Marcus looked back at the entrance to the staircase, noting that a massive iron gate stood ready to swing into the opening, with a heavy wooden bar leaning on the wall beside it. He looked about him, frowning as he recognised a pattern in the tiled floor.
‘Is that a robbers board?’
Avenus grinned.
‘I should have expected a military man such as yourself to have recognised it. Yes, we don’t always use it, but tonight it seems we have enough participants to provide all of the pieces for a game. Isn’t that exciting? Ah, and there’s our host!’
They followed his pointing hand to find Pilinius deep in discussion with a pair of men who looked vaguely familiar to Marcus. Scaurus nodded, looking about him with the air of a man keen not to attract attention to himself.
‘Well that’s been very kind of you, Pomponius Avenus. We’ll just take up a position here and watch from the sidelines, as it were. I don’t want to transgress on the terms under which we were granted our very kind invitation.’
Avenus bridled.
‘Nonsense! I’m sure that Asinius Pilinius simply meant for you not to interrupt any conversations whose participants don’t actually know you. He may be busy now, but he’ll find the time to greet you soon enough, I’ll make sure of that! After all, what sort of host would fail to grant some recognition to his guests, however brief. In the meantime, let’s get into a good place for the show, shall we? You can repay the favour by telling me all about these “entertainments” of yours in Britannia!’
Julius nudged Cotta, pointing at a wagon coming towards them down the street. They were in the doorway of a shop whose owner had long since closed up for the evening.
‘What do you reckon?’
The former centurion peered around the doorway’s stone arch.
‘Could be. I’d have expected more than one wagon though, if they’re going to have enough slaves for a decent …’
He stopped talking as a second vehicle rounded the same corner and followed the first one up the shallow hill, watching as it ground along the considerable length of the wall that separated Pilinius’s domus from the street. At a prearranged signal, the gate for which they were heading opened, and the first cart rolled inside while a pair of armed guards strolled out into the street, looking up and down the hill with the bored look of men doing a job which had never once given them a reason to draw their weapons.
‘It’s definitely tonight then.’
Julius nodded, watching as the second wagon pulled into the domus’s grounds and was lost to view.
‘Looks that way. You’d better warm your lads up.’
‘Distinguished guests, your attention please!’
Pilinius stepped into the middle of the hall’s floor, his beaming smile playing on the men gathered about him as he raised his hands and turned slowly in a full circle, in the manner of a showman about to unveil his latest exotic beast from beyond the empire’s edge. Scaurus edged to one side, putting another man between himself and the senator, grateful for the interruption to Avenus’s incessant and increasingly pointed questions.
‘Gentlemen, it is a delight to see you all gathered here again, ready to celebrate what I think you’re going to find is a quite unparalleled collection of subjects for tonight’s entertainment. Tonight, my friends, we will not be sampling the usual assortment of criminals, runaway slaves and failed gladiators that is our usual fare. No!’
He looked about him with a triumphant expression, raising his arms to encompass the men gathered before him.
‘No, my friends! Tonight we shall be feasting upon the very best that the empire has to offer our very particular tastes! For tonight, for one night only, we will enjoy the fruits of …’ He paused dramatically, milking his audience. ‘The fall of the house of Perennis!’
His audience looked on in what Marcus could only construe as unabashed delight, men whispering to their fellows with huge grins plastered across their faces.
‘Oh yes, we’ve enjoyed the leavings of other great houses in our time. Few of us that were present will ever forget the sport that we had from the disgrace and execution of Senator Appius Valerius Aquila!’ Marcus froze at the words, willing himself not to leap forward and attack the man as Pilinius continued his speech. ‘But tonight, gentlemen, we have a feast to surpass even that epic Bacchanalia! Behold, our stars of the evening!’
A dozen men clad and armed in the same manner as the doorman on the floor above hustled a large group of women forward and into the circle of torchlight in which the senator was standing. Half of them were dressed in white, the others in black, and the purpose of the chequered robbers board worked into the hall’s floor became all too obvious.
‘Here you see before you Sextus Tigidius Perennis’s wife …’ A weeping woman was led forward by a pair of his men, forced to her knees and presented to them, the men gathered around her muttering their approval as Pilinius ripped open her thin tunic to reveal her breasts. He cupped one of them, squeezing the dark-skinned nipple between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Who among you doesn’t want to sample this lady’s charms, especially given her rather exotic birthplace?’
‘She’s a Dacian, you know.’ Avenus was whispering to the man next to him. ‘Perennis always used to boast that she was a wild animal in bed …’
‘And here!’ A girl was led forward, barely out of her childhood. ‘The Praetorian Prefect’s daughter by his previous marriage, young and unsullied! One of you will be taking her virginity tonight! And here, the lady’s handmaid, her hairdresser, her seamstress, and a large number of female household slaves …’ Pilinius paused for a wave of approving comments to die away. ‘Yes, gentlemen, enough women for nearly every one of us to get his prick wet before the night’s done! And for the rest …’ He grinned around him evilly. ‘I have a smaller number of the younger and more attractive male slaves from the Perennis household.’ He tapped the blade of the dagger sheathed at his waist. ‘And if you’re not inclined to a shapely boy, then you’ll know what to do with them!’
The men gathered about him laughed, exchanging excited glances that spoke volumes to Marcus as to their intentions towards the captives.
‘So, honoured guests, who wants to play robbers!’
A roar of approval greeted the question, and the guards started hustling their captives into position on the game board.
‘And now, young man, tell me more about these shows of yours in Britannia. Making captured warriors fight each other in the legion arenas is all very well, but it’s not the most intimate of entertainments, is it? What about the women, the female members of the aristocracy, eh? What about the tribal kings’ daughters? You must have had some fine sport with them?’
Marcus stepped forward, inclining his head deferentially and asking their escort the only question he could think of to distract the senator’s gimlet-like attention from Scaurus.
‘Forgive me, Pomponius Avenus, but I’m a keen robbers player. Which rules will we be using tonight?’
Avenus frowned.
‘Rules? Who the fuck cares about rules? It’ll be the usual, I expect, pieces removed by being bracketed to either side by the enemy, the king captured by being surrounded …’
The younger man flicked a glance at the massive playing board, seeing that the guards had positioned Perennis’s wife on the square usually taken by the white king, one man mockingly placing a rough wooden crown on to her head. The man playing the white side then stepped onto the board and pointed to one of the terrified slaves, indicating for her to be moved two spaces forward. A pair of the senator’s men took an arm apiece and forced her to move to the appointed square, and Avenus barked a harsh laugh.
‘Look at the stupid bitch, she clearly doesn’t have a clue about the game! The most fun comes when you get a decent player as one of the pieces on the board, as you can imagine. Once one or two of them have been dragged away, then we find out which of the remaining pieces can actually play the game! They’re the ones looking about them, working out who’s likely to be next to be taken, and we even once had a man who started shouting advice at the player controlling his side of the board!’ He laughed uproariously. ‘As you can imagine, our man immediately started playing to lose, which caused the idiot to become ever more hysterical! It was too, too funny for words!’