Fire in the East (35 page)

A trumpet shrilled, cutting through the ambient noise of the disturbed night. The
clibanarii
dipped their awful lances and began to advance down the road at a walk. There was the jingle of armour, the ringing of their horses’ hooves on the road, but no sound of humanity. They came on like a long serpent, scale-armoured and implacable.

Twang - slide - thump. The noise of a
ballista
shooting. Twang - slide - thump. Another. Then another. Louder than anything in the night, all the artillery on the western wall of the town of Arete was shooting - shooting blind into the dark night.

A terrible silence after the first volley. The
clibanarii
stopped. The legionaries froze. Everyone knew that the
ballistae
were reloading, the greased winches turning, the ratchets clicking, the torsion springs tightening. Everyone knew that within a minute at most the
ballistae
would shoot again, that again with superhuman speed and power, missiles would rain down across the plain, falling on friend and foe alike.

Twang - slide - thump. The first of the second round of
ballistae
was heard. ‘Stand up. Stand up. Stand your ground.’ Turpio’s men were cowering, shields held pathetically above their heads in a useless attempt to protect them from incoming artillery bolts or stones.

Turpio turned to look down the road at the Sassanids, and started to laugh.

‘Right, boys, now get up and RUN!’

There was a shocked pause, then they all realized that the
clibanarii
were cantering away into the night, back to their camp, out of range of the artillery on the walls of Arete. The legionaries turned and ran.

Turpio saw Ballista waiting in the gateway. The torchlight made the northerner’s long hair shine golden. He was smiling. As he ran up to him, Turpio again started laughing. They shook hands. They hugged. Turpio was slapping his Dux on the back.

‘Brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant,’ Turpio panted.

Ballista tipped his head back and laughed. ‘Thank you. I liked it. Not such a stupid northern barbarian then?’

‘Brilliant ... mind you, obviously I realized straight away that the
ballistae
were not loaded, that the mere sound would scare the reptiles off.’

 

The young optio was prepared to be most helpful. The matter reflected well on Legio IIII Scythica, and it reflected well on the young
optio.
The latter was a not inconsiderable factor for a junior officer with a career to make.

‘Gaius Licinius Prosper, of the
vexillatio
of Legio IIII Scythica,
Optio
of the Century of Marinus Posterior. We will do what is ordered, and at every command we will be ready.’ The salute was smart.

‘Tell me exactly what happened.’ Ballista returned the salute. Almost certainly the ‘exactly’ was redundant. Prosper clearly intended to have his moment, to take his time telling the story before he would lead them to the corpse. Ballista sniffed. He could smell the corpse, or at least what had killed him, from here.

‘Last night, as the
turma
of Apollonius was withdrawn from guard duties at the military granaries so that it could take part in the raid on the Sassanid camp - many congratulations on the success of the raid,
Dominus,
a piece of daring worthy of Julius Caesar himself, or of -’

‘Thank you.’ Ballista spoke quickly before they were sidetracked into lengthy comparisons between himself and any daring generals from Rome’s past whom the optio could recall. ‘Thank you very much. Please continue.’

‘Of course,
Dominus.
As I was saying ... as the
turrna
ofApollonius was not guarding the granaries, you ordered Acilius Glabrio to select thirty-two legionaries drawn from the centuries of Naso, Marinus Prior, Marinus Posterior and Pudens to take over the guard duties.’ Ballista stifled a yawn. It was the third hour of daylight. He had had no sleep the previous night and, now the excitement of the raid had drained out of him, he was very tired. ‘You did me the honour of choosing me to be the
optio
in command of the guard detail.’

Ballista was careful not to smile. He had merely told Acilius Glabrio to put a small but adequate guard on the granaries last night. Until a few moments ago he had not been aware of the existence of the young
optio.
It is easy to collapse all hierarchies above oneself into one almost undifferentiated rank, to assume that your superiors know each other and that your commander-in-chief knows about you. ‘You have more than repaid that honour by your diligence,’ he said. ‘Now please tell me what happened.’

The youth smiled broadly. ‘Well, I thought it best to station two legionaries at the doors at each end of the granaries. I thought that, if there were always two legionaries together, there would be far less risk of them being overpowered or one of them falling asleep.’ He looked suddenly embarrassed. ‘Not that legionaries of IIII Scythica would ever fall asleep on guard duty.’

No, but I might at any moment, if you don’t get a move on. Ballista smiled. ‘Very good,’ he said encouragingly.

‘Of course this left only myself as a mobile patrol.’

Ballista reflected that the young
optio
— Prosper, must remember his name - might recount a lot of information that was unnecessary, but that was better than one of those tongue-tied witnesses you were always having to prompt and chivvy along, especially when he was as dog-tired as he was now.

‘I first saw him in the fourth watch, at the end of the tenth hour of the night, just before you had the artillery shoot, when I was proceeding south towards the palace of the Dux Ripae, that is, towards your palace.’ Ballista nodded weightily as if at the insight that he was the Dux Ripae and the palace was his. At least they were finally getting somewhere. ‘He was walking north between the town wall and the eastern four granaries. Of course there is a curfew, so he should not have been there anyway. Yet there are always soldiers or their slaves out and about at night. He was dressed as a soldier - tunic, trousers, boots, sword belt - but I was suspicious. Why would a soldier be off duty last night of all nights? And he looked wrong somehow. Now I realize it was his beard and hair. They were far too long. No centurion would have let him get away with it, not even in an auxiliary unit. Not that you could tell now, not with the condition he is in.’ The young man shuddered slightly.

‘And he was acting suspiciously. He was holding a big jar in one hand, holding it away from his body, as if it were very precious, as if he were terrified of spilling a drop. And he was holding a shuttered lantern in the other hand. Again holding it unnaturally far from his body.’

‘Excellent observation,
Optio.’

‘Thank you, Dominus.’ The
optio
was in full flow now. ‘As I walked towards him he saw me and turned into the gap between the first and second granaries. I called for him to stop, but he ignored me. I shouted the alarm. I ran after him and yelled to the legionaries on guard at the other end that there was an enemy coming down the eavesdrip and to cut him off.’ The young
optio
paused as if to take questions. None came. He continued. ‘When I turned into the alley I could not see him at first. I could see Piso and Fonteius blocking the far end, but he was out of sight. I knew that he must be hiding in one of the alcoves formed by the big buttresses of the granaries.’

One of those alcoves in which Bagoas had been beaten up, thought Ballista.

‘As he was cornered, I thought that he might be dangerous. So I called Scaurus from my end to come with me. We drew our swords and started off very cautiously down the alley.’ Ballista nodded to indicate that the course of action was both thoughtful and courageous. ‘It was very dark. So we were going slowly, covering both sides, waiting to be attacked. Suddenly there is a noise of splintering wood up ahead. Then I am almost blinded by a bright light two alcoves down. There is a sort of whooshing sound, and a ghastly smell. When we can see again, we run forward. Piso and Fonteius are running towards us from the far end. We all get there at once. I will never forget it. Never.’ He stopped talking.

‘Sorry,
Dominus.
It was horrible. I hope I never see anything like it again.’

‘Please continue.’

‘The bastard was crawling into the little ventilation opening at the foot of the wall. I don’t know if he got stuck or if the pain stopped him, but he was just sort of writhing when we got there, writhing and screaming. Never heard anything like it. He must have torn away the wooden slats over the ventilator with his sword, emptied the jar of naptha over himself and, with the lantern, quite deliberately set light to himself. Then he tried to crawl into the ventilator. He turned himself into a human missile. It smelt like ... like roast pork.’

‘What did you do?’

‘There were flames everywhere. The naptha had set the remains of the ventilator on fire. There were flames licking up the brick walls. Even the mud around him seemed to be on fire. Gods below, it was hot. It looked as if it would spread into the granary, get in the ventilator and under the wooden floor. The whole place was about to go up. It was Scaurus who thought what to do. He got his entrenching tool, stuck it in the poor bastard’s thigh, and dragged him to the middle of the alley, where we left him. We threw soil on the fires until they were smothered.’

The young
optio
led Ballista down the alley and introduced him to the legionaries Scaurus, Piso and Fonteius. The northerner praised them all, especially the rather singed Scaurus, and promised they would be rewarded. He asked Demetrius to make a note of it. The Greek boy was looking sick.

The scene was as Ballista had expected. The corpse was twisted, shrivelled, its hair and clothing gone, its features melted. Beyond the fact that he had been a short man, the corpse was completely unrecognizable. The
optio
was right: disgustingly, it smelt of roast pork. It smelt of Aquileia. It had an entrenching tool, the wooden handle burnt away, sticking out of its leg.

‘Did you find anything interesting on the body?’

‘Nothing,
Dominus.’

Ballista crouched next to the corpse, willing his gorge down. The man’s sword was a military-issue
spatha.
It signified little. There were many available on the open market. The man’s boots did not have hobnails, but nor did the boots of a lot of soldiers these days.

‘You were right. He was not a soldier.’ Ballista grinned. ‘Nothing can persuade a soldier to take his ornaments, awards for valour, his lucky charms off his sword belt. All that is left of this man’s belt is the buckle.’ The northerner pointed to an unremarkable buckle in the shape of a fish. ‘Definitely not a soldier.’

From a little way away came the sound of retching. Demetrius was throwing up.

‘What could make a man do such a thing?’ the young
optio
asked.

Ballista shook his head. ‘I cannot begin to imagine.’

 

Everyone was waiting for the sun to rise. Already the eastern sky was a pale bronze. A cool steady breeze blew from the south. Ducks were flighting over the Euphrates and the smell of baking bread wafted around the town. If you did not look too far away or you kept your eyes on the heavens, you could imagine that Arete was at peace.

One glance over the battlements shattered any pacific illusions. True as the light advanced, the western desert for once showed green. There were grasses and wild flowers in every little depression. Birds sang. But beyond the delicate spring scene was a black line about a thousand paces wide. The Sassanid host stood shoulder to shoulder. Thirty, forty ranks deep, it was impossible to tell. Above their heads the south wind tugged at the banners. Serpents, wolves, bears, abstract symbols of fire, of righteousness, of Mazda, snapped in the breeze.

Behind the ranks of men loomed the instruments of war. A line of siege mantlets, tall shields mounted on wheels, could be made out running almost the length of the force. Here and there the wooden frames of
ballistae
stuck up; the keenest eyes counted at least twenty of them. And there, quite widely spaced and unmistakable behind the line, were the City Takers, the three tall, tall siege towers.

Ballista was impressed despite himself. It was just seven days since the Persian horde had descended on Arete. They had found nothing useable; there was no timber for miles: Ballista’s men had stripped the countryside in advance. It had done no good. The Sassanids had brought with them everything they needed. Somehow they had transported upriver all the instruments of siege warfare in prefabricated form, almost ready to use. For six days they had laboured. Now, on the seventh day, they were ready. Although he would not admit it to anyone else, would barely concede it to himself, Ballista was worried. These Sassanids were like no barbarians he had fought before. Goths, Sarmatians, Hibernians or Moors-none could have done such things, none could prosecute a siege with such vigour.

Ballista and the defenders had not been idle in the seven days since the night raid. Turpio’s foray may have failed to kill Shapur but still must be counted a success. Roman casualties had been very light. Five troopers were missing from the
turma
of Paulinus, none at all from that of Apollonius. Of the legionaries, there were twenty empty places in the century that had actually entered the Persian camp, that of Antoninus Posterior, and one from that of Antoninus Prior - oddly, as it had not actually been engaged. The latter, although no one said so out loud, was widely considered to have deserted. Overall the raid had raised Roman morale, and it was safely assumed to have shaken that of the Persians. Yet such a large-scale raid had not been repeated. Ballista knew that the Sassanids would now be on guard. He was waiting for the next phase of the siege, the next predictable turn of the dance. He was waiting for an all-out Persian assault.