Devil's Sea

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Pontus Euxinus stretched ahead of the galley as far as the eye could see. Since leaving the Hellesponte, Captain Fabatus had kept the shore in sight off the port side, creeping around the sea. Falco had always found sailors a curious contradiction. They claimed to love the water, yet they feared to stray out of sight of land. It had taken a direct order from General Cassius for Fabatus to take the plunge and take a north-northeast course across the Pontus Euxinus for three straight days, out of sight of land. As soon as he had spotted land directly ahead, Fabatus, and everyone else on board, had breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then he resumed his shore-hugging navigation to the east.

Standing in the bow, Falco could see the ship cutting through the water. He sensed Kaia coming up behind him, but his attention was below, on the gray forms leaping and splashing next to them.

“Good morning, priestess.”

“Good morning, soldier.” Kaia glanced over the thin railing. “We seem to be making good time.”

“After what happened in the Hellesponte, everyone, including the slaves, are most anxious to get us off the ship,” Falco said.

“I’m anxious to get off the ship also,” Kaia said.

“Do you see?” Falco pointed down at the dolphins.

“Yes.”

“Do you feel them?”

Kaia nodded. “They’ve been sending me dreams ever since we entered the sea.”

“What kind of dreams?” Falco asked.

“The past, the future, it’s hard to tell. Images.”

“You’re lying,” Falco said. “You know some of what you see, and you know what it means, buy you feel telling me will hurt me.”

“No,” Kaia said. “I fear telling you will change things. It is one thing the oracle taught me. She had to be very careful giving prophecies, because knowledge is a very dangerous thing.”

“How do they know what awaits us?” Falco asked, indicating the dolphins. “How do they reach us?”

“I do not know,” Kaia said.

“You’ve seen my death,” Falco said it simply. “You fear to tell me because you think it will scare me. You saw me in the arena. Do you think I fear death?”

“No. You seek death.”

“Then why do you not tell me what they have shown you?”

‘It is not time.”

Falco stared off to the north, falling silent.

“Do you know when we will arrive?” Kaia asked.

Falco pointed ahead and to the left, where a promontory of land poked into the sea. “Beyond that lie Varna where the XXV Legion is headquartered.”

“Which means I can open my follow-on orders.” General Cassius had come forward, dressed in his best armor, with a scarlet cloak pinned to the shoulders. In his hand was a scroll with the imperial seal. Falco would have opened it the minute he was outside the gates of Rome, but he knew better than to suggest such to Cassius, a man to whom honor was paramount.

Cassius slipped his dagger under the wax seal, parting it smoothly. He unrolled the scroll and read, eyes flicking back and forth as he went down the lines.

“As we already knew. Take command of the XXV Legion. Travel under the guidance of Kaia, priestess of the Oracle of Delphi, on a reconnaissance in force north of Bospora. Upon encountering any hostile forces, engage and destroy.”

“And what didn’t we know, sir?” Falco asked.

“Upon completion of that mission,” Cassius said slowly as he rolled the orders back up, “the XXV Legion is to continue its reconnaissance and march to the northeast until recalled by the emperor.”

“That’s insane,” Falco said without thinking.

Cassius smiled. “My old friend, I would have thought you had been in Rome long enough to know sanity has nothing to do with decrees of the emperor.”

“I don’t understand,” Kaia said.

Cassius peered at the land north of them as he spoke. “The legion we are meeting is not particularly loyal to the emperor. The emperor does not consider me particularly loyal, and he considers me dangerously popular with the Praetorians and legions. Falco, well, I would say he considers Falco just plain dangerous, probably the most accurate perception of the three. After we assist you, we are to march off into the unknown lands of Asia, awaiting the emperor’s recall, which, of course, will never come. It’s all perfectly logical if you look at it from the emperor’s point of view.”

“I say we—” Falco began but Cassius raised a hand.

“Hush, old friend. There are ears everywhere; ears that will return to Rome.”

Falco noted that Fabatus had drifted close to them, even as the ship cleared the point and headed in toward a harbor, above which a wooden fort in the traditional Roman style was built on a hill.

“Besides,” Cassius said, “we should take things one step at a time. Worrying about these orders” — he tapped the scroll—“is premature. We must first accomplish the first mission assigned.”

The imperial galley was a mile offshore of Herculaneum, or rather where the port city to Pompeii had once been. Now there was only mud and ash where once had been a town.

“Any survivors from Pompeii?” Titus asked Thyestes as he surveyed the damage.

“None, Emperor.”

“Herculaneum?” he asked, referring to the port city that had serviced Pompeii.

“Some sailors who were offshore when the town was covered survived.

Not an auspicious start to his reign, Titus thought.

“There was a report of another similar event,” Thyestes said. “Another volcano erupting.

Titus turned toward his advisor. “Where and when?”

“The island of Thera. Five days ago. And I have been told that the imperial courier ship carrying Cassius was offshore when it occurred.”

“Did they survive?”

“Yes, Emperor. A galley spotted them in the Cyclades, heading toward the Hellesponte.”

A week ago Titus would have preferred to hear no to that question, but seeing the destruction that had come from Vesuvius, he was relieved to hear that Cassius had survived and was continuing on his mission with the strange priestess from Delphi.

“There are reports of trembles in the Earth arriving daily from all over the empire,” Thyestes continued. “From Hesperia, Gaul, even Britain. Also from our provinces in Africa. There has been some destruction in Egypt caused by the Earth moving. A temple dedicated to your father was destroyed.”

Bad omens all around, Titus thought. He had never been a fervent believer in the various gods, but after seeing the way the Jews fought against his legions in Palestine, he had realized there was a power greater than that of the sword. Even though Jerusalem had been razed, the temple destroyed, and hundreds of thousands put to death, there was still a small band clinging to a rock called Masada in the middle of the desert. Titus knew he would have to deal with that among the many other issues facing his empire.

“Thyestes, perhaps we were hasty with our orders to Cassius.”

Thyestes remained quiet, waiting for his emperor’s thought to be played out.

“Send a courier after Cassius. When he completes this mission, I want him to go to Palestine and take command of the X Legion once more. He will finish what we started so many years ago.”

“Yes, Emperor.”

A maniple was drawn up on the dock, assembled no doubt in response to the imperial guidon that flapped in the slight breeze from the mast. As the ship was tied up, Falco looked down on the troops with a critical eye. Their armor wasn’t polished but looked to be in good shape. The weapons were sharp and glittered in the sunlight, which was more important than bright armor. The eyes of the men were on the ship, wondering what fate was delivering them from Rome. Falco knew what thoughts were racing through their head: A recall? An expedition to be mounted against some real or imagined enemy of the empire? Simply an imperial envoy relaying normal orders? A new commander, perchance?

“They look functional,” Cassius said in a low voice.

Falco had relayed to the general the words of Centurion Attius.

“Yes, sir, they do.” But Falco could also see the looks in the eyes that peered back at him. No sign of fear or even respect. “However, if they get an order they don’t necessarily think is a good one…” Falco didn’t finish the thought, knowing that Cassius could see the same thing. Falco knew that most Roman officers would come in like a tornado, cracking the whip and using punishment to quickly take command, perhaps crucify a few men to make the point. He also knew that Cassius wasn’t like most Roman officers.

The gangplank was extended to the dock. Cassius walked to the opening in the railing and paused. This was where a speech should be made, from the higher position of the ship, looking down on the troops. Cassius walked down the ramp without a word, Falco behind him.

An officer was at the head of the maniple. The tribune laticlavius, Falco knew from the accoutrements the man wore, which meant he was the senior tribune, second in command of the legion. It was also a position that more often than not went to political appointees who needed some military time to round out their records before running for the senate, rather than a career military men.

The tribune raised his arm in salute. “Hail, envoy of the emperor.”

Cassius returned the salute and stopped right in front of the tribune. He extended the copy of orders that Titus had given him in Rome, ceding command of the legion to him. The tribune was a young man, his skin red from exposure to the sun, lines of sweat rolling down from underneath his highly polished helmet.

The tribune took them and unrolled the paper, quickly reading. His body stiffened, and he saluted once more. “Hail, General Cassius.” He lowered his arm and his voice so the men behind him wouldn’t hear. “This comes as a surprise, General. We had no word. If we had known, we would have prepared a more appropriate reception.”

“We traveled as quickly as any courier might have,” Cassius said, cutting him off. “You may dismiss the troops and take me to your headquarters.”

“Yes, sir.” He turned and issued orders to a centurion behind him, then turned back to face Cassius.

“Your name?’ Cassius asked.

The officer was flustered. “Marco Liberalius, General.”

“Tribune Liberalius, this is Centurion Falco.”

Falco snapped a quick salute at the senior officer, who returned it.

“Where is the commander?” Cassius asked.

“Legatus Flavius is, uh, sir, he is indisposed at the moment.”

“An interesting choice of words,” Cassius noted. He pointed toward the wooden stockade on the top of the hill overlooking the dock. “Shall we go?”

“There will be horses here in a few minutes,” Liberalius said. “My centurion is seeing to it.”

“I prefer to walk,” Cassius said. He headed toward the hill on which the large fort was perched, Liberalius hurrying to keep up with him, waving off his squire, who had approached with his horse. There were tents pitched outside the walls, along the low ground, something Falco found interesting. He estimated at least two-thirds of the legion was camped outside the fort, if he subtracted the usual number of patrols and outlying outposts that should be deployed about the region.

As they went up the dusty road, men came out of the tents to stare at them from a distance. Most of the soldiers were swarthy, with dark hair braided tightly against their skulls, definitely not Romans. There were also the usual camp hangers-on at the outskirts of the legion tents: whores, washerwomen, traders, gamblers. It is said wherever the Roman army camped for more than a night, a city sprang up.

Several legionnaires opened the gates to the fort, and they entered. Barracks were built along the inside of the walls, and a blockhouse was centered in the middle. The troopers who peered out of the inner barracks were predominantly Roman, Falco could tell, as if the commander was protecting himself from his own non-Roman troops, which might well be the case.

Liberalius hurried his step toward the blockhouse, getting in front of Cassius. “General, I should announce your arrival.”

“I think it has already been announced,” Cassius said as the door swung open and a man dressed in breeches and tunic, over which he had hastily thrown his robe fringed with red, appeared.

“Legatus Flavius,” Cassius nodded a greeting.

“General Cassius,” Flavius nodded in return, no love lost.

Liberalius extended the orders, and Flavius quickly read them. When done, he laughed. “You are welcome to my command, General. Or should I say Legatus Cassius? Most welcome. It’s about time Rome remembered to bring me home. I see there is a new emperor,” he added, indicating the scroll that Titus had signed and fixed his imperial seal to.

Knowing how Titus viewed the XXV Legion, Falco thought the legatus a bit naïve in the thought about returning home, but since Cassius said nothing, Falco stood mute.

“Your current strength?” Cassius asked. There were figures moving in the doorway behind Flavius, and several other tribunes appeared, a few of them staggering as if drunk.

“Strength?” Flavius turned and addressed one of his officers, relaying the question.

“Sixty percent,” the officer answered.

“Deployed?” Cassius snapped.

“We have two patrols out,” the officer said. “A century each.”

Falco was amazed at that. Only two patrols and no outpost? His mind had already done the math. A legion at 60 percent was slightly over three thousand men. Two deployed centuries was about two hundred men out in the field. Being on the edge of barbarian territory that was living very dangerously.

“Ah, only fifteen percent of our strength,” the officer added, “is from the original force.” A not-so-subtle way of telling Cassius how many of the men were Roman.

“It appears that fifteen percent is all gathered here inside the fort,” Cassius noted.

Flavius laughed once more, his face flushed. “Damn right. Can’t trust these provincials.

“You may depart on the imperial courier ship that brought me,” Cassius told Flavius, then he pointed at the tribunes one by one. “And the rest of you are relieved and will depart also.”

Falco could see the shock on their faces as Cassius walked forward, brushing by Flavius. Falco followed closely behind. They entered the blockhouse, the interior of which was dimly lit. It stank of wine and sweat and the stale odor of sex.

“Throw open the windows,” Cassius ordered, and Falco hurried to do so. He paused as he noted two figures huddled under blankets on low-lying couches: women, naked under the blankets. From their skin and hair, he knew they were locals.

“Get them some clothes, give them some money, and apologize to them on behalf of the Roman army,” Cassius barked.

“Yes, General,” Falco said.

“Then summon all the centurions, along with the Liberalius fellow. And bring Kaia up from the boat.

“Yes, General.”

Cassius held up a hand, causing Falco to pause before carrying out the tasks. “We march at dawn tomorrow. We do not have much time.”