The Song of the Gladiator (19 page)

Septimus walked away. He returned to his own room and found a scrawled note pushed under the door. He rubbed it between his fingers, screwed the piece of parchment up and thrust it into his wallet. He then left his chamber and, walking as nonchalantly as he could, went through the palace and out to the latrines. He opened the door and went in. They were empty.

‘Are you here?’ Septimus called.

A shadow moved from his right. Septimus didn’t turn quickly enough to escape the stunning blow to his head, which sent him crashing to the ground in a heap. He was half unconscious, aware of being dragged across the tiled floor. He tried to move his hands but they were already bound. The terrors of what had happened before, his nightmares from years past returned to haunt him. A door opened and Septimus was dragged down into the darkness. He felt his belt and wallet removed. He was aware of a mustiness, a cloying warmth, the smell of stagnant water. He tried to groan and became conscious of the gag pushed into his mouth. Dionysius! Was the same thing happening to him?

Pains shot through his head, his body was sweat-soaked, the harsh breathing of his captor echoed ominously. Septimus was thrust against a pillar, ropes tied around him. He had lost his robe and now his tunic was ripped apart. Behind him he could hear shuffling feet, and someone gasping for breath, as if they had run fast over a long distance. A whip cracked, and Septimus screamed silently as the first lash cut across his exposed back.

The galley which usually patrolled the Straits of Byzantium as the
Glory of Corinth
had been painted black. Its red-gold taff-rail had been covered over, as had the gold-embossed griffin’s head on the stern, and the eagle with spread wings and the Horus Eye on the jutting prow. Its reefed sails were black, whilst its crew had been trained to row with muffled oars. The galley had slipped from the main battle fleet exploiting the late summer weather to leave the Aegean and enter the Middle Sea. It had stood off Sicily, then moved along the Italian shoreline, making careful use of deserted coves and inlets. If danger threatened, false flags and standards were raised. To the curious, it was just another war galley patrolling the coast against pirates. Well supplied with water and stores, the galley had taken up its agreed position on the appointed day and waited for the signal. At last it had come, a series of beacon lights clearly seen from the sea. The captain of the galley had moved his craft in, lean and low in the water like some sinister wolf slinking towards a sheep pen. The sea was calm and the pilot knew all about the currents and hidden dangers, so they successfully beached the galley at dusk.

The soldiers and marines, dressed in breeches and tunics under coats of mail, now prepared to move inland. They had all been selected for their loyalty and training. They were veterans, skilled in the ambushing and killing of bandits and outlaws in the Taurus Mountains near the Cilician Gates. They were armed with bows, arrows and long curved swords, with roundel shields slung over their backs, on their heads reinforced leather helmets with nose guards and earflaps. Some carried makeshift ladders, long poles with rods either side, as well as grappling irons, tubs of pitch and small pots of fire. They ate their meal of hard bread, dried fruits and salted meat and took a gulp from the small water bottle each man carried before moving forward.

Once they’d reached the sand hills they paused for a while to finish their preparations and sent their skirmishers forward into the trees. These scouts, Vandal mercenaries, silenced all life in the lonely farmsteads and cottages, cutting the throats of all they met, butchering the dogs and helping themselves to any plunder. The officers had studied their maps of the area most closely. The countryside around the Villa Pulchra was fairly deserted, the result of successive imperial decrees. This helped them, as did the information they’d received about the villa’s security. It was under the command of Gaius Tullius, a veteran officer of Constantine who shared his command with Burrus, commander of the great bitch Helena’s guard. The attackers had been given strict instructions. Constantine and his mother were to be assassinated, the likes of Burrus, Rufinus, Chrysis and Gaius Tullius taken prisoner, along with the priest Sylvester and the leader of the orthodox party, Athanasius. Everyone else was to be put to the sword.

The attacking force moved deeper into the woods. Climbing the slopes, they reached a glade, where they regrouped and rested, sharing out the paltry spoils of their plunder. They drank some more water and moved on. After a great deal of trekking they reached the approaches to the villa. Occasionally they would come across guards on picket duty, but these were few and sleepy-eyed, and soon disposed of. The undergrowth outside the villa was thick, so they were forced to use the only track. The captain in charge had no choice in the matter, yet he guessed something was wrong. He could feel it in the prickling of the sweat along his back. Was it the silence of the woods? The absence of any owl hoot or flurry amongst the undergrowth? Had the animals also sensed something threatening and fled? Now and again the captain would pause, listening for the sounds of the night. He looked back. All he could see in the faint moonlight was a bobbing line of men. Despite his suspicions, he was totally unaware of the dark, hulking shadows following his men either side of the path. These shapes, used to the pitch darkness of the German forests, slipped like hunting wolves through the bracken, grouping round the end of the column. As the line of attackers moved more quickly, stragglers began to appear, and the silent shadows took these, a hand about the mouth, a knife across the throat . . .

Claudia gazed round the opulent triclinium of the Villa Pulchra. The gold-edged couches were arranged in a horseshoe fashion, and before each was a long, low table of polished Lebanese cedar inlaid with strips of ebony and ivory. The tables were covered with small, fine gold dishes containing portions of beef casserole, hare in sweet sauce, ham in red wine and fennel, fried liver, baked plaice and spiced trout. On a piece of stiffened papyrus, its top and bottom embossed with imperial and Christian insignia, Constantine’s personal chef had explained the menu with phrases such as: ‘If they are young, hares are to be eaten in a sweetish sauce of pepper, a little cumin, and ginger . . .’

Claudia had eaten enough, and had drunk the blood-red Falernian wine, at least seventy years old or so the menu declared, mixed heavily with the slightly warm water served to each guest in little jugs. The chamber was lit by chandeliers, each holding six oil lamps in alabaster jars of various colours. The wheels on which these lamps stood had been lowered as far as possible to provide enough light, their fragrance mingling with the perfume from the pots of incense, vervins, maidenhair and frankincense as well as the countless baskets of flowers which ranged along the walls.

The guests had been entertained by various artists and musicians. Now the villa poet was quoting Ovid’s sonnet: ‘Since you are so beautiful, I cannot demand you to be faithful’. Very few of the guests were paying attention, busy with their own conversations or staring rather drunkenly into their cups. In the centre of the horseshoe Constantine was arguing fiercely with his mother. He looked agitated. Helena was holding a water jug, remonstrating with her son about how much he was drinking. Timothaeus was standing anxiously behind the imperial couches. Claudia would have liked to have caught his eye and summoned him over, but the steward appeared ill at ease. Chrysis sprawled, whispering to the pretty boy who shared his couch. Athanasius and Justin, the respective party leaders, were deliberately separated, even though this cosy supper party was being held in their honour. Across from her, Gaius Tullius, his toga slipping on to the floor, yawned in the face of an elderly senator. The Captain glanced quickly across, winked, then turned back to the old fool, who was boring everyone with his denunciations about what was happening in the baths of Rome.

Claudia sat at one end of the horseshoe arrangement. From here she could see the musicians, who had tried their best but had now given up and were gorging themselves on wine and scraps taken from the tables. Directly across from her, at the other end of the horseshoe, was a tall, dark-haired man who had remained silent and tense. Claudia had seen Rufinus get up and go round to talk quietly to him. The stranger was sour-faced, with deep-set eyes, and moved restlessly on his couch. He was not a courtier despite the expensive robes; his face, arms and legs, burnt dark by the sun, glistened with oil. Claudia noticed the scars peeping out from beneath the sleeves and hem of his tunic and concluded he must either be a soldier or a gladiator, as he possessed that same restlessness Murranus did.

Claudia looked away. She was bored, tired, yet still anxious after that violent attack. She recalled the door being opened, the oil lamp tossed in, smashing on the floor to create a puddle of oil and flame. If she had been asleep on the bed, that bowl would have turned the sheets into her funeral pyre. Why had her attacker done this? She closed her eyes and recalled every detail. She had been sitting talking to Narcissus, and the door had opened quickly. That was it! Most of the villa’s guests had retired to their beds during the heat of the day. The would-be assassin thought she would do the same. He had brought that oil lamp, waited until the passageway was empty and opened the door. He had not calculated on someone being with her. He – and Claudia, recalling the grotesque in the cellar, could only conclude it was a man – must have panicked at the sound of voices, and instead of taking more care and aiming the bowl directly at the bed, had simply tossed it in. The assassin had been frustrated, yet had caused enough confusion to send her and Narcissus fleeing through the window. The small chamber was of hard stone, with a few sticks of wooden furniture, so servants had soon brought the blaze under control with heavy cloaks and buckets of dry sand. Claudia and Narcissus had sheltered in the garden. She had told her companion to keep quiet while she informed a chamberlain that the fire was the result of an accident. In truth, however, her tormentor was hunting her, and Claudia wondered if the Augusta knew the facts of the matter. Every so often during the meal Helena would glance across at her, eyebrows drawn together as if curious or perplexed about something.

Claudia gazed around the chamber. Which one of these guests was responsible? Chrysis, who disliked her? The philosophers? Athanasius had approached her just before the meal, rather angry that he couldn’t find his colleague Septimus. Claudia felt tempted to take another sip of wine to calm her nerves, but she didn’t wish to become drunk. Rufinus, on the couch next to her, tried to converse with her, but his wife Fulvia Julia had sensed this and kept cooing like a wood pigeon, demanding her husband’s attention.

Claudia decided to study a painting on the far wall of the triclinium. The dining room was grandly called the Chamber of Mars because its walls were decorated with war-like themes extolling the glory of Rome. The one opposite showed a prosperous country being laid waste. Enemy battalions were being massacred. Men were running away or being taken prisoner, the walls of a town lay smashed by siege engines, its ramparts stormed in a sea of blood, the defenders, unable to resist, lifting their hands in surrender. A cherry hit the table before her. Claudia glanced across. Sylvester was looking at her questioningly, as if he too was curious about the events which had taken place. Claudia gave him a quick smile. The Roman presbyter, like everyone else in this room, was to be regarded with suspicion. Aye, Claudia reflected, not to mention those outside, even woe-faced Narcissus. Claudia pinched her nostrils. There was something not quite right about Narcissus the Neat, something he had said, but she could not place what it was.

The murmur of the conversation died, the poet had withdrawn, having been tossed a silver piece by the Emperor. Chrysis, the chamberlain, took the floor; he was immediately greeted by a round of applause. Claudia suspected what was about to happen. Chrysis was a former actor, a propagandist, ever ready to proclaim fresh scandals about Licinius, Emperor of the East, and his corrupt court at Nicomedia. ‘Fresh news from the East.’ Chrysis spread his hands. ‘Licinius is organising raffles. At his dinner parties he gives out lucky chances written on spoons. It can be ten camels, ten flies, a pound of steak or even dead dogs. I think he is running out of money.’ He gestured with his hands for his audience not to laugh. ‘The man’s mad. He insists on eating fish in a blue sauce. He harnesses four huge dogs to his chariot, and listen, when he gets drunk, he locks his friends in their bedrooms then, at the dead of night, sends in lions, leopards and bears.’

‘I might start that here,’ Constantine shouted in a burst of laughter. ‘What would you like, Chrysis, a bear or a panther?’

‘Excellency,’ Chrysis shook his head, ‘Licinius is bankrupt. He is sending his hangers-on frogs, scorpions, snakes and other hideous reptiles, he is trapping flies in jars and calling them tamed bees.’ Chrysis now had the attention of everyone in the chamber; this was not a game. The chamberlain was deliberately ridiculing Constantine’s rival, raising the temperature of the court, another prick of encouragement for Constantine to try his chances in the East.