“Only you, Antonina, are far enough away from the thing. Have no ties at all to any part of Axum, except the ties of loyalty and wisdom. They might trust me, but they would never trust my judgement. Not in this. Whereas they will trust the judgement—the ruling—made by you. Just as they did before.”
She slumped. Ousanas came over and embraced her. Antonina’s tears now trickled down his chest.
“I know,” he whispered. “I understand. You will feel like a spider, weaving a web out of your own son’s burial shroud.”
And now, all of it said, she began sobbing. Ousanas stroked her hair. “Ah, woman, you were never a hunter. Many hours I spent, waiting in the thickets for my prey, whiling away the time in a study of spiderwebs. There is, in truth, nothing so beautiful in all the world. Gossamer delicate yet strong; and does it really matter how it came to be? All of creation, in the end, came from the humblest of substance. Yet is there, now, and it is glorious.”
* * *
The battle of Bharakuccha began early the next morning, when the Axumite galleys came into the harbor, followed by the handful of Roman warships. The Malwa defenders were waiting, alert. There was no surprise here. Except, perhaps, the lack of surprise itself. The Ethiopian fleet came forward, not like a lioness springing from ambush, but with an elephant’s almost stately rush of fury.
Certain in its might, imponderable in its wrath, unheeding of all resistance. On the deck of each galley, the drummers pounded a rhythm of destruction. The sarwen at the oars kept time with their own chants of vengeance. The commanders in the bow, standing atop the brace of four-pounders, held their spears aloft and clashed the great blades with promise.
And, on the great flagship at the center of the fleet, the Malwa commanders peering through their telescopes could see the leader of the fleet. An emperor himself, of that they were instantly certain. Who else would come to a battle ensconced on a throne and garbed in royal finery? The sun gleaming off the iron blade of his pearl-encrusted, gold-sheathed spear was almost blinding.
The commanders, uncertainly, looked to their own leader. Venandakatra the Vile, Goptri of the Deccan, was on the ramparts of the harbor himself, glaring at the oncoming enemy fleet through his reptilian eyes. His thin-boned, flabby hand patted the great siege gun next to which he was standing.
“Fire on them as soon as they are in range,” he commanded. “Soon enough, that fleet will be so much flotsam. The fools!”
The commanders glanced at each other. Then the most senior, almost wincing, cleared his throat and said: “Goptri, I believe you should summon Lord Damodara. We will be needing his Rajputs, soon enough, and it will take them hours to return to the city. Even if you summon them immediately.”
Venandakatra almost spit. “Rajputs? Rajputs?” He pointing a finger, quivering with outrage and indignation. “That’s just a fleet, you idiot! Of what use would Rajput cavalry be?” Again, he patted the cannon; almost slapped it. “Sink them—that is enough!”
The senior commander hesitated. Incurring the Vile One’s wrath was dangerous. But—
His eyes returned to the enemy warship. But the commander had fought Axumites, before, and . . . he could sense the fury under those drums, and he could sense what the strange sight of that royal figure on the flagship held in store.
“They will not stop, Goptri. That is not a raiding fleet. That is an army bent on destruction. They will accept the casualties to get into the harbor. And then—”
Venandakatra spluttered fury, but the commander pressed on. He was a kshatriya, after all, bred to courage even in Malwa lands. The commander squared his shoulders. “I have fought Axumite marines. We will need the Rajputs.”
* * *
When the first Malwa gun was fired, it did not signal the start of a volley. It was a single shot, and the missile fell far short of the Ethiopians. Pieces of flesh have poor aerodynamic properties, after all, and Venandakatra the Vile had chosen to start the battle of Bharakuccha by blowing his top commander out of the barrel of a siege gun.