Scorpion Rising

Two

The night was warm, the honeysuckle was sweet and Claudia was oblivious to both. Sinking down on a marble bench in the garden, she was unaware of Hercules striding through the constellations or Bootes the Herdsman prodding his celestial cattle. She did not hear the owl hoot from the oak tree next door, or smell the sweet blossoms of the myrtles in flower, or notice whether the moon was waxing or full.

She sat, rigid and mute, while her mind whirled like a mill race.

'Surely the Scorpion isn't going to kill me for thirteen hundred stupid sesterces?' she asked, though there had been no disguising the quiver that time.

'Thirteen hundred and fifty,' the assassin corrected, 'and do you not imagine that people have been killed for less? Uniting the tribes to push Rome out once and for all requires fundraising on an enormous scale, and the type of criminals the Scorpion employs need to be kept in check by something more than a spank on the bottom. Come.' He'd held out his arm. 'Let us take that walk in the garden.'

How much time had passed since Claudia had linked her elbow through his? Seconds? Minutes? A lifetime-?

'You were wise not to wake your steward,' he said, leading her to a seat beneath an acacia.

Claudia already knew that. Instinctively, she had realized that if she'd raised the alarm, he'd be left with no choice. Not tonight, not tomorrow, but some time he would come back and fulfil his contractual obligation. She shivered. Gabali wasn't the type who fed off the fear in his victim's eyes as they died. He was calculating, clever and detached, not sick. Had he not wanted something else from her, she would already be dead…

A faint light appeared in the sky over the Viminal Hill. Any minute now, roosters would start crowing and she realized with a jolt that the Spaniard had been in her house for twenty-four hours. Apart from a faint hint of stubble, he was as fresh as the dew.

'What do you want, Gabali?'

Her legs were weak, her heart pounded like thunder and there was something wrong with her breath. But she had to know…

'What do you need from me?'

His stillness lasted for an eternity, or maybe a heartbeat. Then he knelt down to face her, his penetrating eyes at a level with hers.

'Help,' he said carefully. 'There is a college of priestesses near Santonum known as the Hundred-Handed, a revered and powerful order, not unlike the Druids-'

'With the same attitude to human sacrifice?'

A muscle contracted in the Spaniard's cheek. 'When I kill, I kill cleanly,' he said. 'There is no question of sending you to be burned alive inside the wicker man, or indeed enjoying any of the other hospitalities that are practised in some of the remoter regions of Gaul.'

He rose, smoothed his hair back from his face and ran his fingers down the delicate leaves of the acacia.

'The Hundred-Handed wield the same spiritual influence as the Druids, except they interpret the cycle of life as a five-pointed star which they call the pentagram. The tips represent birth, growth, maturity, decline and death in sequence,' he said, 'but the difference is, the priestesses do not believe in gods like the Druids. They preach worship through nature and advocate peace in all things.'

'Sounds very noble.'

'It is.'

'But?'

Gabali turned his face away. 'One of the initiates, a girl of a mere twelve summers, was found murdered close to the sacred boundaries of the College. Her name was Clytie, she was killed on the spring equinox and her murder has never been solved.'

There was no point in asking where this was leading.

Claudia stared at the Spaniard's straight back and wondered why a day in midsummer should dawn so chill.

'The priestesses aren't celibate,' he continued, 'but no man is permitted to set foot inside the precinct, not even the tribal Chief, and thus, since no proper investigation was conducted, Clytie's killer remains at large.'

'Call me slow, Gabali, but I don't see where I come in.'

'No? I was rather thinking that if you were to talk to the priestesses-'

'Excuse me, this is Gaul you're talking about?'

'Yes.'

'And you haven't forgotten that we're in Rome having this conversation?'

'No.'

'Or that I'm not a priestess?'

'No.'

'Or that I'm unfamiliar with the Gaulish language?'

'I assure you, I have not forgotten any of those things.'

'Well, I'm glad we cleared that up. Do carry on.'

'Thank you.' He bowed. 'Clytie's death was similar to previous murders that plagued Santonum two years before, but then a group of vigilantes caught the brute kneeling over his victim with his hands round her throat. I won't go into details. Sufficient to say, this monster was put to execution.'

'You think it was a miscarriage ofjustice?'

'I do not.' Gabali was clear about that. 'Although Clytie's arms were arranged like this,' he positioned his own in an outstretched position, 'her hair fanned out and her face painted-'

'Like the previous victims?'

'Like previous victims, si' but this time the body was not found in the town, there was no sexual assault and no signs of strangulation. Little Clytie bled to death from cuts on her wristsAre you all right?'

'I'm… fine.'

From inside the house, skillets clacked in the kitchens as breakfast was cooked, the sound of heather brooms could be heard sweeping the cellars and the smell of freshly baked bread filtered out from the ovens. With every ounce of self control she had left, Claudia thrust the memories of her mother's drained corpse back into the dark pit where they belonged and concentrated on staying alive.

'You obviously don't feel there's a copycat killer on the loose, either,' she said, because why else would he be proposing this bizarre exchange?

'That is the story Beth, the Head of the College, is putting about, but me, no. I do not believe it.'

As daylight turned the leaves from dull grey to green and the first blackbird began to sing, Claudia wondered why she'd thought her wine business important.

'Gabali, you seem a level-headed sort of chap, let me ask you a question.' She swivelled round on the bench to face him. 'Why me?'

He shrugged. 'I'm assuming you don't want to die.'

Fair point. 'Then let me ask you another question.' She stood up and walked across to where he was standing. 'What's to prevent you from killing me, once I've discharged my obligation?'

Blackmailers don't stop once they've got their claws into their victim, and she was unlikely to be useful for anything else. Also, he said himself the Scorpion was a ruthless thug and that no one who double crosses him lives.

'Because I give you my word.'

'Which, as an assassin and extortionist, is worth what, exactly?'

He ran his tongue under his upper lip. 'In their thirteen years of Roman occupation, the Aquitani have not confined themselves solely to the import of wine and olive oil. In the past, of course, their slaves comprised fellow Gauls, captured in raids or taken as trophies of war.' His mouth twisted up at one corner. 'But thanks to you Romans, a whole new global market in human flesh has opened up.'

'Including Spaniards.'

'The Andalus yielded an especially rich harvest, si. I have the distinction of being one of their earliest exports, and never let it be said the Hundred-Handed don't move with the times.'

'I thought you said men weren't allowed in the College?'

'That's right, they're not.' Gabali plucked a late cherry from the tree and munched carefully. 'They live in a compound on the hill behind the College, where they're set to tending the livestock, brewing and general maintenance work.' He spat the cherry stone into the centre of the fish pond. 'We work like dogs but are kept as stallions, if you follow my meaning.'

'The Hundred-Handed might be a matriarchal society, but they still can't manage to father their own children?'

'It seems we have some uses,' he said, with a lopsided grin, and whilst Claudia could see how he might be bitter, she understood why the priestesses had picked him. 'Once the children are born, they're placed into communal custody, where they're raised by those women who, for one reason or another, didn't qualify for the fifty elite, so you see, even the mothers don't spend time with their own children, much less the poor fathers.'

Oh, sweet Janus. 'Clytie was your daughter?'

'Those bitches wouldn't let me near her when she was alive,' he said thickly, 'but I'm damned if I'll let them betray her now that she's dead.'

It was a convincing argument, Claudia thought. Had it not been for the fact that he killed people for a living and was as trustworthy as his scorpioidal boss 'I make no promises,' she told him bluntly. 'I'll happily go back to Aquitania' — as though she had a choice — 'and ask around at the College, but I can't guarantee finding your daughter's killer, much less bringing them to justice.'

'If you find the killer, I will see to the justice part,' he murmured. 'As to the rest, all I ask is that you do your best and, as a woman, you will have a better chance of finding the truth.'

Claudia doubted that.

'What about the Scorpion? If he knows I'm not only alive, but on his patch-'

'Do not worry about the Scorpion, Merchant Seferius. You will be perfectly safe in Aquitania.'

Claudia doubted that even more.

'Can I hope you will be packed by midday?' he asked in a manner that brooked no negotiation.

'My dear Gabali, I shall be packed in a hour,' she breezed back. Because this Spanish assassin might be a mine of infor mation and a pedant for detail, but what he couldn't possibly have gathered from watching her house was that Claudia Seferius didn't just play rough, she played dirty.

And strangely enough, excelled in both.