The satrap afterward did better by making Trajan a gift, a horse that had been trained to kneel down as if it were bowing. Trajan applauded noisily, and then yelled, “Let the poor beast up; I’m not making the horses swear fealty too!” But Hadrian had the horse kneel over and over, contemplating the long nose placed meekly at his feet. He left Elegeia after that and returned to Antioch to better manage the long supply lines already stringing out behind us. I hated that arrogant jolt-head, but I have to admit he did his job; I’ve never seen a campaign since where the food and supplies arrived so swiftly, so speedily, and so free of bugs.

Sabina didn’t stay in Antioch, or so I heard. I hadn’t once laid eyes on her before she was gone again, flitting off to Egypt to see the spring floods from a Nile barge. “You should have seen Legate Hadrian’s face,” my First Spear whistled to the other centurions, the news overcoming his usual loftiness. “I was waiting in the anteroom with the supply figures when a maid comes in with the message—that wife of his didn’t send it till she was a day’s journey away, and she had the girl announce it out loud so he wouldn’t be able to yell. He didn’t say a word, just went back to dictating a letter. But the next day he took off hunting for a week and he must have slaughtered half the deer in the woods.” A shake of the head. “He’s a funny sort. Not one I’d want to cross.”

“I’ve crossed him,” I said. “He hasn’t killed me yet.”

“If you’re so invincible, I’ll recommend you and your century to join Lusius Quietus’s thrust up north,” First Spear shot back. “That’ll take the stuffing out of you.”

“Yes, sir.” But my blood was singing. Armenia had fallen speedily, but there were still little fires of resistance, and Trajan had sent his fierce Berber horsemen to stamp out the flames. I wasn’t much for riding and neither were my eighty men, but I’d trained them for hard fast marches, and dear God, the time was now. My time was now. Trajan took Armenia that year, but I helped.

“Quietus speaks highly of you,” the Emperor said during another inspection. “He usually hates us lowly foot soldiers, but he condescends to tell me that your men aren’t completely useless.”

“I train them specially, Caesar.”

“How?” Trajan’s eyes brightened; he waved off the pair of secretaries trying to get his attention with an armload of dispatches.