I went to turn and protest, but he held me tight.
He laughed and kissed my hair. ‘Don’t bullshit me, drágám. I know I come second.’
‘You don’t, Miklós, it’s a different kind of love.’
‘I don’t understand it, but I know it’s so important to you, you’d die for it. And you are so important to me, I’d kill for you. So I had to come.’
A knock on the door and a shout of ‘five minutes’ broke the moment. I sighed. He stood up and stretched a hand out to me. I took it, drawing on his strength. He pulled me to my feet, kissed the top of my head, then drew back and gave me the saddest look I’d ever seen.
*
‘My name is Aurelia Mitela, serving until a few days ago as the imperial foreign minister. I was formerly a major in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces. With the help of Lieutenant Calavia—’ I waved towards Pia, ‘—and Guard Atrius, I intend to lead a rescue mission to find and recover Silvia Apulia. I have no right to ask you to go with me. You’ve struggled to get to safety and I’m asking you to go back into a lethal environment. It’s no shame if you prefer not to.’ I paused, waiting for any further reaction. I glanced over at Miklós sitting on a chair by the wall, arms crossed and a solemn expression on his face.
The two veterans didn’t blink an eye, the reservists looked wary and the young cadet stared not quite open-mouthed. We sat in a circle on rickety chairs at one end of the ballroom. Dusty oblong rectangles stared down at us where once portraits had hung and the fashionable eau-de-nil had faded to a dirty greeny-white.
The lankier of the two veterans raised her hand. Her brown hair was bound up round her head and as she wriggled her shoulders, her body seemed to lengthen. ‘I’ll go. I’m thirty-eight and the legion is all I’ve known.’ She glanced at her blond colleague who nodded. ‘So you have two of us, ma’am.’
‘Your names?’
‘I’m Balia, she’s Styrax, both served in the XX Victis.’
‘Ha! Good legion.’ I clasped her hand, then Styrax’s. ‘Welcome.’
‘I’ll come,’ the boy chirped up. ‘My name’s Turturus.’
‘How old are you, Turturus?’ I said.
‘I’ll be eighteen next February, ma’am.’
Juno, he was far too young to take on this mission. He needed to finish his training, then be posted to a sound regiment to mature under the watchful eye of a centurion. His eager young face had hardly lost its soft adolescent bloom. I had to find a way to refuse that would salvage his dignity.
‘What speciality have you chosen?’
‘Infantry.’
Damn. Exactly what we needed. If only he’d been in a support arm, I could have refused him. But I wasn’t taking children under any circumstances.
‘Well, Turturus, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I think Numerus will need you here to support him. He’s still on the sick list and needs an energetic helper.’
‘But—’
‘Enough, young man.’ Numerus flicked his hand and glared at him. ‘Don’t argue with the major.’
Turturus shot Numerus an angry look, then turned away. He hunched over and clasped his hands together. It was as if he’d been denied a place in the sports team. The woman reservist got to her feet. ‘I’m a logistics specialist, Major. I don’t think I’d be much help in this kind of operation – I’m not fit enough for a start.’ Then she smiled. ‘But I’ll make sure you’ll have the best equipment and papers that I can find you.’
In the end, we were six, comprising Balia, Styrax, the other reservist, whose name was Servlus, Pia Calavia, Atrius and myself. I gave us three days for planning and practice; every day the danger to Silvia and Volusenia would increase exponentially. By the end of day two, we had several scenarios, a handful of tactics and diminishing optimism.
On the third afternoon, Miklós and I lay together under blankets. I was awake, but he dozed in that almost half-unconscious way you did after good sex. We had the luxury of a mattress now, and two cardboard boxes for our clothes and meagre belongings. The sun was sinking, throwing light through the bloom on the old windows, giving an idea of warmth, but I shivered, even lying against his warm skin. His arm encircled my waist tightly.
‘I’ll come with you, of course,’ he murmured, his eyes still closed.
‘I can’t drag you into this, Miklós.’
His eyes snapped open. ‘I’m not going to risk losing you again,’ he said.
‘We have to settle this ourselves.’
‘I’m a foreign national. I’ll be able to move around more easily than you.’
‘Caius knows exactly who you are. Do you think he’d respect your passport?’
He looked up at the ceiling for a long five minutes. ‘I haven’t been able to contact any of my people in Roma Nova. He must have cut the international lines. I’ll give you the names and numbers of some people who might help if you get stuck. If they’re still alive.’
I rolled over and propped myself up on my elbows. ‘I don’t want to endanger your contacts. This has to be a quick in and out. I’ll be back in a week, ten days max.’
‘You’d better be.’ He stared at me, his dark eyes shining in the last of the day’s light.
He pulled me on top of him and we made love urgently. I didn’t know when, or even if, I’d see him again. Later, I ran my fingers down the side of his face and closed my eyes to commit the sensation of his skin to memory. When my index finger reached his mouth, I opened my eyes and found him staring at me. His brown eyes shone like liquid mahogany. He leaned in and kissed me with a soft touch, then more passionately until fire ran through me. I grasped his shoulders, hardly breathing as he entered me. Afterwards, I wept.
*
Dressed in hiking gear, backpacks ready, and a warm supper inside us, we were ready. My group waited in the hallway for Atrius, Balia and Styrax to go first; they would travel on the high-speed train bound for the free city of Trieste, but leave it well before and cross into Roma Nova from the west. Calavia, Servlus and I were to travel south on the train to Graz, then take the bus to the last town before the border. We’d go the hard way, back over mountains. It was a slight risk, taking the same route we’d used to escape, but at least we knew it. The logistics specialist had made us Helvetian Confederation ID; not perfect, she said, but it should pass muster in most circumstances and with Miklós’s help she’d found us some personal transceivers.
If it all went well, we would meet up at the first safe house a kilometre west of Castra Lucilla. I had to hope that we could garner some support from my farm manager, Gavinus. If he was still alive.
I’d never forget the way Miklós held me in the grip of his arm as we waited thirty minutes after Atrius’s team had left for the station. He knew it was useless trying to argue me out of going; he conceded, eventually, that I was better off with my own military team. He wasn’t used to that disciplined mode and would jettison the mission the second he thought I was in any danger. I made him promise not to follow me into Roma Nova. For all his devious trading habits, I hoped he would be too honourable to renege on it.
*
Three days later on a moonless night at Castra Lucilla, I left Calavia to guard our backs near the crossroads before the farm entrance. Servlus and I crept along the farm boundary, avoiding the farmworker dormitories, and reached the manager’s house. Thin lines of light ran along the top and bottom edges of the closed window shutters. I flattened myself against the wall by the opening edge of the door. Servlus waited opposite, clutching a thick oak staff disguised as a walking stick. Suppose Caius had already seized the farm out of spite and put an overseer and gang in? The memory of the brutal attack six weeks ago welled up. My people had been killed and beaten, and the farm manager raped, by a pack of unidentified thugs. I knew in my heart it had been Caius’s thugs, but couldn’t prove it. Please, Diana, I prayed, may you have protected my Cast
ra Lucilla familia. I tapped on the wooden door and held my breath.
The door opened a few centimetres, revealing a dim light and an anxious face.
‘Domina!’ Gavinus’s eyes nearly popped out. He yanked the door open. We slid in.
‘Shut the door. Quickly,’ I whispered.
I glanced round. At the end of the plain passage I could see a light coming from the living room and hear low voices talking.
‘Company?’
‘No, no, just the television. Some kind of public service broadcast.’ He glanced at Servlus.
‘He’s with me, you can talk freely,’ I said.
Gavinus led us into the living room. A half-glass of beer stood on a small occasional table by an armchair facing the set. A scene of toga toughs, fists clutched across their chests, marching across the forum towards a figure on a podium in front of the Senate steps. Caius. He was watching them with intense concentration. The commentator was describing the ‘moving display of strength and patriotism’. We watched for a few seconds, mesmerised by the marching music and drums.
‘Pluto in Tartarus.’ Servlus swore. ‘What a load of bollocks.’
I couldn’t say a word. This was the worst of worst nightmares. I swallowed hard to try to relieve my parched throat.
‘Sit, domina.’ Gavinus pushed me gently into his armchair and gave me his glass of beer. I took a long swallow. The bitter taste brought me up sharp.
‘Are you all safe, Gavinus? Has there been any trouble here?’ I watched him jerk the remote control at the television and the image and sound evaporated.
‘We haven’t seen anybody these last few days, not even the postwoman. I contacted the local delivery office, but they told me they had nothing for the farm. That’s odd in itself – there are always bills and catalogues.’ He glanced at me. ‘And the lorry I sent to town yesterday with the weekly delivery to Domus Mitelarum hasn’t returned. Sometimes the driver stays over with her sister, but she always lets me know. Then the telephone stopped working this morning. And nobody’s answering the radio. I stayed up tonight hoping the driver would get back somehow. To be honest, I’m worried sick.’ He handed me a printed notice without looking at me. ‘One of the field workers found this pinned to the mansio door in the town today.’
By order of First Consul Caius Tellus
Due to the national crisis, the provisional government will apply the following emergency orders for the next 30 days.
All citizens must be indoors by 21.00 and will not leave their homes before 05.00.
We will respect citizens’ rights but anyone instigating or committing a breach of these orders will be punished severely.
All orders given by the civil authorities or their authorised representatives are to be strictly obeyed.
Personal ownership of all rifles, guns, revolvers, daggers, sporting guns and all other weapons whatsoever including training blades of every kind together with any ammunition is now illegal. However, citizens have until 18.00 tomorrow, 7 October, to surrender any such items currently in their possession to the nearest vigiles barracks. Discovery of failure to do so will result in summary imprisonment even after the expiry of these emergency orders.
All service personnel on leave must report to the nearest military barracks by 18.00 tomorrow, 7 October.
No boat or vessel of any description, including any pilot, fishing or tugboat, shall leave the river harbours or any other place where same is moored without an order from the local Curia office.
All international flights and cross-border rail services are temporarily suspended and all road crossings are strictly controlled. Expect long delays for verification which will only be granted in exceptional cases.
Foreign citizens in Roma Nova will be respected, but should remain in their hotels or residences until they have either registered and obtained a permit to stay from the local Curia or applied for an exit visa. These will be issued via their national legations.
Emergency services including doctors, veterinary and social personnel will be granted fuel and supplies subject to registration. Agricultural units and food suppliers will be granted movement orders and fuel subject to registration.
For the time being, there will be no fuel allocation for private use.
Food shops will remain open as before; increasing prices is forbidden.
All television and radio organisations apart from the National Roma Nova Broadcasting Company have been switched off. Their male personnel will be integrated into the new national company and the female staff dismissed. Signed this day 6 October
Caius Tellus
‘What in Hades is going on, domina?’
I couldn’t sit still, so I walked back and forth as I gave Gavinus a short version of what had happened in the past six days. He flopped down, hunched over and didn’t say a word. I didn’t know what to say to him. The horror of that notice hadn’t sunk in. Our knives and my service revolver would condemn us out of hand if we were discovered. I couldn’t imagine how miserable and oppressive life would become for all normal Roma Novans under these strictures. But the most ominous of Caius’s orders was the last one – the wholesale dismissal of female workers. Surely he wasn’t going to try to reverse over fifteen hundred years of history?
Gods.
‘Gavinus,’ I said, ‘you must prepare for the very worst. I’ve always thought it was Caius Tellus behind the raid six weeks ago, but I can’t prove it. They’ll remember how we disarmed them and took the farm back. For your own safety, you should hand over to one of your deputies, somebody who didn’t actively resist the raiders, if any will accept it, and disappear. Evacuate anybody who resisted, and take Priscilla and her daughter with you.’ I scribbled down the Vienna address on a piece of paper I tore off his farm magazine and handed it to him.
‘I’m not deserting Castra Lucilla,’ he said. ‘I can’t leave everybody here in the lurch.’ He looked at me steadily. Warmth flowed up my neck and I felt a wave of guilt all over again.
‘Believe me, Gavinus, I’ve been through this myself. To be brutal, we don’t have a hope in Hades of resisting effectively at the moment against such an organised coup. I’m surprised they haven’t been here already. This isn’t just a power grab, it’s a sustained and wholesale attack on our values, and way of life. And knowing Caius Tellus, he’ll pursue it through any means and not care how violent he is or the misery he causes. I want you to get out as soon as possible, tomorrow morning, and take our most vulnerable people with you.’
‘Are you giving me an order?’ His voice was as cold as the snows on the high peaks.
‘If necessary. I want you to survive this.’ I took his hand. ‘We will take it back, but throwing your life away now would be futile. Please do as I say.’
‘You are forcing me to make a bitter choice, domina.’
‘Bitter indeed, but better than being dead, or worse. On second thoughts, we should evacuate everybody. I can’t face the idea of any of our people being here when they come. They’ll be left with little choice but to knuckle down to Caius’s people – they’ll have no way of escaping.’
I suddenly realised what I was doing. Hundreds of years of careful husbandry of the land, the exclusive breeding stock, the unique cattle herds, the world famous vineyards – all this would be ruined. And my people whose families had survived since the earliest times, even during the Great Migrations and the European religious and civil wars, would be wrenched from their homes, their inherited ties to their land, their very souls would be ripped and shredded. The alternative was brutality, servitude or death. The gods curse Caius into the black depth of Tartarus. My hand trembled as I touched Gavinus’s forearm.
‘Get everybody up before first light and explain the situation. If they can go to any relatives or friends and stay with them, then so much the better. If anybody wants to stay, then explain exactly what could happen
to them. I don’t want any false optimism. It will be vile. If everybody goes, you’ll have to turn all the livestock out. Leave the troughs full.’ Poor beasts, but they might survive in the wild. Perhaps the toughest would. I rubbed my forehead and tried to blank out the time as a child I’d helped to drive the cows to the milking shed and walked in the fields, patting the lambs, the time I’d popped a sun-filled wine grape into my mouth only to screw my face up at the tartness.
‘Allocate anybody who wants to go a place in the trucks. You’ll have to abandon the trucks and walk over the frontier. The western route past Aquae Caesaris using the old mountain routes is your best bet. You should have enough money to bribe your way through.’ I shot a look at him. ‘You’ve been doing the emergency drills?’
‘Yes, and we have survival packs ready for everybody, but I never thought it would come to this.’
‘Well, Tartarus has opened up and is trying to suck us all in.’
*
By the early hours, we’d packed and loaded the farm records and reserves plus money, food and filled water tanks. Gavinus would bury the steel boxes containing the records and reserves in the far sheepfold where there was an emergency shelter. Servlus went to the barns and sheds and filled the troughs by torchlight, and left piles of feed for the poultry, Ceres bless him. The foxes would get most of them, though, once the gates were open. As the electric clock beeped five, the three of us stared at each other, eyes wide with exhaustion. I ached for my bed, any bed. The two men didn’t speak; they looked utterly spent.
I opened the front door of Gavinus’s house a couple of centimetres. Nothing stirred that I could see. I heard the low moan of a cow in the distance. A cold breeze touched my face from the dark morning. The sun wouldn’t rise for another hour. I turned to Gavinus.
‘You’ll have to start getting people up soon. I’m sorry I can’t speak to them, but they mustn’t know I’ve been here. They can’t reveal what they don’t know. This is a bad time when we’re forced to behave against our instincts, but now our duty is to survive and endure.’ I held my hand out. ‘Goodbye, Gavinus. Look after our people, and bona fortuna. I’ll see you in Vienna.’
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