Romans on the Silk Road by Brian McElney

Author:Brian McElney [McElney, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Earnshaw Books
Published: 2019-02-02T04:11:28+00:00

14

Syria,

53 BC

That same evening there was a discreet knock at the door of Orodes’s chamber; a knock as discreet and controlled as the man who performed it. The King dismissed his guards with a curt wave, and then summoned the visitor to enter. Through the dark doorway slipped the slim figure of a man, who moved with a lithe and relaxed self-confidence that belied the taut muscles of his lean body. The man’s name was Tomacles, a Macedonian Greek by birth; he had been exiled from his homeland at the age of sixteen, for that was when Tomacles had killed his first man. One day, the young lad had returned early from his apprenticeship with his father the local carpenter; Tomacles had found his tearful mother in the embrace of the lecherous landowner. The landowner had thrown him a silver coin and told him to clear off. That night, after much questioning, his mother had confessed to him that the family was penniless, and it was only by enduring the sweaty affections of the porcine landowner that she retained a roof over their heads. The next night Tomacles had set forth with a bag under his arm, making purposefully towards the large house where the rapacious landlord lived. The bag contained his few personal belongings and some borrowed carpentry tools. Entering through a small window, which he had prised out of its casement, Tomacles had crept through the house. He soon located the snoring landlord, and killed him in his sleep. Tomacles had then cut off the man’s genitals and nailed them to the front door along with the silver coin, before leaving the village and his homeland forever.

Since that day, twelve years earlier, Tomacles had been a professional assassin and he had lost count of the number of men he had killed. The Greek had soon become an expert in his new profession, and his fees were correspondingly high. The King had summoned Tomacles that evening in order to present him with another of these discreet and deadly missions. Tomacles listened attentively as the King explained that the Greek was to depart the following day, and under the cover of working as a royal official, he was to join Surena and await further orders. Tomacles gave a reserved nod and then spun slowly on his heel and left, clasping the bag of gold which contained his hefty advance. The cold-blooded Greek did not bother to guess, nor did he care in the least, who his target might be, by now he was inured to his work and totally indifferent to everything except the lure of lucre and the pleasures it could buy him. The bulk of the gold would soon find its way into the hands of the local courtesans, for Tomacles had one weakness which was his raging libido.

The convoy which left for Carrhae the following day was now a long and noisy train of officials, clerks, their wives, slaves, and baggage. The Parthian officials did not

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