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?’
