‘Stinks of shit,’ Vindex said beside him, ‘and camels.’

‘Then they shouldn’t notice your distinctive scent, should they?’ Bran added. ‘Well, the camels might, but only because they’ll think you’re a relation.’

It was the same every time they came to a city or even a village, and there had been a lot of both in the last decade. Camels were a recent fascination for them both, but that was the only real change. Vindex was one of the Carvetii, close kin of the Brigantes, and their biggest settlements were rarely home to more than a score of families. Bran was an orphan of the Novantae who lived to the north and they liked their space even more. Together they had wandered over half the empire, unimpressed by what they saw and very ready to show it.

‘The Romans are a strange, dirty people,’ Vindex went on, following the ritual.

‘They live like rats in a sewer,’ Bran concluded. Before he had come to join Ferox, the boy had not even known what a sewer was.

‘Silence!’ Philo hissed back at them. ‘Do your duty and hold your tongues!’ The Alexandrian was not a confident rider, so sat like a sack of old clothes astride a well-behaved mule at the head of their procession. Everything else about him was impeccable, from manners to movements, and most of all his pristine clothing.

Bran made a face to Vindex who leered back at him. Vindex had a long face, the skin taut over the bones and his mouth naturally open to show his horse-like teeth, so it was hard for him not to leer.

‘He used to be so nice,’ he told Bran. ‘Before the power went to his head.’

‘Sad,’ Bran agreed.

Ferox was even more saddened to hear the lad talking so much – too much time spent with Vindex, no doubt. He did his best to shut them out, while searching for any signs of danger and gathering all the information he could. This was market day and they were part of a stream of people, animals and carts heading for the western gate of Nicopolis. Most were local, farmers bringing stock from their winter stores, a few driving animals ready for sale and slaughter, and others with bales of wool carried on their backs or on animals. The sun was high, the day warming up even though it was still early in the morning, and the crowds jostled against their horses as they pushed their way onwards. They were a little leery of the mounted barbarians with their armour, spears and swords, but as they got nearer the gate the road went across a bridge and that packed everyone together. Vindex, Bran and the others were free with the butts of their spears, but there simply was not the room to keep people too far back. Other merchants had their own escorts, who lashed out with shaft and clubs, so sometimes people were driven one way then the next.