in the cohort. If he’d already worked out their mission from a shifty first spear and simple deduction, there was no chance of their delicate task remaining a secret. ‘Yes, you’re going to find out all about the Fortress Bonna vicus. Every bar, every whorehouse. You’re going to visit them all in readiness for our next move. I’m right, aren’t I?’
Julius’s incredulous stare hardened to a sly grin in the instant it took him to grab the big man’s misconception and run with it.
‘For Cocidius’s sake, Titus, keep your bloody voice down! If the other officers find out why we’re really going east there’ll be a mutiny! As far as everyone else is concerned we’re going to talk to the Fortress Bonna stores officer, and that’s the way it needs to stay.’
Titus guffawed, slapping his colleague on the shoulder and rocking him sideways.
‘Of course it is, brother, of course it is! Here — ’ he lowered his mouth to Julius’s ear conspiratorially — ‘I was talking to a trader on his way through to the west yesterday when I was on guard duty, and he was telling me about a one-toothed whore-’
‘ Enough! We’ll give you a full briefing when we return, only spare me any more of your speculation. I don’t want to hear another word about it until we’re back. You keep our little secret, and I guarantee to tell you all the details myself.’
By the time they’d had another cup of wine the story of their impending trip to the east and its ‘secret’ purpose was all over the camp, and as Morban addressed his centurion on the subject Marcus found himself admiring the first spear’s genius in managing to generate such artful misdirection with a single seemingly innocent conversation.
‘Off to Fortress Bonna, eh sir? Off to see the lay of the land, I hear. I’m told there’s a one-toothed whore who’ll stick her-’
‘Standard Bearer?’
The razor edge in his centurion’s voice silenced Morban in an instant.
‘Sir?’
‘Hold out your hand.’ Squinting at his officer in discomfort and puzzlement, Morban extended his right hand, the fingers curled protectively into his palm in obvious expectation of a stroke from the Roman’s vine stick. ‘Turn it over and open your palm.’
Slitting his eyes in readiness for whatever punishment it was that he feared, Morban obeyed, only to goggle at his open palm as Marcus dropped a single gold aureus into it.
‘I negotiated a discount on the boy’s armour. You get a hundred sestertii back to do with as you see fit, and Arminius is holding the other aureus in expectation of future expenses. After all, we can’t have him wasting time trying to wring money out of you every time young Lupus needs a new pair of boots. Dismissed.’ The standard bearer turned away in a daze, still staring at the gold coin. ‘Oh, and Standard Bearer?’
‘Sir.’
‘The one-toothed woman? Apparently it’s true, although whether she really performs the act for which it seems she has become infamous among the men of this cohort is less than clear. We’ll know for certain soon enough though.’
He turned away, leaving Morban staring open-mouthed after him. Morban waited until Marcus had turned the corner and was away to his own quarters before muttering quietly to himself, shaking his head in disgust.
‘The next thing I know he’ll be taking over my book as well. I think I preferred the other version.’
Julius waited until the last of the soldiers on an evening pass had returned to barracks before setting off into the city, this time dressed in his uniform with both sword and dagger strapped to his belt. Skirting around the Blue Boar to the east he found the streets deserted, and walked quietly up to the shrine to which Annia had directed him, his hobnails muffled by rags tied about his boots. Looking up and down the street to ensure that he was unobserved he reached into the shrine, feeling about behind the goddess’s statue until he found a narrow horizontal slot through which to insert the key, a long rod with a two-pronged anchor-like device at its end. Turning the key from vertical to horizontal he jiggled it gently until he felt the anchor’s metal tips engage a pair of holes in the bolt holding the hidden door closed. Pulling the rod to the right he felt a gentle click as the bolt disengaged from its keep, and with only a little pressure the heavy door opened easily on well-oiled hinges. Sliding through the narrow opening he closed the wooden door, which was cunningly faced with a stone cladding to blend seamlessly with the wall, and in the darkness he slid the bolt back into place by touch.
A patch of dim light appeared above him at the top of a flight of stone stairs, and a figure stepped into the meagre illumination, beckoning him on. Mounting the steps with one hand on his dagger and ready to fight, he realised as he drew close to the top that it was indeed Annia. Dressed in a light tunic and with her cosmetics removed, she hugged him enthusiastically.
‘I thought you weren’t coming!’ Her whisper was so soft as to be virtually inaudible, and she put her mouth to his ear to be heard better. ‘Take those swords off and come inside.’ She ushered him into the room, lit by a single lamp, and pulled the door closed before rearranging the wall hanging that concealed it. Gesturing to a couch, she poured him a cup of wine and came to sit alongside him. ‘The secret door was already here when I took the place over. The Boar’s been a brothel since it was built thirty years ago, and whoever designed it had an eye to the future. Not only are all the rooms observed from secret passages, to make sure that any pillow talk of value is overheard by the guards and reported back to Petrus-’
Julius started with surprise.
‘ Petrus? ’
She put a finger to his lips.
‘ Shhhh! There’s no guarantee that he doesn’t have a man outside this room with an ear to the door; it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had me spied on. I’m his property, Julius, and he’s a jealous master. If he found out about the door to the street he’d have it sealed up the same day.’
‘But Petrus is the procurator’s man. How would he be…’
He stopped talking and thought for a moment, then shook his head at how obvious the truth was once it was in the open.
‘Petrus is the real power in the city. He’s the man that controls the gangs, and Albanus is so deep in bed with Petrus that when my master tells him to jump the only question he’s allowed to ask is how long he has to stay off the ground. I knew from the second I saw you that I still feel exactly the same way about you that I did fifteen years ago, but I didn’t dare to let you know it, because if you saw it so would they. And once Petrus knew, he’d have had you dealt with, quickly and quietly. And then he’d have told me all the details while he was grinding me into that bed, taking his pleasure from my despair. It was far safer for his musclemen to tell him that I was indignant and aloof. I’m sorry.’
The Tungrian put a protective arm around her.
‘It doesn’t have to be that way any longer. Come with me now; bring whatever you need and leave for good. You’ll never have to whore again, or suffer that arsehole’s attentions.’
He stopped talking, his eyes fixed on her shaking head.
‘If I walk away from here I have to leave the city now. You may think you could protect me, but I know that he’d have my life in a matter of days as a lesson to anyone else contemplating the same idea. I can only leave this place under one of two circumstances. Either you need to be marching away, and have the means to take me with you, or Petrus needs to be dead along with every man that might seek revenge for him in order to prove himself as Petrus’s successor. Unless you can make either of those two things happen tonight, then tomorrow I shall still be the mistress of the Blue Boar.’
The small party rode east at dawn the next morning, Marcus, Julius, Dubnus and Silus all mounted on cavalry horses while a mule laden with several days’ worth of food followed Silus’s mount. If his comrades found Julius’s demeanour even more dour than they were accustomed to, they made no mention of it.
‘He went into town again last night,’ Dubnus had confided to Marcus while they were waiting for Silus to arrive with the horses on which they were to carry out their mission. ‘He clearly thought he was keeping it to himself, but one of my lads was doing double guard duty as a punishment for that squabble with the legion, and he told me he saw the stupid bastard walk off towards the forum once everyone had turned in for the night.’
The two men had exchanged uneasy glances, knowing that by rights such behaviour ought to be reported to the first spear, and knowing also that neither of them would do any such thing.
‘He’ll tell us about it in his own time, and until he does we’ll just have to watch his back.’
Dubnus had nodded unhappily at his friend’s decision, and it was only Silus who had carried on with the usual
