Valens staggered with the force of the wind. It was as hot as a blast from a furnace. The sand was flaying his exposed skin. The world had narrowed to a few indistinct feet. Without warning, the horse reared. It wrenched the reins from Valens’s grasp. He grabbed for the trailing strap, and missed. In a moment the beast had vanished in the swirling murk. The beats of its hooves heard for a moment, then there was just the howling storm.

No one in sight. Valens was alone. He must not panic. Tugging his scarf up to his nose, hunching his back against the wind, he staggered back the way they had come.

The world was full of hurtling, stinging, biting torment. He was breathing sand. His ears rang with a sound like a malevolent giant tearing cloth. He reeled under the impact of the wind.

Disorientated, it would be so easy to become lost. Wander miles away from the others. Do not panic. The wind was from the east. The wadi ran right across to the west. Keep going, and he had to reach it. No need to panic. Just keep going.

Once he thought he heard horses running, out of sight, in the heart of the storm.

Step by step, gasping for breath, inhaling sand, he tottered on.

Another time in that hellish journey there was a sound like a scream.

Just the wind. Keep going.

Eyes bleared, he did not see the lip of the watercourse until he nearly fell into it. On his arse, he slid down the bank.

Blurred outlines of men and beasts. The quiet down here unnatural.

‘Is that you, sir?’ It was Decimus.

‘Is everyone else here?’

‘Clemens just turned up, but Iudex and Quintus are still out there.’

‘The animals?’

‘Not sure. Some are missing.’

A huge, dark shape above them. Stones rattling down.

They scuttled apart.

Iudex, leaning back in the saddle, his horse almost sitting back on its haunches, skidded to the floor of the wadi.

The great hairless cranium shone in the gloom. With the grace of an acrobat, Iudex vaulted off his mount.

‘Are you alright?’ Valens shouted. ‘Did you see the others?’

‘No, they are lost.’ Iudex smiled. ‘Unbelievers move in darkness, but the Lord guides the path of the Elect.’

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Arbayestan

THEY FOUND QUINTUS THE NEXT MORNING. The storm had blown itself out during the night. The navigator was no more than fifty paces from the wadi, half covered in sand. It gritted his wavy hair, dulled the once expressive eyes. His head was twisted at an impossible angle. Obviously his neck was broken.

‘Poor bastard,’ Decimus said. ‘Must have taken a fall. No sign of his horse.’

‘Well, that is an end to it,’ Aulus said.

Valens rounded on the Gaul. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You all know what I mean. Without Quintus we are lost. No choice but to go back.’

‘We obey our orders.’