The Far Shore (42 page)

Cassius caught the centurion’s eye. ‘I’ll need a signed and dated account from all those who can write. Evidence.’

‘They can all write. I’ll get the accounts to you later.’

Eborius turned to the legionaries again. ‘I need a pledge from each of you. This goes no further.’

Noster began. ‘You have my word, sir.’

‘And mine, sir,’ said the next man.

Each in turn gave his promise.

‘Now,’ said Eborius, ‘I need to talk to the officer here. I’m sure you could all use some shut-eye.’

He opened the door and the men trooped out. Noster hung back but Eborius gestured towards the door and gave the veteran another clap on the shoulder. Once they were gone, Eborius grabbed a chair from the bedroom for Indavara, then located three wooden mugs and a jug. He filled up the mugs with wine, sat down and drank.

Cassius stared down at the lamp, the little wick floating on a sea of golden oil. ‘I don’t hold with much of what Simo rambles on about, but the Christians believe their god is engaged in an eternal battle with his nemesis, a dark lord named Satan. They think this Satan has unleashed demons into the world in the form of men. After what we saw tonight, I find myself rather more accepting of such a concept.’

Eborius looked at his wine as he swilled it around the mug. ‘I should have known there couldn’t be any sort of underhand activity going on in Darnis without Carnifex being involved somehow. Any idea what he might have had against Memor?’

Cassius shook his head. ‘Just another in a long line of vengeful enemies, I expect.’

‘What about his orders – “I want them back in the villa”?’

‘Dio’s place, perhaps,’ said Cassius. ‘They might try and make it look as if he killed them, or that they were all killed together by someone else.’

‘Very neat.’

‘Enough to fool the locals perhaps, but in the grand scheme of things it won’t matter. Your testimony and mine and the men’s accounts will be enough for a court in Rome. That’s if the Service would want to handle it in so public a manner, which I doubt.’

Eborius looked up. ‘What are you saying?’

Cassius hadn’t spoken during the trip back but he had been thinking, and the alternatives were remarkably simple.

‘There are really only three choices. First, we could get help from the Service, which probably means Egypt – I know of a man there my superior mentioned. Second, we could go to the governor in Cyrene, present him with the facts and invoke the full authority of the Service. He might at least place Carnifex under arrest. But both of those would take time. Weeks in fact.’

Eborius leant back in the chair. ‘Or?’

‘Asdribar tells me the
Fortuna
will be ready to sail within a day.’ Cassius paused; he could hardly believe what he was about to suggest. ‘What if we grab Carnifex and take him with us?’

Eborius gave an ironic smile, then stared up at the ceiling.

‘Well?’ Cassius asked after a few moments. ‘Darnis could be rid of him for good. You could take over here, try and get things back to how they were. The Service would be grateful. Very grateful. I’d see to it that you were well—’

‘Don’t,’ said the big centurion. ‘Don’t bother.’

Cassius decided to keep quiet; there was no point trying to make Eborius’s decision for him.

The centurion hunched forward, arms on the table. ‘If you take that man on, you need to be prepared to go to war with him.’

‘I’ve got no problem with that,’ said Indavara.

‘There’ll be no war,’ said Cassius. ‘If we do this right, there needn’t even be a drop more blood spilt. Carnifex thinks his plan worked to perfection. He doesn’t know we’re here. He’s vulnerable. So we have to do this now. Will you help?’

Eborius’s chair screeched on the stone floor as he pushed it away and stood. ‘He’s clever. And he can sniff out a trap a mile off.’

‘I don’t doubt it. So we shall have to be clever too.’

‘He keep anyone close?’ asked Indavara. ‘Bodyguard?’

‘Did it look to you like he needs one?’

Eborius let out a long breath and walked away from the table.

Cassius looked up at him. ‘Listen, I’m not one for reckless heroism, but to have that man ruling this place under the scarlet and gold is an affront to the entire Empire. Someone has to stop him sooner or later. You were wise not to take him on alone – I certainly wouldn’t have – but the three of us, together …’

Indavara was nodding. ‘Bloody right.’

He raised his mug.

Cassius did the same and tapped it against Indavara’s.

Eborius came forward, knocked his mug against theirs and downed the rest of the wine.

‘It will be light soon,’ he warned.

‘Well then,’ said Cassius. ‘We’d better get started.’

Cassius awoke to the sounds of hammering and shouting. While Simo went to fetch some hot water, he got up, looked out of the porthole and saw the entire crew gathered on the breakwater. The length of timber that would become the yard was laid out on three X-shaped stands. The sailors were working on different sections, some wielding saws, planes or drills, others affixing iron rings and wooden blocks. Asdribar stood with Squint, examining a sheet of paper.

Cassius sat down on the bed. Surprisingly, the plan he, Eborius and Indavara had concocted in the darkest hours of the night still seemed feasible. It was, however, worryingly dependent on the big centurion, who had raised concern after concern before finally agreeing to go ahead. Some of his contributions had been valid but the impression remained that he was struggling with the very thought of taking on Carnifex. Hardly surprising; he had lived in the man’s shadow for so long.

A brisk knock on the door and Indavara walked in, looking remarkably fresh-faced.

‘Get any sleep?’ he asked.

‘Just dozed a bit really. Had I slept properly I might have assumed I’d had the most horrific of nightmares.’

Indavara shut the door behind him. ‘I’ve been thinking. Carnifex.’

‘Yes?’

‘It’s too risky – leaving it to Eborius.’

‘He’ll come through.’

‘You’ve seen his hands? They shake.’

‘He’ll come through,’ Cassius repeated. ‘In any case, Eborius is the only one with a chance of drawing Carnifex away from his men. We stick to the plan and wait for him to contact us.’

‘There is another choice. Let me kill him.’

Cassius took a moment to reply. ‘Indavara, no one respects your abilities more than I, but you wouldn’t stand a chance. He has over a hundred men at this mansion. You don’t know him and you don’t know the territory.’

‘Eborius can get me close. I can do the rest.’

‘No. We take him alive. Despite everything we saw last night, he is still a serving centurion. He must face the authorities; the decision doesn’t lie with us.’

‘Like you said, he doesn’t know we’re coming. We have one chance at this. A man like that doesn’t give second chances.’

‘We have to take him alive.’

Indavara looked out through the porthole. ‘If this goes wrong, everyone who came here on this ship will be in danger, the women included.’

‘It won’t come to that. Consider your view duly noted. I’ve made my decision.’

Once he’d washed and taken a little breakfast, Cassius went to find Annia. It had been too late to call in at the deckhouse during the night and he’d wanted some time to consider what to tell her. Coming up through the hatch, he saw her standing alone at the end of the breakwater, well away from the sailors. Asdribar was in his chair, watching the crew.

‘You two were late back last night,’ said the Carthaginian. ‘Any progress?’

‘Of a sort,’ Cassius replied. ‘We’ll definitely be ready to leave first thing tomorrow?’

‘I said we would. Where are we bound?’

‘Apollonia. What is it, fifty miles or so?’

‘About that. Miss is in agreement, I take it?’

‘Leave her to me. But we have to depart at dawn, whatever the weather.’

‘Whatever the weather? You have a short memory.’

‘It will be impossible for us to stay here. Can’t we just hug the coast? Stay as close as possible to the land?’

‘Being close to land doesn’t make a lot of difference if there’s another storm like the one that brought down my rig. In fact it makes it even more dangerous. I’m not going to risk my men and my ship like that again.’

Cassius didn’t want to get into an argument. He glanced at the sea, which was as calm as a millpond. ‘Looks set fair for now. Just please make sure we’re ready.’

Cassius crossed the gangplank on to the breakwater. Once past the busy crewmen, he disturbed a group of gulls who flapped into the air to join the multitude circling above. Annia was gazing out to sea, arms wrapped around her. She didn’t notice Cassius until he was close.

‘Morning, miss. Apologies for not coming to see you sooner.’

‘I lay awake all night, and I watched you come aboard. Why was there no one with you?’

‘Things have changed.’

‘What do you mean? What about these men?’

Cassius regretted telling her even that; now she expected to know the rest.

‘The situation is even more precarious and dangerous than I had imagined. I must simply ask you to trust me. We’ll be leaving in the morning, of that I’m sure.’

‘And what about Dio?’ Annia demanded. ‘What are you waiting for?’ She jabbed a finger at the
Fortuna
. ‘I want him on the ship in chains. I want him taken back to Rhodes, or to Rome.’

‘Miss, please, try to calm down.’

‘You’re enjoying this. Having this power over me.’

‘That is ridiculous.’

For the briefest of moments, Cassius considered telling her – Dio, the quarry, Carnifex, everything. But he, Indavara and Eborius had agreed that what they’d planned must remain between the three of them. Annia was simply too volatile and unpredictable to trust with such information.

‘Miss, you asked me to begin this investigation back on Rhodes and we are now hours from a resolution. Tomorrow I will be able to tell you everything. You must trust me.’

‘Why should I?’ she said without looking at him. ‘When you so clearly do not trust
me
.’

With that, she hurried back to the ship as fast as the uneven surface beneath her feet would allow.

Cassius couldn’t summon the energy to be concerned about the girl; there was too much else to worry about. He turned and looked west along the shore. There, about a mile away, was a tiny fisherman’s hut between the old wall and the water. If all went to plan, he would be spending the night there.

The day passed as painfully slowly as Cassius knew it would, but he at least had a little work to occupy him. First, he recorded the three dead conspirators’ names, along with a physical description and the personal information Eborius had passed on. He then wrote out his account of the night’s events, filling four sheets with ink. This he read to Indavara, who agreed it was accurate and added his signature. Cassius commended him on his effort – even though the single word was barely legible – and resisted the temptation to ask again why he had no family name.

Just after midday, one of Eborius’s men delivered the signed statements from the centurion and the legionaries. Cassius checked through them all and was pleased to find they were clearly written and corroborative, aside from the inevitable minor inconsistencies that occur when several people are asked to describe the same event.

Carnifex’s arrogance and penchant for brutality had condemned him. Not only had he admitted to organising the assassination, he had committed one murder – albeit of the assassin – with his bare hands and presided over three others. If the issue was ever presented to a court, which Cassius still thought unlikely, the man had little chance of escaping justice. If the evidence was used simply to convince Abascantius and Chief Pulcher of the rogue centurion’s guilt, his fate was sealed. Cassius tucked all the documents into the satchel and placed it under the bed.

Noster came down to the harbour at the ninth hour with a simple message from Eborius: all was proceeding as intended and they should go ahead as planned. Cassius felt a mixture of relief and anxiety; Indavara seemed almost happy. Noster also had some other news, which he related as the three of them stood at the
Fortuna
’s bow.