Emperor

Xander stood immediately, plump, anxious, shaking off Severa's restraining hand. 'We must finish what we have started,' he insisted in his heavily accented Latin. 'You can't judge the performance of the Wall as a system when it is not completed, any more than you can expect a cart to run on only two wheels. When my design is fully realised-'

'It's still not going to work,' Tullio said bluntly. 'Because it will still have the flaws we have identified today. A vulnerability from the south. Inadequate crossing points.'

Sabinus nodded. 'My legate would agree. We have to think too of the longer term implications for the empire as a whole of such a static, frozen frontier. The economic consequences alone-'

Nepos held up a hand to silence him. 'Now your education is showing, Iulius Sabinus,' he said dryly. 'I have only a few years in this chair, and I have to think of the short term, not the long.'

Severa said quickly, 'In the countryside the Wall has already become a highly visible sign of Roman strength. To abandon it now would be a clear sign of weakness. A retreat.' Brigonius saw she was trying to manipulate the soldiers' sensibilities, trying to keep some control of the project.

Nepos sighed. 'Unfortunately I have to agree with you about that, madam. The Emperor would not accept an abandonment. It would harm him back in Rome. The Wall exists, for better or worse. We have to consider where we go from here, not where we would wish to have started from.' He turned again to Xander. 'We will not obliterate your precious monument, architect. But how would you modify it to correct its deficiencies?'

Xander, unfortunately, had retreated into a shell of hurt pride. He all but shouted at the governor, 'The design cannot be modified! It must be expressed!'

Tullio raised an eyebrow, and a ripple of exasperation passed among the Romans in the room, Brigonius thought. Greeks will be Greeks.

Sabinus, ambitious, saw his chance. 'If I may, governor? I've taken the liberty of drawing up a few modifications to Xander's design that might accommodate the objections we've heard today.' He held up a scroll. On Nepos's nod of permission, he spread this on a low table before the governor. Brigonius saw it was a rough sketch done in charcoal of the Wall curtain, forts and ditches.

'To begin with,' Sabinus said, 'the vulnerability at the rear. You can see that I've added a further earthwork on the south side.' The cross-section he had sketched showed a ditch some twenty feet wide at the top and ten deep. There were mounds twenty feet across to either side, each set some thirty feet from the lip of the ditch. 'This earthwork will be set back from the Wall to create a protected zone to the Wall's south, an 'annexe' if you will, where civilians will be excluded or controlled. There will of course be controlled crossing points and causeways at the forts.'

Annius nodded, pulling at his lip. 'That would work. I've seen such designs before.' He squinted at the architect. 'And how long will this earthwork be?'

Sabinus said forcefully, 'Why, it must shadow the Wall for its whole length. What use is it otherwise?'

Nepos held up his hand. 'We'll discuss the practical consequences later. I think we all agree that some system such as this will be necessary. Now, Sabinus, concerning your legate's objections about the gates-'

Sabinus directed their attention to another corner of his sketch. 'It is clearly impractical to have the major forts set back from the line of the Wall, and to have crossing points so narrow as the mile-forts. The solution is clear. We must build new forts, each large enough to house an auxiliary unit, along the line of the Wall itself.' He showed a sketch of a fort, the classic rectangular shape lying astride the line of the Wall. 'You can see that half the fort's gates will give directly into the northern area, giving it the equivalent of six mile-fort gates. The unit will be able to deploy immediately from its fort into the north.'

Nepos glanced at Tullio. 'Prefect? Will this do?'

Tullio shrugged. 'The northern walls of the forts will be vulnerable-'

Annius said cheerfully, 'You can fix that. A few pits with stakes would do the job. But this will cut the number of crossing-points in the Wall. The locals will resent it.'

Nepos eyed him. 'The locals just tried to burn the Wall down, soldier. Let them resent.'

Tullio growled, 'Sir, you told me to bring this project in on time, within your governorship. We already had to make compromises-the turf sections for a start. Now to build these new forts-how many, tribune?'

'Twelve,' the Roman said smoothly.

'Twelve, then-'

Sabinus added, 'And I'd advise rebuilding the turf sections in stone while you're at it. A mix of turf and stone in the long run will only invite attacks along the more vulnerable turf section.'

Tullio laughed. 'Yes, let's chuck that in too! Look, governor-'

Nepos said, 'I know, Tullio, I know. Before we accept the inevitability of a rescheduling, is there any way we can speed things up? What if we reduce the width of the stone curtain, for instance? Does it have to be ten feet? What if were eight feet, or six? Wouldn't that do?…'

They began to talk around such time-saving compromises. Sabinus expertly made himself the centre of the technical discussion, excluding Xander and his sponsor Severa. Xander rolled his eyes in mute horror at this destruction of his vision.

Brigonius was more interested in Severa. As the scope of the project changed before her eyes, she was clearly losing any control over events she might once have had. Not that anybody had any sympathy for her; she had made too many enemies for that. But Brigonius wondered what was going on behind her cold, bitter face.

At last Nepos sat back. 'Well, I think we have a solution, for all but one of our problems: the timescale. Tullio?'

Tullio sighed. 'I don't imagine the Emperor will assign me the Rhine legions to finish the job?'

Nepos smiled. 'You're an honest man. I don't want you to commit yourself until you're ready. But we're talking of years more, aren't we?'

'I'm afraid so, sir.'

Nepos tapped his teeth. 'So whatever the future holds the Wall will no longer be my problem-or my glory. Well.' He stood stiffly. 'I had better begin composing my letter to the Emperor. Good day to you all.'

As he left, the others gathered up their belongings. Everybody was silent, sullen.

But Tullio slapped Brigonius on the back. 'I don't know why you're looking so serious, Brittunculus,' he said. 'Seems to me the governor has just ordered an awful lot more of your stone.'

XVIII

It took another month for the final act of the rebellion's aftermath to play itself out.

The execution was to take place outside the camp at Banna. Everybody within half a day's walk of the place was summoned to attend, as were the leaders of the civitas.

At the appointed hour Brigonius walked out of the camp. He joined a dismal gathering, a hundred people or so, men, women and children, gathered around the cross on the ground. The August day was unusually warm: it was a Roman heat, Karus said, a heavy heat that flattened your lust and puddled your thinking, the heat of the conquerors.

To Brigonius's surprise, Severa joined him, with Karus. 'I wasn't expecting you two. I didn't know you had a taste for such a spectacle.'

'I certainly don't,' Karus said, his face grey. 'I see it as duty, of a grim sort. It is sometimes my role to argue for the death penalty. I think I should remind myself from time to time what that entails.'

Severa was expressionless, wrapped in a white cloak. 'As for me, I thought I should drain the dregs of a foolish disturbance which did so much damage to my ambitions. I thought that my daughter might be here, however. After all she worships a god who died in such a manner. You'd think she would see this as part of her theological education.'

'You're too hard on the girl,' Karus murmured. 'This isn't the place for her, you know. You're crushing her spirit.'

'I know my own daughter, I think.'

Karus regarded her. 'Once I admired you. I lusted after you-I'm sure you knew it. And your mind astonished me; your gaze pierced centuries. But perhaps your aloofness from history has leached you of your humanity, Severa.