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Back Emperor
Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. I
  4. II
  5. III
  6. I - INVADER AD 43-70
  7. I
  8. II
  9. III
  10. IV
  11. V
  12. VI
  13. VII
  14. VIII
  15. IX
  16. X
  17. XI
  18. XII
  19. XIII
  20. XIV
  21. XV
  22. XVI
  23. XVII
  24. XVIII
  25. XIX
  26. XX
  27. XXI
  28. XXII
  29. XXIII
  30. XXIV
  31. XXV
  32. XXVI
  33. II - BUILDER AD 122-138
  34. I
  35. II
  36. III
  37. IV
  38. V
  39. VI
  40. VII
  41. VIII
  42. IX
  43. X
  44. XI
  45. XII
  46. XIII
  47. XIV
  48. XV
  49. XVI
  50. XVII
  51. XVIII
  52. XIX
  53. XX
  54. XXI
  55. III - EMPEROR AD 314—337
  56. I
  57. II
  58. III
  59. IV
  60. V
  61. VI
  62. VII
  63. VIII
  64. IX
  65. X
  66. XI
  67. XII
  68. XIII
  69. XIV
  70. XV
  71. EPILOGUE
  72. I
  73. II
  74. III
  75. IV
  76. Afterword

Nodding reassuringly, the old soldier took the boy’s left hand and then the right, inspecting the palms and nails. He ran his hands along the boy’s arms and legs, and brushed through the boy’s matted hair - Thalius could see lice squirming - looked into his mouth, and ran a hand over his belly and back. It was a brisk inspection he might give a dog. The boy had evidently been through this sort of thing before and submitted passively.

Then Tarcho turned the boy around and lifted up the rag that served him as a tunic. ‘Thalius. I think you’d better come see this.’

Thalius stepped forward. The boy’s bare back was a mass of purple-red scarring. Thalius recoiled in disgust and turned on Volisios. ‘He has been beaten, and savagely by the looks of it.’

Volisios glared back. ‘If he has it’s nothing to do with me.’

‘No,’ Tarcho said firmly. ‘Thalius, look again. These are not the marks of a whip. See this circle, the curve here.’

The marks crudely etched into the boy’s flesh were letters: Latin letters, roughly arranged in a square array.

PEEO
NERR
OSRI
ACTA

As they stared, the boy turned his head, a spark of curiosity showing in his eyes for the first time since he had been brought here. Thalius wondered if he even knew he had been carrying around a message inscribed on his back, perhaps all his life.

III

III

Thalius was profoundly relieved to get back above ground, even if the climb left him winded.

Volisios escorted Thalius and Tarcho to his site office, a mudbrick block a little better appointed than the rest of the shacks here. Tarcho took the boy away to clean him up and inspect him a bit more closely. Thalius was happy to leave the boy in Tarcho’s hands. Tarcho was no doctor but he had commanded soldiers in the field, and knew a little basic anatomy and medicine.

While he waited Thalius wanted only to rest, too exhausted even to speak. Respecting this, Volisios served Thalius with some watered-down wine, a rather rough British-grown vintage, and turned to some paperwork.

Thalius reflected on how lucky he was to have Tarcho’s support. Tarcho was in his fifties, about the same age as Thalius himself, but a greater contrast between the two men was hard to imagine. Thalius was a man of property and business. He ran a pottery partnership, selling cups and plates to the army. It was a business that had been in the family for generations. He wasn’t as rich as he might have been, however, for he had also inherited his father’s position on the Camulodunum town council, the curia. His responsibilities for tax collection, upkeep of the town walls and other civic duties were onerous and expensive - which was, of course, why they had been made compulsory and hereditary.