Robert Fabbri - The Alexandrian Embassy

‘Where?’

‘In a different place.’ Servius nodded to the wall opposite the ruined door. ‘What’s on the other side of that?’

Magnus scratched his head and frowned. ‘I imagine it’s just a deserted courtyard full of shit and stuff. Perfect. I’ll have the lads knock a door through.’

Servius shock his head. ‘People can see a door; just have them remove the mortar from the bricks so that a couple of blows from a sledgehammer will knock them down.’

‘That’s a nice idea, brother. I’ll have them do the same in a couple of other places too. What have you got in there?’

Servius tipped the contents of the sack onto the floor; an earthenware jar, about the size of a man’s head, fell out wrapped in bundles of rags. ‘It looks like they were planning on torching the place.’ He picked up some rags and held them to his nose. ‘Oil.’ Then he pulled the stopper from the jar, immediately releasing a pungent scent that Magnus did not recognise. ‘I’ll wager that, whatever this is, it can burn fiercely; I’ll have a little play with it somewhere safe.’ He refitted the stopper and then looked up at Magnus. ‘You said that we’ve got a couple of problems?’

‘Yeah; the other is how did the leader of those bastards know his way through this building in the dark? I heard him say: “We go through this room and then across a corridor.” How did he know that without someone telling him?’

‘Or without having been here before?’

‘True, brother, very true. And that’s an even more disturbing thought.’

The Capena Gate was busy the hour before dawn the following morning; scores of merchants and traders pushed and shoved each other to get to the well at the foot of the Caelian Hill, sandwiched between the city walls and the line of the Appian Aqueduct, to the left of the gate. Each one was keen to draw the water with which Mercury was sure to bless their business ventures and each one wanted to complete the task as quickly as possible so as not to be away from those ventures for longer than necessary. In the cutthroat world of Roman commerce, time definitely was money and therefore manners came into little consideration when it came to waiting one’s turn in the scrimmage that passed for a queue. The priests of Mercury, standing on a dais overlooking the well, in torchlight, offered prayers to their favoured deity as his special day dawned; even their presence did nothing to help restore a semblance of order to this thoroughly un-reverential scene. Just to the right of this chaos, the centurion of the watch had the men of the Urban Cohort under his command inspect every cart coming through the gate. Most were given a cursory search but occasionally, at random, one was given a rigorous frisking much to the annoyance of the carter, who knew that he had only an hour to make his delivery and get his vehicle out of the city before the daytime ban on beast-drawn vehicles came into effect – unless, of course, he had access to expensive stabling within the walls.

‘I suppose he knows which ones not to search too carefully,’ Magnus commented as he and Marius watched the centurion point to a cart loaded with leather buckets. ‘Mind you, I imagine our order is already through.’

Marius yawned and grunted something unintelligible but to the affirmative. They stood beneath an arch of the Appian Aqueduct where it crossed from the Caelian Hill to the Aventine, running within the Servian Walls.

Magnus nudged his brother with the amphora he carried. ‘Try and keep awake; you’re not going to be much good at playing your part if you’re continually dropping off and starting to snore.’

‘Sorry, Magnus. I didn’t get much sleep tonight or the night before either, what with the poker work and then getting rid of the body and all.’

‘Yeah, well, everyone has to work hard sometimes and our business is no exception. Now, keep your eyes open and look for Tatianus.’

‘Right you are, Magnus,’ Marius said, repressing another yawn and blinking.

Even Magnus was struggling to stay awake by the time the sun had risen for an hour and its rays had begun to penetrate down into the busy thoroughfares, lanes and alleyways of Rome, but his vigilance was rewarded by the sight of a tall man surrounded by four bodyguards.

‘That’s him, brother,’ Magnus hissed, nudging Marius again and jolting him from semi-consciousness. ‘Come on.’

They nipped out from under their archway and jogged up to the well so that they arrived just before Tatianus. The crowd had died down to only two or three deep by this time as most of the worshippers who wanted to take advantage of the god’s beneficence but not lose any working time by doing so had now departed, leaving the well clearer for the devotees of Mercury who, perhaps, took a slightly less mercenary attitude to the festival.

‘We could really do with the god’s help for our business this year, eh, Marius?’ Magnus said in a loud voice.

Marius looked at him bleary-eyed. ‘What?’

Magnus gestured at his brother and made encouraging movements with his eyebrows as Tatianus stopped just behind them to wait his turn.

Marius finally took the hint. ‘Oh, right. Er … Yes, Magnus, we could really do with all the help that Mercury can give us this year, what with having all that money stolen the other night. Do you think it was Sempronius?’

Magnus nodded with exaggeration, his face turned to Marius so that it was in profile to Tatianus behind him. ‘The patronus of the West Viminal Brotherhood? Definitely, brother; he heard what we were trying to buy and wanted it for himself. He hopes that having stolen the money from us we wouldn’t be able to raise enough at short notice to replace it.’

‘And can we?’ Marius asked as they shuffled forward.

‘It’s not looking good, brother. The Cloelius Brothers’ banking business in the Forum refused me a loan yesterday and the rest of the brotherhood’s cash is tied up at the moment. I’ll have to go to Tatianus and ask him as a favour to hold onto our item for a day or so.’ Magnus got to the well and handed the amphora to Marius who held it steady as Magnus took the draw-bucket and slopped water into it.

‘Do you think that he’ll do it?’

‘He might, seeing as I don’t suppose many people would want to buy what we’ve ordered for the price that we’re prepared to pay for it, that is; except, perhaps, Sempronius, who would do it just to spite me and enjoy watching me lose my deposit and spending the money he stole from me on an item that I was going to pay for with it.’

‘That would be nasty.’

Magnus jammed the stopper into the amphora. ‘It would, brother; but highly unlikely. How would Tatianus ever make that connection? After all, he ain’t that bright.’

‘That’s what I heard too,’ Marius agreed as they moved off, restraining themselves from looking back at Tatianus and enjoying what they both imagined would be a look of deep outrage on the middle-man’s face.

The sudden blare of horns cut across the general chatter at the well. Magnus looked towards their source at the Capena Gate to see the upheld axes wrapped in rods, the fasces, which were borne by lictors. Someone important was coming through the gate.

‘Let’s get out of here before we’re obliged to stay and applaud whoever it is,’ Magnus said. ‘I never like being too close to anyone with lictors, just in case I get noticed and come under strong scrutiny.’

Marius nodded and rested the amphora on his shoulders. ‘I quite agree, brother; besides I’m curious as to whether Servius has found out anything about the contents of that jar.’

They turned away from the incoming dignitary and stopped abruptly.

‘Ah, Magnus, how nice to see you.’ The voice was smooth and affable and laced with genuine pleasure.