Simon Scarrow - Gladiator - Vengeance

Festus regarded the other boy as he ferociously attacked the tree trunk. ‘It’s too early to say. Keep him at it, and he might make himself useful one day. Work him hard until dusk, and then we can all rest, ready for the road tomorrow.’

He turned and began to stride off.

‘Where are you going?’ Marcus called.

‘I’ve something of an appetite for those hares. I’m getting some more. Make sure you keep the fire going.’

Marcus watched him disappear into the trees and returned his attention to Lupus whose blows had begun to slacken.

‘Keep at it! Use all your strength. You can rest when I tell you, and not before!’

Lupus tossed the slender bones of the hare aside and used the hem of his tunic to dab the grease from his mouth.

‘That was delicious.’ He smiled contentedly. ‘Best thing I’ve eaten in months.’

He lay back on the ground and stared at the night sky, a pool of stars fringed by the trees surrounding the clearing. Every so often a brilliant red spark swirled up to join the cold, steady pinpricks of the stars before swiftly fading out. Around them the forest was pitch-black, but the occasional light crack of a snapping twig, or rustle of undergrowth, revealed the animals who were abroad under cover of darkness. At first Lupus had been nervous, thinking the noises to be the sounds of men stalking them. Born and raised in Rome, he had little experience of the natural world. But he was growing used to it, and starting to enjoy the experience. Even the shrilling of the cicadas no longer bothered him.

‘I could learn to live like this,’ he muttered happily.

Festus grunted, chewing slowly on a morsel of meat. When he swallowed he wagged a finger at the scribe. ‘It makes a nice change right enough. But that’s because summer is coming. You wouldn’t want to be out here in the winter. Believe me.’

Marcus had already finished his meal and sat staring into the flames. He nodded as he recalled the winter that had just passed, and the cold of the Apennine mountains that had seeped into his bones. He shivered at the memory. But he could understand Lupus’s feeling. Sleeping under the stars on a warm night filled his soul with a tranquillity he had rarely known since being torn from his previous life.

‘Anyway,’ Festus continued, ‘we can’t stay here. Too close to Stratos. Word of Pindarus’s death and the hunt for his killers will spread out. We have to stay ahead of that and then find a way of disappearing from view. We should be able to manage that in a city the size of Athens.’

‘But we didn’t kill him on purpose,’ Lupus protested. ‘We’re not murderers.’

‘That’s not how it looks,’ Marcus interrupted. ‘It’s hardly as if we were invited into his house. No one will believe it was an accident. The only thing we can do is make sure we are not caught.’

‘He’s right.’ Festus nodded. ‘We’ll have to travel as far from Stratos as we can tomorrow. Better if we get some sleep. We’ll need all our strength for the road.’

Lupus smiled. ‘Sleep. Just what I want. Can’t tell you how exhausted I am.’

He reached for his cloak and pulled it over his body, then curled up with his back to the fire. His breathing soon became deep and even. Marcus and Festus sat in silence for a while as the fire began to die down and cast a wavering glow across the trees round the clearing. At length Marcus sighed, then spoke quietly.

‘I wonder how Caesar’s campaign is going?’

Festus shrugged. ‘It’s early days. Last I heard he was dealing with some tribes from Helvetia who wanted to settle in Gaul. You can be sure he’ll make short work of them.’

There was a certain bitterness to his tone that caught Marcus’s ear. He thought quickly, and wondered if Festus resented being ordered to help him. Marcus cleared his throat. ‘Do you wish he’d taken you with him?’

Festus took a deep breath. ‘I suppose I do. Having served him loyally for so many years I thought I would always be at his side.’

‘Do you mind being told to help me?’

The man looked sharply at Marcus. ‘No. Not now. At first, perhaps. It may sound strange but I find this situation more … comfortable. Being with Caesar is like walking a narrow mountain path. The view may be impressive, but you miss your step and you will fall. Do you understand?’

Marcus considered these comments then nodded. ‘Even though I came to admire him, there was something about him that always scared me. I never thought he saw me as a person. More of a useful tool.’

‘Exactly. That’s how it seems to me, now I am no longer with him and can see things more clearly. That said, if he had decided to take me with him I would have gone willingly.’

Marcus shuffled a little closer to the dying fire before he continued. ‘How long have you been in his service?’

‘Twenty years. I was fifteen when he bought me from a gladiator school. Caesar was a lot younger. Just starting out in politics. It was a dangerous time; he had powerful enemies even then.’ Festus smiled thinly at Marcus. ‘I was like you. He saw me fight in the arena and decided I had potential. I was taken to Rome to be trained as a bodyguard by my predecessor. A big Celt who was as swift and deadly as a cat despite his size.’

‘Oh?’ Marcus could not recall any mention of the man before and dared to probe a little further. ‘What happened to him?’

‘He went the same way that many do in our profession. He was killed in a street fight. That was when I was twenty. Caesar appointed me to replace him as head of his personal bodyguard. In time, I dare say you would have taken over from me.’

Marcus raised his eyebrows. He’d had no idea that was the fate intended for him. He had always seen his relationship with Caesar as something temporary — a stepping stone on his journey to save his mother.

‘You still may replace me, once this is all over and we return to Rome,’ Festus continued.

‘I’m not going back to Rome,’ Marcus replied quietly.

‘No?’ Now it was Festus’s turn to look surprised. ‘Why not?’

‘It was always my plan to return home after I rescued my mother.’

‘Home? That farm on Leucas you told me about?’

Marcus nodded.

Festus sighed. ‘You’d best forget that, Marcus. You told me your father got into debt trying to make the farm pay its way, right? So the chances are it has been sold on. It’s almost certain someone else owns the farm now. You can’t go back there.’

‘But it belongs to us,’ Marcus protested angrily. ‘It’s our farm.’

‘It was. It isn’t now. That is the way of things.’ Festus tried to sound gentle. ‘You cannot return to the past, lad. The Gods have decided on a different destiny.’

‘No. I will return to my home. With my mother. I will find a way. I swear it.’

Festus smiled sadly. ‘Very well then, Marcus. But one step at a time. First we must reach Athens and discover where Decimus is, and the estate where your mother is held. I had hoped we could find him without using official channels. There’s a risk someone might warn him of our presence if we do that. But it can’t be helped now. Get some sleep. There’s a long road ahead of us.’

Festus settled back, arms folded behind his head, and closed his eyes. Marcus sat up a while longer, staring into the red glow of the embers, his heart filled with longing for home. The word conjured up so many feelings in his heart, with memories of all he valued most in the world. All the things that had been taken from him. The very thought of home had been a lifeline to him amid the raging storm of his life these last two years. The idea that there was no longer a home to return to filled him with anger and despair.

It was a long time before the seething emotions began to subside. The fire had died out long before Marcus finally lay down, huddled beneath his cloak, to fall into a troubled sleep.