As the three of them spurred their horses on, Narcissus looked towards the distant camp and prayed that some of the more alert amongst the sentries would catch sight of the parties of horsemen and raise the alarm. Unless there was some help sent from the general’s camp he might not reach it alive. The myriad reflections on the polished surfaces of arms and armour might as well have been the twinkle of distant stars, so cold and far off and unreachable did they seem.

Behind them, now no more than a quarter of a mile away, thundered the hoofs of their pursuers. Narcissus knew he could expect no mercy from those men. They were not interested in prisoners. They were simply assassins, tasked with murdering the Imperial Secretary before he could reach General Aulus Plautius. The question of who had hired them plagued Narcissus. If the tables were turned and one of them should fall into his hands, he knew there were torturers on the general’s staff who were adept at breaking the will of the strongest of men. But even then, the information, he suspected, would be of little use. The enemies of Narcissus and his master, Emperor Claudius, were shrewd enough to ensure that any killers were hired via anonymous and expendable middle men.

This was supposed to be a secret mission. As far as he knew, only the Emperor himself and a handful of Claudius’ most trusted officials were privy to the knowledge that the Emperor’s right-hand man had been sent to Britain to meet with General Plautius. The last time he had met the general, a year ago, Narcissus had been part of the imperial retinue when Claudius had joined the army just long enough to witness the defeat of the native army outside Camulodunum, and then claim the victory as his own. The imperial retinue had numbered thousands and no luxury or security had been spared for the Emperor and Narcissus. This time discretion was paramount and Narcissus, travelling in secret without any of his cherished adornments, had asked the prefect of the Praetorian Guard to lend him the two best men of this élite unit. So he had set out from a quiet backstreet exit of the palace in the company of Marcellus and Rufus.