M. Scott: Rome: The Emperor's spy

Math bit his lip. ‘Will you really kill Saulos?’

‘I swear to you I will do everything I possibly can to kill Saulos.’

‘And not let him kill you?’

‘Not if I can help it, no. Math-’ He caught his hand awkwardly. He was not Math’s brother, and had never known how to hold him. ‘You can blame yourself for this, and become bitter and sour. Or you can accept the gift of freedom and know that bitterness will not sweeten anything for anyone. Will you try not to be bitter, if I try not to get myself killed?’

Math’s grey eyes were swollen and red. A single tear spilled from one corner. ‘I’ll try.’

‘Which is the best anyone can do. If I can free the chariot colts, I’ll do it. If I get them, I’ll send them to Britain; that way you’ll know I’m still alive and hunting Saulos. You should go now. I think they’re waiting.’ He put his arm round Math and hugged him. It felt right. ‘Don’t forget this.’

Math walked alone down the dockside and up the wooden plank that led to the ship.

The Sun Horse was manned by eight Gauls; big blond men who spoke little and moved about the boat with soft feet and deft hands and took their places willingly at the rowing benches to take the ship from harbour; on this boat, there were no slaves. Her master knew Ajax by his other name, and greeted Math as if he were royalty.

‘Son of Caradoc,’ he said, ‘we have waited for you these ten long years. Welcome.’

Math found a place at the stern, where he could still watch the shore. A yard away, on the dockside, separated from them by an arm’s length of sea that could have been stepped over with ease, Pantera had remounted.

With Seneca on one side and Mergus on the other, he waited to see the ship leave and it seemed to Math that the spy’s grief hung around him like raven’s wings, as Hannah’s did. She had gone to the front of the boat, and would not look back. So much hurt, and so much joy. Math thought he might tear apart, pulled by each of them.

Pantera caught his eye and waved. Math waved back, and on that signal the ship’s master blew a whistle. Seven men moved into place with military speed. Last, the Gaul remaining on shore cast off the rope and jumped aboard and they pushed off from the harbour.

The oars dipped and pulled. The boat lurched forward and again, and then settled into the surge and ebb of smooth rowing.

The tall man of Math’s dreams came to stand at his side. ‘There’s a woman standing in the shade of the harbourmaster’s house,’ Valerius said. He didn’t point, but directed his eyes a little south. ‘Hannah knows she’s there, but not, I think, your brother. He sees what he needs, and it seems he does not need to see that. Who would she be?’

Math looked where he was shown. ‘It’s Hypatia,’ he said. ‘She’s going to Jerusalem with Pantera to help kill Saulos.’

‘Thank you. I had hoped it would be so. I’ll leave you now. Segoventos says we’ll have good weather for the full voyage. He was trained by his father, who was the best ship’s master I’ve ever met. Even so, I shall spend the days puking over the side. You would be doing me a kindness if you did not offer me food.’

The ship sailed due west, down the line of the setting sun. Late in the evening, Math moved to the bow to catch the last of the failing light. Between one breath and the next, he saw the sun set fire to the world. What had been tints of flame on the bow-wave spread out and out across the wide sea until the whole blue-grey glittering ocean became a bed of living flame too bright to bear.

He closed his eyes. The fire grew stronger behind the dark of his lids, rising from sea to sky. A hand reached through it. He extended his own hand in response and felt it grasped by a dry, firm grip.

‘Welcome. I had hoped it would be you.’

The voice was Shimon’s, the peaceful voice of a man come home to himself.

Math opened his eyes. Hot fire continued to rise to the sky, blotting out the sunset. It filled the whole of the world, from horizon to horizon, with living flame; the ship was gone.

Shimon was the fire’s centre, standing upright, bound to a stake. Beyond and behind, men and women watched in their straggling hundreds, huddled in groups together. Their mouths were open, shouting. No sound came, not even the roaring flames.

‘Math?’ Shimon spoke in the silence in his head. ‘Could you assist me?’

Math had no idea what to do, and then did. He reached a hand out to untie the bindings that held his friend. The fire did not touch him.

‘Thank you.’

Stepping free, Shimon rinsed his hands and face in the flames as he might at the morning’s water trough. He looked past Math. His face, cast in shimmering gold by the fire, became radiant with a new joy.

‘Lord.’ He made to kneel. A man came forward from Math’s left, and caught him, saying, ‘Don’t kneel, my friend. All kneeling is done. You have done all that could have been asked of you, and more. Be safe now, and well.’

They embraced, two men of same height and same build, only that Shimon was the elder by three decades.

A woman came, wreathed in flame and sun. Her hair was black smoked silk. Her eyes were almonds. She said, ‘Shimon,’ and it was a summoning and a welcome and a thanks. The fire consumed them, all three.

‘Math.’ Valerius’ voice reached for him. ‘You need to come back now.’

Hannah’s face grew from the fire. Ajax was a bear, hunting the sunset. Pantera had blood dribbling down over one eye.

Math closed his own eyes and opened them again. The faces vanished, replaced by the darkling waves. The sun was old and almost set. It laid beaten copper on the ocean.

Valerius sat beside him looking vaguely ill. ‘What did you dream?’ he asked.

‘Shimon’s dead,’ Math said. ‘He wants us to know that he’s safe and beyond pain. And Hannah’s mother sends her love to all of us.’ He turned, to look into the black eyes. ‘Pantera will come and find us, won’t he? Later, when he’s killed Saulos?’

‘The god holds that man close,’ Valerius said. ‘When he’s killed Saulos, if he can travel to join us, he will.’

He left soon after that. Math stayed at the bow until the sun’s last bruise left the waves and the moon rose to salt them silver, colour of new hope, and new life.

Then he sent his mind forward to the land ahead, to the sisters he had never met, that she might know he was coming, and might dream a safe journey home.