Ruso and the Root of All Evils mi-3

by Ruth Downie

  One of them seemed about to reply when a scream from a girl by the gate set off a cacophony of shrieking. Cries of ‘Who can you see?’ merged with a chant of ‘Xantus, Xantus, Xantus!’ and several devotees were leaping to fling scraps of fabric and posies of flowers over the gate. Ruso wondered whether Xantus was embarrassed. A little leather bottle of something (perfume? Love potion? Magic formula for courage?) sailed over into the barracks. He tried his question again, hoping for a name he recognized.

  ‘Gnostus,’ said one of the girls, not bothering to look round.

  This was not encouraging. He had never heard of a doctor called Gnostus. He led the mule forward, clearing a path with the untruthful ‘Watch your backs, he bites!’ until he was standing in front of the gates. Rapping on the wood with his stick, he shouted, ‘Visitor for Gnostus!’

  There was a pause. A small slot in the door slid open. A pair of bloodshot eyes appeared and a voice repeated, ‘Gnostus?’ as if wondering whether the visitor had got the name right.

  Ruso unfastened his medical case and held up the largest pair of surgical forceps he possessed. Ignoring the mingled gasps of horror and delight from the crowd, he said, ‘I’m the other surgeon.’

  ‘Wait there,’ said the voice. The slot snapped shut again. As the girls giggled and whispered behind him, he tucked the forceps into his belt and indulged in some unnecessary straightening of the mule’s headband.

  His wait was rewarded with the sound of the bar being lifted out of its brackets. Girls began to inch forward as one of the gates moved back. They stopped at the emergence of a leather whip, followed by the doorman who yelled, ‘No admittance to the public!’ and cracked the whip in the air as if he were disciplining animals. From the squealing that followed, it was hard to tell whether the girls were excited or terrified.

  As soon as the tail of Ruso’s mount was safely inside, the gate slammed shut behind him, and the bar thudded back into position.

  The dust in the centre of the wide courtyard bore witness to the scuffles of a morning’s training, but the battered wooden sparring-posts stood deserted in the midday sun. Abandoned shields and leather jerkins and shin-guards were stacked in one corner. The favours that had been tossed over the gates were nowhere to be seen. A low murmur of conversation and the scrape of spoons on bowls suggested the trainees had retreated into the shade of the low building on the right to eat. Without its occupants the courtyard, with its stink of sweat and embrocation, could almost have been one of the military training-grounds Ruso had left behind in Britannia — except that one of the posts bore a set of manacles dangling from a heavy chain, and the Twentieth had more sense than to arm itself with the impractical nets and tridents he saw piled up beside the gate as he handed the mule’s reins to the doorkeeper.

  The doorkeeper’s ‘First on the left, mate,’ was rendered unnecessary by a sudden roar of pain from that direction. Moments later a skinny man of about Ruso’s own age emerged from the door, wiping bloodstained hands on his apron. Ruso was convinced he saw a brief flash of recognition on the face before the man demanded, ‘What other surgeon?’

  ‘Hello, Euplius!’

  Euplius’ face arranged itself into a expression of confusion. ‘Who?’ He retreated back into his room, beckoning Ruso to follow. ‘We haven’t met. I’m Gnostus, all the way from Ephesus. Doctor to the finest gladiator troupe in Gaul. Those are my apprentices. And you are?’

  ‘Ruso, senior surgeon with the Twentieth Legion,’ said Ruso, glancing at a heavily muscled man who was sitting on a chair between the trainees and clutching a bloodstained rag to his mouth. Surely his memory could not be that bad? It was many years since he and Euplius had met during their own apprenticeships, but could there really be two medics cursed with those ears?

  ‘As in Gaius Petreius Ruso?’ queried Gnostus, lifting the lid from a jar and pouring liquid into a wooden cup. ‘I’ve heard of you.’ He handed the cup to his patient.

  ‘Not everything you’ve heard is true,’ Ruso assured him.

  ‘Keep swilling that around the cavity,’ ordered Gnostus. ‘Slowly.’

  The man removed the rag, took a tentative sip and grimaced.

  ‘It’s good stuff,’ Gnostus promised.

  The man did not look convinced.

  Gnostus offered the jar to Ruso. ‘Guess.’

  Ruso dipped in the tip of a finger and licked it.

  ‘Bisobol gum in wine,’ he said, identifying part of the disgusting taste. He nodded to the patient. ‘Good for toothache and gum disease.’

  ‘What else?’ demanded Gnostus.

  Ruso tried another dip. ‘Poppy.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Not a clue.’

  Gnostus grinned. ‘It’s a new recipe I’m trying out. Excellent results so far.’

  One of the apprentices leaned forward to sniff it. The patient mumbled something indistinct, which might have been gratitude and might have voiced the suspicion that the doctors were lying to him.

  As they watched the apprentices escort the shambling patient out across the courtyard with his jaw cradled in one hand and the cup in the other, Gnostus said quietly, ‘Sometimes I wonder why I bother. He’ll probably be dead in a couple of days.’

  ‘You just have to patch them up and send them back out there,’ said Ruso, seizing a chance to emphasize his credentials. ‘Exactly what I’ve been doing with the Legion.’

  Gnostus closed the door. ‘You gave me a shock, Ruso. How long is it?’

  Ruso felt his shoulders relax. ‘Fifteen years?’

  ‘And more,’ agreed his companion.

  ‘So why are you calling yourself Gnostus?’

  The creases were deeper, but the lopsided grin that formed them was still the same. ‘Bit of a misunderstanding about the labels on bottles,’ he explained. ‘Angry relatives. It wasn’t my fault, but you know how it is.’

  ‘I do now,’ said Ruso.

  ‘New name, new town … I hear you’ve had a few problems. You should try it.’

  ‘I’m hoping it won’t come to that. In the meantime I was wondering if you’d need an assistant surgeon for the games.’

  ‘I’ll be needing a bloody miracle-worker,’ observed Gnostus glumly, sinking down on to a stool. ‘But at least you’ll have some idea which bits to stitch together. Unlike some. I’ll say one thing for Fuscus, he knows how to draw a crowd.’

  ‘They’re gathering around the gates already,’ observed Ruso, settling himself on the treatment table. ‘What is it women see in gladiators? Most of them are slaves and they’re nearly all filthy ugly.’

  ‘Who knows?’ agreed Gnostus. ‘You wouldn’t believe the offers the gate staff get.’

  ‘They don’t allow women in here, surely?’ asked Ruso, hoping there was nothing else he did not want to hear about Marcia.

  ‘Only the women who pay enough,’ said Gnostus, ‘and sometimes we have to house the ones due for execution. But they’re chained up, of course.’

  Ruso pondered this grim prospect for a moment. He needed the work. Just as, faced with Fuscus, he had needed the man’s influence. He said, ‘How much do you know about poisons?’

  Gnostus observed that poisoning did not make for much of a show and suggested, ‘The people you want to ask are the Marsi.’

  ‘I’ve tried,’ explained Ruso. ‘They were insulted.’

  Gnostus grinned. ‘I’ll bet. Next time, ask for Valgius and tell him Gnostus still doesn’t want to buy his snake.’ He pointed at Ruso’s stick. ‘So. War wound?’

  ‘Not exactly.’

  When Ruso told him, Gnostus was incredulous. ‘They let you home with just a cracked metatarsal?’

  ‘Long leave,’ explained Ruso, not entirely truthfully. He was adding, ‘And I was missing the sunshine,’ when there was a knock at the door.

  The new arrival was a youth of about eighteen who might have been handsome in a thin and poetic way had it not been for the jagged scab that ran from eyebrow to hairline.

  ‘Afternoon,
Tertius,’ said Gnostus, not bothering to get up from the stool. ‘What is it this time?’

  The youth glanced at Ruso and then back at his own doctor. ‘Please, sir, I’d like to consult doctor Gaius Petreius.’

  Gnostus sighed. ‘He’ll only say the same as me.’

  ‘It’s a personal matter.’

  ‘You don’t have personal matters,’ Gnostus pointed out, ignoring the pained look on the youth’s face. ‘You won’t have any personal matters for the next two and a half years. If you last that long.’ He turned to Ruso, who had got to his feet, and murmured, ‘Whatever he thinks he’s got, he’s going in the arena. Otherwise the pairs will be one short, and the boss won’t want to refund the hire money to Fuscus.’

  ‘I can’t sign you off sick,’ Ruso explained to the youth. ‘You’ll have to — ’

  ‘I don’t want to be signed off sick, sir!’ the lad exclaimed. ‘I just want to know if there’s a message.’

  Ruso blinked. ‘Message?’

  ‘From Marcia.’

  39

  ‘I thought that’s why you were here, sir,’ said Tertius, clearly frustrated at Ruso’s bafflement. ‘She said you were coming home to settle her dowry at last so she could buy me out.’

  Ruso did not know which part of this sentence to pick on first. ‘Marcia knew I was on the way home?’

  ‘She said you’d be back soon.’

  At last the mystery of the letter was solved. It had not been sent by Severus at all. Marcia had taken up forgery and then lied to him about it. Restraining a momentary flash of fury at the thought that he had been dragged into this whole mess by his own sister, Ruso said, ‘Why would I give her a dowry so she could borrow money to go around buying gladiators?’

  Tertius coughed. ‘She wasn’t going to tell you that part, sir. But we’re running out of time. I was hoping you were here to see to it yourself.’

  Ruso, perched on the edge of Gnostus’ operating table, looked the stringy youth up and down and wondered if young men were getting stupider or whether he had been just as much of a fool at that age. He understood how it felt to be desperate to leave home, albeit for different reasons. He had been lucky enough to have a childless uncle in search of an apprentice. Arria — equally keen for Ruso to leave — had managed to persuade his father that medicine was not such a terribly disreputable trade for a decent citizen’s son, even if it was mostly the province of slaves. She had avoided adding ‘and Greeks’ since Uncle Theo was in the room at the time.

  If Ruso had been in the position Tertius now described to him — parents honest but dead, no money and no connections — would he have considered selling himself to a gladiator trainer?

  No, he would not. ‘You could have joined the Army.’

  ‘But then I couldn’t marry Marcia,’ pointed out Tertius, as if this made sense.

  ‘You couldn’t marry her if you were carried out of the amphitheatre on a funeral bier, either,’ pointed out Ruso and then regretted it when he saw the look on Tertius’ face.

  ‘I was a bit drunk at the time, sir.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘There were three of us.’

  Evidently it was true: young men were getting stupider. ‘What happened to the other two?’

  ‘When they sobered up they sent for their fathers to buy them out.’

  ‘Leaving you stuck here for three years.’

  ‘Only two and a half now. I’ve been training ever since.’

  ‘So this will be your first real fight.’

  Tertius nodded. ‘I’m good. Ask anybody. I’m only a Retiarius now, but everybody says I’m Samnite material. I’m fast and I reckon I can entertain the crowd.’

  ‘I see.’ If Tertius was going into the arena armed only with a net and a trident, he would certainly have to be fast.

  ‘I thought if I was good, the trainer wouldn’t want to lose me.’ He paused. ‘To be honest, I always thought the fights were fixed.’

  Ruso wondered what Tertius could possibly have imagined would be going through the head of any designated loser in a ‘fixed’ fight. Perhaps he had expected to be pitted against a lesser — and less valuable — man. And to be fair, many of the professional bouts in the local amphitheatre ended in battered defeat rather than death. Until someone like Fuscus came along with too much money and demanded more excitement.

  Ruso looked at the cracked forehead and the chewed fingernails. ‘You’re not a marvellous prospect for my sister,’ he observed.

  Tertius squared his shoulders. ‘I’m not a coward, sir. I’m a hard worker. You ask anybody here.’

  ‘But you’re a gladiator.’

  ‘I love her, sir!’ said Tertius, as if this made some sort of difference. ‘I love your sister. And she loves me.’ He had been standing with his hands behind his back and his feet apart. Suddenly he stood to attention. ‘Sir, I would like to request permission to marry Marcia Petreia.’

  It was like being back in the Army. Except that none of the things for which he had been asked permission in the Army had ever involved his sister. Ruso sighed. ‘Stand easy, Tertius. You can’t marry anybody while you’re under contract to a gladiator trainer.’

  ‘That’s why she was trying to buy me out, sir.’

  Clearly Marcia and this youth were well suited: each as dimwitted as the other.

  Ruso got to his feet. ‘It would have been better if she’d told me the truth in the first place.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that, sir. When I see her I’ll have a word with her.’

  It was so cheeky that, had the circumstances been less grave, Ruso would have smiled. As it was, he said, ‘I don’t know how much news you get in here, Tertius, but I’m hardly in a position to help you at the moment.’

  ‘You’re free, sir. And nobody else is going to.’

  Ruso observed that his sister’s beloved might not be very bright but he was certainly persistent. ‘I’m not going to promise anything to do with Marcia Petreia,’ he said. ‘And you shouldn’t expect anything from me. But if circumstances change, and I find I’m able to help you, then I’ll see what I can do.’

  Ruso watched the spring in the youth’s step as he made his way back across to the barracks, and wondered if that last vague promise made him almost as much of a fool as Tertius himself.

  Gnostus had given him the key to the medical room before heading off to join his apprentices for lunch and told him to lock the door on the way out. Apparently all doors were kept locked here, and sharp weapons stored out of reach. Movement around the compound was carefully controlled by the staff and a favoured few amongst the top fighters. Gladiators might be heroes, but most of them were also slaves. The veteran with the whip was there both to keep the public out and the occupants in.

  Thus it was with some surprise that Ruso, turning to make his way across to the mess and return Gnostus’ key, found himself face to face with his former father-in-law.

  Probus’ demand of ‘What are you doing here?’ was an unwelcome echo of their last meeting.

  ‘Looking for a job. You?’

  ‘Business.’

  ‘You’re investing in gladiators?’

  Probus scowled. ‘Of course not. Here on behalf of Fuscus. You don’t think he deals with these people himself, do you?’

  Ruso, who had never really thought about the business side of public entertainment, said, ‘I thought he was supposed to have hand-picked the fighters.’

  ‘Then he fixed a price with the trainer, and left the rest up to me.’

  Ruso hoped ‘the rest’ did not include the sanctioning of job offers to medical assistants. ‘How’s Claudia?’

  ‘None of your business.’ Probus moved closer and lowered his voice. ‘You had no right to ask her to look into Severus’ commercial dealings.’

  ‘I thought you might know who else he’d upset.’

  ‘Do you have the least idea what releasing private information to someone like you would do for my reputation?’

  ‘Speaking of repu
tation,’ said Ruso, ‘you could have told me Marcia was looking for a loan before I heard it as gossip.’

  ‘That’s exactly my point,’ snapped Probus. ‘Client confidentiality.’

  ‘She wasn’t a client. You refused her. Quite rightly.’

  Probus eyed him for a moment. ‘You were a deep disappointment to me, Ruso. So much ability, yet so little …’ he paused, searching for a word. Finally he settled on ‘judgement’.

  ‘I didn’t poison your son-in-law.’

  ‘What you’ve never understood is that, for a man to succeed in life, it matters what people think of him. A lost reputation is impossible to recover. In my line of business, I have to be seen as utterly trustworthy.’

  ‘Mine too. What if this poisoner goes for Claudia next?’

  ‘Are you threatening my daughter now?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. And stop telling Fuscus I did it, will you?’

  When Probus did not answer, he continued, ‘Someone knows the truth. Help me find out.’

  ‘There will be a proper investigation. We’re waiting for instructions from Rome.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  Probus took a step closer. ‘You have no idea what you’re doing, Ruso. Are you trying to drag me down with you? And Claudia too? Because I won’t let that happen.’

  ‘Tell me something, Probus. When a man lends the money for a shipping venture, who carries the risk? The one who borrows it and arranges the voyage, or the lender?’

  ‘A shipping loan?’ The voice was incredulous. ‘We are discussing my daughter’s safety!’

  ‘Humour me.’

  ‘The lender, of course. High risk, high return.’

  ‘That’s why you sent Justinus on the ship.’ Ruso moved closer and murmured, ‘Severus lost you a lot of money, didn’t he?’

  ‘You know nothing about my affairs.’

  ‘If someone tells the investigator from Rome that Severus sank a lot of your money on the Pride of the South, you might be a very plausible suspect.’