False God of Rome Page 6

  At first this had irked him but gradually his curiosity had waned out of necessity and he had put it to the back of his mind. His curiosity had been briefly reawakened, four years previously, after he and his brother, Sabinus, had been read a deliberately obscure prophecy at the Oracle of Amphiaraos in Greece. This had alluded to a brother telling the truth to the King of the East. Whether it had meant anything to Sabinus he did not know as his brother had been unforthcoming, claiming to be still bound by their mother’s original oath.

  In the two years between completing his time as one of the triumviri capitales and being elected quaestor, time mainly spent running the estate at Cosa left to him by his grandmother, he had thought little about it; until now. Now he was convinced that he had been preserved by some unseen hand; how the others had survived he did not know but he knew that he should have suffocated last night, buried in the sand on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his birth.

  ‘It’s not looking too good,’ Corvinus said, tight-lipped, walking up behind Vespasian with Magnus as he finally managed to find his water-skin, ‘there are twenty-six survivors, plus us four, and only eight water-skins, all of which are half-empty.’

  ‘Nine now, prefect,’ Vespasian replied, pulling the skin from the deep hole in the sand. ‘Surely we can work out where the horses were and dig down to them?’

  ‘We’ve been trying to but most of the horses and all but one of the mules bolted taking the provisions with them. They’re all lost out there somewhere,’ Corvinus snapped, waving his arm around, ‘we’ll never find them. All we’ve been digging up is dead auxiliaries; I’ve lost three of my four decurions. They didn’t deserve to die like that, it’s a fucking shambles.’

  ‘Well, if there’s no hope of any more survivors then we should get going quickly before the sun gets too hot.’

  ‘Go where?’ Corvinus shouted.

  ‘To Siwa as planned, prefect; it shouldn’t be more than a day away.’

  ‘And what are we going to do when we get there? We’ve got hardly any men left; you’ve managed to lose most of them on this mad scheme of yours.’

  ‘Let me remind you who you’re talking to, prefect,’ Vespasian retorted, pointing a finger at the young cavalry prefect’s face.

  ‘I don’t need to be reminded that I’m talking to an upstart of a New Man with no breeding and a Sabine accent.’

  ‘Whatever your patrician prejudices might make of me, Corvinus, I am the Governor’s, and therefore the Senate’s, representative in Cyrenaica and you will do as I order without question. And if you think that saving citizens from slavery is a mad scheme then I pray that should that fate befall you there is someone like me around willing to come after you. Now get the men ready to—’

  A distant, mournful, wailing cry from high overhead cut him off.

  Vespasian looked east towards its source. ‘What the fuck was that?’

  ‘Another poor sod who’s had the misfortune to follow you into the desert,’ Corvinus spat. He turned on his heel and stormed away, barking orders at the surviving auxiliaries who were looking nervously at the sky.

  ‘I think that you should have made it clear,’ Magnus said, watching Corvinus go, ‘that you’d only come after him if he has an attractive woman in tow, if you take my meaning?’

  Vespasian shot his friend a venomous look. ‘Very funny!’

  ‘I thought so; and not so far from the truth either.’

  Vespasian grunted; he could not deny it to Magnus: if it had not been for his desire for Flavia, they would not be here and a hundred or so men would still be alive. But then, if a man’s destiny was pre-ordained, those men must have been destined to die here; Fortuna had only held her hands over a few of them to be spared for other tasks and deaths. What, he wondered, was the task for which he had been spared?

  CHAPTER III

  ‘SIWA, SIWA!’ ZIRI shouted, sending his arms and legs flying out at all angles in a wild, capering, silhouetted dance on top of a sand dune.

  Vespasian looked up at him wearily through eyes squinting against the sun’s midday ferocity; his lips were cracked and his head throbbed from the heat beating down directly onto it in the absence of his hat.

  It was the second day after the sandstorm and they were all in a weakened state having only had three cups each of their precious water on the previous day and one cup each at midmorning today. Only Ziri seemed to be unaffected by the conditions and he carried on his exuberant jig as his companions struggled up the dune.

  ‘Not a moment too soon,’ Magnus croaked, working his feet hard to get purchase in the soft sand. ‘I’ve been dreaming all morning about drinking my piss.’

  ‘That’s a coincidence,’ Vespasian replied with as much of a grin as his parched lips would allow him, ‘I’ve been dreaming all morning about drinking your piss too.’

  ‘You’d have had to fight me for it.’

  Vespasian’s reply stuck in his dry throat as he crested the dune. Two miles in front of him, stretching away beyond the horizon, was nothing but green; an oasis of life in an otherwise barren and hostile terrain. Fifty miles long and over ten wide it covered the desert floor like a lush, verdant carpet.

  Corvinus stopped next to Vespasian. ‘Thank the gods, we’ve made it.’

  ‘Yes, but how do we get back?’ Magnus muttered.

  As they stood marvelling at such an expanse of fertility after days of nothing but brown, wasted land and intense blue sky, the distant sound of rhythmic drums, sonorous horns and clashing cymbals drifted up through the air.

  ‘What’s that?’ Vespasian asked.

  ‘Dunno,’ Magnus replied, ‘but it sounds as if someone’s having a party.’

  Having drunk the last of their water, the final couple of miles felt easier and within an hour they passed under the first date palms. The sound of the music grew steadily but there were no other signs of human habitation. The temperature started to drop considerably until it felt like no more than a scalding hot summer’s day in Rome.

  Working their way forward for another mile through the gradually thickening trees, enjoying the ever growing shade, they came suddenly, and unbelievably, to a lake. Without hesitation all of them rushed forward and plunged into the cool, life-giving water and drank their fill while submerging their overheating bodies in its fresh depths, diffusing, at last, the sun’s relentless intensity.

  Refreshed, they made their way deeper into the oasis in the direction of the music. Coming upon a well-used track they followed it; the sound of chanting could now be heard under the drums, horns and cymbals. After a few hundred paces they passed a couple of low, flat-roofed, mud-brick houses. Vespasian and Magnus looked through the open windows; they were deserted.

  ‘I suppose everybody’s at the party,’ Vespasian observed as they carried on towards another larger collection of similar dwellings.

  The music was now very close. The road turned sharply to the right and passed between two more houses, then opened up into a huge, crowded, square agora surrounded by mud houses seemingly piled one upon the other. The music and the chanting came to a crashing crescendo; everyone in the agora jumped into the air raising their arms above their heads.

  ‘Amun! Amun! Amun!’ they shouted to the crash of cymbals and the beating of drums.

  Then silence.

  At the far end of the agora a priestly-looking man, dressed in a leather kilt with a broad, golden belt, stood on the steps of a small temple; on his head he wore a tall, brimless, black leather hat with golden images of the sun fastened to it. He lifted a crook into the air; his congregation prostrated themselves.

  He began to incant a prayer and then stopped abruptly as he noticed Vespasian and his comrades still standing. Pointing his crook at them with a shout he indicated that they too should get down onto their bellies. Over a thousand heads turned to stare at them.

  ‘However bad this will feel I think we’d better do as he says,’ Vespasian said, getting down onto the ground. Magnus, Corvinus and the troopers follo
wed his lead.

  Grovelling in the dust was not a natural thing for a Roman to do: more used to mastering others, they were accustomed to looking down rather than up, and Vespasian, Magnus and Corvinus prostrated themselves reluctantly. Ziri and the Libu troopers followed their lead without humiliation.

  Once satisfied that the whole congregation was showing due deference the priest carried on his incantation for what seemed like an age.

  ‘Amun!’ he called to the sky finally.

  ‘Amun!’ the crowd repeated.

  With the prayer session evidently at an end the people got back onto their feet.

  Vespasian rose and tried to wipe the dirt off his wet tunic with little success.

  The priest strolled through the crowd towards them and stopped in front of Vespasian.

  ‘What are you doing here, stranger?’ he asked in Greek.

  ‘I’m no stranger,’ Vespasian replied with as much dignity as was possible covered in wet dirt, ‘I am Titus Flavius Vespasianus, quaestor of the province of Creta and Cyrenaica of which this is a part.’

  The priest bowed. ‘Quaestor, you and your men are welcome.’

  Vespasian could feel the release of tension among the troopers behind him.

  ‘My name is Ahmose,’ the priest continued, ‘priest of Amun, He who is hidden, He who came first. You will find us loyal subjects to Rome here and I will assist you in any way I can. I think that first you need to eat and then you can tell me how you managed to appear out of the western desert on foot.’

  Sitting rather uncomfortably on the carpeted floor, Vespasian, Magnus and Corvinus joined Ahmose in his surprisingly richly decorated house for a meal of bread, olives, dates and a roasted meat that none of them had tasted before; although slightly tough they were all hungry enough to eat it without worrying too much about its provenance.

  ‘So you’re looking for the Marmaridae’s slave caravan,’ Ahmose said, having listened to the tale of their journey. ‘They will still be here; a party of them arrived only four days ago, that’s why the camel tastes so fresh.’

  ‘This is camel?’ Magnus exclaimed, looking at the cut of meat in his hand.

  ‘Most certainly. The Marmaridae always pay for the right to use our water with camels each time they pass through; we also give them bread, dates and olives as part of the exchange.’

  ‘Well, they don’t taste as bad as they smell,’ Magnus commented before taking another bite.

  ‘Yes, it’s quite flavoursome; their milk is good to drink too.’

  Magnus screwed up his nose. ‘Now that is disgusting.’

  ‘Don’t you have trouble with the Marmaridae taking your people as slaves?’ Vespasian asked, trying to get the image of drinking camel’s milk out of his mind.

  ‘No, they need us for water and supplies before they set off to Garama; if we denied them that then the journey would be even more hazardous than it already is.’

  ‘They could just take it,’ Corvinus pointed out, taking a bite of a large green olive.

  ‘There are over ten thousand people living in the oasis, we could fight them off; and if we were having trouble we could appeal to Caesar as we used to appeal to the Pharaohs when we were a part of the Kingdom of Egypt.’

  Vespasian doubted very much that any sort of an army would be sent to defend this outpost of the Empire, but he kept his thoughts to himself. ‘How do we find the Marmaridae’s caravan?’

  ‘They’ll be at the last lake in the southwestern corner of the oasis, about six miles from here.’

  ‘We’ll need horses.’

  ‘I’m sure you would requisition them if we didn’t give them freely.’

  ‘I’m afraid we would; as the quaestor I have that power.’

  ‘As the quaestor you also have the power to make those horses part of the tax that we pay each year.’

  Vespasian smiled at the old priest. ‘If you include javelins and enough supplies to take us back to Cyrene, then I’m sure that that could be arranged.’

  ‘Done, quaestor.’ Ahmose spat into his hand and proffered it; Vespasian took it rather gingerly. ‘But that is all the help that I can give you; if I give you men it might upset the delicate balance that we have with the Marmaridae.’

  ‘I could requisition them as well.’

  ‘You could but I think you would have a problem: we are celebrating a festival of Amun at the moment, it runs from today for three days, in memory of Alexander coming here three hundred and sixty-seven years ago to receive the wisdom of Amun. There will be a feast tonight in honour of him; you are welcome to join us. I will have the horses and weapons ready by dawn; you can leave then.’

  Vespasian opened his eyes; it was thick night. His head spun slightly from the effects of the date wine that had been served in copious quantities during the feast. Magnus had been able to consume cup after cup without too many ill-effects but Corvinus and all of the troopers had drunk themselves, very quickly, unconscious. Vespasian had not been surprised, it was heady stuff and he had limited himself, very early, to just a cup every so often; even so he was still less than sober. Ziri had not touched a drop all evening as he waited upon Magnus’ every need; he now lay curled up, sleeping at his master’s feet.

  A metallic clink from outside the window caught Vespasian’s attention; he was sure that it was the same noise that had just woken him. He listened intently trying to filter out Corvinus’ snores and Magnus’ heavy breathing. There it was again; there was someone or some people just outside the window, he was sure of it.

  He reached with his left hand for his spatha on the floor next to his mattress and eased it onto his chest; his right hand gripped the hilt as he listened again.

  Nothing; he started to relax.

  A distant, sudden crack of wood breaking followed by shouts jerked him upright; he unsheathed his spatha.

  ‘Magnus!’ he shouted but got no further.

  The door crashed to the floor; moonlight and dark figures spilled in.

  With a roar he leapt to his feet and hurled himself at them, spatha in the air. Briefly aware of Magnus drawing his sword and Ziri jumping up, he slashed wildly in the dark, felt his blade make contact and was rewarded with a shrill scream and a jet of blood in his face. He kept his forward momentum going and with a backhand cut felled another of his shadowy assailants; Magnus hurtled into the man next to him, flooring him with a body-check and a jab to the belly. Ziri threw himself at another of them, crunching his forehead into the man’s nose, taking him down. Driving his left foot forwards, Vespasian brought his right knee up, squelching into the groin of the next figure who dropped like a dead man to the ground with a guttural roar that was stifled as he started to hyperventilate with pain. Strangulated gurgles came from the floor as Ziri despatched his opponent with his bare hands. Magnus’ straight thrust into the right eye of his next opponent was enough to convince their attackers to withdraw at speed.

  ‘What the fuck was that all about?’ Magnus asked, breathing heavily.

  ‘Don’t know, but we certainly should get out of here; help me with Corvinus,’ Vespasian replied, thrusting the tip of his spatha into the throat of the man clutching his crushed testicles.

  Finding Corvinus in the dark from the direction of his snoring proved easy enough; what was not easy was waking him.

  ‘Shit, we’ll have to carry the bugger; Ziri, here,’ Magnus said after a third sharp slap had proven fruitless.

  Magnus and Ziri quickly slung an arm over each shoulder and dragged Corvinus to the open door.

  Peering outside into the moonlit agora, Vespasian could see no one close by, but their attackers were running over to the other side of the square where a group of figures surrounded the storeroom to which the comatose troopers had earlier been dragged to sleep off the date wine.

  ‘There’s nothing that we can do about them,’ Vespasian hissed, turning away and grabbing Corvinus’ ankles, ‘they’ll have butchered them by now. Let’s get out before those bastards get their reinforcemen
ts.’

  Running as fast as possible with the dead weight of Corvinus between them, they skirted around the edge of the agora; coming to an alley leading away, they turned up it as an almighty shout came from over by the storeroom.

  ‘Shit! That’s them after us,’ Magnus said as they raced up the dark alley. Corvinus started to moan; his head lolled from side to side. ‘I fucking wish old matey-boy here could hold his drink.’

  Suddenly the alley opened onto a main street; they paused and looked each way, it was deserted. Darting across the road they found another alley and sprinted up it. Behind them they could hear the shouts of their pursuers growing closer.

  Almost a hundred pounding heartbeats later the mean houses on either side of the alley abruptly ended and they came out into a date palm forest.

  ‘Straight ahead!’ Vespasian puffed. ‘And keep an eye out for somewhere to hide; we’ll never outrun them with him dragging us down. Let’s pray that they didn’t see which alley we went up.’

  ‘Why don’t we just leave him?’

  ‘If it comes to a choice between all four of us getting killed or just him, we will.’

  ‘I think we’ve just reached that point, sir,’ Magnus observed as a horde of silhouetted figures flooded out of the alley, just over a hundred paces behind them.

  With a quick glance between them they dropped Corvinus and sprinted away.

  Weaving through the moonlit palms they managed to put on a good turn of speed but their pursuers, more used to the terrain, were gaining on them.

  ‘Split up,’ Vespasian shouted, veering left, ‘we’ll meet up back at that lake soon after dawn.’