A few threw up outside the hut first to provide a breakfast for the mangy dogs that stalked the village. They really were a disgusting people, and yet they were also hardy and had resisted foreign powers for thousands of years. As his warriors splashed in the water and engaged in boorish horseplay Zand himself appeared from out of the forest carrying the body of a wild goat and a bloodied spear, Gourlay beside him. He nodded at me and shouted at his men to get out of the stream and attend to their duties as Domitus sidled up to me fully dressed in his mail shirt, helmet in the crook of his arm.‘I have attended so many feasts that they now bore me,’ said Zand, handing the dead goat and spear to Gourlay who walked back to the hut with them.‘Too much drinking eventually deadens the mind so I prefer to stay sober these days,’ he continued. ‘I trust you and your men slept well, King Pacorus of Dura.’‘Yes, thank you,’ I replied. ‘You like to hunt in the early hours?’‘It is the best time to take life,’ he said.
