Legionary by Gordon Doherty Read Free Book Online Page A

knows where they picked it all up from. Probably best not to know.’
    Gallus nodded, his lips curling in bemusement. ‘Just what the empire needs — another race to grind on her borders.’ He ran his hands through the retreating peak of his hair. ‘I smelt a rat as soon as Nerva delivered the brief. He was nervous — knew something was wrong. His hands were tied by Dux Vergilius and whoever else had the emperor’s ear over this one. This stuff is over our heads — and outside our remit, Felix, and I don’t think we can deal with it now. We’re going to complete this mission, and then get out of here. But first we have other business to take care of. Nerva said no detours, but…’
    ‘The Goths?’ Felix raised an eyebrow.
    Gallus nodded. ‘Time for revenge.’

Chapter 7
    ‘Oi, you couple of fairies! This is as far as I’m goin’,’ the cart driver grumbled as the rickety heap of wood and wheels slowed at the crossroads.
    Pavo squinted at the dawn sunshine as he woke. His second morning of freedom. He shivered at the early chill and made it half way through a yawn before he noticed the snoring blonde-mopped young man resting on his shoulder. Shrugging him away, Pavo stood to stretch his spindly legs and ran his palms over his freshly cropped dark bristles. The bed of hay and grain sacks hadn’t been the most comfortable, but he had slept like a baby since leaving the port of Tomis — especially after the stomach churning boat journey to get there from Constantinople. He touched a hand to the black bruise on his ribs as he slid towards the cart edge; Fronto had indulged in one last session of pummelling him. But it was the last one, and that at least warmed his heart.
    ‘Much appreciated,’ Pavo croaked to the driver, leaping to the ground. The driver glared at him and held out a hand. Still unused to holding money that he alone owned, Pavo rummaged in his purse and dug out two follis of the ten Tarquitius had bitterly handed over to him before he left the villa. He tossed the coins to the driver. Oddly, the driver nodded back to him, as he would to any citizen or freedman.
    The cart set off without delay. His travelling companion, still dismounting, stumbled onto the road in his filthy tunic, with a ragged satchel over his shoulder.
    ‘Oh for…what was his problem?’ The blonde lad cursed.
    Pavo shrugged, smiling, rummaging in his satchel to pull out two boiled eggs that he had bought at the docks in Tomis. He peeled the shell from one and munched into the white, eyeing the lad; probably a similar age to himself, with a tumble of blonde curls hanging on his forehead, framing emerald eyes and rosy, chubby cheeks like a cherub bust. But it was the inherently cheeky grin that caught the eye
    ‘Ah well, I hope he gets as far away as possible before he realises the coin I gave him last night was fake,’ the youth snorted. ‘Sura, Decimus Lunius Sura, unofficial King of Adrianople — here to hinder the legions,’ he grinned, stretching out his hand. ‘Didn’t mean to pass out on you like that, but you were sound asleep when I hitched a ride. So what name do you go by?’
    ‘Numerius Vitellius Pavo — here because…er…because the streets of Constantinople couldn’t handle my greatness,’ he replied, cursing his poor show of wit as he clasped Sura’s hand. He didn’t really have a proud history to share.
    ‘Okay,’ Sura nodded uncertainly, wrinkling his forehead and plucking the other egg from Pavo’s hand. Before Pavo could protest, Sura had cracked off the top of the shell and sunk his teeth into the white. ‘Well, I hope you’re up to the walk?’ He mumbled through a full mouth, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder to the plain stretching out ahead.
    Pavo turned away, unable to suppress a chuckle at this lad’s swagger, then he hopped up onto the verge at the roadside to take in their surroundings. The River Danubius snaked across the land from the west until its rapids poured into the