The other man’s response was crisp with urgency.
‘One of my scouts has returned to the city from Arduenna, Tribune, and he has delivered vital intelligence on the subject of Obduro and his gang.’ He walked over to the map on one wall of the office, pointing to a spot in the forest close to where the Tungrians had crossed the river only days before. ‘He tells me that he was hunting Arduenna for their stronghold as I have ordered, and as I promised would be my main focus of effort, but instead of finding their hiding place he stumbled across the bandits themselves, marching in strength through the forest. He counted their numbers as being over five hundred men. Once they had passed his hiding place he made his way to the river, swam across and then ran to the city. His sighting is less than three hours old.’ He pointed at the map again, now indicating the point where the road south to Augusta Treverorum bridged the Mosa to the forest’s west. ‘With their bridge destroyed they are forced to take the long way round to reach the Beech Forest road, using the path out of Arduenna’s north-western edge and then across the Mosa by the road bridge. As to where they are heading in such numbers, I am forced to conclude that the city may be their objective.’
Scaurus stood, frowning, and walked round the desk. When he spoke, his voice was pitched low to avoid any risk of his words reaching the men guarding his office.
‘Tungrorum? How could they dare to strike here, when they know we have over three times their strength? Would Obduro be that foolish?’
The prefect shrugged, his face impassive.
‘My own thoughts exactly, Tribune. But consider the facts. You have sent the majority of your men to patrol the road to the west in such strength that any attempt he makes to take the grain convoy would result in disaster. And as you say, Obduro is no fool.’ He moved a step closer, his voice so low that Scaurus had to strain his ears to hear it. ‘We face a dilemma. On the one hand, perhaps Obduro is marching to attack the city, seeking to pull off a huge victory by raiding the grain warehouse for its contents. In that case, our logical reaction must surely be to concentrate our forces here to defeat him. On the other hand, if we make such a step on the basis of a ruse, he would then be free to snap up the grain convoy, then be back across the river and into Arduenna’s safety before we realise that we’ve been deceived.’
Scaurus nodded thoughtfully, and paused for a moment, staring intently at the map.
‘If he crosses the Mosa as you expect, then the key moment is when he reaches the junction of the roads from the east and west once he’s across. If he turns left, then he’s clearly going after the convoy, whereas if he turns right, he’ll be pointing his dagger squarely at the city. It’s ten miles from where we crossed the river to the junction, so if he marched his men out at dawn he should have them across the Mosa and ready to turn east or west by midday. They could be knocking on our gates here by dusk, and leave us having to face him in the dark, with barely the same number of Tungrians and a cohort of undertrained boys to fight men who, despite their treachery, clearly know how to fight in the darkness. And whether or not my veterans would be likely to win such a battle, losing the contents of that grain store to him would be a disaster for the empire.’
He pondered for a moment longer.
‘Very well. I’ll send out a party of cavalrymen to observe the junction, and tell us which way he turns. They can also find my cohorts and get them turned around and heading back this way, so that whatever he does we’ll have him in a vice. He’ll have to give battle against overwhelming force attacking him from both sides, either that or have his men dump their equipment and swim the Mosa, those of them that can swim and whatever happens that’ll be the end of his threat.’
Caninus nodded eagerly.
‘I can go one better than that, Tribune. By all means send the cavalrymen to find your detachments and bring them back east, but allow me the honour of taking my horsemen to watch the road junction. I’ll send riders back to you once it’s clear what he’s doing, and you can sally behind me with the legion cohort and your own remaining centuries to stiffen their line. My man Arabus has given us the chance to outmanoeuvre Obduro, to bottle him up and tear his band of killers limb from limb, if we get this right.’
Having remounted, Marcus rode on at a fast trot, reaching the fort at Mosa Ford just as the legionaries on guard duty were taking their midday meal. The duty centurion studied him for a moment with deep suspicion, frowning as he took in the bandage wrapped around his face, and reading the pass which the tribune had written for him with infuriating slowness. But eventually he ordered the gates to be opened and allowed Marcus to pass. Following the same path along the forest’s edge that the scouting expedition had taken, all the time calculating the progress required for his plan to succeed, he spurred Bonehead back to the trot once they were moving along the hunters’ track, trusting his luck that the horse would be sure-footed enough to avoid pitching him off into the undergrowth. By the time another two hours had passed he had found the clearing where they had spent their first night, and where he had been so sure he had heard the sound of something or someone moving through the forest around them. Hobbling the horse, and leaving it to enjoy the grass that carpeted the forest floor after the long trot, he quickly gathered wood and kindling, and built a fire big enough to burn for several hours. Glancing up at the sun, now starting its slide down towards the horizon, he made a quick calculation and decided that the time was right.
Working briefly with flint and iron he got the fire lit and burning well, piling on plenty of green wood among the good dry material until the blaze was sending a column of thick smoke into the air. Picking up his new spear, he discarded the leather cover that protected its head and went to ground, flattening himself behind a tree on the uphill side of the clearing. For the best part of an hour the scene remained peaceful, the fire’s initial fierce crackle dying away to a gentle background mutter of flames slowly devouring wood. Lying absolutely still, Marcus watched as Bonehead contentedly cropped at the grass, a cloud of small insects buzzing around its head. The horse’s ears suddenly pricked up, and it raised its head warily, looking across the clearing at something hidden from Marcus by the tree’s trunk. Holding his breath, the Roman waited for whatever it was that had attracted the horse’s attention, the faintest of noises confirming that something or someone was moving slowly and stealthily across the clearing. An arrowhead came into view from behind the tree’s trunk, followed by the bow to which the missile was nocked. Held ready to shoot, with the arrow pulled almost as far back as the weapon’s tension would allow, the barbed head swept in an arc across the clearing as the archer stopped where he stood and searched the trees around the clearing for any sign of his intended victim. Hardly daring to breathe, never mind move, Marcus watched in sick horror as the arrowhead swung back towards him, knowing that at any moment the bowman would step forward and spot him, prostrate on the ground and unable to react fast enough to evade the arrow’s lethal impact at such short range.
The horse snorted, pawing at the ground, and for one precious moment the hidden archer was distracted, wondering if the horse was reacting to a familiar presence. The arrow’s cruel head swept away from Marcus’s hiding place, and, silently thanking Mithras as he moved, the Roman pushed himself to his feet and raised the spear to throw. The archer, still hidden behind the tree’s trunk, must have heard the faint sounds, for as Marcus drew back his throwing arm the bow swung back towards him, reducing both men’s survival to a simple, deadly race to be the first to loose his missile. Stamping forward with sudden, blinding speed, Marcus slung his spear into the other man’s body, flinching aside as the arrow, released a fraction of a second too soon in the archer’s desperation, whistled past his ear. The spear smashed into the wrong-footed hunter’s side with a heavy thump, and he fell to the ground clutching his ribs with a grunting, agonised groan. Marcus drew his sword and advanced cautiously down the slope, searching the forest about him for any sign that the man he had felled had been accompanied and th
en, seeing nothing, he put his foot on the hunter’s chest and rolled him over, shaking his head as the prostrate man gasped in pain. Reaching down, he picked up the spear, nodding in satisfaction as he contemplated the padded leather cap that covered its blunt, rounded iron head, designed to stun or smash the wind out of its target rather than skewer deep into a man’s body. The two men stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before the Roman reached up and untied the bandage around his face, allowing it to fall to the ground. When he spoke his voice rasped from its long period of silence, but the words were clear enough.
‘I don’t suppose I’ll need this any longer. It seems to have served its purpose, as does my fire. But you, Arabus, your purpose is far from over. You’ve got some talking to do before you cross the river to meet your goddess.’
Scaurus was waiting impatiently in Caninus’s office, frowning at the map on the wall and considering his options when Julius hurried in, his face grim.
‘Tribune, there’s a messenger. It’s one of the prefect’s m—’
The man pushed past him into the room, utterly ignoring the centurion’s anger in his state of apparent shock, his face pale and drawn. Scaurus recognised him as Caninus’s deputy, Tornach, a tall thin man with watchful eyes, who had seldom been far from his master’s side, and he raised a hand to forestall Julius as his centurion moved to punish the messenger for entering unbidden. As the two men watched him the bodyguard pulled himself together, holding out a grain sack with shaking hands.
‘I have a message for you, sir. A message from . . . from . . .’ He swallowed and gulped in a breath, as if forcing himself to say the name. When he spoke again his voice was heavy with dread. ‘Obduro.’
He reached into the sack and pulled out something heavy, holding it up for the tribune to see. With a lurch of his stomach the Roman realised that it was a human head, the features at once familiar despite the dreadful wounds that had been inflicted on them. The eyes were empty sockets, and the mouth sagged loosely to reveal gums from which every tooth had been torn to leave gaping bloody wounds. The face itself was battered almost beyond recognition.
‘What happened?’
The question was barely more than a whisper. The bodyguard dropped the sack on the office’s tiled floor, looking up from his master’s severed head and staring into Scaurus’s eyes as he answered.
‘We found the bandits, or rather they found us, a mile from the bridge. They waited until we were almost on top of them and then ambushed us, showering us with arrows. They dropped most of the horses with their first volley, and after that we never had a chance. Half of us were killed in the fight, the rest were beheaded after we’d been captured. Obduro chose me to bring the prefect’s head back. The faceless bastard.’ The bandit hunter looked down at the floor with an expression of self-loathing. ‘He made me memorise a message to go with it too, and told me how I had to say it. He told me if I got it wrong, or failed to speak it just as he said it, he’d know, and I would die in worse pain than if he’d killed me then and there.’ He drew himself up and stared Scaurus in the face. ‘“Tribune, as you can see, I have taken the revenge I have long promised myself on this fool. He chose to live as a lackey to you Romans, rather than honouring his goddess as we were both taught when we were young. Now I have removed his stain from my family’s history I will deal with the men you sent to patrol the road while they sleep tonight, then return to defeat you, and empty your grain store. The next time we meet, you will feel the bite of my leopard sword.”’
He looked at the tribune, his eyes filled with misery.
‘And then he killed them, every other man that wasn’t already face down. He sent them to Hades one by one, laughing as they shouted and screamed and pissed themselves with fear, laughing as they flopped about with their throats cut.’
Tornach lapsed into silence, holding one shaking hand with the other as if seeking to quiet them, and Scaurus roused himself from his amazement, nodding decisively to the waiting Julius.
‘So there’s definitive proof that Caninus was telling the truth about Obduro being his twin brother. Take this man away and have him looked after; he’s not fit for much after the shock he’s had. Parade your centuries, please, and send word to Tribune Belletor that he is respectfully requested to join me, with his men ready to march in full fighting order, and just as quickly as he likes. I’ll have the bastard’s head for this outrage, fancy sword or not. My regret in this whole matter is that I chose not to trust Caninus while he was alive, but I’ll send his brother to Hades quickly enough that he’ll have precious little time to celebrate this act of fratricide.’
Marcus disarmed Arabus, pulling his long hunting knife from the engraved leather sheath hanging from his belt, then hauled the groaning hunter across the clearing by the back of his thick woollen tunic, ignoring his grunts and curses of pain, and threw him against the trunk of a tree. Touching the point of his patterned spatha to the man’s throat, he put sufficient pressure on the sword’s hilt to dimple the skin, pinning him in place so that even without bruised ribs he would have been unable to move.
‘It seems that my suspicions were correct, Arabus, despite all of your offers of help and friendly behaviour. You were trying to lead us into a trap when we camped here, weren’t you? If I’d not heard your accomplices approaching we’d all have vanished into the Arduenna and never been seen again, supposedly as another example of the Goddess’s power, wouldn’t we?’ The tracker scowled back up at him, his face creased with a combination of fear and pain, but he said nothing by way of reply, provoking a hard smile from his captor. ‘And now you think that silence is the best answer to my questions, do you?’ He stared down into the tracker’s stony face and shook his head, hardening himself to do what was necessary. When he spoke again, his voice was harsh with the promise of retribution. ‘I’ll give you a choice. You can either talk now, tell me what I need to know and earn a swift, clean death, and I’ll leave your body whole for your afterlife, or you can spend the next few days crawling on your hands and knees with your ankle tendons cut, until you’re too weak to resist the pigs when they come for you. I’m told that even a small herd of the little monsters can strip a man’s corpse to rags and bones in less than an hour. You can have a moment to consider which exit from life you’d prefer.’
He waited in silence, then sighed and shook his head. He withdrew the sword from Arabus’s neck and moved the blade to point it at his ankles in readiness to sever his captive’s tendons. The tracker raised his hands in a placatory gesture, his evident misery betraying the quandary in which he found himself.
‘I’ll talk. But you must understand, they have my woman and sons.’
Marcus sheathed the spatha and pulled out his silver inlaid dagger.
‘You’re right, unless you want to leave this life slowly, and in more pain than you can imagine, you will talk. You’ll talk until you’ve told me all there is to know, and when I’m satisfied I’ll decide what to do with you.’
Arabus shifted, grunting at the pain in his side where Marcus’s blunt iron spearhead had slammed into his ribs.
‘I’ve been in Prefect Caninus’s service for two years, tracking down parties of bandits and showing him where they can be taken. He found me in the deep Arduenna, where I have lived and hunted the unmapped forest since I was a boy, and offered me so much coin to work for him that I was unable to refuse. I left my family there, with the eldest boy to hunt and provide food for them as I had taught him, and went to the city to become his tracker. I soon proved skilful enough in leading him to the bandits plaguing the city that over fifty men were captured and executed as a result of my ability to hunt them down. I felt no sadness for them; nobody made them turn to preying on their fellow men, and it is against the ways of the goddess to steal and murder. But one band always managed to avoid capture, and avoided our hunts time after time. Whenever I thought I had clues as to the location of Obduro and his men, I was frustrated by mistakes and ill luck. Even when I found the locati
on of their fortress, deep in the forest . . .’ He paused and laughed at the look on Marcus’s face, his amusement turning to an agonised grunt as the pain of his bruised ribs sank its claws into him with the movement. ‘Yes, I found their hiding place, deep in the forest where the altars to the goddess are as many as blades of grass in a meadow; it is a secret, forbidden place for all but her most devoted followers. I waited in silence and stillness for a day and a night, watching it to be sure it was theirs, and when I was certain I took the news back to the prefect. But he was unable to gather enough force to be sure of success in such an attack on a defended position, and so he kept the secret to himself for fear that they would move their camp if it became known that it was discovered.’
Marcus shook his head in puzzlement.
‘But when we arrived in the city Caninus would have had all the men he needed, and more besides. What was it that stopped him from taking us into the forest to defeat Obduro, I wonder?’
Arabus shook his head, grimacing at the pain gnawing at his body.
‘You do not understand. If you worshipped Arduenna as we do, you would know that none of her followers would ever knowingly guide outsiders like you to the secret places where the altars to her magnificence are hidden, and Caninus is a devoted worshipper of her greatness.’ He smiled at Marcus’s raised eyebrows. ‘You believe him to follow Mithras, your soldiers’ god, but he was born and raised here, and for a true man of Tungrorum there can only be one deity: our goddess Arduenna.’ Seeing that his captor’s expression was still one of disbelief, he shrugged easily. ‘Believe me or don’t believe me, it means little enough to me. In helping your soldiers to find their way to her holy places, the prefect would have been sealing his own doom in the afterlife . . .’ He sighed, and even in his agony his expression softened to something like pity as he stared up at the Roman. ‘I have told you, many are her weapons. When I die, I expect to enter her realm, a forest like this only stretching away into the mist forever, where the hunter will never fail to make his kill, and the feasting knows no end. But if I betray her . . .’
The Leopard Sword Page 30
