By the time Ferox had returned to the tower in daylight a party had come to clear up and the ground was even more disturbed. Even so he was sure that there were no tracks from a group like the raiders they had followed on the day of the ambush. There were prints from half a dozen or so army horses, heavily burdened with their riders and gear. Whoever had killed the little garrison had not had to force their way in. Everything pointed to the killers being soldiers – or looking the part of soldiers – and being let inside to unleash sudden violence. The seventh man from the tower was still missing. Four of the corpses had been recognised, and the Briton was not among them, nor was he thought likely to be either of the remaining corpses, given that they were dark-skinned and stocky. They should know soon when men came from his unit to look at the remains.

Ferox had not been able to find the track made by the horsemen as they left the tower because there were too many trails from the frequent patrols passing this place. In spite of a careful search he could see no sign that they had gone east to join the raiders. Yet a coincidence was hard to accept. Someone had slaughtered the men at the beacon on the very day that the raiders struck. Only Victor’s quick thinking and some luck had allowed the alarm to be raised at all.

It all looked very deliberate and well planned, for these were not normal raiders. They had disguised their numbers coming south, moving stealthily past the garrisons, and would have escaped notice altogether if it had not been for Vindex and his men finding their trail and then coming across the two corpses. From the beginning the aim was surely to attack the road at that one spot between Vindolanda and Coria. Ferox could not believe that the raiders were trusting to luck, relying on something worth attacking to come along at the right moment. They were waiting for Sulpicia Lepidina and her escort, waiting just for her. He thought of the big warrior demanding that they hand over the queen.

Raiders liked to take women. Seizing a woman from an enemy and forcing her gave a warrior power, strengthening his spirit and proving his might, as much or even more than killing a man and taking his head as trophy. Yet rape of an officer’s wife and her maid hardly justified the scale of the attack. They could be sold as slaves, it was true, or ransomed, although this was likely to provoke a major response by the army rather than payment. Perhaps whoever was behind this wanted war, but again it seemed an unnecessarily complicated way to go about it.