Black Salamander by Marilyn Todd Read Free Book Online

the only thing that’ll get me out of here. Fire away.’
    She gulped greedily at the cool water, and Marcus pictured this spirited creature back in her Rhenish homeland before her nightmare began. Remi with her baby on her back following the harvester, ensuring every ear of barley went into the wickerwork box, while at the front her strong-backed husband regulated the height of the iron cutting teeth and steered the mule which pulled the machine. Orbilio had picked up enough during his stint in Trier to know that they’d be singing while they worked, a cheerful tune beseeching the Gaulish god Pisintos to make their soil fertile, and maybe at the end of the day they celebrated a good harvest with a jug of strong beer in the company of their old friend, Anax the tavern keeper… Oh, Remi!
    She was twisting a bronze figure-of-eight ring round her middle finger. ‘This is what I overheard from the chieftain’s son, right?’
    Even with the life beaten out of her, bones broken, face pulverized and probably internal tissue damage as well, there was more animation in this lovely redhead than you’d find in half this supposedly sophisticated seat of the Empire.
    ‘The picture is this.’ She tucked one long leg under the other, showing off a very shapely calf ending in a bronze anklet, etched with dots and Celtic whorls. ‘The Treveri and the Helvetii have sworn an alliance and that’s why they’re planning that attack.’
    Orbilio thought of the two legions who’d been despatched to the trouble spots. ‘That much was in your’—he couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘confession’ so he changed it to—‘statement. They’re banding together to, quote, “fight the oppressors”.’
    ‘Oh, it’s not only you Romans they’re after,’ Remi said sharply. ‘The idea is that once Rome has been taken—or rather toppled—the tribes will use the opportunity that the chaos will bring in its wake in order to break out on their own. We have expansion programmes, too, you know!’ There was almost a sparkle m her eye, and a knife plunged into Orbilio’s heart. He could have crawled under the door. Was any man more of a heel? Jupiter, when people talk about treachery—
    ‘However,’ she said, ‘for old enemies to be conquered, new campaigns to be organized—they’ve set their sights on Britain, Scandinavia, even the Isles of Thule, can you believe that?—well, this requires weaponry and armour, siege engines and so on.’
    As she paused for another ladleful of water to blot the drying wounds on her chest, Orbilio felt a jab of consolation. At least his hunch was on target. Croesus, he fumed, why hadn’t those goons outside listened to Remi?
    ‘Apparently there’s a large cache of treasure in the form of gold and silver, jewels and gems, and I swear on the life of my babies, I don’t know where it is, whose it is, or even how it got there,’ Remi said, ‘but as far as the Treveri and the Helvetii are concerned, it’s got their name on it. According to the chieftain’s son, there’s a map on its way to Vesontio which shows the exact location of this treasure—’
    ‘Wh-what? Did you say…on its way to Vesontio?’
    ‘In a trade delegation, from what I overheard. Only the map is so sensitive, the risk so substantial, that it’s been cut up and distributed among several separate couriers, so no one can double-cross anyone else on a sum of this size. I assume this is worth something to you, policeman?’
    Orbilio’s mind was spinning like a child’s top. Admittedly there were large gaps in this puzzle, but a picture was beginning to form in the mist. First there was the someone in Rome planning a coup by making the northern tribes side with him. Now Marcus saw the bribe was not only a prominent role in the new order, but sufficient funds for them to go off making wars of their own. (Very clever. Keeps them on your side, but out of your hair, because while they’re busy making trouble elsewhere,