While the verbal sparring continued, Valerius found himself the undisguised focus of dark, slanting eyes from behind Caecina’s left shoulder. He returned her stare, trying desperately not to smile. Spurinna was right. A true beauty. A long aristocratic nose, with high cheekbones and pouting cherry-red lips. The look she gave him was languid, considering and … he almost choked … heavy with promise. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was true. He could almost hear her purring. But look again and there was something else in those eyes, the kind of gold-flecked shadows you saw in a hungry leopard’s. He decided that he didn’t envy Aulus Caecina Alienus his nights after all. He dragged his eyes away, but not before he saw a knowing smile touch her lips.
‘… and we promise you a warm welcome.’
Caecina sighed. ‘I am a generous man. I will give you two hours to accept my Emperor’s offer. After that, there will be no more talk and no more mercy.’ He leapt athletically into the saddle and dragged his horse’s head round. ‘Two hours,’ he repeated. ‘Two hours and then it begins. Surrender and you will live. If my legions have to take those walls, everyone inside them will die.’
As they marched back towards the gate, Spurinna’s face split in a savage grin.
‘Two hours, my … I know his kind. Aulus Caecina Alienus could sell a wooden leg to a four-legged dog, but at heart he’s a backstabber. He’ll have them on us as soon as he can get spears in their hands.’
By the time he reached the makeshift camp, Caecina was having doubts about the wisdom of his generosity. Spurinna’s talk of ravening wolves had made him nervous, because he knew the old man was right. He had to finish this quickly, not least because that dog’s turd Valens might arrive soon to steal the glory. He exchanged a glance with his wife and she nodded.
‘We will attack immediately,’ he said. ‘Have the leading cohorts ready with their scaling ladders in thirty minutes.’
His military tribune frowned. ‘But, general, we haven’t sited the artillery yet and the heavy ballistae won’t be here until nightfall.’
But the legate wouldn’t be moved. ‘They think they have two hours. We will take them by surprise. One swift charge will take the walls, and I will be drinking from Spurinna’s cup before nightfall.’
Domitia was waiting for Valerius on the battlements where she had watched the negotiations. ‘Was she pretty?’
The question left him groping for an answer that wouldn’t offend and a short-lived thrill of panicked guilt. How could she have known? ‘Does it matter?’ The walnut eyes pinned him in their frank stare and he stumbled on. ‘As it happens, she was very beautiful.’
She nodded as if it was only right and reached down to touch his left hand, running soft fingers over skin calloused to the texture of leather by daily sword practice. ‘If I were to have my life again, I would choose to be a warrior queen riding into battle side by side with my king.’ The fingers fluttered away, but he dared not look at her and his throat felt as if it was filled with pebbles.
‘You should go,’ he said, as gently. ‘It will not be safe here for much longer.’ But when he turned she was already gone.
Valerius tightened the straps of the bronze helmet Serpentius had brought him from Placentia’s armoury and tested the point of his sword. He knew it was keen enough, because he’d sharpened it himself, but it was a warrior’s ritual and rituals were important to a soldier. When Domitia had left him on the battlements he’d felt a curious mixture of loss and elation. He wanted her to be safe, but he missed the warmth of her touch and the strength she gave him. He knew she was in danger, but her presence in Placentia made something inside him soar; a terrible feeling of anger and power and violence, and a sense of invincibility he had never felt before. What better reason to fight and die than to protect the one you … yes, he could admit it to himself now … the one you loved. Today, he would fight at the right hand of the gods. Today he was Mars the Avenger come to earth, and any man who crossed this wall would live only long enough to regret it. His face set in a grim half-smile he could barely control and he knew – knew – that though he had tested the gods’ patience with his unspoken boasts he would live to enjoy this day. Let them come. He felt Serpentius’s eyes on him and he saw that the Spaniard sensed the change in him.
‘A pity we didn’t have time for me to carve you a new hand,’ the gladiator said. ‘A man without a shield on a day like today is only asking to get killed.’