Leaving Lupus with the miners, the party tiptoed the last short distance to the tunnel’s exit into the valley’s fresh air. Qadir nocked an arrow to his bow and slid forward to the front of the column, waiting until his eyes had adjusted to the moonlight before stepping out into the open with the slow, exaggerated steps of a hunting cat. Spotting a target, he raised the bow and pulled the arrow back until the string was nearly tight, jerking his head for Marcus to come forward past him. Pacing silently past his friend, the Roman saw a single figure sitting beside the embers of a small fire, his head nodding as he dozed, while two more men were rolled up in blankets at his feet. Raising his gladius ready to strike at the sleepers, he nodded briskly to his friend, and then stabbed the blade down into the sleeper furthest from him, opening the man’s throat with a flick of his wrist. As the Roman’s victim struggled in his tight wrappings, gargling blood from the horrendous wound, Qadir let his broad-bladed arrow fly into the dozing sentry’s chest with a crack of breaking bone. The sentry flopped bonelessly to the ground with the missile buried in his heart, his sightless eyes opened wide with the impact’s shock, and Marcus knelt to put the bloodied blade of his gladius to the other sleeper’s throat, reaching down to clamp a hand over his mouth.
‘If you make a sound without being told to speak I’ll cut your wind and leave you to gasp out your last. Do you hear me?’
The prostrate figure nodded, lying unnaturally still as he felt the sword’s fierce edge at his throat.
‘How many of you were standing guard here?’
The Roman removed his hand, tensing his sword arm to strike, but the terrified German’s voice was no more than a whisper.
‘Three.’
‘Are there any other men standing guard between here and the mining camp?’
The captive’s head shook.
‘How many men stand guard on the woman’s house?’
‘Four.’
‘And how many on the miner’s camp?’
‘I don’t know. .’ The German wriggled desperately as Marcus slipped the sword’s point under his chin, his words a gabbled rush. ‘Too many to count, at least a century!’
The Roman nodded, killing the man with a single efficient thrust of the gladius up under his jaw. He turned to find Scaurus nodding approval.
‘It’s no night for half measures.’ The tribune looked up at the cloudless nights’ blaze of stars. ‘As we agreed it then, you go to the miners’ camp and wait for the right moment, and I’ll lead my party to the villa. And who knows, if we get lucky enough, perhaps I’ll find Gerwulf unguarded, and take the head from this particular wolf.’
He led Arminius and two of the Hamians away down the valley’s steep slope, keeping to the shadows until Theodora’s villa appeared out of the gloom below them. The party watched the building from the cover of a stand of trees with a view over the courtyard’s wall, as a single sentry paced up and down the length of the house’s frontage.
‘One man at the front and presumably one man at the back.Which means there will be two more inside, if that German was telling us the truth.’ He turned to the Hamians. ‘Can you put that sentry down from here?’
The archers put a pair of arrows into the pacing guard, who slumped against the house’s wall without a sound, following up their first shots with two more that slapped into the wounded man, leaving a dark smear of blood on the wall as he slid down its rough plastered surface.The tribune led his party slowly and carefully out of the trees’ shadows, through the courtyard’s open gates and quietly up to the building’s front door.
‘There may be a guard in the entrance hall.’
Arminius drew a hunting knife from his belt and pushed lightly at the door, grinning as it eased open with a gentle creak from the hinges. He slipped through the narrow gap and was inside for less than a dozen heartbeats before he reappeared, shaking his head.
‘No guards.’
They followed him through the half-open door, both Hamians nocking arrows to their bowstrings and moving to either side of the wide hall with the weapons ready to shoot. Scaurus paused for a moment to get his bearings, listening to the sleeping household. He gestured to the other men, sending Arminius forward with a pointed finger at the door that led to Theodora’s private quarters. The German vanished inside for a moment and then reappeared, beckoning the others to join him. In the darkness of the dining room her erotic murals took on a sinister quality, half-visible couplings that made the Hamians’ eyes widen whilst Arminius wrinkled his nose and ignored them, cocking his head to listen.
‘You hear something?’
The German shook his head dourly in response to Scaurus’s whispered question.
‘Thought I heard a floorboard creak. I hear nothing now.’
He shrugged, and Scaurus moved slowly across the tiled floor to the door that led to Theodora’s bedroom. Putting a finger to his lips he lifted the latch with delicate care, stepping round the half-open door to find the bed chamber bathed in moonlight from a high window. The woman was asleep on her bed beneath a sheet, and the tribune smiled gently as he stepped silently to her side, kneeling alongside her and reaching forward to put a hand over her mouth.
She started under the touch, her eyes wide with the shock of his presence, and for a moment she made to struggle. Scaurus shook his head, leaning close to whisper in her ear.
‘You’re safe now, madam, we’ve come to take you out of here. Can I remove my hand without you making any noise?’
Still startled, she nodded mutely, and the tribune removed his hand with an encouraging smile.
‘There, that’s better. Are Felix and Lartius imprisoned here?’
Theodora shook her head, her whispered reply confirming Scaurus’s expectations.
‘That monster Gerwulf had them both killed yesterday, as a lesson for their workers.’
Scaurus shook his head grimly.
‘Much as I expected, sadly for them. In that case, I think our best course would be for you to put some clothes on and accompany us to safety. It’s all about to get rather noisy and dangerous round here.’
‘What do you mean?’
He smiled again, shaking his head and gesturing to her wardrobe.
‘We’ve no time for a long story now — let’s just say that the arrival of a full legion in the valley tonight is going to put the cat among the pigeons, shall we?’
Cattanius led the larger of the two parties down the hill to the west, heading for the lights of the miners’ camp. Reaching the road the soldiers flattened themselves to the ground at Marcus’s silent command, waiting for him to order them across the pale ribbon. Raising his body off the ground in readiness to jump to his feet and make the dash, the Roman stiffened as he heard the sound of boots approaching from the direction of the camps further down the valley. He shuffled backwards on his elbows and knees, whispering a command to the men behind him.
‘Get back into the shadows!’
Following his example the raiders swiftly backed away from the road and into the cover of a patch of scrub, throwing themselves to the ground and pulling their cloaks over their helmeted heads. Peering through a gap between cloak and ground, Marcus saw a party of soldiers march into view, and at their heart he was dismayed to see Gerwulf himself. Qadir had slipped into the shadow of a tree trunk, raising his bow with a hunting arrow nocked and ready to fly, but after a moment he lowered the weapon.
‘There are too many of them for us to deal with. And I have no clear shot with all those men packed around him.’
Marcus nodded slowly at the Hamian’s muttered comment.Waiting until the Germans were out of sight before turning back to his comrades, he whispered a quiet instruction.