Jack Whyte - The Eagles' Brood

The Tongue licked her lips. "What.. .conditions?"

"You leave Camulod now, immediately, saying goodbye to no one. I'll provide an escort for you as far as Glevum." That was more than sixty miles. "Once in Glevum, you will buy a house, set it up for...your own purposes, shall we say?...and keep it warm and welcoming for Commander Uther and myself and the Legate Titus, here. As you know, we returned yesterday from a long patrol. We found no entertainment in Glevum. For a while there, in fact, we were beginning to look attractive to each other."

None of them smiled at my attempt at humour. One of them, one of the two who had been mine, asked in a husky voice, "When do we get the money?"

"Now. It's yours as soon as you agree to the terms."

"Why would we have to leave right now? What's going on here?" This one's voice was sullen with suspicion.

"Going on?" My mind was racing. "That's an easy question to answer. I'll tell you what's going on, if you really want to know."

"Well? We really want to know."

I cleared my throat and charged ahead with the lie that had come to me. "Uther and I decided to do this when we were in Glevum. To set up a house there, I mean. This morning, at breakfast, we decided that if we are to do it at all, we have to do it quickly, today, in fact. General Picus, my father, is due back today. He would forbid it, totally. He spends much time now with the Christian priests and talks of the pleasures of the afterlife. He disapproves of our casual ways with women, and he would have apoplexy if he thought we were dispatching soldiers on such escort duty. If you leave now, immediately, you will be gone by the time he arrives and he will never know. But you must leave now, and you must go secretly, for if anyone suspects what we are doing, and the word gets back to General Picus, he'll have us court-martialled and our lives won't be worth living. Neither will yours."

The sullen one was still not convinced.

"Of course," I went on, bluffing with all my power, "if you don't like the idea, you can all stay here and there's no harm done. I'll return the money to the treasury and we'll forget the whole thing." I picked up a handful of coins and let some of them slip through my fingers back to the table top. That did it.

"How do we get there?" one of them asked. "I can't ride."

"Don't be silly, girl. We'll send you in comfort, in a wagon with seats and an awning. You'll go in haste, but in style, too."

"What about your soldier boys," asked the Tongue. "Aren't you afraid they'll blab?"

"No," I smiled. "Not until they get back. After that, when they know they stand to lose their visiting privileges: in Glevum and be in trouble with the General, I don't think they'll say too much. And I'm sure they'll have a pleasant journey, at least one way."

It was her turn to smile.

They were aboard the wagon within half an hour, their money in their hands, with enough rations to feed an army. Titus had instructed his men on their duties as escort, and together we watched the party proceeding through the gates and down the hill road. Uther's games room was empty. Every skin and fur and cushion had gone aboard the wagon.

When they were safely out of sight, Titus turned to me with a slight smile. "Aren't you amazed at my patience? What is going on, Cay? You just gave away an emperor's ransom. What's it all about?"

"Rumours and reputations, Titus, that's what it's all about. Let's take a walk where we can't be overheard and I'll tell you the whole sorry tale."

He was gazing closely at me now, his mind working quickly. "Where's Uther, Cay? There's something here I can't grasp."

"Huh," I grunted. "There's something here that will stink in the nostrils of God, my friend."

We walked down the hill and I talked for half an hour, telling him everything I knew. He was as shocked and profoundly disturbed as I had been. When I had finished talking he stopped and caught my elbow, turning me so that he looked me in the eye.

"You don't really think it was Uther, do you?"

I turned away and started walking again, letting my words drift back over my shoulder. "What else can I think, Titus? I've told you what I saw and heard. It all adds up to Uther, and Uther is nowhere to be found. Am I wrong?"

He caught up to me. "You must be, Cay. You have to be. Uther couldn't be capable of the bestial savagery you're talking about."

"I know, Titus. That's what I would have said, until ,today. But you have to admit he is capable of savagery. You've seen him enraged; we both have. He can be a killer."

"Of course he can, in battle. We're all killers then." He shook his head. "No, I can't see it. He might have beaten her after she bit him, while he was so angry, but not like this! Not in cold blood." His face cleared suddenly, and hope gleamed in his eyes. "But you said she was raped, front and rear. He couldn't have done that, with a bitten cock."

I shook my head then, too. "I don't know, Titus. I don't know. That had occurred to me as well, but I really don't know how badly she bit him. I thought at the time he had been more shocked than hurt, but I don't know with certainty. He might still have been capable of that. And there's another thing that crossed my mind, too, although I think I'm leaping at shadows."

"What?"

"She had been beaten with a stick of some kind. No one could find it, apparently." I had to stop and think again about what I was suggesting, before I went on. "It occurred to me that he might have used whatever he beat her with to penetrate her, too, so it would appear she had been raped when we knew him to be incapable of rape because of his injury."

"Sweet Christ, Cay! You're making him into a ravening beast!"

"You haven't seen that girl, Titus. Whoever did that to her is a ravening beast!"

"But that's simply not Uther!"

I rounded on him at that. "Then who is it, Titus? Is it you? Is it me? My father? Somebody did it! Somebody right here in Camulod. I'm not making this up out of my head. It happened!" I realized that I was almost shouting and dropped my voice. "That girl is lying over in Lucanus's quarters, Titus. She is not a figment of my imagination and neither is what happened to her. Someone in this fort savaged her like a wild animal—worse than a wild animal would have—and left her there for dead. It's a marvel that she is alive at all, and she may very well be dead as we speak. I hope not. If she lives, she'll be able to identify her attacker."

"How? I thought she was deaf and dumb?"

"Come on, Titus! She can point a finger."

"Oh, of course. Stupid of me."

"She has to live, Titus, because I can't function properly with these suspicions in my mind and no proof one way or the other. She has to live to look Uther in the face, and I have to be there when it happens, so I have to make sure she stays alive if and when she starts to recover."

Titus frowned at me. "I don't understand. You're not making sense. Surely, if she starts to recover, she'll stay alive?"

I bit down on my impatience and managed not to snap at him. "Think about it, Titus. Think it through. We are not dealing with the normal here. Suppose it was you who had done this thing, and you thought the girl dead and your secret safe. And then you found out she's alive and recovering, and that she'll be able to identify you. What would you do?"

"Run." There was absolutely no hesitation in his voice.

"Right. That's a good answer, and exactly what I'd expect of you, although you'd have to run fast and far to be sure of safety from Picus's justice. But suppose that for any one of a thousand reasons, you couldn't, or didn't want to run away from Camulod? What then? What would your next move be? Remember, we're talking about a small, sick, deaf and mute girl who is the only witness who might condemn you. What might you try to do then?" I was putting words into his mouth, but I had to.