The Legatus Mystery

Chapter Twenty

There was an audible gasp from everyone. Marcus and the high priest started to their feet. ‘Dear gods!’

Hirsus gave a little moan of terror. ‘It’s true. That is what I came to tell you. Oh, merciful Apollo. .!’

Marcus rounded on him. ‘This is what you came to tell us?’

Hirsus nodded.

‘Then,’ Marcus said dangerously, ‘perhaps you had better do that — since the high priest is not permitted to look upon a corpse. In fact, considering the danger from the mob, perhaps we none of us should go back into the temple precinct without the protection of the guard. Junio, go and summon them. Here!’ He slipped his seal-ring off and gave it to my slave. ‘Show this to the commandant. Tell him to send a dozen men — on my authority. Go!’

Junio looked reluctant (he knew that if there was trouble I’d prefer to have him at my side) but there was no arguing with Marcus. He made off obediently in the direction of the street door, and a moment later I heard the ring of his running sandals on the paving stones.

Marcus and the high priest resumed their seats, and my patron turned to Hirsus. ‘And you,’ he barked out, ‘tell us what you know. Quickly too! Before we call on someone to help you find your tongue.’

If I had been the hapless little priest, already too petrified to speak, that extra threat would have been enough to deprive me of utterance for ever. However, he licked his lips and managed painfully, ‘In front of the altar. . I went in. . lying there with blood all over him. . I. .’

He stopped, and glanced at me again.

My patron was looking seriously displeased. ‘Go on,’ he said icily to the priest. ‘You saw the body lying there. What did you do?’

Hirsus shrugged helplessly. ‘I. . nothing. . Meritus and Scribonius came. I was. . they didn’t. . they sent me to tell you.’

The pontifex had been leaning forward intently, watching and listening to all this. A spot of colour had crept into his ashen cheeks. ‘Speak up, man!’ His rustling voice was hardly audible itself. ‘A body, do you say? Was this before or after this noise they tell me about?’

Hirsus turned to him gratefully. ‘Oh, after, after, Sacredness! That was why I went into the shrine at all. Meritus sent me in to light the censers. Scribonius said it should be done from the sacred fire — there’s been one burning on the inner altar ever since it was cleansed.’ He glanced at me. For a moment his indignation got the better of his fear. ‘After this citizen had paid his visit there, and desecrated it again,’ he finished bitterly.

Marcus glanced at me. ‘Have you anything to say to that, Libertus?’

‘I have a question, with your permission, Excellence,’ I said.

Marcus nodded though the old priest looked displeased.

I turned to Hirsus. ‘The body. Did you recognise the man?’

He made a helpless little gesture with his hands. ‘I could not see the face.’

‘So it could be the same body as before?’ Marcus had seen what I was thinking. ‘How is the dead man dressed? As a legate?’

‘Or a messenger?’ I said, and saw the high priest pale. There had been another messenger today. If it was his body lying at the shrine, then all our fears about reprisals in the city could be multiplied a hundredfold.

Marcus looked sharply at the sub-sevir. ‘Well, tell us, man. Is there a seal? A ring?’

Hirsus shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Excellence. I couldn’t see. There seemed to be a cape. . a hood. . pulled over him. He is just lying there. Face down. And all this blood. .’ He broke off, shuddering.

‘You’re sure it is a man?’ I put in. It was perverse. A few moments ago, when I had expected to be sent back to that accursed shrine, I had been afraid to go: but now that Marcus had decided otherwise, I was suddenly anxious to see this for myself.

This time Hirsus answered readily enough. ‘A man? I thought it was. How could it be otherwise? There, in the inner temple? Women don’t come in. I thought at first it was a penitent, one of the supplicants who sometimes come. In fact, I almost thought. .’ He met my eyes a moment and then quickly looked away as if I might bewitch him by my glance. ‘I’m almost sure it was a man.’

‘And he was bleeding? Did you see a knife?’

He paled again. ‘No knife. Just blood. From head to toe. He looked like. . like. .’ he shook his head, like a man trying to wake himself from a dreadful dream, ‘some sort of sacrifice.’

‘Did you touch the body?’

From Hirsus’s look of horror, I might as well have suggested that perhaps he could have kissed a venomous snake. ‘I did not, citizen. And if you had seen it lying there, in all that blood — after what’s been going on in the temple these few days — neither would you have done.’ He paused. ‘Anyway,’ he muttered sulkily, ‘if any other strange manifestations occurred we were to fetch the senior priests, and not to go near anything ourselves.’

‘What’s that?’ The high priest’s voice was sharp.

Hirsus repeated what he had said — a little more loudly this time. ‘On your strict instructions, Pontifex. Meritus told us yesterday.’

Marcus looked enquiringly at the high priest. ‘And is this so?’

The old man had been looking vague, but he brightened visibly. ‘Indeed, indeed, I did give the command. Dear me. A necessary precaution, we thought, Excellence. A matter for experienced celebrants. Of course, we could not guess then that a body would be found, but we thought it probable that something would occur. And I’m sure the principle was sound enough. If the gods are already angry, we decided, we should not add to it by interfering in their acts with unhallowed hands.’ He nodded his white-capped head at me.

My hands, he obviously meant, but Marcus chose to ignore the implication. He turned back to Hirsus. ‘So you found the body and went for help? Tell me, how did you come to discover it, exactly?’

‘Your pardon, Excellence, I thought you understood. We were in the robing room, preparing — there is to be a procession, as you know — when Meritus came in saying that, after that dreadful moaning sound, he wanted both the censers lit and carried with the images. Scribonius agreed. He said they should be lighted from the sacred fire, and I was supposed to be the duty priest today. So I was sent. It is beginning to get dark as you will have noticed, gentlemen, so I lit a taper from the brazier, and went over to the shrine.’ He had forgotten his nervousness by now — or rather it had made him garrulous, because he went on without a pause for breath. ‘It was very dark inside the shrine, only the light of the embers on the altar, and I didn’t notice that there was something pale glimmering at its foot. I almost fell over it. But as soon as I lifted my taper over it, I could see exactly what it was.’

He gulped again, but no one said a word. We were all imagining, too clearly, what had met his eyes.

‘Right in front of the altar, Excellences, where all the signs and omens occurred before. Stretched out full-length like a kind of sacrifice. And that bloodstain seeping over it. It was hard to believe it was a human form — just a package of something soft and warm and wet-’

‘You did touch it!’ I could not help myself. I interrupted him.

Hirsus shook his head.

‘You must have done,’ my patron said, with a triumphant look at me. ‘Otherwise how could you know that it was warm?’

Hirsus shook his head again. He looked genuinely bewildered. ‘Believe me, gentlemen, by all the gods! I would not have dared. And nor did Meritus or Scribonius when they came. We simply closed the shrine and sent for you. But. . I don’t know. I suppose I know what blood is like — I’ve seen it shed at sacrifice often enough — and this was new blood, freshly spilt. Great Mercury!’ He swallowed hard. His pale face had taken on a greyish hue and his voice choked as though the memory had made him nauseous. ‘It glistened in the taper-light. . bright red. . and had a warm smell, if you understand. .’

Strangely enough, I thought I did, though Marcus was looking dubious.

‘Excellence,’ I said urgently, ‘I think he’s telling us the truth. And if he’s right, that is significant. If that blood is warm and wet there is a chance the man is not yet dead.’

Marcus and the high priest stared at me.

Hirsus gave a little sob. ‘No man could lose that quantity of blood and live. Citizen, he was completely drenched in it.’

‘All the same,’ I said. ‘I think that we should go to the temple now. Immediately. Without waiting for the guards. Suppose it is the legate’s messenger? Bad enough that he should be attacked. Do you wish to have it said you left him there to bleed to death, with no one coming to his aid?’

If I had suggested that Jupiter himself was liable to descend at any moment, I could not have caused more of a sensation. Everyone leapt to their feet at once, and began their own manifestations of panic.

Aurelia started crying out aloud, ‘We shall be ruined!’ and tearing at her hair.

Her husband shuffled to the household shrine, pulled up his hood and began muttering incantations to himself — though, if he was hoping to avert evil influence, it seemed to me he’d left it rather late.

Marcus said nothing, but he had that tight-lipped look I knew. It meant that he was planning something. Usually something uncomfortable, involving me.

I was right. He tapped his baton on his thigh and gave me his most patronly smile. ‘I suppose that you are right as usual, my friend. If there is any chance of what you suggest, there’s no time to be lost. We shall simply have to brave the mob, and hope they haven’t broken through the gates. The high priest cannot go, of course, in case the man is dead and he finds himself looking on a corpse. Nor me, for the moment, I’m afraid. I must consult with him and plan what can be done. We can hardly go ahead with the procession if there is a body in the shrine. You go with Hirsus and assess the situation. I will have the slaves bring torches, and I won’t be far behind.’

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. When I had urged this I had envisaged a large party, with plenty of illumination and a dozen slaves. I’d never thought of going back there alone.

Bad enough that the mob was after me, but to walk through the temple precinct in the dark! A temple where strange happenings had occurred for days. All those shadowy statues and stone gods. Bloodstained altars and a chilling shrine where, at best, a bloodstained horror awaited me! At worst — I didn’t dare to think of it. Compared to this, being a self-flagellant in a procession seemed almost desirable.

Hirsus seemed no more keen than I was. ‘Excellence,’ he wailed. ‘I’m sure the man was dead. And how could it be a messenger? The temple grounds have been sealed off all day. Besides, if Libertus is ill-omened and we take him to the shrine. . Forgive me. . Oh, blessed Mercury, we shall all be doomed!’

But it was too late. Marcus frowned, and tapped his baton on his palm impatiently. ‘You heard me, sub-sevir.’

I had brought this on myself. Marcus had given his command, and there was no help for it.

Which is how I came to find myself walking alone with Hirsus, through the inner gate into the darkness of the temple grounds.