Birds of Prey

by David Drake

  “He shouldn’t lie to me,” Perennius muttered.

  “He didn’t,” Calvus said, “and he didn’t lie to himself.”

  The agent looked at her. “Yeah,” he said. He took Calvus’ hand loosely in his own. “Ah. Thanks.”

  Calvus smiled at him. Her expression was still untrained but now real. “Aulus Perennius,” she said, “I didn’t touch your mind. I promised you. Even if I thought you were wrong, I wouldn’t have gone back on that promise. To you. I don’t trust my instincts that far, you see.”

  “Blazes, you don’t have to lie,” Perennius said with a return of his earlier anger. “Look, I saw you, you did what you had to, and I want to forget it.”

  “He felt guilty,” the woman said. “He wanted to admit it, but he was young. Pride and embarrassment, you can understand. But he wanted so desperately to ask forgiveness that it didn’t take much of a, well, nudge.” Calvus was still smiling.

  “The hell you say,” Perennius said mildly. “Well. Not that it mattered.” He cleared his throat. “Besides the Guardians, we’ve got that dragon to take care of now, don’t we? And one man.”

  “An allosaurus,” Calvus agreed. They were both looking across the courtyard. The fresh scarring near the gate was evident even in twilight. “The dragon is an allosaurus, that is.”

  “Umm,” the agent grunted, accepting the datum. Hydra, chimaira, allosaurus … it didn’t much matter. After a moment he said, “Blazes, I wonder if there’s some truth in the old stories after all. Hercules and women turning into trees and everything? Well, we’ll handle it, however things shape up.”

  The door swung open again. Both faced around quickly. The agent took a half step to see past Calvus. Sabellia stepped out. Her eyes were reddened but dry. “Our gear’s in with the animals,” she said, nodding to the block of stables. Four more doors were barred shut than had been when the party looked in from the hillside. “I’ll get a meal together. Those—others were just boiling porridge.”

  “Right, I’ll give you a hand,” said the agent. He looked away from Sabellia as he spoke. “Need to see to the horses, too, it seems.” They began walking toward the stables in parallel, though they were not precisely in concert.

  “I was raised to believe in an ordered, understandable universe, Aulus Perennius,” Calvus called after the agent. “I think that I am coming to believe in heroes as well.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Blazes, this is going to be awkward,” said Gaius as he held up the mesh gauntlet. Even with the fireplace niche stoked high, the lighting of the common room was more an occasional absence of shadow than good working illumination. The room’s volume and blackened stone saw to that.

  “I’m coming too,” said Sabellia. She did not raise her head or her voice.

  “Awkward, but the only thing I see working with that many of them, Guardians, and the way the land lies,” Perennius said with a shrug. He lifted the facemask from one of the sets of parade armor.

  “Listen, there’s three horses!” the red-haired woman said loudly. “You’re not going to leave me here!”

  “You stay here, like you’ve been told,” Perennius said. Sabellia’s mouth opened for a retort. The agent overrode it, shouting, “There aren’t three bloody sets of armor, are there? Just what the hell good do you figure to do getting wasted the first time they shoot? You didn’t see what that does to a man. Believe me, it’s quick and it’s final, just as final as it comes.”

  The woman’s set look gave way to dejection though not despair. “Oh, I know, Aulus,” she said softly. “It’s just … there’s another of the gang there, you say, the ones who killed Quintus. I—I’d like that one. God, I wish you’d brought another suit of this. God I do.”

  “You don’t know what it took to get just these,” the agent remarked. He held the mask to his face where it covered his judicious expression. The difficulty had been less the intrinsic value of the parade armor than the question of how the prefect would report the loss of the armor to his superiors. The masks were cast of bronze to a pattern of plump-featured male beauty, then silvered for dazzling effect. The back-piece laced to each mask covered the rest of the wearer’s head. Because the back-pieces were of brass rather than bronze, they could be polished to a sheen that the sun would turn golden.

  For present purposes, the look of the armor was not as significant as the fact that the ensemble cased the whole head of the person wearing it. There were two tiny holes for the pupils of the eyes, and an air passage replacing the nostrils and septum of the large, hooked nose. Calvus had said that the mask might work, but at no point should metal touch the wearer’s skin.

  “Here, give me that,” Sabellia said. She had already trimmed backing pads for one set of greaves. Now she whet her knife, using spittle and the stone that was a part of Perennius’ baggage even when he was travelling light. The greaves were silvered also. The low-relief figures of Mars and Goddess Rome on them were parcel gilt to set them off. The prefect had parted with them and the helmets only for an equal weight of solid silver from the pirates’ loot. Perennius did not know whether the man planned to use part of the massive bribe to square his superiors in Palmyra, or whether he simply intended to desert and keep the whole amount for himself.

  Sabellia began cutting deftly at the piece of hide. The agent’s own attempt had been too small to cover the interior of the mask. The blank Perennius had cut did not allow enough overage to fill the mask’s face-following concavity. Sabellia trimmed with only an occasional glance at the arrogant metal visage turned up beside her.

  It struck Perennius how unusual the group was in its attitude toward the valuables to which they had fallen heir on the bloody strand. The agent had promptly appropriated the wealth to the purposes of the mission. It had not even occurred to him to do otherwise. Gaius had accepted that without comment, both because his protector had so decided and because his own longings were toward a sort of heroic glory which had little to do with wealth.

  Sestius had been after the security which grew from land and family. The centurion would not have been averse to abandoning the mission and dividing the bullion, but he was too good a soldier to press for that; and anyway, wealth was not his first priority. Sestius had gotten another kind of security, but that had been awaiting him in any event—on his farm or wherever his choices took him. Sabellia’s hopes might have been directed prosaically on her man, or at some higher spiritual plane on the religion which she had emphasized only when they entered the valley of cultists. Perennius was inclined to doubt that the woman was as simple as either of those focuses would imply; but whatever was in her secret heart, it was not a love of wealth for itself.

  And Calvus. In this at least, Perennius thought he saw himself in the tall woman. Objects and occurrences were good or bad depending on how they affected the success of the mission.

  But as surely as Perennius recognized that, he recognized that a more human side was developing in the woman’s character. Just as he knew it was appearing in his own. “Blazes,” he muttered. His three companions looked at him. Calvus was smiling.

  * * *

  The footsteps up the stairs were quiet, but they would have awakened Perennius even if he had been able to get to sleep. They paused.

  “Come on up,” the agent called. He did not turn his head.

  “I thought you must be asleep,” Sabellia said as she walked out onto the top floor of the watch tower.

  Perennius was wrapped in his cloak with his back to one wall of the parapet. The high curtain of clouds had thinned enough that the moon was a noticeable glow in the heavens. There were no stars. The agent shook back his cowl when Sabellia settled carefully on the dewy stones beside him.

  “Thought it might be a good place to get some sleep tonight,” Perennius said. He looked at the woman, then motioned around the tower with his eyes. “Reminds me too much of back when I was a kid on guard duty, though. I just dozed, waiting for Franks to hit the palisade.”

  The clo
ak Sabellia wore was the one a pirate had given her while she gathered herbs and poison. The brown wool was the same soft shade as her hair, since the light was too faint to show colors. “It’s going to be dangerous tomorrow,” the woman said. Her sandals peeked out beneath the hem of the cloak. Her hands kept the garment tight about the rest of her body.

  Perennius shrugged. “It’s always dangerous,” he said. He met her eyes and added, “I’m sorry about Quintus. I—wouldn’t have had it happen that way if I’d planned a little better.”

  “I think he wanted to do something himself,” the woman said, letting her eyes drift up toward the empty sky. “He was jealous, you know.”

  “Listen,” the agent said. The statement had touched a sore point. “I may not be the best damned leader going, but I am in charge. I don’t expect a lot of crap from centurions under me!”

  “I don’t mean that, Aulus Perennius,” Sabellia said.

  “Oh,” Perennius said. He looked away, feeling foolish. “Well. I never gave him cause, I think.”

  “Maybe I did, then,” Sabellia said. Her bare arm reached out to Perennius. He twisted clumsily to meet her. He was trapped by his own weight on the folds of his cloak. Sabellia’s garment opened as her arms released the front hems. She wore nothing beneath the soft wool.

  When Perennius cupped her breast, the woman shuddered. He cursed and jerked back, ashamed of his awkwardness and of forgetting the bruises and cuts that laced her torso.

  “No, no, darling,” Sabellia whispered. One of her arms drew his head down while the other caught his hand and pressed it back to the breast. “Not pain, no.” Her flesh was firmer than he expected, and the nipple was already rising to meet his tongue.

  Perennius had time to wonder whether Sestius had been given a similar send-off the night before. But that really did not matter.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “If this doesn’t work,” Perennius said, “the best I can suggest is you gather up people in Tarsus, archers, slingers. Artillery for the dragon. It’ll take somebody as persuasive as you are, but it’s better than trying it alone if we don’t make it back.” The agent was aware that the bronze facemask muffled his voice to those outside while it made the words echo in his own ears. His voice was hollow, as hollow as he felt the words themselves to be.

  Perennius’ headgear was hot, heavy, and almost blinding. He bent over at the waist, directing his eyeholes like weapons at Calvus as she lifted up the bar of the gate. Perennius could not see what her expression was as she said calmly, “They’ll probably use area weapons, despite the traces that would leave for the future to find. They wouldn’t do that in Rome or even Tarsus, because there’d be too many surviving witnesses to pique the curiosity of a later age. Out here … if they think they know where I am, they’ll risk a few acres of glazed earth so long as it’s an anomaly in the wilderness rather than a disaster more riveting than Pompeii.” The gate began to creak open as Calvus pulled at it.

  “Still clear,” called Sabellia from the roof of the gate house. The dragon, the allosaurus, patrolled a broad territory. The best way Perennius had come up with to deal with the monster was to avoid it. Riding north while the beast was still to the south of the inn was a good way to achieve that end. Perennius wasn’t a hero. Heroes gained fame and medals for the chances they took. Aulus Perennius had instead a reputation for getting the job done. If he had any regret about that fact, it was that the job he wished to do more than anything else was to save the Empire. That was beyond him as it was beyond every man. And perhaps beyond all men, the agent thought in the gloom of his nightmares.

  “Blazes, we’ll be back,” Perennius said. He pressed his horse with his heels. “Don’t guess there’ll be a better time,” he called to Gaius. “Let’s do it.”

  The younger man obviously did not hear the instruction. Neither did he see that Perennius had ridden off until the agent was a length ahead. Then Gaius kicked his own mount forward with a clatter, pulling abreast of Perennius in the easy canter the agent had chosen until external influences forced their pace. Gaius rejoined just as Perennius realized that they had been separated.

  The masks made vision just as difficult as they did hearing. Perennius had bought gorgets and shirts of leather-padded chain mail, standard heavy-cavalry issue, at the same time he acquired the parade greaves and helmets. The gorget in particular made it very uncomfortable to swivel his head the way the narrow field of view required. “I know this’s got problems, these masks,” he said to Gaius in the raised voice they needed to hear one another, “but I’m more afraid of the Guardians than I am the lizard. The rigs take so damn long to lace together.…”

  “Oh, I…” the courier said. “I didn’t—I mean, I wasn’t thinking of taking it off or anything.”

  Gaius had almost added “sir.” Perennius could hear it in the abject tone. That hurt worse than a blow would have. It hurt the more so because it was a reaction which the agent had over the years tried to stamp into just about everyone else he had known. “Look,” he began. He realized his voice was an inaudible murmur and went on louder, “Look, Gaius, all my life I’ve been telling myself it’s all right to lose my temper. It’s not all right. I know it’s not. I apologize, and I swear by—by the Goddess Rome that I’ll never do it again, at least with you.”

  Gaius twisted to face the agent as squarely as the four-pommeled military saddle would allow. The silvered bronze hid his face, but the courier’s surprise was evident in his stance. He knew that Perennius had as little belief in the formal gods of the State as he did in any of the Oriental cults that had been appealing to the more superstitious of Rome for the past five centuries. Gaius knew also that Perennius would willingly die before he trivialized Roma, the personification of the Empire. “I, I deserved it, Aulus,” the youth said awkwardly. “I did what you said. I killed him.”

  Perennius felt cooler and more supple than he had in months. The merely physical discomfort of the gear he wore was forgotten. “Gaius,” he said, “when you screw up as often as I’ve done and as bad as I’ve done, then maybe I’ll have a right to shout at you. As for what happened, well … we needed these horses—” he patted the shoulder of his mount—“so it was going to come to that. I figure we got off about as cheap as we were going to. Those Gauls were pros. You and Quintus were damned fools to rush the last one that way, but Quintus was a big boy. Only thing I care about is that you learn from what happened so the next time you screw up some new way.” The agent smiled, forgetting that the other man could not see his face. “The way I do.”

  Gaius nodded vigorously, causing his equipment to jingle. “Aulus,” he said, “I will. I swear I’ll make you proud of me. I swear by—” and he had sense enough to swallow the next thought without voicing it.

  “Blazes, friend, you have made me proud,” said Perennius. And he was quite serious.

  * * *

  They paused at the crest. “Wouldn’t hurt to water the horses,” Gaius said as he noticed the rivulet they would have to ford at the bottom of the hill. “I wonder if we dare take a sip or two ourselves?”

  The question was hesitant. A drink would require them to unlace the masks. It would have been possible to cut and hinge the face-covering so that the wearers could drink—as the sun and their constricting gear made almost imperative—but Perennius had not thought of that. Perhaps one of the others had, but the agent had made the plan so intensely his own that no one else had—or had dared—offer significant suggestions.

  That was one of the things Perennius was kicking himself about. There were others. “Good idea,” the agent said after a moment’s consideration. “I’d been sort of hoping they’d have an outpost or the like short of the hole. Try these out.” He slapped his body armor with his chain-gauntleted hand. “With one or two of them, I mean. If it’s going to be all five at once, I think we’d better chance—getting undressed for not being parched when we hit them.” The agent made a quick sweep of the horizon. He turned his body to the right,
then to the left as far as the saddle permitted.

  Gaius clucked his own horse forward, down the trail. Perennius recalled something Ursinus had said while they watched the donkey being killed. “It jumped us when we were watering the horses.…” Instead of following his companion, the agent tugged his horse’s head around. By turning the animal, he had a full view of their back-trail despite the constricting gear. “Fucking whoreson,” Perennius muttered.

  Half a mile behind them, hunching over the previous ridge as if following a scent trail, was the black and crimson figure of the allosaurus.

  Perennius’ horse saw the great hunter at the same time its rider did. The horse froze momentarily. The agent’s quick tug at the reins became a vicious yank as he felt himself balked. “Ride!” he shouted as he spurred the horse. “Bastard’s after us!”

  Gaius had not had time to react to the warning before the dragon’s savage cry echoed around them both.

  The road was wide enough for two horses abreast under normal circumstances. At their present headlong gallop, Perennius thought it better to follow Gaius than to attempt to close on him. The call of their pursuer was a better spur than anything on a rider’s heels, but the cry was driving the horses to the limits of their footing. They were following a country track hacked along hillsides, rather than a well-laid military road. Perennius was a competent rider but not a brilliant one. Now he braced himself with one hand on a fore-pommel to keep from sliding onto the horse’s neck as they pounded downhill.

  Ahead of them, Gaius’ mount leaped the narrow creek without slacking or wetting its hooves. Perennius knew the limits of his own ability too well to risk prodding his own horse into a similar jump. A trick that was simple if executed with proper timing would be skidding disaster if that timing were off. As it was, one of the horse’s unshod hooves did turn on a smooth stone. There was an explosion of spray and a heart-stopping moment for the rider. Only Perennius’ iron grip on the saddle kept him from high-siding. That would have left him stunned in the creek as the monster bore down. The agent swayed drunkenly. As his horse bolted up the rise, he was forced to drop the reins and clutch the pommels with both armored hands.