The tribune nodded, his demeanour outwardly unchanged, although Julius wondered if he had imagined the slight narrowing of his superior officer’s eyes when Cattanius had first mentioned the legatus’s name.
‘I see. My apologies. Do continue.’
‘Yes, sir. The legatus decided that in light of the Sarmatae threat-’
Julius raised a hand to stop him again.
‘You’ve mentioned that name twice now. Exactly who or what are the Sarmatae?’
Cattanius stooped, using his finger to draw a half-circle whose circumference pointed upwards in the dust at their feet, running a wavy line along its bottom where there would normally have been a flat side.
‘This is a very rough approximation of a map of Dacia. The wavy line is the river Danubius, and we are here. .’ He made a mark in the dust just inside the half-circle’s radius, halfway between the wavy line and the curve’s topmost point. ‘And here. .’ He pointed to the ground outside the half-circle, waving his hand around its perimeter. ‘Here are the Sarmatae. They’re a loose collection of tribes, nomadic and with an equine-based way of life. The grasslands beyond these mountains are swarming with them, a tribe called the Iazyges, and they breed like rabbits.’
Julius nodded his thanks, gesturing for the soldier to continue.
‘So, my legatus decided that he should concentrate his force at the legion’s fortress, ready to strike decisively in accordance with the governor’s wishes. Our scouts tell us that the main enemy threat is mustering on the north-western border. The knowledge that there were reinforcements from Germania within a few days’ march persuaded the legatus that the risk to the mine complex would be minimal, given what we know of the enemy’s dispositions.’
Scaurus leant forward with a look of concentration on his face.
‘Which would seem to have been somewhat courageous of him, given that my horsemen encountered barbarian scouts not ten miles back down the road. Exactly what do we know about them, Soldier Cattanius?’
The beneficiarius opened his mouth to respond, but his answer was stillborn in the face of an interruption over Scaurus’s shoulder.
‘What have we here, Scaurus?’
The Tungrian tribune turned away from the beneficiarius, looking up at his colleague Belletor as he loomed over them both from his position on the back of his horse. His fellow legion tribune had reined his horse in behind Belletor’s, and was looking down at Scaurus and his first spear with the poorly concealed curiosity that had been his perpetual expression ever since they had left Fortress Bonna. Scaurus nodded his respect to the horseman, indicating Cattanius with an extended hand.
‘A legionary legatus’s beneficiarius, colleague, sent to guide us into the valley and ensure that we settle into the defence of the mine as quickly as possible.’
‘Excellent!’ Belletor nodded down to Cattanius, who had snapped back to attention. ‘How very thoughtful of your legatus! You can guide us to the bath house, soldier, I’m positively filthy after so long on the road. I assume you can manage to get the men into whatever barracks the legion left for us, colleague.’
Scaurus nodded in reply, his face a study in neutrality.
‘Of course. I’ll talk to you later, Soldier Cattanius, if you can spare me the time. I suspect there’s a good deal more you can share with us as to the legatus’s plans.’
Cattanius saluted, shooting a swift glance of incredulity at Scaurus and Julius before looking up into the tribune’s smug face with his own features carefully composed into perfect neutrality.
‘This way, Tribune. There are both a heated room and a plunge pool in the commander’s quarters, and I took the liberty of having a fire lit an hour ago when we sighted you coming up the valley. We’ll have you sweating that road dirt out in no time.’
Scaurus and Julius watched the two officers ride away up the road, the first spear shaking his head in wonderment.
‘Every time I think there’s no way for that prick to go any lower in my opinion he finds a new way to look even less of a soldier.’
Scaurus nodded, turning back to the waiting column of men.
‘I know. But standing here mouthing insults at his back isn’t going to get these men into barracks and fed, is it? Get the First Cohort moving, First Spear, and we’ll rely on your colleague Sergius to have the sense to do the same for his legion troops.’
Julius saluted, his forehead creased questioningly.
‘It occurs to me to ask you, Tribune, what a beneficiarius is?’
Scaurus grinned back at him, hooking a thumb over his shoulder.
‘Given that the man in question was clever enough to have Belletor’s bathwater hot, I’d say that in this case a beneficiarius is at the very least a bright boy, wouldn’t you?
Once Julius had dismissed the Tungrians from the mine’s parade ground to their camp-building duties, Marcus found his wife and her new assistant sitting in their wagon. Bowing to Annia, he stretched his neck to plant a kiss on the sleeping baby cradled in Felicia’s arms.
‘Well he seems happy enough.’
His wife raised an eyebrow.
‘Remind me to check your ears for wax, Centurion. He was howling so hard while you were all parading that I was forced to hide in the back of the wagon and feed the little monster again, despite having filled him up no more than an hour before.’
Marcus wrinkled his nose.
‘Is that. .?’
Felicia nodded wryly, offering the sleeping infant to her husband.
‘Yes, as night follows day, so your son has followed a good feed by filling his undergarment with his usual impression of a well-ploughed field, grunting away in his sleep like a pig digging for truffles. The gods only know how Annia manages to tolerate it, because I can assure you that I’ll not be having any more of these little beasts for a good long while. Perhaps you’d like to change him?’
Her assistant laughed, her voice rich with a happy humour that had seemed impossible only months before, after her ordeal at the hands of the gang members she had believed to be her protectors, during the events of one fateful night in the city of Tungrorum.
‘It seems your lady is off-limits, Centurion, at least until the memory of constant feeding and bowel movements fades. Here, give him to me. .’ She reached out for the sleeping baby, taking him from Felicia with a smile of reassurance. ‘You two have a moment together and I’ll see if we have any more clean linen for his delicate little backside. Come on Appius, let’s see what we have back here. .’
Felicia watched her climb into the wagon’s rear with a smile before turning back to her husband.
‘So, what news, Centurion?’
Marcus shrugged.
‘The usual, it seems. There are sufficient stone barracks for one cohort, plus two dozen wooden huts which are in various stages of disrepair since they’ve not been used in years. Tribune Belletor’s legion cohort will take the barracks, of course, and we’ll camp in tents tonight, ready to start work putting the huts into habitable condition tomorrow.’
‘Which means that Julius will have every man working on the usual marching fort.’
Marcus smiled in reply.
‘Of course, with your tent right in the middle, and fifteen hundred Tungrians between you and anyone that wants to take us on. I must go and help my men put up the turf rampart, so I’ll see you later, once it’s all done. Where will you sleep tonight?’
She smiled, putting a hand to his cheek.
‘In my tent, with Annia and that little monster you insisted on dedicating to your father with a name no-one else has used for three hundred years. Come and see me later, and perhaps Annia will sit with the baby and give us a chance for a quiet moment together, once you’ve had a chance to wash away the mud you’re doubtless about to plaster all over yourself. I may not be entirely off-limits to a determined approach. .’