The parade was followed by sacrifices and a day of light duties, for there was no sense in exhausting the men too soon. A few patrols went out, but since the tribune had left and the night attack on their camp, he had changed the pattern. Unless they went wholly by a route in the open, then detachments going up the valley did not go as far as before. He did not have the strength to challenge the enemy too far from the fort and did not want to lose men here and there, or have the rest depressed by casualties. The price was not knowing so much about the enemy or what they were doing, and that bothered him, but he could see no other way.

It was not a long parade, and the mood was good when he gave the order to dismiss, after small escorts of ten men from each contingent had marched the wreathed standards back to the principia.

‘Husband,’ Claudia Enica called to him as the men filed away. Bran and Minura waited a few paces behind the queen, the girl attracting a fair few admiring glances as men trudged away.

‘My lady?’

‘We would be pleased if you would dine with us in the praetorium this evening – Sulpicia Lepidina and I.’

‘It is my house, you know,’ he said.

‘Whatever has that got to do with it? I own you, so everything that is yours is mine.’

‘Then I shall be delighted.’

‘Yes, you will, otherwise I will sell you, although I doubt that I shall get much in return.’

‘Much obliged, I am sure, my queen.’

Claudia Enica cocked her head to one side. ‘Do you know, I do not believe that you have ever called me that since I arrived.’

‘I only just recognised you from the flag.’

Her green eyes flashed. ‘Huh!’ The sound was pure Brigantian, pure Enica. ‘Since there is no time for Vindex or anyone else to kill you and I cannot be bothered, you had better still come to dinner.’

Ferox bowed. He let the queen and her guards pass and stood for a while, staring up the valley and wondering who the Dacian leader was and what he was thinking.

Finally, he strolled back towards the fort, knowing that the responsibility was his and his alone for this place and all these people. The three heads he had taken were on spikes above the porta praetoria, their skins already tinged with green. Guards looked down at him from the towers. Few commanders ever wandered on their own as he sometimes did, but they were getting used to his peculiar ways. Knowing that Philo was bound to be waiting and ready to fuss, he did not hurry, but went to the principia for a while. There were reports and returns to read and some to write as there always were. If he liked some of the numbers more than he had a month or more ago they still were surely not enough. Even so he felt happier than he had for some time.