The Imperial Banner by Nick Brown Read Free Book Online

glow.
    ‘I’ve waited a long time to say that. But I must admit I can’t help admiring your gall. I doubt there’s many of your rank between here and Rome who escaped action in the last two years. I suspect that week in the desert was more than enough for a fine young gentleman like yourself.’
    Cassius looked down at the floor as Abascantius continued.
    ‘Quite a triumph though. News of it spread right across the province. Outnumbered five to one, and it all came down to a duel between a guardsman and a master Palmyran sword-hand. What a tale!’
    Cassius shrugged. ‘Hardly mattered in the end, sir. The enemy took the fort a few months later anyway.’
    ‘But you raised the spirits, Corbulo. Navio and his cronies made much of your victory. I dare say it bought him another few weeks. Clearly he was grateful.’
    ‘I won’t deny I was happy to find a way out of Syria, sir.’
    Abascantius tilted his mug towards Cassius’s chest. ‘They gave you the silver medal, didn’t they? Why don’t you wear it?’
    Cassius replied quickly. ‘That battle was won by better and braver men than me. I do have the medal. But it’s theirs, not mine.’
    With a faint smile, Abascantius drank his wine.
    ‘I have another question for you. Was she worth it?’
    ‘Who, sir?’ Cassius asked, though he knew.
    ‘The magistrate’s daughter. Welcomed you with open legs, by all accounts.’
    Cassius felt his face reddening.
    ‘Sorry,’ said Abascantius unconvincingly. ‘The provinces roughen one so.’ He paused, tapping his fingers against the mug. ‘Surely you must have known it would get back to Navio eventually?’
    Cassius had known that. He had always known he was taking a massive risk that night in the governor’s garden. Still, he thought of it almost every day, and couldn’t quite bring himself to condemn his choice. He had found Marta alone, well away from the rest of the party-goers. He had been after her since arriving in Cyzicus. She was pretty rather than beautiful, but both elegant and voluptuous – a combination Cassius had never been able to resist. He really should have known better; it was the second time an ill-advised dalliance had set in motion a chain of events that had led him to Syria; and into danger. He stared gloomily down at the wine.
    ‘Navio protected you,’ Abascantius continued. ‘Once I found out where you were, I wrote to him several times, but never once received a reply. You must have become quite useful to him.’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘Oh, I’m certain of it. He’s not the only person in Cyzicus I wrote to.’
    Abascantius picked up a poker and shifted the burning logs around.
    ‘Womanising aside, you were well thought of there. Some considered you a touch precious, arrogant even, but you completed your duties well. You refused the offers of several patrons and made no attempt to endear yourself to any particular faction.’
    Cassius reddened again. Abascantius’s sources were alarmingly accurate.
    ‘And when the general called on you for some . . . special duties, you did very well. That’s from him, by the way. Only when you disgraced yourself with the girl did he become amenable to the prospect of your departure.’
    Abascantius paced in front of the fire, the poker still in his hand.
    ‘Officially you were in charge of supply procurement and pay but on three separate occasions you solved some rather thorny issues for him: a hole in the accounts that led all the way to the top of the treasury; an arsonist you collared in less than a day; and a murderer you finally identified after personally interviewing every urchin on the city’s streets. Quite the investigator.’
    ‘I simply did what I was asked to do, sir.’
    ‘The thing is, Corbulo, I have some able men under my command here – crafty, tough, unpleasant men. But they’re all ex-legionaries. Not what one might describe as university material. Now – two years ago – when I heard I’d been given some cowardly young