Pavo gulped, not entirely reassured by this. ‘But why do your elders despise us?’
‘You may not like my answer, legionary,’ she said, her eyes meeting his.
‘Perhaps not, but I’d prefer some answer to none,’ he shrugged.
Izodora pulled in a deep breath and nodded, as if bracing herself. ‘Seven years ago, I was just a girl,’ she looked over to the little girl now being tossed up and down in the air by Habitus, ‘only a few years older than her. We lived in Roman lands and there were many more of us then – ten times more. My people enjoyed villas, wells, orchards of date palms and vast green fields to graze our goats. We were good people, with good hearts,’ she clasped a hand to her breast, ‘well, most of us were. Some grew greedy, yes, and withheld taxes from the empire. Others took to brigandage. One band ambushed a patrol of Roman scouts and killed many of them.’
Pavo held out his hands in bemusement. ‘Show me a people who don’t have such characters in their midst.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Tell me then, how would you deal with such troubles?’
Pavo squirmed at this, sure he would step on the worst possible answer. ‘Trap and gut the bastards who darken the name of their people. Or offer money to the good-hearted folk to turn in those who cause unrest. It wouldn’t be nice, but . . . ’
‘It wouldn’t, but in comparison to what happened,’ she shook her head. ‘Your Emperor, Valens, the man you fight for, decided to eradicate such troubles in his own way. In a single night raid, a cohort of legionaries fell upon my village. They sought out not just the brigands and the tax thieves, but every last one of us. I watched as they cut down my friends as if slaughtering cattle. They dragged my mother from her bed, my baby sister in her arms. They took them outside and led them to a pyre . . . ’ her eyes grew glassy and she looked away with a snarl, her fists balled.
Pavo rested a hand on her shoulder and let a silence pass while she composed herself. At that moment, he remembered why the name of the Maratocupreni had sounded familiar. The rumours of their fate had spread around the empire some years ago. The stories of the mass burnings had sounded so brutal they had come across as apocryphal. Not so, it seemed. ‘Now I truly do not understand why you saved us today?’
‘Because, without your kind, we . . . this,’ she swept a hand over the valley, ‘would not be here. Of the cohort sent to destroy us, one contubernium saw the brutality around them and took no part in it. They found me, cowering in terror. They led me and a cluster of others from the burning village and sent us off into the night, with little more than our mounts and what food and water we could carry.’ She looked him in the eye, wiping defiantly at a tear that escaped down her cheek. ‘Do you understand now?’
‘I think so,’ Pavo offered.
‘But if I have chosen wrongly. If you and your men have come to these lands looking to slaughter in the name of your glorious empire . . . ’
Pavo grabbed both her shoulders this time, firmly. ‘Never,’ he gasped. ‘The men you see here have only ever known desperate wars of defence. You have to believe me.’
She said nothing, her eyes searching him. Her gaze seemed to lure out some of the blacker memories from the recesses of Pavo’s mind. He slumped, nodding. ‘In my time in the legions, there has been much blood spilled, I cannot deny that. I know only too well some of the gruesome deeds I have had to carry out, times when I have had to make the hardest of choices to protect the few I love.’
She cocked her head to one side at this, her expression lightening momentarily. ‘This, I can understand. In these last years I have faced many such moments, and hard choices indeed. Perhaps we have more in common than I first thought.’ Then, as if a storm cloud had passed overhead, her expression grew dark once more. ‘But if you only fight wars of defence, then tell me why, a few weeks ago, I watched a full legion marching this way, headed east as if to challenge Persia,’
Pavo’s eyes darted. The IV Scythica?
‘And now I find you and your men marching in their tracks.’
‘I know nothing of this other legion. Other than that they were sent out to combat some Persian raid. The empire is in no state to attempt any kind of invasion of Persia – indeed, that is why we are here.’
Izodora’s eyes narrowed.
Pavo darted his tongue out to lick his lips. He looked past her shoulder to see that the campfires were now doused. Most of the legionaries were disappearing inside their tents and the Maratocupreni to their caves. Gallus had insisted that they were to keep their brief private, but in his heart he knew he had to tell her.