Terra Incognita

77

It’s all right, Ruso! It’s me.”

The words finally penetrated the terror. Ruso stopped struggling and lay still while Postumus ripped off the gag. He spat the vile taste out of his mouth and forced himself not to tremble while the centurion’s knife tackled the ropes around his swollen wrists. He shook his hands free and placed a clumsy fist on Postumus’s arm, muttering, “Thank you!” as he struggled to his feet. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you.” He tried an experimental step and found to his relief that he was still able to walk. “They were going to tear me apart.”

“I told you I wanted to get my hands on that bastard,” said Postumus.

“Did we get him?”

“Dunno.”

A familiar figure emerged from the shadows and stood with his back to the fires, surveying the chaos.

“What’s Metellus doing here?”

“It’s his operation,” said Postumus, sheathing his knife. “I just brought a few of our lads over as backup. And you should be bloody glad I did, because if we hadn’t gone in just now he would’ve left you there for the chop while his men crawled about getting into position.”

Ruso looked up from massaging his wrists. “You overruled Metellus?” “Let’s just say I must have misunderstood his signal in the dark.”

Later, his painful joints shifting with the motion of the borrowed horse that was carrying him back toward the town, Ruso was joined by a second rider. The man’s face was shadowed by the rim of his helmet, but the words, “What the hell were you doing out here on your own?” identified Metellus.

“Looking for Tilla,” said Ruso, glad to have a chance to explain. “Have you seen her?”

Metellus jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. “With the other prisoners.”

“I was trying to help her. I thought I’d be safe.”

“You should know by now. You can’t trust them.”

“I know,” said Ruso, glancing at the ghostly shapes of the moonlit cavalry escort ahead and checking that the soldiers and shuffling prisoners were too far back to overhear. “Listen. I’ve had some more thoughts about Felix.”

“Don’t start that again, Ruso. You’ve caused enough trouble for one night. If we hadn’t had to charge in and rescue you before we were ready, we’d have caught the whole lot of them. Including the Stag Man.”

“We didn’t get him?” Ruso was incredulous.

“We saved you instead.”

“Oh. That was very decent of you.”

“Doing so was quite frankly neither the easy thing nor the right thing.”

“No,” Ruso agreed, wanting to add, Which is why you didn’t give the order to do it, you lying bastard. Instead he said, “I understand there was some confusion about the orders.”

“You’re supposed to say, ‘You should have left me and captured the Stag Man,’ ” said Metellus.

Ruso wondered whether anyone would stop him if he leaned across and grabbed Metellus by the throat.

“There’s been a development,” said Metellus. “Your clerk has woken up and told us the last thing he can remember is taking a shortcut through an alley with Gambax.”

“I knew it!” Poor Albanus, the victim of an attack that might have been avoided if only his officer had not asked for his help in snaring a man who had been stealing from the infirmary. “So, I was right after all.”

“Apparently you were,” agreed Metellus, and yawned.

Ruso yawned too, and glanced at the sky. There was no sign of dawn yet. Tonight, he would not notice the inadequacies of the bed, nor the presence of the barrel. Tonight, that little storeroom would be Nero’s golden palace.

“You’ll be happy to know,” said Metellus, “that Gambax will be tried for the attempted murder of the clerk as soon as the governor can fit it into his schedule.”

Ruso forced himself to sit up straight, ignore his aching muscles and aching head, and concentrate. “I wanted to talk to you about Gambax. I’ve changed my mind. He wouldn’t have killed Felix over a squabble about where they were selling the wine.”

“So you accept it was the native?”

“Not the native that you mean. It was Catavignus.”

For a moment all he heard was the steady plod of hooves and boots and the sobbing of a child in the crowd behind them. Then a deep sigh came from Metellus’s direction. It was followed by, “How hard did they hit you on the head, Ruso?”

“It all fits.”

“That’s what you said about Gambax.”

“Listen,” urged Ruso. “I’ve spent the evening lying on the floor in a stinking hut thinking about this, because it was the only way to take my mind off wondering what the natives were going to do to me. Catavignus fell out with Felix about a business deal, and he didn’t want him to marry his daughter. He owed Felix money, probably to do with this house he’s supposed to be building. He overheard the argument in the bar while he was delivering the beer, which he did in person because he’s got designs on Susanna-”

“And you can prove this, can you?”

“We’ll need to check that part with Susanna,” said Ruso. “Felix went to visit Aemilia and give her a ring to shut her up, and Catavignus followed him from the house. They probably walked down the alley together, because Felix wouldn’t have realized-”

“I’m sorry, Ruso. I don’t have time for this. Catavignus is our strongest local supporter and our main beer supplier. You’re the man who’s just ruined a major security sweep and you work with a bunch of madmen, layabouts, and runaways. In addition to which…” Metellus steered his mount closer until Ruso felt the soft warmth of the horse’s flank pressed against his knee, “How did the head get to where we found it? Our friendly local brewer would have to have been wandering around the countryside in the middle of the night carrying a severed head in a sack.”

“Why not?” said Ruso. “He used to live up here. He’d know the way in the dark. He’d know how to get to that house without your guards seeing him. You can’t prosecute Rianorix while there’s a chance it could be him.”

“We can prosecute whomever we want,” said Metellus as they turned the horses left and up onto the main road. “And even if we didn’t, we could always execute Rianorix for his part in tonight’s escapade.”

“He tried to save me tonight!” insisted Ruso, “He and Tilla were-”

“Did he? I saw him jump up out of the crowd and follow her. I’d say he was trying to stop her from intervening.”

“But-”

“You were confused, Ruso. It was night. Your life was under threat. There was a crowd baying for your blood. You don’t know what you saw.”

Ruso rubbed the back of his aching head. “What will happen to the prisoners?”

“They’ll all be questioned. Somebody must know where we can find the Stag Man. Then it’ll be up to the governor. I expect he’ll execute one in ten, or something. Nothing too drastic. After all, they didn’t actually kill you.”

“Tilla and Rianorix tried to help me tonight,” insisted Ruso. “The man you want is Catavignus. You can’t trust him. He’s obsessed with furthering his business. He did a deal with Trenus to fix that cattle raid, and now he’s killed one of your men. If you don’t prosecute him now you’ll regret it later.”

“I’ll regret it immediately if I accuse him with nothing to back it up.”

“There must be evidence,” insisted Ruso. “It’s just a case of taking the trouble to find it.”

“You seem very confident.”

“I am,” said Ruso, wishing he were telling the truth.

“Hurry up and find it by morning, then,” replied Metellus. “But you’d better come up with something better than coincidence and supposition. Because if you upset our tame local without good cause just as the governor arrives, you’ll be wishing I’d left you with the natives.”