Read The Wolf's Gold for Free Online Page B

Cattanius’s salute.
    ‘Gaius Rutilius Scaurus, tribune commanding the First and Second Tungrian Cohorts, but not, I should point out, the commander of this detachment.’ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the long column of soldiers waiting under the mid-afternoon sun. ‘My colleague Domitius Belletor has overall command of our combined force. If you look down the column you will doubtless see a man on a horse coming to see what it is that has prompted this unscheduled stop. But since he will take a moment or two to reach us, perhaps we could pass that time by discussing a few topics of interest to me and my first spear here? And stand at ease man, there’s no need for ceremony.’
    Cattanius relaxed a little.
    ‘What would you like to know, sir?’
    Scaurus smiled wryly.
    ‘You could start by enlightening us as to why we find this precious imperial asset apparently stripped of any military presence. Surely one of the Dacian legions’ main tasks is to keep this place safe, given its critical importance to the province?’
    The legionary nodded earnestly.
    ‘Indeed it is, Tribune. If it weren’t for the threat from the Sarmatae there would be a full cohort in the barracks, but Legatus Albinus decided to concentrate his forces—’
    Scaurus raised an eyebrow.
    ‘Albinus?’
    Cattanius nodded quickly.
    ‘Yes, sir. Legatus Clodius Albinus, officer commanding the Thirteenth Legion, and my beneficium.’
    The tribune nodded, his demeanour outwardly unchanged, although Julius wondered if he had imagined the slight narrowing of his superior officer’s eyes when Cattanius had first mentioned the legatus’s name.
    ‘I see. My apologies. Do continue.’
    ‘Yes, sir. The legatus decided that in light of the Sarmatae threat—’
    Julius raised a hand to stop him again.
    ‘You’ve mentioned that name twice now. Exactly who or what are the Sarmatae?’
    Cattanius stooped, using his finger to draw a half-circle whose circumference pointed upwards in the dust at their feet, running a wavy line along its bottom where there would normally have been a flat side.
    ‘This is a very rough approximation of a map of Dacia. The wavy line is the river Danubius, and we are here . . .’ He made a mark in the dust just inside the half-circle’s radius, halfway between the wavy line and the curve’s topmost point. ‘And here . . .’ He pointed to the ground outside the half-circle, waving his hand around its perimeter. ‘Here are the Sarmatae. They’re a loose collection of tribes, nomadic and with an equine-based way of life. The grasslands beyond these mountains are swarming with them, a tribe called the Iazyges, and they breed like rabbits.’
    Julius nodded his thanks, gesturing for the soldier to continue.
    ‘So, my legatus decided that he should concentrate his force at the legion’s fortress, ready to strike decisively in accordance with the governor’s wishes. Our scouts tell us that the main enemy threat is mustering on the north-western border. The knowledge that there were reinforcements from Germania within a few days’ march persuaded the legatus that the risk to the mine complex would be minimal, given what we know of the enemy’s dispositions.’
    Scaurus leant forward with a look of concentration on his face.
    ‘Which would seem to have been somewhat courageous of him, given that my horsemen encountered barbarian scouts not ten miles back down the road. Exactly what do we know about them , Soldier Cattanius?’
    The beneficiarius opened his mouth to respond, but his answer was stillborn in the face of an interruption over Scaurus’s shoulder.
    ‘What have we here, Scaurus?’
    The Tungrian tribune turned away from the beneficiarius, looking up at his colleague Belletor as he loomed over them both from his position on the back of his horse. His fellow legion tribune had reined his horse in behind Belletor’s, and was looking down at Scaurus and his first spear with the poorly concealed curiosity