Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 11] Roman Treachery (26 page)

Marcus hovered close to the dining room and waited for the legate.  As he had expected, as the host, he was the last one to leave.  “Could I have a word sir?”

Julius had known Marcus since he had been born and saw, immediately, that there was something amiss. “Come to my office.”

The Principia had a guard at all times as the valuables for the ala as well as the standards of the ala and cohort were kept there for safety.  It was as secure a place as one could get in a busy fort. “Sir, the prefect has been poisoned.” He held his hand up as he saw the questions rising to the legate’s lips. “He lives and he will be fine but I have hidden him in his quarters.” He took a breath.  “I want everyone to think that he is dead.”

There was a pause.  Julius smiled, “First of all I thank all the gods that he is alive but I am intrigued as to your deception.”

“This is the second attempt on the prefect’s life. The first one we put down to the traitor, Scaeva.  This one cannot possibly be him and, unless you tell me differently, I would say that no one else was poisoned.”

Julius put his hands together reflectively, as though at prayer.  “True and it means that the murderer or would be murderer was in the dining room tonight, for the servants merely brought the food in and we served ourselves. Yes you could be right Marcus but can we keep it secret?”

“I have had one of the barbarian’s bodies wrapped in a shroud.  We will burn him tomorrow and, hopefully, the assassin will think he or she has succeeded.”

“She?  It could be a woman?”

There were five people in Eboracum when the prefect was given the poison, not counting the officers.  They are all here and three of them are women.”

“But you cannot suspect the Governor and his wife!”

“I can suspect anyone until I know differently.  Remember sir, the background to the prefect. His uncle was one of the last descendants of old Cunobelinus and he was a former Governor. As I recall from my father, Livius’ uncle was executed for treason.” Julius nodded. “Now all we need to do is work out who did it. I was not there sir.  The prefect left.  What happened immediately before he did?”

“Let me see.  I know that the two girls Lucia and Vibia were being very attentive. Pouring him wine and feeding him titbits…” He paused, dumfounded, “It had to be one of those for other than they it was the prefect who fed and served himself.”

“And Vibia has been here for some time while Lucia has only just arrived, as has Appius.  They could be in this together.”

“That is stretching it a little.  I can believe that one of the two companions poisoned Livius although for the life of me I cannot see why but we cannot accuse them without evidence.  We will have to wait until the prefect recovers consciousness.  Did the doctor know when that would be?”

“No sir.  Sextus and I can watch tonight but we need someone we can trust to watch him tomorrow.”

“Julius Longinus.  He will watch him.”

When the death of the prefect was announced the next day Julius Demetrius watched the faces of all those whom he and Marcus suspected of the crime. If they expected a guilty reaction they were disappointed; all of them expressed shock. The legate had said that he died suddenly in his sleep and had been discovered in his bed. Apart from Marcus and Sextus none of the ala had any idea of the truth.  Marcus took Metellus and Rufius to one side to explain to them of the events of the previous night but the rest of the ala showed genuine remorse that their charismatic leader had died suddenly. To the troopers it seemed harsh that a warrior should die without violence but the ways of the gods and Nemesis were hard to fathom.

The funeral took place close to the Stanegate and the barbarian’s body was burnt, the ashes were reverently placed in an urn. Surprisingly, as soon as the body was burnt, the Governor became all business like again and callously discussed the command of the ala. “Well we shall need a new prefect.  Of course, temporarily, the Decurion Princeps can run matters but we will need someone who is a patrician.” He smiled at Appius. “Perhaps you might…”

“I think it is a little soon to be discussing a replacement and, with all due respect, young man, I would prefer someone who was an experienced soldier.” At the back of the legate’s mind was that these two were behaving suspiciously and would bear watching as well as the girls.  Perhaps there was a conspiracy as Marcus had suggested.  They would have to wait until the prefect came to in order to find out the truth.

Briac, Randal and Iucher met far to the north.  They had travelled beyond the Roman horse patrols in order to guarantee secrecy.  Scaeva was with them and was honoured in equal measure by the Selgovae.

“Welcome brother Scaeva.  Your ideas have proved successful and, apart from one, incident, the Romans have suffered more losses than we. Whenever you have something to tell us pray interrupt.”

Scaeva was a dour man and he merely nodded. Iucher stood. “The building of the wall has slowed down but it still continues and more Romans, as predicted by Scaeva, are arriving each day.  Soon they will outnumber us.” There was much nodding at this.  In reality they were waiting for Scaeva to come up with an idea but he was biding his time.  “Briac, can the Brigante attack wagons again?”

Before he could answer Scaeva said, “They are now sending the supplies by sea and landing them on the south side of the Tinea; they have built a road to extend to the Stanegate.”

“Then, Roman, tell us how we hurt them again and slow down the building of the wall. If we can achieve a victory then the other clans will join us and we will have sufficient numbers for victory.”

“The Stanegate is their main road and it runs south of the wall.  They have to use that to supply their forts and move men along it.  They think they are safe as any attackers would have to retreat back over the wall.” He gave a sly smile.  “If Chief Briac was to bring Brigante north then your tribes could raid the road and, when they attacked you, we could lead them into a trap.”

Randal too saw the solution and smiled, “So we flee the way they do not expect us to and ambush them with forces they do not know we have.”

“How do we get such a large number of men across the wall?”

“That is easy, Chief Iucher and the Selgovae have already done so.  The wall to the west is made of turf and it is weakly defended.  Kill the guards there and slip across.  The Votadini can cross near the lake for the forts are not built.  The two warbands need to be close enough to each other to support and to attack simultaneously.  The Romans watch the wall not the land to the south.”

The chiefs all began talking at once. “Well done Scaeva that is a good plan. I will leave as soon as the meeting has finished and bring our warriors.  We will make the Romans suffer this time.” Scaeva looked distracted.  “What concerns you Scaeva, you should be elated with what you have achieved. You appear distracted and ill at ease?”

“I could have returned the Sword of Cartimandua to our people.  I had many chances to take it but I always planned to capture it before I left.”

“Do not worry.  We will get it and you can pry it from the decurion’s cold, dead hand!”

It fell to Marcus to escort the engineers who were to survey the site for the new fort. It was further west than Marcus had been for some time but, with Felix as his scout, he was sure that they would avoid an ambush.  Wolf and Felix had proved a doughty combination; neither might be responsible for killing many barbarians but their mere presence saved the lives of troopers.  Also with the engineers was Appius Serjenus who was keen to prove his credentials as a warrior. Marcus was determined to discover if the arrogant Roman was a murderer as well as a pompous self opinionated bore!

The engineers, from the Second Augusta, rode uneasily on their horses.  They had wanted to march but Marcus knew the Selgovae were fleet of foot and the recent ambushes meant that he wanted to be able to escape faster than they arrived. They had left before dawn, travelling to the north of the wall. Felix led them through shallow valleys and woods which kept them from the skyline.  Their task was not to find the enemy but to avoid them.  When they reached the site Marcus could see that someone had done their research well.  There were two streams which joined, providing protection for two sides of the fort.  The only problem which Marcus’ unpractised eye could see was that the fort would not be a regularly sized Roman fort however that was the engineers’ problem. He rode over to Appius. “Are you staying here or coming with us?”

Appius bridled at the lack of a ‘sir’.  Even though he was a civilian he felt his association with the Governor merited one.  When he took command of the ala he would punish this arrogant decurion who appeared to be little older than he. “Yes decurion, I would learn all that I can of serving with an auxiliary turma.”

“Optio we will form a screen. Let us know if you need us.”

“Don’t worry decurion you will hear the hooves of our horses heading south if any of the barbarians show up.”

“Felix, take Wolf and sweep north.  Turma skirmish order; Cassius take the right flank, I’ll take the left.” Almost instantly the turma took their allotted places and Appius was curious to see them notch bows.

“I thought your ala used javelins.”

He saw Appius watching Titus string his bow, “We do but, as the barbarians have learned to keep their distance, we need to use bows to keep up with them.”

“Why can’t you just chase them down?”

Marcus sighed, he had no time to be a schoolmaster but Metellus had told him to behave so… “You see the ground is rocky and uneven.  It is not like the fells close to Stanwyck; there are not long open stretches to open the horse’s legs.  Here we can ride swiftly in short bursts and all that time they can hit the horses.  They have begun to do that since Scaeva deserted. They can stand off and loose many arrows and stones at us.  Having the bows means that we can hit them for that is our advantage.  Unless they hit the horses then we are safe but they have no protection.”

Appius seemed disappointed and forgot his loathing of the decurion.  “I had thought that the cavalry would be more glorious than the infantry; the charges, the fine swords.” He looked down at Marcus’.  “That is a fine sword and it seems a little too good for a decurion.”

Marcus could have taken offence but he knew that aide had been brought up with these views and it was not his fault. “I had this when I was but a trooper.  It is the hereditary sword of the Brigante.  It was wielded in the past by the kings and queens of my mother’s tribe.”

Appius looked surprised. “You are half Brigante?”

“Yes my mother is one of the last relatives of the royal family and I inherited it from my father who also served in the ala.” He saw Appius nod reflectively and take it in. He glanced over and saw that one of the recruits was not keeping the line.  “Lucius, keep up.  You are letting your horse determine your pace.” He looked back at Appius. “If you don’t mind me saying I am surprised that you would wish to serve with this ala.  I assume that you are a patrician and could serve with a legion if you wished.”

Appius chewed his lip.  He could not tell the decurion but he wanted swift promotion and glory which would give him early power.  His father had told him that he had gained all his power after he had served under Agricola and defeated the northern tribes.  When he had returned to Rome he had been lauded as a hero. “I had heard that Marcus’ Horse has the best reputation in Britannia and the best chance of glory.”

Marcus shook his head and held his hand up for the turma to rest. “Feed your horses.” He turned to Appius. “Glory is a fleeting thing and only comes when many brave men die.”

“But you rescued Vibia.  That was glorious!”

“No, that was cunning. We lied to the barbarians and we murdered them while they slept.  That is not glorious.  We laid traps for them.  That is not glorious.”

“But they were barbarians.  It matters not if you lie to them.” Even as he said the words Appius was beginning to see the truth. Marcus merely raised his eyebrows. “I will have to think on your words decurion.  Thank you for being honest.”

As they headed back to the engineers Marcus felt that Appius had changed slightly and, in some strange way, Marcus liked him a little more than he had. When they reached the survey site the engineers had not finished and Marcus allowed his troopers to eat.  “Why did the horses get fed before your men?”

“Horses are wonderfully loyal creatures and they will run all day if asked and then drop dead. A horseman without a horse is helpless.  We all look after our horses much as we do our swords and our armour.  They are part of us.  Remember that should you ever become a horseman.”

Appius, too, had been affected by their conversation but in his case it had persuaded him not to take the military route.  He would, instead, use the commercial route to get power.  He would use the copper mines in the west to gain money and, therefore, power.

Back at the fort Livius had finally woken. Julius sent a medical orderly for the legate as soon as he became conscious. It took much water to moisten the prefect’s lips sufficiently to enable conversation.  As the cool water hit his stomach he was wracked by cramps.  The Greek doctor, who had also been summoned, nodded his approval.”Good, that is a good sign.  You will be on a liquid diet for a few days until your system is purged.”  He held the prefect’s head and poured a white aromatic liquid down his throat.  “This will continue the healing.”

The doctor left as the legate arrived. He shook his head as Julius rose to leave. “Stay.  I need another pair of ears for this. Do you know what happened to you Livius?”

“I must have been poisoned.” His eyes widened in alarm.  “Is everyone else…”

“No it was just you and it was a quick acting poison so it had to have been at the table. The doctor thinks it was the wine you drank so, the question is, who served you the wine?”

Marcus lay back with his eyes closed.  “Lucia and Vibia were both being over attentive. They were feeding me titbits.” Suddenly he contorted with pain and turned his head to vomit into a bowl by his bed.