‘I’m Ferox. Come in and talk. I don’t think there are any more of them about.’
‘I killed the last one.’ The soldier’s tone was matter-of-fact. ‘But I’ll stay here until I am sure. My name is Gannallius. Some say I am a deserter and some say worse. I am neither.’
It was the missing man from the tower, the Trinovantian. Titus Annius had said that he was a steady man and had not believed the accusations.
‘Tell me what happened. Stay there if you want, but I promise that if you come over to the fire you will be free to go unhindered if that is what you want.’
Gannallius tethered his horse next to the others and came over to sit by the fire. Vindex offered him some of their food.
‘Never thought that I would get to miss army biscuits,’ Gannallius said as he broke a piece off and swallowed it. ‘I have not had much to eat for days.’
Close up they could see that he was dirty and his face – or what little could be seen behind his beard – looked thin and drawn.
‘I am true to my oath,’ he told them, eyes earnest as they stared at each man in turn, but especially at the centurion.
‘Then tell me what happened.’
Gannallius hesitated.
‘You were not there when the attack came, were you?’ Ferox was guessing, for the tracks he had found were muddied and unclear, but the more he had thought about it the more likely it seemed.
The auxiliary started in surprise, but then his shoulder sagged and he shook his head. ‘There is a girl at one of the farms a couple of miles away.’
‘Big lass,’ Vindex put in. ‘Lot of tawny hair. I know her.’
‘We were friendly,’ Gannallius said.
Ferox ignored the Brigantian’s dirty laugh. If the soldier had left his post without permission then he had broken regulations and earned punishment.
‘I never went when I was on duty,’ Gannullius said quickly, as if reading his thoughts. ‘Never missed a watch or a fatigue. The others did not mind.’ He stared into the fire, and Ferox guessed he was thinking of his dead comrades. ‘I came back that morning in plenty of time to take my watch.’
‘Bet you were yawning, though, and hadn’t had a lot of sleep,’ Vindex said.
Ferox waved a hand for the Brigantian to keep quiet. ‘Go on, lad.’
‘I saw the patrol come,’ Gannullius continued. ‘They didn’t see me and I ducked down because I didn’t want to be seen off the post. Didn’t want to answer questions.’
‘Was it the usual patrol?’
‘No. They were early, and not anyone we had seen before. Strangest of all there was an officer with them. Just seven troopers and at their head this fellow with a great plumed helmet. You don’t expect that.’
‘Had you seen him before?’
‘No, never, but I’ve been at the garrison or at an outpost for the last few years. Haven’t really seen anyone high up. Another odd thing – they were legionaries. Not what you’d expect to see at all, and the fancy buggers were riding along with their shields uncovered.’
‘Did you see the symbol?’
‘Clear as day. They were Second Augusta – the Capricorns. Rode up as calm and casual as you like. Got down, returned the salutes as the lads were frantically trying to get dressed and put on a proper show. We weren’t due for inspection for another week – at least that’s what the detail we took over from had said. So they go in, and suddenly there’s screaming. One of our lads – Julianus his name was, a great snoring brute from Pannonia, but a good comrade – dashes out of the door and the officer himself hacks him down from behind. It all happened so quickly. There was nothing I could have done,’ Gannullius implored the centurion to believe him. ‘Nothing. If I’d come out I’d only have died with them, but to be honest I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to. It didn’t seem real. They were our men – legionaries, it’s true, but soldiers just like us. I couldn’t understand. I still don’t understand.’ He stared at the fire for a long time, and Ferox waited.
‘It was all over so quickly. Then I heard them shouting out a count. Must have been of the men in the tower and they knew that they were one short, and one of them starts walking up past the beacon towards me. He couldn’t have seen me, but the bushes there were the obvious place to look. That’s if he was looking. Maybe he just wanted a quick slash. But anyway he comes up the slope and I’m about to stand up and draw my sword when the officer calls him back. “Yes, my lord tribune,” he says, and turns right around. They rode off soon afterwards, but not towards the road, which I thought was odd.
‘Now I know I shouldn’t have been away from the post. I’m guilty of that, I’ll admit. But they were my commilitones, my mates, and I wouldn’t have turned on them for the whole world. And I would never break my oath either.’
‘Then why did you vanish?’ Ferox asked.
‘I was scared. Scared they might come back and finish the job, scared that no one would believe me and that I’d be condemned before I could say a word. I ran, just ran, and kept on running. Hid in the farm for a week. My girl, she said that I should go to you, that you were a good man and fair, said you’d helped her Da when someone stole a couple of his pigs.’
Ferox nodded. He had a vague memory of the incident, but dealt with so many cases that most did not stick out in his memory.
‘I was too frightened, and it got worse as the rumours spread of druids and holy war. I thought they’d mark me down as a fanatic who had just become a barbarian again and turned on his friends like a wild beast. Truth be told, I thought that it was all over and that now I was over the rampart through no choice of my own, then I’d better stay there. If the lass would have come with me I’d have gone north as far as I could go, but she wouldn’t, and in the end I decided to go to you at the burgus, but by this time you’d gone up to the Vacomagi, so I followed. Got myself a pony, but didn’t find you until you were on the way back, and then didn’t fancy riding up to a turma of Batavians and handing myself in. Heard that there was some fine officer in charge and I got scared that he was the one at the tower and, even if he wasn’t, knew he would never take my word over one of his own class. So I followed, and you split off. You gave me the slip earlier, but I stumbled on these five and followed them. Reckon they’re Selgovae – coming from their lands anyway.’
Ferox tried to work out whether Venutius could have ridden off and reached his own people in time to send them, but decided that it was unlikely.
‘There’s little groups of men wandering everywhere at the moment, loads of them,’ Gannullius went on. ‘Men are daubing the horse on their heads and going to war.’
‘Can you describe the tribune at the tower?’ Ferox asked.
‘Not well, sir, I’m afraid. I wasn’t close.’
‘What can you tell me? It’s important.’
‘He wasn’t a big man. Quite dark.’ The soldier thought for a while. ‘Carried himself as if he owned the world,’ he added. ‘Mind you, a lot do that, but there was something different about this one. Didn’t waste any effort, even when he killed old Julianus.’
‘Would you recognise him if you saw him again?’
‘I think so, sir. Yes, I am sure of it, though I’m in no hurry to meet the bastard again, begging your pardon. You do believe me, sir, don’t you? Every word I’ve said is the truth. Haven’t hidden a thing.’
‘I know.’ Ferox hoped his smile was reassuring. ‘I believe you.’