Boudicca looked down at her daughters as they were thrown wailing to the ground. 'Stop that noise!' she shouted. 'Fight them, hate them, curse them but don't cry for them.' Another lash of the whip returned her to repet.i.tive invocations as the three girls, now spitting curses in emulation of their mother, were pinned down, willing hands holding wrists and ankles. Even as the first troopers forced their way into each of them they did not cry out, nor did they submit peacefully during their ordeal and many an auxiliary had bite marks on his face by the time he had finished.

And so Vespasian watched as the mother was scourged and the daughters were raped again and again and again and he knew that what Decia.n.u.s had done was irreversible and, with the legions busy in the north and the west, it was an act of such imbecilic foolhardiness as to take one's breath away.

The procurator had just pushed the Iceni nation into war.

Vespasian and his companions lay, still bound, on the damp earth as the auxiliaries loaded the strongboxes filled with Seneca's gold and silver onto a four-horse wagon. 'What about us, Decia.n.u.s?' he shouted at the procurator. 'Are you just going to leave us here to be the objects of vengeance for your foolishness?'

Decia.n.u.s looked down at Vespasian, a look of indifference on his battered and bleeding face; he wiped some blood away from his swollen mouth with the back of his hand. 'Calling me fool is, I would say, a foolish way to go about pleading for your life.'

'Forcing a peaceful tribe into rebellion is the act of a fool.'

'Rebellion? Now who's being the fool? They won't rebel; they wouldn't dare to. They haven't got the manpower; look.' He gestured around the settlement. 'This is their largest town; it's pitiful.'

'But how many other towns and villages do they have? I've seen a Britannic army, I've seen a few in fact, and I've seen how empty this land looks to be. But tell me, Decia.n.u.s, where did the armies that I've seen come from? You're the procurator of the province; you know how many men from each tribe are subject to tax. Do you think the Iceni are any different? There are thousands of them; all they have to do is muster and then they'll be coming after you and every other Roman in this province and every Roman death will be laid at your feet.'

Decia.n.u.s sneered as behind him his men started to mount up having finished loading. 'If that's the case then I'll leave you all here and make the first deaths yours, so you can't spread your t.i.ttle-tattle.'

'Killing us won't cover your tracks,' Sabinus said, struggling against his bonds. 'The Emperor will hear how this rebellion started, one way or another; the prefect of your auxiliary ala, for example.'

Decia.n.u.s shook his head slowly as he smiled in mock regret. 'Nymphidius Sabinus knows how to keep his mouth shut because I know what keeps it shut. Besides, the Emperor will care only for the millions that I bring him and he'll have that money within a couple of months; long before the Iceni manage to muster their entire strength, if your supposition is right and if they dare to. Two very big "ifs", Vespasian.' He turned away and strode, with a brief glance down at the semi-conscious bodies of Boudicca and her daughters, to his waiting horse. 'Pull out, Nymphidius! We'll travel as fast as possible.' He hauled himself up into the saddle and, without looking back, kicked his horse forward to join the column that was already streaming out of the settlement through the South Gate.

'This is not looking that good,' Magnus said, eyeing the warriors who were now emerging from the huts and narrow lanes between them.

'Try getting at the knot.' Vespasian rolled onto his side so that they were back to back; Sabinus was attempting to wriggle his wrists free whilst Caenis struggled to her feet and staggered towards the Queen.

The last of the auxiliaries rode out of sight and the build-up of warriors continued; there were now a couple of dozen men walking out into the marketplace, a few of them armed. Magnus struggled with Vespasian's knot, tearing at it with his fingernails but to no avail.

Vespasian adjusted his position. 'Here, let me try yours.'

Magnus held his wrists back so that the knot was available. 'As fast as you like, sir,' he urged as the warriors spotted them lying in amongst the bodies of their fallen comrades and royal family. 'Otherwise it'll be a pointless exercise in a few moments, if you take my meaning?'

Vespasian did but he was struggling as fast as he could and not having any success.

Caenis screamed as she was battered to the ground by the first warrior to reach Boudicca; the Queen stirred, moaning. A couple more of her men helped her up as another wrapped a cloak about her to cover her b.l.o.o.d.y nakedness; half a dozen more approached Vespasian, Magnus and Sabinus; spears and swords were in their hands and hatred on their faces.

Rough hands hauled the Romans to their knees and harsh voices shouted at them in their unintelligible tongue.

Vespasian felt a hand clamp itself on his skull and his head was pulled back to expose his throat. Next to him Magnus and Sabinus were in the same position.

'No!' Caenis shrieked, cutting across the growing shouts of outrage.

Boudicca's voice barked what sounded like an order and Vespasian closed his eyes, waiting for the blood to start flowing down his throat; the blood that would drown him. He felt the cool of the blade as it pressed against his skin and a short prayer to Mars flashed through his consciousness as Boudicca barked again. The hand holding the knife to his throat tensed and Vespasian felt a trickle of sweat roll down his back; the blade, however, did not bite but, rather, was withdrawn and then used to cut his bonds. He was helped to his feet; he opened his eyes and saw that his companions, too, were also being released.

'What the f.u.c.k happened there?' Magnus muttered, rubbing his wrists.

'I've got no idea,' Vespasian said as he watched Caenis being brought before Boudicca.

After a brief conversation Caenis bowed her head to the Queen and then walked back over to Vespasian. 'We're free to go,' she said, the relief she felt palpable in her voice.

Vespasian stared at her, incredulous. 'Why?'

'Because we both tried to stop Decia.n.u.s; she wants to show us Romans the meaning of honour.'

Vespasian looked over at Boudicca who was kneeling by her daughters, weeping as women from the tribe wiped the blood from between their legs and comforted them after their ordeal. She sensed Vespasian's gaze and stood to face him. 'Tell the truth about what happened here, Roman; do not let that man give a twisted version of events. You know what I must do, what will happen; make sure, Roman, that your people understand why and know who is responsible.'

Vespasian walked towards her. 'You know you'll never win, don't you?'

Boudicca shrugged, wincing with the pain of her shredded back as she did so. 'Perhaps; perhaps not. But what I do know is that I will descend on your province like a Fury from your tales. You are the last Roman I'll ever talk to; from now on my blade is all that your people will get from me. Now go and tell your compatriots that to stay on this island is to die.' She pierced him with a glare of resolve firmed by hatred; nodded once and then turned away, walking upright with dignity despite the wounds to her back.

'I think we'd better find our horses before she changes her mind,' Sabinus said, retrieving his sword from the ground.

'She won't change her mind,' Caenis a.s.serted. 'Not a woman like that; not with her strength.'

'Well, I ain't about to stick around and find out,' Magnus said, having retrieved Castor and Pollux.

Vespasian watched the Queen go. 'We're perfectly safe; Caenis is right: she won't change her mind. There's great strength in that woman; what stupidity for Decia.n.u.s to have directed it against us. Let's go.'

'Which way should we head?' Sabinus asked as they mounted their horses. 'Decia.n.u.s is on the south road and I don't much fancy getting captured by that little s.h.i.+t seeing as he's already tried to feed us to the Britons.'

Vespasian steadied his high-stepping mount with a couple of sharp tugs on the reins. 'South would be no good for us anyway; there're only a few auxiliary cohorts there and undefended towns. We go west and then when we've cleared the marshland we head north to the Ninth Hispana's camp at Lindum; Cerialis will be able to get a message to Paulinus. Unless the legions mobilise before the Iceni can muster, the province will be lost.'

CHAPTER XII.

IT WAS EXHAUSTING because it was relentless, and it was relentless because there was no time to lose; the journey had to be completed as quickly as possible. They rose and retired with the sun, using all its precious light to navigate, pausing only to rotate the horses, fill their water-skins and relieve themselves; meals were taken in the saddle. The saving factor was that the way, for the most part, was flat; this made the going easier for the horses but, at the same time, did nothing to impede the pa.s.sage of a cruel east wind that clawed at their backs as they drove west, hurling sheeting rain after them and inveigling its cold fingers into damp clothes, chilling them despite the exertion of riding. The terrain was low-lying and riddled with brooks, streams, drainage ditches and marshes, paradise for water fowl, of which there were uncounted amounts, but treacherous for the delicate legs of horses, and by the time they had made the pa.s.sage south of the marshes and had begun to head northwest, two of the beasts had already succ.u.mbed to leg-breaking troughs; they had been put out of their misery and steaks had been cut from their rumps to be broiled hanging over the campfire in the evening. The meat was not to the Roman taste but outrunning, as they were, the rumour of rebellion, they had no wish to allow news of the Iceni's muster to overtake them for the sake of hunting game. Only Castor and Pollux managed to vary their diet but with creatures so mangled that they were not fit for human consumption.

On the third day they came to the road running north from Londinium to Lindum; their pace increased as they raced alongside it in the well-cared-for shorter gra.s.s to either side of the gently cambered stones, pa.s.sing the occasional military supply vehicle but very little else and certainly not the thing that Vespasian and Sabinus were keeping a lookout for. Grim-faced and silent they rode, each immersed in his, or her, own thoughts or finding respite by retreating into the numbness of no thought at all, having allowed the ceaseless beat of horses' hoofs to drive all from their minds.

The miles sped by in pace but trudged by in time, each more painful on the raw thighs and bruised b.u.t.tocks than the last; the sheepskins covering the saddles a torment now but far better than the hard leather and wood constructs that they protected against.

Magnus looked down at his dogs, bounding along beside them, tongues lolling from loose, saliva-flecked lips, exposing vicious teeth. 'My boys don't know how lucky they are,' he mused to no one in particular, s.h.i.+fting his position on the saddle for the hundredth time in the last hour. 'Not only they don't have sore b.a.l.l.s and a.r.s.es but even if they did they could lick them better.'

'They lick them whether they're sore or not,' Vespasian pointed out, truthfully.

'Yeah, well, that's because they can. I mean who wouldn't if one could.' He grimaced, sucking the breath between his teeth. 'Saving your presence, obviously, Caenis.'

'That's all right, Magnus,' Caenis said, adjusting herself and making a point of showing just how uncomfortable she was too. 'I'm just as sore as you and if I could I would too.'

Magnus muttered something unintelligible and would have gone red had his face not already been ruddy from exertion.

Vespasian essayed a laugh but found that his heart was not in it.

'Vespasian,' Sabinus said, peering ahead and s.h.i.+elding his eyes from the drizzle. 'Look!'

Vespasian stared for a moment and then looked with relief at his brother. 'At last.'

They stopped the imperial courier by lining their mounts across the road; the trooper was not amused. 'It's an offence to obstruct an imperial courier,' he said, looking Vespasian and his companions up and down and, unsurprisingly after their many days in the saddle, not liking what he saw.

Vespasian was not in the mood to explain himself. 'Where are you headed, trooper?'

The man stared in shock at his temerity and was about to give his opinion of such insolence when something caught his eye; he shut his mouth and saluted. 'Camulodunum, sir.'

Vespasian glanced at his senator's ring and made it more visible to the trooper. 'Good; you will go to the Urban prefect there, Julius Paelignus, and you will tell him that Senators Vespasian and Sabinus urge him to complete the town's defences in whatever way he can by the new moon and then look to the north. The Iceni are being roused and will fall upon him first. He should advise all the colonists in the area to gather in Camulodunum and then pray that they can hold out until the legions arrive; do I make myself clear?'

The trooper gawped at him and then saluted again. 'Yes, sir.'

'And he should send urgent messages to the Governors of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior telling them the situation and beg them to send whatever troops they can spare.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Repeat the message.'

'One more thing,' Vespasian continued once the man had done so to his satisfaction. 'You must stress to Paelignus that this is not a joke at his expense or a hoax but a genuine warning; tell him that I said that if it was just him there I would gladly let the Iceni arrive unannounced to carve him up, but in this case I'm sending him a warning in order to save other Roman lives, not his. Understand?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Good. How many miles is it to the next imperial rest post?'

'Seventeen, sir; the new fort of Durobrivae.'

Vespasian looked at the sky and judged that they could make that by dusk or at least soon after. 'May our G.o.ds go with you, trooper, and do not go near any bands of natives.'

The man swallowed hard, scanning the road ahead for any danger, saluted and then, as Vespasian and Sabinus moved aside for him, sped away.

That night Vespasian, with Caenis next to him, slept more deeply than he had for a long time such was his exhaustion; the modern facilities at the fort, designed to hold, at the maximum, a cohort, had done much to relax him. The prefect in command, Quintus Mannius, had been most generous once he had found out who his guests were. The bath house had been reviving, the food and wine sustaining and Caenis entertaining although her saddle-soreness did preclude some manoeuvres.

Rising before dawn, to the blare of bucinae sounding reveille, Vespasian wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked at his lover, curled up next to him, her skin aglow in the light of the night-lamp. 'I'm going to get Mannius to provide an escort for you back down to Londinium, my love.'

Caenis stirred and opened an eye. 'Hmm?'

Vespasian repeated himself.

'And what good would that do?'

'It would see you safe; Galla could get you pa.s.sage to the mainland and you would be away before the Iceni head south.'

'What makes you so sure that they are going south? They could head west and try to cut all the north to south and west to east roads to prevent the legions from converging.'

Vespasian acknowledged the feasibility of such a strategy with a nod. 'They could do; and indeed that might be their best course. But they won't think in those terms. Boudicca's business is first and foremost with Decia.n.u.s; she'll go for him and her warriors will support her in that. The men will see what was done to their Queen and her daughters as an affront to all their women; they'll want vengeance on the man responsible. No, she'll go south; firstly to Camulodunum and once her warriors have got the taste for Roman blood and loot they'll be hard to stop and hundreds more will flock to her every day. Londinium will be next and then Verulamium and after that probably Calleva and thus she will control all the roads north and west. If she does that before Paulinus has consolidated his forces, the best that we could hope for is that she allows our legions to embark peacefully, and the G.o.ds help the civilians and colonists left behind.'

'Do you think that will happen?'

'Yes, I do; there is more than a fair chance when you consider who would be in charge of the defence down here until Paulinus arrives.'

'Decia.n.u.s; I see what you mean.'

'So go, then, Caenis; go to Londinium and take a s.h.i.+p out of here before panic starts to spread and s.h.i.+ps become a rarity.'

Caenis smiled, her eyes reflecting the flame of the lamp. 'Not without you, my love; I'll go where you go. Having had a life almost exclusively confined to the palaces of the Palatine, this is an adventure that I wouldn't let go of for as long as we can be together; and besides, without me we would all be dead by now.'

'How so?'

'It was for me that Boudicca spared our lives; a woman thing, as it were. Had we all been men she would have flung honour aside, just as Decia.n.u.s did, and probably have had us whipped to death. But because I'm a woman she didn't want to let down our s.e.x in either her eyes or mine.'

Vespasian was incredulous. 'She let us all go so you wouldn't think badly of her?'

'Yes and no; it was more than that: she let us go so that I wouldn't think badly of her for stooping to the same level as Decia.n.u.s and therefore justifying his broken sense of honour. She also wanted you and Sabinus to see just what an honourable woman she is before she ... what were her exact words to me? Ah, yes, before she tears the heart out of every Roman in this province and takes their heads.'

'So you still want to stay knowing that is what she intends to do?'

'Oh, yes, my love; I respect her and I'm looking forward to seeing how you men deal with her.'

Vespasian kissed her full on the mouth. 'Let's hope you don't have to wait too long; just time enough for Paulinus to a.s.semble four legions.'

Cerialis did not look convinced as he paced around the newly constructed permanent praetorium of the VIIII Hispana's camp at Lindum Colonia; behind him the legion's Eagle, surrounded by its honour-guard, glistered in the glimmer of many oil lamps. 'How can you be sure they'll rebel, Father?' His words echoed dully off the plastered brickwork and high ceiling.

Vespasian struggled to conceal his impatience at his son-in-law's caution. 'Because she told Caenis that she would rip the heart out of every Roman in the province and I believe that she will do just that. What would you do in her position, Cerialis?'

Cerialis thought for a moment, looking between Vespasian and Sabinus, both sitting on very un-military, comfortable chairs, sipping heated wine. 'I would avenge myself even if it amounted to suicide.'

Vespasian blew into his cup. 'It'll only be suicidal if we manage to mobilise in time, which is why you must send a message to Paulinus telling him that you're marching south immediately and he should follow as soon as he can, otherwise there'll be no province left to govern.'

'But he's ordered me to look to the north so as to keep the Brigantes in order now that Venutius is trying to usurp his wife again.'

Sabinus had little patience. 'f.u.c.k the north; the trouble is in the south right now and unless it's quelled quickly it'll spread to the north and west and then we'll all be f.u.c.ked for lack of decisive action, Cerialis.'

'But my orders-'

'f.u.c.k your orders!'

'That doesn't get us anywhere, Sabinus,' Vespasian cut in, putting his cup down on a table and standing in one movement. 'How long does it take for a messenger to get to Paulinus and back again?'

'If I'm lucky, two days.'

'Good. Now, do you remember what I told you about delay when we were listening to Corbulo's despatch being read out in the Senate?'

'Always speed in reaction. Hit the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds before they get a chance to consolidate; or something like that.'

'Exactly, and that's what makes Corbulo such a good general: he doesn't dither. So write to Paulinus and say that you are marching south and should he wish to stop you the messenger will catch you up and you will turn the legion around immediately.'