[Gaius Valerius Verrens 06] - Scourge of Rome (27 page)

Valerius told him about the encounter with Josephus in the cellar of the library.

‘You think this Judaean followed him there?’

‘It’s possible.’

The Spaniard nodded thoughtfully. ‘Then there’s another one who needs watching. At this rate we’ll need four pairs of eyes, not two.’

‘What about our other friends?’

‘Nothing suspicious,’ Serpentius frowned. ‘Paternus is an odd one. A man with two faces, but neither of them reveals his true feelings. They keep themselves to themselves. Just sitting around their fire and watching. They remind me of some people I know.’

Valerius’s interest was aroused. ‘Who?’

‘Us.’

That afternoon they camped outside Scythopolis, a city which had stayed loyal to Rome throughout the rebellion. The legionaries constructed their temporary fort on the flat crown of a low rise overlooking the river, the favoured location for such places. While the men worked and Lepidus rode off for talks with the city council, Valerius went to wash away the day’s accumulation of dust in the waters of a nearby stream. He’d been there for only a few moments when Tabitha appeared like a wraith from the scattered bushes lining the banks. He’d stripped off his tunic and stood up to his knees in the water wearing only his
subligaculum
. His first instinct was to cover himself, but the feeling only lasted until he remembered what they had shared. She wore the dust-stained cloak she’d travelled in and her dark eyes studied his body in frank admiration.

‘I had forgotten you had quite so many scars.’ Her head tilted a little to one side as if that gave her a better aspect. ‘Is the water cold?’

‘Why don’t you come in and find out?’

‘Nothing would please me more.’ Her laugh was like the tinkling of a tiny silver bell. ‘I am carrying so much dust that if I shook myself I would cause a sandstorm. But I fear this stream will soon be very popular with our travelling companions. I only came to give you a warning.’

‘Warning?’ He pulled himself out of the stream and she handed him his tunic, managing it in a way that allowed her fingers to trail through the hairs on his chest. A shiver of pleasure ran through him and she must have experienced something similar because she instantly pulled her hand away as if she’d touched a glowing coal.

‘When first we join Titus it must be as if we barely know each other.’ She paused as Valerius slipped the tunic over his head and belted it using only his left hand. ‘You are wondering why? Because it is safer for both of us. Like every court, those of Berenice and Titus are subject to undercurrents and factions. It is better that I discover who is in favour and who is not. Who is plotting and for whom. When I know everything there is to know I will go to Berenice and create some pretext for us to be together without any need for subterfuge.’

‘I would like that very much.’ He moved closer so he could smell the salt tang of her sweat, and something else that started a fire in his loins. The dark eyes widened and her lips twitched into a smile.

‘Perhaps I will play the spy.’ Tabitha’s voice thickened. ‘Or the concubine.’

He had an overwhelming urge to take her in his arms. Before he could act on it she put her hands on his chest to push back. But he was the stronger and he felt her body melt into his as he held her.

‘No, Valerius,’ she said urgently. ‘Now is not the time. We will be together, but …’

Reluctantly, he released her. Tabitha turned away, breathing hard, as if she knew that there could only be one outcome if she stayed. When she reached the trees she looked at him over her shoulder and he saw the same desperate need he knew was in his own eyes.

‘There is one other thing. Do not trust Joseph Ben Mahtityahu.’

‘Why?’ His voice sounded harsh in his ears. Now was the time to ask her about the discussion Serpentius had witnessed, but some inner voice urged him to keep his counsel.

‘He will flatter you and you will find yourself revealing things you will later regret when they reach the ears of those with the power to hurt you.’

‘Is he some kind of wizard?’

‘No.’ The smile was back in her voice. ‘But, as we say in the East, he was born with a golden tongue. A man who can charm the birds from the trees as easily as the coins from your purse.’

‘Then I will try to resist his charms.’ Valerius returned the smile, but she was already gone.

He stooped to pick up the sheathed sword from where he’d left it on the bank, drawing it free and turning in a single movement at a rustle from the bushes.

‘Didn’t I tell you it’s dangerous to be alone in this company?’ Serpentius appeared a little further upstream.

‘How long have you been there?’

‘Long enough to know things are getting very complicated. Of course,’ he grinned, ‘I wouldn’t have stayed if …’

Valerius felt the blood rush to his face, but he matched the Spaniard’s grin. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if I was wrong to free you. I liked it better when you had to do as you were told.’

For the next two days Lepidus led his legion by the glistening waters of the Jordan until they reached Jericho, where an Imperial courier galloped in to pass on an order from Titus to march immediately.

For Jerusalem.

Jerusalem.

Valerius joined Lepidus and his staff as they spurred their way to a height east of the city where the Tenth would construct their encampment. When they reached the summit they walked their horses through a tangle of ancient olive groves.

‘Venus’ withered tits, have you ever seen anything like that?’ The legate produced a growl of what might have been pain or admiration. ‘It makes Gamala look like a morning fornicating stroll.’

The entire metropolis was laid out before them like some gigantic child’s toy. Below, the ground dropped in rugged, fissured steps into a deep, rock-strewn valley, and beyond it the city sprawled across the far slope to fill the horizon. Smoke from thousands of fires formed a haze above it. Valerius could make out several huge public buildings among the claustrophobic warren of streets that populated most of the slope. His mind attempted to judge the scale of the massive walls.

‘Three of them,’ Lepidus confirmed what he was seeing, ‘and the outer one must be at least fifty or sixty cubits, perhaps higher in places. Thick too, I’ll wager. We won’t know until the engineers take a look, but I’m not sure how much damage our normal rams will do. We may need something special.’ The last was almost to himself.

‘I count fifteen towers on the part of the wall we can see,’ Paternus ventured, ‘so there can’t be fewer than sixty. Not so many on the inner walls …’

‘Plenty of wood for siege towers.’ Valerius tried to inject an optimistic note. Lepidus looked at the trees around them and grunted approval.

‘That’s the first thing we’ll do. I want the entire hilltop cleared and a defensive ditch dug by nightfall. Only post a small guard until dark; we’ll need every man we’ve got to get the work done in time. You’ll stay and help with the organization, Valerius?’ Paternus gave Lepidus a look of surprise, but Valerius didn’t argue. He’d planned to report directly to Titus, but the Tenth was short of tribunes and he couldn’t refuse his friend. The legate’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you make of the large building to the left in the walled compound? Almost a fort within a fort.’

‘That is the Great Temple.’ They turned to Josephus, who’d just ridden up. ‘The most sacred building in all of Jerusalem, but currently in the hands of the least religious of men. It is protected to the north by the Antonia fortress and to the east by the cliff you see. Even if all Jerusalem were to fall you would still have a fight on your hands to take it. John of Gischala and his Galileans will defend it to the last, may his black heart rot. Do I have your leave to report to General Titus? I have information he might find useful.’

‘Very well, Josephus.’ Lepidus pointed to a large hill a mile to the north-east. ‘He has his headquarters on the mountain. You can accompany the Emesan archers, but ask him if I can have them back at his pleasure. I’ll feel exposed here until we get the defences set up.’ The Judaean bowed and turned to leave, but Lepidus had one more question. ‘What do they call this place?’

The Judaean reached up to pick a green fruit from the tree that shaded them and displayed it in the palm of his hand. ‘Why, they call this hill the Mount of Olives, legate, and the valley down there is the Cedron.’

‘Well, it will be the Mount of Olives no more by the time my lads have done with it.’ Lepidus called for his aides. He nodded a farewell and rode across to where the Tenth’s vanguard had just appeared over the brow of the hill, leaving Valerius and Paternus staring out over the valley to Jerusalem.

‘Will they stand against four legions, do you think?’ the scarred tribune wondered. ‘Titus already has the Twelfth and Fifteenth in position, and the Fifth arrived an hour before we did.’

Valerius remembered the determined defence of Gamala and the little clusters of Judaeans throwing themselves to their deaths.
You will see the true mettle of the Jews at Jerusalem
, Josephus had predicted. ‘Yes, I think they will stand.’

Paternus touched his hand to his ridged cheek in a gesture Valerius guessed was born of habit. ‘Then I fear they will pay for it in pain and blood.’

‘You will be reporting to Titus?’ Valerius asked.

‘Yes. I’ll go with the Judaean.’

‘Please pass on my compliments and tell him I will seek an audience when he has time to see me.’

‘Of course.’ The right side of Paternus’s features twitched up in that curious emotionless smile. ‘It appears Lepidus values your services.’

Valerius could have admitted the truth, that he’d served with the legate in Armenia, but he decided Paternus hadn’t yet earned it. ‘He knows a proper soldier when he sees one,’ he grinned.

The smile froze. ‘Just so. I will ensure Titus receives your message.’

He disappeared off among the trees and Serpentius rode to Valerius’s side. ‘Lady Tabitha is leaving us.’ Valerius nodded distractedly. The Spaniard looked past him to the city walls. ‘So that’s Jerusalem. We won’t get in there as easily as we got into Rome.’

‘What makes you think we’ll be trying?’ Valerius stared at his friend.

Serpentius produced a bark of laughter. ‘If there’s any shit around someone always makes sure we’re the ones who’re in it.’

They spent the next hour sweating in the sun with three centuries of the First cohort, helping construct the camp’s fledgling defences. They began digging a proper ditch at the lower end of the site where it was most vulnerable to attack. From the slope above came the sound of axes as men cleared the dense olive groves, and the air was filled with the sweet scent of freshly hewn wood. Serpentius dug with the rest, but Valerius noticed that he kept glancing in the direction of the city.

‘You think something’s wrong?’ He’d long ago learned to trust the Spaniard’s instincts.

‘I was just noticing the walls are empty, apart from a few guards.’ Serpentius leaned on his mattock and stared towards Jerusalem. ‘If four legions appeared on your doorstep you’d be up there with all your mates, counting their numbers and hating the bastards.’

‘That’s true.’ Valerius followed Serpentius’s gaze. ‘Maybe the city council has told them to stay out of sight so we don’t get a chance to gauge their strength.’

‘Maybe.’ The Spaniard laid down his entrenching tool and stretched for the long sword that lay within reach of his right hand. ‘But I think I’ll take a look— Shit!’

A hundred and fifty paces down the slope thousands of Judaean rebels suddenly exploded from a hidden gully and raced up the hill towards them armed with spears and curved swords. The attackers had climbed the rocky gorge in complete silence, the shadowy depths and their dust-coloured cloaks making them invisible to the guards above. Now they raced screaming into the open.

Valerius yelled at a trumpeter standing nearby, hypnotized by approaching death. ‘Sound the alarm!’

Before they had time to react the guards posted on the lower slopes were either slaughtered or had turned and run. Valerius saw in a single glance that unless someone made a stand the whole camp was about to be overwhelmed.

Serpentius made a movement in the direction of the attackers, but Valerius grabbed his arm. ‘I need you alive with me, not a dead hero,’ he said.

The Spaniard glared at him, but obeyed, automatically moving to Valerius’s right side. As the strident calls of the alarm rang out across the hillside, the first instinct of the unprotected and totally surprised diggers was to reach for their weapons. Like Serpentius, all they had were swords and daggers. Their armour, shields and
pila
javelins were all neatly stacked much too far away in the centre of what would become the fort. From somewhere above Valerius heard cries of consternation and shouted orders which he hoped meant that Lepidus and his officers were already organizing a defensive position. That was all well and good, but these men would never reach them alive. There was only one chance.

‘Form
orbis
on me.’ He sprinted up the rising ground to a cleared area where it flattened out. Serpentius took up the cry as he matched Valerius’s pace and soon hundreds of men were converging on them. Centurions hustled them into the defensive positions they’d practised a thousand times, instinctively creating the circular formation Valerius had ordered. A few dozen more arrived from the rear, led by Albinus, and Valerius saw with relief that they were all carrying shields. He ordered them forward to create a solid barrier in the front rank facing the bulk of the attackers. The veteran centurion came to his side in the centre of what was now more an extended oval than a circle, but would have to do.

‘Not quite so much fun as Gamala.’ Albinus spat the words through gritted teeth, plainly furious that his cohort had been surprised in the open. The last survivors clawed their way into the formation and turned to face the enemy with their swords, but behind them the slow and a few brave men who’d offered their lives to delay the attackers died under Judaean knives. Their agonized cries reached the
orbis
and a growl went up from the legionaries.