Jack Ludlow - Vengeance

‘Don’t blaspheme.’

‘Forgive me, Uncle, but I have acted for the best. If that displeases you, well, I cannot do much to make it better.’

‘You sometimes take too much upon yourself, Petrus.’

God be thanked the nephew thought, before saying, in a voice full of entreaty, ‘It is only out of regard for you. It is not too much to say I look upon you as a second father.’ Playing on the sentimental streak in Justinus usually paid dividends and it did so now. ‘Permission to write the orders detailing two of your officers to protect our charge?’

‘Go ahead.’

‘I will bring them to you to sign.’

‘Why bother,’ Justinus snapped, seeking to salvage some authority. ‘You take so much on yourself you might as well do that too.’

When he was alone, Petrus wrote out two sets of papers, only one the orders that would give two of his own very good friends the task of protection. The other was a commission to one Flavius Belisarius to proceed to Dorostorum to investigate complaints of collusion in cross-border raids by citizens of the empire. It had the seal of the comes excubitorum , which would give the youngster the right to use the mansios reserved for officials and military officers on official business. A copy was made for Pentheus.

One of the other functions performed by Petrus was to manage his uncle’s accounts, for he struggled with figures as much as letters. With possession of the keys to his chest he took out a sum in gold, having listed it in the book as a payment for a new set of highly decorated armour of a kind that went with a general’s rank, in short that equal to a count of the excubitor, enough in funds to procure that for a junior officer, as well as a horse, with coin to spare.

‘If this falls into the hands of anyone else, it will ruin my uncle.’

‘I will guard it with my life,’ Flavius replied.

‘You look very fine in decent clothing.’

Stroking a breastplate and the devices that marked it out, Flavius asked, ‘Is it not deceitful?’

‘An excubitor uniform is necessary, Flavius, and it goes with that commission in your hand. No one will dare question you if you are wearing the clothing of a body who act as personal guards to the emperor.’

The room in which Petrus had temporarily accommodated him overlooked one of the harbours of Constantinople, full of shipping, and as dusk settled, light began to twinkle from many a window and deck, while from below his feet came the sound of singing, that brought on by drinking and carousing; Petrus seemed to know the place well, the owners too, for they had greeted him like a long-lost brother.

‘Your horse is downstairs being held by the innkeeper’s groom and with it a cloak, which even on a warm night I suggest you wear until you are clear of the city. It would not do to encounter a real excubitor and be exposed.’ A purse was handed over, which Flavius weighed, hardly surprised it was quite heavy. ‘More funds, I hope, than you will need.’

‘I tried on my old breastplate,’ Flavius said, wistfully, again fingering the one he was wearing, without knowing why he was telling this strange fellow something that could not be of interest to him. ‘Before you brought me here.’

‘And?’

‘It didn’t fit any more.’

He was surprised but pleased that Petrus got the drift of what he was seeking to imply.

‘The time will come when you can put all of your past behind you, Flavius, and pray to God it is soon. Shall we do that ? pray?’

Flavius was then doubly surprised by what happened next, not seeing Petrus as in any way religious. Yet he was quick to kneel, uttered his supplications to the deities in a strong voice and with passion, which was only half as fervent as those he uttered when the youngster had departed, in which there was a degree of wailing and sobbing which took time to pass, for if he sinned readily, he was much assailed by the fear of damnation for doing so.

His mental self-flagellation complete he made his way downstairs to a room raucous with people enjoying themselves, where he called to the owner, asked him to engage a messenger and when that was provided, the fellow was sent off with a coin and a scroll to the villa of Pentheus Vicinus.

Flavius unwittingly rode past that same villa, exiting the city by the Blachernae Gate, and that with no trouble; people leaving the city, even after dark, were of little concern to the urban prefects. Once on the Via Gemina he put his mount into a canter, his mind ruminating on his mission, but also the notion that he might once more come upon Apollonia, the effect of those thoughts making his blood race. He made his first nightly stop, a government mansio only three leagues from the city, on a route in which he had to walk as much as ride in order not to overtire his mount, for the real pressure to hurry on his travels would begin on the next morning.

When Pentheus Vicinus received the message from Petrus, he called immediately for a covered chariot, as well as two of his most loyal retainers, men who normally patrolled the grounds at night. On this occasion they would be left unguarded, the mission they were on much more vital than looking after the senator’s property.

Petrus, having seared his soul, spent a happy night carousing, in what was a favourite tavern frequented by himself and a goodly number of his uncle’s officers. He particularly enjoyed the dancing performed by girls who were not too shy of exposing their flesh nor of suggestive choreography designed to fire the desires of the men in their audience. As company, Petrus preferred them to the staid and painted women that he was constantly being introduced to by his mother, with heavy hints at them being suitable brides with good dowries. He liked his women with the sweat of activity on them and little or no inhibitions.

He was in a room with two of them, sated and sound asleep when Flavius espied the twin lanterns that marked the entrance to the mansio where he would spend the night. How different it was to approach such a place with the means to enter, to be greeted with grovelling obsequiousness by the man on night watch and have a bell rung to fetch someone to show him to a comfortable chamber. Knowing it would not be long till it was light again he lay down to sleep, removing only those things that made it uncomfortable, his excubitor breast- and backplate as well as his silver filigreed greaves and riding boots. Apollonia was much in his thoughts as he drifted off to sleep.

The watchman, who usually enjoyed a good and quiet night, was thinking that God had it in for him when a senator turned up and demanded entry. It was then he realised he had forgotten to tell that young excubitor something, but he was no doubt asleep now so it would have to wait; he would find out soon enough. Going back into his hutch he tried to do the same himself, cursing his disturbed night.

There was a commotion within the house, but the watchman was too far off to hear it and he had retired by the time Flavius awoke, to decline a bath, grab some fruit and, in a hurry, get back astride his horse and ride away. The two naked bodies found outside the perimeter of the mansio in wooded countryside were not connected to him, for they lay undisturbed for three days before discovery and that only came about because, in the late summer heat, they had begun to smell.

Who they were and where they had come from was never established, not that anyone tried very hard to find out, given they were very obviously, by their dress and features, people of no account. Likewise the senator had left in his covered chariot before cockcrow, not even stopping to eat.

Flavius travelled faster than any official would have been required to do, almost as fast as an imperial messenger, but he had a mission, and the Via Gemina provided the means to move with alacrity; a constant ability to change his horse, taking one from a mansio stable to replace the one that he left behind and a willingness to suffer the aches of constantly being mounted. This brought him to the main foederati encampment in only seven days and on arrival he rode in through the gates in some style, unlike his previous encounter and, being on a horse and dressed as he was, albeit he was stopped, it was with respect.