Anthony Riches - Wounds of Honour

He raised a hand in pre-emption of any question.

‘No, you’re here to listen. Marcus Valerius Aquila, do you know why I ordered you to be brought here at this time?’

The opportunity was irresistible to a young man in desperate need of reassurance.

‘No! Sir, I…’

The flat of the centurion’s sword slapped his arm hard in admonishment.

‘Answer the legatus’s questions with a simple yes or no!’

‘No.’

‘So you have no idea of events in Rome of the past weeks?’

The urge to be sick returned, held in check only by the sudden return of the concerns he had managed to put to the back of his mind over the weeks of travel.

‘No.’

‘I see. Then I must inform you that your father was arrested three weeks ago, for the crime of plotting to assassinate the emperor. When did you leave Rome?’

Marcus’s skin crawled with the revelation, and with the equally sudden realisation that he was in desperate danger. It was time to shed the deception that had accompanied him from Rome, to reclaim his identity before this went any further.

‘The fifteenth day of the month of Januarius. Sir, I have…’

The blow fell again, harder this time.

‘Silence!’

‘I see. You arrived here only a day after the courier bearing the news of your father’s crime. Good timing for the legion, though, to have the opportunity to arrest a traitor…’

‘Arrest…?’

Marcus thought he saw a brief narrowing of the legatus’s eyes, but the man’s face itself was set hard against him.

‘Indeed. The son of an old friend you may be, but an enemy of my emperor is an enemy of mine. I have no choice but to send you back to Rome to beg for the mercy of the throne. Do you have anything to say?’

‘Yes, sir. Sir, I am a praetorian officer on detached courier duty, bearing a private dispatch for you from the emperor himself. I have been instructed to travel incognito, in order to ensure that the message remains confidential. My saddlebag contains a message container bearing the imperial seal, to be opened only by you. I know nothing of the events you describe, and have been following the direct orders of my superior officer in making this journey.’

The tribune leaning against the office wall spoke for the first time, his voice heavy with irony.

‘Correction, citizen, you were a praetorian. The praetorian prefect rescinded your commission as soon as your absence without leave was linked to your father’s crime. Your tribune was interrogated, and admitted taking money from your father in return for sending you away from Rome on a false errand. A very large amount of money, as it happens. He has already paid the appropriate penalty for consorting with enemies of the throne. The seal on your message container is nothing more than a good fake, and the container itself holds nothing more than a last letter from your father…’

‘Thank you, Tigidius Perennis…’

The legatus fixed the tribune with a dark-eyed silencing stare. He held the stare until the younger man looked down at his boots, clearly intending to win the brief clash of wills with his junior.

‘Perhaps your father expected that I would be in a position to protect you… but if he did it was a misguided expectation. In the light of his crime, you must return to Rome immediately to face trial in connection with his offence. You will be escorted to the main gate, where your horse will be waiting for you. You are instructed to return to Rome by the most direct route, deviating from that road for no reason. Failure to present yourself at the praetorian camp by a date no more than six weeks from now will result in your immediate loss of senatorial rank, and the declaration of your entire family as proletarians, to the most distant cousin, with confiscation of all assets. I’ll send a message back by fast courier warning the praetorians of your return, and when they should expect your arrival. That is all.’

The centurion, sensing the numbness of shock in the young man’s hesitation, grasped Marcus firmly by the upper arm, leading him out of the office and back to the waiting escort. They marched back out to the main gate, where the watch was being changed with all the usual noise and disturbance. The centurion looked around him at the ordered chaos, and then pulled Marcus into a small guardroom, dismissing the legionaries inside with the order to go off duty with their fellows. In the meagre yellow light of the oil lamps that lit the stone-walled room he seemed larger than he had in the brightly lit commander’s residence, squat and menacing in the bulk of his armour. Marcus found his voice at last, slowly starting to recover from the initial shock and finding anger where there had initially been only fear.

‘Is this where I get the beating you promised me earlier? Don’t you need your men with you to make it completely one sided?’

The other man swept his helmet off, dropping it on to the table with a clatter, running a hand nervously across his balding scalp.

‘Button it. We’ve got less than five minutes before your horse is ready, and I’ve had to bribe the stable master to get that much time.’

The sudden change in his tone put Marcus, who had been readying himself for a fight, off balance once more.

‘What…’

The centurion prodded a broad finger into his chest, urgency fuelling his irritation.

‘Shut up and listen! You’re being turned loose, alone, before dawn, to make your disposal as easy as possible. You think it’s usual for enemies of the state to be sent back to Rome alone, no matter what threats might be made to their families? Most criminals would think of their own necks before those of their loved ones. This is just a set-up to get you out of the way, out into the dark. You were supposed to get killed on the road yesterday, but the locals apparently managed to cock that one up. The men waiting out there for you now won’t make the same mistake. You ride out of here alone, and you’ll be lucky to get five miles before that bastard Perennis’s tame cavalry cut-throats take you and slit your throat, steal your purse and your horse, and leave you in the dirt for the morning patrols to find. Do you fancy that for an epitaph, “Killed by robbers”?’

‘No.’

‘Well, that’s a start. You know how to use a sword and shield on horseback?’

‘Yes. I was trained in…’

‘I know. Listen, half a mile down the road you’ll come on a stunted tree growing over a large rock, on the right. Look behind the tree and you’ll find a cavalry sword and shield. Ride on, as fast as the moonlight lets you, and stop for nobody. At the two-mile marker you’ll be met by…’

A solid knock rattled the room’s wooden door.

‘Centurion! The traitor’s horse is ready.’

The officer nodded at Marcus, grabbing his helmet and replacing it on his head before replying.

‘Good! I’ll bring the little turd out.’

He cocked a solid-looking fist.

‘… you’ll be met by friends. Sorry, but this needs to look like the real thing.’

The swift punch stung Marcus’s right eye; the heavy slap that followed cut his upper lip against his teeth. The officer pulled him to his feet, whispering urgently in his ear.

‘Stop for no one until the two-mile marker!’

‘But who’s meeting me?’

‘You’ll know when you get there! And once we’re outside keep your mouth shut, unless you want me nailed up alongside you.’

He paused to fill his lungs.

‘Right, you bastard traitor, let’s be about it!!’

He slammed the door open, propelling Marcus through it with a hefty shove in the back.

‘Here he is! Take a good look at a traitor!’

The incoming watch’s centurion goggled at Marcus’s face.