Rosemary Rowe - Requiem for a Slave

The mention of speculatores brought a sudden hush. The very name was feared throughout the Empire. The speculatores had begun as simply mounted scouts, but under successive emperors their powers had evolved, and now they were known not merely as paid spies, but as ruthless killers of imperial enemies. And, as Virilis himself had warned us earlier, Commodus saw plots and treason everywhere.

‘Dear Mars!’ said Junio, turning almost white. ‘You think he might have been? One of the emperor’s infamous elite — the mounted spies and assassination squad?’

‘Not a speculator yet, I think,’ I said at last, ‘but aiming to prove that he is equal to the task. And doubtless Quintus promised him support.’

‘Quintus Severus? The chief decurion?’ Radixrapum’s brother said in a voice that was suddenly squeaky with anxiety. ‘You don’t think he’s involved?’

‘Who else was giving Virilis orders in the town? Of course, it did not seem remarkable — as you say, he is decurion. He must have known Quintus from visits earlier — we know he’s carried previous messages.’

‘But how could Quintus have organized the killings?’ Junio said. ‘Besides, he turned up at your workshop the day that Lucius died — he wouldn’t have done that if he’d tried to have you murdered not very long before.’

‘On the contrary,’ I said, ‘that is exactly why he came, and how he knew that the first attempt had failed. He had intended to come across my corpse, in front of witnesses — it was designed to look like random violent robbery, of course — and no doubt he would have set up a hue and cry and offered a reward for anyone who could find my murderer. I might even have been given a splendid funeral. No wonder he was startled to find me at my door. I thought he looked astonished at the time.’

‘And what about the pavement for the basilica?’ Junio said.

‘He never intended to commission that at all. It was merely an excuse for him to come to me — I should have been suspicious that he agreed to it. You were, I remember.’

Junio looked pleased. ‘When he found you were alive, he had to cancel it, I suppose. And hurry back to Virilis to point out the mistake. He must have been beside himself with curiosity when you told him there was a corpse inside the shop — and he knew it wasn’t you! And what about the-’

I raised my hand to silence him. ‘Not now, Junio. We’ve talked for long enough. These gentlemen are ready to get the body home, and we must start the chase for Virilis. Of course, he will not know that we are on his tail, but all the same we must catch up with him tonight, or Marcus is in danger.’

‘Marcus?’ the three men said in unison. Radixrapum’s relatives had picked up the bier, but they put it down again, exchanging startled looks.

Junio was horrified, and said, rather tactlessly, ‘But I thought you said the danger was to you! Marcus is a wealthy, powerful man, supposed to be related to the Emperor himself. Surely no one is going to try to murder him?’

‘But that must be exactly what this is all about,’ I said patiently. ‘Quintus wouldn’t bother to have someone strangle me for my own sake alone — I am not important. It is Marcus, and my contact with him, that is seen as dangerous. And I’m beginning to see why. As soon as my patron is safely home again, he’ll make it clear which candidate it was that he endorsed — and it won’t be Gaius Greybeard, I’m quite convinced of that. But I can’t stay any longer. We are wasting time, and Virilis is getting further from us every minute that we lose. Come with me to the garrison to find the commandant, and I’ll answer any other questions on the way.’

Junio and I allowed the turnip-seller’s family to remove the bier — it would have been unthinkable to push in front of it — and immediately afterwards we set off ourselves, leaving the workshop in the care of Maximus.

The slave-boy had been waiting outside the workshop door and was desolated now at being left behind, but there was no time to explain. I would simply have to tell him later what this was all about. I said as much to him.

He nodded glumly. ‘Master, I am at your command.’ And then, as if he could not help the words, ‘But if there’s any news of Minimus, you will send word to me?’

‘I will,’ I promised with a heavy heart, though I’d begun to fear that Minimus might, after all, be dead. Virilis was too cool a murderer to hold his hand, if my slave had proved to be a threat to him.

Junio must have read my feelings in my face, because as soon as we rounded the corner and were out of sight, he turned to me. ‘What is it, father? Something is amiss. Are you still worried about Minimus? I thought that we were fairly certain he was safe, even if he is a prisoner somewhere. And if you can prove what you’ve been saying, it should not be hard to get him freed. He was only arrested at Quintus’s behest.’ He paused, partly to cross the wider road, which after the recent rain was very sticky here, so that we had to pick our way across it on the granite stepping blocks, carefully positioned an axle-width apart.

When we reached the further pavement and were side by side again, he went on. ‘But, I suppose, they claim to have that purse and you don’t have any actual evidence of who the killer was. And Glypto, who might have been a witness, has been silenced now. And you can’t prove who killed him either.’

‘If they catch up with Virilis tonight, I think there will be circumstantial evidence at least,’ I told him grimly. ‘He won’t have had the opportunity to change his clothes, and I’m certain that there will be spots of Glypto’s blood on him — and on the dagger-hilt, though he will have wiped the blade. No doubt he’ll tell some story at the military inn — fighting off a bear or something — to account for it. That’s where strangling is so much easier.’

I was hurrying onwards as I said this, and Junio had to scurry to keep up with me. ‘But, Father, surely, if you’re right, the cursor won’t have left the town? He’s made two attempts to kill you and not succeeded yet. You would expect him to try again.’

‘He has done, Junio. Don’t you realize that? Twice today he has come to look for me — once when we were walking into town and later at the workshop. Looking back, we should have seen that it was strange. It is rare to see horsemen on that stretch of lane — I thought so at the time. Even a skilled rider like Virilis would avoid it if he could.’ A sudden thought struck me, and I almost laughed. ‘I suppose that’s why Hyperius was suddenly so keen that I should ride back to Glevum in his company. I imagine that Virilis put him up to it — it would have been much easier to attack me then.’

Junio nodded. ‘But he did not attack you when he passed you in the woods.’

‘There were three of us,’ I reminded him. ‘That’s what saved my life. And the same thing at the shop, though Virilis probably thought that he would find me on my own. Doubtless he discovered that we’d parted company when we first arrived in Glevum. Quintus saw me in the street with no attendant at my side — I met him when he was on his way to oversee the vote, and we know that he’d been talking to Virilis since then. The cursor had just come from the curia when he called on me, and the decurion had given him a letter under seal. He told me so himself. And that’s another thing which I should have questioned at the time! Why should Quintus suddenly send him to enquire whether I had a message for Marcus Septimus? Of course, he did not do anything of the kind — it was just a ruse of Virilis’s, made up on the spot.’

Junio nodded his agreement. ‘Considering the outcome of the ordo vote, you’d think, if anything, Quintus would try to prevent you from sending word. Though, of course, you hadn’t heard the news about Gaius Greybeard then. I do see what you mean. It does seem Virilis expected to find you on your own, but it’s hard to believe that he meant to strangle you. He was so charming. He gave no hint of it.’