“Not adopt this one never,” he grumbled. “Very stupid beast. See no thing.”
The tracker leaned from his horse, scanned the road, snorted, spat noisily.
“Probably he fuck goat. Think it wife.”
Spat noisily.
“Pay no attention to no thing.”
Spat noisily.
“Idiot blind man.”
Riding beside him, Sanga smiled wrily. Like most men with a narrow field of vision, the Pathan tended to judge people by very limited criteria.
True, Belisarius had finally made a mistake. But it was a small mistake, by any reasonable standard. So small, in fact, that only an expert tracker would have spotted it.
Somewhere along the way—hardly surprising, in weeks of travel—one of the Roman general’s horses had cut its hoof. Nothing serious, in itself. Barely more than a nick, caused by a sharp stone. The horse itself would have hardly noticed, even at the time, and the “wound” in no way discomfited it.
But it was just enough to leave a distinctive track. No one else had spotted it, but the Pathan had seen it immediately. Several of the Rajputs, after the tracker pointed it out, had expressed their delight.
Henceforth, Belisarius would be easy to find!
The Pathan had derided their enthusiasm. Such a very good quickquick man, he assured them, would soon enough spot the mark himself. He would then remove it by carving away more of the tissue, leaving a hoof whose print would be indistinguishable from most others. If worse came to worst, and the mark could not be removed, the Roman would simply abandon the horse. He had four others, after all.
But, as the days went on, the mark remained. Day after day, the tracker followed the trail, with the ease of a man following a lantern at night. Day after day, his estimate of Belisarius plummeted.
By now, so far as the Pathan was concerned, Belisarius ranked very low in the natural order of things. Above a sheep, perhaps. Beneath a bullfrog, for a certainty.
The robbery of the merchant simply confirmed his viewpoint. Sealed his opinion like lead seals a jar.
Three days before Ajmer, the Rajputs had overtaken a merchant trudging alongside the road. The merchant was accompanied by two servants, each of whom was staggering under a weight of bundled trade goods.
All three men were stark naked.
When the Rajputs pulled alongside, the merchant immediately erupted into a frenzy of recrimination, denunciation, accusation, and reproach.
Outrage that such a thing could come to pass!
Where had been the authorities?
Robbed on a royal road! By a royal Ye-tai bodyguard!
Oh, yes! There was no mistake! The merchant was a well-traveled man! A sophisticated man! He had been to Kausambi itself! Many times!
A royal bodyguard!
Outrage! Outrage!
Where had been the authorities?
He demanded justice! Retribution!
Most of all—restitution!
Robbed by a royal bodyguard!
Restitution was owed by the authorities!
In the event, once the merchant calmed down enough to tell the entire tale, restitution proved simplicity itself. The only thing which the Ye-tai bandit seemed to have actually stolen was the clothing worn by the merchant and his servants.
Nothing else, oddly enough. Not the merchant’s money, not his trade goods—which were spices, too; quite valuable—not even the gold chain around the merchant’s neck or the rings adorning his fingers.
The Pathan was livid.
“What kind midget-brain bandit this man?” he demanded hotly. “Cretin idiot!”
The tracker glared at the merchant.
“I rob you, fat boy, you be lucky have skin left. Gold chain, cut off head. Rings, chop fingers. Quick, quick.”
The Pathan leaned over his horse’s neck, squinting fiercely at the servants. The two men edged back, trembling.
“Old one I kill. Other one I take. Sell him to Uighurs.” He straightened up. Leaned over. Spat noisily. “Roman most idiot beast alive,” he concluded. He had not budged from that conclusion since.
Sanga, on the other hand, thought the robbery was very shrewd. He had been wondering how Belisarius planned to make his way through Rajputana, especially in a city like Ajmer, disguised as a Ye-tai. In the Gangetic plain, a single Ye-tai leading a small train of horses would not particularly be remarked.
In Rajputana, however, his situation would be different. Rajputs had no love for Ye-tai, to put it mildly. A single Ye-tai in Rajput country would encounter any number of difficulties very quickly, especially in a populous place like Ajmer. Those difficulties would range from bands of belligerent youngsters to keen-eyed authorities who were not in the least intimidated by a Ye-tai’s red-and-gold uniform. Not in Rajputana, where the Malwa writ ran very light.