Dark Omens (32 page)

‘So that is why you killed him!’ I prompted, helpfully.

‘I tell you that I didn’t!’ He half-rose and bellowed, and for a frightened moment I thought he’d lunge for me, but he sat down again and added ruefully: ‘I admit that for a moment I was afraid I had. When he looked up and saw me, it gave him such a fright that he gave a gasp and clutched his chest, rolled his eyes back and tumbled off the bed. I was convinced that I had frightened him to death.’

‘And had you?’

‘Of course he hadn’t!’ Gitta’s voice was shrill. ‘He’d fainted, that was all. If my precious husband only had the wit to leave him there and run away, that would probably have been the end of it. But that was too simple! Once he found the man was breathing, he had a new idea. He would bring him to the farm and make him perform the atoning sacrifice before we let him go. After all, we’d more than paid for it, he said.’

I looked at her husband, who was sitting with his head between his hands. ‘Is that true?’ I asked him.

‘It’s not as idiotic as she makes it sound,’ he grumbled. ‘The priest knew who I was in any case – if I had run away and left him, you can imagine what he’d do. Claim that I’d come to rob him, at the very least – that would be a charge of sacrilege – and you know the dreadful punishments for that!’

‘And you didn’t rob him?’ I said sarcastically. ‘I thought that’s where you got that money which I saw in your purse.’

‘I only took exactly what I had given him. And I even left the jewels that had been the statue’s eyes – can you believe that he’d extracted them? From the image of a god! And he a priest as well! The man had no respect whatever for the deities. And I couldn’t bear to see it standing where he should have stood himself – I took it down and laid it on the floor beside the bed. I expect they’ll find it, if they look for it.’

I nodded. I was beginning to have some sympathy with this unhappy tale. ‘So then what happened? You took him to the ladder and across the wall? And no one saw you? That sounds difficult.’

He shook his head. ‘He was so thin and frail that he was feather-light. Less than a full-grown ram in any case, and he wasn’t struggling. I could have carried him one-handed, if I’d tried. I put him round my shoulders as if he were a sheep, climbed over and pulled the ladder after me. I didn’t even stop to put it back, just went to where I’d left the mules tied up, put the priest’s body on the frame that I’d used to bring the image into town, covered him with the blanket that I’d wrapped it in and rode back to the farm. Several people saw me, but it occasioned no remark – no one thinks twice about a farmer with a loaded mule, and in any case it was getting dark by then. I even found the trader at the southern gate and managed to buy a little hay from him – just a sheaf or two that I could tie on top. I suppose it made me even less remarkable.’

‘So when you got here, he was still alive?’ I said, incredulous.

Gitta let out a long, despairing wail. ‘If only that were true! I told him it was stupid. A frail old man like that! And after having given him a dreadful shock as well!’ All the struggle had gone out of her, and suddenly her frame was racked with sobs. ‘So there you are! You know now! I told you we were cursed!’

I let her hands go, and she raised them to her face, covering her eyes and the tears that flowed from them. ‘But I don’t know,’ I said gently. ‘I understand that he was dead when he arrived – but not how he contrived to be discovered in that pond. Nor how half of him was missing by that time. I don’t believe in demons. I presume you put him there?’

Cantalarius had lumbered to his feet. ‘Citizen, I’ll tell you, but first I need a drink.’ He picked up the pitcher and brandished it at me. ‘Would you care to join me? I will get a beaker each. Stay, wife!’ he added, as she broke away from me – but he was too late and she had already wriggled free.

She was flushed and weeping and utterly distraught – what I have heard physicians call ‘hysterical’, though I am not convinced it is an affliction of the womb. At all events she was disturbed enough to stamp her feet and shout. ‘I’ll tell him, husband! What does it matter now! We shall both be executed anyway, for the illegal abduction of a priest! They can’t do any more to us for bleeding him and trying to use his blood as sacrifice.’

I looked at Cantalarius. He put the pitcher down and came across to take her in his arms. She was red-faced and ugly with distress, but he looked at her as tenderly as if she were his bride. ‘It was my fault, citizen. She thought of the idea – what blood could be more pleasing to the gods than priestly blood? – but she’d never have put it into practice but for me. And we did try to give him a decent funeral – in fact you almost interrupted it …’

‘The pyre!’ I said. ‘How simple! Why, of course! And then, of course, you said it was a slave!’

He nodded. ‘I wondered if you’d notice that our last slave was still alive, but you did not question it. We had lost several others and we had kept the pyre alight – so adding him to it seemed an obvious thing to do, a kind of burnt offering even, to appease the deities. We even washed the body and treated it with herbs – and that’s when we discovered the final insult to the gods! You know the fellow should not have been a priest at all? A priest must be physically perfect in all respects, of course – is that not always a prerequisite?’

‘No limp; no impediment of hearing, speech or sight; and no physical or mental deformity,’ I quoted, in assent.

‘Only he had a birthmark, across both his upper thighs. A great big purple birthmark, bigger than my hand. Someone must have bribed the temple priests when he was young, for them to have accepted him at all.’

‘Surely it is possible that it developed afterwards?’ I said. ‘These things do happen sometimes, I believe. And priests can go on acting when they are frail and old – after all, apart from the Servirs of the Imperial cult, a priesthood of the Roman deities is generally for life.’

He shook his head. ‘I know a birthmark when I see one. I should do; I was born with one myself. And it was always held to be a sign of judgement from the gods – an indication that I was born unworthy and unclean – like this crooked shoulder that I bear. How could I offer that to purify my land? I cut off the offending limbs, and wrapped them in his priestly robes and took him to the pond next morning before light. I knew the place where the other corpse was found – perhaps that’s what gave me the idea – and we put him where the ice had already been disturbed. I knew that someone would soon discover him – I thought perhaps that would prevent a further search and people would simply think that he’d been gnawed by wolves. The last one had been, so I understand. But I reckoned without your involvement, citizen.’

There was nothing much that I could say to that. ‘So that is why the temple was so sure that it was him! They must have known about the birthmark too – but of course they couldn’t say so publicly. No doubt that’s also why they held the funeral so soon and privately. And, judging by the fact that you had put him on the pyre – or the part of him that you were offering to the gods – very shortly before I got here with my slave, both halves were cremated not very far apart. I see now why your wife was so upset when we interrupted that – especially when we talked about a missing man. Where have you put the ashes?’

He let go of sobbing Gitta to wave a hairy hand. ‘You are looking at them, citizen. We put them on the land. Isn’t that the way to use a cleansing sacrifice? But there you are. We meant no disrespect. For one wild moment, we thought you might be right – the sacrifice we’d offered had removed the curse – but of course I realize now that it was quite the opposite. Though I have to tell you, citizen, this has been a relief. I have not slept a moment since I found that he was dead. In fact I tried to tell you once before – but you misinterpreted. I’d said that I’d been tempted in the marketplace …’

‘I thought you meant the money-lenders!’ I said, remembering.

He nodded. ‘Precisely, citizen. But now you know the truth. So what, exactly, do you mean to do with us? I am unimportant – I am ruined anyway. But after all, perhaps you could contrive to save my wife? She was going to leave me, because she thought me cursed – poor creature, it turns out that she was right. Could you let her get away and go back to her home? Then it doesn’t matter what becomes of me.’

Perhaps it was that plea that made up my mind for me. Or perhaps it was Gitta sobbing as she clung to him. ‘Husband, don’t say that. It’s my foolish tongue again. I should not have threatened that I was going to leave. How could I know that you would take it so to heart? You’re old and you’re ugly, but you’ve been good to me. How could I let you make a sacrifice like that?’

It was not entirely clear what sacrifice she meant, but Cantalarius looked as thrilled as if he’d found the golden fleece. ‘You hear that, citizen?’ he said to me. ‘Perhaps she would not have left me after all.’

I did not have the heart to point out what this meant – that all his bargaining and worry was in vain and that he need not have troubled with the priest at all. But I had come to a conclusion. Earlier I had let Lucius and Silvia escape, on the grounds that they were honest and that no purpose would be served by handing them over to the authorities. I could not in fairness do any different now. These people were not wealthy – they had neither charm nor beauty or much intelligence – but they deserved no less.

‘Listen,’ I said. ‘I have a proposition for you. Pour me a cup of wine, and I will tell you what it is.’

M
arcus was in a jovial and expansive mood when I arrived with my report, and from the way that he was leading Julia by the arm and looking at her in that doting way, it was clear that Gwellia’s assumptions had been right.

‘Well, Libertus!’ he said heartily, seating her on the most comfortable folding chair and taking the less ornate one for himself. ‘Have you heard the news? Peculiar, isn’t it, the way these things turn out?’

‘News, Excellence?’ I murmured.

He patted the stool beside him, inviting me to sit. ‘Of course, it’s disappointing, from your point of view. Usually you’re clever at unravelling mysteries. But not even you could have worked this out, I think! It turns out that Ulpius was murdered after all – and Silvia and Lucius suspected all along.’

I had the wit to feign surprise at this.

‘And you’ll never guess who did it,’ he went on gleefully. ‘That guardian of hers. Lucius has actually demonstrated that – though he had to kill the culprit in the course of proving it. I don’t quite understand what happened to the corpse. I think he hid it somewhere, but of course they’ve found it now, and Bernadus has arranged a funeral for it. Just as well, since Lucius and Silvia have fled. Silly people, they feared I’d prosecute – of course I would never do anything like that. Such a charming lady. I wouldn’t wish her harm.’

‘She’s declared a usus marriage and gone to Gaul with him!’ That was Julia, blooming, as she plumped her cushions up. ‘I’m glad to think she’s happy, and has found a man she likes.’ And glad it wasn’t Marcus, her expression said, though of course she did not voice the thought aloud. ‘They wrote us a letter, confessing everything. I don’t suppose you knew?’

I shook my head. I had been ready to disclose the truth myself by now – but better, probably, to leave things as they were.

‘Well, never mind, Libertus. No one can be clever all the time!’ Marcus seemed amused to think that I had failed. ‘I’m glad to say that you were right on other counts. I’ve spoken to Nutricia and she’s agreed to stay – though I fear that I shall still have to go to Rome. However, I’ll be back before the baby comes – perhaps we’ll be able to go back again, a little later, as a family. Pertinax may want me to be close at hand.’ He beamed at me. ‘And what would you do, if I were not here? I could commend you as a client to Alfredus Allius. He seems to think highly of your talents, as it is. Or would you rather I proposed you for some office in the town? They’ll be wanting another aedile very soon – and they’re short of a candidate, with Genialis dead.’

I shook my head. ‘Patron, it is far too soon to think of things like that. Who knows what the Emperor will have in mind for you? You may end up as Governor of Britannia, yet.’

He preened a little. Flattery always pleased him, though what I said was true. ‘Well, we shall see. Perhaps if this child turns out to be a girl, we might even leave her in Glevum to be nursed. We could name you as my proxy, to be her guardian. In the meantime, you have something to report?’

‘It concerns that list of names that you consulted me about.’ I produced it from the leather pocket at my belt. ‘I have made a note of everything I’ve learned about each person, underneath the name. I think you’ll find your questions answered, Excellence.’ I handed him the little scroll of bark paper.

I did so proudly. It was a labour which had taken many hours, but he scarcely looked at it. ‘Excellent, Libertus. Though I may not need it now. Lucius has forfeited his rights, of course, and I think I shall let Alfredus Allius have the warehouse after all. He’s prepared to pay a handsome price for it – says he’ll keep that steward on to run the place for him – and I don’t think I really have an eye for common trade. So if there’s nothing else …?’ He stood up, smiling, and clapped his hands to summon in a slave. ‘We’ll order some refreshments and then we’ll let you go.’

‘There is just one thing, Excellence,’ I said. ‘I’ve learned there is a chance that you could add to your estate. There is a little farm nearby which has come up for sale – the farmer has been ruined by this recent snow and he’s compelled to leave it and move on elsewhere. He’s commissioned me to find a buyer, and I thought of you. It’s not in good condition – he has not had the labour to make the most of it – but with your land slaves it could soon be turned to useful fields. I know that you were thinking about trying out some vines – and if you had some money from Silvia’s estate …?’

Marcus looked at me. ‘I take it that there’s something in this deal for you?’

I nodded. ‘A little something, Excellence. And he also has some information that he’s promised me – something about that ancient priest who died and some peculiar kind of sacrifice he once helped to make. He’s written it all down. It might be relevant. I’m sure the temple would be grateful if you passed it on to them. But that’s dependent on my managing to find a purchaser for him. Though I don’t expect it will be difficult. He’s forced to sell, and quickly, so it’s a bargain at the price.’