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my leave of you, Pater, and thank you once more from the bottom of my
heart.’
    Marcus backed out of the room, and was escorted back into the
feast by the Heliodromus who had taken him to see the Pater.
    ‘Janus. My friend is Janus Cosconianus,’ he said to the
sun-runner. The man simply nodded at him, and disappeared into the throng

 
    2010
     
    Liv was sure she had felt someone touch her shoulder. She
shivered and looked around her. Ryan was way up on the hillside, jiggling from
foot to foot. He had been moaning that his feet were sore this morning, barely
even before they left home. Liv opened her mouth to call him, but again had the
feeling that she mustn’t raise her voice here. The Sacred Well had to remain a
place of calmness and peace. She looked up at the fort and scanned the horizon
for the man she had seen on the top. He had disappeared as well.
    She realised she was beginning to sink into the mud and
stepped away from the Well, onto firmer grass.
    ‘You had enough, then?’ called Ryan from his position on the
hillside. He obviously didn’t feel the need to remain quiet in this place.
    ‘Did anybody pass you?’ asked Liv, knowing the answer
already. ‘Just before. When I was down here?’
    ‘Nope. Nobody here except us,’ replied Ryan. He turned and
half-walked, half-skidded down the dry hillside to join her. The summer grass
up on the hill was quite a contrast to the thick mud which seeped out of
Coventina’s Well. ‘Haven’t seen anyone around here at all. Why? Do you think
some other mad people are going to be wandering around an old puddle and a pile
of old stones? I mean, come on. The Roman’s have had, what, two thousand years
to re-build their stuff? You’d think they would have done something about it by
now.’
    ‘You’re so funny,’ said Liv. She was sharper than she meant
to be with him. She felt a little unsettled and couldn’t resist having another
look around her. She saw someone pass by the entrance to the temple and
pointed. ‘Look. There’s someone else ‘mad enough’ to be here. Do you want to go
and tell her you think she’s mad?’
    ‘Well, maybe she isn’t mad,’ said Ryan, watching a
middle-aged woman with frizzy hair and a backpack enter the temple from the
opposite hillside. ‘She’s all togged up for it, anyway. She probably meant to
come here. She’s probably doing that Hadrian’s Walk thing. I just meant that we
were a bit mad. Coming to see a puddle. Well, OK, it’s a special puddle. It’s
Coventina’s Puddle. But...’
    ‘Keep digging yourself in deeper,’ growled Liv. She marched
off towards the Mithraic temple, ignoring Ryan’s attempts at appeasement.
    Once back in the valley to the south-west of Carrawburgh, Liv
began to calm down a little. She stood and looked at the Mithraic temple
properly, whilst she waited for Ryan to catch her up. He’d slipped and stumbled
into a hole, presumably dug by a rabbit, and was moaning about that now,
instead of the other stuff.
    A paved walkway led through a gap in the walls, and ended at
three altars. A raised grassy area flanked the path on each side, dotted with
short, stone columns. The backpacker lady was sitting on one of the raised
areas, noisily unwrapping greaseproof paper from her sandwiches. She looked up
at Liv and started.
    ‘Oh! I’m sorry. I just thought I’d have my lunch here, where
it’s nice and quiet. I’ll get out of your way, so you can see the place without
any twenty-first century people spoiling it for you... I spotted you in here
earlier. I thought you’d finished.’
    ‘No, it wasn’t me,’ said Liv, shaking her head.  ‘But
please. It’s fine. You stay where you are. I’m waiting for him anyway,’ said
Liv, jerking her had behind her. Ryan was now bending over, fastening his
shoelace. He had discarded his backpack and it was balanced on the edge of the
hill. Liv just knew that the backpack would end up down the gully, and probably
roll into Meggie’s Dene