‘Flavius Cerialis?’

‘You know him? Good soldier, even if he did put on airs. Sorry, sirs, not my place to say.’

‘We’ll let it pass,’ Sabinus said, his face concerned.

‘Well he said that they should tell the king to piss off, or words to that effect, and that Romans should not obey a barbarian’s demands. And him a Batavian, if you please, talking about barbarians. He said that we should press on, and if they wanted a fight, give it to them, for they would not find it as easy as all that. There’s some good lads in that garrison, who wouldn’t die that easily.

‘But the tribune says no, they must be sensible, and orders the prefect and seven or eight of the other senior officers to go with him and see the king. As escort, that meant me as well, although they only took a dozen of us. I did not dismount, but acted as horse-holder for a couple of men who did, otherwise I wouldn’t be here now.’ He paused to take another long drink.

‘Were they killed?’ Ferox asked.

‘No, sir, not that I saw, but at a signal warriors swarmed all around them, yelling their heads off, pinning them all by the arms and grabbing their swords. Reckon the king wanted more hostages or something. I managed to gallop off, knocked one sod out of my path, but did not use blade or spearpoint and maybe that was why they did not press too close. There was only one centurion left in charge and he led the whole column on. Now and then there were spears or arrows, or some warrior too wild or too pissed to stop himself from charging in, slashing at us with his falx. We killed a few and kept going. Lost a few too, but the centurion drove us and there was no big attack. Bit later a rider came close enough to shout that it was all a mistake and the king had punished the men responsible, but we just kept going. Late in the day, the centurion wanted to send riders out to warn all the garrisons. Been on the road ever since. Got chased a few times and they got the others. Saw a lot of men about ten miles away, marching along as if they owned the place. All armed and singing, but praise Herakles all on foot. You might be having a bit of trouble soon.’

‘You have done well, Maximus,’ Ferox said. ‘Now get some food and rest.’

‘And more wine?’

‘That too.’ Ferox beckoned to Sabinus. ‘Send a man to the praetorium and tell Philo to pass my apologies to the ladies, but I shall not be able to return to them until the night is well spent.’

‘Shall I have the alarm sounded?’ Sabinus asked.

‘No, not yet. I want to do the rounds of the sentries. It probably won’t be tonight, but we cannot take chances. Consilium for all officers in one hour’s time. In the meantime, I want you, Dionysius, to write a summary of all that the vexillarius has told us and have it copied and the first copy sent as soon as that is done. Send a couple of men each with a spare mount. They need news of this at Dobreta.’