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Of course, Sanga allowed some of the garrison to escape. That, too, had been commanded by Emperor Damodara. There was no point in slaughtering garrisons if other garrisons didn't learn of it.
By the next day, Damodara's army was out of the mountains and marching up the Chambal river. The Chambal was the main tributary of the Yamuna, whose junction was still five hundred miles to the north. Once they reached that junction, they'd still have three hundred miles to march down the Yamuna before reaching Kausambi.
Even with every man in his army mounted, either as cavalry or dragoons, Damodara could not hope to make faster progress than twenty miles a day-and the long march would probably go slower than that. True, now that they were out of the Vindhyas, the countryside was fertile and they could forage as they went. But his army still numbered some forty thousand men. It was simply not possible to move such a huge number of soldiers very quickly.
Six weeks, at least, it would take them to reach Kausambi. Conceivably, two months-and if they had to fight any major battles on the way, longer than that. They simply could not afford to be delayed by any of the fortresses along the way.
The first fortress they encountered on the river was deserted.
So was the next.
So was the next.
"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 tu
"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 tu
Both of them moved their torches about, illuminating the area. Then, cursed together.
"Three tu
His lieutenant gestured with his torch to the tu
"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 tu
"Make a diagram of the three tu
He ordered the guards to remain at the head of the third tu
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 tu
His superior was less observant.
The charges in all three tu
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 tu
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 tu
The problem wasn't money. Lady Damodara had a fortune in coins and jewels, and had brought all of it with her into the tu
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 cooked.
Cooking in a stable was easy. Cooking in a tu
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.