‘You dug your way out of the cell?’
Verus nodded in response to Marcus’s question.
‘As I said, the mortar was rotten. My job with the legion is that of builder, so I know just how far gone mortar can be without the rot being obvious. This stuff was like powder, and the knife’s blade was the perfect tool for raking it out. I had the stone more or less free of those around it by the middle of the night, and then the small size of my cell became an advantage. I put my back against the inner wall and my feet to the wall then bore down on it with all the strength I had left. I managed to push the rock from its place, leaving a gaping hole out into the darkness. Of course I had no idea whether I would emerge over a sheer drop, but a quick death would have been preferable to the way I expected the priests would kill me, and so I wriggled through the hole and found myself tumbling out onto the grass slope at the fortress’s foot.’ He looked at the men around him, his face shining with sincerity. ‘Fortuna was with me that night. I slithered away down the hill as quietly as I could, and given the absence of any moon I must have been invisible to the men on the walls. I was almost at the slope’s foot before they realised that my cell was empty, but the noise they kicked up when they did so was enough to make my blood run cold.’
‘They pursued you?’
Verus nodded at the question, shivering despite the room’s warmth.
‘Yes, they sent out a hunting party of the tribe’s young women, the bloodthirsty bitches they call their Vixens. They came down the hill behind me with their horns blaring at the stars, and their dogs bayed and howled once they caught my scent, but they were too late. The land to either side of the Dirty River is a swamp, you see, covered with a thick clinging moss which conceals deep pools of watery, rotting vegetation. I crawled into the morass and submerged myself in one of these pits, holding onto a trailing bush to avoid being pulled down and drowned. I stripped off my leggings and washed away the filthy smell of my cell and became part of the landscape, making it impossible for the dogs to find my scent.’
Marcus frowned.
‘The first spear told us that it took you eight days to return here, and yet it can’t be more than a dozen miles.’
Verus nodded with tightly pursed lips.
The dogs weren’t able to find me, but those evil bitches hunted for me day and night, their wild cries and curses echoing across the marsh. They never once gave up on the chase, sleeping out in the open and slinking around in the mists, and they had sufficient cunning that I was nearly taken by them more than once …’
He shivered, lowering his head into his hands with an expression of such dread that Scaurus stood with an apologetic expression, patting the emotionally exhausted soldier on the back.
‘I’m sorry, Legionary Verus. We’ve kept you talking for long enough.’
When the soldier had left the room he turned to Julius and Marcus with an enquiring expression.
‘So, First Spear, what do you think?’
Julius shook his head.
‘He’s like an overwound bolt thrower. The way he jumped up like a madman when you asked who he was is a clear enough giveaway. And when you overstress a bolt thrower it’s a toss-up as to who’ll get hurt worst when you finally loose the missile, the enemy or the men around it.’
The tribune nodded sagely at his first spear’s opinion.
‘I completely agree. On the other hand, if he really spent eight days avoiding capture, and presumably living off the land wearing no more than a coat of mud, he must know the ground between here and The Fang quite intimately.’
Julius pursed his lips and nodded reluctantly.
‘Like I said, it’s a toss-up.’
Scaurus agreed.
‘I don’t see how we can ignore the opportunity he presents. Whoever’s going to lead the raiding party will just have to keep a good close eye on him, and act quickly if he looks like doing something rash.’
‘Act quickly? Are you proposing that we take the poor bastard back out into Venicone territory and then put iron through his spine if it looks like he’s about to throw a wobbler as a result?’
Scaurus turned an imperturbable glance on his senior centurion, raising an eyebrow in silent question. Julius returned the gaze for a moment before shaking his head and turning away.
‘And they call me the nastiest bastard in this cohort?’
Evening came to the Yew Grove fortress in its usual ordered manner, the distant sounds of shouted commands and stamping boots as the guard was changed at the nearby gate reaching the ear of the sleeping baby, making the infant stir in her sleep. Annia woke, her maternal instincts alerting her to the child’s minute movements, but Felicia shook her head from the chair facing her, and the still weary new mother slumped back onto her bed and was asleep again. A smile of contentment touched her friend’s face at the sight of mother and baby dozing together, and she closed her own eyes to luxuriate in a rare moment of peace, allowing a long, slow breath to escape from between her lips.
A knock at the door snapped the doctor out of her reverie, and the sound of voices in the house’s hall furrowed her brow as she recognised the sound of Tribune Sorex’s voice. He appeared in the room’s doorway a moment later with Desidra behind him, a nervous smile on the older woman’s face clearly signalling her unease at the senior officer’s presence. When Sorex spoke his voice was lowered to a whisper, pitched low enough not to awaken the sleepers.
‘I heard that your assistant had been delivered of her child, and so I thought I ought to come and pay my respects to the new arrival. Here, a gift for the little one.’
He handed Felicia a gold aureus, and she nodded her thanks.
‘I’m sure that Annia will be most touched, Tribune. Allow me to thank you on her behalf when she wakes.’
Sorex bowed his head graciously.
‘Indeed, madam, but there is a way that you can render me some small service by way of thanks, if I might elicit your professional opinion on a personal matter?’
‘With pleasure, Tribune. Perhaps in another room?’
They moved into the hall and Felicia looked to Desidra, waiting for the mistress of the house to indicate which room they should use, but Sorex simply pointed to the front door, turning to the prefect’s woman with a knowing smile.
‘This is a personal matter which on this occasion does not require your presence, Domina. You will favour me with your absence, if you know what’s good for you and your husband?’
To Felicia’s consternation the older woman shot her an apologetic glance and scuttled for the door, leaving the two of them alone. Taking her hand, Sorex bent to whisper in her face.
‘Desidra does know what’s good for her, you see. She knows that if it weren’t for your presence I’d have her legs spread wide on the bed she shares with Prefect Castus at this very moment, since she’s long since realised that allowing me to fuck her every now and then is infinitely preferable to the indignity I could heap on the prefect without very much effort. But now you’re here, Doctor, and you’re an altogether more enticing prospect for a little enforced enjoyment, aren’t you?’