Frankly, I was not; we had already incurredenough trouble because of his indiscriminate attacks on tribesother than the Triballi, and here he was saying that any Thraciantown we came across we would assault. I had less problem withscooping up individual Thracians who might be of some tribe otherthan Triballi, but whole towns or cities? However, I knew Primuswell enough to understand that I had gotten everything out of himthat I was going to, at least at this moment. Taking what I hadalready won, I left to pass the word to Macrinus and Flaminius.
I will admit that I was surprised thatexactly a week to the day of his promised delivery, Aristoxenus,along with the other elders of the Serdi tribe, came riding intothe camp, leading a long line of wagons that were just from theirlooks as heavily loaded as those that Cleitos had brought. I do notknow, gentle reader, if you have ever seen eight talents of goldand silver at one time, but I will tell you that it is animpressive sight. Twenty-two wagons impressive, to be exact, eachof them groaning under the weight of the ingots, loaded into crateswith rope handles. Naturally, this is impossible to keep secret,and the camp was abuzz as the men speculated about how much of itwould be theirs, which also understandably made those of us whoknew Primus' real intentions very nervous. Neither Macrinus norFlaminius had been very happy with what I had gotten out of Primus;the knowledge that he had never had any intention of sharing theseeight talents was a bitter draught for both of them. Continuing thecampaign was no guarantee to solve the larger problem, but giventheir mood, I was not about to share with them my true goal.Frankly, I had not given up hope on prying loose some of that goldfrom Primus' fat fingers, but I needed more time for Masala and meto work on him. Resuming the march would, at the very least, keepthe men occupied with the admitted drudgery of choking down dust,making camp, and repeating it the next day. Unless, of course, westumbled upon another settlement the size of Serdica, which wecould storm and take by force. Given the direction in which we weremarching, northward toward Triballi lands, this was highlyunlikely. As puny as our scouting force was, we still had a fairlygood idea of the country ahead of us, and while a bit more openthan what we had passed through, with the great Danuvius serving asthe northern boundary of the Triballi, there was no sign of anytowns. Nevertheless, I was clinging to the belief that I couldsomehow persuade the Praetor that ultimately it was in his bestinterests to part with some of the gold carried in those wagons.One small mystery had been solved, however, at least partially, andthat concerned the wealth of Serdica. There were a number of goldmines in the hills to the southwest of Serdica, which were wellknown. What had not been so well known was that in the previous twoyears, an extremely rich vein of ore had been found, substantiallyincreasing the wealth of the Serdi. Secrets like that are hard tokeep, but they had managed to do so, at least from their neighbors.But not, as it turned out, from Octavian, or someone close to him.What I still did not know at this point was how Primus had learnedabout it. It took another two days after the delivery of the goldfor it to be accurately weighed and counted, but finally there wasno more reason for delay, and we broke camp. Despite the fact thatwe began the march shortly after dawn, the walls of Serdica werelined with townspeople watching us leave. While they were notcelebrating openly, they were clearly happy to see us go, for whichI could not blame them. Although their city still stood, and itsinhabitants were for the most part unharmed, I was sure that therewas not a family among them who had not lost a man, either at thefortress during our first assault, or in the surprise we sprang onthe relief force. Our men were not shy about pointing that out,shouting mocking insults as they marched by, not caring that few ifany of the civilians understood what they were saying. As happy asthe Serdi were, we were no less so, the men in particular lookingforward to the opportunities for more pillaging.
As it would turn out, none of us got ourwish. Three days from Serdi, we were alerted by our rearguard thata group of mounted men were approaching, riding hard. Quicklyfollowing that was word that they were Roman. For once, Primus didnot seem to be in the mood to take advantage of any excuse to stopand get off his horse, refusing to sound the halt to allow thisparty to catch up to him. I happened to be riding with Lucullus,whose company I had come to enjoy quite a bit, despite hispatrician status. Riding perhaps a hundred paces behind wherePrimus was bouncing along, we were at the very rear of the commandgroup, and were the first to hear the sound of the pounding hooves.Looking behind us, I could see a fairly large group of men, perhapstwenty in number, and I instantly saw they were indeed Roman. Oneof them was carrying a pennant that I had never seen before,scarlet in color with a creature emblazoned in gold on it that Idid not immediately make out. Although they were dressed in theuniform that our regular cavalry wore, I saw that two of them werewearing muscled cuirasses, with finely worked helmets, marking themas officers at the very least.
"I wonder what this is about?" Luculluscommented as the first of the men drew abreast of us.
That was when I recognized the Decurion incommand, Lucius Silva, who had been with me on the campaign fiveyears before with Crassus. Sighting me, he spoke a word to
