The Wolves of the North

XV

A Sarmatian driver answering a nocturnal call of nature had found the body. It lay outside the line of wagons, but not so far as where the sentries patrolled out in the dark. No attempt had been made to conceal it.

In the grey light before true dawn, there was no time to lose. Torches fizzed and spluttered. The oxen were put under the yokes, the laager broken, the two lines of wagons arranged, the scouts sent out. While all that was going on, men — subdued by the time of morning, the news of the body, and their own fears for the coming day — took what breakfast they could. Out where the corpse had been found, the two slaves owned by the auxiliaries dug a shallow grave.

Ballista and three others paused to inspect the remains of Narcissus. The light was gathering.

‘Throat cut and strangled, very thorough,’ Maximus said.

‘Strangled, then throat cut,’ Ballista amended. ‘No point in strangling someone if you have already cut their throat.’

‘What would be the point the other way around?’

‘Make sure he was dead, not just unconscious, or’ — Ballista pointed to the dried blood in Narcissus’s hair — ‘so that you had a blade to wipe the blood on the victim’s head: “On his own head be it.”’

‘And you say the Greeks and Romans think that this might stop the dead man coming for revenge?’ Maximus spoke in tones of incredulity at the childlike beliefs of the southerners.

‘Poor Narcissus,’ Hippothous said. ‘He served me well.’

‘Although, surely he was getting a bit long in the tooth for your tastes,’ Castricius said. ‘I thought your sort liked them young: downy cheeks, tight arses and such like.’

Hippothous did not react. ‘I had promised him his freedom after the way he behaved when the Alani attacked. He was braver than you would expect from a slave secretary.’

‘You should know,’ Castricius said.

Hippothous half turned, hand going to hilt. ‘What do you mean?’

Castricius grinned, his face all wrinkled amusement, not all of it false. ‘Nothing deep. He was your slave. You were there. You should know.’

A high calling came from the front of the caravan; a high yip-yipping that was picked up by the other Heruli outriders. The wagon train was ready to move.

Ballista relaxed. They would not come to blows.

Maximus appeared oblivious, captivated by the flight of a bird far out over the Steppe. Ballista knew it was a pose.

‘Time to go,’ Ballista said. ‘That will have to do.’

The two military slaves climbed up out of the grave. They had already removed Narcissus’s boots, belt and purse. Now one of them removed a small coin from the purse and placed it into the dead slave’s mouth. They offered the rest of the possessions to Hippothous. He told them to keep them. The slaves thanked Hippothous, then, with no ceremony, rolled the body of Narcissus into the hole, and started shovelling back the earth. It might be enough to keep off animals.

Ballista took the first watch as outrider to the north-west. Two of the Heruli always rode on the more likely approaches of the Alani to the south. The nomads knew the Steppe, knew how to recognize the signs. After four hours, Maximus cantered out to relieve him. Ballista had seen several vultures, a flock of crows, and some big mice, which scuttled away into holes. Away from the wagons, the grass sang and occasionally an invisible bird of prey screamed. With the blatant exception of the caravan, and some distant burial mounds, the sea of grass was devoid of human trace.

His watch over, Ballista went and hitched his horse to the wagon, unsaddled it, and clambered inside to be with Calgacus. The old Caledonian looked stronger, but his temper was no better than ever.

‘You know this is the twentieth day since we left the Tanais river,’ Ballista said.

Calgacus grunted.

‘By my reckoning, it is two days before the ides of June.’

‘Not rained for days, getting hotter; fuck me, it could be summer,’ Calgacus muttered.

‘I got married in June. You remember?’

Calgacus gazed balefully at him.

‘I was told by Julia’s family it was unlucky to marry before the ides of June. Not until the Tiber has carried the filth from the temple of Vesta down to the sea — that was what they said. Except they expressed it in Latin verse, very sonorous. It took me months to find out it was Ovid.’

Still, Calgacus did not reply.

‘Marriage is not for everyone. I miss the boys. Do you want to talk about Rebecca?’

‘No.’

‘It is your choice.’ Ballista nodded. ‘Did you know the wife of the Roman priest they call the Flamen Dialis will not touch him until after the ides of June?’

‘I could not give a fuck,’ Calgacus said.

‘No, nor could I,’ Ballista said.

‘You have that look on you.’ Calgacus peered myopically. ‘What did you really want to talk about?’

‘Rebecca.’

‘Apart from her.’

Ballista smiled gently at his old friend. ‘You remember back in Arete, the messenger from the Subura on the staff; the one who took a Persian arrow in the collarbone?’

‘Died slowly,’ Calgacus said. ‘They found the Miles Arcana disc of a frumentarius hidden on his body.’

‘Yes, that one.’

‘And there will be frumentarii on our staff now,’ Calgacus said. ‘There always are. Emperors do not trust people. Gallienus does not trust you. So what?’

Ballista sighed. He did not want Calgacus to dismiss his idea out of hand. It had seemed much more plausible earlier, when riding alone. He decided to come at it obliquely.

‘When we were in Antioch, before the battle of Circesium, I read a lot of a Greek writer called Lucian.’ Ballista smiled. ‘I was reading his satire The Dance just before I was attacked by those assassins wearing pantomime masks — odd coincidence.’

‘Pretentious fucker,’ Calgacus muttered, perfectly audibly.

‘One of the satires is set out here on the Steppe; well, some of it.’

Calgacus let his breath hiss through his teeth.

‘There is a Scythian,’ Ballista said. ‘A blood-friend of his is insulted by the King of Bosporus when he asks to marry one of the king’s daughters. So the Scythian says he will bring his friend the head of the king.’

‘Bollocks,’ Calgacus snorted.

‘So the Scythian,’ Ballista ploughed on, ‘got himself sent on an embassy to the Bosporus. They dealt with normal things: the payment of tribute by the king, grazing rights, the punishment of criminals. The Scythian said he had some private business to discuss with the king.’

‘Utter fucking Greek nonsense.’ Calgacus was not being carried along.

‘Anyway’ — Ballista realized he would have to end the story quickly — ‘the Scythian persuaded the king to go into a temple with him on his own…’

‘Stupid fucker.’

‘… and they locked the door behind them.’

‘Of course they did.’

‘When the Scythian came out, he had something under his cloak, but he called back into the temple that he would return in a moment.’

‘And,’ Calgacus interrupted, ‘he jumped on his horse, and took the king’s head back to his friend.’

‘Yes,’ Ballista said.

Calgacus wheezed his amusement. ‘I thought you hated Greek novels.’

‘I did not say I believed the story. It is more that it points to a — ’

‘A way of doing things.’ Calgacus finished the sentence for him.

Ballista nodded.

‘You did not have to retreat into the fiction of the Graeculi.’ Calgacus turned his domed head towards Ballista; suffering had not improved his looks. ‘Not that long before our time — when things were just threatening to go bad for the Romans — the emperor Septimius Severus wanted rid of the man he had appointed Caesar. He sent five envoys to Albinus in Gaul. They asked to speak to Albinus alone. The Caesar was suspicious, and had them arrested. Concealed knives were found. Under torture, they confessed they were frumentarii with orders to kill him.’

‘How did you know that?’ Ballista asked.

‘I have been in the imperium of the Romans as long as you. I just do not parade my knowledge like you.’

Ballista accepted the rebuke with a smile.

‘You think it may be we are being used as a screen for a frumentarius to get close to Naulobates and assassinate him,’ Calgacus said.

‘Yes.’

‘And this frumentarius is getting his hand in early.’

Put like that, Ballista thought it sounded particularly unconvincing. ‘Some men develop an unhealthy taste for killing.’

‘You were out riding in the sun too long. The killer is just an insane individual.’

‘ Just an insane individual?’ Ballista said. ‘He has murdered at least three, if not four or five.’

‘Two slaves and a eunuch, that we know; maybe another couple of slaves — none of them fighting men. He poses little threat to the likes of us.’

Ballista laughed. ‘You are getting better; more like your old, heartless self. In no time you will be back to bothering the baggage animals.’

Calgacus told his patronus to fuck himself.

They sat in silence, having to cling on in the jolting, rocking wagon. It was all very amicable.

‘ Atheling.’ Wulfstan came in. ‘There is a cross up ahead.’

Ballista went to look. There was a cross, a simple ‘T’ shape, planted on top of a tall burial mound. Even at a distance, it was obvious there was a man on the cross.

Ballista had to put the saddle back on his horse. By the time he reached the tumulus, there were several riders at its foot. They parted to let him through. On the cross was the missing centurion Hordeonius.

Dismounting, Ballista automatically hobbled his horse. He walked up the steep, grassy slope. The wind sang in his ears. You could see for miles from the top. The plain shimmered in the sunshine.

The centurion was nailed to the crossbeam through the forearms. His ankles were nailed to the sides of the upright. His body was twisted, head hanging forward. He was naked, and his legs had been broken, their position grotesque. All over his body were small cuts. Below the body, the wood of the cross was stained with his blood and filth.

Ballista had not liked Hordeonius, but it was a slow and horrible way for anyone to die.

A horrible way to choose to die. For nine days, the Allfather had hung on the tree of life, pierced by the spear. No one had comforted him. No man had offered him a drink. Thus he had won the wisdom of the dead. He had died and risen again: an offering of himself to himself. Ballista did not know how long the god of the Christians had lasted.

The wind moved the centurion’s hair.

Behind Ballista, someone spoke of getting Hordeonius down.

‘No’ — Andonnoballus’s voice was hard — ‘he stays up there. The Alani crucified him here not just to terrify but to delay us. We keep moving. They will be close.’

The centurion’s head moved. His eyes opened.

‘Gods below, he is alive!’

There was a babble of voices. Men were scrambling off their horses, starting up the slope.

The arrow missed Ballista by a palm’s breadth. It thumped into Hordeonius’s chest.

Andonnoballus was holding his bow. He was still mounted.

There was silence, apart from the wind in the grass.

‘He would not have lived,’ said Andonnoballus.