He began to incant a prayer and then stopped abruptly as he noticed Vespasian and his comrades still standing. Pointing his crook at them with a shout he indicated that they too should get down onto their bellies. Over a thousand heads turned to stare at them.
‘However bad this will feel I think we’d better do as he says,’ Vespasian said, getting down onto the ground. Magnus, Corvinus and the troopers followed his lead.
Grovelling in the dust was not a natural thing for a Roman to do: more used to mastering others, they were accustomed to looking down rather than up, and Vespasian, Magnus and Corvinus prostrated themselves reluctantly. Ziri and the Libu troopers followed their lead without humiliation.
Once satisfied that the whole congregation was showing due deference the priest carried on his incantation for what seemed like an age.
‘Amun!’ he called to the sky finally.
‘Amun!’ the crowd repeated.
With the prayer session evidently at an end the people got back onto their feet.
Vespasian rose and tried to wipe the dirt off his wet tunic with little success.
The priest strolled through the crowd towards them and stopped in front of Vespasian.
‘What are you doing here, stranger?’ he asked in Greek.
‘I’m no stranger,’ Vespasian replied with as much dignity as was possible covered in wet dirt, ‘I am Titus Flavius Vespasianus, quaestor of the province of Creta and Cyrenaica of which this is a part.’
The priest bowed. ‘Quaestor, you and your men are welcome.’
Vespasian could feel the release of tension among the troopers behind him.
‘My name is Ahmose,’ the priest continued, ‘priest of Amun, He who is hidden, He who came first. You will find us loyal subjects to Rome here and I will assist you in any way I can. I think that first you need to eat and then you can tell me how you managed to appear out of the western desert on foot.’
Sitting rather uncomfortably on the carpeted floor, Vespasian, Magnus and Corvinus joined Ahmose in his surprisingly richly decorated house for a meal of bread, olives, dates and a roasted meat that none of them had tasted before; although slightly tough they were all hungry enough to eat it without worrying too much about its provenance.
‘So you’re looking for the Marmaridae’s slave caravan,’ Ahmose said, having listened to the tale of their journey. ‘They will still be here; a party of them arrived only four days ago, that’s why the camel tastes so fresh.’
‘This is camel?’ Magnus exclaimed, looking at the cut of meat in his hand.
‘Most certainly. The Marmaridae always pay for the right to use our water with camels each time they pass through; we also give them bread, dates and olives as part of the exchange.’
‘Well, they don’t taste as bad as they smell,’ Magnus commented before taking another bite.
‘Yes, it’s quite flavoursome; their milk is good to drink too.’
Magnus screwed up his nose. ‘Now that is disgusting.’
‘Don’t you have trouble with the Marmaridae taking your people as slaves?’ Vespasian asked, trying to get the image of drinking camel’s milk out of his mind.
‘No, they need us for water and supplies before they set off to Garama; if we denied them that then the journey would be even more hazardous than it already is.’
‘They could just take it,’ Corvinus pointed out, taking a bite of a large green olive.
‘There are over ten thousand people living in the oasis, we could fight them off; and if we were having trouble we could appeal to Caesar as we used to appeal to the Pharaohs when we were a part of the Kingdom of Egypt.’
Vespasian doubted very much that any sort of an army would be sent to defend this outpost of the Empire, but he kept his thoughts to himself. ‘How do we find the Marmaridae’s caravan?’
‘They’ll be at the last lake in the southwestern corner of the oasis, about six miles from here.’
‘We’ll need horses.’
‘I’m sure you would requisition them if we didn’t give them freely.’
‘I’m afraid we would; as the quaestor I have that power.’
‘As the quaestor you also have the power to make those horses part of the tax that we pay each year.’
Vespasian smiled at the old priest. ‘If you include javelins and enough supplies to take us back to Cyrene, then I’m sure that that could be arranged.’
‘Done, quaestor.’ Ahmose spat into his hand and proffered it; Vespasian took it rather gingerly. ‘But that is all the help that I can give you; if I give you men it might upset the delicate balance that we have with the Marmaridae.’
‘I could requisition them as well.’
‘You could but I think you would have a problem: we are celebrating a festival of Amun at the moment, it runs from today for three days, in memory of Alexander coming here three hundred and sixty-seven years ago to receive the wisdom of Amun. There will be a feast tonight in honour of him; you are welcome to join us. I will have the horses and weapons ready by dawn; you can leave then.’
Vespasian opened his eyes; it was thick night. His head spun slightly from the effects of the date wine that had been served in copious quantities during the feast. Magnus had been able to consume cup after cup without too many ill-effects but Corvinus and all of the troopers had drunk themselves, very quickly, unconscious. Vespasian had not been surprised, it was heady stuff and he had limited himself, very early, to just a cup every so often; even so he was still less than sober. Ziri had not touched a drop all evening as he waited upon Magnus’ every need; he now lay curled up, sleeping at his master’s feet.
A metallic clink from outside the window caught Vespasian’s attention; he was sure that it was the same noise that had just woken him. He listened intently trying to filter out Corvinus’ snores and Magnus’ heavy breathing. There it was again; there was someone or some people just outside the window, he was sure of it.
He reached with his left hand for his spatha on the floor next to his mattress and eased it onto his chest; his right hand gripped the hilt as he listened again.
Nothing; he started to relax.
A distant, sudden crack of wood breaking followed by shouts jerked him upright; he unsheathed his spatha.
‘Magnus!’ he shouted but got no further.
The door crashed to the floor; moonlight and dark figures spilled in.
With a roar he leapt to his feet and hurled himself at them, spatha in the air. Briefly aware of Magnus drawing his sword and Ziri jumping up, he slashed wildly in the dark, felt his blade make contact and was rewarded with a shrill scream and a jet of blood in his face. He kept his forward momentum going and with a backhand cut felled another of his shadowy assailants; Magnus hurtled into the man next to him, flooring him with a body-check and a jab to the belly. Ziri threw himself at another of them, crunching his forehead into the man’s nose, taking him down. Driving his left foot forwards, Vespasian brought his right knee up, squelching into the groin of the next figure who dropped like a dead man to the ground with a guttural roar that was stifled as he started to hyperventilate with pain. Strangulated gurgles came from the floor as Ziri despatched his opponent with his bare hands. Magnus’ straight thrust into the right eye of his next opponent was enough to convince their attackers to withdraw at speed.
‘What the fuck was that all about?’ Magnus asked, breathing heavily.
‘Don’t know, but we certainly should get out of here; help me with Corvinus,’ Vespasian replied, thrusting the tip of his spatha into the throat of the man clutching his crushed testicles.
Finding Corvinus in the dark from the direction of his snoring proved easy enough; what was not easy was waking him.
‘Shit, we’ll have to carry the bugger; Ziri, here,’ Magnus said after a third sharp slap had proven fruitless.