"Piso had designs on you, Lucius,” Vitalis said, once he had cleared his mouth of the muck and a loose tooth. “I warned you of that."
“Yes. But you were a party to those designs!”
Vitalis looked at him perplexedly. “I was following the orders of my tribune, Lucius. I saw no way around that. My duty is to the legion first.”
"And what of the ambush Piso set for me in the Nervii village that day, with that ass Amelius waiting for me with sword drawn inside the chieftain’s hut?”
“I know nothing of that.” Vitalis replied puzzled.
“But you were the one who ordered me to report to him. You can't deny that."
"I was told to summon you, and so I did. If Piso had designs on you that day, I was unaware of it."
"And what of the two mule drivers waiting for me in the forest that night?"
"I don’t know what you are talking about, Lucius."
“You're going to sit there and deny it, that you concocted that story about your mother to send me outside the camp looking for that old woman's body, knowing full well that I was walking into a trap?"
"Piso, that bastard.” Vitalis closed his eyes and then dipped his head, as if he suddenly understood. “I didn't know about that, Lucius. You must believe me. I was a fool to ever tell the tribune about my vision." After an uncertain look from Lucius, Vitalis explained further. "After you left me that night, I went to the tribune's tent asking permission to allow you to run an errand for me outside the camp. You were right, I should have just sent you without getting authorization, but you know well my nature, Lucius. When Piso pressed me for the reason, I told him the truth. I told him the same thing I told you. That I thought I had just killed my own mother, and I needed confirmation."
"You mean to say that wasn't a lie?"
Vitalis shook his head. "On my honor, it was not. But now I wish I had kept it all to myself. Piso upbraided me for having such ridiculous fantasies, and threatened to declare me unfit for my duties and see that I was removed from my command. But then he eased his tone with me and said he would allow you to go on this errand for me if only to prove that I was indeed mad. He put me off for some time, telling me he would have the pass drawn up and I should come back after an hour. As you know, it was several hours before I managed to get it. That mule's ass never was efficient at company business, so I thought little of it at the time. Now I know that he was only delaying me in order to arrange your murder." Vitalis looked at him intently. "I swear to you, I never would have sent you out there had I known Piso's plans. I wish you had confided these things to me, Lucius. It seems clear now that, when the tribune's previous attempts to do away with you failed, he tried to do it the legal way."
It may have been clear to Vitalis, but Lucius was uncertain now that he fully understood the centurion’s involvement. "But surely you knew of Piso’s and Amelius’s plan on the day of the foray. Surely, you knew full well they intended to lure me into disobeying a direct order."
Vitalis wiped a drop of blood from his lower lip. "I did. I won’t deny it. Piso often questioned me about you. He was very interested in your faults. I told him that you were my best soldier and that if there was any shortcoming in you, it was your refusal to harm women and children. I believe I warned you about that, did I not? That day, at the farm, Piso told me he wanted to test your ability to follow orders. He said that if I tried to interfere or warn you in any way he would expose my madness to the legate. He held that over me, and I allowed it to scare me into submission. It was a cowardly act, I know Lucius, and I'm ashamed for it. But nothing frightens me more than dishonor. You know that. I knew that no matter what I did, Piso would eventually get what he wanted."
"So you consented?" Lucius said disgustedly. "Just like that. Six years as comrades meant so little to you?"
"You were a marked man, Lucius. Anything I could have done would have only put off the inevitable." Vitalis paused and then looked into Lucius's eyes. "I know nothing of your past, Lucius. You say we've been comrades for six years, and I'll agree, I've never served with a better man. But I've also never served with a man so secretive about his life before the army. In all of my campaigns, in all of the units in which I have served, whenever I encounter tight-lipped legionaries, it is often discovered later that they are some fugitive from justice, or have some ill-deed lurking in their past. I have asked you many times about your past, but you have never told me. For all I know, you might have wronged Piso sometime before you joined the army, and he was merely seeking a just retribution. "
Lucius stared into a muddy puddle rippling from the downpour, and then shot a quick glance at Vitalis’s eyes. “And what about Senator Valens? Are you in league with him?”
Vitalis held his gaze without blinking. “I do not know this senator, and why would I? What does he have to do with all of this?”
Lucius said nothing, but considered for a moment. It was all starting to add up. It was all starting to make sense. He believed Vitalis was telling the truth. The honorable centurion in Vitalis was good for something, at least. The centurion had no knowledge of the conspiracy and had merely been following orders to preserve the honor he held so dear. Piso and Amelius had been acting alone and at the direction of the senator, who had obviously employed them to tie up the senator’s loose ends and permanently bury his dark little secret.
“Regardless,” Vitalis spoke again. “Piso is now dead. My secret, Lucius, and yours – whatever it is – died with him. I, for one, will never make mention of my mother’s ghost again, even if I find her standing in the ranks at morning muster.” He looked at Lucius and extended a muddy hand. “And you have my sworn word that I shall never mention anything about the charges Piso allayed against you.”
“Really?” Lucius scoffed. “Is such conduct becoming of a proper centurion?”
“I obeyed the officer appointed over me, while he was alive. That officer is dead now.”
“No matter how corrupt he might have been?”
“The right and the wrong is not for a centurion to decide, Lucius. Perhaps you will understand someday when you, too, carry the vine branch. I tell you truthfully that I was overjoyed when I heard that you were to be decorated, and not punished. I suppose that fool Amelius had enough honor to keep his mouth shut to his dying breath.”
Not likely, Lucius thought. The suicides of Amelius and Piso were too coincidental, and had all the earmarks of Senator Valens’s handiwork.
Lucius took Vitalis’s hand and the two helped each other up out of the mud, and then did their best to remove the blood from their faces that they would not be questioned by the centurion of the watch when they returned through the camp gate. The air was now clear between them, and Lucius felt that he could now stand in the battle line with Vitalis without worrying about getting a gladius driven through his side.
There was only one man he needed to concern himself with now, and that was Senator Valens. After the conversation he had had with Divitiacus, Lucius had concluded that Valens had come to the army all the way from Rome with the sole purpose of seeing him dead. With all that Lucius knew about the senator’s past, it really was no surprise. Lucius was certain Valens would not give up. The senator wanted Lucius silenced for good, and he would see it done. It was a kill or be killed struggle – and Lucius intended to strike first.
XII
“Why do you keep looking out there, legionary?” the Scythian said insipidly from the stark moonlight opposite Lucius.