Fire and Sword. Harry Sidebottom

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СКАЧАТЬ flocks stood next to a solitary, large hut. Built out of logs, with a steep-pitched roof against the snows of winter, it promised no privacy, and little comfort.

      Inside there was just a single, smoky room, the kitchen occupying one end. The landlord, in the high-belted leather apron of his profession, showed them to the middle of the communal table. His demeanour evinced no surprise at the arrival of four soldiers escorting a chained prisoner in this remoteness. He and the guide spoke in some unintelligible dialect.

      Interrupting in loud army Latin, the heavily bearded legionary demanded wine and food: the best on offer, or the old man would regret it. Let him have no thoughts of holding anything back, or cheating them. With a strange look on his face – it might have been avarice – the landlord moved to do their bidding, grunting instructions at two slatternly slave girls by the fire.

      The four soldiers eyed the girls. As the slaves moved to prepare the food, it was obvious they wore nothing under their stained tunics. The drink would provoke the lechery of the soldiers, and later, all bedded down together like animals, sleep would be hard to find.

      Tired and disgusted, Timesitheus looked away. Six shepherds sat at the far end of the table from the fire. When the newcomers had arrived, they had stopped talking. Now they resumed, a low murmur in the uncouth tongue employed by the innkeeper. Like all of their wandering kind, they were armed, and exhibited an air of suspicious watchfulness. By the one door, a lone traveller, a bulky man wrapped in a cloak, and with a broad-brimmed hat pulled down over his face, was asleep on a mattress of straw. The room was bare of all ornaments, with the odd exception of a single large red boot placed on the ledge over the fire.

      Lacking any distraction, Timesitheus found his gaze resting on one of the slave girls. As she stirred the pot, her buttocks shifted under the thin stuff of her tunic. An image of Tranquillina came into Timesitheus’ mind. She was naked, laughing, in the private baths at Ephesus. Her hair and eyes so very black; her skin marble white. The lamps were all lit. After her wedding night, no respectable Roman wife would allow such a thing. Tranquillina was ever bold, untroubled by convention, in the intimacies of the bedroom, as in the round of public life. It was something Timesitheus loved, yet almost feared, about her.

      How would she hear of his arrest? Who would break the news to her? Would she learn nothing until after his execution? She would take the news bravely. The thought brought him no comfort. He had never deceived himself that she had married him for love. The daughter of a decayed senatorial house, she had wed a rising equestrian officer for advantage, plain and simple. Yet they had enjoyed each other’s company. He hoped that over the years he had inspired more than an iota of affection.

      Timesitheus thought of their daughter. Sabinia would be eleven in the autumn. A beautiful, trusting girl, she showed no signs yet of her mother’s wilful independence. What would she do without a father? But, of course, Tranquillina would marry again. She was still young, still in her twenties. Her aspirations would not die with him. The prescribed months of mourning, and another man would enjoy the pleasures of her company, of her bed, be driven by the spur of her ambition. Timesitheus hoped – he would have prayed, had there been gods to hear – that Sabinia’s stepfather would treat her with kindness.

      The girls brought over the food and drink. Sure enough, as they served, the soldiers pawed them, made crude comments. The girls exhibited a resignation, and a contempt for externals, that would have been envied by a Stoic sage.

      Timesitheus tried to cut some mutton. It was difficult with one hand. He had no appetite anyway. His hand throbbed. It was strange that he could still feel the severed finger. It hurt terribly. He felt light-headed and sick.

      The boot over the fire caught his eye. It stirred some deep memory, but, exhausted and in pain, he could not bring it into focus.

      How long before they reached Maximinus? The Thracian had condemned him to death even before he killed Domitius. What would Maximinus do to him now? There were awful rumours of the Palace cellars. The rack, the pincers, the claws, wielded by men with ghastly expertise, men lacking any compassion. As there was no likelihood of escape, Timesitheus should seek to take his own life before they arrived. It would not be easy, but what was it the philosophers said? The road to freedom could be found in any vein in your body.

      The door opened, and a well-built man in a hooded cloak entered. The garment was expensive, pinned by a gold brooch in the shape of a raven. Garnets were set in the gold. The man’s face was obscured by the hood.

      The soldiers regarded the newcomer with hostility. He ignored them, walked to the fire, said something in dialect to the room at large.

      The landlord picked up a poker. He took a couple of steps to the middle of the table, and brought it down on the nearest soldier’s head.

      Schooled in violence, the remaining three soldiers reacted fast, scrambling to their feet, drawing their weapons.

      The stranger was by the innkeeper, a blade in his hand. At the far end of the table, the shepherds were up, swords out. The big man who had been sleeping was blocking the doorway, dropped into a crouch learnt in the arena.

      ‘Put down your weapons.’ The stranger’s tone was calm, educated.

      ‘Fuck you!’ Obdurate to the end, the bearded legionary glared around, searching for any improbable line of escape.

      ‘Death comes to us all,’ the stranger said.

      The legionary spun around towards Timesitheus. ‘One step, and the Graeculus dies.’

      Timesitheus threw himself backwards off the bench. He rolled, landed on his feet. The legionary surged at him. Timesitheus swung the chain that held his wrists. A rasp of steel and the thrust was deflected. The stranger stepped forward, and drove his blade into the soldier’s back. The legionary looked uncomprehending at the tip of the sword emerging from his chest. He crumpled, and fell.

      The last two soldiers were on the floor, the shepherds finishing them off.

      The room was splattered in blood. It reeked like a slaughterhouse.

      The stranger pushed back his hood.

      Timesitheus recognized Corvinus.

      ‘You look surprised.’ Corvinus smiled. ‘I thought Maximinus’ boot would have given you warning.’

      Timesitheus could think of nothing to say.

      ‘I am sorry you lost your finger,’ Corvinus said.

      ‘It is of little consequence. It was not my wife’s favourite.’ Timesitheus had always recovered fast. ‘How?’

      ‘No one travels the mountains without me knowing. Your gladiator found me.’

      The hat discarded in the doorway, Narcissus approached, grinning, like a big, dangerous dog expecting a reward.

      Timesitheus told the gladiator to find something to remove his manacles, then addressed Corvinus.

      ‘You kept your word. Your loyalty to the Gordiani will be rewarded.’

      ‘They are both dead.’

      Now Timesitheus was adrift. If the Gordiani were dead, everything was changed. ‘Then why?’

      Corvinus was cleaning his blade. ‘You promised me a wife from the imperial house. I intend to marry Iunia Fadilla.’

      ‘Maximus’ СКАЧАТЬ