Eunapius let out a loud fart before shitting himself. The cold air took on a smell of inward bodily decay. ‘Don’t let him touch me, Alaric!’ he shouted. He twisted to get free of Samo and managed half a step in my direction. ‘I’ll tell you everything.’
‘That’s the spirit!’ Priscus cried. At his little desk, Leander controlled his hands sufficiently to lift a pen.
Eunapius ran his tongue over dry lips. ‘Before I say anything, though,’ be babbled, ‘I want Alaric to swear that I’ll walk out of here alive and that I shan’t be harmed in any way. I’ll tell you where Shahin’s taken the girl. I’ll tell you what he’s planning with the magic cup. But I want Alaric’s spoken promise in front of you all.’
Priscus frowned and got slowly up from his chair. He went across to a filthy curtain and pulled it down to show an old cartwheel fixed to the wall. He nodded to Samo, who dragged Eunapius round to see it. ‘Silly young Alaric is no longer in charge of this interrogation,’ he said in a voice I well recalled from his days of glory. ‘You had your chance. We’re now following my rules.’
Priscus sat down again. He sipped delicately at his wine. ‘Did you ever watch a man broken on the wheel?’ he asked. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve had that pleasure. Even old Phocas had limits to what he’d let me do in public. But I’ve seen it done quite often by the Avars when they want to make an example of one of their prisoners. It’s ever so cheap and simple, you see. Even barbarians can’t mess it up.’ He got up, wine cup still in his hand. He walked slowly over to the wheel. ‘See these straps here?’ he asked. ‘The purpose is to spread you naked on the wheel, arms and legs apart. Once you’re in place, that drunken ox of a freedman will take up the hammer that you should be able to see just beside the wheel. He’ll start by smashing your ankles — one or two blows on the bones of greatest sensitivity. If that doesn’t loosen your tongue, he’ll move to your wrists, and then your knees and elbows. Your hips and shoulders will be the final horror.
‘And, Eunapius, don’t suppose it will be other than horrible. Forget burning alive, or hooked gloves, or even the bite of a starved hyena. Breaking on the wheel produces the most staggering and continuous pain. And you might last for days down here in the darkness. So long as the barbarian doesn’t break the skin, your limbs will swell up like inflated bladders and you’ll keep enough blood elsewhere to stay alive. I remember one time — it was during the great siege of Mantella, you know — when the Avars somehow laid hands on my commanding officer. Using a screen of women and children to put our archers off, they broke him a hundred yards outside the city wall.’ Priscus paused for dramatic effect. He drank more wine. ‘In no time at all, I saw a battle-hardened veteran turned into a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood — a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones. He was luckier than you’ll be: he lost enough blood to die before the afternoon was out.’ He stopped again for wine and burst into helpless giggles.
He controlled himself. ‘Don’t force me to do that to you,’ Priscus urged. ‘Why not make it easy for yourself and answer dearest Alaric’s questions. He won’t let me hurt you after that.’
The threat was enough. Between screams of terror and more farting, out rolled the details of Shahin’s plan. In the brief intervals of silence, I heard the steady scratching of Leander’s reed pen on papyrus. Before the confession was over, he’d filled one sheet and was halfway down another.
‘Anything more to add?’ Priscus asked after it was over.
‘Don’t hurt me — please!’ Eunapius sobbed.
Priscus laughed. ‘I promised our fastidious young Light from the West that I’d lay hands on you only when all else had failed. You must appreciate, however, that your last chance of really civilised treatment vanished when he called me in. You told me yourself that I was dead. We can’t have anyone around to disabuse the world of that belief — can we, now?’ He got up again, a lead cosh in his hand. One blow to the right temple and Eunapius sagged dead in Samo’s arms. He dropped to the floor and lay with his eyes still glittering in the lamplight.
Priscus turned in my direction. ‘I know I’ve often disgusted you, dear boy,’ he said with a smirk that cracked the lead on his face. ‘But how was that for interrogation?’ He bowed and put his cosh away.
I shrugged. ‘He could have avoided this,’ I said evenly. Treading carefully to avoid the patches of damp filth, I went and looked down at the body. I turned to Samo. ‘Have it dumped in one of the flower beds down the road,’ I said. ‘Complain to the Prefecture tomorrow about the unfinished work of collection.’ Samo grinned and nodded. He took the cup of wine Priscus had poured for him. They shook hands and stood together to admire their work.
I sniffed at a scented napkin and told myself again that all this could have been avoided. It was true. But you have to see things as they really are. I hadn’t laid a finger on Eunapius. Even so, I’d killed him in cold blood. Had the end justified the means?
‘He was telling the truth?’ I asked.
Priscus laughed. ‘I expected better from you than that, dear boy,’ he said. He poured more wine for himself and gave the jug to Samo to finish. He sat once more in his crumbling chair. ‘He told us everything that could have been learned by making a window into his soul. Whether this accords with the true state of affairs depends on whether Shahin took him fully into his confidence — and, of course, on what Shahin himself was told.’
He finished his wine and reached inside his cloak for one of his powders. I waited for him to come back to order. ‘Alaric,’ he started in a less patronising voice, ‘I know your view of torture is that it’s a game between two demented beasts — between one who enjoys inflicting pain and another who’ll say anything to stop the pain. But it’s far more sophisticated than that. Unless he’s thick, a torturer soon gets a nose for the truth. You should think about that the next time you plague Heraclius with your ideas of abolishing the rack.’
He sniffed, then blew his nose. He stared at the remains of the powder he’d put up his nose. ‘Yes, dearest Alaric, what Eunapius told us was the truth to the best of his knowledge. It’s up to you to find if he was told the truth, or if the plans have been changed in the light of circumstances.
‘But do accept, my dear, it’s useless knowledge. Though you’ve learned it’s the Larydia Pass they’re headed for, you still can’t outrun Shahin. I repeat that you’ll only get lost in the mountains trying. And, if you do catch up with him, how do you expect to surprise him with the three dozen armed men he’s got with him? Give up on it, my dearest. Take my word for it about Antonia and come upstairs. We can start thinking of your report to Heraclius.’
I said nothing. He frowned. ‘Then you’re throwing away another fine opportunity,’ he sighed. ‘I thought you’d learned something from that brave but lunatic mission to Ctesiphon. It was only Nicetas then who wormed his way between you and the Emperor. This time, you may not be so lucky.’ His voice turned cold and thoughtful. ‘But we have unfinished business, don’t you agree?’ He turned a predatory stare on Leander. ‘Dead men don’t walk. If they do, none must see them.’ He repeated himself in Latin for Samo’s benefit. They laughed softly together.
I didn’t look round, but I heard Leander fall to his knees on the cellar floor.
I stopped by the statue of Cicero and breathed in the fresh night air. Leander caught up with me. ‘You didn’t need to take me home, My Lord,’ he wheezed. Knowing my face was in the shadow of the moon, I smiled. His hands fluttered close by my sleeve. He thought better of catching hold. ‘Would My Lord like me to return to Egypt?’ he asked. ‘I could leave tomorrow. I could take ship to Cyprus and pick up another ship from there. I wouldn’t stop in Alexandria. I’d go to Antinoopolis. I’d — I’d. .’ He trailed off into scared silence. I could hear the continual questioning in his voice. The Lord Alaric had saved him from Priscus and the wheel. Had that been simply to save the trouble of ridding the palace of two corpses? How safe was he out here in the street, with me in arms beside him?