Tabula Rasa

Chapter 71

There was a collective gasp and a shuffle of confusion as people fell over each other in their haste to get away from the door. Tilla heard the word “Traitor!” breathed in her ear.

“Nobody move!” yelled the soldier again. “Give us our men!”

Tilla heard the swish of swords being drawn, and Conn’s command of “No weapons!”

Her opinion of him rose. In a confined space like this, weapons were useless. They might hold the soldiers at bay, but he would know that none of his people could escape even if they broke the walls down. The soldiers were not fools. They would have the place surrounded. The doorway was wide enough only to show a couple of iron helmets in silhouette, but there were torches blazing outside in other hands. The dim-witted lookout and the man sent after the soldiers must have been captured.

“Give us our men! Now!”

Daminius and Mallius were staggering to their feet, Mallius pulling down the tunic Conn’s people had tried to tear off him.

Tilla did not recognize the voice of the soldier. She had no idea what he knew or how they had found this place so soon. But she knew that if she did not think of something quickly, then everything she had feared would come to pass. Mallius would tell them he had been lured into a trap and leave out the reason why. Daminius would be punished for his part in it, Senecio’s family would be executed, and her husband would be disgraced by the shame of a treacherous wife.

Daminius was wiping his mouth and straightening his damp clothing. Pushing a couple of Conn’s men aside, she moved into the firelight and took him by the arm. “Let me help you, sir,” she suggested. “The Samain beer was stronger than you thought. My brother should have warned you.”

Mallius stumbled across to the doorway, flailing his arms about like a drowning man trying to reach land. He was crying out about prisoners and ghosts and murder and cannibals.

“Too much beer,” said Tilla for the soldiers’ benefit. “He can hardly speak.”

She spoke to Conn in British. She dared not say anything secret: Some of the legionaries were Britons and would understand. “I told you not to let them drink so much, brother,” she said. “Now look. One of them has wet himself and they are both are in trouble with their officers, and it is all your fault.”

To Daminius she said, “I am sorry, sir. I should not have invited you. I did not know your friends would be worried about you.”

“Shouldn’t have accepted,” Daminius told her, his voice slurred. “Big mistake. Big, big-”

“Out!” came the order from the door.

“Yes, sir,” Daminius agreed, but instead of stepping forward he tottered sideways and put his arm around Conn’s neck. “Can you tell’im from me,” he said to Tilla, “we mus’ do this again sometime. I’ll ‘range the same sort of thing f’r’im at my place.” Then he lifted up the little phallus from around his neck and kissed it before shambling toward his rescuers with the words, “Sorry, sir. Bit of a night out. Lovely people.”