Varro nodded, stepped forward and drove the stick in to that spot, point first. The man screamed again.
As Varro turned him around once more and stepped back, he held out the third stick.
“Salonius?”
“Thank you, but I won’t. Fascinating to watch though.”
Catilina grasped it.
“Time to stop giving him time to breathe and recover. Salonius, cut some more sticks.”
She stepped forward and used her fingers to locate a point next to the tendon above the man’s heel. Pausing only long enough to take a breath, she drove the stick in, accompanied by new shrieks of pain.
As she returned to Varro’s side, she smiled at the weeping soldier.
“Salonius: hurry up with those sticks, I’m getting bored.”
Varro gave her a sidelong glance.
“You can be a frightening woman, Catilina.”
She shrugged. “No one stirs up trouble for my father. And no one hurts my friends.”
She grasped the switch and ripped it out of his hand. Varro momentarily saw the tear trickle down her cheek before she stepped forward and began lashing the man repeatedly with the green rod, causing lines and welts and streams of blood to pour down the man’s chest and into his face. It took a few moments to realise that the man was babbling in a panicked voice, amid sobs and the repeated smacks of the rapidly-disintegrating cane.
“Salonius!”
The young man looked up at Varro and saw Catilina thrashing wildly at the man. As Varro stepped forward, grasped the switch and gently, but forcefully removed it from her hand, he turned and led her away, across the grass. Salonius walked over to the babbling man and, crouching down, began to talk to him, all the while grasping a few more sharpened sticks as incentive.
Varro turned Catilina to face him and threw his arms around her shoulders. She buried her face in his chest and began to cry, clutching him so tight he tilted his face upwards and took a deep breath.
“It’s alright Catilina. I sent two separate riders back to Crow Hill this morning telling your father he’s not safe and that he needs to head back to Vengen.”
She shook her head without pulling away from him.
“And I told him you were with me and safe,” he added.
“No…” she said, muffled from within the folds of his tunic.
“Don’t worry” he replied. “They were well paid and promised a lot more when they deliver. And there’s two of them. They’ll make it.”
“But that won’t help you” she shouted, her voice thick with a mix of anger and despair, still muffled by his tunic.
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, unable to find the words he felt he really needed, and finally closed his eyes and held her as tight as he could, as though he’d squeeze the hurt from her. Slowly her sobbing subsided and he loosened his arms. He smiled down at her; a strange smile.
“That was most unlike you.”
She gave him a weak smile in return.
“Sometimes you just have to get it out of your system, Varro. Sometimes if you hold yourself together tight you crack like a new pot that cooled too quickly. Soldiers let their emotions out through violent behaviour and debauchery, both of which are frowned upon in a lady.”
Varro laughed.
“Whoever said that never saw you with a pointy stick!”
He became aware that Salonius was standing patiently some distance from them, facing tactfully away and apparently studying some point on the horizon. Gently pushing Catilina away from him, he pointed at his young companion. Catilina nodded and, as she wiped he eyes and pinched her cheeks, the two of them wandered over to Salonius.
“So what’d he have to say?” the captain asked casually.
“Nothing too good,” the young man turned to face them. He looked troubled. “He says the four of them were sent after us by Cristus. Their orders were to observe us and report back until we reached the way station. After that their orders were to ‘deal with us’. The way he said it suggested to me that this is very much ‘off the books’. Kill us and dump the bodies somewhere they’d never be found; that kind of thing.”
“And the other two?” Catilina queried.
“Already ahead of us and waiting at the post, ma’am.”
“That does it then” Varro snorted. “We can’t get too close to the place. If the two of them have orders to take us, then they’re going to have the garrison of the way station on their side.”
“Why’s that?” Salonius frowned.
The captain sighed.
“We’re on personal business. I currently hold no active rank, you’re not officially on the cohort’s command guard lists, and the garrison won’t be able to identify Catilina. Those men, even if they’re perfectly innocent, have absolutely no need to take orders from us or even trust us. You can be pretty sure the two men waiting for us there have letters from Cristus giving them complete authority over the local garrisons. That’s what I would do if I were the prefect.”
“Then we find another way around” stated Catilina.
“I’m afraid not, my lady,” Salonius shook his head and Varro nodded his agreement. “The only reason for an outpost here is because it controls the only viable route.”
The captain turned to his companion.
“Unless, that is, you know of anything, being a local…”
Salonius shook his head,
“My home’s a good forty miles from here. I don’t know these valleys.”
“Then there’s four choices,” Catilina held up her hand and counted off with her fingers as she spoke.
“One: You attack the way station. I don’t know how many men they hold, but I presume you do. Very dangerous, but at least you have the initiative and surprise on your side.”
She folded down her first finger.
“Two: we ride like the Gods of the underworld are after us and try and just get through on pure speed.”
Her second finger folded.
“Three: We sneak up there and just try and get round. We could wait for nightfall for extra cover. The safest way, certainly, but also the slowest.”
Folding down the third finger, she tapped the fourth.
“Lastly: we ride up there as bold as iron and try and bluff our way through. If it fails then we either have to fight our way through or ride as fast as the winds will carry us. Either way, the chances aren’t good.”
Salonius and Varro looked at each other for a long moment and the younger man shrugged. “That’s about the size of it, sir. Little or no chance any which way.”
Varro’s brow furrowed in thought.
“I have number five though.” He smiled and tapped her remaining finger. “I can’t put you at risk on some mad charge or crazy chase, but we can’t afford to waste an entire day here. I’m on a limited time frame. Catilina, I want you to stay here with the horses. Get them well away from the road, completely out of sight over by those trees and stay there until Salonius and I get back.”
She frowned, but nodded her agreement. Salonius kicked at an errant pebble.
“What will we be doing?”
“Distracting. Come on.”
Salonius followed him back to the dangling soldier, now silent, blessedly unconscious, though still breathing. Varro pointed at him.
“Cut him down and bring him along.”
With a look of uncertainty, Salonius drew his knife, cut the man down and threw him across a shoulder before turning and following the captain away. Varro stopped for a moment and smiled at Catilina.
“We’ll be back in less than an hour. Stay out of sight.”
“Be careful” she stated flatly.
Answering with just a smile, the two soldiers with their prisoner strode across the grass and away from the secluded knoll. As they made their way to the road and the village came back into sight, Salonius stopped.
“We’re going back to the village?”
“Yes.”
“With him?”
“Yes.”
“After all the trouble we had getting him out without being seen?”
“Yes.”
Salonius stared in amazement at the captain, continuing on ahead, and then hurried to catch up.