Avenger of Rome

VII

‘Sail to the north!’

At the sharp cry, Aurelius followed the lookout’s pointing finger to where a faint strip of cream could be seen between swells on the far horizon. ‘Julius,’ the captain shouted. ‘You’ve got the sharpest eyes. Get up the mast and tell me what you see.’

While they waited for the man’s report, Valerius strapped on his sword and joined Aurelius at the ship’s side. He noted with approval that Tiberius already had his men in full armour. Serpentius emerged from the hold where he’d been checking the horses to join the young tribune and the four cavalry troopers. It was early morning on the second day since they’d left Creta. The ship had called at the port of Hersonnisos to take on a cargo of timber and the island’s olive oil, which was said to be the best in the Mare Nostrum and would sell for a good price in Antioch or Alexandria. They’d said farewell to their escort there and when the galleys left it felt as if they were losing an old friend.

Aurelius nodded when he saw the swords. ‘Good. No need for concern yet, but best to be ready. Julius?’

‘A small ship under full sail, could be a galley or a fishing boat,’ the sailor guessed. ‘Wait! I see regular flashes of white at her sides. A galley, under oars and making good speed on a course to intercept.’

‘Anything else?’ Valerius noted that the captain’s voice had lost some of its customary assurance.

The lookout strained his eyes towards the tiny speck almost lost in a vast undulating carpet of azure. Julius thought he’d done well enough to mark the splash of the oars. But when he looked again there was something he’d missed: a flash of colour at the head of the other ship’s mast. ‘Looks like she’s running some sort of signal?’

Aurelius jumped for the mast and, with surprising agility for such a big man, scrambled up to the main spar.

‘Could it be one of the escort galleys with a message for us?’ Valerius shouted.

‘They should be halfway back to Misenum by now.’ The captain didn’t hesitate. ‘Turn due south and run before the wind,’ he shouted to the steersman.

When he returned to the deck he called Valerius to the stern. ‘Pirates.’ He spat over the side.

Valerius’s hand automatically went to his sword, but Aurelius smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

‘There’ll be time yet for that, tribune.’ He studied the sky to the north, where a few puffy white clouds had gathered. ‘She’s a scout, not one of their big fighting galleys, which gives us a good chance of outrunning her; outfighting her too, if her plundering bastard of a captain wants to push his luck. We’ll give it an hour before we turn northeast again. That should still allow us a chance of making landfall on Cyprus before dark. It looks like we might be in for a bit of a blow, which will suit us better than her, because she carries less sail and she’s lower in the water.’

‘I thought we had got rid of the pirates along the Cilician coast long ago?’

Aurelius laughed bitterly. ‘Just because they’ve disappeared doesn’t mean they’ve been defeated. They can’t take on the big grain convoys and most single merchants aren’t worth their while, so when the navy raided their ports, crucified the most prominent captains and burned a few of their ships they simply vanished, like smoke. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to turn a pirate galley into a coastal trader and most of the pirates were as much merchants as they were thieves and murderers. But if a juicy target lands in their lap

…’ The seaman glanced towards Domitia’s pavilion.

‘The girl?’

‘I doubt they are after the timber and olive oil in our holds, tribune. Someone will have seen us dock in Creta. In a harbourside bar one of the crew boasts that his passenger is the daughter of the famed General Corbulo. They wait. They watch. They see us leave unescorted. If they catch us, they might take us all, but probably not. No, it is the girl they are after. They will move her along the coast to a sheltered cove — past Tarsus, maybe — and smuggle her into the hills where they will sell her to one of the bandit kings who still rule in the disputed lands on the borders of Cappadocia and Armenia. Those men have little love for her father. They will ask for a ransom that will make his eyes water and he will either pay it or get her back one pretty piece at a time.’

‘Then let us hope they don’t catch us.’

Aurelius sniffed the air as if testing the wind for scent. ‘Sharpen your swords and pray.’ Valerius nodded. ‘And tribune? Don’t mention this to the general’s daughter. The last thing I need is a hysterical woman panicking all over my deck.’

Three hours later there was still no sign of the poor weather Aurelius had predicted, but they were back on course and there’d been no hint of the other ship for more than an hour. Aurelius had a man permanently at the masthead, but the captain still stood on the steering platform scanning the northern horizon with a worried frown on his tanned face. Valerius wasn’t certain whether he was concerned about pirates, the clouds, which had turned into a brooding, dark-fringed pyramid, or the atmosphere, which had become sticky and breathless, though there was still enough breeze to stir the sails. The frown deepened when Domitia left the curtained tent with one of her serving girls and approached the stern.

‘Good morning, captain.’ She gave Aurelius a smile that would have melted another man’s heart. ‘I wonder if I might trouble you for some fresh water to use for washing. Sea water is all very well, but…’

‘I’m sure that can be arranged, lady,’ Aurelius said briskly. The dwindling water reserves had been on his mind, but if they made port as planned at Cyprus it wasn’t a major concern. If for any reason they missed their landfall he would have to turn north to seek water at some settlement or river outlet on the Asian coast. He had no doubt he would find somewhere suitable — he’d sailed these waters since he was ten years old — but it would take time and he would prefer to preserve stocks if he could. Still, it would be worth a pint or two to get the general’s daughter off his deck.

‘Julius, a bucket of clean water for the lady and her serv-’

‘Sail, due north!’ The whole ship froze at the sound of the lookout’s voice. ‘And another just to her east.’ His voice faded and he muttered what sounded like a prayer.

‘What else?’ Aurelius snarled.

‘Captain, a third, a mile further east still.’

Aurelius darted another look at the clouds gathering in the north, but there was no help there. He turned to Domitia. ‘I’m sorry, lady,’ he said quickly. ‘I’m afraid your request is denied and I must respectfully ask that you and your slaves take up your quarters below decks. It will be safer there.’

Domitia Longina lifted her dainty chin and glared at the captain. ‘I will go below decks when I see fit, and not before,’ she snapped. ‘Safer from what, captain?’

‘Lady, I command this ship and I do not have time to argue. You will go below. Tribune, will you escort the lady Domitia and explain our situation?’ He nodded to Valerius and ran off, roaring to the helmsman, ‘Cronos! Set course due south. I want her running before the wind with every ounce of speed she has. Sailmaster. Check every rope. We need every stitch straining.’

Domitia was left staring at the captain’s disappearing back, caught between a patrician’s natural inclination never to accept defeat and the knowledge that if Aurelius was concerned perhaps she should be also. Finally, she turned her anger on Valerius. ‘Well?’ For a moment he thought she might stamp her foot.

‘If you would accompany me, I could explain our difficulties as we go.’

‘Do not patronize me, tribune.’ Her eyes — he noticed for the first time that they were a deep walnut brown — threatened to catch fire. ‘I am my father’s daughter and I will not be made light of. I…’

Valerius heard a shout from the deck and looked up to see the pale ghost of a sail on the far horizon. This was no time for talking. ‘If you are your father’s daughter you should be able to obey orders.’ He took her arm and bustled her to the hatch which led below decks. He saw Serpentius grinning and Tiberius looking on with a puzzled frown and it only made him more angry at her foolishness. ‘That sail belongs to a pirate galley. You understand about pirate galleys? Well, these pirates want you. And when they get you they will use you to destroy your father. If he pays the ransom and leaves them alive, he will no longer have his honour. If he does not, he will no longer have you, and that will be infinitely worse.’

In an instant the wildcat inside her retreated. His final sentence, and the way he said it, first confused then intrigued her. She frowned and shrugged herself free as they reached the ramp. ‘If you had explained yourself so eloquently a little earlier,’ she said sweetly, ‘perhaps we would not have had this misunderstanding. Come, Suki.’

Valerius couldn’t help noticing the way her body moved under the thin skirt as she walked down the steps into the hold. He shook his head. Idiot to think of something like that when they could all be dead in the next few hours. He ran to the stern and prepared to face the enemy.