The Field Of Swords

CHAPTER 35

Brutus had shed his cloak for the last stage of the ride south to Rome. Though the air was still sharp, it had nothing like the bite of Gaul and the exertion of riding kept him warm. His original mount had been left far behind at the first legion post on the Via Flaminia. He had paid to have the gelding looked after and would collect the horse as his final change on his return. The system had allowed him a remount every thirty miles, and he had made the journey in only seven days.

After his first joy at walking through the city gate, everything had soured as soon as he took in his surroundings. Rome looked the same in many ways, but his soldier’s instincts had brought an immediate prickling alarm. Alexandria’s letters should have prepared him for the changes, but she had not managed to convey the sense of raw panic that hung in the air. Half the men he passed were armed in some way or another. It was something a trained eye could spot at a glance. They walked differently with a concealed blade and Brutus could feel a tension he had never before experienced on the streets of his home. No one lingered or talked on street corners. It was almost a city under siege and unconsciously he copied the crowds as he hurried to Alexandria’s shop.

He knew a moment of fear when he found it boarded up and empty. Passersby heard him calling, but not one of them dared to meet his eyes. Even the beggars were missing from the streets and Brutus stood still as he considered the implications. The city was terrified. He had seen it before amongst those who knew a war was coming.

Even knocking on the doors of the other shops in the road was worrying. The owners looked sick with nervousness at the sight of him, and three of them only stared blankly as he tried to ask where Tabbic had gone. The fourth was a butcher who held a heavy cleaver defensively the whole time Brutus was in his shop. The iron blade seemed to give him a confidence the others lacked, and he directed Brutus to an area many streets away. Brutus left him still holding the weapon.

Out in the road, the feeling intensified again. When he had been in Greece, the veterans talked of an “itch” that told them trouble was coming. Brutus felt it tickle him as he marched through the thin crowds.

By the time he reached the address, he was almost certain he should get Alexandria out of the city before it exploded. Whatever was coming, he did not want her in the middle of it.

The new shop was much larger and occupied two full floors of a well-kept tenement. Brutus raised his hand to knock and saw the door was open. He narrowed his eyes then and drew his gladius silently. He’d rather look a fool than go unprepared into a dangerous situation, and by that point he was jumping at shadows.

The interior was five times the size of the little shop Tabbic had owned before. Brutus edged inside, his gaze fastening on the figures at the far end. Alexandria and Tabbic were there, with two other men. Facing them were four others, of a type he had seen too often in the streets outside. None of them had seen him and Brutus forced himself to walk slowly toward the group, passing the huge new forge that lurked against the wall and threw heat at him as he passed. Its crackle hid the slight noise of his sandals on the stone floor, and he was very close when one of the men stepped forward and pushed Alexandria down.

With a shout, Brutus raced forward and the four men spun to face him. Two carried knives and two had swords like his own, but he did not pause in his rush. Alexandria shouted wildly at him and only the desperation in her voice made him hold his first blow.

“No, Brutus! Don’t!” she cried.

The men who threatened her were professionals, he saw. They moved aside so as not to be exposed to blades from behind as they faced him. Brutus lowered his sword and stepped into their range as if he had nothing to fear.

“What goes on here?” he demanded, glaring at the man who had pushed her.

“None of your concern, boy,” one of them said, jerking his sword in Brutus’s direction to make him flinch. Brutus regarded him impassively.

“You really haven’t the first idea who you are speaking to, have you?” he said, grinning nastily. His sword tip cut small circles in the air as he held it lazily at his side. The tiny movement seemed to draw the gazes of the other men, but the one who had spoken held his eyes, not daring to look away. There was something terrible in the way Brutus stood so casually before their blades, and his confidence intimidated all of them.

“Who are they, Ria?” Brutus said, without looking at her.

“Collectors for Clodius,” she replied as she stood up. “They are demanding more money than we have.

More than we earn. But you mustn’t kill them.”

Brutus frowned. “Why not? No one would miss them.”

One of the raptores answered him. “Because that pretty girl wouldn’t like what our friends would do to her, boy. So put your sword-”

Brutus cut the man’s throat and stood without expression as he collapsed, watching the others.

Though he was only inches from their blades, not one of them dared to move.

“Anyone else want to make threats?” he said.

They stared wide-eyed at him and they could all hear the ghastly choking sounds coming from the floor.

No one looked down.

“Oh gods, no,” he heard Alexandria whisper.

Brutus ignored her, waiting for one of the men to break the stillness that held them. He had seen Renius intimidate groups before, but there were always fools. He watched as the men shuffled backward away from him until they were out of range of his gladius. Brutus took a sharp step toward them.

“No little taunts now, lads. No calling out as you go. Just leave. I’ll find you if I have to.”

The men exchanged glances, but none of them broke the silence as they walked past the forges to the street door. The last to pass through closed it quietly behind him.

Alexandria was pale with anger and fear.

“That’s it, then,” she said. “You don’t know what you’ve done. They’ll come back with more and burn this place down. Gods, Brutus, did you not hear what I said?”

“I heard, but I’m here now,” he replied, wiping his sword on the cooling body at his feet.

“For how long? We have to live with them when you’ve gone back to your legions, don’t you realize that?”

Brutus felt a flare of anger start in him. He’d had just about enough of being criticized from Julius.

“I should have just watched, then? Yes? I’m not who you think I am if you expect me just to stand there while they threaten you.”

“He’s right, Alexandria,” Tabbic broke in, nodding to Brutus. “There’s no taking it back now, but Clodius won’t just forget us, or you. We’ll have to sleep in the workshop for the next few nights. Will you stay with us?”

Brutus eyed Alexandria. It wasn’t exactly the homecoming he had imagined on his ride south, but then he shrugged.

“Of course. It will save me rent, at least. Now, am I going to get a welcoming kiss or not? Not from you,

Tabbic, obviously.”

“First, get rid of that body,” Alexandria said.

She had begun to shake with reaction and Tabbic placed a kettle on the forge to make her a hot drink.

Brutus sighed and took hold of the corpse by its ankles, dragging it over the stone flags.

When he was out of earshot, Teddus leaned close to Alexandria.

“I’ve never seen anything that fast,” he said.

She looked at him, accepting the cup of hot spiced wine from Tabbic’s hands. “He won Caesar’s tournament; remember it?”

Teddus whistled softly to himself. “The silver armor? I can believe it. I won a bit on him myself. Will you be wanting me to stay tonight? It could be a long one when Clodius finds out about his man.”

“Can you stay?” Alexandria asked.

The old soldier looked away, embarrassed. “Of course I can,” he said gruffly. “I’ll fetch my son as well, with your permission.” He cleared his throat to cover his discomfort. “If they send men for us tonight, we could do with someone up on the roof as a lookout. He’ll be no trouble up there.”

Tabbic looked at the pair of them and nodded as he came to a decision. “I’m going to take my wife and children to her sister’s house for a few days. Then I’ll drop in on the old street and see if I can’t bring a couple of stout lads back for tonight. They might relish the chance to hit back for once, you never know.

Lock the door behind me when I’ve gone.”

Clodius’s men came in force in the dark, with torches to burn the shop to the ground. Teddus’s son clattered down the back stairs to shout a warning, and Brutus swore aloud. He had retrieved his silver armor from the last posting house by the city walls and now fastened the buckles and ties on the chestplate as he readied himself. He looked around at the motley group that had assembled by Tabbic’s forges. The jeweler had brought four young men back from the shops along the old road. They carried good blades, though Brutus doubted they could do much more than hack wildly with them. In the last hour before darkness had fallen, he had taught them the value of a repeated lunge and had them practice until their stiff muscles had loosened. Their eyes shone in the lamplight as they watched the silver-armored warrior stand before them.

“We’ll have to go out and meet them if they’ve come to burn. This place is wood-framed and we’d better have water buckets ready in case they get through. If there are enough of them, it could be… difficult.

Who’s coming?”

The four lads Tabbic had brought raised their new swords in response, and Tabbic nodded. Teddus raised his hand with them, but Brutus shook his head.

“Not you. One more won’t make a difference outside, but if they get past us, someone has to be here for Alexandria. I don’t want her alone.”

Brutus looked at her then and his face tightened with disapproval. She had refused to go with Tabbic’s wife and children, and now he feared for her.

“If they come, Teddus will hold them while you get to the back stairs, all right? His son will guide you down to the alleys and you may get clear. That’s if you are still staying? This is no place for you if they come in a mob. I’ve seen what can happen.”

His warning frightened her, but she raised her chin in defiance. “This shop is mine. I won’t run.”

Brutus glared at her, caught between admiration and anger. He tossed a small dagger at her and watched as she snatched it neatly from the air and checked the blade. Her skin was pale as milk in the gloom.

“If they come past us, you’ll have to,” he said gently. “I don’t want to be worrying about what they’ll do to you.”

Before she could reply, the shouting rose in the street outside and Brutus sighed. He drew his gladius and rolled his neck to loosen the muscles.

“Right then, lads. On your feet. Do what I tell you and you’ll have a memory to cherish. Panic and your mothers wear black. Is that clear?”

Tabbic chuckled and the other men nodded mutely, in awe of the silver general. Without waiting for them, Brutus strode across the echoing floor and flung the door open. Orange flickers reflected in the metal he wore as he went out.

Brutus swallowed dryly as he saw how many men had been sent to make an example of them. The approaching crowd staggered to a stop as he came out and stood before them, his five men forming a single rank at his sides. It was one thing to terrify shop owners in the backstreets, quite another to attack fully armed soldiers. Every man in the crowd recognized the silver armor Brutus wore, and their shouts and laughter died away to nothing. Brutus could hear the crackling of their torches as they watched him, their eyes catching the dim orange light and shining like those of a pack of dogs.

Renius had said once that one strong man could handle a mob, if he took the initiative and kept it. He had also admitted that the most successful bluff could be called when a crowd could hide behind their numbers. No man seriously expected to die when he was surrounded by his friends, and that confidence could lead to a rush against swords that no single one of them would have dared. Brutus hoped they had not been drinking. He took a deep breath.

“This is an unlawful assembly,” Brutus bellowed. “I am the general of the Third Gallica and I tell you to go back to your homes and families. I have bowmen on the roof. Do not shame yourselves attacking old men and women in this place.”

In that moment, he wished Julius were with him. Julius would have found the words to turn them back. No doubt they would have ended up carrying him through the streets and joining a new legion. The thought made Brutus smile despite the tension, and those who saw it hesitated. Some of them squinted up into the darkness, but could see nothing after the flare of the torches. In truth, there was nothing to see. If Brutus had been given another couple of days, he might have found a few good men to put up on the overhanging roof, but as it was, only Teddus’s son watched them and he was unarmed.

A sudden crash made every man jump or swear, and Brutus tensed to be rushed. He saw a tile had been dislodged from the roof, shattering amongst the crowd. No one had been injured, but Brutus saw more faces look up and saw them talk nervously amongst themselves. He wondered if it had been deliberate, or whether the young man would follow the tile shortly afterwards and thump down on the crowd like the clumsy sod he was.

“You should get out of our way!” a man shouted from back in the mass. A growl from the crowd agreed with him.

Brutus sneered. “I’m a soldier of Rome, whoreson!” he bellowed. “I didn’t run from the slaves. I didn’t run from the tribes in Gaul. What have you got that they didn’t have?”

The crowd lacked a leader, Brutus could see. They milled and shoved each other, but there was no one with the authority to force them onto the swords of the men in the road outside the shop.

“I’ll tell you this much,” Brutus called out. “You think you’re protected, lads? When Caesar returns from Gaul, he’ll find every one of the men who made threats against his friends. That is written in stone, lads. Every word of it. Some of you will be taking his pay already. They’ll have lists of names for him and where to find them. Be sure of it. He’ll go through you like a hot knife.”

In the darkness, it was difficult to be sure, but Brutus thought the crowd was thinning as those at the outskirts began to drift away. One of the torches was dropped by its bearer and picked up by another. No matter what hold Clodius had, Julius’s name had been read on every street corner for years and it worked as a talisman on those who could slip into the night, unseen.

In only a short time, Brutus was left facing no more than fifteen men, no doubt the original ones that Clodius had sent to burn them out. None of those could retreat without being dragged from their beds the following morning. Brutus could see their faces shining with sweat as they saw the numbers dwindle around them.

Brutus spoke gently to them, knowing their desperation could be pushed only so far.

“If I were you, lads. I’d get out of the city for a while. Ariminum is quiet enough and there’s always work on the docks for those who don’t mind a bit of sweat.”

The core of men looked back angrily, undecided. It was still too many for Brutus to think he had a chance to win if they attacked. Their blades caught the light of the torches and there was no hint of weakness in the hard expressions they turned to him. He glanced at the men at his side and saw their tension. Only Teddus seemed calm.

“Not a word, lads,” Brutus murmured. “Don’t set anything off now.”

With a snort of disgust, one of the torchbearers threw his brand down onto the street and stalked away.

Two more followed him and the others looked at each other in silent communication. In groups of twos and threes, they walked clear until there were only a few remaining in the street.

“If I were a vengeful man, I would be very tempted to cut you down, right now,” Brutus said to them.

“You can’t stand here all night.”

One of them grimaced. “Clodius won’t let you get away with this, you know. He will raise hell in the morning.”

“Perhaps. I may have a chance to speak to him before he does. He may be reasonable.”

“You don’t know him, do you?” the man said, grinning.

Brutus began to relax. “Are you going to go home, then? It’s too cold to be standing out here.”

The man looked around at the last pair of his companions. “I think I will,” he said. “Was it true what you said?”

“Which part?” Brutus replied, thinking of his nonexistent archers.

“About being a friend of Caesar?”

“We’re like brothers,” Brutus said easily.

“He’s a good man for Rome. Some of us wouldn’t mind seeing him come back. Those with families, at least.”

“Gaul won’t hold him forever,” Brutus replied.

The man nodded and walked away into the dark with his friends.