Calgaich the Swordsman (52 page)

Guidd led the way toward the mansion. Once, as they passed a thick cluster of trees and shrubbery they heard a woman laugh. Guidd looked back at Calgaich. They both knew who it was.

They halted just behind the mansion. Calgaich sheathed his sword and drew his dagger. Guidd motioned to Calgaich and Lutorius to follow him. They passed beneath a portico and entered the
peristylium,
a column-girdled open court. A fountain played in die center of a large shallow pool surrounded by emerald-green grass. There were several beds of bright rare flowers and a few tropical plants. A single tree towered through the open top of the court. Above and on three sides of it was a balcony with rooms opening onto it.

Guidd entered into a dark hallway on one side of the house. They passed a large library and a kitchen. No one was in either room. The end of the hallway was closed with a heavy drapery.

Guidd eased back the drapery. There before them was an immense atrium, a magnificent court paved with elaborate mosaics. Four elegant Corinthian columns in blue-veined marble supported the roof around a wide opening, or light-well. Directly below the light-well was a complicated fountain where bronze dancing nymphs and bearded tritons were shooting jets of water into a pink marble basin, in which grew luxuriant water plants. On the inner sides of the doors which opened onto it were statues of marble and bronze standing upon carved stone pedestals.

The doorways around the room were covered by heavy curtains in rich colors of saffron, blue, purple and olivine. The walls were decorated with elaborate frescoes in brilliant colors. A few lamps lighted the interior of the room.

Calgaich pointed toward the rooms which opened onto the atrium. Lutorius and Guidd nodded. They catfooted into the courtyard. Calgaich pulled back a drapery. Two naked women were making love to each other. The next two rooms were empty. Calgaich met Guidd and Lutorius at the other end of the chamber.

Guidd shook his head. “Nothing, Calgaich."

Footsteps sounded hurriedly on the floor in the passageway from the
peristylium.
Guidd, Lutorius and Calgaich faded into the shadows behind the pillars. An old fat woman shuffled toward the front of the room. As she passed, Calgaich stepped quickly behind her and slipped a crooked arm about her throat. He rested the point of his dagger against her fat back.

“Don't look at me," Calgaich warned. “If you do, you'll die. Where is the barbarian slave woman Cairenn?"

“In the big bedchamber at the front of the house next to the vestibule," she quavered.

“Is she alone?"

“She was the last time I saw her."

“How long ago was that?"

“Perhaps an hour ago."

“Are there any other servants in the house?"

“Just myself, one man servant and the door porter. He's dead drunk within the vestibule. The rest of the servants and some of the slaves are out in the streets for the last night of the Saturnalia. The other slaves were locked into their quarters at sundown.”

“Where were you going?”

“I had been working, preparing the summer house for my master and his woman. I was going to bed. I am too old for drinking and whoring this night.”

Calgaich looked at Lutorius. Lutorius drew a finger across his throat. Calgaich shook his head. Guidd bound and gagged the serving woman. He and Lutorius placed her in one of the empty rooms.

“Bind and gag those people in the bedrooms,” Calgaich ordered. “No killing! You understand? Then stand guard at the rear of the house until I return. Let no one surprise me from behind.”

Calgaich peered into the vestibule. The porter was asleep on his pallet, snoring gently and dead to the world. He didn't even move when Calgaich rolled him over and bound his wrists together.

There was a faint chink of light to one side of the heavy drapery which covered the doorway of the room on the right of the vestibule. Calgaich parted it enough so that he could see into the room without being seen himself.

Cairenn stood with her back to the wall beside the bed. She was naked. Her long black hair hung down forward of her white shoulders and covered her bare breasts. Her stomach was rounded, full with his child, thought Calgaich. Her clear white skin stood out in sharp contrast to the frescoed wall. On the floor in front of her was her nightgown, ripped in shreds.

“Get out of here, pig!” she snapped.

The man to whom she was speaking was also naked. He was short and rolls of fat hung above his hips. His fat little rump was beaded with sweat. Lucius Sextillius shook his head. “There is no one in this house who will stop me, barbarian bitch. They are all drunk or making love.”

“The Lady Morar will have you cut into little bits!”

“She is too busy fornicating in the garden.”

“You know I am with child!”

“That doesn't bother me.”

Cairenn readied for a vase on the table beside her. Lucius crouched a little and moved slowly toward her.

“It bothers
me,
pig.” Calgaich said quietly.

Lucius whirled and stared uncomprehendingly at Calgaich. His chin dropped. A little drool crept from a comer of his mouth.

Calgaich moved catlike toward the quaestor.

Lucius moved with surprising swiftness. He spat full into Calgaich's face and then leaped up onto the bed. He plunged across it and jumped down on the far side of it. He darted through a side door and was gone.

Calgaich wiped the sputum from his eyes. “Get dressed, Cairenn.” He followed after Lucius.

Lucius was running through the atrium. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Calgaich closing in on him. He darted into one of the two passageways that led back to the
peristylium.
He raced through the hallway and burst into the court. He rounded the large pool and started toward the portico, then stopped short. Two men had appeared out of the shadows of the portico. The quaestor knew them well. He backed up. His heels caught on the rim of the pool and he sat down hard on his fat buttocks among the exotic water plants, with the fountain jets spraying over his head.

“Remember me, pig?” Lutorius asked with a fearful grin.

“And me, pig?” Guidd added.

Calgaich rounded the pool with his bared sword in his hand.

“What is it you want?” Lucius whined. “I'm a rich man now! I’ll give you anything I have, only don't hurt me!”

“I should cut off the fingers of your right hand and blind your left eye as you did Fomoire,” Calgaich said grimly.

Lucius screamed like a stricken mare. “I was
always
kind to him! Let me live! You
must
let me live! What have I done to deserve this?”

“Bronwyn,”
Calgaich answered quietly.

Calgaich's sword flashed once in the dim lamplight. Lucius's headless trunk fell back into the water.

Cairenn was ready when Calgaich came back for her. She rested her head on his chest and began to cry great wrenching sobs. As he drew her close, he could feel the swell of her stomach where his child grew. He calmed her, and as he did so, a missing part of him seemed to be fitted back into place. He seemed a whole being again. He could hardly wait to tell her so, to tell her what she meant to him. But now was not the time.

“We're going home, Cairenn," he murmured.

Calgaich took her from that house of hell and led her to the garden gate. “Guard her well, friends," he said. “There is something I must do in the summer house before I can leave."

“Will you need help?" Lutorius asked.

Calgaich reached for his war spear. “Only this and Bron."

“You don't know how many of them are in that summer house.”

“It doesn't matter. This is something I must do alone. You understand?"

Calgaich and Bron moved silently into the deep shadows of the plane trees which surrounded the summer house. He could see within the central room of the building. There was no one there. He entered the room and parted the draperies of a bedchamber, An older woman, painted and rouged like a prostitute, lay naked in bed with two younger men. All three of them were in a drunken sleep.

The sound of a crooning voice came from the next chamber. It was the voice of an old man who lay in bed with a plump little boy. He was fondling the child and singing softly to him.

Calgaich padded down a hallway toward the rear of the pavilion. Bron raised his head and growled a little. The wind was moving a drapery that closed off a chamber at the rear of the building.
A
faint line of light showed now and again as the drapery moved.

Calgaich paused just outside the room. No sound came from within the chamber. Calgaich reached out with his spear and used the tip of it to move the drapery to one side so that he could see into the room.

Morar laughed.

Faint lamplight illuminated the richly furnished room. Morar and Valens were in bed together. Calgaich watched them with sickness in his heart. Was this the pure and golden girl he had known and loved during his naive youth? The naked, sweating back of Aemilius Valens was now toward Calgaich as he rode the white body of Morar.

Calgaich poised his great
laigen,
the mighty war spear of Evicatos. “Morar!” he cried as he approached the bed. He wanted her to know he was going to kill her.

Morar turned her golden head sideways to look past Valens. Her painted face was contorted with lust and dripping with sweat. Her great eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the grim, scarred face of Calgaich, the deadly war spear and the savage wolfhound Bron. Valens turned his head to look into the icy eyes of Calgaich. He opened his mouth, just as Morar screamed, but before he could utter a sound the spear was thrust into his back and through his body to plunge into the heart of Morar.

For a moment Calgaich stood there looking down upon the transfixed pair and then he withdrew the dripping spear and wiped it on the white silken sheets. He ran silently from the summer house with Bron at his heels.

Lutorius pointed to the vast complex of buildings across the street. ‘The main gate to the Emporium,” he whispered over his shoulder. “The warehouses border on the Tiber where it has been embanked as quays for the barges that come upriver from Ostia with cargoes from the ships.”

“Have you seen the others?” Calgaich asked.

Lutorius shook his head.

“I told them to leave if we didn't get here in two hours.”

“We've seen no one in the streets of the Emporium. The warehouse workers are probably all in the city celebrating this last night of the festival.”

“All the better for us,
calo
.”

Lutorius shook his head. “There is always a watch patrol on duty.”

“Maybe they're all drunk like the rest of Rome this wild night,” Conaid suggested.

“They wouldn't dare. This place is too important to Rome. If anything happened here all Rome would go hungry.”

“How often do they patrol?” Calgaich asked.

“I think every two hours.”

Guidd appeared at the main gate.

“Did you find the others?” Calgaich asked.

Guidd nodded. “They have found an empty barge.”

“Did you see the watch?”

Guidd shook his head. “It's a large place, Calgaich. There are many streets.”

He led the way across the street into the complex of streets and buildings. Tall grain warehouses loomed on either side of them. Their light footfalls echoed back from the surrounding walls. Soon they began to smell the river.

The sound of nailed sandals striking the pavement in rhythm came from somewhere behind them. A lantern flickered in the dark street.

"The watch!” Lutorius cried.

They cut around a corner and ran toward the nearby river.

Calgaich looked back over a shoulder. He could see the faint flickering of lantern light against a wall. "Guidd and Conaid! Take Cairenn and Bron to the barge! Run!”

Lutorius, Girich and Calgaich slowed their pace as Guidd and Conaid each took Cairenn by an arm and helped her toward the river. They turned a corner just as the watch marched into the street where Calgaich, Lutorius and Girich had taken shelter in a doorway. Calgaich and his two companions could not move. If they stepped out into the street they would be seen.

The low murmuring of voices came from the watch. Now and again a door would be rattled to check if it was locked. The guards came closer to the three barbarians.

Calgaich peered around the edge of the doorway.

"How many are there?” Girich asked.

"Ten or twelve.”

"Good enough odds, Calgaich.”

"We'll have to make a run for it,” Lutorius whispered.

Calgaich nodded. "Girich first. Lutorius next. I'll follow. Go!”

Girich leaped out of the doorway and ran toward the river followed by Lutorius. Calgaich came last.

The street echoed with the shouting of the watch. Their sandals beat on the pavement as they pursued the barbarians. Girich rounded a corner and disappeared. Lutorius turned to follow Girich. His foot slipped and he went down. His head struck the pavement. His sword clattered from his hand. The watch closed in.

Calgaich turned. His spear was ready in his right hand. The approaching lantern light shone on him.

Fabatus, the watch commander, recognized Calgaich. "It's the barbarian, Calgaich!” he shouted.

The watch formed a rank from one side of the street to the other. They walked slowly toward Calgaich with their spears extended beyond their shields.

Lutorius moved a little and groaned.

This is the end then, Calgaich thought. What better way to die than in defending a fallen comrade?

The watch charged.

Suddenly Garth, Girich and Bron appeared out of the darkness behind Calgaich. The two men had become great friends during their months in captivity. “We've come to stand beside you, Calgaich!" Girich shouted.

The three barbarians closed in on the twelve Romans as though they were going to a festival.

A Roman died with two inches of Calgaich’s spear sticking in his throat. The watch commander parried a wild blow from Girich. His skilled counterstroke struck the Pict flat-bladed alongside the head and sent him down beneath the trampling feet. Calgaich was driven back by the press of the watchmen, leaving Garth standing alone over Girich with flailing sword.