Bedrock of Empire

by Thomas M D Brooke

  He stood and saluted. ‘I will do that, sir. You can rely on me.’

  I lifted the edge of his tunic covering his upper arm. ‘And you need to get this seen to first, before you leave. Go find the bandages and tell one of the men to stitch it.’

  He nodded and left, leaving just Aulus to say goodbye. ‘Your sister won’t forgive me if you don’t return, Cassius. Please try and be careful.’

  ‘You too, Aulus.’ I looked over to where the prisoner was tied to the mule. ‘If I don’t find a way out of this, make sure you get Flavus back to Rome. Defend him in the law courts to the best of your ability. He deserves that at least.’

  Aulus bowed his head. ‘I will, I promise, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.’

  Viviana said, ‘I will gather my things, then I’ll be ready to go. We cannot waste any time.’

  ‘Agreed,’ I told her.

  ‘One last thing, Cassius, I don’t think you should embark on this trip dressed as a Roman. Where we are going, Roman law doesn’t exist. It will be best if no one knows you are there.’

  I hadn’t considered that. ‘What do you expect me to wear instead?’

  She said nothing, just pointedly looked over at the corpses of the two bandits who’d been killed during the first assault.

  I gave a sigh. ‘Great, just what I wanted.’ But despite my displeasure, I gave a brisk nod and walked over to the two cadavers. One of them looked to be a similar size to me and wore armour made from thick crossed-leather straps connecting a bronze circular plate that protected the user’s chest. As it was mainly leather, it would still be lighter than my mail shirt, so I stripped off my armour and tunic. I stripped to my loincloth. Everyone averted their eyes, returning to their tasks. Two legionaries were digging a shallow grave for Longus, using the small half-spades in their kit, which they carried to build fortifications. The bandits we’d leave where they were – the Praetorians didn’t have any time to waste on unnecessary tasks, and they deserved no ceremony.

  Dressing in a dead man’s clothes isn’t a sensation I ever want to repeat. Just the touch of the rough leather armour and homespun tunic made my skin crawl. But I gritted my teeth and donned them quickly without fuss. The tunic still smelled of its previous owner, and the bronze plate was still spattered with some of his blood. I picked some long grass and used it to wipe the mess off. The small caetra shield was a fair substitute for my own, but I decided to keep my own gladius. The falcata was a similar weapon to the gladius, but the weight was different, and if I ever needed to use it, such small differences matter. Besides, I wasn’t about to leave Varus’ weapon behind – some items are just too important to be discarded. The bandit’s helmet was full of blood and was cleft by the gladius thrust that killed him, so I picked up a small leather skullcap belonging to the other bandit. This fitted snugly and hid my neatly trimmed Roman haircut. I kept my own sandals, thinking them unlikely to give me away, and brought my own clothing and armour over to Cacus to stow.

  Flavus was tied to the mule. He said, ‘You’ll need to grow your beard out. There aren’t many clean-shaven bandits in these mountains.’

  I pushed my armour into one of the half-empty saddlebags. ‘That’s alright, I didn’t plan on stopping to shave anytime soon. You realise I’ll be leaving you now?’

  Flavus shook his head. He was too far away to have heard our conversation. ‘Where will you be going?’

  I squashed the tunic on top of the mail shirt and fastened the bag. ‘Over the mountains, to try and warn my unit of Praetorians that an attack is imminent.’

  Flavus looked down at the ground. ‘I wish you luck with that.’

  I turned to the young centurion. ‘This must seem very unfair to you.’

  Flavus looked at me. ‘What is fair and what isn’t has no bearing on this situation. But you needn’t worry. I have no plans to escape.’

  I found that hard to believe. ‘So you want to return to Rome and face justice?’

  He gave a sad smile. ‘I wouldn’t go that far. But I realise there is no running from this now.’

  I tightened the thick belt around my waist. ‘If I don’t come back, Aulus will do his best to look after you.’

  Flavus smiled. ‘You’ll come back, Gaius. I think the gods will always find a way to keep you alive.’

  This brought me up short. ‘Why do you say that? Surely you hate me for what I’ve done?’

  Flavus grinned and gave a shake of his head. ‘I don’t hate you, Gaius. I’ve known you since I was a young boy, but only now do I realise why my brother always envied you.’

  I felt my chest tighten. ‘Why should he envy me?’

  ‘Because you have an inner courage he doesn’t possess. If Julius had been in command here, he wouldn’t have risked being hit by that slinger. He’d have stuffed that crested helmet on someone else.’ He gave a short laugh. and raised his bound hands. ‘Probably a prisoner, and let them take the shot for him. His belief in his own importance would have demanded no less. He isn’t a coward, but he is arrogant, and that has blinded him.’

  I shook my head sadly. ‘I’m not the man you think I am, Flavus. I lived a lie for many years, and I’m no hero. I have fears and worries, and hardly a day goes by when I don’t need to question my own courage.’

  Flavus looked me squarely in the eye. ‘And yet you came all this way to get me, Gaius. My own brother has done no more than send me a few angry letters – and yet you travelled thousands of miles to find me. I think you have more courage than you know.’

  My throat was thick with emotion. ‘I wasn’t much use when they first attacked. I just couldn’t seem to think properly.’

  Flavus gave a dismissive sniff. ‘The other men tell me you’d just killed your own lictor. I think it’s understandable that you were affected by that.’

  I nodded. ‘It’s the first time I’ve killed someone I knew.’

  Flavus didn’t say anything. He just clasped my shoulder in understanding.

  I straightened myself. ‘Thank you, Flavus. For saving the life of Maris and for hitting your mark with the pilum. That might just have saved my life too.’

  ‘I’m a centurion of the Roman legions,’ he said, shrugging. ‘I just did my job.’

  I clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Goodbye, Flavus.’

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Viviana and I made steady progress as we left the others and started trekking south-west. There seemed to be no obvious logic to the path she chose, no particular streambed or valley that outlined our route. Sometimes she would lead me into a valley that appeared to be taking us in the wrong direction only for it to lead to another that then realigned our direction to the south-west. At first I tried to correct her or offer suggestions of my own as I peered up at the position of the sun and tried to gauge our trajectory. But I soon realised I was wasting my time. She knew these mountains; I didn’t. Any contribution from me was greeted with a frown and a curt dismissal.

  Other than the odd remark on our direction, we marched in silence, conserving all our energy for our walking. Too many lives depended on us, and I think we both felt the burden of that. We were relatively unencumbered. I was wearing lighter armour, and we’d only taken the bare essentials we needed for the journey: just three days’ worth of hardtack and salted meat, plus an assortment of oats and nuts, one small pot, and a thin blanket each. We marched late into the evening. The nights weren’t quite as long as earlier in the summer, but the late July weather was clear and fine. I was pleased with our progress by the time we finally decided we’d better call an end to our first day’s travel. We camped in a natural hollow in the side of a mountain, protected by a small hazel tree. The tree’s deep shadow meant we could risk a small banked fire that Viviana lit expertly with a flint and stone.

  Whilst she built up the fire, I peered through the hazel tree leaves. ‘I think I recognise that mountain far to the north. Is that the mine?’

  Viviana blew on the small sticks near the base of the fire to try and
help them catch. She didn’t bother to look up. ‘Yes, that’s your Roman mine.’

  I looked over at the dark mountain, barely visible in the failing light. We were too far to hear anything from that distance, but my mind imagined the sharp tap-tapping of the slaves’ picks as they worked the stone. ‘We’ve done well to come so far in one day then?’

  Viviana gave a quick smile of satisfaction when the fire took hold, and she sat back and started rooting through her bag to find us something to eat. ‘We’ve done well, but it is just a start, Cassius. We have a long way to travel, and I cannot predict how well this journey will go.’

  I looked at her then. ‘You’ve given me a chance to save my friend and the lives of my men. I couldn’t ask any more from you.’

  She didn’t answer, just nodded and pulled some food out of the bag. We ate quickly, the long rigours of the march, following the earlier drama, giving us a ravenous appetite. Soon after, the fire’s heat and our exhaustion led us to fall asleep side by side, covered by the thin blankets we’d each taken with us.

  That night, I dreamt of Decius.

  I was back at the mine, searching for something underground. What I was doing there, I didn’t know, but I followed the sound of tapping in the rock. I felt the presence of Decius before I saw him. As I emerged from a small tunnel, he was waiting for me. As always, I was filled with cold dread.

  I hugged myself, trying to control my fear.

  He looked at me and his eyes burned into mine. Decius pointed to a hole by his feet. I didn’t want to go anywhere near it, but the sound of tapping was coming from it, and I felt myself creeping over to the hole, guided by its noise. I reached the edge of the hole and cowered underneath my former centurion’s terrifying gaze. He pointed at the hole, and I was unable to stop turning to see what lay down there.

  It was a long narrow shaft wreathed in shadows and darkness, but at the very bottom I could just make out a man. He was feeling with his hands along the shaft’s smooth surfaces and was tapping with a small pick, trying to find a way out of his all-encompassing prison. The man was crying and whimpering, pleading for help. He looked up the long dark shaft.

  It was Blasius.

  I woke up screaming, trying to scramble to my feet. In the dark it was all confusion, and I couldn’t rise as I felt something hanging onto my neck. I tried to shake it off, babbling in fear and panic.

  I felt cool fingers run through my hair. ‘Shush, Cassius. Relax, it’s just a bad dream.’

  I was hopelessly disorientated. ‘Numeria?’

  ‘It’s alright, Cassius. It’s Viviana. You were screaming in your sleep.’ Her arm was around me, trying to gently restrain me.

  I slumped back against her, cradled on her chest, relief flooding me. ‘Viviana, sorry, I was lost. I didn’t know where I was …’

  The fire had now burnt down to smouldering embers, and stars shone in the cool night air, lighting up our small hollow. I sat up, panic taking me again. ‘I saw Blasius. I saw the price of failure. I saw where I could end up!’

  She came up behind me and turned me around so I faced her. ‘Cassius, it was just a bad dream. No matter how real it seemed, they are just reflections and shadows of the true world. They cannot hurt us.’

  I tried to pull myself together. ‘But Blasius was there. He was trapped underground …’

  Viviana held my face in her strong hands. ‘That’s enough. It was not Blasius you saw. He is dead, a death he warranted through his poor decisions. It is understandable that this troubles you because you wielded the blade, but he gave you no choice.’

  Her uncompromising tone started to penetrate my mind. She was right. He had given me no choice. ‘But I saw him trapped underground. He told me, before he died, how he feared tight spaces.’

  She gave me a dark frown. ‘Seriously? Have you forgotten where you’ve been these last few days? Just earlier today, Aulus told me you’d visited the mines and been troubled by what you’d seen. Don’t you think that had a bearing on what you dreamt?’

  I nodded slowly. Her remorseless logic, delivered in her strong accented voice, gave little room for dissent. ‘Yes, I’m sorry. You must think me such a fool.’

  She gave a deep sigh. ‘No, I don’t think you’re a fool. I just think you’re a man who is struggling to come to terms with the death of a friend, even one who deserved his death as obviously as Blasius. It will trouble you for some time. But you will manage it better in time. We are all disturbed by certain aspects of our past, but somehow we find a way to deal with it.’

  I ran my hand through my hair. My heart slowly stopped pounding and the cold sweat that covered my entire body made me shiver in the cool night air. ‘Just a dream, nothing more,’ I said out loud, more to reassure Viviana than to convince myself. I knew what I’d seen, and that was no pale reflection.

  Viviana lay back down on the grassy bank under the hazel tree. ‘Come on, Cassius, let’s go back to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow.’

  I lay back down next to her and pulled my blanket over myself. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll try not to wake you again.’

  She gave another deep sigh. ‘Find some sleep. It will all seem clearer in the morning.’

  Surprisingly, despite my misgivings, I did fall back asleep, and the gods be praised, Decius didn’t find me again. I woke up when the sun started to break over the mountains.

  Viviana was already awake and she was cooking a light meal smelling of oats in our one small iron pot over the fire she had evidently relit. ‘You’re awake. Good. I didn’t want to wake you after the troubled sleep you had, but we need to leave soon.’

  I decided I didn’t want to bring up the night before, so I just kept to the task at hand. ‘I’ll be ready to go shortly, don’t worry about me.’ I looked at the small pot. ‘Will there be enough oats for two?’

  She gave a wry grin. ‘There’ll be enough, Cassius.’

  Within the time it took to wolf the food down and for me to relieve myself, we were back up and walking through the mountains. Again, I blindly followed Viviana’s lead, as we wended our way through the mountains by a circuitous route, but one that unerringly took us to the south-west.

  The morning walk was quiet, uninterrupted by much in the way of conversation. But despite my reluctance to discuss the topic, I felt closer to Viviana. Maybe it was just because she’d seen my inner vulnerability, or maybe it was because of her reassuring manner once she’d done so. Either way, I definitely felt a bond with her that I’d not felt before.

  It was only after a break in the middle of the day, once we’d resumed walking, that Viviana started to talk to me of the night before. But it wasn’t Blasius, or Decius, she was interested in.

  ‘Cassius, who is Numeria?’ she asked me, as I followed her down a steep incline.

  I almost missed my step, and I uttered a brief expletive.

  She gave a quick smile and explained. ‘You called me by her name last night, so I am guessing she is either your lover, your wife, or your mother?’

  I smiled back. ‘You were right the first time, she’s my lover.’

  Viviana’s eyes lit up, and she laughed. ‘A lover! I knew it!’

  I felt my face redden, but admitted, ‘It’s normally Numeria who has to deal with my night-time ordeals.’

  Viviana’s tone became more serious. ‘So last night wasn’t a one-off?’

  I sighed and shook my head, but said nothing.

  Viviana didn’t push me for an answer on that, but she wasn’t about to let the subject of Numeria drop. She arched an eyebrow. ‘And are there many lovers of the noble Cassius?’

  I didn’t like this line of questioning, but I had nothing to hide. ‘No, there is only Numeria. She has had to deal with a lot since we returned from Germany. The dreams are just a part of it.’

  Viviana continued walking. ‘You must trust her then?’

  I looked up at the sun. ‘I more than trust her. I love her.’

  Viviana’s head whipped round. ‘Love is it? I t
hought all rich Romans had strings of lovers. Most I have met here have. Legate Pancratius even asked me to be his once, but I turned him down.’

  The revelation that she’d turned the legate down pleased me for some reason. ‘You’re right, it’s common for Romans of my class, both male and female, to have many lovers. Imperator Augustus has outlawed adultery, but it has little effect on the behaviour of many in Rome.’

  She tilted her head slightly. ‘So what makes you different, Cassius?’

  I sighed. ‘A year ago I was no different. But then I met Numeria.’

  She narrowed her eyes slightly. ‘You have no pleasure slaves, no one to keep your bed warm when Numeria is away?’

  I gave a chuckle. ‘A pleasure slave actually does live in my home, but she never shares my bed.’

  Viviana stopped and put her hands on her hips. ‘You expect me to believe that?’

  I couldn’t believe how much I’d already divulged, but there was no stopping now. ‘It’s not what you think. I bought her in an act of spontaneity, to take her from a cruel owner.’

  As I recounted to Viviana what had transpired, my mind briefly returned to that cold winter’s morning in Rome. I was returning from one of Seneca’s long parties, walking through the streets of Rome, full of wine but in a cheerful mood. The sun was yet to rise, so the streets were empty, the carts that entered the city at night long gone. I was cutting through the Via Siren, a notorious street in Rome that housed many brothels, when my mood was shattered. A grossly fat man was pulling a young girl by the hair from his doorway. ‘You don’t ever refuse me, not ever!’ he shouted at the girl, striking her across her face. ‘You’ll sleep out here if you can’t do what I bought you for.’

  The young woman looked to be around nineteen or twenty, with dark olive skin and long thick black hair. She wore only a very thin, threadbare tunic that covered little of her slight and supple body. She tried to shy away from the man’s anger, sobbing with fear. She raised her hands above her head in a futile attempt to ward off any further blows.