There were only a handful of horses out front, indicating maybe just as many residents for the evening, but there could always be a few that had come in on foot. The fewer the better. There weren’t any carriages either, so I assumed no one of any worth or value was present, which was also good since that meant fewer reasons for trouble to come knocking. With the lodge at low occupancy and without any apparent visitors of note – well, besides the Empress of Rome and the most wanted man in the Roman Empire, that is – hopefully the two of us could have the first completely peaceful and warm night we’ve yet to have.
I gave Felix a little kick to urge him forward, and he complied immediately.
I smiled and thought of all the ways Felix was most certainly the greatest horse that had ever lived or will ever live. I was also legitimately sure that Felix was immortal, and that he would live forever, playing the part of a noble steed for ruling kings before he retired from active service to become a Hollywood film star, where he would literally play every single horse character to grace the screen, both big or small.
Since getting to know him, I’d learned much about horses. They were, quite honestly, the most intelligent creatures on this planet. I now understood why Caligula had appointed his horse, Incitatus, as the head of the government. I now knew who they’d hired to play the Horse of a Different Color in The Wizard of Oz – no special effects required. And I’d finally met the horse they’d found to play a talking one on Mister Ed.
Felix had even changed color and shifted breeds to play the role.
Talk about a method actor.
It all made so much sense now.
I chuckled to myself as I was reminded of my insanely clever and astute deduction, not even bothering to answer Agrippina’s inquiry into what was so funny. Besides, we were quickly coming up to the lodge, so with the easy grace I’d developed in recent years, I swung my leg over Felix’s rump and dropped to the ground – no easy feat without stirrups.
I still needed to get around to inventing those things.
I took Felix’s rein in my hands and then wrapped them around the hitching post a few times to secure him, even though I knew he wouldn’t go anywhere. Stepping behind him, I grabbed the reins of the three pack horses trailing him. These I hitched as well, then turned to Agrippina and offered to help her down. She accepted the gesture happily, so I gripped her waist as she swung a slender leg over her horse’s rump. It was a fast motion, one that would have sent her straight into the dirt had I not had a firm grip on her, but I knew how to help a lady down off a horse or a carriage, so I was ready for it and gently lowered her to the ground. She patted my arm and smiled at me sweetly, but then turned to head inside the establishment.
I looked back at Felix and scratched behind his ear and patted his mane. “Watch over your buddies, all right?”
Felix nodded his head and huffed at me. “Will do, Jacob,” he said.
I gave him a smile and another pat for good measure, then turned to the other three horses. “Stay out of trouble.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Jacob, sir,” they all said, the three of them nodding in comic unison.
I gave them a distrustful look, then I pointed at my eyes with my pointer and middle finger before jabbing it in their direction a couple of times. They huffed and stamped their feet in place for a moment before settling down, and I knew they got the message.
I shook my head and turned back to Felix, catching Agrippina’s horse out of the corner of my eye. “And watch out for Clytemnestra over there. I think she’s in to you.”
Felix gave me a bashful look as he shifted his head away from her, and I chuckled as I turned to follow Agrippina into the lodge. Once inside, I took quick stock of the accommodations. At the central point of the enormous room, a few strides through the front door, was a large fire pit with a smoldering fire that I knew could keep the entire structure warm and cozy all night. Above was a square portico for ventilation. Off to the left and right where hallways, and dotting both sides of these hallways were rooms cordoned off by little more than curtains, which I eyed cautiously as I entered the atrium, not trusting the security standards of this establishment one bit.
Agrippina was already speaking to the owner of the lodge, probably negotiating a rate for the night as I knew the shrewd woman was prone to do. We didn’t have nearly as much liquid currency as I’d once had, as our mission to Britain had practically bankrupted me, but I still had a little left over, and of course we had what I’d just taken off our target dummies earlier. But the idea was to remain as inconspicuous as possible, which didn’t seem particularly easy considering who we were, but it wasn’t like the Roman Empire possessed the internet or twenty-four-seven, round the clock TV news coverage. Most citizens and non-citizens who called portions of the Roman Empire home probably didn’t even know the name of their current emperor or empress, let alone have any idea of what they looked like. Agrippina was probably about as anonymous as an attractive bar wench – although I supposed it was true that she had a tendency to draw more attention than was needed for that very reason.
I pushed the thought out of my mind, but it quickly returned as I pulled up short just behind Agrippina. One of the old “Wanted” posters with my face on it was displayed on the wall. It wasn’t a super accurate depiction, the art style sort of reminiscent of what you would find in an old Byzantine Catholic church, and like all the others I’d seen over the years, this one looked just a little bit different than all the others. But what really drew my attention was that someone had scratched a beard onto my face. I wasn’t sure if the added facial hair was an act of simple vandalism, or if, somehow, someone already knew I was coming.
Trying to ignore the thought and remain cool and collected so that I didn’t appear guilty, I finally stepped up behind Agrippina. She had her polite face on, which was one I rarely saw, and her voice was as deceptively sexy as I’d ever heard as she concluded her transaction with the portly owner. He sat behind a counter and in something of a booth, just as one would find in a modern day equivalent of a shady roadside motel back home. He eyed me suspiciously, but again I wasn’t sure if he recognized me from the Wanted poster or if he was simply wondering what this bearded, skinny, ragged-looking schmuck was doing with an ethereal beauty like Agrippina.
But then all was well as Agrippina passed him some coins, probably more than was needed, and the man slumped off his stool and unenthusiastically escorted us to our rooms. He led us off toward the right of the fire pit and down a long, wide hall, stopping in front of the third door on the right – a great choice as it would let us keep an eye on the horses outside.
I glanced at my surroundings, noticing a large figure in the room across from us whose face was concealed by dark shadows and a small cadre of young men conversing raucously farther down the hall. I ignored the lone individual, and focused on the group. They were at the far end of the hall, but they were obviously looking in our direction and we appeared to be the topic of their rowdy conversation. As with the innkeeper, I couldn’t be sure if they had recognized me or were simply discussing what kind of dirty things they would do to a creature like Agrippina. I didn’t trust them and already knew I wouldn’t be sleeping very well tonight – if at all. They were an unruly lot, young and strong and brash, and it didn’t take a well-trained eye to identify weapons at their waistbands.
I gritted my teeth and decided it would be best to do something about them before they did something about me. Without giving Agrippina another glance, I made my way toward them, anticipating anything. They watched me approach, their eyes focused and their muscles tightening for possible action. Their discourse had evaporated completely by the time I arrived.
I stopped in front of them and placed my hands in my jacket pockets, barely even noticing whether they thought my clothing odd or not. I stood there quietly, eyeing each of them in turn. I scanned each and every dirty and bearded face, analyzing their physical characteristics and body language, noting that each of them exuded an a
ura of violence that tickled me the wrong way.
I looked at one at random. “Are we going to have a trouble?”
The man I was staring at glanced at his friends. They all seemed equally confused by the time he finally looked back at me with a shake of his head. “Excuse me, sir?”
“Trouble,” I repeated. “Did you bring any with you?”
Again the man I was speaking to seemed to not understand as he sought insight from his companions, but he didn’t take nearly as long this time before turning back to me, his eyes wide and apologetic. “Many apologies if our conversation disturbed you, good sir.”
“Yeah…” I said slowly, leaning in toward him just slightly, “… sure you are. Just stay on your side and we’ll be fine. You see… this is your side,” I said, pointing to their little corner of the hall before twisting at my waist and indicating with both hands the rest of the lodge. “That’s all my side.” I pointed back at the far wall. “Your side.” Then I gestured behind me again. “My side.” Then I repeated. “Your side. My side. Got it?”
Another man behind the first raised his hands beside his shoulders. “There is no need to grow upset, sir. All of our rooms are indeed on this side of the…”
“Shut it, Gandhi,” I said, snapping my head in his direction, and he immediately backed off, all of their faces more confused than ever. “You’re not making any new friends here. Now stay on your side.”
I spun around and returned to the room the lodge owner had escorted us to, glancing once more at the shadowy individual in the room across from us. He had a slender but extremely strong frame judging by his hairless calves – an odd grooming standard for shadowy figures – but he didn’t react to my presence so I turned back to the tiny room Agrippina now occupied and frowned. I looked back at the innkeeper, who was already walking back to his post.
“Where’s my room?” I called out to him.
He didn’t answer verbally, but pointed over his shoulder at Agrippina’s room as he retreated.
I turned back to her. “You only rented one room?”
She was already sitting on the room’s sole, narrow bed as she looked up at me. “For security, Jacob. It’s safer this way.”
“But there’s only one bed,” I said, but not too loudly so as not to alert our vile neighbors.
She looked down at it, then back up to me, her smile coy and lovely. “For warmth, Jacob.”
I growled as I shrugged out of my pack and dropped it to the ground. I took a step inside and yanked the curtain closed behind me before stepping toward the bed so that I could sit on it next to Agrippina.
I leaned down and started the process of unlacing my boots, glancing at her as I did. “Then I’m going to warn you ahead of time: it happens every morning. Don’t think it has anything to do with you…”
***
I woke up cold and alone, and surprised at both.
Agrippina and I had wasted little time before going to bed. The last few nights out in the wild had been rough and exhausting, and neither of us had found particularly restful sleep recently. Without my tent’s wind and rain screen, which had been blown away in a particularly bad storm four nights ago, the tent had grown both drafty and leaky. Until the weather stabilized, and clear skies and warm air returned, my tent was an unwanted accommodation, and despite the dangers associated with continuous use of these lodges, we really had no other choice if we wanted a restful night’s sleep.
So, when Agrippina had slipped into bed beside me last night, wearing only a form fitting sleep-dress, the last thing on my mind was how enticing she looked and more on catching not just forty but forty thousand winks. She hadn’t seemed particularly interested either, as she’d been nearly asleep by the time she pulled her body in close beside mine and gripped the woolen blanket that I couldn’t imagine had been recently washed. She’d been asleep moments later, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of someone else I used to know who was also a quick sleeper.
But instead of trying to figure out who that mysterious person who often pervaded my thoughts was, I, too, settled in and drifted off to sleep.
Until a few seconds ago.
I’d been awakened by cool air on my arm, which had somehow managed to escape the itchy warmth of my blanket. It was only when I tucked it back under and shifted my position so that I was on my back, that I noticed Agrippina was gone. At first, I figured she’d simply gotten up to use the bathroom, but I knew better. Neither of us drank any more water than we needed to, and I couldn’t recall a time when either of us had needed to relieve ourselves in the middle of the night.
Knowing I shouldn’t trust Agrippina to even use the bathroom in the middle of the night on her own, I grudgingly swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a few seconds, holding my head in my hands, my elbows supported by my knees, and tried to readjust myself to life in the conscious world.
I’d barely had time to forget the last traces of the dream I’d been having, something about hiding beneath a bed, when I heard a muffled cry out in the hallway. I lifted my head as my senses went on alert, and faced the curtained doorway, noticing that while I’d made sure that it had been drawn closed before retiring earlier tonight, I found it slightly agape.
At first I thought to ignore the noise, assuming that it had probably come from one of the animals outside, but then I heard it again. It was louder this time and more distinct, and I immediately recognized it as some form of scared whimper from a human female.
Too experienced and world-weary to simply leap into action, I rose to my feet quietly and found my web belt that held the thigh holster for my Sig P220 pistol. Taking the pistol in my hand, I silently extracted it from the sheath. I already knew the pistol was fully loaded and with a round in the chamber, so there was no need to pull back the slide, as was so often needlessly seen in the movies. The only thing left to do was flick off the safety, which I did now, and maintained professional trigger discipline by keeping my finger off the trigger.
Armed, I posted myself up against the wall beside the curtained entranceway and held my pistol low but ready. I wasn’t going to simply bound into the hallway without a little caution first, so I lifted my pistol, pulled the curtain back a bit and peeked down the hallway. Nothing caught my eye, so I cautiously rotated myself around to the left, my pistol always pointed through the opening so that as I shifted position, I always had an eye on new sections of the hallway as they came into view. I continued my gradual shift until I stood against the curtain, facing down the opposite end of the hall, but still saw nothing.
Then the noise came again, even louder and more insistent than last time, and I clearly identified it as coming from the direction I was now facing, from the area I had quarantined those dastardly locals in earlier. Something was definitely amiss, so I quickly pushed the curtain aside and stepped through, reaching up with my off hand to hold my pistol in a two-handed grip as I slid my way along the wall in the direction of the disturbance.
Flicking my aim left then right repeatedly as I rushed through the hallway, I kept my ears alert for further disruptions, which seemed to come more quickly now, and with an increased urgency to them. Whatever was happening was escalating, and I knew I should start worrying, but not at the risk of my tactical efficacy.
I passed one curtained room, then another, but neither was the source of the sounds, so I continued. As I passed another, the cries continued to grow louder and more intense, but now snippets of sentences came drifting through the air as well, words spoken in Latin by at least three different men, the words overlapping each other making it difficult to clearly understand their meaning:
“What… wrong… woman…”
“… said… could…”
“Permission… to…”
“Why… struggle…”
The words flitted about in my mind, but I didn’t have much time to process them as I came upon the curtained room that I knew to be the source. Reaching out with my off hand, I tore the curtain aside
and analyzed the scene before me in a single glance.
Agrippina was sprawled out on the room’s only bed with one of the men I’d seen from earlier on top of her, his face very close to her own. She was still clothed in her floor length night-gown, but it was clear that she was struggling to keep it down past her knees. The man on top of her, for his part, was still clothed and did not seem violent or driven by hateful-lust, instead appearing confused by Agrippina’s sudden disinterest. Beside the two of them were two other men, each standing as far from the pair on the bed as possible within the tight confines of the room, and the looks on their faces also seemed confused instead of enraged.
I took all of this in and my mind immediately associated all the clues with only one, very likely scenario… but there was something off about it that my mind couldn’t quite comprehend. It was like trying to fit a puzzle piece into place that looked like it could work, even though my mind knew it was the wrong piece. So instead of putting it down and looking for the right piece, I jammed it into place, my brain ignoring the obvious fact: that there didn’t seem to be anything violent or nonconsensual here.
Only Agrippina’s frightened face contradicted the logic behind what I was seeing, which was the only thing I focused on as the men in the room finally took notice of me. The two standing off to the side immediately pulled away, as though frightened by my presence, but the man on top of Agrippina was slower to react. He was trying to land a kiss on Agrippina as she held the man back with outstretched and struggling arms, when he finally saw me and rolled off of her, but did not move away.
Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome Page 7
