Douglas Jackson - Saviour of Rome

‘He said it would be in my interest to meet you. That suggests you have something to offer.’

‘Or,’ her eyes hardened, ‘I have a dozen of Harpocration’s Parthian killers secreted away in the mansio in case Ferox and Melanius had failed at the mine. All I have to do is call out.’

Valerius went very still. A certain twist to her lips told him she was enjoying his confusion. On the other hand, that long slim neck was easily within reach and all he had to do was reach out and the fingers of his left hand would squeeze the life out of her. He could see she knew it, too. ‘Why would you do that when you despise the men who want me dead?’

‘You men are all alike.’ She stared at him, shaking her head. ‘So terribly predictable. You refused my … attentions. I find that insulting. Why would I not want my revenge?’ Valerius considered the question for a long, anxious moment. Had he misjudged her so badly? Before he came up with an answer, she continued. ‘But that would be a meagre reason to have a man killed. No.’ Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head in a certain way. ‘There would have to be a better motivation. Let us call it power. Yes, I despise Melanius and the rest. But it would be so easy to supplant them. Calpurnius Piso is a young man and not insensible to my charms. A word in his ear and Severus, Melanius and Ferox would be no more. All that gold hidden where they think no one can find it. It would all be mine. And Piso has ambitions …’

‘Calpurnia Augusta.’

She answered his mockery with a perfectly curved raised eyebrow. ‘You do not think I am worthy, Valerius? A clothmaker’s daughter from Carthago Nova who rose to become queen of Asturica Augusta in all but name?’

‘I think your neck is much too pretty to put under the executioner’s axe, where it would certainly end up if you were foolish enough to follow Piso. But then you’re not, are you?’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘I am not.’

‘Which brings us back to why you brought me here.’

She reached beneath the seat, drew out a leather satchel and handed it to him. ‘This is the information that fat fool Nepos would have provided if he hadn’t got himself killed. Everything you need to destroy Melanius and his crew. Names, numbers. How it was carried out. All the people who were paid to look the other way. The key to the cypher is there too.’

Valerius weighed the pouch in his hand, barely able to believe what he’d just been given. ‘So you were Petronius’s other source?’

‘I convinced him to recruit Nepos to protect me. If they suspected they were being betrayed, everything they discovered would have led them to him.’ She sounded very pleased with herself. When he remembered the shattered body on the tunnel floor, Valerius reflected that it would be very easy to despise her.

‘What I don’t understand is why?’ he said. ‘If I can get this material to Plinius Secundus it won’t just destroy Melanius and Ferox, it will destroy your husband too.’

Calpurnia took time to consider before she replied. ‘When I first approached Petronius one of the conditions I set was that Severus should be exempted from punishment when the conspirators were taken. I urged him to distance himself from these people, but Severus was too greedy and too frightened of Melanius and that barbarian savage of his. If he had kept faith with me, Severus could have had everything he has now, but without the risk. It all changed when he fell under Melanius’s spell. A fool and a coward, and worse, an old fool. He betrayed me as a wife, and worse, he is no longer capable of treating me the way a woman needs to be treated. All I ask now is that after he is executed his wealth passes to his widow. Can you guarantee this?’

Valerius hesitated. Calpurnia had all but confessed that she’d been the driving force behind what went on in Asturica Augusta before Melanius intervened. Clearly, the only reason she agreed to cooperate with Petronius was because she feared Melanius’s ambitions would get her killed. What else wasn’t she telling him? Still … ‘If it is within my power.’

A bitter laugh. ‘I need more than that. I need assurances. Petronius-’

‘I am not Petronius.’

She reached for the case. ‘I will not lose all I have worked for. You were sent for this information by the governor. Perhaps if I deliver it myself he will give me what I need.’

‘I was sent here by the Emperor.’ He saw a flicker of alarm in her eyes and she withdrew her hand. ‘I have the Emperor’s authority,’ he continued. ‘And the Emperor rewards those who are loyal to him.’

‘Then I must trust you to do what is right.’ The words were said lightly enough, but her tone had an edge that told him what she expected.

‘What will you do now?’

‘Melanius is already suspicious of me. I cannot return to Asturica Augusta unless I want to go the way of Saco and Petronius. My sister has a house in Toletum. I mean to stay there until this is over. Afterwards, Rome, I think, where Severus’s money will secure me a place in society. Perhaps we will meet again, Gaius Valerius Verrens? You are an interesting man, I-’

The blast of a trumpet interrupted her. Valerius frowned and pulled back the curtain in the doorway. ‘That’s the call to close up. Someone’s on the move.’

‘That is what I was about to tell you,’ Calpurnia said. ‘Melanius has ordered a move against Tarraco within the week. Elements of the garrison at Legio have been called to Asturica to provide a proper escort for Melanius and the others.’

Soon they heard the sound of metal clinking against metal, shouted orders and hundreds of iron-soled feet on hard-packed earth. Calpurnia craned her head for a better view as the front ranks of a legionary column marched into sight in full armour, four abreast and led by a signifer carrying a cohort standard.

Valerius counted them as they went past. ‘At least four hundred men.’

‘My fool of a husband has been having the servants polish the armour he last wore as a young tribune. He talks as if the battles have already been won. They have all been bewitched by Melanius to believe they cannot fail. Calpurnius Piso? A boy who thinks his bloodline entitles him to command and to rule. And Proculus, a mere caretaker who could have stopped all this three years ago if he’d been man enough to stand up to Melanius.’

‘Nepos mentioned that Melanius had some sort of hold over him?’

Her long nose twitched as if something putrid had been placed under it. ‘Severus said there were whispers about young girls – very young girls – who went missing wherever Proculus was posted. Nothing of the sort has happened in Legio, or I would have heard. Melanius must have warned him to contain his urges, or he has outgrown them, as old men do.’ Her laugh was as bitter as a winter frost. ‘Old men, an ambitious boy and a barbarian savage and they think they can take Hispania for their own. Every one will be hanging from a cross before Saturnalia.’

‘Only if Pliny can stop them.’

‘Will Pliny be able to defeat them?’ Serpentius sat on a stone bench opposite Valerius in the house in Avala the Spaniard had once shared with his wife.

‘That depends.’ Valerius continued to pack supplies into a cloth sack. There’d be no mule on this journey. The horse would have to carry the extra weight, because whatever he decided he’d be moving fast. ‘The odds are badly against him. Melanius and Piso will lead a force of close to three thousand legionaries, plus Harpocration’s Parthian cavalry and the other auxiliaries stationed at Legio, say five thousand men. Even if he reacted instantly to my letter, Pliny will be fortunate to raise five hundred, and most of them will be cavalry from his escort.’