Black Salamander

XXIV

Far from the gentle ferry ride she’d always imagined, Claudia hit the Underworld with a bone-crunching jolt. And it didn’t let up there. The force with which she landed propelled her onwards in an ungainly lumpy bumpy roll until she came to a full stop against a solid wall.

Some welcome.

Slowly she opened her eyes in the darkness. ‘Pttth.’ She spat out a leaf. Leaf? Dizzy, she looked around. Yes, leaves. Loads of them. Maple leaves, too. A long, long way in the distance, someone was calling her name. A baritone voice.

‘Marcus?’

‘Claudia?’ The voice echoed. ‘Claudia-a-ah. Can you hear-eer-eer me?’

I’m not dead? She sat up, and pain shot through her body. That sealed it. Ghosts don’t bruise, ghosts don’t bleed, ghosts don’t hurt like buggery. So if I’m alive, what happened? What is this? She shook her head and far from the giddiness passing, her vision blurred. Steady, she thought, steady, now. Let’s work this thing through. What do I remember? Galloping down the path laughing, feeling the wind in my face. Then the saddle worked loose and I tumbled over the edge. Right. And the fact that all I have are cuts and grazes means I didn’t fall far, simply fast. With the return of normal vision came fragments of a picture, which she slowly pieced together. Light was dim, but not too dim to see a scattering of twigs and leaves from the maple tree that had broken her fall, and the narrow ledge she had landed on. The rock all round her suggested she’d rolled into a shallow cave. She sniffed. Some wild animal’s den, by the stench. Idly she wondered what ran through its mind, this fox or wolf or whatever, snoozing lazily before it set off for a good night’s hunting, only to be shocked into wakefulness by a human catapult! Well, that’s the way to make an entrance. Some girls have it, others don’t.

‘Marcus Cornelius,’ she yelled through cupped hands, ‘are you going to get me out of here or not?’

‘Claudia?’ The echo came back as though cracked with emotion, but that was silly. It was more likely the acoustics in this smelly lair, she thought, and wondered why she was crying.

‘You know anyone else down here?’ she bawled back.

‘Only a few nodding acquaintances. Now whatever else you do, don’t move. We can see where you are, but it’s too dangerous for you to try and climb up.’

Really? On her knees, Claudia scrabbled to the ledge and peered. Janus! Talk about a yawning chasm. Dizzy again, she pulled back into the cave. ‘How-?’ Someone had wedged a block of wood over her larynx. Only a faint croak came out, but that didn’t matter, because clearly he was reading her mind.

‘Sit tight,’ he called. ‘We’re sending someone down on a rope.’

‘Take your time,’ she shouted back. ‘There’s quite a picnic down here.’

Grimacing, she kicked the assortment of bones aside, flesh and fur still clinging in many instances, and tried not to imagine what they’d been attached to.

Hours seemed to pass before she heard a crackling of branches coupled with masculine grunts and groans. Finally a pair of boots appeared. With hobnails on the soles. Theodorus swung himself into the cave.

‘Theodorus, am I glad to see you.’

His boyish grin made him look all of seventeen. ‘All the girls say that.’ He laughed, and then his face sobered and he was Augustus’s soldier again. ‘Are you all right?’

‘No bones broken.’ Only my dignity.

‘You were lucky,’ he said, untying the rope round his waist. ‘Damned lucky. Another inch and… What the hell happened up there?’

‘A heady cocktail of inexperience and cockiness,’ she confessed. ‘As a result, the saddle worked loose and I thought I’d see for myself what it felt like to be Pegasus.’

‘Pegasus was a flying horse,’ Theo pointed out, looping the rope around Claudia and then round himself, ‘not a flying rider.’

‘See what I mean by inexperience?’

‘Well, this next part will be something of an experience for us both,’ he said, shuffling out on to the shelf. ‘Ready?’ ‘What girl wouldn’t be, tied face to face with a soldier in uniform?’

With painstaking slowness, the pair were winched up through the trees, helpless against branches which bumped against their limbs, bark which grazed their skin, although Claudia barely noticed. It was all she could do not to look down. Theo was right. Another inch and she’d have been puree in that river a hundred feet below.

‘Nearly there,’ Theo grunted, and for both of them, it was not a moment too soon when strong hands grabbed hold and hauled them back to safety. Hanno slung a horse blanket over her and she wanted to say she didn’t need it, only her teeth were clattering like castanets and nothing came out.

‘That, young lady,’ the old muleteer cackled, ‘is the most extreme case of one-upmanship I’ve ever had the privilege to see.’

‘W-one w-what?’

‘Arcas loses three horses, but you have to go one better.’ Hanno let out his dirty wheeze of a laugh. ‘Mind, you’d never see him whingeing like young Theo there, I’ll wager.’

The soldier was complaining because his skin had been ripped to shreds through the canopy.

‘Reckon that’s how he earned himself his nickname. Just like the animal, you won’t find a trace of self-pity in our silver-haired fox.’ He paused and let out another lewd chuckle. ‘But then, you won’t find compassion, either.’

Arcas was sneering, telling Theo he didn’t need bandages for a few superficial cuts, he was a soldier, for gods’ sake, where’s his backbone? Now they’d wasted enough time, it would be dark in an hour, and if they wanted to camp in any degree of safety, they must cross the Serpent’s back, so let’s get a bloody move on. He looped the rope round his arm and threw it over the pack mule.

‘And as for you.’ Arcas shot a broad wink at Claudia. ‘You’ve had your share of attention-seeking for one day, you’d best ride Hanno’s mule to Vesontio. That cantanker ous old sod makes your average elephant look sprightly.’

‘I hope he’s talking about my horse,’ Hanno said, gurning up his toothless lips, and everybody laughed, and the procession set off once again, with Arcas on foot and Theo astride the leading horse. Junius had given his mount to the wizened muleteer, but not, Claudia suspected, out of a sense of altruism, more because he wanted to show everyone what stuff Gauls (Celts!) were made of.

‘Promise me you won’t pull a stunt like that on our honeymoon,’ Orbilio remarked, reining in beside her once they were over the peak of Serpent Point and the path had broadened out. ‘In my opinion, a woman ought only be widowed once during her lifetime.’

‘Hey, it was me who nearly died, remember?’

‘I’m not so sure about that,’ he rasped, and now she peered closely he did look rather haggard. Maybe the rope he’d helped haul on had slipped? Then again, maybe it was because twilight had all but faded and the dusk was playing tricks.

‘If it’s any consolation to you, Marcus Cornelius, I’ve learned my lesson when it comes to cavalry action.’ The worst that can befall you travelling in a litter is being tipped sideways into a steaming pile of doggy-do. ‘I’ve told you before. The only sensible thing to be placed on a horse is a bet, and from now on, I’m sticking with that philosophy.’

‘Don’t be too harsh on saddles,’ he said. ‘In future, Claudia-’ His hand flashed out and closed over hers. ‘Check the girth.’

Like a tree struck by lightning, Claudia felt a surge right down to her toes. ‘Why?’ she asked slowly. His hand wasn’t covering hers as a lover’s would. His strong fingers squeezed out a warning…

‘Oh, sweet Janus.’ There was no need to answer the question. She knew from the jut of his chin, the tight twist of his mouth.

Claudia’s saddle strap had been cut.