eventually—reluctantly—he came to the realization that there was only one course available to him.
Fortunately, in light of his diminishing funds, the price was not high. Maratha slaves were very cheap. Since the conquest of Andhra, the market had been flooded with them. Supply was thus high, and demand was very low. Marathas, the slave trader explained to him bitterly, were notoriously difficult.
“At least you had the sense not to buy a young one,” he added, gesturing to the stooped, middle-aged slave Belisarius had just purchased. “The young ones can be dangerous, even the girls.”