Black Salamander Read online

  ‘This whole mountain is going!’

  Shit. Slinging her precious satchel over her shoulder, Claudia scrabbled on to the footboard. Rain and dust slammed into her face.

  ‘You what?’ the driver said when she told him. ‘Bleedin’ ’ell, are you sure?’ But Junius’s pinched face answered for him. ‘Then forget jumping, we must stop the column. Pull up!’ he yelled, standing upright as he hauled on the reins. ‘Stop your carts!’ The authority in his voice caught their attention. ‘Stop your carts!’

  Junius wasn’t the only one who’d seen what was about to take place. A horseman surged his way up the path, past quivering mules and women wailing in fright, ignoring the confused shouts of the drivers. ‘Get out,’ he yelled. ‘Everyone out!’ There was more than a tinge of panic to his voice. ‘Huddle close as you can to the rock.’

  From deep inside the mountain came a low menacing growl. Claudia glanced up. Typical of the countryside, massive overhangs of granite jutted out, the softer limestone below having eroded away. Above, some of the fissures were gaping wider and wider, and it was this Junius and the others had spotted.

  Suddenly, June or not, she was shivering.

  ‘Croesus,’ somebody cried. ‘The mountain’s coming right at us!’

  Claudia found herself slammed flat against the rock face, a man’s body pressed against hers. Not Nestor. There was no flab on this man. And it was for protection, rather than lust.

  With just one warning rumble, the whole hillside started to tremble and then, as though a giant hand sliced it through with a sword, the outcrop began to slip its moorings. Slowly at first. As though reluctant to leave home. But then it found freedom—and flight.

  Day became night as great crashing boulders roared past. Horses shrieked, soldiers bellowed out instructions, men were shouting as their womenfolk wailed. Whole trees were uprooted, gouging out the mountain road and sending down mudslides in great slimy torrents.

  For what seemed an eternity, stones hurtled down, branches, tree roots, great chunks of soil, until the only sound left was the rain, spitter-spattering down on the wreckage. Low moans and groans rippled along the stunned line of travellers, muted sobbing broke out, the occasional whimper. Even the panic-stricken horses had been numbed into pitiful snickering. Claudia clung to the rock like a limpet as the pitchy air slowly cleared, leaving an incongruously pleasant smell of freshly turned earth in its wake.

  ‘Thank you, Junius.’ She spat out a mouthful of rock dust and pine needles. ‘You can move away any time you feel like it.’

  ‘Oh. Right. Yes.’ The young Gaul gave an embarrassed cough as he took a pace backwards.

  Claudia wedged a finger between her teeth to stop them chattering and gave a tight-lipped nod of thanks to the man who had just saved her life. Ever attentive, always on hand, Junius’s eyes never seemed to leave his mistress, not once and on occasions (this was one of them) Claudia was given to wondering whether his feelings were perhaps more than professional… Then she remembered, and laughed. Hell, she was three, maybe four years older than him, and with muscles like iron and his Gaulish good looks, he’d have his pick of young women. His obedience, his obsessive reliability, simply reflected a pride in his work.

  The dust settled quickly in the downpour and Claudia finally prised herself away from the security of the rock face to confront the chaos which surrounded her. A string of pack mules had taken the full force of the blast, cascading to their deaths in the chasm below. Five rigs had also crashed down, hers included, and forty paces of mountain road had—or were about to—give way. A red-haired young groom gingerly tried to unhook some of the horses, but before the first two were free of the reins, another section of road collapsed, tossing carts, mules and groom down the ravine like carved wooden toys. Their screams rang harrowingly in Claudia’s ear, and she had to steady herself not to pass out.

  With jelly-like legs, Claudia made her way back up the line where, miraculously, Drusilla was fine and where Junius and the driver were both being hailed as heroes. Quite right, too. Clemens, a little, round, list-maker of a priest, was conducting a head count and Theodoras, representing the army, took stock of the damage. Glancing over the precipitous edge, Claudia grimaced at the tangle of trees and smashed rocks which blocked the narrow valley, and at the twitching bodies of mules, their blood staining the canvas ripped from mangled rigs. One wheel spun slowly, as though turned by an invisible hand.

  She shuddered.

  The road behind was impassable—hell, it was not even there—and the party had neither equipment nor manpower to shift the blockage below.

  They were trapped.

  In the background Clemens’ voice was reassuring shell-shocked journeyers that fatalities were lower than feared. One muleteer, he said, plus one of the drivers and two soldiers had died trying to usher the civilians to safety. We must all give thanks, he said. Make sacrifice, now, to the Lares, for protecting us on these perilous roads—

  She blocked off his trumpery. Give thanks? For being trapped in this canyon? The sides were too steep for horseback, they’d have to scramble on foot, and in any case, where the hell were they? That’s why she had sent Junius to backtrack on the route. Already she had her suspicions…

  As the drone of the little priest continued, Claudia found her legs could no longer support her, and she stumbled to the nearest wagon. At the front, the horses, still skittish, shifted from hoof to hoof as they whinnied and shied, and she wanted to tell them, put a sock in it, show some gratitude, can’t you see half of your cousins are dead? Wearily, her hair and her tunic plastered to her body with rain which had finally begun to ease up, Claudia slumped against the brake pole.

  What have you got yourself into this time?

  Without bothering to sweep the soggy canvas aside, uncannily intact apart from a layer of mud, she leaned into the rig. A drink. Whoever it belonged to, they had to have wine on board. Shaking fingers fumbled over the luggage in the dark interior. An overturned trunk. A shoe. What’s that? Oh, a writing tablet. That’s no bloody use. A carved wooden goblet. A comb. A foot. A razor. Did I say foot? Claudia yanked back the awning. Holy shit, it was a foot. Cold, clammy, a very dead foot. Swallowing hard, she followed it upwards. She knew that leg, surely? The short, stocky body…?

  Salty tears filled her eyes. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been gasping for breath, his face as pink as a ripe pomegranate. She gagged at the lump in her throat. Now he was cold. Icy cold. And there was no breath left in his lungs.

  Oh, Nestor. You of all people! Surely a seasoned traveller had the sense to get out of the way? And then she realized that here he was, lying flat on his face in a cart, suggesting that his heart had given way. Poor old sod. Who’d have thought he’d have been so terrified of a rock fall?

  Something lurched in her gut.

  Janus, Croesus, he’d been in agony the last time she saw him, and then came the landslide. Independently, they’d have had no impact on his health, but together? Together they’d buggered his heart. Inadvertently, Claudia had helped kill him.

  She scrubbed the tears from her eyes. This had really turned into a nightmare.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’ She gulped. ‘Oh, Nestor, I am so very sorry.’

  Truly, he’d been nothing more than a troublesome pest, a lonely man in search of cheap thrills. He’d meant no harm with his touching—some chaps couldn’t help it. Like sniffing hemp seeds, or drinking too much, they were simply hooked on the act. Had she known the architect had a weak heart…

  Accustomed now to the gloom inside the cart, Claudia frowned. Hold on. She scrambled closer, towards the top section of his waxy, lifeless body. Holy shit! Nestor hadn’t succumbed to a dodgy heart at all.

  The entire back of his head was caved in.

  *

  Claudia wriggled out of the cart, pulled down the flap and signalled Junius away from a sacrifice to gods in which, as a Gaul, he didn’t believe.

  ‘Tell me what you found when you backtracked,’ sh
e demanded, dragging him behind a rig, where they couldn’t be seen.

  His handsome face puckered up and she noticed he took care to speak in a low undertone, darting a glance now and then to make sure no one had noticed their absence.

  ‘Your suspicions were justified,’ he said grimly. ‘I rode back as far as the last town we stayed in, checked with the servants, the townsfolk, the soldiers patrolling the streets, and the story’s identical. Two days had elapsed since the first part of the delegation passed through ahead of us.’ He paused, darting a glance over her shoulder. ‘Will you…tell the others?

  ‘Tell them what?’ Claudia shrugged. ‘That this little group has somehow become separated from the main body of the convoy? So what, they’ll say. Our samples and supplies are plodding behind in a column of ox-carts, they’re already a week in arrears. They’ll blame the rain and the mudslides and, for all I know, Junius, that might be all there is to it.’

  She had to believe that. She had to.

  Indeed, so illustrious was the cavalcade, so vital this celebration of a half-century of mutual co-operation between Roman and Gaul since Caesar’s invasion, that soldiers had been sent ahead to clear the convoy’s passage. How else could they have made such tremendous progress with fresh horses on standby at every post station and the army quickly disposing of overturned carts or wagons with locked spokes that might impede their advancement? Concord and unity comes first, was the message. But the weather, oh, the weather. That had cost them ten, maybe fifteen miles every day and the journey had been fraught from the start. Heading north, across the Lepontine Alps, a lyre-maker of great skill and even greater musical ability had been swept away by the river, his body never sighted again.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ The young Gaul chewed at his lower lip. ‘I’ve been thinking back over this expedition. We were definitely together at the Finster Pass, remember the celebrations when the guide pointed out we’d reached the highest point of the journey, and someone timed just how long it took for the delegation to file past?’

  ‘I do. The whole cavalcade took an hour.’

  ‘Right. Well, after that we swung north-east again, to follow the southern shores of the Twin Lakes, but—’

  ‘—when we stopped at the City-Between-the-Lakes overnight,’ Claudia’s heartbeat had picked up in speed, ‘there was some trouble in accommodating us all.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Junius looked grim. Much older than his twenty-two years. ‘And don’t you think it odd, in retrospect, that it was the patrician classes—the rich oil merchants, the goldsmiths, the silversmiths—who kept moving? The ones with the great entourages, their hairdressers, masseurs and stewards? Why not push the artisans on? Or lodge them with smallholders overnight?’

  ‘None of us questioned the road conditions which kept us kicking our heels for another half-day in the town,’ she continued, ‘and by the time we’d reached Bern we were so relieved to be out of the rain, we never gave a thought to the vanguard.’

  ‘Who had already moved on,’ Junius said. ‘Ushered through by the army, but where were the soldiers yesterday? Did you count any legionaries lining the route?’

  ‘Sweet Jupiter.’ Claudia’s stomach flipped over. ‘Two of today’s casualties were soldiers!’ She stared at her whey-faced bodyguard, his hair still damp and spiky from the rain, and wondered whether she had the courage to voice her worst fears. She drew a deep breath. ‘Junius, you’re familiar with this type of terrain.’ She closed her eyes. ‘Is it possible,’ she asked shakily, ‘that this landslide was no accident?’

  ‘Sabotage?’ There was a shocked pause. ‘I don’t honestly know,’ he admitted at length. ‘Maybe…I suppose by driving a wedge into the right fissure, you could weaken a whole section—but why? Robbery?’

  ‘Hardly.’ Claudia hugged her upper arms tight to her body. ‘The valuable stuff’s in the ox-carts.’

  ‘Would bandits know that?’

  ‘I’ve no idea what the saboteurs might know or might not, but one thing’s for sure. There’s no way back through this gorge, the road’s gone, and down there the whole valley is blocked.’ She felt cold, she felt dizzy. ‘And that’s not the worst part,’ she said flatly.

  Sure a rock fall could cave a man’s head in. Easily, like cracking an egg. But not while he’s protected under a heavy layer of canvas.

  Claudia looked her bodyguard squarely in the eye. ‘You see, Junius, we appear to have another little problem on our hands.’

  One of our group is a killer.

  III

  With the gods duly propitiated with honey cakes and wine and a good old gust of incense, the assemblage finally began to disperse. Duty done, it was time now, they figured, to reassess, regroup and then get out of this hellhole. The rain had eased to a soft Caledonian mist, and with the air warm again after the deluge, the canyon was turning into a giant steam room. Somewhere close at hand a chaffinch warbled high in the canopy and flies began to pester the horses.

  ‘We’ll make for the bridge first,’ said Theodorus, ‘then sort out a burial detail.’ And such was the confident tone of the legionary’s voice that no one demurred.

  Claudia studied him, as he wiped grime off a face which, no matter how hard he tried, remained stubbornly, boyishly handsome. With his armour covered in dust and his legs streaked with mud, he looked a decade younger than his twenty-six years and that would be a perpetual problem for Theo. Despite a frame built for combat, his face provoked altogether different emotions. Women, fellow soldiers (who knows, perhaps even his enemies?), would be drawn by his apparent vulnerability and maybe it was the freckles, then again, perhaps it was his wide-set blue eyes, but even Claudia couldn’t imagine Theo clubbing a man in cold blood.

  And that’s what it was. In cold blood. Any doubts she may have had about a murderer among the group vanished the instant Nestor’s body was discovered by the roadside. An overlooked casualty was the general consensus, but Claudia knew, as his killer knew, that dead men don’t jump out of carts. It was pure bad luck that the very rig he’d been dumped in had stopped in the lee of an overhang, a mistake which had quickly been rectified.

  So, then. The lyre-maker, swept to his death in the river. Libo, stabbed in the bushes. And now Nestor, bludgeoned to death. Three deaths passed off as tragic accidents. My, my, the perils of travel!

  ‘Claudia.’ The scent of oregano wafted under Claudia’s nostrils. ‘Claudia, I’ve just heard.’ With her familiar jangle, Iliona appeared at her side. ‘Your rig’s gone, hasn’t it? Well, don’t worry, ours is fine, you must travel with us. And if you need clothes or anything, you just have to ask and it’s yours.’

  Claudia sucked in her cheeks. I’m-Cretan-and-don’t-you-forget-it was all but tattooed on Iliona’s forehead, her heritage blasting out from all directions, be it from her glossy dark hair, folded and knotted at the nape of her neck, from the oiled curls which hung over her ears, from the heavy copper belt which kept her waist unnaturally small, or from the wide baggy pants she wore under a laced and beaded bodice! Claudia smoothed the elegant pleats of her high-busted linen tunic and swallowed a laugh. ‘That’s very kind of you, Iliona,’ she said soberly. ‘But my trunk has survived, thank you.’

  ‘Well, I repeat, everything I have is at your disposal for as long as you want it.’ Iliona let out a giggle. ‘Except Titus, of course.’ Still laughing, she sashayed away, and Claudia couldn’t imagine the lovely Cretan lass pounding Nestor’s skull to a pulp either. Iliona was born for beauty, to enrich every scene she appeared in.

  But her spice-merchant husband?

  From the corner of her eye, she watched Titus tightening the leather straps on his baggage. The way his hair fell over one eye gave the impression of a sharp and shifty individual, yet his broad (if tight-lipped) smile contrived to imply the very opposite. To achieve such ambiguity, Claudia decided, Titus must have practised extremely hard in front of his mirror.

  Dear Diana, this is madness! You can’t go around suspecting everyone who’s trapp
ed in this wretched gorge, there must be twenty or thirty of us. Get a grip! She stared round as torn canvas was yanked off the carts, rocks heaved out, damaged rigs tossed down the hillside, wheels replaced. In itself, the industry was comforting and the answer, she told herself, was simply to remain on her guard. Watch, look, listen. All the time. Vigilance wasn’t an option. It had become a matter of life or death.

  ‘That’s it, stand on my foot, why don’t you!’ Hanno’s dirty wheeze of a chuckle carried over the hammering. ‘That’s all I need now, to be crippled!’

  Everyone laughed along with this whiskery old muleteer, whose teeth had long since said goodbye to his lined, leathery face, and Theo—to his chagrin—blushed as deeply as nature (but not he) intended, mumbling something about narrow passing places and his hobnails not being able to grip properly in this slippery mud. Hanno continued to hop up and down on one leg, clutching his foot, but his heaving shoulders betrayed him. In fact, his whole wizened body shook when he laughed, and you’d hardly believe the redheaded groom who’d died trying to save some of the horses had been his grandson…

  ‘Psst.’ Junius signalled his mistress away from the party. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s no going back, that outcrop made a right mess of the hillside, but with my help, you should be able to scramble up to the summit.’ His eyes indicated upwards. ‘I know it’s steep, but with Drusilla on a leash, we ought to make it, then we can zigzag back down again, to pick up the road over there.’ He pointed along the gorge to the path hidden by trees. ‘We might even, if we start soon enough, make that little town we stayed in last night before it gets dark.’

  Turn around? ‘No.’

  The young Gaul’s jaw dropped in amazement. ‘But madam—’

  ‘Butts are for Billy goats, Junius, and my decision is final. We are not going back.’

  He fumbled to find adequate words. ‘You said yourself, there’s a killer on the loose. We’ve been split from the main body of the trade delegation, deliberately by the looks of it, the route has been sabotaged and I’m far from convinced this is the same road the original convoy would have taken.’