‘Where else can they go? If they go east they’ll be picked up by our lads at some point. If not, they’ll be seen and reported by our allied tribes. West is their only chance. Besides, there’s that bloody great marsh in that direction. Best place to hide out.’

‘Bollocks! They’d be throwing themselves right into the hands of Caratacus, and you know what that lot do to any Romans they capture.’

‘I still say it’s their best chance,’ Antonius said firmly, then turned to Macro. ‘What do you reckon?’

Macro stared at him in silence, then made himself look casually towards the horsemen disappearing over the crest of the hill beyond the main camp. He cleared his throat, so as not to give away the terrible anxiety that gnawed away at him from inside. ‘West. Like you say, it’s their best chance. Their only chance.’

Felix sniffed his contempt at this judgement, and turned towards Maximius. ‘What about you, sir. What do you think?’

‘Think?’ Maximius looked round with a distant expression, and frowned. ‘What do I think? I think that it doesn’t bloody matter what direction they’ve gone. The damage is done and we’ve all had it. Every officer in this cohort will have this on their record like a scar. That’s what I think.’

He glared at the three centurions with a bitter curl of his lips. His eyes fixed on Macro last of all. ‘I tell you what else I think. If I ever find out who helped those bastards to escape, then I’ll have the cunt skinned alive. In fact, I’ll do it myself.’

05 The Eagles Prey

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

‘We’ll have to leave him,’ Cato said quietly. Figulus shook his head.’We can’t. If they catch him, they’ll make him talk. And then they’ll execute him.’

The optio paused and looked over his shoulder at the legionary sitting on a rock beside the stream, nursing his ankle. It was the same rock the man had fallen off a short while before; glistening and slippery in the rain. A too-hurried step and the exhausted soldier had tumbled over. The landing had wrenched his ankle so badly he had cried out in agony the moment he had attempted to put any weight back on the joint. There was no question of him continuing on foot. Daylight had found them little more than eight miles from the camp, by Cato’s calculation, with the edge of the marsh still as much as six miles away. The legate would be sure to send out the scouts to hunt them down the instant there was enough light to track them by. They would have to run for it if they were to make good their escape. There was no way the injured man could be carried, not without slowing them down, at the risk of all their lives.