Dream Boat

Chapter Thirty-four

Marcus found it hurt when he tried to sit up. It hurt his ribs, it hurt his head, it hurt his numbed arm from where he'd been lying on it. But most of all, it hurt that he had failed Claudia.

And now it was dark. He must have been unconscious for hours. He rubbed tenderly at his poor cracked ribs, and as he did so, became aware of movement on the grain. A shadow, darker than the rest, fell over him. He reached for his weapon, but the scimitar had gone.

'I took it,' the voice said. 'In case anyone came in.'

Orbilio blinked. 'Flavia?"

'You came to rescue me, didn't you?' Her eyes were bright from emotion. 'I recognised you immediately, even though you were in disguise. I knew you'd come to save me.'

The emotion, he realised, was neither relief nor satisfaction and he remembered that, although he'd only figured once in Flavia's short life, she'd had something of a crush on him. Obviously, the passage of several months had made little difference to her feelings! He groaned, and this time it was not from pain.

'I would have brought you water,' she said, crouching down beside him and wiping a damp curl from his forehead, 'only I didn't want to leave you. Spies, you see, have to face death by Ordeal of the Lakes. That means they first roast you on a spit over the Lake of Hellfire, then they boil you alive.'

Orbilio felt he ought to be grateful. Instead he snatched the scimitar from her hands. 'Give me that,' he said brusquely. Dammit, the girl wasn't even holding it properly.

'Here, let me.' Eagerly, Flavia helped him to his feet. He towered over her.

'Are you responsible for this?' he asked, rubbing the goose egg which had risen up behind his ear.

'Me?' The idea horrified her. 'Flea did that.'

She would, he thought. Act first, think later, that was that little street thief's motto! 'I suppose she saw me in uniform, and thought I was part of the act.'

'Did you know she was a girl?' Flavia looked puzzled. 'I had no idea, until she pulled me out of the coal hole.'

Even though it hurt his ribs, Orbilio grinned. What a pair, those two! And what a difference ten years makes. Suddenly he felt old enough to be their father. Weary enough, too…

'The pair of you deserve a damned good spanking,' he said, although he had a feeling his voice lacked the authority he meant it to carry. 'You for running off, her for knocking me out cold.'

'I told her, you'd come to rescue me,' Flavia gushed, trying unsuccessfully to link her arm in his. 'She said afterwards that she was sorry.'

Like hell, he thought, putting his foot on the rope ladder. Flea would be glad to get her own back. Dammit, he liked Flea. He imagined that was what Claudia had been like at that age, too. Feisty, spunky, sharp and streetwise. But with more intelligence!

'Where's Claudia?'

'Is she here, too?' Flavia spiralled into a sulk.

'So's Junius,' Marcus added happily.

'Is he mad at me?'

Orbilio heaved himself on to the gallery which ran around the grain store. 'What do you think?' he asked mildly. 'You left the poor sap to die.'

'But — ' Flavia's face was deep red, and he hoped it was not purely from the exertion of climbing the ladder. 'But he was only wearing a toga,' she said.

'For a slave, that incurs the death penalty,' Orbilio said, 'so you'd best be nice to him from now on. Now keep close and follow me. Uh, you don't need to keep that close.' He disengaged her arms from round his waist, and thought it doesn't take long, crush transference. One day she's in love with Ra, now it's me again. Now if it was the other Seferius woman snuggling up against me in the dark.

'What's so damned funny?' Junius, stepping from the shadows, did not let his harsh eyes so much as drop to Flavia.

'Where's Claudia?' Marcus fired back.

'She's not with you?'

Another time, Orbilio would have enjoyed watching his opponent squirm. But tonight the stakes were not coins, they were not even human emotions. The stake was flesh and blood and had long tumbling curls.

Quickly he explained to Junius how Flea had mistaken him for part of the commune security force, how she'd discovered Flavia's hiding place and, finally, how Flavia had sat with him until he came to consciousness. 'Why weren't you bloody guarding her?'

'She told me to stay put,' the Gaul growled back, and Marcus knew this was not the time to fight.

'That woman,' he said, spiking his fingers through his curls, 'is a law unto herself. Let's find her and move out.'

'She'll be with Flea,' Flavia suggested. 'And Flea won't leave without some puppy she's got herself attached to. Let's try the stables.'

Doodlebug went wild, but there was no trace of two spirited young women.

'Here.' Orbilio slipped a leash around its neck and handed the puppy over to Flavia. 'You stay here with him.' To Junius he said, 'We'll organise a search. You take from here northwards, I'll take the southern half. Meet you in an hour.'

The young Gaul also felt the stakes were too high to fight over. 'No point,' he said. 'I've covered every goddamned inch, they're not here,' he added solemnly, 'and I'm worried. Gut-wrenching worried, if the truth were told.'

Whey-faced, he outlined Claudia's theories about the missing girls and her suspicions about the overseers. He did not say that he feared his mistress and the street thief had also been abducted, but Marcus read it in his face and in his voice. Flavia had begun to weep, noisily and clumsily. Doodlebug moved to the end of his leash.

'She did,' Junius added, 'organise six henchmen to stay on red alert. They're stationed on the far side of the hills.'

'No point in hanging about, then,' Marcus said miserably. 'Let's call the cavalry. Do you know the signal?'

'Inspired by The Serving Women,' Junius fired a venomous glance at Flavia, 'it's a fire.'

'What about the guards?' wailed Flavia. 'No one can get in or out, we're all trapped. Doomed. Destined to die.'

'Leave the guards to me,' Marcus said, selecting a stout club from the rack on the stable wall. 'I'll open that double set of gates so wide, the cavalry will be able to drive in through the front door.' Someone must be hiding the two women! They can't just disappear! 'Junius. While I'm playing with the portals, you start the fire.'

'Fire, singular? Man, I'm going to burn every fucking building to the ground!'

'Then make sure you search them thoroughly beforehand,' Orbilio added dryly.

But it was only while he was sprinting towards the gate, armed with his club and scimitar, that it occurred to him that he might be able to take this thing one stage further. That there was a way to destroy this commune beyond simply its physical construction.

'What I need,' he said to himself, 'is access to that big bronze tortoise.'