Danger in the Wind (34 page)

Fortunately the sound of hoof-beats outside provided a distraction.

“Maybe someone has news of the girls,” I said, and we got up and went outside to see.

Lucius and Titch were dismounting, looking tired and dishevelled. A few paces behind them came the two soldiers that had escorted them, one riding and the other marching, leading his horse, which had a body tied across its saddle, looking pathetically vulnerable in spite of its rich tunic and golden sandals.

I hurried over to them, Selena beside me. “I’m glad you’re safely back. But where are Quintus and Gambax?” I glanced at the body on the horse. “Eurytus, presumably?”

“Yes,” Lucius answered. “We couldn’t leave him at Brennus’ house for the mob. We were only just in time getting there. Half the village were gathering outside it, yelling and chanting, working up the courage to go in, and I don’t think Quintus and the others could have stopped them. They backed off when they saw us.”

“But where’s Quintus now? And Gambax? Why haven’t they come back with you?”

“I showed them Baca’s note about the girls. Gambax got very excited, said he thought he knew where they’d have gone. There’s a special place by the river, quite near Jovina’s house, a little hut where he and Chloe used to meet sometimes. He insisted on going to look, and Quintus couldn’t let him go by himself, so he went as well. They sent us back with Eurytus, and then we’re to follow them. Gambax gave us directions.”

“But that’s madness, Lucius! Why didn’t you stop him and make him come back here with you, and then you could all have gone out to the river together? They shouldn’t be taking risks like that. Why didn’t you insist?”

“Insist?” Lucius growled. “When was the last time you managed to persuade Quintus not to do something he’d set his heart on, however mad it was?”

“All the same…”

“And he has a point,” Titch put in. “Time’s running out. The patrols that are in the village now can’t hold things together much longer. The commander’ll have to send out more men still, or else call everyone back in and bar the gates. We want the girls back in here by then. If it’s possible, Quintus can do it.”

“And if it isn’t possible? If it’s too late already?”

Nobody answered. Beside me Selena gave a low moan and began to cry. “The gods help them, the poor children,” she muttered, and walked away.

I echoed her prayer, adding, “The gods help us all.”

Chapter XXIII

Lucius broke the silence. “Time’s short, so let’s get moving. I’ll go and report to the commander. Titch, can you find somewhere suitable to leave Eurytus’ body for now? Then go and get some fresh horses, preferably solid old nags that won’t be spooked by crowds or fire. Aurelia, could you organise some bread and a skin of wine? We’ll take it with us, we may be out for some time.”

“I will. But can’t you eat here? Then you can tell me the details of what’s happened.”

He shook his head. “Titch is right. Time’s short. We’ll tell you everything when we get back. By the way, has anything happened here?”

“No arrests yet, but I’ve one or two useful bits of information.”

“Good. Then the quicker we set off, the quicker we’ll be back to hear them.”

I found them some food and went to watch from the gate as they rode away. I was thankful they had with them the same two soldiers who’d been their escort earlier. But they were only four men, venturing out into a hostile village full of angry tribesmen. I was frightened for them, and for Quintus and Gambax, and especially the girls. Three girls on their own, even if they were outside the village itself…it didn’t bear thinking about.

I went to our office, thinking I’d better eat some food, as breakfast seemed a very long time ago. It was simple army fare, flat-bread and sausage with slices of onion, and rough red wine to wash it down. I didn’t mind that, but when it came to it, I found I wasn’t hungry—I was too worried.

I gave myself a mental shake. Worrying would do no good, and I had work to get on with. I pushed the plate aside and decided I’d pay yet another visit to the hospital.

There came a timid tap at the door. I called “come in” automatically, and then wished I had some sort of weapon to hand. Too late. I stood up and moved to stand with my back against a wall.

I felt foolish when the door opened slowly, and a small boy came in, looking nervously round. He was the slave I’d seen at the hospital, the one Nikias had been chastising. Apart from recognising his chubby features, I couldn’t miss the bruise on his cheek.

“Come in, boy. What can I do for you?”

He gazed at me silently. I realised he was frightened, and wondered whether he’d had another beating, or whether he expected one from me. Perhaps he was bringing me bad news, or maybe he regarded all adults as potential bullies.

I said gently, “You’re from the hospital, aren’t you? The lad they call Onion. I saw you there this morning.”

He nodded but was still silent. I noticed he was shivering slightly. I wanted to put him at ease, partly because I felt sorry for him and partly for a less unselfish reason. It occurred to me that a youngster might be a good source of information about life at the hospital, especially one like this who was being bullied by his master.

“Have you brought me a message from Mallius?”

“Yes, Mistress. He says to let you know he’s about to move into his own quarters this afternoon and he asks if you’ll go and visit him there. He wants to talk about a family matter, he says.”

“Good. Tell him I’ll come and see him very soon.”

“I will.” He rubbed his bruised face, and as he raised his arm I noticed a red whip-mark across his wrist.

“Thanks, Onion. You know, I’ve never met anyone called Onion before, it’s an unusual name. How did you come by it?”

“It’s what I’ve always been called. My mother used to belong to a wine-shop, and I helped in the kitchen. Then she died and the owner sold me to the doctor here, and the name had sort of stuck by then. And I do like the taste of them.” I saw his eyes flick briefly to the table, which held my uneaten snack of bread, sausage, and onion.

“Are you hungry? They’ve sent me a whole lot of bread and sausage, and I can’t eat it all. Would you like some?”

His face lit up. “Yes please. Only my master might be cross.”

“Then we shan’t tell him. Help yourself to the onion, Onion.”

He grinned, and demolished the food as if he hadn’t eaten for days. “Thank you, Mistress. I got no breakfast today. My master said I didn’t deserve any.”

“Oh, dear. Why was that?”

“He said I went to sleep when I should have been watching last night. But I didn’t. I was awake all the time. And it was me that found the deputy commander after he cut his wrist.”

This was exactly the sort of inside knowledge I’d been hoping for. “It’s a good thing you did, otherwise he might not have recovered. How’s he doing now? I saw him this morning when he’d just woken up, and I was thinking of looking in again soon.”

“He says he’s feeling better, but I think he’s going to be poorly for a while. I helped him to wash himself this morning, and he was very clumsy, we both got a splashing from his bowl. He kept complaining how difficult it was, saying he felt awkward doing things with the wrong hand.”

The wrong hand…
It was like a flash of lightning, making everything suddenly clear. Of course! Mallius was left-handed. I should have known. Indeed I must have known it years ago, and simply forgotten. No wonder I’d had an uneasy feeling that somehow he looked wrong as he lay in bed. A left-handed man who wanted to open a vein would have cut his right wrist, not his left one.

I wondered if the boy realised what he was saying? Apparently not, because he was still chattering on about having to change his wet tunic when he’d finished helping Mallius. But something in my face made him stop and his scared look returned.

“It’ll soon dry,” he said, meaning the tunic presumably. “And at least there was no blood on it. The master gets furious when I mess my tunic up with blood.” He trailed off again.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “It’ll be all right; I’m sure it will. Now then, Onion, can you keep a secret?”

He nodded. “Yes, if it’s something I mustn’t tell the master. I’m quite good at those sort of secrets, otherwise I’d be black and blue.” He touched the bruise on his cheek.

“This is a secret you mustn’t tell anyone. I want you to promise.”

“All right, I promise.”

“You’ve discovered something important. The deputy commander is left-handed, that’s why he was so clumsy with the other hand.”

“Of course, that must be it! He never said it in so many words. I didn’t realise. So his right hand was his wrong hand, wasn’t it?” He smiled, and I saw that there was a cheeky little scamp lurking somewhere beneath the outwardly timid slave. The lad wasn’t cowed yet.

But I had to make him see the danger he was in. “That’s a good way of putting it. You see what it means, don’t you? It means he didn’t try to kill himself. If he had, he’d have used his left hand to cut his right wrist.”

“Then if he didn’t cut his wrist, who did?”

“I don’t know yet. But I mean to find out. Will you help me?”

“Yes, if I can. But I don’t know anything important, really.”

“You’ve already proved that you do. Have you told any of this to your master, or Pythis?”

He shook his head. “They get annoyed if I criticise the patients. Though some of them are…well, I’d better not say. But the master was in and out among the patients most of the morning. I suppose he could have seen for himself what a struggle Lord Mallius was having. He’s getting better now anyhow, so I don’t suppose it matters.”

“It matters very much. I want to find out who tried to kill him. It was an evil thing to do, don’t you think?”

“Well…they say he killed someone himself, so perhaps he deserved it.”

“He didn’t kill anyone. I can promise you that. So he didn’t deserve to be killed.”

“Then it was evil. Do you think I should tell my master?”

“No. As I said, it’s got to be a secret. Remember, you’ve promised me you won’t tell anyone else. When the time comes, I’ll tell everyone, but not yet. Do you see why?”

He looked puzzled, then slowly realisation dawned. “You think the master will be angry with me if he thinks somebody has sneaked in from outside and tried to kill the deputy commander, and I didn’t notice?”

“Quite right.” That seemed a less alarming reason than the true one, and it should convince the boy to keep quiet. “You don’t want to make him angry, do you?”

“No. I understand. I’ll keep the secret.”

“Just for now, till we’ve found out what really happened to Mallius. I’d like you to tell me as much as you can about last night. Were you the only one on watch?”

“I was the main one,” he said proudly. “My master slept on a bed in the waiting-room, and I had to rouse him if anything happened. It should have been Pythis really, but the master said he’d take the watch, because the deputy commander was one of our patients.”

“If you stayed awake all the time, you’ll have seen most of what went on, I expect.”

“I wasn’t watching by Lord Mallius’ bedside. I was in the store-room most of the time, cleaning the master’s instruments, sharpening some of them, rolling bandages, that sort of thing.”

I grinned. “You get all the glamorous jobs, don’t you?”

His smile returned briefly. “Oh, yes. But store-room work is better than emptying slop-buckets. That’s the absolute bottom of the glamorous list.” Then he was serious again. “The small rooms where the patients sleep are all along one corridor. The store-room’s at one end of the passage, so if you’re working in there you can see all the way down it from inside.”

“And each small room has a curtain in front of it instead of a door. That must make it quicker for the doctors to get from one patient to another.”

“Quicker and quieter, with no doors slamming. Actually it’s one big room split into three, with screens dividing one patient from the next.”

That made me stop and think. “So a doctor, or anyone, could go from one room to another by moving one of the screens aside, not going out into the corridor and in again?”

“They could, but they don’t. Quite often they’re carrying things, trays of instruments or bowls of water. It’s easier to go through the curtains.”

“And there were just two patients last night, Fabianus and Mallius?”

He nodded. “And some in the big fever ward, but one of the other boys did that watch.”

“Then we’ll concentrate on the three small rooms in the corridor. From the store-room you could see if anyone went in or out?”

“Yes, and hear what was going on in them. That’s what I was really there for, to answer if anyone called out, and fetch the master.”

“And did anyone call out?”

“Fabianus did. He’s the man who got wounded on patrol. He was restless with his fever, and started shouting and trying to get out of bed. I fetched the master to him, and he stayed by his bedside for ages.”

“Did Mallius call out?”

“No. The only sound from his room was from the people who visited him. They spoke to him a bit, and the master tried to rouse him of course, but he didn’t answer any of them.”