Cast Not The Day by Waters Paul

Author:Waters, Paul [Waters, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Pan Books
Published: 2009-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Later, when I was drying off in the bath-house, Leontius came and found me.

‘Well you’re a dark horse, young Drusus,’ he said, clapping me on the shoulder. ‘You didn’t tell us you could fight like that. Gratian is talking of nothing else.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘I expect I surprised him.’

I threw the towel down on the bench, and rummaged among my clothes.

‘What is it? You won.’

‘I know, Leontius. It’s just that I don’t care for this kind of fighting. That’s all.’

He laughed and said, ‘Don’t let Gratian hear you say that. Remember, this is the army.’

I turned and looked at him.

‘Yes, it’s the army, and I will kill when I need to. But did you not hear the cries? There were people baying for blood, calling for me to break his arm. He isn’t my friend – even less so now, I daresay. But he isn’t some barbarian either, come to burn our homes and kill our families. He is one of us, a comrade – even if he is as stupid as a peasant’s ox.’

Leontius frowned at me. After a moment he said, ‘I know. I heard them.’

He stood for a while in silence, watching me as I dressed. Then he said, ‘Would you have done it – broken his arm?’

I paused and turned. It was a question I had been thinking about all the while I was in the baths.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Those are the rules, if a man will not yield. But I don’t have to enjoy it.’

He nodded slowly and drew a long breath. I saw him glance up and down the room before he spoke again. Then, dropping his voice, he said, ‘I’ll tell you something, Drusus, but don’t you dare breathe it to another soul. I don’t care for Gratian’s accursed wrestling either, and that’s far worse, because I’m a Pannonian like him, and it’s supposed to run in my blood.’

He looked so grave and concerned that one might have supposed he had confessed his mother was hawking herself at the local tavern, and in spite of my heavy mood I could not help but laugh.

‘Don’t worry, Leontius,’ I said smiling. ‘Your secret’s safe with me.’

He nodded grimly, and waited while I finished dressing. Then together we made our way to the mess, where the others were already celebrating my victory.

After that day, no one treated me as the baby of the corps. For some time, Meta the Illyrian avoided me. When, eventually, he realized I did not revel in his humiliation, he even managed to be civil. I doubt we should ever have been friends, even without the fight. But at least we had not become enemies.

I think, in the end, what shamed him most was not his defeat, but not having conceded honourably. He knew, in his own dull way, that the others thought less of him for it. I was never asked to fight him again.

As Marcellus had predicted, I found my horse-riding came back to me. Of course, I had never

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