Rome: The Emperor's spy

Chapter Sixty-Three

‘That’s Hannah! Go! ’

Seneca heard Pantera’s voice clearly over the demolition of the fire and, as if it spoke to him, launched himself forward.

‘Don’t be a fool!’ Ajax jerked him to a halt, his fingers iron-hard on Seneca’s forearm. They were hiding under a broken cistern at the foot of the hill. The river mumbled sullenly behind, outdone by the majesty of the fire ahead. ‘Saulos is between us and Pantera. What we heard, he has heard. He loves Hannah. What will he do?’

Seneca blew out a breath. ‘If he truly loves her, then I think he won’t kill her or let her be killed, but he will certainly kill Pantera if he has the chance. His only regret will be that it can’t be done slowly, over days.’

‘And he will want to gloat before he kills. He hasn’t the strength of mind not to.’ Quiet as a ghost, Ajax had risen to his feet. Near naked, with the firelight sharp on the first new growth of his hair, with his scars like living silver across all parts of his torso, he looked barely human. Seneca was terrified of him. He had denied this half the night. Now, he allowed himself the honesty.

He drew a sharp breath. ‘You’re right; Saulos won’t throw his knives from a distance. We can follow him and Pantera as they both ascend the hill.’

‘Then we shall do so.’ Ajax smiled, grimly. ‘This time, you don’t have to run, but you do have to follow exactly where I go, and make no sound.’

If the whole of the night had been a preparation for this, it was inadequate, but still Seneca succeeded in the tasks that were set him, and exulted in them. He was burned across his forearms and face, his scalp was singed, he trod on glowing embers so that his sandals burned through to his feet. His nose was clogged with noxious many-coloured smoke and his eyes streamed red raw. He wormed under dangerously unstable walls, stepped past pools of liquid pitch and clambered over dead men and hounds, and was as happy as he could ever remember being.

Always, Ajax was ahead, finding the best path. And always Saulos was ahead of him, and Pantera ahead again and his wiry companion ahead of both, all three of them visible now that Seneca had the art of seeing them.

And because he had the art of seeing, he saw the detachment of the Watch emerge from the gate in the whitewashed hall. And he saw their two prisoners.

Ajax was a half-seen glimmer of pale skin lying prone beneath a fallen roof beam. Gathering his courage, Seneca crawled forward to join him.

‘That’s-’

‘Shimon and Hypatia, I know. But not Hannah.’ Ajax watched a moment, then said, ‘The centurion’s stoking up the fire at the next-door shop.’

‘He can’t burn the goose-keeper’s house — Juno keeps it immune to fire.’

‘Does she? If I were a Roman, I’d worship her ahead of Mars. The centurion’s doing his best to make it burn, though. Either he thinks nobody’s left inside…’

‘Or he’s trying to make sure that whoever’s in there doesn’t come out. Pantera thinks that. Look.’

Pantera had caught up with the wiry, dark-haired officer who was his companion. Both were watching the centurion as he stoked the new fire. They were animated in their conversation, pointing, gesticulating, shaking their heads.

The centurion leapt back smartly. A smouldering beam fell, as if at his command, and blocked the gate in the whitewashed wall. He stayed a heartbeat longer, to be sure the fire had caught, and then left at a run, following the route his men had taken.

In his hiding place, Pantera made a point, with emphasis. The small, wiry man saluted and followed the centurion at a discreet distance. Pantera waited, fidgeting, until they were out of sight, then ran to the gate.

Seneca said, ‘We have to unblock the gate. He’s going to try to-’

‘He’s going to try to climb the wall and he won’t succeed.’

‘You could go in his stead. You’re fitter than he is.’ Even in the half-dark, with the fire making the shadows jump, it was obvious that Pantera was at the limit of his resources.

Ajax was looking somewhere else. ‘Where do you think Saulos has gone?’

‘He’s over there.’ Seneca pointed to his left.

‘Not any more.’

Blinking his eyes clear of the smoke, Seneca looked up the hill to the place where Saulos had been tucked discreetly behind a broken wall, and found it empty.

In his ear, Ajax whispered, ‘There.’

Up ahead fresh fires blazed, men shouted and smoke billowed thickly. Through it, Seneca saw Pantera trying to find a way past the smoking beam to the blocked door in the whitewashed wall.

And there, too, less than ten yards further on, Saulos was crouched in a doorway, a knife in either hand.