Tabula Rasa

Chapter 58

At last Tilla had some use for her escort. With Dismal following her, and the military brands on the horses, nobody dared to question her right to ride down the track that crossed the line of wall where the soldiers were working. The weary Enica pointed toward the rough slopes where Aedic’s family had lived. At the top, Tilla could see the builders tidying up, ready for the end of the day’s work. They were leaning out from the scaffold to throw covers over the freshly laid stones and gathering their equipment together, ready to carry it back down to the camp. Tilla swallowed. This looked very much like the place where her husband had described Candidus’s knife being found. But there was no sign of a boy, and no one answered their cries of “Aedic!”

There was little news to exchange on either side when they delivered Enica home. Dismal had clearly been hoping the search would be abandoned for the day, and his face fell even further when Tilla explained that they were now going to retrace their steps to the wall and carry on hunting for Aedic. Instead of following her, he turned his horse the other way and peered across the fields below the house to where the trees marked the passage of the stream.

“What is it?”

“Be quicker down that way and through the quarry, miss.”

Tilla let him lead her down past a half-ruined farm building. After some exploring, during which Dismal appeared to be lost but was not going to admit it, they found a place where they could jump the horses over a tumbled section of wall. They scrambled down a bank and cantered north, following a broad track that was in unusually good repair along the course of the stream. After a couple of hundred paces it curved into a large cleared area where the side of the hill had been hacked away. Part of the cliff had tumbled into a steep slide of loose earth and rock. She held the horse back, gazing up at it. This must be what her husband had climbed across to rescue Valens’s father-in-law.

How simple everything had seemed just a few days ago, when the biggest problem of her afternoon had been the thought that her husband would be late for supper. Now they were both out hunting for other people’s missing children and she had no idea where he was or whether anything would ever be quite the same again.

“Miss!”

The voice made her jump. She recognized the man who had led the search party: What was his name? Daminius. But instead of telling her to clear off out of the quarry, he was slipping his work hammer into a loop on his belt and asking, “Any news about the boy, miss?”

“They would have sounded the horn,” she told him. Since he was free, she supposed they must have decided he had nothing to do with Branan’s disappearance. “Have you seen my husband?”

“I heard he was going to Vindolanda.” There was something about the man’s expression that said there was more, but all he said was “Keep well clear of the landslide, miss. Just in case.”

She explained about the search for Aedic, and he nodded. “There’s a big clump of bushes up toward the wall where they’ve got the scaffolding. About a hundred paces east of the stream. He sometimes hides there.”

“You know him?”

“Warn him to watch out. Most of the lads know he’s harmless, but my replacement might think he’s a spy.”

“Your replacement? Are you being sent away?”

The optio shrugged, and she thought there was a slight flinch, as if he had disturbed a forgotten injury. “This is the Legion, miss. You never know.”

“I wish you well,” she said, and meant it. She was about to ride on when she noticed what was hanging around his neck. “Did you lend that to my husband?”

He picked up the little winged phallus and grimaced. “I don’t know what he did to it,” he said. “I’ve had nothing but bad luck ever since he got his hands on it. Miss, are you the one who helped Fabius’s kitchen maid?”

He was a man full of surprises. How did he know that? She wondered whether he knew about the girl’s plea for a charm against pregnancy. “I have met her. Why do you ask?”

From across by the little hut, a voice shouted, “Hey! Are you working or talking?”

“You might not see her again,” he said. “Her master might send her away. I thought I should tell you she was very grateful.”

Then, before Tilla could ask what was going on, he said, “I hope you find both those boys soon, miss,” and went back to work, twisting the hammer out of his belt as he walked.