“I will then have set my guards to extracting information from you all, which will not be a pleasant task, but will be considerably nicer for them than it will for you. When I find the responsible parties, they will be dealt with, your second standard will be destroyed, the unit will be disbanded, and every remaining man will be dishonourably discharged with no pension.”
Again, a pause for effect, before his voice softened once again.
“But you know that I abhor needless violence, so use the next twenty minutes well and get me those men and you can collect your standard and bear it aloft again.”
He turned his back on the officers and Salonius could clearly see the cruel misery in his eyes. The marshal truly hated this.
There was a pregnant pause. Salonius let his eyes fall and stared at his feet once again considered the marshal’s course of action, the success of which lay in the belief that the culprit would have retained the self- sacrificing honour that informed the code of military conduct in the Imperial army. It seemed unlikely to the young soldier that anyone cowardly enough to commit an assassination against one of their own was unlikely to be willing to lay down their own life for the good of their unit. And a knock-on effect of that would be the punishment of the second cohort and the disbanding of the unit under dishonourable circumstances. He sighed and raised his eyes once more to see sergeant Corda standing several paces forward clear of the line. The interim commander of the second cohort cleared his throat.
“This is not necessary, marshal.”
Sabian turned and stared at the sergeant.
“Corda?”
“I will name the names you need, sir.”
Sabian stared at him, his mouth falling open. Corda clamped his teeth together and Salonius blinked. Corda?
Out of the corner of his eye he caught a movement and his eyes slipped behind the proud, defiant sergeant, to the sergeant behind him. Salonius vaguely recognised him. He’d been one of the squad sergeants and, by the looks of it, had been pushed up to Corda’s second in command. Perhaps the man was going to stop this madness? And then he noticed the man’s arm, hidden in the folds of his military cloak. There was a momentary flash of steel from within the shadows of the green material.
“Shit” he muttered to himself as he noted the absence of a sword hilt projecting from the man’s scabbard by his side.
“No names!” shouted the deputy sergeant, suddenly pulling his hand out from his cloak and lunging at Corda for the kill.
The world slipped into slow motion for Salonius. Sabian shouted something; the ring of guardsmen began to move forward; Corda began slowly, ever so slowly, to turn. There was no time. Corda would die, and any information with him.
With a grunt, Salonius dropped to a crouch, grasping the standard of the second cohort in one large hand. He’d never have the time to stand and do this properly. As the muscles in his powerful arm bunched and rippled, the young ex-engineer pulled the standard back, stirring a small cloud of dust, and slung it forward in a long underarm sweep. Without an ounce of modesty, he realised how few people around this square would have the power for such a throw.
The standard, like all imperial military standards, was really a glorified spear. A wide, leaf shaped blade stood proud eight inches above the cross bar that held the flag. Below that came the decorations of the unit that glittered in the sunlight as the standard hurtled low to the ground, leaving a wake of dust.
The deputy sergeant raised his sword arm and suddenly disappeared in a cloud of dust with a shriek. The standard had been too low and slow to do any serious damage, but the point had ripped through the skin half way up the man’s calf and the cross bar hit his ankle with surprising force, enough to bring him down in a painful heap. By the time he recovered his wits and found his feet, one of the junior sergeants of the second cohort had retrieved the standard and, with a vicious and defiant grimace, he brought the iron-shot base of it down on the wounded conspirator’s head, knocking him flat and unconscious. The sergeant held the standard aloft with pride and fixed his eyes on the marshal. Sabian stared at him for a moment and then nodded.
A hand grasped Salonius’ arm and he looked round to see the captain of the marshal’s guard, his black cloak grey with grit, crouching to help him up. Nodding his thanks, Salonius stood again and dusted himself down.
Two of the black clad guardsmen had stepped forward and were standing to either side of Corda now. The sergeant slowly and carefully removed his sword from the sheath on his belt and cast it to the ground in front of Sabian. At a nod from the marshal, the two guards grasped Corda’s shoulders and bent his arms behind his back, turning him and marching him from the square, through the circle of guardsmen and toward the palace. Two more men collected the unconscious man from the floor behind him and dragged him, unceremoniously, after the others.
Sabian stared at the other sergeants of the Second.
“Justice will be served, gentlemen, and it will in no way reflect on the rest of the unit. Replace your standard.” He glanced at Salonius and the guard captain.
“However, my guards will stay here and you will continued to remain in quarters until I am satisfied that I have all of those responsible in custody.”
He straightened and squared his shoulders as the officers of the Second saluted. With a sad sigh, he turned to Salonius and the captain.
“Let’s go and find out how deep this goes, eh gentlemen?”
Corda stood in the office of the guard captain, his chin raised and shoulders back in a military stance. Salonius was impressed despite himself. Even in just a tunic and breeches, covered in dust, Corda still looked proud, haughty and thoroughly military.
Behind him stood two of the guardsmen, with another two behind Sabian, Salonius and captain Iasus, as Salonius now knew him. Corda had been stripped of all arms, armour and equipment and stood defenceless and yet so proud. Salonius glared at him. Were it not for the need to determine who else was involved, he could happily strangle Corda himself.
Sabian looked around the office at the guards and gestured to the door.
“I think we can deal with this.”
The captain looked less sure, Salonius thought, but nodded at his men anyway and placed the palm of his hand on the pommel of his sword as he stood at the marshal’s shoulder. The guards filed out and closed the door behind them.
There was a long silence and finally Sabian sighed.
“Why, Corda?”
The marshal hauled himself out of the captain’s chair and walked around the front of the desk, facing the prisoner.
“You go back all the way to the civil wars with Varro and Petrus. Hell you even served in my army back then!” He growled. “You’re supposed to be one of us!”
Salonius rubbed his eyes wearily. He’d not slept since yesterday.
Corda cleared his throat.
“I have no excuses, marshal. I am at fault.”
“And yet you give in without a fight? Explain!” Sabian’s voice rose an octave.
Corda sighed.
“It wasn’t meant to be like this, sir. I found out about Cristus’ secret a couple of months ago, quite by accident. I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I heard something I wasn’t meant to.”
The sergeant’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“I made a judgment call. Then worst in my life.”
“I said: explain!” shouted Sabian. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell me!”
“I didn’t see the point in bringing it all out into the open. It would have destroyed the Fourth Army and brought dishonour on all of us. And it would have done no good. Nothing would have changed; those men at Saravis Fork would be just as dead. The prefect pointed out that he would soon be leaving the military and moving into politics. Varro would be next prefect and I’d take Varro’s place. Why rock the boat? Surely it was all for the best
