[Gaius Valerius Verrens 06] - Scourge of Rome (31 page)

Valerius blinked at the abrupt change of direction. ‘It might have appeared so at the time.’

‘Do not be so modest,’ Titus laughed. ‘I also hear you have been teaching yourself Judaean?’ Now Valerius looked up sharply. The information could only have come from one source. Tabitha. An amused half-smile on Titus’s lips confirmed he was perfectly aware of it.

‘A little,’ Valerius admitted.

‘Josephus carries out certain other delicate tasks apart from being my adviser on political and religious matters in Judaea. This has made him unpopular amongst his former comrades. The attempt on his life at Gamala was not the first, nor will it be the last. I want you – and Serpentius, if you wish – to act as his protectors.’

‘I doubt he would want that,’ Valerius protested.

‘Do not underestimate yourself, Valerius. Josephus says he trusts you, and Josephus is a careful man. Of course, that may itself be a ruse, because he is also cynical and devious. Perhaps he thinks he has a use for you. But it is of no matter. What matters is that it suits Titus Flavius Vespasian for his old friend Valerius to be close to his Judaean adviser.’ He let the words hang in the air so Valerius understood exactly what he meant. Protecting Josephus was only half the job. Titus decided he had to be more explicit. ‘Being a student under Seneca made you as fine a reader of men as anyone I have ever come across. The work Josephus does raises certain questions; perhaps you can come up with some of the answers I would like.’

‘You want me to spy on him?’

‘Let us just say I would be interested in your observations. Of course, if you feel for reasons of honour …’

Valerius actually laughed. ‘This from the man who sent me to “advise” Marcus Antonius, who wanted to kill me. In any case, you saved my life. I can still feel the chill of the executioner’s sword on my neck.’

‘Be certain, Valerius. It will be dangerous. I could be sending you to your death.’

Valerius took a deep breath. ‘I’ll do it. Nobody lives for ever, as Serpentius is so fond of reminding me.’

‘How is he? He seems … altered.’

‘The blow on the head almost killed him. Physically his skills are unchanged – he’s as deadly as ever with any weapon you care to name – but sometimes his mind is elsewhere.’

Titus nodded as if the words confirmed his own observation. ‘I will make sure he is looked after if anything happens to you.’

‘I’d count it a favour.’

‘And your new position merits a senior tribune’s share of the bounty if … when we take Jerusalem. You could be a rich man.’

‘Rich or dead.’ Valerius had noticed the momentary hesitation. Did even Titus have doubts? ‘One way or other it seems my days of worrying are over.’

The sentiment won a boyish grin from Vespasian’s son. ‘If only I could say the same. Now, you will dine with me. There is someone I would like you to meet.’

To Valerius’s surprise the meal didn’t take place in camp. Escorted by a reinforced troop of a hundred legionary cavalry, they rode north until a pair of flickering torches signalled the gates of a villa or a farmstead. Trusted soldiers from Titus’s old command, the Fifteenth, guarded the gateway and Valerius had no doubt more of them waited in the darkness. Whoever they were dining with was precious to the young general.

‘A great deal of security.’ Titus read his thoughts with a smile. ‘But I have to remember that I am the Emperor’s son now, and soon to be his heir. Besides, did you not chide me for exposing myself to the enemy earlier today?’

‘Who lives here?’

‘It is owned by a local magistrate murdered by the Sicarii, but I have commandeered it to house a friend who is visiting.’ As they turned into the gateway he inspected Valerius, who wore a borrowed toga beneath his cloak, and nodded approvingly. ‘You will do. The scarred tribune – Paternus, isn’t it? – told me you wore a general’s armour the first time he saw you.’

‘A gift from Sohaemus of Emesa for a service I did him,’ Valerius admitted. ‘I intend to pass it on to someone more worthy of it.’

‘No, you must keep it.’ Titus grinned. ‘Who knows, you may yet have need of it. In fact, you should have worn it tonight. Our host would have been most impressed.’

They rode up the shallow slope of a ridge in the direction of a dull glow in the ink-blue sky. Moments later the light from numerous oil lamps illuminated a building of surprising scale. They dismounted and servants took their cloaks before a chamberlain escorted them to a large room set out with cushioned couches and an ornate low table. The moment he entered Valerius had the sensation of being stripped bare under the appraisal of a pair of hypnotic eyes the colour of polished chestnut. At first glance she was no classic beauty, but a moment later he decided she was one of the most striking women he had ever seen. A half-smile as she noted his reaction said she knew it too.

Long, silken lashes framed the brown eyes and she had a narrow, aristocratic nose set above full lips that shone like Caspian rubies. Her face was a perfect oval and he guessed the wide mouth could turn sulky if – and he doubted it happened often – she didn’t get her way. The dark lines of her brows arched in perfect curves across a smooth brow and her hair was styled in tight ringlets arranged in waves across her scalp. Like all her features, her ears were in precise harmony with the whole: small, delicate and hung with gold and precious gemstones that matched the necklace at her throat. She wore a dress of Roman design, but in an exotic shimmering blue that reminded him of a sunny morning off the coast of Creta, with gold braid at the neck, sleeves and hem.

She lounged comfortably on a couch arranged at the far side of the table and it took a moment before he realized she wasn’t the only occupant of the room. Two other women stood behind the couch. One was Tabitha, with an amused glint in her eyes that told him she was having trouble keeping her face straight. Her presence confirmed his suspicions about the identity of the woman at the table and the reason for Titus’s visit.

‘Queen Berenice of Cilicia.’ Titus made the introduction. ‘My comrade Gaius Valerius Verrens, a valiant soldier and a holder of the Corona Aurea.’

Valerius bowed and Berenice responded with the slightest inclination of her head. Here was a woman accustomed to men’s homage. When she spoke, her voice was husky, low and naturally seductive. ‘Your description did not do him justice, Tabitha.’

Under the gaze of the two women Valerius felt as if his tongue had been tied in a knot. Berenice’s wide eyes pinned him until Titus broke the spell.

‘Valerius, I do believe you are blushing.’

The jest inspired a change in the atmosphere. Berenice struggled not to laugh and Valerius caught the mood. ‘I merely reflect the glow of my lady’s beauty.’ He repeated his bow, catching a look in Tabitha’s eyes that made him feel as if he were caught between a charge of Iceni champions on the one side and Parthian Invincibles on the other.

‘Come, sit by my right side.’ Berenice pointed to the couch. ‘You must tell me about the first time you and Prince Titus met.’

Titus’s unexpected elevation surprised Valerius, but he managed not to show it. Vespasian’s son gave him a tight smile that warned this wasn’t a subject for discussion. The queen gestured a servant forward and he poured wine into three of the four silver cups on the table. Of course Berenice, a ruler in her own right, would grace her lover – and Valerius had no doubt they were lovers – with a title. When he considered it, Titus, the heir to an emperor, was certainly a prince at the very least, a prince of Rome.

‘If I remember it correctly I was roasting like a fish on a griddle on an Egyptian beach, with the last sip of water a distant memory …’

A bustle of activity from outside the room interrupted his account and a figure in military uniform appeared in the doorway. Titus looked up expectantly and frowned when he discovered the newcomer wasn’t the one he expected.

‘General Tiberius Alexander sends his apologies, lord Titus, but the logistics of tomorrow’s move make it impossible for him to attend.’ Claudius Paternus saluted. ‘He suggested you might be happy to have my company in his stead.’

The words were courteous enough, but there was a sardonic edge to the tone that made Titus’s face harden as he looked up into the ravaged face. ‘I am sure you have more pressing duties—’

‘No,’ Queen Berenice intervened with a smile. ‘I am sure Tiberius would not make the suggestion without good reason. Let me see your face.’ Valerius saw Paternus flinch at what could be taken as a calculated insult before he turned so that the scarred portion of his features was visible. Berenice motioned towards a position directly across the table. ‘So we have two veterans with interesting stories to tell. How fitting.’ She looked to Titus for affirmation and he gave an irritated nod for Paternus to take his place on the couch. ‘You were telling me about your first encounter with Prince Titus, Valerius.’

Valerius glanced at Paternus, whose single eye almost smoked with suppressed fury. ‘We were out of water and I doubt we would have lasted another hour,’ he continued. ‘If Prince Titus hadn’t appeared with his auxiliaries I would not be here.’

Titus took the praise as his due. ‘It was fortunate we arrived in time,’ he smiled. ‘But more fortunate we found your young tribune staggering across our path. If anything, he was the true hero. What was his name again?’

‘Crescens.’ Valerius was looking at Titus, but he sensed the man to his left stiffen and wondered why. ‘Tiberius Claudius Crescens.’ He’d ridden more than thirty miles across featureless desert in a near suicidal attempt to reach help.

‘Of course. A fine young soldier. What happened to him?’

‘He didn’t survive the campaign.’ Valerius’s tone signalled his reluctance to go into more detail. There was much more to Tiberius’s story than the mere fact of his death, not least that Valerius had been the cause of it. Again he felt the baleful presence of the man at his left side. He turned to find Paternus’s eye fixed on him, the uninjured portion of his features a stony mask. As he returned the stare his mind picked up the tiny details that had previously escaped him. By the time Paternus looked away Valerius had a feeling they’d come to some kind of understanding. So that was the way it was?

Servants brought platters of food. Simple enough fare: sliced vegetables, boiled eggs and smoked fish for the
gustus
, followed by a roast goose and a fat-tailed lamb especially slaughtered for the occasion. Honeyed grapes and delicious pomegranate seeds that popped in the mouth to release their sweet juices completed the meal. Valerius suspected Berenice would have preferred a more exotic menu, but that Titus had decreed modesty, as befitting a soldier on campaign. The wine, a fresh, pine-scented eastern variety, was plentiful. No one at the table overindulged. Again, that sense of reserve, or perhaps anticipation, as if this was but the prelude to something more important.

Throughout, Valerius was aware of a pair of eyes staring at him from the back of the room. Tabitha and her companion never moved except to provide their mistress with a personal bowl and towel to wipe her hands between courses.

At one point Titus thawed enough to make conversation with Paternus, and Valerius found himself the sole focus of the queen’s brown eyes. She asked him about his journey, and Tabitha’s thrill of alarm at the question conveyed itself across the room like a lightning bolt. He looked up to see a warning in her eyes and moved quickly from Antioch to Emesa, bypassing Apamea and their first meeting. Berenice listened politely until he reached the Judaean ambush by the lake and mentioned Josephus. She stiffened, and if she had been a cat Valerius had a feeling she would have hissed. The other conversation faltered.

‘Thanks to the Emperor’s patronage,’ Berenice struggled to keep her tone civil, ‘Joseph Ben Mahtityahu has set himself up as a great hero – a David to the rebel Goliath – conveniently forgetting that as a leader of the Zealots he fomented the rebellion. He encouraged his people to die then surrendered himself. But for Vespasian’s good graces’ – the way she said it meant foolishness, and everyone at the table knew it. Titus only smiled indulgently – ‘he would have ended up on a cross.’

‘But you will admit he has his uses, lady,’ Titus reminded her gently. ‘Like you, he serves the Emperor. You are allies.’

‘Berenice of Cilicia has always supported Rome.’ The queen refused to be mollified. ‘This is a rebellion of peasants and priests, and Ben Mahtityahu, if you need reminding, is a priest. If he serves you it is because it suits his own ends. Treachery and betrayal are his currencies. When he is not plying them against his enemies he is as like to use them to advance his position among his friends. Yes, he has his uses, but there will come a time when his usefulness is at an end. When that day comes your father would do well to complete the business he left unfinished when he captured the man. By all means use him, Titus, but please never trust him.’

Valerius listened with growing alarm to the vilification of the man he was pledged to protect. The worst of it was that he suspected Berenice was right. Nothing in his acquaintance with the Judaean signalled the contrary. In his experience, those who dealt in treachery and betrayal tended to attract it in equal measure. When the moment of judgement arrived, Valerius Verrens would be standing by Josephus’s side as he faced the inevitable slings and arrows of his enemies.

Titus turned his attention to Berenice and the servants cleared the plates away. Valerius tried to catch Tabitha’s eye, but she seemed to have forgotten his existence. He wondered if they could contrive a meeting alone, and was disappointed when the Emperor’s son signalled that the evening was reaching an end.

‘Paternus, I am sure you have much to do before morning. Inform General Alexander I will meet him at the north-west sector of the outer wall at the fourth hour.’ Paternus rose from his couch and saluted. Valerius moved to go with him. ‘I need you to stay, Valerius. There are things we must discuss.’ Valerius bowed, but he remained standing.

‘If you don’t mind, lord, I will see the tribune to his horse. I have a message for Serpentius.’