however, keep her as his mistress, but then how would that be for the woman whom he would take as his wife? She would just have to live with it, he decided as he pulled the last scrapings of offal from the carcass.
‘I could have put a dozen arrows in you in the time that I’ve been sitting here.’
Vespasian started and spun round, cutting his thumb on the knife in the process. Magnus sat on a horse, twenty paces away, grinning as he levelled his hunting bow at him.
‘Hades, you gave me a fright,’ Vespasian exclaimed, shaking his injured hand.
‘You’d have had more of a fright if I’d been a Thracian rebel and shot this arrow up your arse, sir.’
‘Yes, well, you’re not and you didn’t,’ Vespasian said, calming down slightly and sucking the mixture of his and the stag’s blood from his thumb. ‘Why were you creeping up on me anyway?’
‘I weren’t creeping sir, I rode and I was making as much noise as a century of new recruits saying goodbye to their mothers.’ Magnus lowered the bow. ‘You were just too lost in your own world to notice, and, if I may point out the obvious, sir, that’s how you get to be dead.’
‘Yes, I know, it was stupid of me, but I’ve got a lot on my mind, Magnus,’ Vespasian admitted, rising to his feet.
‘Well, you’re going to have a lot more on your mind very soon.’
‘How so?’
‘You’ve got a visitor: your brother arrived at the garrison late this morning.’
‘What?’
‘You heard.’
‘What’s Sabinus doing here?’
‘Now how would I know that? But I would hazard a guess that he ain’t come all this way just for a nice brotherly chat. He told me to come and find you as quickly as possible so let’s get going. Where’s your horse?’
By the time they had found Vespasian’s hunting slaves and strapped his kill on to his horse it was well into the afternoon. The thickly overcast sky had brought an early dusk to the forest floor and they were forced to lead their horses for fear of them stumbling in the fading light. Vespasian walked next to Magnus, contemplating what could have brought his brother hundreds of miles to talk to him, and started to assume the worst. His father had written to him two years earlier with the expected news of his beloved grandmother Tertulla’s death, and he still felt a pang of grief every time he thought of her drinking from her cherished silver cup.
‘One of our parents must have died,’ he mused, trying not to hope that it was not his father. ‘Did he seem upset to you, Magnus?’
‘Quite the opposite, sir, he was anxious to see you as soon as possible; if he had bad news he wouldn’t have been in such a rush to talk to you, in fact he seemed very disappointed when I told him that you weren’t there.’
‘Well, that’s a first.’ Vespasian smiled wryly; he and Sabinus had never got on as children and he had been subjected to years of brutality by his brother that had only stopped when Vespasian was eleven years old and Sabinus had joined the legions. Although the tension between them had eased since Sabinus’ return from the army, Vespasian could never imagine his brother being disappointed not to see him.
‘I’ll know what it is soon enough, I suppose,’ Vespasian said, looking around and adjusting the hunting bow slung over his shoulder to ease the chafing of the string. ‘Come on, let’s ride, the trees have thinned out.’ He moved to mount up. ‘There’s enough light for-’ A brief hiss and a heavy thwack cut him off; two arrows appeared simultaneously in his horse’s jaw, just where his head had been an instant earlier. The animal reared up, whinnying piercingly, knocking Vespasian to the ground; another shaft slammed into its shoulder quickly followed by one into its exposed chest, felling it.
‘Juno’s crack, what the…’ Magnus flung himself in top of Vespasian as his own mount bolted. ‘Quick, the other side of your horse, jump.’
They leapt over the prostrate animal and crouched behind its back as two more arrows thumped into its belly; it raised its head and screeched, its hooves thrashing at the air as it tried but failed to get up. The two hunting slaves sprinted to join them behind the nearest available cover; with a sharp cry one spun like a top, his billowing cloak wrapping itself around his body as he twisted to the ground with an arrow protruding from a blood- spurting eye socket. His companion flung himself through the air and landed next to Vespasian and Magnus as another shot punched into the still writhing horse, causing it to spasm violently and then lie still.
‘What the fuck do we do now?’ Magnus hissed as two more shafts fizzed just over their cover to land quivering in the ground five paces behind them. No more came.
‘It appears to be me that they’re interested in,’ Vespasian whispered. ‘All the shots were aimed at me until I got behind cover; then they went for the slaves.’ He looked at his two companions, pulled out his knife and began sawing on the leather straps that secured his stag to his dead mount. ‘There only seems to be two of them, I suggest that I make a run for it in one direction and you two go the other way; with luck they’ll go for me and you’ll be able to get round behind them. What’s your name?’ he asked the hunting slave, a middle-aged man with curly jet-black hair and a Greek sigma branded on his forehead.
‘Artebudz, master,’ the slave replied.
‘Well, Artebudz, have you ever killed a man?’ The straps parted and the stag slithered to the ground. Another two arrows thumped into the horse.
‘In my youth, master; before I was enslaved.’
‘Kill one of the bastards out there today and you’ll be a slave no more, I’ll see to that.’
The slave nodded; a look of hope and determination crossed his face as he eased his hunting bow from its holder hanging from his belt. Vespasian patted him on the arm and then, grabbing the stag’s forelegs, slid the creature over his back.
‘On the count of three I’ll lift the stag; as soon as they hit it run whilst they reload, all right?’ His companions agreed. Vespasian tucked his right knee under his stomach ready to push off. ‘Let’s do it then — one, two, three!’
He raised the stag so that it emerged over the withers of the dead horse, immediately he felt the violent impact of two arrows striking the carcass almost simultaneously; he pushed down on his right leg heaving himself and the dead weight of the stag up and forward and, with a monumental effort, accelerated into a sprint towards a thick-trunked oak tree twenty paces away. Two fierce blows from behind made him stumble, but he kept his footing and felt no pain; the arrows had hit the stag that shielded his back. With cold air rasping at his throat from the intense exertion he reached the tree and dodged behind it to the vibrating report of two more shots burying themselves in its trunk.
Vespasian leaned his head back against the soft moss growing on the bark and sucked in lungfuls of winter air; the stag’s head lolled on his shoulder like a new-found, drunken acquaintance expressing eternal friendship. He cautiously peered round towards the dead horse and the trees beyond; there was no sign of Magnus or Artebudz. He held his breath and listened; nothing moved. Realising that he had to keep the attackers occupied as his two comrades worked their way around into a favourable position, he eased the stag down, unslung his bow and notched an arrow. He dropped to his knees whilst working out, from the trajectory of the previous shots, the direction in which to aim. Satisfied with his estimation he took a deep breath and swung his bow around the trunk releasing his shot a moment before a single arrow passed a hand’s breadth above his head. Vespasian smiled; they had split up, that would make matters a lot easier. Ten paces to his left was a fallen hulk of an oak, high enough to provide adequate cover. He notched another arrow; then, holding it securely across the bow grip with his left hand and lifting the stag with the right, he rose slowly to his feet keeping his back pressed against the tree.
A sharply curtailed cry came from the direction in which he had been aiming; then a shout.
‘One left!’
It was Magnus. He knew that he could not now risk another wild shot for fear of hitting his friend. As their positions were known he had nothing to lose by shouting. ‘Are they Romans or Thracians?’
‘Neither, I’ve never seen one of these savages before; he’s wearing fucking trousers,’ Magnus replied.
‘Let’s hope they don’t speak Latin then. Can you see the dead horse?’
‘Just, it’s about fifty paces ahead of me; you sound like you’re to the left of it.’
‘Careful then, you must be close to the other one. I’ll make a move, he might show himself; keep down, I’ll shoot at head height. Artebudz, watch out for any movement.’
Vespasian steeled himself for another quick burst of energy. He pushed the stag to his right, heard the sharp hiss and thud of another hit to the carcass, then leapt left towards the fallen tree, drawing and releasing his shot in
