‘My oath means little now that my honour has been taken,’ she said.

Bran wondered when he would wake from this dream. She was taller than he was, and he had to reach up to lay his hands on her cheeks. ‘May I kiss you?’ he asked.

‘I should like that.’

He felt the cut on her lip and tried to be gentle, but she pushed her mouth closer to his.

‘I know little of the way of these things,’ Bran said, wondering that he admitted to his ignorance, but unable to boast or posture with her.

‘Nor I,’ Minura said and she ran her fingers through his short hair. ‘Perhaps we can learn together?’

X

On the Ister between Dobreta and Pontes

Fifth day before the Ides of April

IT WAS A wonder without any doubt. If he had not had good reason to be here, simply seeing this would have made the long journey worthwhile. From down here on the waters of the Ister, the long southern stretch of the Danube, the pillars reared up like man-made cliffs. There were twenty of them, each 170 feet apart, the foundations great piers of stone, curving like the prows of ships into cutwaters so that the river’s force was spread and guided around them without pressing its full weight; functional and elegant, like all good architecture. The stonework rose to a flat top, carefully levelled off, and above that was the wooden supports, five great beams supporting a regular lattice pattern like a spider’s web or even a parade of isosceles triangles. From those rose the arches, curving up, each arch identical to the next, rearing high above them. As promised, the helmsman took them between two of the pillars so that he could see the design properly and stare up at the joists on top of which were planks of the roadway itself, unfinished here, since they were at the centre of the bridge.

‘Be finished in a month at the latest,’ the architect’s assistant told him. The great man himself had claimed that he was too busy to accompany them and had sent an underling.

‘Ephippus here will be your guide. I am sure that he will be able to answer whatever you feel inclined to ask,’ Apollodorus of Damascus had assured Hadrian. The chief architect had an immensely high opinion of his own merit and little patience with others. His talent was obvious, as was the emperor’s trust in his abilities, so that for the moment his conceit was understandable, if unfortunate. Hadrian was eager to learn, and it was so rare to encounter a man who had so much to teach. So the day before he had asked questions, when the architect had shown him the work from the Pontes’ bank of the river, where the monumental arch spanning the approach road was already complete, apart from the statues to be mounted on top. There was a matching arch on the far, Dobreta shore, which was making quicker process now that the soldiers who had built the other one had joined the workers there. Hadrian was pleased to see that some of his legionaries were involved, and spent time meeting them and praising their efforts.