I turned, howling. ‘Come on then, motherfuckers! See if you’re hard enough!’
Geminus got in between us, his sword arm outstretched. ‘Stop! Stop it, damn you! The first man to draw blood on Trabo will be flogged to death at tomorrow’s dawn!’
He stopped them all right, but he didn’t stop me. I had no idea what game they were playing, only that I didn’t plan to be a part of it.
I slammed my shoulder into Constans’ chest, thrust my blade in under his kidneys, pulled it out, readied for a second strike to make sure he was dead — and could not move my arm.
My right wrist was clamped in Geminus’ two hands. Moments later, someone caught my left hand, planted a nailed foot in the small of my back and cranked my arms back.
In a sudden, shearing agony, I heard my shoulders pop, and wondered if the ligaments were tearing. Then I felt both wrists roped and knew they had me alive, and could kill me as slowly as they wanted to; which would be very slowly indeed.
Unless I could make them kill me swiftly, now. I kicked out, hard, and caught a man in the balls; to this day I have no idea who it was, but he was gone, anyway, doubled over and whining.
I grinned and kicked again and again, until my tied arms were hoisted up behind me, high, fast, hard.
I couldn’t move. My feet were barely touching the floor, all my weight was hanging on my arms, my shoulders exploded with a kind of pain I’d never known. I was retching with it, weeping, desperate.
I stopped trying to kick; there was no point and I needed to conserve my strength. I refused to give up hope until they nailed me to a plank and hoisted me higher than this, but I had to be clever about it. I was trying to see what was happening when someone wrenched my head up by my hair and Geminus came to stand in front of me.
Usually, in circumstances like this, the leader of the group would kick the life half out of the poor bugger they’d just caught, to teach him a lesson for having killed one of their people. But not this time.
Nothing happened. Nobody touched me.
Geminus, ever-steady, never-rash Geminus, said quietly, ‘You are working with Pantera. No — don’t start; we know everything and we don’t have time to listen to your denials. You are the bear-man who has been killing our Guards and you are also in league with Pantera. On both counts, you are an enemy of the state, and should be flogged to death. This will happen if we have to take you into custody now, although I imagine Lucius will want to question you in detail first.’
Of course he fucking would. I spat in Geminus’ face; you have to at times like that.
He didn’t flinch. Instead, as if we were taking wine together, or sharing a lazy bench in the baths, he said, ‘I am empowered to make you an offer. Work with us. Tell us everything we need to know about Pantera: what he is doing, who his messengers are, whom he trusts and who trusts him. In return, we will give you your life. And that of the lady Jocasta. Refuse us, and you can watch her die before you do. It will not be swift.’
Jocasta? I was bent so far over I could see my knees and my arms were screaming pain from wrist to shoulder, but even so, at the sound of her name, I felt the colour flood from my face.
In a voice that was far from my own I said, ‘What do you mean, you will give me Jocasta’s life?’
‘If you work with us, she will not be touched.’
My guts were in turmoil. In the red mist in my mind, I could still see Pantera’s smile, hear his clear, acid voice, and the laughter in it. ‘I rather think Juvens and Geminus are before me in that queue, don’t you?’
Jocasta. Held by these men?
I must have said her name aloud.
Geminus smiled, amiably. ‘She is not in custody yet. Nor will she be if you walk away from here as our man. Moreover, the price will be removed from your head the day Vespasian dies, or otherwise relinquishes his claim to the throne. On that day, you will be free to live in Rome, and your lady with you. Naturally, if you refuse our offer, I cannot guarantee her safety. Lucius, as you know, is somewhat
… impatient.’
I did know, and more than that, I knew the ways of the Guard. Lucius, Caecina, Valens… all of them were two-faced double-dealers you wouldn’t trust to sell a lame mule without lying, but they had sent Geminus to talk to me because everyone who was anyone knew that Geminus never lied. And so this was the truth; I had to treat it at face value.
I said, ‘Pantera has ordered me out of Rome. He came to me… earlier and told me to take a message to Ravenna. He thinks he can bring the marines on to Vespasian’s side. I am to send him written reports of everything I do there. If I refuse, he’ll want a good reason.’
They weren’t expecting that. Geminus rolled the tip of his tongue round his teeth. He looked across at Juvens, who said nothing; I couldn’t see his face.
Geminus said, ‘You can write?’
‘Of course!’
‘Then you will go to Ravenna as Pantera has instructed. You will do everything he asks. But you will report to us every order he sends, every bribe he issues, every approach he makes. You will give us the names of his men and those who might become his men; above all, you will report all the detail of Antonius Primus as and when he reaches the port. If you do this, Jocasta will be permitted to walk free in Rome. Fail, and you will watch her die over many days. Lucius will do this. He has no pity.’
‘I know.’
‘Then you agree?’
‘For Jocasta’s sake.’
‘Good.’ He didn’t laugh; none of them did. He gave a small, tight smile, as at some inner jest. ‘It goes without saying,’ he said, ‘that this conversation never happened.’ And then to the men on either side: ‘Cut him loose.’
None too gently, they slit away the cords from my wrists, dropped me to the ground, and watched while I massaged the pain from my arms.
I said, ‘We’ll need to set up a route for my messages to you. We can’t use the silver-boys; they’re all in Pantera’s pay.’
‘All of them?’ Geminus swept a hand through his hair. ‘Hades… how much gold has he got?’
‘He doesn’t need gold. He used to be one of them. They’d sell their own mothers for him if they had them, and not charge him a penny.’
It turned out that Geminus already had a plan for exchanging messages, and it didn’t involve the silver-boys. He laid it out in its elegant simplicity, and I added one small refinement of my own and that was it, we were done.
The men lined up ready to go. Geminus stood before me and saluted, officer to officer. ‘We feared you,’ he said. ‘There can be no greater respect. Do whatever Pantera asks of you, and report the results to us. Go safely.’
It hurt as much to return the salute as it had done when they hauled me up, but I managed it and the strange thing was that it felt good, and real and right, as if the unruly anarchy of all those nights spent hunting had been the illusion, not the other way round.
When I was young, they used to say that a man may run from the legions, but if he is truly a legionary, he will find that he cannot leave the army life behind. I thought I had escaped and now I found that I hadn’t, I couldn’t and I didn’t want to.
Otho’s shade gazed at me mournfully as I walked away. I renewed my oath to him, to honour his memory and see Vitellius dead, just that I had found a new way of doing it.
He shook his head. Later, I promised him, All will be as you wanted it. Later.
Chapter 33
Rome, the ides of September AD 69
Horus
It was a challenge by then for the silver-boys to try to follow Pantera. Sometimes, he let them, and that night was one of those times; they followed him easily all the way from the Quirinal, where he’d accosted Trabo, across town to the House of the Lyre.
At the House, the door was guarded by Segoventos, a gigantic, much-scarred Belgic tribesman who could have been Drusus’ cousin but was, in fact, a failed gladiator I had bought for a good price only half a month before.