‘Enough!’ Valens said. Shared adversity in their long travels had not yet smoothed away the mens’ animosities. ‘We are hundreds of miles into hostile territory. If we do not stand together, we will all die.’

Aulus broke the charged and uncomfortable silence. ‘What reason could the headman have had for having his retainer murder his own people? Robbery?’

‘What the fuck does a goat boy or a labourer have that is worth taking?’ Clemens asked.

‘Clemens is right,’ Valens said. ‘What matters is what the headman does now.’

‘The village might be able to raise over a hundred able-bodied men,’ Narses said. ‘We keep watch, and we are harder to kill than untrained levies. It is unlikely they will attack us openly.’

‘You think the headman will want us gone, and will send a guide in the morning?’ Valens asked.

‘They might try and poison us,’ Clemens said. ‘It is a method much favoured in the Orient.’

Aulus spoke before Narses could respond to this latest insult. ‘We already have provisions for four days. We could manage eight on half rations, although the horses would suffer.’

Hairan called down softly from the head of the stairs. ‘Someone approaching the back gate.’

‘Alone?’

‘Yes, on their own.’

‘We had better find out what he wants,’ Valens said. ‘Aulus and Narses, take watch on the roof. Hairan, get Iudex, and come with us.’

By the time they reached the gate, there was a faint knocking. Clemens drew the bolts and pulled the gate open, admitting a figure wrapped in a hooded cloak. The gate was swiftly shut behind them, the bolts shot home. The soldiers had taken off their armour, but as ever had their swords. The muffled figure was ringed by glittering steel.

*

Lucia pushed back her hood.

Back inside they offered her wine and food, both of which she declined.

‘You run a risk coming here,’ Valens said. ‘Your betrothed would not approve.’

‘No one saw me,’ she said. ‘Anyway, he is a brute, and I will not marry him.’

‘Why have you come?’

‘To warn you not to trust the headman.’

Valens grinned. ‘There was little danger of that.’

‘You know he set the leader of his men to kill those villagers?’

‘Why?’

‘The reasons for which all men kill, power and wealth. Whether they believed in the djinn or not, fear made the peasants reluctant to work the outlying meadows. They sold the land to the headman for next to nothing.’

‘You did not tell me this yesterday,’ Valens said.

‘I was not certain until I saw his reaction this evening.’

‘What does the headman intend now?’

‘My late husband’s brother will be your guide. The family has traded along the Caspian many times. This time he will not go there. The headman has told him to lead you deep into the trackless mountains and abandon you there. He wants you dead for the killing of his retainer.’