Bedrock of Empire

by Thomas M D Brooke

  He motioned to strike her again, when I caught his wrist. ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ I told him.

  He turned round at me in anger, fury blazing from his eyes. ‘How dare you? Who do you think you are?’

  I fixed him with a hard stare. ‘Someone you don’t want trouble with. You’ll not be striking her again.’

  He dropped his hand, uncertainty making him step backwards. ‘She’s my slave. I can do what I like with her. You can’t stop me!’

  I helped the young girl up. ‘I can, and I will.’

  The fat owner wasn’t about to give up on his prize. ‘I have powerful friends,’ he told me. ‘She’s legally mine.’

  I threw him a pouch of coins; I had no idea how much was in there. ‘If you want to make further complaint, please direct them to my father, Senator Antonius Aprilis.’

  The mention of my father’s rank made the colour drain from his face. He stepped back into his doorway.

  I ignored him and turned to the frightened young woman by my side. I took off my thick winter cloak and swept it around her. ‘Tell me, girl, what’s your name?’

  Her voice shook with terror, but she managed to say, ‘Badriyah, sir.’

  Viviana listened to my story, but once I finished, her tone became sceptical. ‘And your lover, Numeria, knows this young girl lives in your home?’

  I gave a slight laugh. ‘Yes, she knows. I was worried myself when we returned from Germany. I even asked Numeria if I should place Badriyah in another household, somewhere that would treat her well.’

  Viviana’s eyebrows rose again. ‘But she let you keep her?’

  ‘Yes, she said Badriyah was already too big a part of my story to be parted from my household. I knew that if Numeria were to ever hear of me sleeping with Badriyah, that would be the end of us, but she never even needed to forbid me from doing so. She trusted me to come to that myself.’ I took off the leather helmet that covered my head and ran my fingers through my hair. ‘Believe it or not, the two of them get on well.’

  Viviana became thoughtful. ‘She sounds like a special woman, this Numeria of yours.’

  I smiled. ‘Yes, she’s certainly that.’

  Our journey through the mountains and valleys continued at pace, and we made excellent time. As we were bedding down for the night by a small stream that cut through a rocky bank that formed a natural shelter, Viviana told me, ‘I think we will only need one more day’s travelling, maybe a day and a half. We might make it on time, Cassius.’

  I looked at her beautiful and earnest face. ‘I hope you’re right. Only the gods can decide now.’

  We huddled in our blankets, and I soon found myself drifting to sleep; yet again, it had been a hard day’s exertion. I’d thought her already asleep, but just before I drifted off, Viviana told me, ‘One day, I would like to have a love like you and Numeria share.’

  I said nothing, and just let myself drift into sleep.

  The next day, the conversation dried up, unless it was discussing aspects of our journey. We knew we were getting close to our destination and that concentrated our minds on what lay ahead. If we were late, the chances were that all my men would be dead, including my best friend Marcus. Even if I were in time, in all likelihood all I’d be doing would be putting myself into the same predicament that Marcus and the others found themselves in. Aleixo knew where they were, and the vast sum of gold meant he wasn’t likely to be giving this up.

  What was going through Viviana’s mind, I couldn’t tell. Possibly the realisation of what lay at the end of this journey was preying on her mind also. She still set as demanding a pace as always, moving with impressive agility through the rough terrain. But her face looked strained and her eyes held a sadness all of their own. I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t let her get trapped with me at the end of this journey. Viviana had become important to me, there was no use in denying it, least of all to myself.

  We reached a vast cavern on the side of a mountainside, and a great waterfall gushed from a hidden source behind the rocks above. The water fell in several glistening cascades down to a deep pool underneath. I admired the beauty of the spot but couldn’t understand what we were doing here. ‘Did you bring me here for a swim?’

  She gave me a hard stare. ‘This is not a time for jokes, Cassius. This is a dangerous part of the journey for us. I am about to take you through one of our villages.’

  I was confused. ‘A village, here?’

  She nodded. ‘There is a secret path through this waterfall to a meadow above. We could walk around, but the warriors guarding the other approaches are likely to be more aggressive to outsiders. Not many outside the tribe know of this entrance, so it is our best bet at passing you off as one of the tribe.’

  I rubbed the thick stubble that had grown around my face. ‘Do you think I’ll pass?’

  She frowned as she looked at me. ‘Possibly, although you’ll need to keep your mouth shut. Say nothing. Let me do the talking if anyone asks any questions. I’ll tell them you’re from my former husband’s village near the coast.’

  I grinned as I tightened the leather straps of my armour. ‘Won’t they think it strange that I can’t talk?’

  She gave me a ferocious glare. ‘I’ll tell them you’re an idiot. That ought to work. This is dangerous for us both, Cassius. No Roman has seen this place, and they don’t like outsiders. If they find out I have brought you here, it is unlikely to go any better for me. I’m serious.’

  I gave her a solemn nod. She was right. The decision to betray her tribe’s secrets hadn’t been easy for her, and this could be perilous for us.

  We made our way round the rocks to the waterfall. A small and worn path had been made between them, but not one you’d notice from a distance. It led up through a vast chasm in the rock, presumably formed by the water that even now tumbled through the concourse. As we travelled further into the natural tunnel, the light from the cavern below became dimmer and I needed to take Viviana’s hand so she could guide me in the dark over the treacherously slippery rocks. She had clearly done this journey many times before, as she moved through it as easily as one of the mountain deer we’d seen on our journey. The sound of the water reverberated around the tunnel in a loud cacophony. It might have been a pleasant sound to some, but to me it was too close a reminder of the mine and the giant waterwheels that I’d seen earlier that week.

  Very slowly, as the light from the cavern beneath us began to dim, I realised it was gradually being replaced from a light source above. The further we climbed, the more I could see, until I could release Viviana’s hand and make my way over the water-smoothed rocks. We made one final turn in the watercourse before bright sunshine marked our way out. My elation at seeing it was quickly cut short, as a warrior guarding the entrance shouted out a challenge to us.

  Viviana answered in her own language, and I felt my heart beating as we continued up to him.

  Evidently her plan was working, judging by the jovial response the sentry gave her. We walked past the warrior, who grinned and gave me a nod.

  I gave a nod and smiled back and tried to keep myself as relaxed as possible as we walked past him. Viviana continued to talk throughout, diverting the guard’s attention until we passed him by and broke free into the sunshine.

  What awaited us was a remarkable sight. A wide valley lay in front of us. Built upon it was a small village full of tribesmen and women going about their daily tasks. Within the naturally hidden basin, amongst the collection of stone houses, were herds of livestock, geese, and children playing. Most of the valley was covered in the lush grass of the mountains, but fields had been cultivated behind the stone houses, and horses ran around a paddock.

  I wondered how this beautiful place could be kept so hidden from the world. I followed Viviana, who walked naturally through the village, avoiding the busy areas but without being obvious about it. Most of the villagers recognised her, and some called out a greeting as she passed. She called back but was careful not to get embroiled in
any lengthy discussions. She kept her pace quick and purposeful in case anyone thought she might want to stop and discuss who the stranger was by her side. A few villagers gave me a strange look or two but no more than that. Once we’d passed the centre of the village, I started to breathe more easily, thinking we’d managed to traverse through the most dangerous part.

  I was wrong, and typically it was children who saw through my disguise. Two young boys, no more than eight or nine years old, started following us. One of them ran up to me and grabbed my hand, asking me a question. I didn’t know what he was saying, but Viviana did and she gave a long answer. There was a flurry of excitement from the two boys, before Viviana gave them a sharp rebuke and waved them away from us.

  Her stinging tone worked to a certain degree, sending the boys on their way. But we soon heard the boys running back to their friends, calling out to them. Viviana didn’t waste any time. She grabbed my hand and we ducked into an empty stone barn out of sight of the two boys. She took me behind a haystack, where we crouched and hoped we’d stay undiscovered. She whispered to me, ‘Your stupid Roman sandals!’

  I said nothing, just flattened myself against the ground. From where we lay concealed, I could just make out the entrance to the barn. After a short wait, our two boys came rushing in with a few other boys their age. They peered into the dark interior of the barn, trying to make out whether someone was inside. The barn was small. If any of them decided to check behind the haystack, we were finished.

  Fortunately, the attention span of boys that age is mercifully short, and instead of searching the barn they decided to run off and look somewhere else. We waited a good while, long after the sound of their laughter or the patter of their feet had passed, until we got up and made our way to the door. There was no sight or sound of the young boys, so we decided to make a clean dash for it. We walked as quickly as we dared away from the village and into the small woods on its outskirts, where we could finally relax. I urgently asked Viviana, ‘Do you think they’ll tell their parents?’

  She put her hand over my mouth to quieten me. ‘Probably, but I doubt anyone will pay any attention. I told them you’d taken the sandals off a Roman you’d beaten in a fistfight, before realising my mistake. They all wanted to know you after that.’

  I chuckled, relieved that this wasn’t all my fault. ‘So we are safe to go on?’

  She nodded, making her way down the steep incline that marked the furthest edge of the valley. ‘Yes, let’s go.’

  We came to a Roman road. It stretched away in either direction over the undulations of the valley floor. The engineers had built it as straight as the terrain would allow to aid the marching of legionaries. However, it wasn’t our destination.

  ‘This is the road that joins Asturica with Lucus Augusti. Your road joins this further west,’ Viviana explained to me.

  I looked west, along the long empty road. ‘Won’t it be faster to follow this road until it reaches the other one?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, we can save another thirty miles if we cut across to the south-west.’

  I looked back in the other direction, to the east. ‘I’ll trust your knowledge. You’ve taken me this far. I can’t believe we are west of Asturica already. Do you think Aleixo will have taken this road?’

  She shrugged. ‘Almost certainly. My people wouldn’t suffer an outlaw such as him to pass through the heart of our lands as we just have.’

  I crouched down and ran my hand over the smooth flagstones. ‘He’s almost certainly still ahead of us, but we can’t be far behind now.’

  Viviana looked over the mountains to the south-west, the direction we were heading. ‘We should go then. But we need to be more careful now, as this road marks the boundary of my people’s territory. There may be bandits or others who wish us harm.’

  I stood up, followed her as we left the smoothly paved road. ‘Do you think Aleixo may have his camp in these mountains?’

  Viviana rubbed the back of her neck. ‘Unlikely. I’ve travelled these mountains several times in the last few years and have never seen any sign of a camp large enough to cater for him and his men. More likely he has his camp in the mountains to the west of the road we’re heading for. It is a wild and lawless place that no tribe has ever claimed – the pasture there is useless for farming.’

  Bandits didn’t spend much time farming. They preferred to take what they needed from others. I looked up at the sun; it was approaching midday. ‘Will we reach the old road by the end of the day?’

  Viviana squinted at the sun. ‘Difficult to say. We still have many miles to cover. If we do, it will be evening by the time we get there as we have to trek up there first.’ She pointed to a vast mountain that lay in our path.

  The mountain in question stretched as far as I could see. ‘I take it we can’t go around?’

  She smiled and looked back at the road. ‘That’s the path the road takes. As I said, it’s much further.’

  I sighed. ‘Then lead on, the sooner we get there the better chance we have of warning Marcus.’

  We walked purposefully, not slackening our pace, despite our arduous journey. Mile upon mile, wending our way ever upwards. As we got higher, clouds began to form, dark and angry, that spoke of bad weather. Viviana stopped to look at them. ‘This doesn’t look good, Cassius. We should find shelter.’

  I knew she was right, but I couldn’t countenance stopping now. ‘We’re so close. Surely we can just push through the bad weather?’

  She shook her head. ‘That looks like a big storm. You don’t want to get caught unsheltered in the mountains when that hits.’

  My stubbornness kicked in. ‘Too many lives depend on us, Viviana. If I arrive too late, I’ll always wonder whether I could have got there any sooner.’

  Viviana sighed. ‘Then we’ll continue, but you may regret this.’

  It wasn’t long before the rain started. At first it didn’t hinder us too much, other than making the journey thoroughly unpleasant. But as the power of the rain increased, the ground underneath us became more treacherous, churned into muddy rivulets as the rain poured down the mountain. The rain plastered Viviana’s hair to her bare head. ‘This is hopeless, Cassius. I know of a cave ahead of us. We must find shelter there!’

  I remembered Varus in the Teutoburg, after the weather had turned against him, stubbornly marching onwards towards his doom. Was I unwittingly making the same mistake as the former governor? I looked around to see if there was any sign of the weather letting up soon. There was none. I knew I had no choice. ‘Take us to your cave. We will have to wait until this storm blows itself out.’

  It was less than a mile to the cave, but it seemed much further as we slipped over the loose ground that the rain had made almost impassable. Both of us were drenched and our clothing saturated; the strong wind blowing through the mountains chilled us to the bone. Despite Viviana’s strong and nimble balance, she struggled as her sandals slipped on the ground, and we held onto each other to stop one of us being swept downhill. It was with heartfelt relief that the cave’s small and low entrance came into view and Viviana led me inside.

  As soon as we were inside, Viviana threw off her small bag and rooted around in it for her flint. Luckily for us, there were a number of dry sticks in the cave’s interior that had been blown there from outside. We gathered them up, our teeth chattering, and in no time, Viviana had a fire going. I breathed a sigh of relief, watching the smoke rising up through the high fissures of the cave’s interior. ‘How did you know of this place? I would have never have found it unless you’d taken me right to it.’

  Viviana warmed her frozen hands by the fire and told me whilst shivering, ‘My father brought me here once. To show me the cave drawings.’ She pointed up at various symbols that had been etched into the sides of the cave.

  I walked over to where she pointed and saw depictions of wild horses, deer, and other game spread across the cave’s walls. ‘Who painted them?’

  She said, between
chattering teeth, ‘The people who lived here before my tribe, many, many, maybe hundreds of generations ago. They are all long gone now.’

  I sat back down and started rooting through our bags to see what was still dry. I heard Viviana get up behind me as I shifted through our stuff. Luckily, the undyed wool of the simple sacks retained the natural oils from the sheep’s fleece, which kept it surprisingly water-resistant. ‘So your people didn’t come from here originally?’

  ‘No,’ she told me. ‘Our oldest and most ancient songs sing of us coming over from plains to the north and traversing the great mountains that divide our land from Gaul.’

  ‘I never knew that. I always …’ I said turning around, before I forgot what I was saying completely. Before me stood Viviana, completed naked. Her soft brown olive skin flowed over the beautifully crafted form of her body, her breasts full and firm with dark nipples. Her thighs were shapely and well muscled, and her stomach flat and taut over a very slender waist and a small mound of pubic hair. ‘By the gods,’ I whispered.

  ‘What?’ Viviana said, with a deep frown on her forehead, hands on her naked hips. ‘Do you expect me to freeze to death? I needed to take off those soaked clothes!’

  I turned my head and buried it back into the woollen bag, fishing out one of the blankets that had stayed mercifully dry. I threw it behind me, not daring to turn my head again. ‘Wrap that around you. You’ll be much more comfortable.’

  She gave a light laugh and picked up the blanket, wrapping it around her. ‘I never thought Romans were so bashful about their bodies. There, does that make you happier?’

  I looked up and saw that her body was now, thankfully, covered with the blanket, although a part of me wanted her to let it drop again. I swallowed hard. ‘Thank you, Viviana.’

  She frowned. ‘You’ll need to remove your soaked clothes too. You can’t afford to let yourself get sick.’