that. He could only imagine how quickly those men would get butchered on a real battlefield. He stepped forward as Velutio reached him.
“Your lordship.”
Velutio had been walking with his head lowered but now he raised his face and his pure rage shone in his face. He’d never seen the lord like that. Velutio got cold and calculating, not red and furious. His lordship thrust an accusing finger into Sabian’s face.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t have Crosus here kill you where you stand!”
Sabian almost laughed; this was too surreal. If he was that deep in, why not just ride the wave of insanity. He spoke lightly and with a humorous lilt.
“Firstly, because you need me considerably more than you need him. Secondly because I am in the right and I’ve done nothing wrong.” His gaze came to rest on Crosus. “And thirdly, because if this trained ape tried to spit me I’d have to hand him back to you in slices my lord.”
It was amazing when you knew it was a lost cause how easy it was to speak your mind. His words did nothing to mollify Velutio, but they’d provoked a huge anger in the captain. Sabian almost laughed again when he saw the purple colour of Crosus’ face and the whitening of the man’s knuckles on the hilt of his sword.
Velutio squared his shoulders. “Commander, you’ve picked up a very nasty habit of gainsaying and back- talking me since you came to this place. That is not the attitude of a trusted officer.”
Sabian raised an eyebrow. “Indeed my lord? I would have thought that was exactly the attitude you need from a trusted officer? Yes-men will just nod and agree as you slip all the way down the slope. You need someone who argues. I have never done you disservice.”
The lord turned his iron grey head and glanced at Crosus who was still shaking with anger and then back to Sabian again. “Nevertheless, the captain went to a great deal of time and effort to get a spy working within this community and suddenly last night, we stopped getting reports. Why is that I wonder, and where might my personal physician be?”
Sabian felt the ground gradually slipping away beneath him.
“The spy,
“And he can have it. By dead man’s boots if he cares to try.”
Crosus actually lunged forward, but Velutio held out an arm to stop him.
“I will not have you duelling or even besmirching the name of my guard while you stand under such taint. You deliberately disobeyed my orders at every turn and appear to have ‘gone native’.” The last phrase almost caused him to spit. “You never sent one person to the crucifix, which was a direct order.” As he spoke, his eyes strayed to the mess on his right. A startled look crossed his face, which pleased Sabian no end. In fact the Gods might be with the commander after all today for, as Velutio noticed the crucified pulp, so the wind chose that very moment to double back on itself and carry the reek across both his lordship and the captain. Velutio merely turned back to the commander, his nostrils dancing in the miasma, and raised one eyebrow.
Sabian grinned. “One of Crosus’ turncoats. I don’t like traitors in my army.”
He watched the changes of expression and colour in the captain’s face with immense satisfaction while Crosus battled against the smell, the anger and now the uncertainty. Without letting either of them recover, Sabian continued. “The two men who sang me a whole long story died well and they’re buried next to the veteran that Crosus had killed.” His smile widened. “As for your doctor, he wouldn’t cooperate at all, so I’m afraid I had to send him fishing without a head. Probably a good thing for you though my lord.”
Velutio had not moved. “How so commander?”
Again Sabian smiled. “I suspect if you tell me what reports you’ve had and I tell you the truth, you’ll find glaring errors. You see I rather think that the doctor was receiving a higher wage from Crosus than from yourself. In fact” he said, tipping his head to one side with a thought that hadn’t occurred to him before, “I wonder whether the captain’s long-term plan doesn’t involve knocking me out of the game and then having you poisoned? Perhaps the murder here was a test-run was it Crosus?”
Again the big captain, his features red and furious made a lunge for Sabian and again Velutio prevented him. Sabian opened his mouth to rile the captain further, but a voice behind called out “commander!” Sabian’s head swung around and he spotted the minister standing in the shadows of the Gorgon Gate with Darius at his side. Sarios was still in his priestly garb from the funeral and the white robe accentuated the black eye patch disconcertingly. He wondered when the doctor was going to try and deal with that. Darius was still wearing his leathers and bore the sword at his side. He smiled. Why not go the whole hog? This would make the lord and the captain as angry as anything.
“Excuse me for a moment my lord.”
Even as Velutio opened his mouth to order Sabian to be still, the commander turned and strolled slowly and unconcerned up to the gate. Once in the shadows and out of earshot of the others he looked back down to see Velutio and Crosus in a heated debate. Good. Friction would help. He turned back to the minister.
“Well timed gentlemen. Can I help you?”
Sarios thrust his arms out to the sides. “What the hell are you doing commander? You’re going to get yourself killed!”
Sabian smiled. “I think that’s kind of academic now. Velutio’s got too much on me and I’ve got no defence. I just want to make them angry enough that I get a chance to gut Crosus before I go.”
Darius and the minister exchanged glances and, with a saddened look, the old man nodded at his charge. Darius turned back to the commander and withdrew something from the recesses of his tunic, thrusting it into Sabian’s hands, keeping his back to the scene below.
“What’s this?”
Sarios let out a long breath. “The one thing we have kept from you at all costs.” Sabian began to unroll the battered scroll and his eyes widened as he recognised the island on the map, the reef systems, and finally several marked safe channels. He whistled through his teeth. Sarios continued “and the only thing that might save your reputation here.
Sabian thrust the scroll back at Darius. “I don’t even want to know this exists.”
Sarios grinned. “You don’t think I haven’t made a copy, do you?” Watching the slow smile form on the commander’s face, he added “and I assume that Velutio will be on the track of young Quintillian by now.”
Sabian nodded. “Velutio has spies and mercenary units pretty much everywhere. If they haven’t found him yet it won’t be long.”
The minister stood for a moment tapping his chin with his finger. He seemed to reach a decision. “Tell Velutio that Quintillian and his companions landed just outside Serfium a little over a month ago.” He dismissed Sabian who was waving his arms trying to shut the minister up. “The three of them then went to Calvion to acquire money. After that they were to get as far away from the sea as possible.”
Sabian shook his head. “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to be the one responsible for you betraying your people.
The minister smiled. “It’s not the whole truth commander, but enough of it to get you off the hook. I doubt it will make any difference to Quintillian’s chances.”
Sabian stood for a long moment staring at the pair. Finally he nodded and, tucking the charts away beneath his cloak, strode back down the hill to where Velutio watched him impatiently.
“Nothing wrong I trust commander?” his lordship said coldly and sarcastically.
Sabian smiled. “No sir. Just conferring on a point of law with the minister. He does, after all, have a remarkable command of legal knowledge. It seems that I’m quite entitled with the amount of evidence and the number of witnesses I have to demand trial and punishment for the captain here.”
Again Crosus’ face went purple as he spluttered angrily. Velutio raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to ask me to put my personal guard on trial?”
Sabian grinned. “Actually no. I’m going to demand he face me in trial by combat. Then we’ll see how much he really matters.”
Velutio shook his head. “I’m still trying to decide whether it’s you who should be on trial here.”
Sabian nodded. “Then let it be that way round.
