The Chariots of Calyx Read online

  Governor Pertinax is a just and even-handed man, but he is also noted for his punctiliousness and sense of duty. I could only hope that this morning his generosity was more in evidence than his severity. I tumbled out of bed at once and began fumbling for my fine new toga to pull on over my humble tunic.

  ‘His Excellence is asking for me?’ I attempted to drape myself hastily in the great length of crisp white cloth. That was a mistake. As anyone who has ever worn a toga knows, putting on that most Roman of garments is not a matter that can be hurried. Loose folds were already detaching themselves and escaping into droopy loops around my knees. But I felt the need to hurry. The governor had shown me great favour by inviting me here at all – to be so late to greet him seemed like woeful disrespect. Better men than I have doubtless been flogged for less.

  The slave watched me for a moment with a kind of pity and then put down his bowl on the carved ebony table and came to my aid.

  ‘Permit me, citizen. After all, that is what I am here for.’ It was true, of course, but the man had such an air of supercilious elegance that I had been ashamed to ask him. Now I had made myself look additionally inept by failing to manage the wretched thing myself.

  He stepped forward with a lofty smile. The snaking toga at once arranged itself into obedient folds in his hands as he unwound me from its coils. ‘There is no need for such haste,’ he said, in the manner of a tolerant tutor-slave. ‘His Excellence has ordered me to bring you water for ablutions. My master understands that after your long journey from Glevum you were naturally weary. And you no doubt wish to wash before you go to see him.’

  I ignored the implied rebuke and breathed out a little. I had been weary, certainly. The journey to Londinium had taken days, and even in an official carriage on the military roads travel on that scale is hard on the bones, especially when you are nearing fifty, as I am, and unaccustomed to such journeying. ‘His Excellence is gracious,’ I said. ‘And perceptive.’

  The slave smiled thinly as he laid aside my garment. If he was appalled at the sight of my second-best tunic, frayed and mended (my best one was at the fuller’s, itself being washed after the journey), he betrayed it only by the flicker of an eyelid.

  ‘Perhaps His Excellence observed your deportment last evening,’ he remarked, picking up the bowl again and coming to sponge my head and neck expertly with the cool water. ‘It was noticed that you were almost asleep at dinner.’

  My heart sank. Another breach of good manners! I had hoped that my weariness would pass unremarked, but the truth was I’d found it difficult to keep my eyes open at the table – especially after my lingering visit to the bath-house, and the relaxing massage with scented oils I had been given to take the jolts out of my joints. The rich food had not helped, either, nor the plentiful supply of Roman wine. I am not accustomed to such luxuries. Perhaps it is as well that the governor is famed for keeping a comparatively spartan table – some banquets would have proved too much for me altogether.

  I had rather prided myself on how well I had kept awake, right through the floor show and the sacrifices – at least when Pertinax was watching. I had even remained sufficiently alert to avoid swallowing any of that dreadful fish sauce which the Romans insist on serving with everything. Yet evidently my drooping eyelids had not escaped detection. No doubt the table-slaves had noticed.

  I wondered if my behaviour when I was shown into this guest-room had also been reported to my host. Probably it had. I had made no attempt to observe the proper formalities – I have no recollection even of lying down. One moment I was surrounded by slaves, being relieved of the festive wreath around my forehead, helped out of my smart new toga (itself a present from the governor) and assisted somewhat unsteadily towards the pillows: the next, it seemed, I was being awoken by this servant. And now the governor was asking for me.

  I thought about this as I permitted the slave to splash cool water over my legs and arms and dry me with a towel. A trickle of apprehension ran down my spine, far colder than the wash. ‘He called for me by all three names, I notice?’

  That was more than an idle observation. It is the mark of a Roman citizen to have three Latin names. As a Celtic noble captured into slavery, I had acquired mine ten years ago, when my master died and bequeathed me his own coveted status together with my freedom. Nevertheless – like that wretched toga – it was a badge of citizenship which sits uncomfortably on me and which I avoid using as far as possible. Even the governor last night had clapped me on the shoulder and called me simply ‘Libertus’. By using my full title now, it seemed he was offering me a rebuke.

  The young attendant ignored the implied question. He folded me deftly into the toga and fastened it with a clasp at my shoulder. ‘There, citizen,’ he said, standing back to admire his handiwork. ‘Now you are fit to attend upon His Excellence. You may eat, first, if you wish.’ His tone suggested that, at this hour, food was a luxury which it would be wisest to forego.

  I sat down on the bed again while he fastened my sandals. I was hungry, but I was obediently ready to decline the offer of breakfast, when the slave went on, ‘My master ordered that food should be prepared for you, and naturally I arranged for bread and fruit – though your slave now tells me that you would have preferred oatcakes.’ A preference for oatcakes, his manner implied, was the ultimate mark of a hopeless barbarian.

  ‘Junio?’ I said. In the anxiety of the morning I had overlooked the fact that my own young slave had accompanied me to Londinium and would be somewhere in the building. Probably resting after the journey. As a guest, I had naturally been provided with a servant from the household as a matter of courtesy, but that did not preclude me from having my own slave attend me too.

  Suddenly I felt aggrieved. I had rescued Junio from a ruffian of a slave-trader when he was no more than a terrified, half-starved child. Surely he could have contrived to come and wake me up at a less socially embarrassing hour? ‘Junio!’ I said again. ‘Where is he?’

  The elegant slave looked disapproving. ‘He is waiting outside with a tray. In case you should have wanted that light repast I spoke of . . .’

  I guessed that Junio had insisted on bringing me breakfast himself. I felt a little better. Somehow with Junio at my side I would feel more comfortable, even in these grandiose surroundings. But my feeling of irritation did not altogether disperse. Junio had been there all this time, hovering outside my door. He could have spared me the humiliation of being washed, dressed and condescended to by this elegant creature.

  ‘Perhaps I will have an apple, after all,’ I said. ‘It would be singularly inappropriate to appear before my host with a stomach grumbling from hunger. You may send Junio in.’

  The slave hesitated a moment, then with a look of reproachful disdain he crossed to the door and flung it open. Junio came in, carrying a tray. The sight of that slight familiar figure with its tousled curls and irrepressible grin gave me a sudden confidence.

  I nodded imperiously to my erstwhile attendant. ‘You may leave us, thank you. And take that dirty water with you. I will call you again when I require you to lead me to His Excellence. Oh, and . . .’ I reached my hand into the leather drawstring purse at my belt and drew out a coin. It was more or less obligatory to tip the servants if one visited a strange house. All I could find was a five as coin – little enough, but I would have been glad of it in my own slave days. Not in this household, however. The look on the young man’s face was almost comical. I really think for a moment he considered giving it back.

  ‘My thanks, citizen,’ he said gravely, and bowed himself out.

  Junio put down his tray on the inlaid table, his grin broader than ever. ‘Your gift did not impress him, master?’ The tray, I saw, carried a platter of fine fruits – figs, dates, medlars, plums and apricots which must have come from all over the Empire. There was nothing so humble as an apple.

  I ignored Junio’s remark and picked up a small brown medlar. It was mellow and ripe, and I sank my teeth into the fragrant fles
h.

  Junio watched me in mock horror. He had been raised as a slave in a Roman household, and seemed to share our conquerors’ misconception that because a ripe medlar looks half rotten it cannot be good to eat. ‘Chosen like a Celt,’ he grinned.

  ‘Enough of your impudence.’ I spoke with as much severity as I could muster. ‘Why did you not come and rouse me earlier, you young scoundrel? You might have saved me the embarrassment of being late for the governor.’

  This time his surprise was genuine. ‘Wake you, master? But it was His Excellence himself who gave orders that you were not to be disturbed. You’d had a long journey already, he said, and it is a long way to Eboracum.’

  That was true. I had been invited to Londinium by the governor on purpose to accompany him to Eboracum. Pertinax had learned from my patron in Glevum that I wished to go there to look for Gwellia – the wife who had been torn from me some twenty years earlier when we were both captured by pirates and sold into slavery – and had arranged to take me with him as a reward for solving a politically embarrassing killing. What Pertinax did not know was that my reasons for making the journey had become redundant. I now knew that Gwellia had been sold on. I had even glimpsed her for one tantalising moment, bound hand and foot on the back of a cart with a whole consignment of other female slaves, being driven south. By now she was probably somewhere in Londinium itself.

  But it was too late. My promised reward was Eboracum, and to Eboracum I would have to go – although it would break my heart to have to leave the capital without searching for her. I had even considered pleading with my host, but of course realistically that was impossible. No sane man dares to appear ungrateful to the governor. All I could do was try to make a few discreet enquiries in the day or two before we left, though in a city this size there was very little hope.

  I sighed.

  Junio misinterpreted it. ‘I am sorry, master, if you wished me to attend you. There were strict instructions sent to the servants’ quarters. You were to be allowed to sleep.’

  ‘But that slave woke me. Said that the governor was asking for me.’

  ‘So he is, now,’ Junio said. ‘But only because of this murder.’

  ‘Murder?’

  It was Junio’s turn to sigh. ‘You mean that supercilious slave didn’t even tell you? Pertinax was receiving his clientes this morning when the message arrived. An important official was killed last night in his own home. One of his slaves was murdered, and his wife – who only married him a few months ago, poor thing – had a narrow escape. There was an intruder, it seems, although the man’s mother is full of accusations.’

  I frowned. ‘But surely this is a matter for the courts? Why does Pertinax want me?’

  Junio grinned. ‘You underestimate your reputation for solving mysteries, master. Marcus must have sung your praises to good effect. The whole household here has heard of you, even the slave who cleans the stables.’

  I might have guessed as much. Marcus Aurelius Septimus is my patron in Glevum and a particular friend and confidant of Pertinax – in fact, he is the governor’s personal representative in our part of the province. I knew that he boasted to Pertinax of my little successes in clearing up one or two earlier unpleasantnesses: not surprisingly, perhaps, since as my official patron Marcus himself received much of the credit. Without that, I would never have found myself in Londinium now, enjoying my ‘reward’. And now Pertinax himself wanted my services! That was alarming in itself, although no doubt it explained the use of my three-fold name.

  I shook my head doubtfully. ‘But those affairs with Marcus were political matters – or they appeared to be. This is hardly the same thing. A domestic murder . . .’ I said it without much conviction. The murdered man had been an important official, Junio had said, but it only made me all the more reluctant to become involved. If I was occupied with that kind of investigation, there was the end of any hope of looking for my wife.

  Junio smiled. ‘Not all that domestic. There is also the little matter of some missing document or other. To say nothing of an awful lot of tax money. Or so the servants here are saying – one of them overheard the messenger. So if you have quite finished with that medlar, master, perhaps you had better let me wipe your chin and then you can call that slave and go and see the governor. No doubt he will tell you all about it.’

  Chapter Two

  The governor was waiting for me.

  I was shown into his receiving room – a vast, pillared chamber dotted with statues, silken hangings and wonderful carved and inlaid furniture. At once His Excellence waved away his remaining clientes, rose from the magisterial couch and stood at the top of the shallow steps on the receiving dais to welcome me in person. Only his private bodyguard – half a dozen huge auxiliaries from the African provinces, the muscles in their naked arms rippling under their smooth brown skin – remained, silent and watchful around the edges of the room. However, I was favoured. For the Roman governor, this counted as a private audience.

  The governor himself was an imposing sight. Publius Helvius Pertinax was of course a soldier – general-in-chief of all the cohorts and legions in Britannia – and he had chosen this morning to dress like one. He was only of middle height, and no longer young, but in that uniform he looked every inch a governor. Somehow the glittering breastplate and leather skirts made him seem far more imperial and intimidating than the splendid Roman robes he had worn to the banquet the night before. Add to that the watching guards, and his own naturally rather severe face and formal manner, and you will see why, despite Junio’s assurances, my agitation about being late was in no way allayed.

  ‘Ten thousand apologies, Mightiness,’ I stammered, hurrying up the steps as fast as I could, and flinging myself abjectly to my knees upon the topmost one. Uncomfortable, but unexpectedly effective. I had intended to make the humblest of obeisances, but in my hurry to prostrate myself I caught my kneecap on the edge of the stair. I bit back the exclamation that rose to my lips, but when I raised my eyes towards my ruler the tears in them were genuine.

  He must have noticed them. The stern face softened to a smile. ‘Citizen pavement-maker.’ He extended a hand, upon which so many rings and seals were set that they looked like finger-armour. ‘Do not distress yourself. I am glad to find you rested.’

  I accepted this as an invitation to rise, and having duly pressed my forehead to the hand I did so, although with difficulty. The blow to my knee had deprived me momentarily of all power of intelligent speech, so I simply nodded in what I hoped was a dutifully grateful manner.

  The governor wasted no time. ‘I am sorry to have wakened you, my friend, but I am in need of your advice. No doubt you have heard about this unfortunate business in the city?’ He sat down on the couch again as he spoke, picked up an elaborate ebony-handled fly-switch from the table (a memento from his service in the Syrian legions, perhaps) and gestured to a footstool at his side.

  I sat down where he had indicated, and said carefully, ‘I heard that there had been an unexpected death.’

  He eyed me shrewdly. ‘A death, certainly. Of one of the city’s senior officials too. How unexpected it is I could not say. There have been so many plots and counter-plots lately – as you know, since you so brilliantly helped to uncover one.’

  There was no decently modest answer to that, so I said nothing, and merely attempted to look at once grave and deeply interested. In fact, every alarm-goose in my head was already hissing urgent warnings. Ten minutes ago I had been concerned lest I had earned Pertinax’s disapproval – now it was his approval that worried me still more. And with reason. I had been lucky to escape from that last investigation with my life. If the governor was about to ask for my help – as I had a terrible premonition that he was – I could soon find myself playing political ludus latinorum again, with my head once more as the stake.

  A stake that I would be very likely to lose. I could see that. The penalties for killing a senior public official are so horrible that people will do a great de
al to avoid facing them. Like murder me, for instance; to anyone who has already disposed of a man of wealth and influence, the life of a mosaic-making ex-slave would mean very little. On the other hand, it means a lot to me. I have no wish to find myself prematurely designing pavements for Pluto. And yet I could hardly ignore the orders of the governor.

  ‘What kind of man was he?’ I asked brightly, as soon as Pertinax had finished outlining what he knew. ‘This Caius Monnius Loveinius? Do you know if he had enemies?’ If I asked enough questions immediately, I reasoned, I might deflect His Excellence from issuing any specific orders or from asking any favours, which – coming from the governor – would amount to very much the same thing.

  The governor looked at me keenly. ‘Enemies? Half of Londinium held grudges, I imagine. He was frumentarius for the city – and doing very well out of it.’

  I nodded glumly. ‘I see.’

  I did see. No man ever became a frumentarius in the hope of making friends. When one individual is responsible for the constant provision, warehousing and sale of corn, even for a smallish town, resentments are inevitable. Here, in a large city, it must be a thousand times worse. The best a frumentarius can hope for is to avoid being dragged in effigy on the hook around the streets – by the inhabitants every time there is a famine, and by the farmers and carters whenever there is a glut. No one loves a corn officer.

  ‘Only half Londinium has a grudge?’ I said, with a smile.

  Pertinax did not acknowledge the jest. ‘Everyone needs grain, and it is impossible for a frumentarius to please everybody.’

  No doubt it is an unenviable job, given the British vagaries of wind and weather. Doubtless, too, there are corn officers who are ornaments to their office, trying to ensure good-quality grain at a reasonable price to all comers, and whose accumulation of golden treasure is limited to the edible variety in their granaries. I can only report that I have never met one. On the other hand everyone, from baker to town official, cavalryman to cook, will seek to bribe and flatter a frumentarius, at least to his face. As the governor so rightly said, everybody needs grain.