They emerged into an open space where a few market stalls stood. Beyond, a stretch of bare earth sloped down to the river. The remains of a handful of reed boats lay smouldering on the shore and a small crowd of natives stood in a cluster, wailing and crying. Cato led his men to the top of the riverbank and halted them, before continuing towards the villagers with Macro and Hamedes. The small crowd nervously parted before him and Cato saw several men sprawled on the ground, lying in their own blood which had poured from gashes in their bodies. Some women, slumped on their knees, leaned over the men, crying inconsolably.

‘Looks like Ajax’s work,’ said Macro.

‘Hamedes,’ Cato gestured towards the crowd, ‘ask them what happened.’

The priest approached them with open hands and there was a short exchange before he turned back to Cato.

‘The villagers say that a column of armed men arrived here at dawn and took as many boats as they needed and set fire to the rest. These men tried to stop them, and were killed.’

‘Must have been Ajax,’ Cato decided. ‘Ask them which way he went.’

Hamedes turned and spoke briefly before pointing upriver. ‘That way, sir. You can still see them.’

Cato turned quickly to stare upriver. This stretch of the tributary meandered in a fairly gentle manner to the south and there, perhaps two miles away, he could see a handful of tiny fishing boats on the surface of the river, just about to disappear from sight around a bend in the river.

‘Ask them if there are any other boats here, or nearby.’

‘None,’ Hamedes translated.

‘What about another village?’

‘There is one, half a day’s march, downriver.’

‘The wrong direction,’ Macro growled. ‘The bastard’s given us the slip again.’

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘This is not a very satisfactory state of affairs, is it, Prefect?’ Governor Petronius tapped his finger on the report he had demanded of Cato the moment the small convoy had reached Alexandria. Even though Cato had secured some boats as soon as possible to pursue Ajax further up the Nile delta, he had lost track of him. They stopped at every village to question the locals and although a small group of reed boats had been discovered abandoned some forty miles north of Memphis, that was the last hint of the direction Ajax and his band had taken. Cato had continued to Memphis, whose inhabitants were greatly alarmed by the Nubian advance further up the Nile. Cato had commandeered one of the wide, flat-bottomed sailing vessels that plied the great river and set sail for Alexandria to make his report.

Cato stood in front of the governor’s desk and considered how best to respond to such a rhetorical question.