‘Exactly; and if you’re not seen to be rewarded there’ll be rumblings in all classes of society that the Emperor is an ungrateful cripple who refuses to honour men who make him look good. It’s the same thing for me as leader of my Crossroads Brotherhood: if one of the lads does something which benefits the community we look after and therefore makes me look good in their eyes …’
‘Like knifing a persistent thief in a back alley, for example?’
‘Now there you go mocking again. I’m just trying to say that my position’s no different to the Emperor’s except on a far smaller scale, but yes, you’re right: if one of the lads did that then I would publicly praise him and we’d all forget that he’d committed-’
‘Excuse me, most honoured legate,’ a smooth voice cut in.
Vespasian looked up and remained seated. ‘What is it, Theron?’
The slave-dealer bowed with sycophantic reverence as if presenting himself to an eastern potentate. ‘Your contract, excellency.’ He proffered a scroll towards Vespasian. ‘With the, er, amendment that you suggested, plus an extra half of one per cent to clear up that silly misunderstanding that we had last night.’
Vespasian took the contract and unrolled it. ‘It wasn’t a silly misunderstanding, Theron; I understood you very well. Just because you bugger your male slaves doesn’t mean I do; nor do I have them fellate me.’
‘Indeed not, noble legate, that would be a dangerous position to put oneself in.’
‘You’re disgusting; get out of my sight.’
‘This instant, your mag-’
‘Go!’
‘And our agreement?’
Vespasian looked at the contract and then back at Theron. ‘All right, go and wait by the slave compound; I’ll read this and if it suits me I’ll send word to the slave-master that you’re to pick three hundred and fifty of them.’
Theron tried but failed to suppress a profit-motivated smile as he bowed his way backwards. ‘Most gracious, your legateship, my eternal-’
‘Theron!’
‘Yes, your-’
‘Not another word!’
‘Of course not, y-’
Vespasian’s glare finally reduced the slave-dealer to silence. ‘I shall be back in Rome in spring next year; I expect you to find me and bring me my money.’
‘With utmost pleasure, excellency.’
‘That’s the last time you’ll see him,’ Magnus said, getting to his feet as Theron turned and left.
‘Oh no, he and I are going to become very close friends,’ Vespasian replied, going through the contract. ‘Twelve and a half per cent of the resale value, how generous; he must really like me.’
‘It’s easy to be generous to friends whom you have no intention of paying.’
CHAPTER VIIII
The swell had grown to the point that rowing was unfeasible as the oars could no longer be guaranteed to bite into the sea’s undulating surface. The flotilla’s leather sails, however, were full-bellied with a brisk northerly wind that, with muscle-straining coaxing by the steersmen on their oars, was driving the five biremes along the rugged coastline of the peninsula, a couple of miles off their larboard side.
Vespasian held onto the rail on the windward side, enjoying the sea air and the spray thrown up by the ship’s bucking ram blowing into his face. Ahead of him, along the deck the half-century of marines and Cogidubnus’ thirty followers sat glumly looking out to sea; many of the Britons’ faces betrayed how unsuited they were to a mariner’s life.
‘I don’t suppose Sabinus is looking as cheerful as you are,’ Magnus mused, arriving at the rail on unsteady legs and looking slightly pale.
Vespasian chuckled. ‘He’ll be prostrate in his cabin; he’s the worst sailor I know. I think it broke his heart when Plautius ordered him to come and personally take command of his biremes; three days at sea and then back again. He’s convinced that Plautius did it as a punishment for getting himself captured last year. This wind is certainly paying him out for his stupidity.’
Vespasian chuckled again at the thought of his brother’s discomfort and thanked Neptune for the wind with which they were finally making some progress. They had sailed out of the estuary two days earlier and had made little headway, rowing into a stiff breeze. The following day they had fared slightly better as they rowed past a moor perched high on precipitous cliffs and then finally rounded a point and turned from due west to southwest. Having spent the night in the shelter of a river estuary, to which the captive Briton had guided them, they had set out that morning with the tide and their progress had been good; the captive had assured Vespasian and Cogidubnus that they would reach their destination by sunset. During the whole three days of the voyage there had been no sign of any other vessels nor had any figures been spotted on the cliffs or shore. The only life they had come across had been the occasional settlement in an inlet and a small fishing village in the estuary the night before; Vespasian had ordered the inhabitants to be rounded up to prevent them from sending a boat off in the night to warn of their journey. In compliance with Plautius’ orders not to upset the Cornovii, the villagers had been released unharmed that morning.
Looking at the deserted coastline backed by forested hills, Vespasian could quite understand Plautius’ reluctance to move into the peninsula aggressively; the little there was down here would be hard to hold by a force small enough to justify its secondment to such a poor and irrelevant part of the island.
A shout from the trierarchus brought Vespasian back to the moment; bare-footed sailors scampered across the deck and began to climb the mainmast whilst others performed complicated nautical manoeuvres with ropes. Cogidubnus strode over to him, as firm and steady as if he were on a paved road. ‘The captive says that it’s time for us to risk going inshore otherwise we’ll be spotted from the lookouts around Durocornavis, which he claims is only three bays away.’
‘Do you trust him?’
The King shrugged. ‘If we drown, he’ll drown.’
‘It’s not him I’m worried about.’
‘Well, either we take his advice or we announce our arrival.’
Vespasian was forced to agree.
‘He says that the bay before our objective has a natural harbour where we could land in the currachs; it’s about two and a half miles from Durocornavis and is the only safe landing place within seven miles of the settlement. His people keep their boats there; there are some huts but everyone spends the night within the walls of the settlement.’
‘He can pilot us in there at night?’
‘He says that he can. Why did you say “us”?’
‘Yeah, I picked up on that,’ Magnus muttered.
‘Because I’m going ashore to have a look at that rock; if you can only get to it by land then it’s pointless looking at it from the sea.’
‘You won’t have to look at it at all if Cogidubnus persuades the Cornovii to clean off all the vermin from that rock.’
‘Yes, but if he doesn’t then we’ll have to do it and we’ll need to do it quickly; so I have to have some sort of plan in my head. Tomorrow I’ll be sending three of the ships on patrol down the coast to keep an eye out for Caratacus so our presence here will be noted; tonight is my only chance to go ashore and back again in secret. It won’t take long to cover the five miles there and back; I’ll be back by dawn.’
‘I can’t think of anything that I’d like to do less than go and spy on a load of druids.’
‘Which is exactly why I’m not taking you — I couldn’t bear you moaning about it all the time.’
Vespasian blew into his cupped hands, warming them, as Cogidubnus’ men rowed the currach, guided by the captive, towards the natural harbour along a rugged coastline pounded by crashing waves whose spray, caught in the moonlight, rose like repeated explosions of pearls to dissipate into a fine silver mist.
Uneasy at once again coming close to a druidical centre and the horror that he knew could be lurking there, Vespasian tried to console himself with the knowledge that their presence on this coast was still undetected — at least he hoped that it was. To stop himself worrying about it he turned to Cogidubnus, seated next to him in the stern of the small craft. ‘How do you plan to get to see Judoc?’