The Art of War

Chapter 56

Rome, 18 December AD 69

Horus

The silver-boys told him where we were, and directed him to us with their whistles.

The first thing I knew, there was a scuffle outside and a knock on the door frame of our hut; the door itself was goat-hide, you understand. I was inside with Domitian, Gudrun, Zois and Thais in as cheerful a cluster of vivacity as you could ask for, all of us bunched in a ring round a hot brazier, eating flat bread and goat’s cheese and playing dice for copper coins. Domitian was losing.

Pantera ducked inside with his thug Trabo close behind. I despised him, and the feeling was returned in kind. But neither of us was able to take the edge off the joyful greeting that met Pantera as he walked in.

‘You’re alive!’ Zois, Scopius’ small dark daughter, who had so entranced everyone with her acrobatics in the summer, threw her arms round him.

Thais, her taller, fairer, more shapely sister wasn’t far behind. ‘When we heard about the Guard and the burning houses, we were so afraid for you.’

It was like a family, when the favoured brother returns home, or a particularly indulgent uncle. The girls clustered round, fussing over Pantera’s wet tunic, bringing dry cloths to scrub at his hair.

Trabo eyed him sourly. ‘You’re a popular man.’

I could have hit him for that. Pantera stiffened; the warm, easy joy was lost. Sliding behind the irony that is his shield, he said, ‘I let them dye my hair. You should try it sometime.’

But his eyes rested on my face and there was still a kind of peace in them as if everything I had done had been forgiven. Or perhaps he was just lost in memories, for he said, ‘I had a daughter once, in Britain. She would have been their age by now, had she lived.’

Even Trabo had the decency to look discomfited by that.

Pantera took the bread they offered him, and the cheese, and shared it with Trabo, who ate as if he’d been starved for a week. Over the girls’ heads, the Leopard caught my eye. ‘The House is safe,’ he said. ‘But the Guards may be back. If they destroy it because of me, I will see that it is rebuilt.’ Turning to Domitian, he gave a bow, saying, ‘Your uncle is on the Capitol, in the temple of the three gods, with all but five men of the senate. If you wish to join him, it must be done under cover of darkness; we can’t slip past the Guards in daylight.’

‘But we can at night?’ Domitian’s glance flickered up to meet mine. ‘Would it not be safer if we left Rome now, and joined Antonius Primus?’

I was included in that ‘we’, I could feel it. So could Pantera. Domitian may have been deliberately losing at dice, but not because of me; he was relaxed in my presence, unashamed, but discreet. Nobody looking would have known we had shared a night, and planned to share more.

With a shrug, Pantera said, ‘There’s no doubt that leaving would be far safer. But your uncle Sabinus has said he will not leave the hill, and that means that if Vitellius chooses to abdicate in the morning Sabinus will take the throne in his stead. The first hour after a change of emperor counts for more than the next ten years. If you want to be the one to hold the throne for your father, you will need to be on hand when it becomes vacant.’

There was a flicker in Domitian’s eyes, of choices weighed, of facts balanced. He was clever. I had found that out early in our brief time together; a swift mind and a quick study and a passion for getting things right.

‘What of Lucius?’ he asked. ‘Is there any danger that he will return with his cohorts from the south?’

‘I don’t know. Felix has been sent-’

Gudrun interrupted him. ‘Felix was here, looking for you. He left moments before you arrived. He had news from the south. We sent him out, because you weren’t here, but he won’t be far. Marcus can find him for you.’

A flurry of whistles and a damp walk later and we were with Felix in a smaller hut with a less well-stoked brazier, but it was warm enough and proof against the rain. Domitian came, and Trabo. Gudrun and the girls stayed safely where they were.

‘Pantera!’ Relief bloomed on Felix’ face. Overnight, I had revised my first opinion of him. He was an interesting boy with a lot of potential in the right hands, and just then, far more than Domitian, he had the look of a man who had spent the night sating his lust.

He stood awkwardly, with his two hands hidden behind his back, and gave his report.

‘Lucius sent two messengers. The first came at noon and I killed him, but the second came at the fourth hour after and rode straight past the inn. I followed him, but he had an escort. I couldn’t kill him. I’m sorry.’

I hadn’t known him for a killer, but it was clear now. The power of it shone from him, overshadowing the shame at the second missed kill.

Pantera held out a hand. ‘The message from the first?’ Felix passed him the package.

There was no need to take any particular care in opening this letter; it wasn’t going to be sent on. Pantera slit the threads and broke the seal.

The message it carried was uncoded. He and I read it together, in all its horror.

Brother, Tarracina is once more held in your name. Julius Claudianus, leader of the rebels, has died a traitor’s death, his men with him. Three boats were destroyed and two sailed away, but we have blocked the harbour and none will sail in while we are here. We wait only on your word to return to Rome.

A traitor’s death. That’s what they offered Nero and he cut his own throat rather than face having his head wedged in a cleft stick to be flogged to death.

Pantera closed his eyes against the truth. Presently, he crunched the thin paper into a ball and threw it viciously on to the brazier. Together, we watched orange flames curl the fine parchment to smoke.

‘So Vitellius knows Tarracina has fallen,’ Pantera said, eventually. ‘How long is it since the second messenger arrived at the palace?’

‘Less than an hour,’ said Felix. ‘His horse foundered and he had to change for a new one ten miles south of Rome. I was close enough to see him, but I dared not risk an attack when so many of the Guard hemmed him in. If I had been caught…’

‘There was no one to give you a fast death. Well done. You did the right thing.’

In many ways, Felix was still a child. He drank in his hero’s praise like a starving hound whelp, and repaid it with that same hound’s devotion.

Pantera’s gaze sought me out. ‘Felix can speak his message to Vitellius, but he’ll need a written reply for Lucius. Can you write for us again?’

At other times I might have bridled at the brusqueness of that, but Domitian was watching me and he needed to know I was more than a whore, however costly.

I shrugged easily. ‘Have you pen and ink and a seal?’

‘They’re in the place I last slept. Marcus can get them.’

One of the many Marcuses retrieved from their hidden place paper of imperial weight and ink of imperial standard, a pen, a knife, thread, wax and a seal that was identical in all ways to the imperial seal but that it was wrought on an iron thumb-ring, and not a cylinder of gold.

To Pantera’s dictation, therefore, I wrote, Brother, please accept our congratulations on your outstanding victory. We expected nothing less. We have word that Mucianus plans to make use of the mild weather to attempt an assault on the south using the port at Misene to gain entry and so encircle Rome. It is imperative that he is stopped. We require you to hold that port against any possible landings until we send word to return. Aulus Vitellius.

The paper was sanded, sealed and stitched. I said, ‘Don’t we need one to replace the one you’ve just opened? If Vitellius is expecting two…’

‘But Felix has the ring, don’t you, Felix?’

The boy flushed with joy and chagrin mixed. ‘How did you-’

‘You’ve been keeping your left hand behind your back since you walked in. So it holds something of value that fits only in a hand. And you are intelligent enough to have thought ahead. May we see?’

Shyly, Felix opened the hand that he had held shut all along. On it lay a ring of a wealth and ornament such as only an emperor might wear. Or his brother.

‘Your story?’

Felix might have been a youth who delighted in killing, but he was far from stupid. Promptly, he said, ‘I came upon the messenger after he had been left for dead by armed men in Vespasian’s colours. He begged me to bring his message to the emperor. I am to say that Tarracina is taken, and that now Lucius has heard of a pocket of resistance at Misene and, counting on his brother’s permission, has taken his victorious army to deal with it.’

‘Good. Do you have the pass-phrase?’

‘A brother’s love is unsurpassed.’

‘How many others did he give you before that?’ Pantera asked.

Domitian’s eyes flew wide. He had understood that Felix was a killer, but had imagined a cut throat, done swiftly, not the length of a death that would have drawn from a loyal man this kind of secret.

Felix said, ‘He tried two others, but this one is real. I will bet my life on it.’

‘You’re about to. You know where the horses are.’ Pantera slid the message I had written into Felix’ pack. ‘They may send you south with a reply to your message; if they do, be sure to give this one of ours to Lucius in its place. If they send someone else, he must be stopped. Can you handle a bow?’

‘Well enough.’

‘ Good. Diogenes, who feeds the horses, has one in safe keeping. Tell him the Leopard asks that his weapon be liberated. He will give it to you then. Stay safe.’

Felix grinned. ‘Trust me, life is too interesting. I don’t intend to throw it away.’