whoring, drinking and waiting for Daddy to buy you another chance, your colleague Scaurus concentrated on building up his military skills the hard way. His backer could snap your family’s power with a crook of his little finger, but Scaurus was never willing to take advantage of that influence, quite the opposite, as it happens. He loved the joy of commanding men in battle far too much to consider promotion away from the sharp end of the spear, and so for years he was content to be a legion tribune. He might have frustrated his sponsor in the process, but the man recognised his quality and never stopped backing him, and I’ll warn you just this once, you’ll spread evil gossip about the man at your peril. Just a few quiet words in the right ear and you’ll find yourself robbed, buggered and murdered in some Roman back alley. I advise you to accept your lot and get on with the rest of your life.’
Furius nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the older man’s. Licinius relaxed, judging that his words had beaten the last resistance from the man.
‘Come on, then, let’s get you into the residence and away from prying eyes.’
In the hospital, Felicia’s assessment of Dubnus’s condition was delivered to his friends in a quiet, tired voice as she leant across the big centurion to look closely at his wound, taking a slow long breath in through her nose with her face close to the blood-crusted gash.
‘A spear, yes? Good, the wound won’t be too deep, then. It looks like his mail did its job and took most of the force of the blow. And there’s no smell of infection, that’s a good sign. Now we can do this one of two ways, Centurion. I can dose you with something to make you sleepy, or we can just get it over with now. It will hurt either way, but with the tincture the unpleasantness will seem to have happened in a dream, whereas you’ll know every second of the pain without it.’
Dubnus closed his eyes with exhaustion, shaking his head slowly.
‘I already feel like a dead man, lady, so let’s get this done and over with.’
The doctor nodded to her assistants.
‘Strap his legs down well. I’ll need the small-wound forceps, vinegar, clean linen swabs and a small drain tube. Oh yes, and the honeycomb. And you two gentlemen…’ She smiled wanly at the waiting centurions. ‘… can help me by putting down those helmets and sticks and coming over here to hold his arms. Once we get the wound open he’s going to be in more pain than when the blade went in.’
By the time Julius arrived an hour later Dubnus was sleeping exhaustedly in his bed, his stomach heavily bandaged and a tiny bronze tube protruding from the wrappings.
‘He’ll live, I presume?’
Rufius nodded tiredly.
‘He will, if our colleague’s woman has anything to do with it. I’ve not seen a wound cleaned out with such care for many a year, nor a man take such torture without even a grunt.’
Julius nodded, knowing from grim experience what his comrade had been through.
‘I did a bloody sight more than grunt when they cleaned mine out. It’s packed with the honeycomb, I presume?’
Rufius nodded, raising his hands.
‘Crushed it myself…’
‘So he should be fine. That’s a relief…’
Marcus and Rufius exchanged glances.
‘What?’
‘It’s probably nothing…’
‘But…? Come on, Centurion Corvus, I’m a big boy, I can take bad news.’
Marcus frowned.
‘Fel… the doctor told us that there’s some damage to his liver, just a nick, but there’s no way of telling what might have been on the blade that creased him. We’ll just have to wait and see.’
Julius took a deep breath, shaking his head slowly.
‘And so it goes… Very well, gentlemen, orders from the first spear. We’re to get a beaker of wine down our necks, get to bed and be ready to march again at dawn. We go north again at first light, and he wants us as fresh as possible, not bleary from a night spent watching a wounded man sleep off his surgery. Two Knives, take a moment to say hello to your woman properly and then join us in the officers’ mess for a quick one. You’ll sleep better with a beaker of half-decent wine under your ribs.’
Marcus nodded agreement, tapping fists with both men and making his way cautiously to the surgery door. Felicia, bent over another patient, sniffing for decay, caught his eye as he put his head around the door frame and smiled, standing up from the patient and nodding.
‘Clean enough, if my nose isn’t getting tired from all this practice. Let’s make this the last one tonight, there’s nothing out there that won’t wait until I’ve had a few hours’ sleep. Get him ready for cleaning out, please.’
She walked to the door, and pushed Marcus into the ward, wrapping her arms around him, muttering tiredly into his chest.
‘How long have you got in camp?’
He snorted into her hair, laughing despite himself.
‘About six hours. We’re going back north at dawn.’
She pushed herself away from him, holding him out at arms’ length and looking critically at his black-ringed eyes.
‘You were in action yesterday. From the look of it you were right in the middle of it, as usual…’
His eyes were suddenly misty, the gentle challenge breaking down defences that he’d thought secure against the emotions surging around them.
‘We fought off a warband from the far north. My archers fought better than I could ever have imagined… but I lost so many of them. And Antenoch…’
A tear escaped from his right eye, rolling down his cheek and falling on to his armoured chest. Felicia pulled his head on to her shoulder, holding him close again and biting her lip to suppress her own tears.
‘My love. My poor, poor love. They were soldiers…’
Marcus pulled away a little and tried to speak, but she put a finger to his lips, shaking her head.
‘No! No guilt. They may not have been fighting men to match your Tungrians, but they were still soldiers. They knew what they were volunteering for. And as for your clerk…’
‘He died saving the boy’s life. I was too late to do anything other than butcher the men that killed him. Perhaps that’s all I’m good for…’
‘Rubbish!’ Her voice hardened, and she took a grip of his mail shirt’s collar and dragged him close again, whispering vehemently in his face. ‘You’re a fine officer and a good man, and I love you. So pull yourself together, go and get some sleep and come back to me in one piece when this is all over. I want a live husband, not a dead hero, so keep your wits about you!’
He smiled wanly and kissed her gently, squeezing her to him for a moment. Disengaging and moving towards the surgery door, she turned back, a wry smile on her face.
‘And if you want a way to remember your clerk that doesn’t involve yesterday, just remember all the times he drove you to the point of tearing your hair out.’
He smiled back at her, his mood lifted by the thought of better days.
‘I threw a copy of Commentaries on the Gallic War at his head in the hospital at Cauldron Fort.’
‘I know, he told me. I think he was rather proud of the achievement… Now, away with you. I’ve got a patient to deal with, and my records to scribble out before I forget what to write.’
Marcus gathered up his helmet and followed her to the door, his mind already fixed on the thought of a few hours’ sleep and the next day’s march.
Furius drained the last of the wine that had been left for him and lifted the flask, shaking it to ensure that no drop remained within.
‘Empty. Bastards couldn’t even leave me enough wine to put me to sleep.’
Rising from the chair in which he’d been sitting since Licinius had left him in the residence’s comfortable main bedroom, with the command to get some sleep, the disgruntled ex-officer shambled off into the house in search of more wine. Finding nothing to drink in any of the rooms, he pulled his boots back on and went to the front door, opening it cautiously to peer into the fort’s empty street. A pair of the Petriana’s cavalrymen turned to face him, their faces stony with dispassionate disapproval and their spears crossed to bar him from exiting the residence. Closing the door, he retreated to the kitchen, searching until he found a suitably heavy bladed cooking knife. Back in
