‘Lie still, you dumb bastard!’

There were shouts, a woman’s scream, a brief clash of steel and the dull thunks as blade sank into flesh.

‘Enjoy the moment, slave,’ the warrior said, not caring that the man had been freed, for his men were good and would soon deal with the travellers. He had told them that the lady was not to be marked, let alone touched in any other way. The slave girl was another matter, although he wanted a good look at her before he decided whether they could have some fun with her. If she was a virgin and pretty, then she might command a high price if they kept her that way. What mattered now was to grab the mistress and the girl if they could and get away as soon as they could. If they were lucky, they could sneak through the line of towers along the frontier before the sun rose the day after tomorrow, and be safe from pursuit if they rode hard for another day.

With one last cry of agony, the fight was over.

‘Get up!’ Sosius said, his club held ready, although what he expected to do with that against five good warriors was anyone’s guess. The tall man’s grin of satisfaction changed to shock when he stood, nursing his broken wrist, and stared across the road to see that all his men were dead. A slim boy not yet twenty was wiping the blade of his gladius in the cloak of one of the corpses. Beside him a girl, who was a little older and wearing a short tunic, was feeling the balance of the sword taken from another of the dead men!

‘All done?’ It was the lady’s voice and she appeared from around the mules, clad in a long dress that shimmered in the moonlight. There were dark stains on the material and more on her face and they could only be blood, for she held a curved sica in her hand and the blade was dripping. A short figure pattered up behind her, and the warrior thought it was a child until it spoke with a deep voice.

‘How positively disgusting,’ the dwarf said. ‘I told you we should have gone to the feast instead, but would you listen? A nice girl who likes to play with swords will soon find she doesn’t get any more invitations like that.’ No one seemed to pay any attention to him.

‘All done, my queen,’ the boy said. ‘Five of them, all dead.’

‘Good,’ she said. ‘Well, Sosius, are you satisfied?’

‘Yes, lady, it is a good start.’

That was Sosius, the warrior thought ruefully, sell anything or anybody if the price was right. He still could not fathom why he would be worth the trouble of catching.

‘There is another one with the horses, about a quarter of a mile back in the trees. Follow the brook and you’ll find him. Bran had better deal with him.’

‘Aye,’ the boy said, striding away, and without being asked the girl in the tunic followed.