Legionary: Viper of the North by Gordon Doherty Read Free Book Online Page B

mission.’
     
    Pavo couldn’t hold back a frown as he flicked his gaze to the comes. ‘Sir, I don’t know why you insist on . . . ’
     
    But Lupicinus interrupted. ‘And then there’s the second part of the brief – far more important than slaying a few rebel Goths. You’ll have another two passengers coming along for the ride.’ Lupicinus opened his arms out to the door of the principia . There, in the doorway of the officers’ quarters at the centre of the fort, stood a pair of silhouetted figures, one squat and portly, the other tall and athletic. ‘Come, ambassadors, meet your guide.’
     
    The two figures walked forward and Pavo’s eyes locked onto the nearest of them: short, corpulent and waddling like an overfed goose dressed in purple robes. Then the torchlight revealed a bald pate ringed with wispy grey-blonde tufts, then buttery, pitted skin and a triple row of chins. The man’s beady eyes rested on Pavo like a predator.
     
    No! Pavo’s stomach fell away.
     
    ‘Ah,’ Senator Tarquitius grinned like a shark. ‘So the fates conspire to see us reunited, Pavo?’
     
    Pavo’s heart thundered; he hadn’t seen his ex-slavemaster since the tumultuous end to the Bosporus mission. Dread gripped him to think what duplicity and scheming had brought the man here to a border fort in the dead of night. He frowned at Lupicinus. ‘What is he doing here?’
     
    ‘The senator is to lead the long-awaited ambassadorial party into Gutthiuda.’
     
    ‘So it’s happening? You’re going to speak with Athanaric?’ Pavo’s mind raced. Despite his cynicism, this peace parley – if handled correctly – could be the key to establishing a truce with Athanaric until the Persian campaign was over and the manpower returned from the east. Yet it was to be headed up by the most odious creature he had ever known.
     
    ‘Indeed, we are,’ Tarquitius replied, smugly.
     
    Then the tall, lean man beside Tarquitius stepped forward into the torchlight. ‘We will do all we can to broker a lasting peace.’
     
    All eyes turned to him.
     
    Pavo saw that his expression was earnest, unlike that of Tarquitius. His features were sharp, his cheekbones like blades, and his green eyes alert, delicate lines beside them betraying his age. His brown locks were shot with flecks of grey, dangling on his brow in the old Roman style. He wore an eastern-style, long-sleeved tunic with a high collar, blue woollen trousers tucked into brown leather riding boots and he carried a stuffed hemp satchel.
     
    ‘Ambassador Salvian,’ Tarquitius announced, ‘my protégé.’
     
    Poor bastard, Pavo thought.
     
    ‘Senator, Ambassador, Pavo here will head up your escort,’ Lupicinus said, then turned to Pavo, his nose wrinkling. ‘Pavo, you will escort the ambassadorial party as far as the crossroads by Wodinscomba . That’s, what, some ten days march from here?’
     
    Pavo envisioned the map of Gutthiuda, and the terrain between the fort and the rugged hollow that marked the border between Fritigern and Athanaric’s lands. ‘Eight days on a quick march, sir,’ he replied evenly, sensing Tarquitius’ gaze crawling over his skin.
     
    ‘Very well. But a quick march is less important than ensuring the ambassadorial party goes unharmed at all costs, understood?’
     
    ‘What happens once we reach the crossroads, sir?’ Pavo asked.
     
    ‘There, the senator and the ambassador will rendezvous with,’ he paused, as if he had detected a bad smell, ‘Tribunus Gallus and his party. I have sent a rider ahead at full gallop to contact Gallus and his men and divert them to Wodinscomba. When you rendezvous, the tribunus will then escort the ambassadorial party to Dardarus.’
     
    Pavo’s heart warmed at the thought; Gallus was to be the man to lead the ambassadorial party into Dardarus, Athanaric’s citadel. His only regret was that he could not march with them. ‘And my fifty, sir, should we then wait at Wodinscomba for the tribunus