“Permission to come aboard?” one said.

“Of course,” Durus replied, wondering if the man would try to squeeze yet another tax or bribe out of him. It really was too much.

“How can I help you?” he asked as they stepped onto the deck. He frowned as two of them ignored him, their eyes taking in every detail of the small merchant ship. Most of the men were enjoying shore leave, of course, so it was practically deserted, with only two others in sight on the deck where they stood.

“We need to ask you a few questions, in private,” one of the soldiers said.

Durus struggled to look calm. Did they think he was a smuggler, a pirate? He tried not to look guilty, but there was always something to be found. There were so many regulations these days that it was impossible to remember them all.

“I have an excellent wine in my cabin. We can talk there,” he said, forcing a smile.

They followed him without a word.

Chapter 14

                  CHAPTER 14                  

Wait! Something’s wrong,” Suetonius hissed, holding Prax back as he was about to leave the shadow of the dock buildings. The optio shook off the restraining fingers in irritation.

“I can’t hear anything. We need to get to Julius. Come on.”

Suetonius shook his head, his gaze sweeping the empty dock. Where was the quaestor? Surely the man wouldn’t have ignored the warning he’d sent? It had been so easy to whisper a message to a legionary as the man emptied his bladder in the dark outhouse of the inn. Before the soldier could finish and turn, Suetonius had vanished back into the press and lights of the crowd inside, his heart hammering with excitement. Had the man been too drunk to pass it on? As Suetonius recalled, he had been swaying slightly as he emptied the night’s wine into the stone gutters.

The young Roman clenched his fists in frustration. The quaestor would reward a man who foiled piracy in the heart of a Roman port. Julius would be destroyed and Suetonius could return to Rome with his dignity intact, the humiliations he’d suffered behind him at last. Unless the drunken legionary had forgotten the message he’d whispered, or passed out on his way back to the barracks. He realized he should have made sure, but there had only been moments to pick his man before slipping away.

“What is it?” Prax said. “The ship is there. I’m going to run for it.”

“It’s a trap,” Suetonius said quickly, stalling desperately. “There’s something wrong, I can feel it.” He dared not say more in case Prax began to suspect. His senses strained for some sign of the port soldiers, but he could hear nothing.

Prax squinted at the young man in the shadows.

“Well, I can’t sense anything. If you’ve lost your nerve, then stay here, but I’m going.”