Saviour of Rome

XXXVII

The Asturians buried their dead in four large pits, but Valerius was busy elsewhere as they wept over the innocents slaughtered by Claudius Harpocration and his Parthians. As Serpentius had predicted, Tito was able to supply stylus, ink and the finest lambskin parchment stolen from Lucius Octavius Fronton’s library. The Roman shut himself in a burned-out house that had been cleared for the purpose and for three hours laboured to distil all he’d discovered into a report that would galvanize Gaius Plinius Secundus to act immediately against the conspiracy.

When he was satisfied with what he’d written, Valerius tied up the scroll with a strip of leather and emerged into the sunshine. Tito and Serpentius stood beside the edge of the last pit as a priest said the rites over the dead.

Valerius had a feeling some of the villagers were unhappy with the brevity of the ceremony. Tito explained that the warriors would normally be taken up the mountain to special burial platforms.

‘In our religion it is the tradition that the flesh of the bravest is devoured by carrion birds who repay us by carrying their souls to heaven,’ he said. ‘The bodies of these people,’ he pointed to the grave, ‘should be burned and their ashes scattered on the fields. We have no time to make the journey to the high peaks or collect wood to cremate so many dead. Our first priority must be to repair the castro and ensure the living have shelter and to replant the fields swiftly so there is food enough for the winter.’

Valerius watched until the pit was filled in, the dirt covering the pale, dead faces. ‘I need your most reliable man to carry this to Legio.’ He handed the scroll to Serpentius. ‘He should go to the tavern by the bridge and ask for Marius. If Marius isn’t there he must wait, but without attracting attention.’

‘Caeleo can take it,’ Tito said to his father. ‘He’s sold skins at the market in Legio often enough to know his way about the place. If anyone recognizes him he’s just another familiar face.’

He called to a small wizened man dressed in a scuffed leather jerkin and striped trews and explained his mission.

Caeleo grinned, showing three blackened teeth. ‘A child could do this,’ he said gleefully. ‘I have a batch of pelts that are ready to go. I might even make a profit.’

‘Just make sure the scroll is delivered,’ Serpentius warned him. ‘You will be well rewarded. But you must stay clear of the hook-noses.’

‘Of course,’ Caeleo nodded. ‘And that bastard tax collector at the fort.’

The goat hunter disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a mule that must have been secreted in some nearby cavern or hidden gully. Valerius handed him a few coins that would make a prolonged stay in the tavern less onerous. They watched as he led the mule up the eastern track from Avala with the scroll hidden in one of the panniers strapped to the animal’s back.

‘Well, that’s it.’ Valerius and Serpentius exchanged a glance. ‘There’s nothing else we can do until we get word from Nepos.’

Serpentius was about to reassure his friend there were fields to dig, crops to plant and houses to clear, but Tito’s voice cut him short. ‘There may be.’

They turned and saw the diminutive figure of Julia at his side. She stood straight and as tall as she could make herself, with a look of unshakable resolution on her fine features.

‘Tito made it clear to me.’ She took the bearded Zoelan’s hand and he squeezed her fingers. ‘They were my people.’ She allowed her eyes to slip over the freshly turned earth of the grave pits. ‘Roman auxiliaries may have wielded the swords that killed them, but my father and his friends were the cause. If I can do anything to stop it happening again I cannot shirk that duty, for the honour of my family. This is about the gold? The papers he keeps in the strongbox in the storeroom?’

‘We believe so.’ Valerius’s heart quickened. Could this be the moment of Fortuna’s favour they had been hoping for? But the feeling quickly passed. In all honour he couldn’t send this child where he couldn’t go himself. ‘But you cannot be responsible for your father’s deeds.’

‘Perhaps not.’ She met his gaze. ‘But I have another reason. If they are discovered, his life will be at risk.’

‘Either his so-called friends will kill him,’ Valerius admitted, ‘for we know they regard him as a liability. Or he will find himself kneeling under the executioner’s blade when it ends, as it must. They cannot succeed, Julia.’

‘Then it is my duty as his daughter to try to save him,’ she said purposefully. ‘If I succeed in persuading him to give me the documents will you promise to speak for him when the time comes?’

‘I give you my word,’ Valerius said. ‘But you must know he is unlikely to escape punishment entirely. The best he can hope for is exile somewhere on the edge of the Empire.’

She exchanged a glance with Tito and he nodded. ‘Then so be it.’ She swayed and a visible shudder ran through her, a sign of what this was costing her. Valerius felt a swell of admiration at the enormous fount of courage that existed in that slim form. ‘We should go now?’ The question was directed at Tito.

Serpentius opened his mouth to deny them his permission, but shut it again like a bear trap. Nothing he could say would make any difference. Julia wouldn’t change her mind and Tito was just as capable as his father in this country. He knew the hidden valleys and barely passable heights that would keep him out of reach of Harpocration’s patrols.

Valerius reached out to lay his left hand on Tito’s arm. ‘Look after her.’

‘Of course.’ The young man nodded and walked away to arrange the horses and an escort.

‘I have only met your father once,’ Valerius said to the girl. ‘But my advice would be not to push him too hard. He is under great pressure and if he feels trapped he may react in a way you don’t anticipate. If he refuses, be prepared to walk away.’ He hesitated, but it had to be said. ‘It is possible that you could be going into danger.’

‘My father would never harm me.’ She said it with force, but he had a feeling she wasn’t so certain.

‘I’m sure you’re right,’ he said gravely. ‘But you will think on my words?’

She gave an apologetic nod and turned to her horse. Like many women aristocrats Julia was perfectly at home in the saddle, though she rode aside, with one leg hooked over the pommel beneath her skirts. Tito helped her into her seat.

Valerius returned to Serpentius’s side and they watched the little group of riders pick their way up the hill as they headed south. The Spaniard’s lined features looked set in stone.

‘It’s never easy to watch others ride out to do a task you think you should be doing yourself,’ Valerius consoled his friend.

‘For twenty years and more I thought I was alone.’ Serpentius struggled to control his emotions. ‘If my dead wife and child appeared in my dreams I drove them away. I allowed myself to care for no one and nothing. In the arena, I stayed alive to spite the people who placed me there. When you took me from it and gave me hope of freedom I had to choose between life and death. I was forced to remember that I once had a reason for living. I chose life, but hardened my heart against compassion and friendship. Only when our lives became intertwined and the fates brought death so close I could feel the scent of it, did I understand that, even if friendship with a Roman was not possible, perhaps comradeship was. When comradeship develops into brotherhood a man would have to be a fool to refuse it.’ He turned and looked directly into Valerius’s eyes. ‘Yet you are not my son, Valerius. A son is the mirror in which you can see all your triumphs and mistakes. A son is your despair and your hope. A son is everything you wished you could be and an accusation of all you are not. And that son, Valerius, is such a son as any man would pray for. For twenty years I did not know he existed. He was nothing to me. Now I do not know what I would do if anything were to happen to him. Even seeing him ride away is tearing my heart out. To think that he would never return-’

‘He will return, Serpentius.’ Valerius looked up to where the little group was disappearing over the horizon. ‘Tito is as capable as you,’ his face split into a grin, ‘maybe more capable. It will take more than Claudius Harpocration’s hook-noses to bring him low. And he too has something to protect.’

A snort of laughter burst from Serpentius; he wrapped an arm that felt like an iron ring around Valerius’s neck. ‘You think me old and spent, Roman. Well, we will see about that. There are fields to dig and wood to hew. Anything to take a man’s mind off the waiting. By the time we’re finished we will see who is old and spent, eh?’