Avenger of Rome by Douglas Jackson Read Free Book Online

nodded. ‘And what does my faithful Tigellinus advise?’
    ‘We wait and we watch. If General Corbulo does his duty and defends Rome’s and the Emperor’s interests, all well and good. If he were to overstep the mark, however …’
    The Emperor stared from the window overlooking the luscious parkland, its vivid greenery nourished by the blackened bones of a thousand plebeians still lying in the burned-out ashes of their homes. Not Corbulo. Never Corbulo. But then Tigellinus had never been wrong before. So they would wait, and watch.
    ‘Very well, see to it and keep me informed.’
    Tigellinus saluted and walked from the room. The first piece was in place.

VII
    ‘SAIL TO THE north!’
    At the sharp cry, Aurelius followed the lookout’s pointing finger to where a faint strip of cream could be seen between swells on the far horizon. ‘Julius,’ the captain shouted. ‘You’ve got the sharpest eyes. Get up the mast and tell me what you see.’
    While they waited for the man’s report, Valerius strapped on his sword and joined Aurelius at the ship’s side. He noted with approval that Tiberius already had his men in full armour. Serpentius emerged from the hold where he’d been checking the horses to join the young tribune and the four cavalry troopers. It was early morning on the second day since they’d left Creta. The ship had called at the port of Hersonnisos to take on a cargo of timber and the island’s olive oil, which was said to be the best in the Mare Nostrum and would sell for a good price in Antioch or Alexandria. They’d said farewell to their escort there and when the galleys left it felt as if they were losing an old friend.
    Aurelius nodded when he saw the swords. ‘Good. No need for concern yet, but best to be ready. Julius?’
    ‘A small ship under full sail, could be a galley or a fishing boat,’ the sailor guessed. ‘Wait! I see regular flashes of white at her sides. A galley, under oars and making good speed on a course to intercept.’
    ‘Anything else?’ Valerius noted that the captain’s voice had lost some of its customary assurance.
    The lookout strained his eyes towards the tiny speck almost lost in a vast undulating carpet of azure. Julius thought he’d done well enough to mark the splash of the oars. But when he looked again there
was
something he’d missed: a flash of colour at the head of the other ship’s mast. ‘Looks like she’s running some sort of signal?’
    Aurelius jumped for the mast and, with surprising agility for such a big man, scrambled up to the main spar.
    ‘Could it be one of the escort galleys with a message for us?’ Valerius shouted.
    ‘They should be halfway back to Misenum by now.’ The captain didn’t hesitate. ‘Turn due south and run before the wind,’ he shouted to the steersman.
    When he returned to the deck he called Valerius to the stern. ‘Pirates.’ He spat over the side.
    Valerius’s hand automatically went to his sword, but Aurelius smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
    ‘There’ll be time yet for that, tribune.’ He studied the sky to the north, where a few puffy white clouds had gathered. ‘She’s a scout, not one of their big fighting galleys, which gives us a good chance of outrunning her; outfighting her too, if her plundering bastard of a captain wants to push his luck. We’ll give it an hour before we turn northeast again. That should still allow us a chance of making landfall on Cyprus before dark. It looks like we might be in for a bit of a blow, which will suit us better than her, because she carries less sail and she’s lower in the water.’
    ‘I thought we had got rid of the pirates along the Cilician coast long ago?’
    Aurelius laughed bitterly. ‘Just because they’ve disappeared doesn’t mean they’ve been defeated. They can’t take on the big grain convoys and most single merchants aren’t worth their while, so when the navy raided their ports, crucified the most prominent captains and burned a