The Eagle In the Sand

'Where's the bloody King, then?' Macro grumbled. 'We've been waiting ages.'

A side door opened and a clerk scuttled in and whispered something to one of the chamberlain's advisers.The adviser glanced towards the Roman officers before he nodded to the clerk and crossed the hall towards Cato and Macro.

'Something's wrong,' said Cato. 'Something's happened.'

'What do you mean?' Macro whispered irritably. 'What could be wrong?'

'Shhh.'

The adviser bowed his head to them and addressed Symeon in the local tongue. Cato watched Symeon's response and saw the look of shock.

'What is it?'

Symeon held up his hand to silence Cato and let the adviser finish his message. Then he turned to Macro and Cato.

'Ba

07 The Eagle In the Sand

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Macro and Cato waited while Symeon rode into the wide mouth of the wadi and sca

'Definitely horses.' He stood up and followed the line of the tracks stretching out into the sand until they faded in the distance, in line with the edge of a large dune and one of the vast towers of rock beyond.

'It has to be Ba

Macro grunted. He had finally consented to wear a headdress like the local people and was now grateful that it was keeping the sun off his head. Even so, it was three days since they had galloped out of the siq, desperately trying to catch up with Ba

'Ba

They rode on, the soft impact of the horses' hooves providing the only sound amid the desolate landscape surrounding them. At the end of the wadi the tracks bent to the left and headed across a wide open stretch of sand, broken up by a handful of dunes, towards another rock formation two or three miles away. It was late in the afternoon and already long dark shadows stretched across sections of the desert. Halfway across this expanse Symeon halted them at the base of a dune and dismounted.

'I'm going to have a look from the top. See if I can see any sign of him.'

'I'm coming too,' Cato decided and jumped down.

'There's no need.'

'I'm worried about Yusef. I have to see for myself.'

Symeon shrugged and started to climb the side of the dune.

Cato turned to Macro. 'Won't be long.'

Macro reached for his canteen and took a small swig. 'If you see any sign of water, let me know.'

Cato smiled, then moved off, following Symeon's tracks up the dune. As soon as the slope made itself apparent the going became difficult as the sand shifted downhill under his feet, to such an extent that it felt as if he was making no progress at all. But eventually, exhausted, he flopped down beside Symeon and sca

'There's water there.'

'That's not all.' Symeon strained his eyes. 'Look again.'

This time Cato saw it, the tiny shapes of two horses, almost lost against the shrubs, and the figure of a man, or a boy, sitting in the shade of one of the trees.

'I can only see one of them.'

'Calm yourself, Cato. We've seen no sign of a body since we've been following him. No body, no blood. I'm sure Yusef is over there with him.'

Cato wanted to believe it. 'All right then, what shall we do?'

'We have to wait. If we approach him now he'll be sure to see our dust the moment we emerge from behind this dune. So we wait until dark, and then ride in.We can stop some distance before the rocks and continue on foot. If we can surprise Ba

'Right.' Cato nodded. 'That's the plan then.'

The sun had sunk far below the rims of the peaks of Rhum and cast the whole area into dark shadow as the three horsemen reined in a quarter of a mile from the cleft in the rocks ahead. A small dune, little more than a fold in the land, concealed them from Ba

Ba

They continued, with painstaking caution, until they were within fifty paces of the fire and could hear the crackle of the flames and the hiss of the burning wood. Ba

Macro tapped Cato's arm and indicated that he was going to circle round behind Ba