‘I didn’t wait to find out. The priest and some of his men took him as I rode off.’ Parmenion glanced down. ‘He begged me not to leave him.’

Cato did not know what to say.

A fresh roar rose from the village. A small group of men had emerged on the roof of the synagogue, all but one of them clad in the flowing shirts of the local people. Writhing in their midst was a man in the red tunic of a Roman soldier.

‘That’s Canthus!’ someone called out, and the nearest soldiers glanced back over their shoulders.

‘Silence there!’ Parmenion bellowed. ‘Mouths shut, eyes front and keep marching!’

There was a thin scream in the distance and a fresh roar from the crowd. Cato looked back and saw that Canthus had his arms pinioned tightly behind him. Someone had wrenched the tunic over his head and he stood naked above the crowd. Another man bent down to pick something up, and as he rose to his feet the sun glinted brilliantly off a curved blade. A reaping tool, Cato realised. As he and Parmenion watched, the man swung the blade into the Roman soldier’s side, and then wrenched it across his stomach in a sweeping movement. Blood and intestines burst out from Canthus’s body and spilled down the front of the synagogue, leaving a bright red smear on the white plaster wall. The crowd let out a shrill cry of delight that echoed up the slope and Cato felt the bile rise in the back of his throat.

‘Come on,’ Parmenion said huskily. ‘We’ve seen enough. Let’s go.We need to reach the next village before nightfall.’

‘The next village?’ Cato shook his head. ‘After that? Surely we’d better get back to the fort and report to Scrofa.’

‘Why? Because of Canthus? The fool should have known better.We still have our orders to carry out, Cato.’ Parmenion pulled his reins harshly, turning his horse away from the scene below. ‘Maybe next time, our men will have learned a lesson.’

07 The Eagle In the Sand

CHAPTER SIXTEEN