The Far Shore (39 page)

‘Now let’s see what’s in here.’

Eborius reached into the bag and pulled out three rolled-up sheets, each tied with a piece of twine. It was customary for names and addresses to be written in a corner or on a separate label but there was nothing.

‘Who are these for?’ Eborius asked as he passed the sheets to Cassius.

Lucius wiped his wet cheeks with his sleeve. ‘Don’t know, sir.’

‘Then how can you deliver them?’

‘I know where they’re to go.’

‘Which house?’

‘Three different houses. And I’m not to ask who lives there. Master tells me the directions five times so I don’t forget. He says he uses me because I always remember it right.’

‘How long have you worked for him?’ Cassius asked.

‘Not long. Last time was a few weeks ago. I didn’t know he was back until he came to get me this morning.’

Turning to Cassius, Eborius switched to Greek. ‘Lad lives with his grandfather – who can barely hear or see.’

‘Master chose his messenger well,’ observed Cassius.

‘Have you delivered anything else today?’ he asked Lucius, switching back to Latin.

The lad shook his head.

‘But you’ve delivered to those houses before?’

‘Two of them.’

‘How many times?’

‘Three or four.’

Cassius undid the twine and examined the first sheet. The paper was new and unmarked. He checked his fingers were clean before handling it.

Eborius leaned over and looked at it. ‘Looks like a shopping list.’

‘Precisely as intended, I imagine.’

Cassius opened the other two. Exact copies.

‘Can I go soon?’ asked Lucius. ‘I’m supposed to go back and tell Master I delivered them safely.’

Cassius and Eborius exchanged grimaces.

‘Can you get the addresses from him?’ Cassius asked the centurion. ‘I need to look at this.’

‘Of course.’

As Eborius asked Lucius about the first house, Cassius took one of the letters and walked past the hearth into the villa’s only other room. He stood close to the rear door; out of sight, but with enough light to examine the sheet.

The list detailed twelve separate foodstuffs and was split into three sections: a single line at the top, then a space, then five lines, then another space, then six lines.

Cassius gazed at it. What could be hidden in such a short, uncomplicated note? A time and a place perhaps? Dio had only been back a day; if the three recipients were involved in the Memor plot, was he now arranging a meeting?

The solitary first line suggested a key for the code.

Three pounds of millet.

Three. Wishing he had his satchel with the charcoal and paper, Cassius looked at the third letter of each food but could come up with nothing. Then he tried the third letter from the end but again the letters didn’t seem to form words. He looked at the first letter of the third word in each line, then the first letter of the third word from the end of the line. Nothing.

Perhaps the first line was intended to mislead?

Cassius decided to ignore it and focus on each line in turn. Place and time; he felt sure they were in there somewhere. But still he could see no pattern.

Eborius walked into the room. ‘Got the addresses, but he needs to go soon. How are you doing?’

Cassius held up a hand and didn’t take his eyes off the sheet. ‘Please.’

Was there a pre-existing key? If so, it might prove impossible to break the code.

He looked again at the second group of foods. The pattern of the words at the end of each line was unusual; as if it had been rearranged to accommodate the cipher. Cassius tried taking the last letter of the first line, then the penultimate letter of the second line and continuing from there. It wasn’t difficult to rearrange the letters from the first group into a word.
Fifth.

Fifth hour. Considering the time, presumably that night. But where?

He tried the same approach with the second block of lines but got nowhere. Then he realised it was continuous – he needed the sixth letter from the end of the sixth line, the seventh from the end of the seventh and so on.

Cassius repeated the six new letters to himself but couldn’t find the word. Then he turned the sheet over and imagined them on the blank page, pictured moving them around to form new words.

In moments he was smiling. Hurrying into the other room, he beckoned Eborius over and whispered to him. ‘Is there a quarry here?’

‘Two miles west up the coast. Not been used in years.’

‘Then we have what we need. It seems our friend Dio is a better killer than he is a spy.’

They returned to the hearth. Cassius retied the twine on the sheets and Eborius placed them carefully back in the bag. The lad had at last stopped crying.

‘I told Lucius we’ll give him the aureus once he’s delivered the notes and told his master all’s well,’ announced Eborius.

‘Absolutely,’ said Cassius, taking the coin from his purse and giving the lad another good look at it before handing it to Eborius.

‘I also told him our men will be watching him every step of the way, and that as long as he does as he’s told, everything will be fine.’

‘Quite right.’

Lucius stood and gave his face a last wipe.

Eborius placed the bag over his shoulder. ‘Off you go then, lad.’

Lucius ran out of the dwelling.

‘Poor little sod,’ said the centurion.

‘That poor little sod might just have led us to the people who hired Dio. What about these addresses?’

‘The first is at the far eastern end of town. There’s only one occupied house around there and it belongs to Galenus Frugi.’

‘Know him?’

‘Yes. We don’t get many new arrivals and he’s only been with us a year or so. As I understand it, Frugi was in a position of some authority in the province of Pontus. During the struggle for power after Claudius’s death, he was a supporter of Quintillus. When Aurelian ended up as emperor—’

‘He was out of favour. Not the first to pay the price for backing the wrong side.’

‘Indeed. I believe he never speaks of it, but everyone knows he was exiled here.’

‘Pontus was one of the provinces Memor dealt with. Now we’re getting somewhere. Number two?’

‘I know the house well. Dilius Nepos. He’s been here rather longer – three or four years. Again, nothing was said publicly, but when he arrived I was still party to such information. He was a magistrate in Cappadocia. Apparently got himself involved with some whore who turned out to be a Goth spy.’

‘Cappadocia. Another of Memor’s provinces. Looks like we can cancel our trip to the library. The pieces are slotting into place.’

‘I’m afraid there’s still a big piece missing. The third address is a farmhouse on the edge of town. Not been inhabited for years. Lucius says his master told him to just leave the note inside the door. He’s never been sent there before. One of the three notes always goes to a different place. Always somewhere quiet.’

‘So our third man takes even more precautions than the others,’ said Cassius. ‘Might be the leader.’

‘That farmhouse is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by open ground. It would be almost impossible for us to get close.’

‘Then we shan’t bother. Neither shall we attempt to monitor the other two. The more we expose ourselves, the more chance there is of alerting one of them and there’s no need now. We know exactly when and where they’re going to be.’

‘But this third man. Could be anyone.’

‘We’ll find out soon enough.’

Cassius looked out of the doorway, at the empty, silent street. ‘Up to this point, I’d thought one man had hired Dio. But three? I suppose if it was to happen anywhere, it would be Darnis or somewhere like it – one of the far shores where those discarded by the Empire wash up. I wonder how it started.’

‘Maybe they just got talking one day,’ said Eborius. ‘Found out they had something in common.’

‘It might just have been that simple. I imagine they thought they were safely out of reach here. Listen, there’ll be four of them at the quarry at least. Do you have five reliable men?’

‘All my men are reliable, but five’s a good number if you intend to spring a trap. What do you have in mind?’

‘I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Come, let’s get back to the others. We can talk on the way.’

The
Fortuna Redux
was quiet. Asdribar had made arrangements with Eborius to take the crew to the tavern where the men of the Second Century drank – apparently the only functioning hostelry in the whole of Darnis. The centurion had sent two of his men along to supervise, but Asdribar had given assurances there wouldn’t be any trouble. Of the sailors, only the eldest and youngest were still aboard – eating dinner together in the galley.

It was the first hour of night and Cassius stood alone at the side-rail, hands cold beneath his cloak, gazing down at the reflected crescent moon. He couldn’t decide if a clear night was helpful or not, considering what lay ahead.

Simo and Indavara were below too, also eating. Cassius couldn’t face a thing, though he planned a fortifying swig of wine before leaving the ship. What he needed was a few moments alone to run over the plan; ensure no crucial detail had been overlooked.

He and Indavara were to meet Eborius and his squad at the arch at the second hour, then set off for the quarry. The site was very close to the sea and a covert approach could be made from a path that ran along the shore. Eborius felt certain that Dio and his associates would arrive via one of the access roads that connected the quarry to the Via Cyrenaica west of Darnis. The centurion had also suggested that all armour be left behind and the men wear dark, hooded cloaks.

They would arrive well before the fifth hour, find a suitable location from which to observe the meeting then – at Cassius’s signal – intervene and arrest the conspirators. He’d been concerned that perhaps there weren’t enough of them but Eborius reminded him that – whoever the third man turned out to be – both Galenus Frugi and Dilius Nepos were the wrong side of fifty.

Noster and another legionary were still stationed opposite Dio’s villa. They would wait for the assassin to leave, then meet the others at an arranged point close to the quarry. Assuming the arrest went to plan, the conspirators would be brought back to the ship and kept captive below decks.

That afternoon, Asdribar had taken delivery of the length of timber that would become the new yard. The crew had been labouring all afternoon but the captain estimated it would take them another full day to complete the work. He’d promised Cassius the
Fortuna
would be ready to leave by dawn the day after that.

Eborius, meanwhile, seemed almost as impatient as Cassius to see the affair swiftly concluded. The troubling uncertainty of the mysterious third man remained, and they still knew very little about Dio. Frugi and Nepos both had young wives and hired staff. Once they were declared missing, suspicion might easily fall on the visitors, not to mention the only seagoing ship in the harbour.

Eborius was above all concerned that Lafrenius Leon and Centurion Carnifex might become involved. Fortunately, they had their own concerns to deal with: Indavara’s encounter with the young warriors hadn’t been an isolated incident. It seemed the Maseene were becoming more brazen by the day; there had been several skirmishes close to the town and there were rumours that the previously disunited tribal clans were now coming together to take on Carnifex and his men. Cassius guessed this was the other reason why Eborius wanted the matter resolved and the
Fortuna
gone.

He turned and looked at the town. The sight of a settlement was usually a reassuring one: the warmth, the light, the noise – the sense of an ordered community forged from barren, primitive lands. But there was no comfort to be found here; Darnis was a place of shadow and ruin, where the normal rules of civilised society didn’t seem to apply.

The deckhouse door opened. Cassius hoped whichever of the women it was wouldn’t notice him; he didn’t need such distractions.

‘Officer.’

Cassius cursed quietly to himself before he turned. ‘Miss.’

Earlier that evening, he’d been to see Annia to keep her apprised of developments, though he’d been purposefully vague regarding the conspirators and the night-time operation. With so much still unknown, he didn’t want to raise her hopes that a resolution was close.

She walked across the darkened deck and stood next to him. ‘I thought you might be gone by now.’

‘Soon, miss.’

Annia looked out across the harbour. ‘I’ve been thinking about them. These men who ordered the killing. How they must have despised him.’

‘All enemies of Rome in their way,’ said Cassius. ‘To some, exile is considered a kind of death. They blamed your father for it.’

‘Why can’t you tell me their names?’

‘I believe I explained myself earlier, miss. We have moved forward but I know very little for certain.’

‘If you do arrest them, if you bring them aboard – I want to see them.’

‘Miss Annia, please. I cannot concern myself with this now. You did assure me you would remain in the deckhouse until morning.’

‘Very well.’

She took two paces, then stopped.

‘I have a right to know who they are. Without me we wouldn’t even be here – we wouldn’t even have found them. I just want to see them. Their faces. That’s all.’