‘Don’t struggle, don’t slow us down and you won’t be hurt,’ Vespasian promised, trying to ignore the well-shaped female forms sheened with a glaze of drying nectar.
‘Cleopatra! Calpurnia!’ a voice called from behind them.
Vespasian turned to see the silhouetted figure of Vettius stumbling to his feet. ‘Quick! Go, Magnus. Sabinus, take that one.’ He grabbed Cleopatra by the arm and led her off at a jog following Magnus and his lads.
‘Cleopatra! Calpurnia!’
Keeping low and moving as fast as he dared with the bound women, Vespasian passed behind the pedestal of the warrior committing suicide and then on to the dying Gaul.
‘Cleopatra! Calpurnia? Calpurnia? Hey!’
Vespasian glanced back to see Vettius at the edge of the apricot grove waving his arms; for a moment their eyes met and then the dying Gaul temporarily obscured him from view.
‘Hey! Come back!’
Vespasian sped on with Cleopatra by his side, struggling to keep her feet; in front of him Sabinus was having the same trouble with Calpurnia. With a second quick glance back, as they reached the pyramid, he saw Vettius emerge from the orchard and shout before turning and racing away back towards the festivities. ‘Shit! He’ll raise the alarm. Magnus, we need to carry them.’
‘My pleasure. Tigran, take the other one,’ Magnus said as he turned, lowered his shoulder and levered Cleopatra onto it. He took a firm grip of a buttock and then sped off past the sphinx-like shrubbery.
Vespasian raced ahead, using his memory from the previous visits to navigate the quickest route down to the gates without using the serpentine path. Leaping over low, ornamental hedges, skirting pools and fountains, scattering deer and fowl, crunching across gravel paths and crashing through carefully laid out flowerbeds, they hurtled downhill through the different themed sections with a complete disregard for the beauty of the gardens. Behind them, the revelry had broken up and the sounds of pleasure and music had been replaced by the clamour of pursuit; calls and shouts rang through the night adding urgency to their flight.
Bursting through a wall of rhododendron bushes, Vespasian finally saw the exit, just thirty paces away, at the same time as the guards saw the cause of the commotion up the hill; with a quick glance to one another they heaved the grille-gates closed and turned the key in the lock as Vespasian came to a skidding halt on the gravel path. ‘Caeso! Get a ladder up the wall.’
Caeso ran on to a section of wall a little distance to the left of the gates; leaning the ladder against it, he climbed swiftly, peered over the top and then hastily ducked back down as a fist-sized stone flew over his head.
Looking through the gate, Vespasian could see only one of the guards, now armed with a sword. ‘Cassandros, take the other ladder to the right.’
As Cassandros moved off, the guard tracked him, leaving the gate unattended but locked firm. Sabinus crashed a foot against it but it barely shook.
‘They could keep us pinned here for a while,’ Magnus puffed, laying down his burden without any ceremony, ‘and I don’t reckon that we’ve got anywhere near that amount of time.’ He pointed up the hill; the fluorescence of massed torches moved through the gardens at speed but at an angle.
‘They’re using the path; that gives us a bit of time,’ Vespasian said as Cassandros ascended his ladder. With a cry the Greek fell back, clutching the left side of his face as a stone cracked off him. A shout of triumph came from the other side of the wall. Sabinus gave the ironwork another resounding blow with the sole of his sandal with Tigran adding his weight to it.
‘This won’t move,’ Sabinus shouted, retreating as the first guard returned and grinned mirthlessly whilst pointing up the hill.
‘Now, Caeso!’ Vespasian called, looking back to see the torchlight less than a hundred paces away.
The crossroads brother leapt up the ladder and with a fluid rolling motion hitched his legs over the summit of the wall and jumped down the other side. The guard reacted to the sound and raced back. Hollow impacts — fists on flesh — and then iron striking brick accompanied by the strained grunts and snorts of combat ensued as Cassandros picked himself up and Sabinus, Vespasian, Magnus and Tigran all lent every ounce of their strength to the gate; still it did not move. A cry of pain followed by the rattle of breath escaping a dying body added urgency to their endeavours; behind, the cries of pursuit were growing with every corner of the snaking path rounded.
Cassandros attempted a second ascent and again was forced back by another well-aimed stone as the first guard reappeared, blood smearing his sword arm, vicious pleasure on his face and menace in his eyes; he thrust his gore-slick blade through the gate forcing Vespasian and his companions to back off. ‘Reckon you’re trapped,’ he gloated, withdrawing his sword. ‘Should be interesting.’ His eyes opened wide, his back arched and his body shuddered as he exhaled violently; his left hand reached out for the gate but never made it as his hair was pulled back and a knife exploded out of his mouth like a pointed iron tongue spitting blood. Sextus looked over the dying guard’s shoulder; beyond, Marius drew up in the wagon with the horses attached.
‘The key’s on his belt; unlock the gate, fast, Sextus,’ Vespasian urged as Magnus and Cassandros ran back to retrieve the two women. Sextus grinned and then with surprising speed spun his huge frame, side-stepping a thrusting blade, and lashed out with a massive fist, planting it squarely in the second guard’s face; the nose disintegrated into a pulped mush as the man arced back, his legs flying up, and he dropped to the earth as if felled by a ballista shot.
Sextus retrieved the key hanging from the first guard’s belt and inserted it in the lock; it held fast.
‘Turn it the other way,’ Vespasian bellowed in exasperation, looking over his shoulder. Up the hill a posse of naked men came around the last corner of the path, less than fifty paces away. With a roar they burst into a sprint as Magnus and Cassandros made it back to the gate.
The lock clicked and the gates swung open. Vespasian and his companions piled through, the women rocking like sacks on Magnus’ and Cassandros’ shoulders; the wagon was open and they were thrown inside as Vespasian, Sabinus and Tigran unhitched the horses and swung themselves up, urging them forward. Magnus and Cassandros followed their erstwhile burdens into the wagon and Sextus jumped up next to Marius.
The wagon accelerated away leaving a score of naked men standing in the torchlight under the gates of the Gardens of Lucullus.
CHAPTER XX
‘Why was I not warned of this in advance?’ Narcissus’ voice was hushed and it rasped in his throat giving it the sibilant quality of a snake about to strike. ‘Why am I woken in the middle of the night to be told that the Empress has married the new Suffect-Consul and there are two whores covered in coagulated grape juice who can testify to the Emperor that he is divorced and that his ex-wife is going to replace him with a man who wasn’t even a senator this time two years ago?’ His eyes ranged over Vespasian and Pallas, both seated opposite him. ‘Why — didn’t — Flavia — warn me?’ His fists crashed down onto the desk and the hollow thump echoed around the sparsely furnished, newly built room; scrolls and wax tablets jumped and an inkpot slopped a portion of its contents, rocking precariously before returning to the upright position.
Vespasian held Narcissus’ malignant glare, staying still and straight-backed in his chair. Upon arrival at the new port soon after midnight he had been warned by Pallas of Narcissus’ likely reaction, and knew how to counter it. In fact, he was going to enjoy doing so now that he saw the normally unruffled imperial secretary in such a state of agitation. ‘She didn’t have time to because she didn’t know; no one in Messalina’s circle knew apart from her and Silius. You only know now because of Flavia; she heard about the wedding this afternoon and came to me. There wasn’t any time to come down here and ask for instructions so I just did what I thought best and seized two people who could bear witness to the fact. If it wasn’t for Flavia, Narcissus, you wouldn’t have heard about this until the Emperor walked into the Senate at midday tomorrow to find himself without a wife and with a serious rival. Because of Flavia, you’ve got a little time to take action.’