hems. She wore nothing beneath the soft wool.
When Perennius cupped her breast, the woman shuddered. He cursed and jerked back, ashamed of his awkwardness and of forgetting the bruises and cuts that laced her torso.
'No, no, darling,' Sabellia whispered. One of her arms drew his head down while the other caught his hand and pressed it back to the breast. 'Not pain, no.' Her flesh was firmer than he expected, and the nipple was already rising to meet his tongue.
Perennius had time to wonder whether Sestius had been given a similar send-off the night before. But that really did not matter.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
'If this doesn't work,' Perennius said, 'the best I can suggest is you gather up people in Tarsus, archers, slingers. Artillery for the dragon. It'll take somebody as persuasive as you are, but it's better than trying it alone if we don't make it back.' The agent was aware that the bronze facemask muffled his voice to those outside while it made the words echo in his own ears. His voice was hollow, as hollow as he felt the words themselves to be.
Perennius' headgear was hot, heavy, and almost blinding. He bent over at the waist, directing his eyeholes like weapons at Calvus as she lifted up the bar of the gate. Perennius could not see what her expression was as she said calmly, 'They'll probably use area weapons, despite the traces that would leave for the future to find. They wouldn't do that in Rome or even Tarsus, because there'd be too many surviving witnesses to pique the curiosity of a later age. Out here ... if they think they know where I am, they'll risk a few acres of glazed earth so long as it's an anomaly in the wilderness rather than a disaster more riveting than Pompeii.' The gate began to creak open as Calvus pulled at it.
'Still clear,' called Sabellia from the roof of the gate house. The dragon, the allosaurus, patrolled a broad territory. The best way Perennius had come up with to deal with the monster was to avoid it. Riding north while the beast was still to the south of the inn was a good way to achieve that end. Perennius wasn't a hero. Heroes gained fame and medals for the chances they took. Aulus Perennius had instead a reputation for getting the job done. If he had any regret about that fact, it was that the job he wished to do more than anything else was to save the Empire. That was beyond him as it was beyond every man. And perhaps beyond all men, the agent thought in the gloom of his nightmares.
'Blazes, we'll be back,' Perennius said. He pressed his horse with his heels. 'Don't guess there'll be a better time,' he called to Gaius. 'Let's do it.'
The younger man obviously did not hear the instruction. Neither did he see that Perennius had ridden off until the agent was a length ahead. Then Gaius kicked his own mount forward with a clatter, pulling abreast of Perennius in the easy canter the agent had chosen until external influences forced their pace. Gaius rejoined just as Perennius realized that they had been separated.
The masks made vision just as difficult as they did hearing. Perennius had bought gorgets and shirts of leather-padded chain mail, standard heavy-cavalry issue, at the same time he acquired the parade greaves and helmets. The gorget in particular made it very uncomfortable to swivel his head the way the narrow field of view required. 'I know this's got problems, these masks,' he said to Gaius in the raised voice they needed to hear one another, 'but I'm more afraid of the Guardians than I am the lizard. The rigs take so damn long to lace together. ...'
'Oh, I ...' the courier said. 'I didn't - I mean, I wasn't thinking of taking it off or anything.'
Gaius had almost added 'sir.' Perennius could hear it in the abject tone. That hurt worse than a blow would have. It hurt the more so because it was a reaction which the agent had over the years tried to stamp into just about everyone else he had known. 'Look,' he began. He realized his voice was an inaudible murmur and went on louder, 'Look, Gaius, all my life I've been telling myself it's all right to lose my temper. It's not all right. I know it's not. I apologize, and I swear by - by the Goddess Rome that I'll never do it again, at least with you.'
Gaius twisted to face the agent as squarely as the four-pommeled military saddle would allow. The silvered bronze hid his face, but the courier's surprise was evident in his
stance. He knew that Perennius had as little belief in the formal gods of the State as he did in any of the Oriental cults that had been appealing to the more superstitious of Rome for the past five centuries. Gaius knew also that Perennius would willingly die before he trivialized Roma, the personification of the Empire. 'I, I deserved it, Aulus,' the youth said awkwardly. 'I did what you said. I killed him.'
Perennius felt cooler and more supple than he had in months. The merely physical discomfort of the gear he wore was forgotten. 'Gaius,' he said, 'when you screw up as often as I've done and as bad as I've done, then maybe I'll have a right to shout at you. As for what happened, well ... we needed these horses - ' he patted the shoulder of his mount - 'so it was going to come to that. I figure we got off about as cheap as we were going to. Those Gauls were pros. You and Quintus were damned fools to rush the last one that way, but Quintus was a big boy. Only thing I care about is that you learn from what happened so the next time you screw up some new way.' The agent smiled, forgetting that the other man could not see his face. 'The way I do.'
Gaius nodded vigorously, causing his equipment to jingle. 'Aulus,' he said, 'I will. I swear I'll make you proud of me. I swear by - ' and he had sense enough to swallow the next thought without voicing it.
'Blazes, friend, you have made me proud,' said Perennius. And he was quite serious.
They paused at the crest. 'Wouldn't hurt to water the horses,' Gaius said as he noticed the rivulet they would have to ford at the bottom of the hill. 'I wonder if we dare take a sip or two ourselves?'
The question was hesitant. A drink would require them to unlace the masks. It would have been possible to cut and hinge the face-covering so that the wearers could drink - as the sun and their constricting gear made almost imperative - but Perennius had not thought of that. Perhaps one of the others had, but the agent had made the plan so intensely his own that no one else had - or had dared - offer significant suggestions.
That was one of the things Perennius was kicking himself about. There were others. 'Good idea,' the agent said after a moment's consideration. 'I'd been sort of hoping they'd have an outpost or the like short of the hole. Try these out.' He slapped his body armor with his chaingauntleted hand. 'With one or two of them, I mean. If it's going to be all five at once, I think we'd better chance - getting undressed for not being parched when we hit them.' The agent made a quick sweep of the horizon. He turned his body to the right, then to the left as far as the saddle permitted.
Gaius clucked his own horse forward, down the trail. Perennius recalled something Ursinus had said while they watched the donkey being killed. 'It jumped us when we were watering the horses. ...' Instead of following his companion, the agent tugged his horse's head around. By turning the animal, he had a full view of their back-trail despite the constricting gear. 'Fucking whoreson,' Perennius muttered.
Half a mile behind them, hunching over the previous ridge as if following a scent trail, was the black and crimson figure of the allosaurus.
Perennius' horse saw the great hunter at the same time its rider did. The horse froze momentarily. The agent's quick tug at the reins became a vicious yank as he felt himself balked. 'Ride!' he shouted as he spurred the horse. 'Bastard's after us!'
Gaius had not had time to react to the warning before the dragon's savage cry echoed around them both.
The road was wide enough for two horses abreast under normal circumstances. At their present headlong gallop, Perennius thought it better to follow Gaius than to attempt to close on him. The call of their pursuer was a better spur than anything on a rider's heels, but the cry was driving the horses to the limits of their footing. They were following a country track hacked along hillsides, rather than a well-laid military road. Perennius was a competent rider but not a brilliant one. Now he braced himself with one hand on a fore-pommel to keep from sliding onto the horse's neck as they pounded downhill.
Ahead of them, Gaius' mount leaped the narrow creek
without slacking or wetting its hooves. Perennius knew the limits of his own ability too well to risk prodding his own horse into a similar jump. A trick that was simple if executed with proper timing would be skidding disaster if that timing were off. As it was, one of the horse's unshod hooves did turn on a smooth stone. There was an explosion of spray and a heart-stopping moment for the rider. Only Perennius' iron grip on the saddle kept him from high-siding. That would have left him stunned in the creek as the monster bore down. The agent swayed drunkenly. As his horse bolted up the rise, he was forced to drop the reins and clutch the pommels with both armored hands.
The men would not have had the opportunity to check on their pursuer even had they not been encumbered
