He sat up and stretched his arms, yawning widely before smacking his lips. Rising to his feet, Macro saw a dark dry patch in the light-coloured soil in front of the tent post and immediately recalled the scene the previous night when he had cleaved the cobra in two, and pursed his lips sourly. Emerging from the tent, Macro saw his friend sitting on a palm log a short distance away. He was staring out across the misty river, the stopper from an amphora in his hands. A short distance away lay the remains of a broken amphora.

‘Up early, or couldn’t you sleep?’ Macro called out as he strode over to join Cato.

‘Not much chance of anyone sleeping when you start snoring.’ Cato tossed the stopper aside into the grass. ‘At least we weren’t troubled by anything else last night. That’s something to be thankful for.’

Further along the shore the other passengers and the crews from the boats were rising and rolling up their bedrolls ready to continue the voyage upriver. Hamedes approached them, carrying his kitbag over his shoulder.

‘Morning, sirs. I heard there was some excitement last night.’

‘You could say that,’ Macro replied.

Hamedes tossed his bag down and squatted in front of them. ‘The optio told me about the snake just now. Seems you had a close escape. The venom of the Nile cobra can kill a man within the hour. You’re very lucky, sir.’

‘Funny, I thought I was unlucky that it happened at all.’

The priest tilted his head to one side. ‘Perhaps it was an omen. A message from the gods. A warning perhaps.’

‘Then again, perhaps it was just a bloody snake which took a wrong turning.’ Macro stood up and pointed to two of the legionaries standing by the nearest fire. ‘You, and you. Get the tent down and stowed. Make sure the bedrolls are put on the same boat.’

Cato turned to Hamedes and was silent a moment before he spoke. ‘A message? I think you might be right.’

‘Oh?’ A brief look of surprise flashed across the priest’s face.

‘Yes,’ Cato continued. ‘We seem to have been dogged by bad luck ever since we began our hunt for Ajax here in Egypt. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve offended some of the local gods. You’re the man with the expertise here, Hamedes. How do we go about appeasing your gods? Who should we offer prayers to? What sacrifice should we make?’

Macro glanced at his friend. ‘Since when did you come over all religious?’

‘There’s been plenty of times in the last few months when fortune has played us false, Macro. It could be mere coincidence, but I doubt it. On one or two occasions, perhaps, but as often as we have endured it, then a man is right to suspect that the gods, or someone else, are playing their hand.’