left.”
Salonius fell in alongside him and tried to keep his face impassive and stare straight ahead as they passed the villagers. As they passed the last house he felt a little of the tension drain from his back and, despite willing himself not to, his pace picked up a little until the pair of them had rounded the first bend in the road and the village had disappeared from view.
“We’d best get off the road,” he said, glancing ahead with some trepidation, expecting to see riders bearing down on them round the next corner.
Varro shrugged. “Should have at least a quarter of an hour yet, even if they tried to break their horses.”
The pair walked on. Despite Varro’s casual comments, Salonius noted that their pace picked up considerably as they rounded the corner. After perhaps half a mile of dusty road, they recognised the small village boundary stone that marked their departure point. Taking a deep breath and a nervous glance up the road, Salonius stepped on to the grass and held up his hand to ward off the thin branches snapping back at his face in the captain’s wake.
On springy grass without the constant crunch of gravel beneath their boots, all the sounds of a summer morning flooded in and filled their ears. Birdsong, the buzzing of bees, the splashing of the fast, narrow river in the middle distance and the occasional scurrying noise in the undergrowth all combined to send a flood of calming relief through the two men as Varro finally pushed through the last branches and broke out into the clearing where Catilina sat on a rock. The reins of the three horses were tied to a branch behind her, while she, herself, sat with a hefty Imperial blade between her fingers, point-down on the grass. Salonius raised his eyebrows as he recognised the blade from his saddle. For some odd reason, the lady seemed perfectly natural and happy bearing a heavy military blade.
Varro smiled at her and turned to Salonius, pointing up the slope at the side of the valley.
“Can you climb up there as quietly as you can and find somewhere to hide? As soon as you see horses, get back down here fast.”
Salonius nodded and strode across the clearing.
“But for Gods’ sake don’t get seen coming back down!”
The young man made an affirmative noise and began to clamber up the bank beyond the small knot of trees. Varro wandered across the clearing and sat on a stone near Catilina.
“Shouldn’t be long; then we can get going up toward Saravis Fork.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking; it’s dangerous to come back this way, but I really can’t see an alternative. There’s no Imperial road other than this. I believe there are native trails but even then it could take weeks to get back down. Are you sure you want to risk this? Going to the very border of the Empire and maybe even getting trapped there?”
Catilina nodded and patted him on the wrist in a soothing manner, idly spinning the blade on its point with her other hand.
“I’m quite sure, Varro.”
“But…”
“You don’t understand” she stated, cutting him off. “It’s been a long time since we were together, but you knew I’d wait, surely? I knew you would. There’d always be time for us to be together again, but now…”
Varro lowered his head and Catilina smiled sadly.
“I don’t know whether we’ve got six months or two days. If Scortius is the genius they say he is, we may even have many years. However long you’ve got, you’re spending it with me. On that point there’s no give!”
Varro looked across at her and grinned.
“Who does know how long they’ve got eh?”
Salonius burst through the leaves and ran out into the clearing, trying to arrest his momentum. Coming to a halt in the centre, he put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply, looking up at Varro and Catilina. The two were sitting close together with their hands on their knees. Catilina was smiling a genuine warm smile, while the captain appeared flushed and looked away momentarily.
Salonius grinned at Catilina.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything my lady?” he muttered very quietly.
“Of course not, Salonius” she replied, almost in a whisper, her smile taking on a mischievous edge. “I take it we’re moving?”
The young soldier nodded.
“They should be passing us any moment now.”
“How many?” Varro enquired, professionalism once more taking over.
“I counted eight.”
Varro nodded with satisfaction.
“Assuming they’re a normal outpost garrison, there’s only going to be two left up there.” He reached up and started to untie his reins from the branch. “And I’m guessing that our two friends are among the riders coming down here we’ll just have two lightly armed guards to deal with there.”
Salonius reached out and grasped his own reins. He stopped for a moment and then put a finger to his mouth and cupped his hand around his ear. The others fell silent and listened intently. The drumming of hooves was deadened somewhat by the undergrowth between the open clearing and the road around six hundred yards away, but there were clearly several riders pushing their horses as hard as they dare.
Once the sound of the hooves began to recede and the riders were out of sight in the direction of the village, the three slowly made their way out of the bushes and onto the road. There was no sign of the horsemen passing bar the slowly settling dust kicked up by their passage. As they mounted and began to move at a brisk pace up the valley Salonius, with a troubled look on his face, cleared his throat and looked across at Varro.
“I can’t do that again, sir.”
“What?” Varro replied in confusion.
“I’m a soldier” he said flatly. “It’s not fear. I’ll fight the enemies of the Empire. I’ll go into battle with no regrets, sir. But…”
“What?” the captain repeated, with a trace of irritation.
“I’ll fight the Empire’s enemies, sir, but I won’t execute any more of its men.”
Catilina raised an eyebrow and leaned across.
“I know Varro, Salonius. He won’t have liked this any more than you, but those men were no longer soldiers of the Empire. They were prepared to kill us. That makes them fair game.”
“Yes ma’am, I know. It’s just… well I don’t think a soldier should be required to torture or execute. That’s why we have provosts.”
Varro looked down for a moment and then fixed his young companion with a hard look.
“Sometimes you have to be everything from the accuser to the executioner. It’s not a nice thing, but it’s necessary. If you ever intend to make it as a sergeant or even an officer you have to understand that. It’s not easy, and everything about you tells you it’s wrong, but you have to push yourself past that and do what needs doing.”
“You’ve done that before, sir?” Salonius asked.
Varro nodded sullenly.
“A couple of years ago we had a problem with supplies. We were campaigning in the mountains about thirty miles west of here and had to drop to half rations for a week or so, to eke out our stores. But the supply trains never came. So we had to drop further, to quarter rations. I sent a request to Vengen for extra supplies but things were almost as bad there.”
The young man nodded and risked an interruption.
“I remember the time. Crop failures all over the north. The tribes were starving too.”
The Captain smiled sympathetically. “It was a hard time for everyone. Finally we were on emergency rations for more than a week; not really enough to feed a dog, let alone a human being. The men were beginning to lose their fighting strength, but we couldn’t afford to leave our position.”
He grasped the reins tighter and shared a look with Catilina that Salonius couldn’t see.
“Things just kept getting worse and the mood of the men got ugly. We started having to break up fights over food. We even had the occasional desertion, though why’s beyond me. If the army had no food, why would a man think he could do better for himself? And then one night the camp guards caught three men stealing food from the
