‘There’s little enough to tell, Tribune. We rode west until the snow started, fortunately close enough to a farm to take shelter in their barn, and waited it out overnight. Anyone stuck out on the road will have had a miserable time of it. Once the snow lifted we rode straight back here to find out what had become of your raid into the forest.’
Seeing Julius and Dubnus standing in the doorway of the administration building, Caninus stopped his account of the last day’s events, and Scaurus, turning to find his centurions waiting for permission to enter, waved them in impatiently.
‘Gentlemen, you have news of our colleague?’
Both men marched in and came to attention, and Julius saluted before speaking.
‘The centurion has a fractured jaw, Tribune, and will require at least two weeks before returning to duty. Possibly longer.’
The tribune nodded.
‘We can be grateful for small mercies, then. Mithras was watching over him, no doubt about that. I’ve seen broken jaws before, teeth smashed and the man in question left with a deformed face for the rest of his life, invalided out of the service in extreme cases. So who’s to lead his century, First Spear?’
Frontinius cocked an eyebrow at Julius. His senior centurion spoke without hesitation.
‘His chosen man is a good man. Very good, as it happens. He’s been a bit morose of late though, which is a bit of a concern. I’m just wondering if he’s the right man to pick up Centurion Corvus’s lads, given their devotion to their officer. He’s been a temporary centurion before, of course, when the Hamians were shipped into Arab Town, but never led a century in combat.’
Frontinius nodded decisively.
‘It’s make or break, then. If Tribune Scaurus is in agreement you can inform Chosen Man Qadir that he’s appointed to lead the Ninth Century until Centurion Corvus is fit for duty. And you can impress upon him the fact that I’ll be watching him very closely. After all, we still need to rebuild the Sixth, once we can find another eighty men to reconstitute it, He might well be the right man to build a new century, if he can hold his men together for the next few days. Tribune?’
Scaurus nodded his agreement.
‘As ever, First Spear, I’ll defer to your judgement when it comes to managing your people.’ The two centurions saluted and turned to leave. ‘Centurion Julius, I’d like you to stay and take part in our discussion as to what happened in the Arduenna. I don’t believe we can determine our next steps until we work out just what it was that went so badly wrong. Whether it was betrayal or divine intervention, I’ll not put my men back into that forest until I know I can take the fight to this Obduro character without fear of finding an arrow protruding from between my shoulder blades.’
Marcus awoke to find himself lying in a hospital bed, still bone-weary from whatever it was that had been done to him while he was under the influence of Felicia’s potion. Content to lie in silence with his eyes closed as his mind surfaced from its long, deep dive into darkness, he gradually became aware of his surroundings: the scratchy feel of a blanket laid across his naked body and the hard frame of the bed beneath its thin mattress. A man groaned close by, and Marcus forced his eyes open, blinking painfully at the light of a lamp placed by his bed. Whoever it was alongside him was muttering quietly to himself, his stream of invective and profanity apparently inexhaustible.
‘Fifteen years! Fucking bandits! Fifteen bloody years keeping the bluenoses in their place and never anything more than a scratch, then some robbing, whoremongering, goat-fucking deserter puts an arrow through my bloody knee.’ The soldier was attempting to struggle to his feet with his back to the recumbent centurion, his left leg swathed in heavy bandages from thigh to calf and splinted to remove any mobility from the knee joint. He subsided onto the bed, his back still towards the now more or less wakened Marcus, and he was looking down at the wounded leg with evident disgust, to judge from his tone of voice. ‘If I could just get this fucking stick off, then I could bend the bastard enough to walk on it.’
You’ll be sorry if you try that, Marcus mused, knowing the doctor and her temper as well as I do. He tried to speak, but the combination of bandage and pain prevented him from making any sound other than a grunt.
The soldier turned as best he could, whipping up a hand in salute.
‘Sorry, Centurion, I didn’t realise you was awake! I suggested you might be better off in your own room, but Centurion Dubnus reckoned you’d be happier with some company. Here, I’ll get the orderly. Orderly!’ He bellowed the summons at the top of his voice, and quick footsteps hurried down the corridor. Felicia appeared at the door, taking in the scene in an instant.
‘Get back in your bed, Soldier Sanga! And if I see you out of it without an orderly in attendance at any time before I give you permission to get up, I’ll have your centurion put you on punishment duty once you’re fit and well. And keep your hands off that splint; it’s there to stop you bending the leg and undoing all my good work in getting the arrow out without having to cut lumps out of your knee.’ Sanga raised a hand, and the doctor shook her head in further admonishment. ‘I’m not your centurion, Sanga, so you don’t have to raise a hand to speak to me. What is it?’
‘Need the latrine, ma’am.’
‘Is that all? Manius!’ The orderly put his head round the door, clearly as much in awe of the new doctor as the abashed Sanga. ‘This man needs to use the latrine. Front or back?’
‘Eh? Oh. Front, ma’am.’
She nodded to the orderly, who came into the room and pulled out a pan from beneath the bed. He helped Sanga to roll over until he could direct his urine into the pan, and the soldier emitted a long sigh of relief as he emptied his full bladder. Manius took a long hard look at the contents, then put his nose close to the surface and inhaled deeply, ignoring Sanga’s surprised expression. He passed the pan across the recumbent soldier’s body to the waiting doctor, and Felicia repeated the routine.
‘This seems healthy enough. Thank you, Manius.’ She passed the pan back to the orderly, and he carried it away down the corridor to the latrine, for disposal. ‘So now, Soldier Sanga, with your bladder safely emptied, you can lie quietly while I attend to the centurion here.’ With a practised eye she bent across Marcus and examined the swelling along the line of his jaw, then gently rubbed some more of the knitbone salve into the bruised flesh. ‘You mustn’t try to speak, or even open and close your mouth, until I tell you it’s safe to do so. We’ll feed you with soup through a tube, and you can use this to communicate.’
She passed him a hinged wooden writing tablet, its interior surfaces coated in soft wax. Marcus thought briefly, then took the stylus and wrote busily for a moment.
‘“When will I be allowed out of bed?”’ Her face creased into a smile. ‘That’s my husband. When I say so, Centurion! I want you to rest and get your strength back, what with the beating you took and the effect of the drugs I had to give you. Not for a day or two, at least. Now sit back and keep still, and you’ll be asleep again in a few minutes. From what I’ve read, the effects of the mandrake don’t wear off completely for a day or so.’ She kissed him on the forehead and turned to leave, only to find Sanga’s hand back in the air. ‘Yes, soldier?’
‘Ma’am, begging your pardon for being crude, but what should I do when I need to do –’ he paused, searching for a word that wouldn’t offend the lady – ‘you know . . . the other?’
She looked at him in bafflement before making the connection.
‘Do the other? Ah, you mean when you need to open your bowels. Orderly Manius will bring you the pan, you will defecate into the pan, and then the orderly and I will have a good look at the results to ensure you have no problems in that respect either.’
Sanga’s face creased in incredulity.
‘You’re going to look at my sh—?’ He shook his head, clearly too bemused to express his amazement. ‘Oh well, if that’s what you have to do. Oh, and ma’am . . .?’ His face recovered a little of its usual cockiness. �
��Do I get a goodnight kiss too?’
Felicia’s face softened.
‘Of course you do, soldier.’ Sanga raised an eyebrow, too startled at having his bluff called to do anything as the doctor came round Marcus’s bed. She paused at the doorway, raising her voice to call down the long corridor. ‘Manius!’ The orderly put his head round the door again. ‘The soldier here needs a goodnight kiss.’ As she disappeared out of the door her last words on the subject floated back over her shoulder. ‘In your own time, gentlemen.’
When Marcus woke again there was daylight streaming into the room, and Sanga was sitting up in bed playing with a set of knucklebones.
‘Morning, Centurion!’ He saluted, then tossed a bone into the air, deftly flicking another into the space between the fingers of his other hand as it rested flat on the bed, before catching the falling bone. ‘All the horses are in the stable. Again.’
He sighed, with the expression of a man who had been playing with the bones all morning. A noise at the door made them both turn their heads.
‘And what have we here? One rather soiled-looking centurion, temporarily forbidden to speak on pain of having all domestic privileges removed . . .’ Dubnus, standing in the room’s doorway, raised a hand to forestall any attempt on Marcus’s behalf to speak. ‘No you don’t! I’ll not have your woman coming down on me like a chosen man with a sore arse just because you’re too dim to follow instructions. And a soldier with a hole in his knee, forbidden to walk and so reduced to sitting in his bed and playing children’s games. Scarface!’ Sanga’s comrade appeared round the doorframe with another of Marcus’s men behind him, and Dubnus pointed to Sanga. ‘I’ve received permission from the doctor for these two to pick you up and take you outside for some fresh air, while Qadir and I have a chat with the centurion here.’
‘Best news I’ve had all day.’ Sanga beamed at the prospect of escape from the room’s confines. ‘Drop me off at the latrine, eh lads? I’ve got the turtle’s head as it is, and if I can avoid that bloody orderly picking through my crap I’ll be a happier man. The bastard was sniffing my piss last night . . .’
Scarface bustled into the room and grinned at his mate, taking in the knucklebones lying on his bed.
‘Bones, eh? Used to be right handy with them as a lad. Perhaps we can have a little contest, all in the interest of entertainment o’ course.’
He scooped up the bones and nodded to the other soldier. They lifted Sanga up, each with an arm over their shoulders, and carried him from the room, and the three centurions smiled to each other as they heard Felicia admonishing them not to allow him onto his feet for any reason, and Scarface’s reply.
‘No danger of that, ma’am. I don’t want him trying to leg it away from the losses he’s going to take once we get these bones jumping!’
‘That’s better, eh, a little bit of peace for you?’ Carrying a bowl of hot water and a cloth Dubnus advanced into the room, followed after a moment by Qadir. ‘Your wife asked us to get you cleaned up, since all you’ve done since we brought you in is lie about snoring.’ He set to with the wash cloth, and within minutes Marcus was sitting up with his writing tablet, while Dubnus and Qadir sat on either side of the bed. He wrote on the tablet’s wax, holding it up for them to see.
‘“Thank you for bringing me back”?’ Dubnus laughed. ‘You might not be thanking me in a week’s time, when you’re still not allowed to talk. How’s your head?’ Marcus rubbed the wax smooth and wrote his response across the clear surface. ‘“Better. Headache gone. Face still hurts.” And it’ll go on hurting for a few days. What hit you?’
In a series of one-line statements on the tablet’s limited writing surface Marcus explained what had happened. At length he sat back, already tired by the mental exercise. Dubnus, recognising the signs of his rapid exhaustion, asked one last question.
‘So their camp’s pretty much invulnerable, they reckon?’
Marcus nodded, smoothing the tablet’s surface again and writing a last comment. Dubnus patted his friend on the shoulder and stood up, pushing his chair back against the wall.
‘You look all in. Get some more sleep, and we’ll come back and see you tomorrow, eh?’
Qadir bent over his centurion, muttering a few quiet words. Marcus wrote a reply on his tablet, turned it for Qadir to read and raised his eyebrows in challenge, wearily lifting a clenched fist. The big Hamian looked at him for a moment, before solemnly tapping Marcus’s fist with his own. Then Qadir turned and followed Dubnus out of the door. Outside in the warm spring air they found Scarface and Sanga in the middle of a gathering of their tent party. Sanga was just about to toss the bones for what appeared to be the deciding throw of whatever wager had been agreed, to judge from the men’s intent expressions and the small pile of coins between them. The Hamian put a hand on Dubnus’s arm and shook his head silently, restraining him from either action or comment. He padded silently up to the group, unnoticed by the soldiers until he whipped out a broad hand and caught all four of the bones in mid-air. Sanga opened his mouth to protest, closing it again when he saw the expression on his new centurion’s face. The soldiers started to rise from their crouching positions, but Qadir’s bellowed command beat them to the punch.
‘As you were!’ Looming over them, he grimaced down at the two competitors. ‘You, Scarface, should know better than to wager on the bones with a man who’s had all morning to practise. And you, Sanga, should know better than to be caught wagering when there are officers about. The only way this could be any worse for you would be if Morban had already come by and fleeced you both.’ He put out his hand and dropped the knuckle bones onto the ground between them. ‘Reclaim your stakes, soldiers, and be grateful I’m not making you donate them to the burial club. And away with you, all except you two; you need to be carrying this damaged soldier back to his bed. Don’t wake the centurion, or the two days of extra duties you’ve both just earned will miraculously turn into four.’
The two centurions watched as Sanga’s mates carried him back into the hospital, Dubnus smiling widely while Qadir scowled back into their indignant glances.
‘Well done, brother.’ Dubnus slapped his colleague on the shoulder. ‘Word will get around quickly enough, and those men who were minded to test your stomach for the centurionate will wind their necks back in. But what was it Marcus wrote on the tablet for you?’
The Hamian raised an eyebrow, deciding to put another marker down as to his changed status.
‘Not that it’s any business of yours, colleague . . .’ He allowed the silence to stretch for a moment before continuing. ‘He wrote “Make it yours.”’
Dubnus nodded, a slight smile on his face as he absorbed both Marcus’s advice to his deputy and the manner in which Qadir had swiftly re-established their relationship.
‘Good advice. Come on, then, Centurion, let’s go and give Uncle Sextus the report he’s waiting for.’
Later that day, with the evening sun slipping towards the horizon, the first spear went to brief Scaurus on the two cohorts’ condition, and the information that Dubnus and Qadir had elicited from Marcus. He walked up and down the room as he spoke, coming to his conclusion with a sour face.
‘So pretty much all Corvus was able to tell us was that Obduro is physically nondescript, that he wears a mask at all times unless he’s alone or with a very few trusted men, that he’s got a heavily fortified camp somewhere in the forest, and that Centurion Corvus is predictably burning with the urge to find him and send him to meet his ancestors. In short, nothing we didn’t already know or couldn’t have guessed. He might remember more when he recovers from his whack on the jaw, but until then it’s all he can give us. He did ask to see you when you have a moment, by the way.’
He looked round at Scaurus, who was sitting in a chair and staring up at a copy of Prefect Caninus’s map of the land around the city. After a moment the tribune shook his head and stood up, keeping his eyes on the map.
‘You missed out a point in your summary
. Centurion Corvus confirms that our opponent seems to harbour a deep-seated loathing for our colleague the prefect. And two questions spring to mind with the reaffirmation of that admittedly old news. First, why should a bandit chieftain be so fixated on a relatively minor official like Caninus, especially if he’s apparently so ineffective as to attract the man’s derision? And if that’s really the case, how have their paths crossed? What is it that the prefect isn’t telling us?’
Frontinius shrugged, shaking his head in disinterest.
‘I’ll leave the intelligence work to you, Tribune; my interests are purely military, and right now that means getting our cohorts ready to go out there again. I’ve got a century’s worth of soldiers whose boots have fallen to pieces, and more than a few men missing shields because other soldiers seem to have thought it might be funny to throw their boards onto the fires when they weren’t looking, although of course nobody actually saw anyone else actually perpetrate the crime. I’ve even got a centurion from the Second Cohort with a mild case of frostbite. The idiot decided to march out without his socks on.’
Scaurus turned and gave his first spear a hard smile.
‘Then you’d better send out some officers and make the city’s tradesmen happy, hadn’t you? I want both cohorts fully combat-effective immediately. Starting tomorrow we’ll be sending patrols up and down the main road, and generally getting back up onto our feet and into Obduro’s face. Doubtless the men are all still rolling their eyes and muttering to each other at the way his goddess sent snow to frustrate us, and I’ll not give them time to brood on that thought. Every grain convoy from the west will have to have an escort once it’s a day’s march out from the city, and Decurion Silus and his mounted scouts are going to have their work cut out making sure that Obduro doesn’t get his men out of the forest unobserved. And you’d better send some men south, with ropes, to rip out enough of that bridge to make it useless for any further attempts to cross the Mosa. The legion cohort can make damned sure that Procurator Albanus’s grain store stays secure, and garrison the city while we invest some boot leather in preventing Obduro’s men from taking one single bag of grain more from the convoys. I’ll have his deserting Treveri scum eating acorns by the time autumn’s here, and then we’ll see just how their goddess decides to feed them. Carry on, First Spear, I’m going to pay a visit to Centurion Corvus as requested. Who knows, he might have remembered something that will help us?’
The Leopard Sword Page 24
