‘I would not insult you by suggesting otherwise, noble Flavius Ferox. But I can give my personal attention to this matter, so tell me what precisely you want.’
IX
THEIR LITTLE CAMP was a shambles when they returned, the blankets scattered, bits of food everywhere and the horses wandered off to crop the grass. In the centre the girl sat by the dying fire, staring out blankly. She had a thick woollen blanket pulled around her and was clutching it tight just as she clutched her own knees. She shivered even though the sun was now very warm.
One man lay with his hand in the fire, the skin long since blackened and the smell of cooked meat heavy in the air, mingling with the reek of blood. Another corpse had its trousers down around its ankles and a great gash across the chest. The third was barely recognisable for once having been a man for it had been hacked into pieces where it lay.
The captive tried to raise his hands to touch the amulet around his neck before remembering that they were tied to the horn on the saddle. He whistled in amazement. ‘That Chrauttius? And his brothers? They were a tough bunch of lads.’
Three spears had been driven into the ground and on top of each one was a severed head.
‘You said that you trusted these men,’ Bran said bitterly.
Sosius shrugged. ‘I was wrong. I thought that they would want what I had promised them enough not to do anything stupid. And I thought that she could handle them.’
Bran leapt down from his horse.
‘We got the man we wanted, and she’s alive,’ Sosius said. ‘That is enough. It was a gamble, but no real harm done, is there? Without them we’d never have got what we wanted.’
Bran paid no heed to the freedman and walked slowly towards Minura as she sat. She gave not the slightest sign that she saw him or the others, so he sat down beside her.
Minura stopped shivering and became still, and that was almost more unnerving, as she stared out at something no one else could see. Bran could see that she had bitten her lip and the blood had dried on her chin.
‘I am here, sister,’ he spoke each word softly, as if to a child, although the woman was a fearsome warrior and older than he was by several years.
‘Reckon he might kill you,’ the captive said, watching them. ‘The lad’s good with a sword.’
‘She’s better,’ Sosius said, knowing that it was best to keep back for the moment.
Bran reached over and touched Minura’s hand softly.
‘I am here, sister, you are not alone anymore.’
Her hand moved and her fingers closed tightly around his.
‘And you are avenged on them,’ he said.
‘The joy of revenge is brief.’ Minura did not look at him, but her words were steady. ‘I am glad that I killed them, but I should not have been taken off guard. They were bad men, and such men never believe that a woman can fight and at first I could not.’ The words started to pour out and Bran sensed that she was on the verge of tears. ‘One was joking, trying to get me to drink with them while we waited and he seemed a harmless fool. Then another grabbed my arms from behind, and although I jumped and kicked the one in front, the other then caught my legs and they wrestled me down.’ Bran could see her torn tunic lying on the ground. ‘They took me, one after the other and I screamed and screamed for my courage left me, and when they were done, they cast me aside and sat around the fire as if nothing was happened.’
‘Warriors can be cruel,’ Bran said. ‘But they have paid. There is only one more to punish.’
‘Not yet, brother,’ she said, knowing what he meant. Sosius had brought the men to their camp, spoken to them and then left her here with them as they went to catch the man he had come for. The freedman cared for no one, but used others as counters in some game which only he – and perhaps his distant master – understood. They had seen his ruthlessness many times since they were sent off with him.
‘I will kill him,’ Bran whispered.
‘Not today, little brother, and when the day comes I will wield the blade.’
‘I am sorry that I was not here.’
‘We cannot change what has been done,’ she said, and leaned her head against his. Never before had she shown such intimacy, for Minura was a woman of few words and stern character. ‘We must face the truth and continue along our path. Is that not what we were taught?’
‘Yet, I long to wipe the smirk from that pig’s face.’
‘The day will come, but we were sent by the queen and must finish the task she set us.’ Her fingers tightened hard around his. ‘If I can bear to wait, then it should be a smaller deed for you.’
Minura stood, the blanket opening a little to show that she was naked underneath. At any other time Bran would have thrilled at the sight, but now he looked away. When he turned back she was covered and smiling.
‘There is a stream not far away,’ she said, ‘and I need to be clean. Stay here.’
Sosius got the captive down from his horse and told him to sit and not be a nuisance. While Bran brought in the horses and saw to them, the Freedman dragged the corpses away and then got the fire going again.
‘When she gets back you can fetch some water,’ he said to Bran. ‘Believe it or not, I started out in the kitchens and haven’t lost the touch. A hot meal will do us all good.’ The boy’s hatred was obvious. ‘Look, sonny, I’m sorry how things worked out, but I can’t change them. If you’d ever lived as a slave you’d know that life is a bastard and that no one is safe. She’s strong and brave, and she’ll learn to live with it because I don’t reckon she is the sort to give in. So we’ll all have a good meal and then decide what to do.’
Sosius was a good cook, his stew a rare treat, making Bran wonder why the slave had got either him or Minura to cook for them on all the other days. She was more herself when she returned, dressed again and skin clean, and if she sat apart and said little that was nothing unusual.
After they had eaten, Sosius told them that he must ride to see the local chieftain at his farmstead. ‘Chrauttius and the others were his cousins. Distant ones, but blood is blood and I’ll have to pay him in gold to make things right.
‘In the meantime, you take him,’ he jabbed a finger towards the captive, ‘back to the province and then south to the queen. Guess she’ll be in Moesia by then, probably the Upper province. Maybe Viminiacum, but I don’t know. The letters you have will see you through. No one will question those seals. I ought to have joined you long before then. If I can, it will be in a day or two, but it is hard to be sure.’
Sosius had ridden away almost immediately, even though night was falling.
‘Doubt that we will see that slave again,’ Bran said after he had gone.
‘We will, on the day we find him and I kill him. And he is a free man now, no longer a slave.’
They kept the prisoner tied hand and foot at night, and only released his legs when he needed to ride, and did the same on the days that followed.
‘I’m just a merchant,’ the man kept on insisting. ‘What do I know that really matters?’
Sosius had told them that the man worked for Decebalus, and that his main business was recruiting allies for the king to help him against Rome. Such great affairs did not matter to them, so they ignored him, and spoke little and then only in the language of the tribes of Britannia. If the merchant understood, he showed no sign. Their job was to take him to the queen and that was what they would do. Bran had made it clear to the man that his head would do almost as well as the rest of him, if the task proved difficult.