Vespasian laughed. ‘Well, I’m sure Antonia would be more than happy to give you a good wash when you see her next.’
Their arrival at Gaius’ house ended the banter suddenly; the door was open and there was no sign of the ancient doorkeeper.
Gaius ran in.
Pulling his dagger from its sheath, Vespasian leapt after him.
‘Get the swords,’ Sabinus shouted as he disappeared through the door.
Magnus and Artebudz rummaged about in the kit bags as they followed the brothers inside.
In the atrium Vespasian found Gaius cradling the body of one of his beautiful, fair-haired, German slave boys. The ancient doorkeeper lay in a pool of blood next to him, his throat slit. Two more of Gaius’ young slaves lay dead by the pool.
‘My dear boy, Arminius, my dear, dear boy,’ Gaius wept, stroking the youth’s blood-matted hair.
A scream rang out from the direction of the courtyard garden.
‘Uncle, whoever’s done this is still here,’ Vespasian said, taking the proffered sword from Magnus. ‘Stay here, we’ll get them.’
‘And sit and wait while my boys are butchered? Bollocks I will.’ With surprising speed he ran to his study, one of the rooms to the left of the atrium, and reappeared a moment later with a sword. ‘Magnus and Artebudz, check each of the rooms off the atrium; we don’t want anyone behind us. And lock the front door.’
A long wail of agony came from the garden. Gaius looked grimly at the brothers, turned and walked at speed in its direction. The brothers followed at run in order to overtake him.
Vespasian and Sabinus burst through the doors of the tablinum into the warmth of the garden. Two men held a struggling youth over the fishpond in the centre whilst a third held a squirming lamprey to his face. The water in the pond heaved with scores of lampreys gorging themselves on another writhing boy; his arms and legs thrashed as the snake-like fish used their teeth to cut through the skin in search of blood. The boy lifted his mouth above the surface to gasp for breath and let out another agonised scream; the twisting lampreys attached to his head and face made him look like Medusa.
The brothers flung themselves towards the three men who promptly dropped their captive into the pond. Before they could retrieve their weapons Vespasian and Sabinus were upon them. With a savage thrust to the belly and then a sharp rip upwards Vespasian disembowelled the first; the second went down to a clean jab to the throat from Sabinus. The third man ran to the other side of the garden.
‘I want him alive,’ Gaius roared as he pulled the boy from the pond. He had managed to get him out quickly enough for him to have only suffered a few bites; most of the lampreys were busy devouring the body of his now dead companion.
Magnus and Artebudz appeared at the door from the tablinum. ‘We found two more of the bastards hiding in the triclinium,’ Magnus said, ‘but they won’t be bothering us.’
‘Stay there, lads,’ Sabinus shouted over the screaming of the gutted man, ‘we’ve got the cunt cornered.’
The third man, realising that he was trapped, weaponless, and could expect no quarter, ran with a roar straight for Magnus. With impeccable timing Magnus slammed his fist into the man’s stomach, immediately bringing his knee up into his face as he doubled up and then, as his head ricocheted back with blood spurting from a flattened nose, Magnus cracked his fist down on to the back of his skull. He collapsed into an unconscious heap.
Leaving the rescued boy sitting on the ground, more shocked than damaged, Gaius walked over to the gutted man, who was now moaning as he tried feebly to stuff his colon back in.
‘Who sent you?’ Gaius asked menacingly.
Knowing that he was going to die, the man shook his head. Gaius reached down and grabbed a handful of intestines and pulled. The scream that the man let out as his innards unravelled was excruciating.
‘Who sent you?’ Gaius asked again.
Still the man would not say.
‘Throw him in the pond. Let’s see how he likes being eaten from the inside out,’ Gaius ordered.
Vespasian looked at Sabinus, who shrugged. They picked him up by the arms and legs; guts trailed down to the ground like slimy creepers.
‘Last chance,’ Gaius said. There was no reply; he had passed out.
With a splash, the brothers tossed him in. The water seethed again as the lampreys, maddened by blood, swarmed around him, burying themselves in the gaping wound in his belly.
‘Let’s see if we have more luck with the other one,’ Gaius said, picking up a small fishing net. He dipped it into the writhing pond and scooped out a couple of lampreys. ‘Bring him round.’
A couple of slaps to the face brought the third man to his senses, groaning softly.
‘Your friend has just met a nasty end,’ Gaius informed him, holding the net with its contents in front of his face; the lampreys’ circular mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth opened and closed in a vain attempt to suck in water. ‘You can either go quickly or painfully, it’s down to you.’
The man spat on the ground.
‘So be it. Pull him out flat.’
Magnus and Artebudz took his wrists and hands and stretched him out.
With his free hand Gaius lifted the man’s tunic and ripped off his loincloth.
‘Hold this,’ he said, giving the net to Vespasian. He then took a lamprey in one hand and, with the other, pulled back the man’s foreskin.
Vespasian closed his eyes. A shriek filled the air. He opened them again and saw exactly what he expected to.
‘The next one goes in your eye. Who sent you?’ Gaius asked again.
‘Livilla,’ came the gasped reply.
‘Was I the only target?’
‘No, there was another group sent elsewhere.’ The man screamed again as the thrashing lamprey tightened its grip and sucked harder in a desperate attempt to extract life-giving water from its host.
‘How many and where to?
‘Ten, but I don’t know where. Please, for the love of the gods, finish me.’
‘Where?’ Gaius took the second lamprey from the net and held it close to the man’s right eye.
‘All I know is that they were leaving the city by the Porta Collina and heading up the Via Salaria.’
Vespasian looked at Sabinus with horror as it dawned on them both where the killers were headed.
‘Thank you,’ Gaius said. He picked up his sword and calmly thrust it into the man’s mouth.
‘Magnus, take Artebudz and get ten of your crossroads brothers and meet us, with horses and swords, outside the Porta Collina at the junction of the Via Salaria and Via Nomentana, in an hour,’ Vespasian ordered.
Magnus grinned. ‘Well, that’s got me out of paying for a party tonight,’ he said by way of taking his leave.
‘We should just get going with them,’ Sabinus said. ‘We haven’t got time to hang around.’
‘We’re at least two hours behind them, Sabinus, there’s no way we’ll overtake them if we can’t change horses. We need Clemens with a Praetorian pass so we can use the imperial relay horses; that way we’ll have a chance of catching them before they reach our parents.’
CHAPTER XII
‘I will not listen to any more of your pitiful whinging.’ Antonia’s raised voice thundered out from her formal reception room and echoed around the cavernous atrium where Vespasian and Sabinus waited restlessly for Pallas to find Clemens.
‘But M-m-m-mother, I demand the recognition and honour due to a m-m-m-member of the imp-imp… imperial family.’ The other voice too was raised but had more than a hint of fear in it, which was magnified by the stutter.
‘You are in no position to demand anything, you runt. With just one act I could ensure that you are at the very least banished. Now give me that list and be off with you.’
‘But, M-m-m-m-m-mother…’
‘Stop “but M-m-m-mothering” me! Just go; and take my advice, Claudius: divorce that liability of a wife of yours immediately and spend more time with
your books and less making a fool of yourself trying to play politics.’
‘But…’
‘Go!’
Vespasian winced at Antonia’s screamed dismissal.
A shambling figure appeared in the corridor leading off the atrium and, keeping his head down, lurched, as if his knees were about to give out at any moment, towards the brothers. As Claudius drew close he gave a start and looked up at Vespasian; his eyes were blinking incessantly and a trail of clear mucus ran from his nose and on to his toga.
Vespasian nodded his head; Sabinus followed suit. Claudius stared at them in surprise and managed to get the blinking under control. His grey eyes were calculating and intelligent; they peered at the brothers from a face that would have been handsome and noble had it not been given a sorrowful air by its downturned mouth and bags under the eyes.
‘Bastard families,’ he blurted without changing expression, as if he was unaware that he had said anything. He wiped his nose with a fold of his toga, nodded at the brothers and then shambled out.
Antonia came in as soon as Claudius was out of the door.
‘What are you two doing back here?’ she asked abruptly, her equilibrium having not quite returned after her interview with her son.
‘So Sejanus has linked your family with me,’ she said after the brothers had told her of the attack on Gaius’ house and the men heading towards their parents’ estate, ‘and is using Livilla to do his dirty work so as not to risk the chance of any of his Praetorians being implicated in the murder of a senator. Where’s Gaius now?’
‘We brought him here,’ Vespasian replied. ‘Pallas had one of your house slaves take him to the baths; he’s gone to sweat out his anger.’
‘Good. He’ll have to stay here until I can get him out of Rome. Livilla, that bitch of a daughter of mine, won’t give up until she’s given her lover what he wants. Why am I cursed with children who work against me?’
Vespasian and Sabinus were spared having to answer by the arrival of Pallas with Clemens.
‘Horses are being saddled up in the stable yard for you, masters,’ Pallas said, bowing, ‘I’ll return when they are ready.’
‘How many men are we taking?’ Clemens asked, having already been informed by Pallas where they were going and what was hoped of him.
‘Including us three, fifteen,’ Vespasian replied.
‘I’m not sure that my pass will give us access to that many horses from the relays.’
‘Take this,’ Antonia said, slipping her seal ring off her finger and giving it to Vespasian. ‘No one will dare argue with the holder of my seal; return it with Clemens. Where are you going to send your parents? It will need to be a long way away to be safe from Sejanus.’
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ Vespasian replied, slipping the ring on his little finger. ‘The only person I could trust is Pomponius Labeo; he has estates in Aventicum on the other side of the Alps. He should be there by now.’
Antonia nodded. ‘That should be far enough away. What about you two?’
‘I’m coming straight back to Rome, domina,’ Sabinus said firmly. ‘I’ve got the quaestors’ election to consider.’
‘I don’t think that would be advisable for the moment,’ Antonia contended. ‘You should stay away until I can find out whether Sejanus was just targeting Gaius and your parents because your mother is his sister, or whether the whole family was to be killed, in which case you won’t be safe in Rome. You’ll have to leave the election in the hands of Fortuna.’
Sabinus made to protest but stopped himself as he saw the truth of the statement.
‘You could both go to my estates in Campania; I need you to be close enough to Rome to be able to come quickly should Macro send me a message stating that everything is ready for the other matter to proceed.’
‘Thank you, domina, but I would prefer to go to my estate in Cosa,’ Vespasian said. Sabinus gave him a sour look but grunted his assent. ‘It’s one day’s ride from Rome. We should be safe enough there. Magnus knows where it is if you need to find us.’
‘Very well,’ Antonia agreed as Pallas came hurrying back into the room.
‘All is prepared, masters.’
‘Thank you, Pallas,’ Antonia said looking at the brothers. ‘Ride fast, gentlemen. May the gods bring you there in time.’
Night had fallen and they rode as fast as they could — a slow canter — up the Via Salaria by the light of torches held by each man. Vespasian, Sabinus and Clemens had met Artebudz, Magnus and his brothers just before midday. Vespasian had a very brief reunion with the slow but reliable Sextus and the onehanded Marius before they started, hell for leather whilst daylight held, up the Via Salaria. They had changed horses every ten miles at the imperial relays. Antonia’s seal had proved invaluable as the relay-keepers were all reluctant to give them fresh horses, saying that they had already exchanged ten horses earlier in the day with a group of men bearing a warrant signed by Sejanus. Not having foreseen that Livilla’s men would be using the same form of quick transport as them, they rode on with an increasing sense of desperation. Their only hope lay in flogging their mounts to the limit in the hope that their parents’ would-be murderers were taking the journey more leisurely. This seemed to be confirmed as the relay-keepers’ estimations of how long before the ten men had passed through lessened gradually.
By the time that the long July day succumbed to night they had covered sixty of the eighty miles to Aquae Cutillae and they reckoned that they were just over an hour behind by the last time they changed horses.
‘We’ll save time by not changing again,’ Vespasian said to Sabinus as he peered ahead into the gloom. ‘At this pace these horses will be able to cover the last twenty miles.’
‘We need to speed up, brother,’ Sabinus replied. ‘The bastards ahead of us will be almost there now; they’ll have had less of the journey in the dark, so we’re falling behind them.’
‘They might decide to stop for the night.’
‘Bollocks they will; as far as they’re concerned they’ve timed it perfectly, arriving just as everyone’s gone to bed.’
‘What do you suggest then?’
‘You’ll laugh at me but I’m going to trust to my Lord Mithras; his light will guide me. You follow on as quickly as you can.’
With that he kicked his mount forward and pulled away. Vespasian raised his eyebrows and then shrugged and followed. Behind him the rest of the party felt obliged to do the same, although all thought it madness to ride so fast at night, even on a straight, well-paved road.
The torches had been extinguished and they walked their horses as quickly as possible up the rutted track that led to the Flavian estate. There were no lights burning in the complex and the toenail moon provided only a dim shimmer that vaguely outlined the buildings, now only one hundred paces away.
At Sabinus’ reckless pace they had covered the last twenty miles in a little under two hours. The fact that none of the horses had stumbled or thrown their riders was, to Vespasian’s mind, nothing short of miraculous, but he hesitated to say as much to Sabinus for fear of another homily on the power of the Lord Mithras.
The absence of light sharpened his other senses and the familiar smells of his childhood greeted him like old friends, one after the other. Sweet warm resin oozing from pine trees; musty earth cooling after a day of baking in the summer sun; freshly cut hay; meadow flowers; faint wood smoke: each one brought back images from the past that he feared was now about to be brutally intruded upon by the present.
‘It’s quiet,’ he whispered to Sabinus and Clemens, who rode either side of him. ‘Perhaps it was just a coincidence and they weren’t coming here after all?’
‘Or we’re too late,’ his brother replied grimly. They dismounted and tied their exhausted horses to a fig tree; a soft breeze rustled its leaves. In the distance a fox called; another, slightly closer, answered.
Artebudz, Magnus and his crossroads brothers joined them, drawing their short swords. The
y were fifty paces away from the fifteen-foot-high wall of the stable yard. In the moon’s dim light they could just see the gates; they were closed.
‘There’s no sign of a break-in. Looks like we may be in time,’ Sabinus whispered. ‘We’ll alert the household quietly and stand to to surprise those bastards if they do turn up. Vespasian, take Magnus, Artebudz and five of the brothers and try to wake the gatekeeper. I’ll take Clemens and the rest of the brothers around to the front of the main house and wake the doorkeeper. If we’re-’
A series of loud shouts split the night; over the roofs along the far end of the stable yard flaming torches cartwheeled through the night air. They were quickly followed by more torches but this time held aloft by silhouetted figures clambering on to the roof. Some jumped down into the yard, others ran at speed along its length and then up on to the roof of the main house. A fire, now burning on its far side, gave an orange definition to its shape.
‘Shit!’ Sabinus cried. ‘Get over the wall with your lads, Vespasian; I’ll take mine around the front. No plan, just up and at them.’
Sabinus’ group sped away around the side of the house.
‘Bring your horses,’ Vespasian shouted, unhitching his and leaping on. He galloped the fifty paces to the wall and pulled his mount up sharply next to it. Cries, shouts and the clash of weapons came from within the yard. Vespasian stood up on his horse’s back and stretched up; the top of the wall was still two feet from his outstretched hands.
‘Magnus, get up here and give me a leg-up.’
‘Coming over, sir.’ Magnus climbed from his mount on to Vespasian’s horse’s hindquarters. The horse started to shy.
‘Sextus,’ Vespasian shouted, ‘hold the horse’s head whilst Magnus pushes me up.’
‘Hold the head whilst Magnus pushes; right you are,’ Sextus said, as always slowly digesting his orders.
The horse steadied; Magnus cupped his hands for Vespasian’s foot and heaved him up. With a frantic scramble that grazed his knees, Vespasian managed to pull himself on to the roof. He reached back down and grabbed Magnus’ proffered arm and with a huge effort hauled him up. Artebudz and the other crossroads brothers followed their leader’s example.
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