The guide led them up the central channel between the tables; their feet crushed the rushes strewn over the floor. Halfway between the fire and the King he stopped and bowed; he was dismissed with the wave of a gnarled hand and went to stand to one side, in front of a red curtain made up of two-foot-square pieces of material stitched together.
Adgandestrius surveyed the Romans for a few moments before his eyes fell on Vespasian. ‘So, you are the Romans whom Gisbert told me that Galba had sent to kill me?’
‘He lied,’ Vespasian replied.
‘I know that — now.’ Adgandestrius pointed to the guide. ‘You were lucky you let this young man live otherwise you would now be lying dead on the plain. He realised that Gisbert had lied when you asked what Mattium was; how could you be coming to kill me when you didn’t even know the name of the place where you could find me? We Chatti are honourable men; we speak the truth and despise those who try to deceive us with falsehoods and half-truths. I will not be demanding blood-money from you for the many of my men that you’ve killed because you were defending yourselves against a lie that I am at fault for believing; I will pay the blood-money and I will spare your lives.’
‘You are just, Adgandestrius.’
‘I am a king; I have to be just, otherwise someone else would take my place. But I grow old and my judgement fails, that is why I believed Gisbert. Although I found it strange that Rome would send men to kill me just because of an insubstantial raid. I once offered Tiberius to poison Arminius for him but he refused, saying that Rome had no need to assassinate its enemies; Rome would deal with them in battle. So why would Rome resort to assassination now? Then I heard the news that you have a new emperor who is a fool and drools and I thought that the fool must have less honour than his predecessors; so I swallowed the lie. But now I want the truth; why are you here?’
Vespasian knew that to try to deceive Adgandestrius would be dishonourable after the clemency that he had shown them so he opted for honesty. ‘We have come to find the Eagle of the Seventeenth Legion lost at the battle of the Teutoburg Forest.’
‘Why now after all these years?’
Having embarked on the truth he felt that he had no option but to continue and so told the King of Claudius’ freedmen’s plan to secure his Principate.
‘Britannia, eh?’ Adgandestrius mused once he had finished. ‘Does Rome never tire of conquests?’ The question was rhetorical; everyone in the hall knew the answer. ‘So why was Gisbert trying to stop you?’
‘We’re not sure but we suspect that it’s political.’
‘We shall ask him, then.’ The King spoke in German briefly and two of his guards left the hall. They returned moments later with Gisbert; a strong rope wound around his chest bound him. The guards threw him onto the rushes before the dais; Adgandestrius looked down on him in disgust. ‘Liar!’
Gisbert struggled to his knees and bowed his head. ‘I had no choice; you would not have helped me if I told you the truth.’
‘No, I wouldn’t have. I know better than to interfere with Rome. Her legions lie just across the Rhenus and I have no wish to provoke them into a full-scale crossing again. Who made you do this? Who is it in Rome that doesn’t want her Eagle found and seeks to make me responsible?’
Gisbert shook his head. ‘I can’t say.’
A guard went to slap him but Adgandestrius held up a hand. ‘If you don’t answer, your death will be long and painful and I will not grant the mercy of a sword — you will never reach Walhalla. If you do then you will die swiftly, with a weapon in your hand.’
Gisbert raised his eyes to the King. ‘I have your word on that?’
‘It takes a liar to doubt the word of an honourable man.’
‘Very well; it was Claudius’ freedman, Callistus.’
‘Why?’ Vespasian asked, pleased to have his theory proven correct.
‘He wants to claim the glory of finding the Eagle from the Emperor. You see, he knows where it is and he was afraid that you might beat him to it.’
‘Where is it?’
‘That I don’t know, but I do know that he has sent men after it. My task was to kill you and Sabinus, which would have been a pleasure because Sabinus took my hand. But you made that difficult by bringing so many men with you; I had only expected a few, thinking that you would try and pass unnoticed. So I tried to frighten your men away by picking off a couple of them at a time until we got closer to here and I could get reinforcements enough to threaten you.’
‘But you didn’t bring them over the river? You could have crushed us between the two forces had you done so.’
‘I only wanted to kill you two, not the Batavians.’
‘You murdered enough of them every night on the way here.’
‘Yes, but I always made sure that they had a weapon in their hand and I had no wish to kill more than necessary. You see, the German Imperial Bodyguard is drawn from two of the tribes settled on the west bank of the Rhenus, the Ubii and the Batavii, and I’m Batavian; I try not to kill my own people.’
Suddenly it all made sense to Vespasian and he made a mental note of the debt that he owed his tribune, Mucianus, for suggesting that he take the Batavian auxiliaries: it had saved his life.
Adgandestrius stroked his beard in thought. ‘He speaks the truth this time. Is there anything else that you wish to ask him?’
‘Just one thing: how did Callistus find out where the Eagle was hidden?’
‘I don’t know exactly but it has something to do with ships.’
‘Ships?’
‘Yes; when he summoned me to give me my orders he said that he’d just got a message from someone up in the north who is in charge of getting ships, what for I don’t know, but he had heard where the Eagle was.’
Vespasian looked at Sabinus. ‘Callistus said that the general on the northern coast would be addressing the shortage of ships stationed up there for the invasion. He mentioned his name, can you remember it?’
Sabinus thought for a moment and shook his head. ‘I’m sorry but at the time I had more pressing things on my mind.’
‘That’s easy,’ Paetus said, ‘everyone along the Rhenus knows that because he’s been requisitioning ships up and down the river since February: Publius Gabinius.’
‘That’s him. Does that name sound familiar, Gisbert?’
‘No, Callistus never gave me details.’
Vespasian inclined his head to Adgandestrius to indicate that he was finished. The King beckoned one of his warriors and spoke in German. The man stepped forward and cut Gisbert’s bonds with a dagger. Gisbert remained kneeling, looking up at his executioner’s face. The warrior drew his sword and handed it to him, hilt first. As Gisbert clasped it with his one remaining hand, the warrior plunged his dagger into the base of his neck and on down into his heart. Blood pulsed from the deep wound as the weapon was withdrawn. Gisbert carried on staring at his executioner, his chest heaving in an effort to breathe, the light in his eyes slowly fading; a moment before they closed a trace of a smile twitched his lips. He fell forward onto the crimson rushes and lay motionless, his hand still gripping the sword.
The body was hauled away and the King turned his attention back to Vespasian and his companions. ‘I don’t know who has this Eagle, I never did.’ He motioned to the guide standing before the red curtain. The guide pulled it from the middle, it parted and he swung each side open on hinged poles attached to the wall.