'Get down off your horse,' Cato ordered. 'I do not care to speak to you with the sun in my eyes.'
'Very well, Roman.' Ajax swung his leg over the horse's back and dropped to the ground close to Cato, but Cato did not flinch. Out of the glare of the sun, he could now see the man clearly. Ajax wore a simple tunic, plain boots and a sword belt slung across his shoulder.
Tall, broad-shouldered and powerfully built, he was young, but his features were more lined and scarred than the face Cato dimly recalled from years earlier. There was something about the eyes, too.
They were watchful and far-seeing, and Cato guessed that his time in the arena meant that Ajax was a man who missed nothing and was capable of reacting to any threat in an instant.
'More comfortable?' Ajax sneered.
'You wanted to talk to me,' Cato responded flatly. 'So talk.'
'I'll get to the point when I am good and ready. Before then, I am curious to know what you think of our little situation. It is not without dramatic interest, wouldn't you agree?'
'I am not interested in your games, slave. Just speak your piece and go-'
'Slave?' Ajax frowned briefly.' Not any more. Not when your emperor concedes to my demands.'
'State your demands then, before you bore me any further.' Cato slowly folded his arms, loosely, with his left hand on top in case he needed to signal his men.
'I will, but first, tell me how it feels to be responsible for all of this.'
Ajax gestured at the two armies. 'All the bloodshed during this rebellion. Surely you cannot sleep easily with all this on your conscience.'
Cato did not reply at once, then spoke with deliberate emphasis.
'This is your doing, Ajax. The retribution that Rome will visit on your followers will be your responsibility, not mine. If you surrender now, and give up your hostages, I give you my word that I will plead the case for leniency to be shown to your followers.'
'While I go the same way as my father?'
'Of course. How could it be otherwise? After all that you have done.'
'You are too generous.' Ajax laughed drily. 'You should take some of the credit.'
'Really?'
'Oh yes. You see, every day since you and your friend made me a slave, I have vowed to have my revenge. If I am honest, I never really expected to have the chance, but it kept me alive and kept my wits keen when so many others might have died in the arena. So, I have you to thank for that. You…' He pointed his finger at Cato's chest.
'It was you who made this rebellion possible, and you who will be the cause of Rome's humiliation. And,' Ajax's eyes flashed with inspiration and he smiled, 'and yes! It is you who will be the cause of your own greatest torment. But I am getting ahead of myself.' He paused and then pulled a red strip of cloth from inside his tunic. 'I have decided to give you a demonstration, Roman. To prove that I am serious, and to discourage you from any rash course of action.' He turned and pointed to the beached ships. 'You see that one on the end, apart from the others?'
Cato looked, and nodded.
'Good. Then watch.' Ajax extended his arm and waved the strip of red cloth slowly from side to side as it rippled gently in the light breeze. There was an answering signal from the deck of the grain ship, and moments later Cato saw a tiny glitter and a thin trail of smoke. The spark quickly spread as a handful of men scrambled from the bows on to the sand. A tongue of flame shot up from the main cargo hatch and within moments the ship was ablaze and a cloud of smoke billowed over the decks. Ajax turned back towards Cato.
'There. Every one of the remaining ships is ready to be fired the moment I give the signal. You had better bear that in mind in case you are thinking of making a surprise attack to seize the grain fleet.
Now then, on to my demands.' Ajax raised his hands and counted them off.' One, you send word to your governor that he is to issue a proclamation, in the name of Emperor Claudius and the senate, declaring that all slaves on the island of Crete are to be set free at once. Before you protest, I know that he has the authority to do this.
Whether Rome ratifies it or not is not my concern. By then, my followers and I will be long gone. If the governor is not here with the proclamation in his hands five days from now, I will start destroying all of the ships. Two, after we have the proclamation, signed, sealed and delivered by the governor in person, you will allow my followers and me to board the ships and sail unhindered from this bay. Once we have decided on a safe place to land we will hand the ships over to you.'
'What's to stop you burning the ships after you have reached wherever it is that you intend to sail to?'
'Nothing.' Ajax smiled. 'You'll have to trust me.'
'Trust you?'
'You have no choice. And there's one other thing.' Ajax looked straight into Cato's eyes, and his lips parted in an icy grin. 'I imagine that you are won de ring about the fate of the hostages… your friends?'
'Why should I?' Cato replied evenly. 'They are as good as dead already'
'Your face betrays you. I think they mean far more to you than you would ever admit. If not, then the last demand I shall give you will be the easiest to comply with. Three, I will send a man back here tomorrow, at dawn. You will give him your response to this question.'
Ajax paused, savouring the moment. 'I want you to choose who I will let live, Centurion Macro, or Julia Sempronia. It is your choice, Tribune Cato. You will tell my man who is to live and who is to die when he comes. If you fail to give him an answer, then I will have them both put to death, in full view of your camp, and I give you my word that their deaths will be long and painful.'
An icy dread filled Cato's body. He could not think, could not utter a response. So he stood and stared.
Ajax read his reaction well and nodded with satisfaction. 'Until tomorrow then, Tribune.'
He remounted his horse and spurred it back towards his followers, and then led them back down the hill at a gallop. Cato stood still and watched them, tracking the small band as it wound through the rebel camp, around the end of the bay towards a small hillock on the peninsula stretching into the sea. Only then did he turn and walk slowly back towards the gates of the Roman camp.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
We have to attack tonight,' Cato decided, after he related the demands made by Ajax.
The other officers in the tent stirred uneasily. Outside, the noon sun beat down on the Roman camp. The wind had died away during the morning, so that the air inside the tent was stifling. Cato had summoned his senior officers the moment Decius Balbus, the navarch, had reached the camp, after his gruelling ride from the bay where his squadron lay at anchor. Cato had made up his mind to attack the rebel camp as he had made his way back to his headquarters after confronting Ajax.
Centurion Casca, the prefect of the cavalry cohort, responded first. 'Sir, you said that the enemy would set fire to all the ships at the first sign of an attack.'
Cato nodded. 'That was what Ajax said, and I believe him.'
'Then why attack? The fleet will be burned and the people in Rome will starve. Surely the priority is to save the grain ships and send them on to Rome as soon as possible.'
'Even if that means agreeing to his demands?'
Balbus scratched his chin and thought a moment before speaking.
'If you attack, and he destroys the fleet, then we will have a political disaster on our hands. If you agree to his demands, then Rome will avoid starvation. You will, of course, be condemned for bowing to the will of this rebel and his army of slaves. I imagine that, the emperor and the senate will show you no mercy' He paused and looked directly at Cato. 'It seems to me that the choice is between the lives of many in Rome, or your shame and exile or execution, sir.'
Cato smiled slightly. 'You are right, and the choice is mine.
However, I think there is something else you have to consider. What if we go along with Ajax, and he still destroys the grain ships?'
