“Do you think he’s dangerous?” the big Legionary questioned.
“Of that, there is no argument,” Tescum responded. “I’m just not always sure to whom. Come on, we’ll have a mug of vino while we wait for the cook to fill our order.”
“A fine idea,” Palinurus acknowledged. “But this doesn’t look like the pub recommended by the gate guard.”
“How do you know?” Tescum questioned.
“There are no soldiers and I don’t see a barracks.”
The two Legionaries crossed the street and entered the pub. Two blocks away, Alerio ducked into a shop. A few heartbeats later, he appeared back on the street. While Tescum and Palinurus took seats and placed their orders, the Legion Corporal quick-stepped up the road and followed it around to the next level of the city. When mugs of vino splashed down on the tabletop and were lifted to thirsty lips, Alerio walked the last fifty paces and arrived at his destination.
***
In the dark, Alerio ran his fingertips over the face of one of the support columns for the gates. On it, he identified an indention where a craftsman had chiseled the shape of a single bee. Once satisfied he had located the proper compound, Alerio rapped on the gates using the pommel of the Ally of the Golden Valley dagger.
“We’re closed for the day,” a voice stated from the other side of the gates. “Come back in the morning. We look forward to doing business with you in the daylight.”
Alerio flipped the dagger, caught it by the blade, and passed it, hilt first, through the gap between the gates. The Legionary felt the presence of two people at the top of the wall. He didn’t bother glancing up to confirm. Drawn bowstrings made distinctive noises as the wood creaked and the shafts scraped against the bows. Without a doubt, the bows were loaded with steel-tipped arrows and targeting him.
“Some business is best conducted in the dark,” he whispered.
The weight of the dagger lifted from his hand. A few breaths later, the clicking of the gate unlatching followed by the squawking of the hinges announced the opening of one gate.
“Special orders are always given priority,” a man exclaimed. “But let’s not talk here. My office, if you please.”
The flash of a body against the emerging stars showed a form vaulting off the wall and landing lightly in the courtyard. Once on solid ground, the person gestured for Alerio to follow. Before they reached the building, a lantern flared to life, and a door opened.
‘Three adults and an apprentice,’ Alerio thought as he entered a room filled with luxury goods. On the far side at another doorway, the man from the yard and the lad with the light signaled for Alerio to come their way.
‘If the manager was at the gate and had placed two additional assassins on the wall, something wasn’t right. Since when does a Golden Valley compound need overt defenses?’
***
The assassin and apprentice guided Alerio down a corridor to an office. They continued onward while he stepped through a doorway they indicated. Another man entered from a different door, settled in behind a desk, and motioned for the Legionary to come into the room.
Out of habit, Alerio glanced around looking for hidden bodies. In his experience, the trading houses liked to use strangers to demonstrate tactics and he wanted to be ready.
“I am Heteros. And you, Corporal Sisera, are a long way from home,” the manager of the trading house suggested as he studied Alerio’s Ally of the Golden Valley dagger. “Yet Dolos smiles on your arrival. Please, sit.”
At every Golden Valley facility he visited, the managers always knew details about him. For a period, Alerio believed the managers were mind readers or magicians. But he learned recently, they read information about him from markings on the dagger. There was no mystery to their knowledge but, the reference to the Greek God of deception, craftiness, and treachery did present a riddle.
“I would think Dolos applies to your other line of commerce,” Alerio commented hinting at the assassins-for-hire part of the Golden Valley’s enterprise. “But I must confess, I don’t see the God’s connection to the duties of a Corporal of the Legion.”
“It’s true we hold the God’s blessings in high esteem,” Heteros replied while placing the dagger on the desktop. Using two fingers, he slid it across the desk to Alerio. “Your skills and sudden arrival fit nicely with a need. Although, the Legion was expected. You are a bonus.”
“I came to you for information,” Alerio stated. “Not for an assignment.”
“As is your right, Ally of the Golden Valley,” Heteros agreed. “The information is yours for the asking. The assignment, as you call it, is a favor.”
Alerio wanted to get the location of the Ambassador and leave. He was tired, hungry, thirsty, and had a busy evening ahead of him. Getting involved with a sect of assassins beyond acquiring information didn’t sit well with him. That logic was sound, and it’s why he surprised himself when he opened his mouth.
“What forces a trading house of the Golden Valley into a defensive posture?” Alerio inquired. “Two archers above the gate for one visitor. And, the apprentice kept behind the walls. I expected the youth to be on lookout duty across from the compound.”
“Captain Cheir of the city militia is the reason,” Heteros explained. “He is the son of a Centuripe councilman, the nephew of a priest, and his other uncle owns a trading house. In short, Captain Cheir is a powerful enemy of the Golden Valley. And when this crisis is resolved, he’ll be promoted to General of Centuripe.”
“Most enemies of the Golden Valley just fail to wake up one morning,” offered Alerio. “What’s different about the Captain?”
“It’s rare for Golden Valley trading houses to involve themselves in local politics,” Heteros advised. “With his family’s connections, if Cheir’s strings are cut in the middle of the night, his death would enrage the locals for a generation.”
“And hurt the Valley’s business,” suggested Alerio. “I assume you want the Captain removed publicly.”
“You seem very willing to kill without hesitation,” Heteros questioned while reaching out and retrieving the dagger. He studied it carefully. “Why is that?”
“The answer isn’t in my history,” Alerio offered. “The militia has taken an Ambassador of the Republic prisoner. That act has sentenced all of the militia’s officers, including Captain Cheir, to death. I’ve just agreed to carry out the judgment personally.”
“Ambassador Octavius Sergius has accommodations in the upper barracks,” Heteros described while placing the dagger in front of Alerio. “It’s across the street from the Agora. Surrounded by a wall with gates and steps to the upper watch hill. You’ll find about two hundred fifty soldiers along with Captain Cheir stationed there. Unfortunately, the current General is not there. He is out checking on his defensive positions.”
The two talked about details and locations for a while longer. Finally, Alerio picked up the dagger and slid it into the sheath on the small of his back.
“One more question, Master Heteros,” inquired Alerio as he pushed out of his chair. “What does the God Dolos have to do with this?”
“Don’t you find it deceptive and crafty for an assassination to be carried out legally and in view of witnesses?”
“You’ve been away from the Golden Valley for a long time, haven’t you?”
“That I have Corporal Sisera,” Heteros confessed. “I recommend you leave the back way. Cheir has agents watching the front. On the lower road, you’ll find a pub on the other side of the lower militia barracks. The food is…”
“The food is clean,” Alerio commented while crossing the room to where the young apprentice stood waiting. Just before going through the doorway, the Legionary glanced back at Heteros and added. “I’ve heard of the pub.”
Chapter 19 – Her Blue Scarf
Corporal Sisera tightened the rope and slowed the descent. When Heteros mentioned the back way, Alerio assumed he meant a doorway and stairs. Rappelling from the rear roof of the Golden Val
ley trading house’s building was the last thing he expected. His feet touched the roof of the building on the lower street and he released the rope. Following the lad’s directions lead to a staircase on the side of the building. Several steps later, he walked away from the building and onto a dark road.
Lights glowing from a three-story building created the brightest spot on the street. Between the lanterns hanging from the porch and Alerio was a structure of tall dark walls with sentries manning the gates. On the other side of the guard barracks, a pub occupied the lower level of the three-story building. Alerio didn’t care what the upper floors were used for, hunger pains tapped at his belly and guided his legs in the direction of the pub.
Pushing through the doorway, Alerio entered a noisy, crowded great room. Some locals were sequestered at tables against the walls. Their choice of seating necessary because the rest of the room was claimed by a large group of men. They were young and fit, brash, loud, and looking for a challenge. To feed the aggression, they gambled, shouted lies, pushed and shoved, and screamed in each other’s faces. Vino mixed with idle young men often led to fighting. The room felt as if it only required a single incident to set off a brawl. The group, obviously, was composed of off duty soldiers from the Centuripe militia.
Given a choice, Alerio would have taken his appetite and business to another establishment. But he was a stranger in the city and the only other pub he knew was where Tescum and Palinurus had gone to buy supplies. But that pub was on the other side of Centuripe. With no good alternative, the Legionary started across the floor. In order to stay out of the soldiers’ focus, Alerio kept the cowl over his head. After threading carefully through the crowd, he arrived at the wall and selected an empty seat.
“Vino and lamb,” Alerio ordered from the serving lass.
“It’ll take a few,” she stated with a tip of her chin at the milling crowd.
“I’ll wait,” he assured her.
The waitress stepped back, whirled around, and danced across the room. It wasn’t a dance of joy. Her moves were dodges and ducks to evade groping hands and lunging arms.
People had bad jobs, Alerio thought while watching her out of the corner of his eye. Being a serving lass in a warm pub with bad nights had nothing on a slave who spent his short life melting, pouring, and hammering lead. Or moving manure and trying to keep the swarms of flies out of their eyes, noses, and mouths while shoveling the blessed of Sterculius. Although, the God of Poo might appreciate the merda manners displayed by the rowdy soldiers.
When the food arrived, the lamb was cold and the vino room temperature. Seeing as Alerio hadn’t eaten since midday, and that consisted of a few wheat cakes washed down with water, he didn’t complain. Cutting off a slice, the Legionary used his teeth to pull the meat off the end of his knife. Out in the middle of the room, a soldier raised his voice and started to sing.
Ignore the babblings of old women
Her reputation they would blacken
By pointing to events of fabrication
Groans and laughter from all sides came at the crooner. Some were negative but most encouraged the soldier. With their backing, he continued the song while Alerio chewed.
There’s a rumor of indiscretion
With a Landowner of persuasion
Crops to market sold for profits
Profits to spend for any occasion
It was innocent I submit
My beautiful blue wildflower
Is no hypocrite
There’s a rumor of impropriety
With a mine manager of notoriety
Big salty chunks from the mine
Earn him top coins undeniably
It was innocent I opine
My beautiful blue wildflower
Is no concubine
Her blue scarf’s knotted around my heart
Since the day we met in the park
And her blue eyes hit me like a dart
Her blue paint stained my cheek
I washed it not for over a week
And her blue skirt offered a peak
But it was her simple purity
Even if I saw way above her knee
And her winning personality
That drew my coins and heart from me
A few soldiers cried out that the song was poking fun at their girlfriends. Alerio never understood when Legionaries took lyrics personally and assumed the singer had singled out two or three of them for ridicule. The protesters were shouted down by the rest and the singer belted out the next verse.
Ignore the babblings of old women
Her reputation they would blacken
By pointing to events of fabrication
There’s a rumor of an expletive
With a brimstone executive
Medicines and incense for pleasure
From ground sulfur to curative
It was innocent I plea
My beautiful blue wildflower
Is no harpy
There’s a rumor of a bawdy thing
With a boss at a pottery building
Sticky mud and sand from the Simeto
Shaped into ceramic gold earnings
It was innocent I spew
My beautiful blue wildflower
Is no shrew
Her blue scarf’s knotted around my heart
Since the day we met in the park
And her blue eyes hit me like a dart
Her blue paint stained my cheek
I washed it not for over a week
And her blue skirt offered a peak
But it was her simple purity
Even if I saw way above the knee
And her winning personality
That drew my coins and heart from me
Ignore the babblings of old women
Her reputation they would blacken
By pointing to events of fabrication
One of the offended soldiers drew back his fist and smashed the singer in the nose. A friend of the song stylist retaliated and, as Alerio suspected when he walked in, a riot began. Wine mugs sailed over battling men’s heads before crashing into the unwary.
A man stumbled backward, bumped into Alerio’s table, and sprawled on the platter of lamb. To add to the offense, his arm knocked the mug of vino off the tabletop spilling it on the floor.
Corporal Sisera forgot he was alone in a sea of fighting enemy soldiers. The ruined meal swept away his caution, and he hammered the man with his elbow. Four of the soldier’s friends saw the elbow sink into their comrade’s neck and they rushed to his defense.
***
There were problems with getting involved in a barroom brawl. At the top of the list was Alerio’s job of getting the Century into the city and guiding them to where Ambassador Sergius was being held. To accomplish the task, he needed to be healthy, not beaten up, uninjured, and not in jail. He was under no illusion that when the militia came to break up the fight, civilians would be blamed and arrested for starting the melee. Confirming the idea wasn’t just his alone, a quick glance around showed the other non-military patrons had already fled.
Second, on the problem list, was standing out in the crowd by creating a spectacle. This meant he couldn’t pull the dual gladii from the sheaths on his back and simply hack his way out of the pub. Leaving a trail of dead and wounded soldiers was a sure way to alert the city guard and have them call out the reserves. That left Alerio with one option, run away.
The Legionary hooked the leg of the table with his foot and flipped it over. With the table legs outward, he fended off the four soldiers while looking for an escape route. In one direction was a counter holding large barrels of vino. There was a door behind the counter but it was closed. Probably bolted shut from the other side, he guessed.
A stairway to the upper levels was three tables away in the other direction. Stepping away from the wall, Corporal Sisera entangled three of his assaulters in the table legs, twisted the tabletop, and swung it to the side. Happily, the three men flew back and
into the brawling mass. Alerio kicked the last soldier to the floor of the pub and using the chaos, ran for the bottom of the stairs.
***
On the second floor, Alerio had to make a decision. He could move to the front of the building, climb out a window, drop to the street, and try to get away. But the militia would form up at street level before coming in to stop the brawl. Chances were duty soldiers from the lower guard barracks were already staged there. Taking a chance, he ran up the stairs to the third floor.
At the end of a long corridor, the Legionary gripped a door and slung it open. In a small closet with a ladder mounted on one wall, stood a lad with a lantern.
“Master Heteros asked me to keep an eye on you and offer help,” stated the apprentice assassin. “Do you require help?”
After a glance over his shoulder, Alerio replied, “Yes, little Golden Valley assassin, I do require help.”
“Then I will lead you out of the building,” announced the apprentice killer.
“That will help but I need one more thing,” Alerio informed him as they started up the ladder to the roof. “I also need a pickax.”
Chapter 20 – Shadows of Death
Another session of hanging from a rope while traversing the back of a structure ended at the roof of a building on a lower street. Moving stealthily from the rooftop to the street allowed Alerio and his young guide to jog away from that section of Centuripe unseen and unchallenged.
Somewhere during the trip across the city, while shifting to streets heading downhill, two things occurred. The little assassin in training vanished in the dark and the moon rose. One didn’t bother the Legion Corporal. Moonlight, on the other hand, forced him to move faster. His Century would be exposed on the slope while they climbed to the weak part of the city’s defensive wall. While he couldn’t protect them on the approach, he could get them safely into the city by preparing and defending the entrance.
***
Alone, hungry, and a little tired, Alerio reached the moon shadowed area near the wall. After stomping on the pavers covering the road, he located the stones identified by Palinurus. With his dagger grasped in his fist, Alerio got down on his hands and knees and began scraping the dirt and mortar from around each of the chosen stones.
Infinite Courage Page 15