INSURRECTIO

by Alison Morton

  ‘Of course, I forget,’ she said, taking the stem from her mouth.

  ‘Forget what?’

  ‘That you’re more used to managing a desk.’ She turned her head in my direction. Her eyes shone in the moonlight and I saw a smile. ‘Although you’re not bad for your age.’

  ‘Cheeky bitch!’ I elbowed her hard.

  ‘I know.’ She chuckled. ‘My grandmother said I was bound to be thrown out for insubordination one day.’ Then she went quiet and her mouth drooped. ‘I miss her. She was so good to me all my life. I loved her so much.’ She dropped her head onto her bent knees.

  I stretched out my hand and grasped hers. I couldn’t say anything to comfort her. It was very unlikely Senator Calavia was still alive.

  Her granddaughter got to her feet and stretched out her hand.

  ‘She would have been the first to tell me to pull myself together and attend to my duty, so we’d better march on.’

  Thirty minutes later, we threw ourselves to the ground again behind a stone wall.

  ‘Juno, that’s the second helo flying low tonight,’ Calavia hissed.

  ‘They’re looking for something specific. Silvia and Volusenia.’

  ‘Merda, that will make our job harder.’

  ‘Yes, but it means they don’t have her.’

  As we were about to stand, I heard, no felt, a soft rumble in the ground. A steady hum, then a growl and finally the clatter of diesel engines. We crawled forward using elbows to pull ourselves along until we found a gap in the wall. Strong headlight beams swung round in the road below us, piercing the darkness. Two troop transports and a vigiles long wheelbase tore round the corner and screeched to a stop.

  Pluto in Tartarus. What was going on here? Two dozen troops formed a line each side of the road, back to back. At a signal from a short figure standing by the vigiles vehicle, they fanned out, weapons ready, and walked slowly away from the road up each side of the valley. A cold invisible hand clutched my heart. No, they weren’t after Silvia and Volusenia; they were looking for us.

  I flicked my fingers at Calavia and pointed to the course of the wall which rose until it skirted the crest of the valley. It was our best chance. My heart thumped and I gasped in breaths as we scuttled along as quietly as possible. They were getting nearer; I could hear shouts between them. The moon was obscured behind clouds, so barring our doing something stupid, they couldn’t see us unless they fell on us. Calavia was increasing her lead, but she should be able to see our way out down the next valley. As I puffed my way up towards the crest, Calavia disappeared. I heard a thump, and a muffled cry. Had she fallen? I scrambled over the rock edge into the lee. Thank the gods, we’d made it. At least we could run upright now. And we’d need to run. As if the Furies were after us.

  I looked around in the gloom for Calavia. She was stretched out on the ground, face down, her hands on the back of her head. Two troopers in full battledress pressed their gun barrels in her neck. Before I could open my mouth, or take a step, cold steel jabbed at my head. Fear rolled through me down into my gut.

  ‘Hands on your head. No funny moves. On the ground. Now!’

  XXVI

  I shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet. If I was fast enough, I could disable the trooper and run. The diversion would give Calavia a chance. As I tensed, ready, eight more of them, all men, advanced rapidly. Several cocked their weapons.

  Merda.

  ‘What is your authority?’ I asked the one wearing centurion rank tabs. He didn’t reply. ‘You can’t detain us – we’re free citizens. I’m a Praetorian officer. I order you to stand aside.’ One lowered his rifle. Two of them shifted from one foot to the other and glanced at the centurion. He hesitated for a second, then jerked his head at two of his troops. They pushed me to the ground and handcuffed me. As I ate dirt, I cursed them in every way I could, furious we’d been taken like this.

  They pulled Calavia and me up and marched us back down the hill. As we trudged down, I caught her look. Anger and humiliation. She looked away. Our boots clattered on the tarmacked road at the bottom of the slope as the troops pushed us along to the waiting vigiles. And Phobius.

  Caius’s henchman took one stride towards me, reached up and struck me full in the face. The vigiles stood there expressionless.

  ‘Not so hoity-toity now, are you?’ Phobius squeaked.

  ‘Are you speaking to me?’ Although my face was stinging and the blood dribbling down my chin, I drew myself up as tall as I could and looked down my nose. Of course, he hit me again.

  ‘You’d do well to remember you’re a criminal, a terrorist, and that’s just for starters. Once the first consul has finished with you, you’ll be in for a lesson you’ll never forget, you stuck-up bitch.’

  ‘Aren’t you the brave little man?’ I said. Calavia closed her eyes and gave a tiny shake of her head. Phobius raised his hand again and I braced.

  ‘One moment, Representative Phobius,’ the senior vigilis said, ‘First Consul Tellus specifically said no injuries with this one.’

  Phobius lowered his hand slowly. His eyes narrowed and he turned to Calavia, then back to me. ‘All right, then. Any more trouble from you, she’ll get the beating.’

  What a turd.

  He took a step closer. The top of his head only came to my chin. I could smell the sweat and cheap hair oil he used. I couldn’t help wrinkling my nose. Then I remembered Calavia and calmed myself.

  ‘You nearly cost me my position last week when the first consul found out you’d slipped away on my watch. It’s not going to happen again. Clear?’

  ‘I hear the words you are speaking,’ I replied. He tried to stare me down with his bitter, angry eyes, but I wasn’t going to break. The vigilis behind him coughed and signalled to his junior to put us in the back of the lorry. Two military troopers were in there already and shifted to let us sit down, then looked anywhere but at us.

  Bumping along in the back of the transport with a sore face and a split lip, I looked at the grim faces of the two male vigiles opposite. In the dim glow of the interior light, their faces could have been carved out of Aquae Caesaris granite.

  Calavia closed her eyes, to shut out the horror of our situation, I imagined. Or perhaps from sheer tiredness. She slumped back against the ribbed frame and her body rocked with the motion of the vehicle. I was tempted to do the same, but wasn’t prepared to let them see me cowed in any way. I stared at them all in turn, trying to read the vigiles’ neutral faces and the troopers’ confused ones. Their world had been turned upside down in seven days. One of the younger soldiers snatched a glance at me, but when he caught my gaze, looked down at his boots as if caught in a misdemeanour. Poor kid.

  As we bumped along the road, I had no doubt we were in for a rough time at Caius’s hands. Calavia’s grandmother had blocked him and she’d helped rescue Quirinia and me from the palace on the night of the fires. He never forgave grudges. Me, he’d kill, I was sure. I just hoped it was quick. I would never see my darling Marina again, but she was safe in the EUS with William Brown, thank the gods. And my heart’s love, Miklós, would mourn me. I blinked back prickly hot tears. My deep regret and anxiety was that I had not found Silvia and protected her against this evil.

  After a stop, and what sounded like an ID check, the vehicle carried straight on. The canvas back flap of the lorry was tied down and it must have been between three and four in the morning so I wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway. But this was my city – we were driving along the Dec Max into its heart. A little further on, I swayed as we went round a large roundabout and fell against one of the troopers who put his hand out to steady me. Not easy to keep your balance with your wrists manacled. Two turns later, we slowed down and I heard large metal doors scrape open then clang shut behind the vehicle which stopped a few metres further on. Calavia jerked awake, her eyes searching instantly. I mumbled ‘Vigiles.�
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  ‘Silence. Out of the vehicle. Move!’

  We shuffled to the edge and jumped down onto a rough concrete surface. We were in the back service yard of Vigiles XI station. It was the one nearest the palace. We were pushed through a barred gate, then a metal door. The duty senior vigilis took one look at us, grunted and scribbled two lines on his record sheet. So their sloppy procedure hadn’t changed a scrap with the change in regime.

  Phobius demanded they fetch their captain, who arrived five minutes later, tucking his shirt in the back of his trousers. He smelt of smoke and sweat. Phobius jerked his head at Calavia and me.

  ‘These two women are to be searched and held in separate cells and maximum secure conditions. Two troopers and two of my men will stay here as extra guards. They’ll need food.’

  ‘What about these women?’

  ‘Don’t waste any rations on them.’

  *

  The station processing team, now only men, were more embarrassed searching us than we were being searched. They took away our warm clothes and boots in transparent plastic bags and left us in the standard yellow prison tunics, bare legs and plastic sandals. By the time we had been pushed into cells, I was shivering and my feet were numb.

  Half an hour later, my cell door opened. A young vigilis stood in the door frame. Behind and slightly to his side, an older one aimed his service revolver at me. What now?

  ‘Stand back in the corner.’ The younger man’s eyes glanced at the corner where the slops bucket stood. Careful with my footing, I retreated there and watched as he tossed two coarse weave blankets and a brown paper bag onto the wooden bench masquerading as a bed. He kept his eyes on me as he bent and set a tin mug of water on the floor. He backed out and the door clanged shut followed by a locking and bolting sound.

  I wrapped one of the blankets round me, sat on the hard bench, pulled my legs up and rubbed my frozen toes. The meat-filled roll from the paper bag tasted wonderful. Who knew when we’d get our next food? Anxious as they’d seemed, these station vigiles hadn’t completely lost their humanity.

  But how in Hades had Phobius and his thugs known where we were? That we’d been at Atrius’s sister’s? Or the armourer’s? Calavia and I had only decided yesterday evening to take this route. Either somebody had developed telepathy or we had a leak. Or maybe unbearable pressure was being exerted on Paula or the armourer. Or maybe they’d broken Atrius. I shuddered at the thought of what they must have done to him. We hadn’t used the radios yet, so they hadn’t tracked us via signals. The only other possibility was that somebody had attached a tracker to our bags or clothes but we’d checked both before leaving the armourer’s.

  I couldn’t stop the anger and frustration chasing round in my mind. Had we made a stupid mistake somewhere? I couldn’t see one. And that made me angrier. My head was thumping with it all. Eventually, I gave up, exhausted by the sheer tragedy of the day and fell asleep.

  *

  Noise, a piercing whistle, banging on the door. I jerked up, half awake, and shook my head. Ouch, the hard wooden bench. The door was flung open. I jumped as it crashed into the wall.

  ‘Out. Now!’

  In the corridor, Calavia stumbled along, bleary eyed. Two vigiles took us back to the processing room where our clothes were piled in a heap on the bench, and instructed us to dress.

  Calavia glanced over at the armed vigiles watching us.

  ‘What’s happening now?’ she whispered into her boots as she tied them.

  ‘Not a clue,’ I muttered and shrugged on my sweater. ‘But not good,’ I added as that bastard Phobius strutted in.

  ‘Sleep well? No? Good.’ He smirked. ‘Get a move on.’

  ‘Why?’ I said. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘Not for you to ask questions. I’ll let it be a nice surprise.’

  Calavia and I exchanged glances.

  ‘I want a legal representative,’ I said, forcing my voice to be steadier than my nerves. ‘Now.’

  He laughed in my face.

  ‘That’s all been suspended. We know who’s guilty and if you’re guilty, you don’t need no brief.’

  Handcuffed again, this time in front. Two vigiles pushed us into the back of a long wheelbase where two more chained us to separate corners of the vehicle frame. Were they being paranoid or did they think we were so dangerous? Apart from that gesture of the food and blankets last night, it was frightening to see just how compliant the vigiles were to Phobius, as if they’d slipped into being his personal police force.

  The vehicle soft-top was rolled down completely, including the rear flap, so we could see nothing, or be seen. I concluded we were being taken somewhere for more permanent imprisonment, or possibly to be put up against a wall and shot. I didn’t want to die. But at least if I was dead, Caius wouldn’t be able to use me to further his power hunger. Many of my ancestors had died in battle, some as victims of political intrigues, but always well. Please Juno, I would remember them when my time came and draw courage from theirs.

  Abruptly, the engine noise changed as the vehicle started pulling uphill. We were going to the Golden Palace. This meant only one thing – Caius.

  PART V: CAIUS

  XXVII

  Phobius led the unhappy procession through the vestibule. Two vigiles, their maroon uniforms and boots dusty, shuffled behind him and four of the troopers, porting weapons, followed us as escorts. I glanced around. Everything looked exactly as it had been eight days ago. Even the Apulian ancestors’ busts and statues – the imagines – had been left here. Phobius nodded to an armed black-suited man with a nationalist armband, who leapt to open the double doors into the colonnaded atrium. Now we were here, fear flickered through me and I felt my courage seeping away. I exchanged a glance with Calavia. Her face was pale and her features pinched. But she pulled her shoulders back and looked forwards. Would I be as resolute as I thought I would be? The image of the previous imperatrix Justina flitted in front of me. Gods, how she would have given me a steely look and told me to pull myself together.

  He stood at the far side of the atrium, arms crossed, legs braced, and gazing out of the tall windows to the side garden. His figure looked totally relaxed, but the early morning sunlight highlighted his features in harsh brightness and shadows, turning his profile into a fascinating, almost alien thing. I shivered, this time not from cold.

  Phobius stopped about five metres from the oak desk at the centre back of the atrium. After about twenty seconds he coughed, but Caius waited another full minute until he turned to look at us. His gaze skimmed over the group, stopped briefly at Calavia, then rested on me. The agate eyes were stone. He frowned, and without looking away, said, ‘Phobius, why is she damaged?’

  ‘Sir, there was a struggle.’

  I snorted.

  ‘You have something to add, Aurelia?’

  ‘Your subordinate is lying to you. He decided to vent his insecurity on my face after the military captured me. I do not struggle with five hundred millimetres of hard steel barrel from a service rifle in my neck.’

  ‘How very sensible of you.’ He flicked his fingers at Phobius. ‘You will wait outside. First, dismiss your men. Oh, and put the Calavia woman in a holding cell in the Praetorian barracks. I will decide her fate when I have time.’

  Calavia took half a step towards me, but I gave her a tiny shake of my head. They pulled her away and marched off. I was completely alone. With my nemesis. He went back to staring through the window.

  ‘I can’t decide what to do with you,’ he said. ‘You will undoubtedly try everything to oppose me under some delusion of duty, so it would be prudent to remove you permanently. And you caused me to rot in a Prussian jail for twelve years. I shall never forgive you for that.’

  ‘You murdered a Prussian citizen and permanently disabled another. You ran a silver smuggling organisation that threatened Roma Nova’s security.
You got off lightly.’

  He shrugged.

  ‘And let’s not forget your two attempts to kill me.’

  ‘You were being irritating, Aurelia, and I dislike that.’

  ‘Irritating!’ I raised my hands to vent my frustration but the steel grip of the handcuffs constrained them. ‘I was a Praetorian officer tasked to hunt you down. I’d hardly class that as irritating.’

  ‘ “Was”. That’s the correct word.’ He turned and looked straight at me. ‘You’re finished. I’ve cancelled your commission along with that of every other female officer. You’re no longer a minister, nor a senator, nor head of your family. You have become an irrelevance in the new Roma Nova.’

  I stared at him. Irrelevant? He couldn’t take away my identity like that.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t destroy the structure of such an old country just like that.’

  He strode over to me. I took a step back, but he was too fast. He grabbed me by the throat, pressed his thumb and fingers hard, and squeezed. I could hardly breathe. He pressed harder. My head swam and my vision blurred.

  ‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.’ Then he dropped his hand and released me. I bent over coughing. Gods, his grip had been strong. I thought I was going to choke to death.

  ‘You have two options – adapt or go under. There is no release for you, Aurelia. You will be guarded and tracked, and if you attempt escape, I’ll execute one of your friends like Calavia. Maybe I’ll do that anyway, if only to motivate you.’

  ‘Only cowards let their friends take the punishment for them. Just call in the swordsman and I’ll kneel in the sand.’