Rosemary Rowe - Requiem for a Slave

We had almost reached the centre of the town by now, but I changed my route to avoid the enclosure where the forum was, and where, of course, the basilica and curia building lay. I did not want to meet Quintus anywhere.

‘Charm was the weapon he most relied upon,’ I said. ‘He certainly charmed Gwellia — and my patron too. You heard the glowing testimonial that Marcus gave to him. And as for hinting, I think perhaps he did. He told me that he had something for me when we could be alone. Something that I did not expect and was connected with my patron — all of which was true — except that the ‘something’ was a piece of twisted silk around my neck. I suppose it amused him to play games with his prey.’

I had to check my stride and step into the road. The pavements here were cluttered with stalls of every kind.

Junio, too, was dodging the displays. ‘Then we’ll make sure you always have someone at your side. But if you manage to have Virilis caught, there won’t be such a threat.’

I frowned at him. ‘Be careful what you say.’ Since we’d turned into this crowded area, I’d been avoiding names. Virilis was right. The town was full of spies, including, as he’d warned me, the ones I’d least expect. I wondered if he’d really, in the end, had some respect for me. It was a peculiar compliment, if that were true. I turned to Junio. ‘The man you speak of was an expert at his trade, if you can call it that. The deaths he meted out were swift and merciless. Let us hope that a different danger doesn’t face us now: a meeting with some other person’s gang of brutal thugs.’

‘You mean Qui-’ Junio left the decurion’s name unsaid. ‘Oh, dear gods, I hadn’t thought of that. You still think he’s behind this? And that Marcus is in danger too? I hope you can convince the garrison commander of all this.’

‘So do I,’ I told him. ‘We will soon find out. We are very nearly at the garrison.’ I brushed aside a trader who was offering me belts — ‘Finest leather, citizen. A special price for you!’ — and turned down a narrow lane, where we rejoined the main street that led towards the gate. I could already see the tower of the guardhouse block where the commander had his headquarters.

I was just hastening towards it, quickening my step, when I was halted by an imperious voice. ‘Citizen Libertus! Imagine seeing you. I had supposed that you would be busy with your pavement work today.’

I whirled round to see a curtained litter which had drawn up close to me, and the face of Quintus Severus peering out of it. ‘I am on my way to Pedronius’s house right now to admire your handiwork,’ he went on, with a smile that did not reach his eyes. ‘I hear it’s very fine. Perhaps if you are going there, I could save you the walk, though there is only room for one of you in the litter, I’m afraid. Or, if you are returning home, my slaves could take you there? They have nothing particular to do when they’ve delivered me.’

Junio, beside me, had stiffened visibly, but I tried to match the decurion’s mirthless smile with my own. ‘Thank you, councillor, but there is no need of that. I am only walking to the garrison. I have a message for the commander there.’

I saw momentary anxious puzzlement in his eyes, and an idea came to me.

‘Thank you, by the way, for sending Virilis to me. I have sent a message by him to my patron, as you suggested I might do, though doubtless it largely duplicates your own,’ I said, pausing to let my next words take effect. ‘But I’m sure that he’ll be anxious to learn the latest news — the result of the election was such an unexpected one.’

There was no mistaking now the look of doubt that crossed his face. I could see my ruse had worked. He must be wondering if his plans had gone awry, and Virilis was in the pay of Marcus rather than his own. After all, it rather looked like it. I was still alive and Virilis was gone, and Quintus could not know how I had learned about the vote.

‘Slaves, put the litter down!’ The smile had vanished now, along with all pretence that this meeting was polite. ‘And you, Hyperius, get that man into it.’

The stolid slave, who had been lingering on the other side, came round the litter and seized me by the arm. It happened so quickly that I did not resist and he might have managed to force me to get in, but Junio was a younger man and far too strong for him. He grasped the startled servant by the throat and pushed him violently. Hyperius fell backwards, spluttering on to the paving-stones.

‘Here! You two! What’s the meaning of this?’ There was a sound of ringing hobnails, and there was Scowler running up. His swagger stick was stuck into his belt, and he had drawn his sword instead. One of his companions was panting after him, carrying Scowler’s helmet and a dagger of his own.

By the time that Hyperius was on his feet again, Scowler had reached me. ‘Oh, it’s you again!’ he said.

Quintus leaned back in his litter, his face a mask of cool disdain. ‘I see that you’re acquainted with this citizen.’

Scowler gave a self-important nod. ‘I met him yesterday. You had us go and move a murdered pauper from his workshop floor.’

‘Exactly!’ Quintus gave me a triumphant, poisonous smile. ‘And there has been another murder at his shop today. So it will not surprise you that I am arresting him.’

Scowler looked doubtfully at me. ‘Is this true, citizen?’

‘That there was a body at my workshop, certainly. But I had no part in either of the deaths. On the contrary, I believe that the decurion ordered them. I had some information from the slave next door.’

The decurion turned purple. ‘But you can’t have had. This is preposterous. Why should I want to murder a pie-seller and a turnip-man? And who would trust the testimony of a simple slave?’

I gave him the best smile that I could conjure up. ‘Very likely nobody, decurion, it’s true. But how did you know it was a turnip-man? Or did you work that out from the description that your hired assassin gave? And, come to that, how did Virilis know that the first corpse had one eye?’

Scowler, who had placed himself between the two of us, bent towards the litter as if to wait for a reply.

‘I don’t know how he knew that,’ Quintus snapped impatiently. ‘He didn’t hear from me. I wasn’t at the workshop, as you may recall, until the pie-seller was dead, and even then I didn’t go inside. And he didn’t describe the turnip-man to me. You can’t implicate me in what Virilis may have said.’

‘But you do agree that it was Virilis who strangled them?’ I said. ‘Especially since he doesn’t deny that fact himself?’

It was a gamble. Of course Virilis had not denied that he was the murderer — nobody had taxed him with it up to now. But Quintus didn’t know that and I hoped that I could lead him to conclude something which I had already hinted at: that Virilis was secretly acting for Marcus all the time, and that he — the decurion — had been betrayed and duped.

But Quintus shook his head. ‘If he maintains I paid him to try to strangle you, he’s lying!’ he declared. ‘Trying to protect the man he’s really working for, I expect, and earn a lenient sentence by accusing me. He’ll be claiming I have dealings with the rebel bandits next, and that I am plotting to deliver certain people to their hands. Well, I deny it, do you hear! If Virilis planned that, he did it on his own. And as for this presumptuous mosaic-maker here. .’ — he was addressing Scowler, but he waved a hand at me — ‘he may not have been responsible for the murders at his house, but he attacked me earlier. Hyperius here was witness to the fact. Is that not so, Hyperius?’

The audacity of it took my breath away, but Quintus had already turned towards his slave. Hyperius was looking flabbergasted too, but after a long moment he inclined his head. ‘Certainly, master. Exactly as you say.’