Monsters in the Sand Read Free Page B

know, I would die before telling you.’
    Performers carrying long silk flags ran to Hussein. They flung the flags high in the air, caught them again and danced around him.
    Too late, Austen realised it was a trick. Screened by the flags, two soldiers pulled Hussein to the ground. One of the eunuch’s men, holding the flag of messenger, galloped out of camp and towards the chief. Austen guessed the lie the messenger wouldtell. ‘Prince Hussein is safe. As a sign of good faith, he has willingly joined the governor for a meal.’
    The chief mustn’t panic and attack. He had to stick to the plan and wait until Austen knew exactly what was happening to Hussein. If the eunuch took Hussein as a hostage, he needed him alive and unharmed, in case he was forced to bargain. One valuable hostage was more reliable than a battle – which could go badly, even if the eunuch won. And if he suffered too many casualties, then all southern Persia might rise against him. The chief had agreed to the plan, but Austen was afraid he’d lead a suicidal attack.
    ‘Bring him here!’ Voices moved to the back corner of the eunuch’s tent. Austen followed the sound, singing the prayer that was his signal to Hussein.
    ‘No, don’t tie me.’ Hussein yelled so that Austen would hear.
    One of the eunuch’s dervishes, more a skeleton than a man, stopped and stared at Austen. Puzzled, he came closer to him, and Austen quickly turned his back and danced away as if in a trance. The instant he was out of the dervish’s sight, he hurried to the forest behind the camp.

Chapter 6
    The shape of a guard passed in front of a watch fire and shadows moved in the lamplit tents of the camp.
    Austen let go of the reins and touched each pistol in his belt, just to make sure he knew exactly where they were.
    ‘One blow from my axe will split the eunuch’s skull like a melon,’ the chief growled.
    ‘Take positions,’ Au Kerim commanded. The horsemen divided into three groups that moved slowly and quietly forward. Harnesses jingled and hooves rattled on stones, but nobody in the camp had heard them yet.
    Austen kept his eyes on the peaked roof of the central tent. His anger simmered as he imagined Hussein tied in ropes, but he knew where the prince was and how to get him out.
    When they were within a hundred yards of the watch fires, a guard suddenly stopped and peered into the darkness. Au Kerim fired a musket and the guard fell backwards. Spurring their horses, they charged. One or two soldiers fired blindly before the horsemen were among them, shooting and hacking with swords.
    Austen, the chief and Au Kerim galloped straight for the eunuch’s tent. To Austen’s left, shots and screams came from the corrals, where the chief’s men fought to set the horses loose. To his right, horsemen slashed guy ropes, guns fired and sparks from watch fires arced through the air.
    Galloping past, Austen noticed soldiers with bayonets raised, closing in behind to trap them. Ahead, matchlocks glowed. A cannon. Two cannons, aimed directly at them. Surely they wouldn’t fire! They’d wipe out their own infantry forming behind them.
    Matchlocks moved down to touch the gunpowder. At point-blank range, the grapeshot would smash them to a pulp. Austen wrenched his horse to one side and it bucked away from the cannons. Au Kerim and the chief dragged their horses aside just before the cannons fired their lethal blast. Austen glimpsed Au Kerim springing to his feet and the point of his sword stabbing at a gunner’s throat. The chief raised his axe and charged.
    Austen drew his sword, thrust it into the wall of the eunuch’s tent and slashed downwards, cutting a long slit. He tore the wall apart, but the room was empty. Ropes hung loosely from the tent pole and soldiers suddenly crowded through the doorway. He fired one pistol, then the second, and two men slumped back against the others.
    Austen ran back to the chief, who stood panting among bodies around the cannons. Au Kerim