The Legion (23 page)

The leader of the patrol halted as he was approached by several of the spearmen guarding the perimeter around the tents. A few words were exchanged and the commander of the spearmen stared suspiciously for a moment before he waved the riders through and pointed to a line of tethering posts a short distance from the tents. Ajax’s men were escorted by the camel riders and the spearmen and when they reached the posts, Ajax gave the command for his men to dismount and stand by their horses. One of the spearmen trotted off to the nearest tent and a moment later an officer, in ornate flowing robes and a gleaming vest of scale armour, emerged. He strode up to Ajax and looked him over with dark, deep-set eyes.

‘I am told you wish to speak to my Prince.’ He spoke in fluent Greek.

‘I do.’ Ajax nodded. ‘I intend to offer him the services of myself and my warriors.’

The officer turned his gaze on Ajax’s men, noting their powerful physiques and the scars that many bore on their faces and limbs.

‘Are you deserters?’

‘We are gladiators.’

‘Slaves then,’ the officer sneered.

‘No longer. We took our freedom with our own hands and have been fighting Rome ever since. Rome is our enemy, as it is yours. That is why we offer our service to your Prince.’

‘And what can you offer him that his own men can’t, I wonder?’

‘This.’ Ajax smiled and reached for the sacks tied across the back of his horse. He hauled them down and dropped them heavily on the ground at the feet of the officer. The spearmen tensed and lowered the tips of their spears a fraction, ready to strike. Ajax bent down to untie the tops of the sacks and then reached into the first. He drew out a bundle of red cloth and tossed it to the officer. The latter did not flinch as he caught it and unravelled the material to expose a red standard, cut from its jack. It carried the legend ‘Legatus’ in gold letters, and beneath, smeared with dried blood, ‘Candidus’.

The officer smiled. ‘So, slave, you stole the personal banner of the Roman general? Impressive, but my Prince needs warriors, not common thieves.’

‘We did more than steal his banner, my friend.’ Ajax reached further into the sack with both hands and drew out a severed head. He raised it by the hair and held it aloft. The skin was mottled and the eyelids half open over dull eyes. The jaw was slack and the teeth gleamed behind blackened lips. The warm air was filled with the stink of decaying flesh and the officer’s nose wrinkled. He took a step back.

‘May I introduce Legate Caius Candidus, lately commander of the Roman army camped at Diospolis Magna. I have his ring hand in the bag as further proof of his identity. The other sack contains the heads of the officers who were riding with him when my men and I attacked the legate and his escort five days ago.’

The interior of the Prince’s tent was spacious and the ground covered with rugs and cushions. Light entered through slits in the roof held up by several stout posts. Ajax was standing in the middle of the tent, lit from above so that his body was framed with a faint halo as he faced the Prince. Talmis lay on a couch to the rear of the tent. He wore a white robe and bejewelled gold rings adorned his dark fingers. Like Ajax he was powerfully built and the outline of his muscled limbs was evident beneath the light folds of his robes. The Nubian Prince’s face was broad and a finely trimmed beard ran neatly round his jaw.

On a large brass platter between the two men lay the heads of the Roman officers and the ring hand of Candidus. Talmis regarded them for a moment before his gaze moved up to the gladiator standing before him, flanked by two watchful spearmen from the Prince’s bodyguard.

‘It is customary for visitors to kneel before me.’ Talmis spoke Greek, like many of the more educated members of his father’s court. His tone was neutral but Ajax was well aware of the veiled threat implied by the words. Nonetheless, he remained standing and put the onus on the Prince to continue speaking.

‘Why do you not kneel to me, gladiator? I can hardly believe that your Roman masters did not teach you the deference demanded of a slave.’

‘I am no longer a slave, Your Highness,’ Ajax replied firmly. ‘Neither are my followers. We are free men, by right of arms. We acknowledge no master and have no loyalty to any kingdom. Therefore we kneel to no man.’

‘I see,’ Talmis replied slowly, and his lips framed a faint smile. ‘Such hubris is a bold approach when you stand unarmed in the middle of my army’s camp. If I wished, I could have you cut down to size, should you refuse to kneel to me. And what is a man without his legs?’

‘If you harmed me, you would have to kill my men also. And that would deprive you of a useful ally in your fight against Rome. Not to mention those of your men we would kill before you destroyed us.’

‘I think you underestimate my bodyguards, gladiator.’

‘Really?’ Ajax smiled. Then, before the men either side of him could react, he turned and snatched the spear from the man to his right, thrust the shaft between the man’s legs and flipped the shaft up so that the guard’s leg shot up, and he toppled heavily on to his back. Ajax spun round, spear held in both fists, and blocked the thrust aimed at his chest by the other man, then slammed the butt into his face. Dazed, the man’s fingers released his spear and it slipped to the ground. Ajax hooked his foot behind the guard’s boot and thrust again with the butt of the spear, sending him thudding to the ground. He spun the spear round and stood over the guard, holding the tip of the spear an inch from his throat. He paused, then lowered the spear and grasped the man’s hand and hauled him up before thrusting the spear back into the hands of the first guard who had only just scrambled back on to his feet.

‘And I think you underestimate gladiators, Highness.’ Ajax resumed his position between the two dazed guards who eyed him warily.

Talmis had sat up quickly as Ajax disarmed his guards and his hand was resting on the handle of an ornate dagger handle. He released his grip and chuckled. ‘I should not have doubted you. I had heard rumours that Rome’s slave warriors were men to be reckoned with. Now I see the rumours are true.’

‘We are not slaves of Rome any longer, Your Highness,’ Ajax replied with quiet intensity. ‘And we choose who we offer our service to. For now, we would serve you, as Nubia wages war on Rome.’

Talmis regarded him silently for a moment, and then nodded. ‘Then you, and your men, are welcome. There is always a place for fine warriors at my side.’ He gestured towards the heads on the platter. ‘Now tell me how you came by such a . . . gift. I cannot believe it was a chance encounter.’

‘Nor was it,’ Ajax replied. ‘My men and I had been obliged to flee down the Nile after our last camp was surprised. Word of our presence spread and we had to keep on the move. One of my men is a Nubian, and knows the lands of the upper Nile well. He advised me that Roman settlements were scarce and that we might have a better chance of evading our pursuers if we moved further to the south. As we passed Diospolis Magna in the hills to the east, I saw the Roman army gathering there. I had heard that war was brewing between Rome and Nubia and I thought that I might be welcomed as an ally if I brought useful intelligence to you, Highness. So we observed the Roman camp for some days, noting their numbers and equipment. Then, fortune smiled on us. We saw the Roman commander and two aides ride out of his camp, with a squadron of legionary cavalry as escort. They took the Nile road to the south, and we followed them. When they camped for the night, my gladiators attacked. I slew the legate with my own hand.’

‘You did not think to take him hostage and demand a ransom?’

‘No. I had an unfortunate experience with my last two Roman hostages. They escaped me, so I resolved not to take any more.’

‘Candidus did not even give you the opportunity to take him prisoner, then?’

‘I did not give him the opportunity to ask it.’

‘I see.’ Talmis stroked his heavy jaw for a moment as he regarded the man standing before him. Ajax returned his gaze with unwavering eyes, without displaying any sign of nervousness or uncertainty. At length the Prince stopped stroking his chin and opened his hand. ‘Before I make any alliance with another man, I make a point of understanding precisely what it is that impels them to seek an alliance in the first place.’

‘A wise precaution, Highness.’

‘Just so.’ Talmis nodded. ‘The question I ask you is why you so evidently hate the Romans with every fibre of your being?’

‘Is it not enough that I do hate them?’

‘No. I must know all.’ Talmis smiled thinly. ‘Indulge me.’

Ajax was silent for a moment before he replied. ‘I was forced into slavery and sold to a gladiator school. I was treated as a common brute, and trained to kill men at the behest of my master, for the entertainment of the mob. It is not a condition with which I was comfortable, Highness. I was born free and I will die free and I will never again be a slave.’

‘So, you would make slavery your enemy? Then you would make an enemy of me, for I have slaves by the thousand.’

‘My enemy is not slavery,’ Ajax countered. ‘My enemy is Rome.’

‘Then you are an ambitious man indeed.’ Talmis smiled. ‘Your ambitions exceed your means, gladiator. You cannot afford such an enemy as Rome. That is the privilege of kings and princes – not slaves, gladiators or common free men.’

‘Yet I choose to make Rome my enemy, Highness. If a man is not free to choose his enemies then he is not free at all.’

Talmis raised his eyebrows. ‘That is a peculiarly extreme definition of liberty . . . I suspect that there is a less abstract motive for your hatred of Rome, or perhaps your hatred for specific Romans. Am I not right?’

Ajax was still for a moment and then nodded.

‘Then tell me what really drives your hatred.’

‘I would rather not, Highness,’ Ajax replied quietly. ‘The wounds are deep. Is it not sufficient that I swear to serve you loyally, whatever the ultimate reason?’

‘It is not sufficient for me,’ the Prince replied firmly. ‘In exchange for accepting you into my service I demand that you keep no secrets from me, and if you ever deceive me I will have your heart cut out.’ He paused briefly to let the threat sink in. ‘So tell me, gladiator, what has driven you to offer your services?’

Ajax drew a deep breath and sighed. ‘Very well. Then know that before I was a slave, I was a pirate. An ignoble and parasitical pursuit, some might argue.’

‘And well they might.’

Ajax pursed his lips and continued. ‘The truth is that we were a brotherhood, loyal to each other and motivated by lust for booty. Many of us had women and children. We were bound to each other in the same way that other people are. Life was good. We took what we needed and perhaps more than we needed on occasion. Then came the day when the Romans decided to hunt us down and exterminate us, like vermin.’

‘As I would have done, if you had preyed on my kingdom.’

Ajax looked pained. ‘I know that, and accept it. But whatever you may make of me and my brothers, it is still the case that they were family and friends and they were all that I had ever had. The Romans destroyed it all. They burned our ships, sacked our settlement, massacred our men, women and children.’ Ajax swallowed bitterly. ‘My own father they nailed to a cross and left to die. They enslaved me and the other survivors.’

‘And you blame Rome for this?’

‘Rome in general, and those Roman officers who killed my father in particular – Macro and Cato. I had years to nurse my grievance, and then fate thrust us together during the recent slave rebellion on Crete.’ Ajax clenched his teeth. ‘Again they frustrated me. They broke the rebellion and since then they have been hunting for me and the handful of men who are all that remain of the army of slaves that I led against Rome.’

‘And this is why you come here? You wish me to provide you with a haven, safe from those who hunt you?’ Prince Talmis’s lips rose in a faint sneer. ‘Far from offering me the benefit of your service, it is my protection that you seek.’

‘No, Highness. All I seek is revenge. I do not care how I attain that, only that I live to see it happen, or die a free man in the pursuit of revenge.’

‘Then it seems to me that you are better off hunting down those two Roman officers of yours rather than supporting my cause. I need soldiers, not grudge bearers who use my army for shelter.’

‘I do not seek shelter, Highness. I will serve you and do all that I can to further your cause. For now, I ask that you give me a column of your men to command and I will visit death and destruction upon our common enemy. I know how to fight and I know how to lead men. Trust me, and I will prove my words. Besides, I have more to offer you than myself and my men here in your camp. Something that may well provide you with an advantage in the war with Rome.’

‘And what would that be?’ Talmis asked with an amused smile. He leaned forward. ‘What advantage could a fugitive slave offer me?’

Ajax resisted the urge to smile. He had a most useful bargaining counter and once Prince Talmis knew of it, Ajax was certain the Prince would accept the alliance.

‘I have a spy in the Roman army. I have infiltrated one of my men, and he will tell us all that we need to know about the strength of the Roman army, and its dispositions.’

Prince Talmis nodded slowly. ‘That is good. Very good. Well then, Ajax, it seems that we might be of use to each other after all. I will appoint you as one of my officers and give you men to command. I already had it in mind to teach the Romans an early lesson, and you will be the man to deliver it.’

‘
H
mmm.’ Macro shook his head. ‘Not the prettiest of sights.’ The headless bodies of the legate and two of the tribunes lay in the back of the cart. A cloud of insects buzzed over the bloated corpses and gorged on the blackened tendrils of gristle and bone on the stumps of their necks, and the right wrist of Candidus. A decurion held back the goatskin cover and stood to one side as his superiors gazed into the back of the cart. Cato and Macro had been discussing their appointments with Aurelius when a clerk had intervened to tell them that the patrol sent to look for the legate had found his body, and those of his escort.