of us. Our horses were good, we were well armed and provisioned. Postulus led us out. We almost stumbled on that war band, they were sheltering in the hollow of a hill. Perhaps they thought that, because of the confusion along the wall, they were safe. We attacked at night, riding into their camp, slaughtering to the left and to the right. There were more of them than we thought, so Postulus decided to call it a day, but we had two captives: a young man — we cut his throat; he was so badly wounded Postulus said we couldn't take care of him.'
'And the other prisoner?' Claudia asked.
'You'll never believe us.' Crispus stared directly at her. 'The Picts are small, dark and wiry. They had allies to the north, the Caledonii, and, across the seas to the west, the Scoti. Some of these are extremely fair-haired. To cut a long story short, the Pictish chieftain had a woman, a young wench, perhaps no more than sixteen or seventeen summers old. She was cloaked and hooded but when we returned to the fort we discovered she was a great beauty. One of our number knew the Pictish tongue, or at least a few words. We tried to make sense of what she said. She was very frightened and claimed she was a princess, the Pictish chieftain's new wife, and that he'd be angry and would come looking for her. We asked for her name but all she told us was that she was the Golden Maid — that's what her name meant — and she'd been given to the Pictish chief as a bridal present, to seal an alliance between the tribes.
'Usually when we took women captives they were shared out and then sold in the marketplace, but this was different. Postulus and Stathylus were both deeply smitten. At first the Golden Maid was frightened, but she soon realised there was very little difference between Pict and Roman, we all have our brains where our balls are, so she played one off against the other. At the same time our scouts reported increased activity amongst the Picts. Furious at their loss, they were hurrying south, a war band of between thirty and forty men. They launched one attack upon the fort but we beat them off. An argument broke out between Postulus and Stathylus about what should be done. Postulus was all for handing the girl back and making a peace treaty, buying the Picts off with some silver from the pay chest and a few jars of posca. They'd be content and leave us alone. Stathylus was different. He accused Postulus of treason, of conspiring with the enemy. Postulus became very drunk. I don't know what truly happened, but he retreated to his chamber. Stathylus took over and did a really stupid thing. He sent out a scout to find out exactly what was happening, and the poor bugger never returned. We later discovered the Picts killed him before they came after us. Stathylus knew the mind of the Picts; the Golden Maid was their woman, so if they found out she'd lain with Romans they'd kill her too. Stathylus, well, he was…'
'He was persuasive.' Secundus spoke up. 'He was very eloquent. He pointed out that Postulus had failed to be a good officer. If he was so drunk, we should leave him alone, trap the Picts, kill them and claim the glory. The rest of our story is true.'
'Is it?' Claudia asked. 'You are sure you butchered every single Pict?'
'According to Stathylus,' Secundus spoke up, 'we did.'
'What do you mean, according to Stathylus?'
Secundus gestured at Crispus. 'After the fight, we were sent out on a scouting mission. When we returned, the dead Picts lay heaped in a great pile outside the southern gate. They were drenched in oil and burned. There were no prisoners.'
'And the Golden Maid?' Murranus asked. 'What happened to her?'
'When we attacked the war band,' Crispus replied, 'the Golden Maid had been shackled in a wood. Stathylus made the stupid mistake of bringing her down to see the dead. She was truly beautiful,' he whispered. 'She had hair as gold as ripened corn, pale ivory skin.'
'Have you seen Cassia?' Claudia asked. 'The former courtesan? She's a close friend of Urbana, General Aurelian's wife.'
'Yes, I have.' Secundus half smiled. 'Beautiful.' 'Was she like that?' Claudia asked.
'A little,' Secundus conceded, 'but Cassia is not the Golden Maid. For a start she is too young; secondly she doesn't look like her. More importantly, I know what happened to the Golden Maid.'
'What?' Claudia asked.
'As I have said, Stathylus brought her down. She looked at the dead and cried. We celebrated. We found old Postulus hacked to bits, but of course we all kept quiet; technically we were guilty of mutiny. We burned his corpse as well. The reason we all agreed to it is that Stathylus had promised how, once we'd annihilated the Picts, we'd abandon the mile fort and march south to search out General Aurelian. Postulus had wanted to stay on the wall. Once he was dead, we'd won our great victory and were only too pleased to go.'
'What happened?' Murranus insisted.
'Well, as I've said, we celebrated. We had some wine and food. Stathylus lay with the Golden Maid. We heard her shrieks as he pleasured her. We'd camped outside the mile fort; next morning we found the Golden Maid had hanged herself from a beam inside.'
'Hanged herself?' Claudia asked.
'Shame.' Crispus spoke up. 'Because of her, her husband and his entire war band had been destroyed. She knew what would happen next. Stathylus would either sell her in the market or pass her on, so she'd taken a piece of rope and hanged herself.'
'You are sure she was dead?'
'I am certain. We burned her corpse and rode south, and that was the last time we ever saw that mile fort, the Picts or the Golden Maid. We became heroes, saviours, warriors. No one dared tell the truth. Strange,' Crispus mused. 'I always felt more guilty about Postulus than the Golden Maid.'
'I have asked this before,' Claudia said, 'but is it possible that someone from that Pictish war band survived?' Secundus shook his head.
'Impossible,' Crispus declared. 'We killed them all. Stathylus was insistent on that. He wanted to make sure that no one survived to describe how Postulus had been killed; that was very important. No Pict escaped, and as your friend said,' he pointed at Murranus, 'the battle took place at night. There was some torchlight, but even then our helmets and cloaks hid our faces. More importantly, it was eighteen years ago.'
'Have you searched?' Murranus asked. 'I mean, to see if there are Pictish slaves in Rome?'
'Of course there are,' Secundus sneered. 'Slaves from every tribe and country under the sun, but no one has ever approached us. Anyway, why now, after eighteen years?'
Claudia realised there were no further questions to be asked. She got to her feet, picked up her cloak and stared at the two veterans. 'We have to go. There is nothing we can really do at the moment, but I warn you of this, never be alone, never allow any woman to approach you. If you do that, you might survive!'
'Will you tell General Aurelian?' asked Crispus. 'I mean about Postulus?'
'I certainly think there's a need,' Claudia replied. 'Not immediately, but when I need him…'
'His blood is not on our hands,' Crispus declared stridently. 'We were not party to his death, that's why we kept the secret. Now Stathylus is dead, I don't mind if the truth comes out. We had no hand in Postulus' death.'
Claudia thanked both men, then she and Murranus went down the stairs and into the street. Darkness had now fallen. Shapes flittered across the mouth of an alleyway; strange sounds and cries filled the air. They walked down into the nearby square, where the mercenaries still lounged about; they'd fixed a cresset torch into the wall of a house and were sharing out a jug of wine. Across the square, a warlock dressed in a feathery black cloak was crooning above a bowl of fire; an old woman crouched next to him sprinkled some powder over the flame, making it leap and crackle. Voices shouted curses. Somewhere a child cried, followed by a woman's shrieking laugh. Claudia put her arm through Murranus' and drew him close. A whore came stumbling up clutching a lantern, which she raised. In the faded light her face looked repulsive: no forehead, a short podgy nose, nostrils dilated, mouth curled as she muttered a curse.
'What are you doing here?' she accused Claudia. Murranus pushed her aside, and immediately another figure lurched out of the darkness: a thickset man with an owlish, cunning face, huge slobbery mouth, fists ready to punch. He stopped, looked Murranus up and down and, grasping the woman by the hair, pulled her away. Claudia and Murranus walked on. The air reeked of the stale odours of cooking, fried fish, coarse bread and rancid meat- dripping. Musicians stood in a pool of light and with rebec and fife encouraged wild dancers, dark, shadowy figures, to whirl and turn. Claudia was relieved to approach the She Asses tavern. Murranus stopped just at the mouth of the alleyway leading down to it.
I've been thinking,' he murmured.
'Dangerous!' Claudia teased.
