The Aelian Crescent (Vialegio Book 3) by Williams Charles

Author:Williams, Charles [Williams, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The conflagration roared and hissed as tongues of flickering orange flame rocketed high into the night sky. How the catastrophe had started, or which miscreants were responsible, was as yet unknown as the fire wardens swarmed like frenzied wasps, trying desperately to control the churning inferno. The two massive grain warehouses located near the docks of the port of Ostia blazed like twin torches, showering a vast curtain of glowing ash over the docks, and casting an eerie fiery glow over the ocean.

Tullius, his blackened face streaked with sweat, stared horrified at the churning blaze raining down burning cinders, redolent with the suffocating aroma of roasted grain. As the leader of the fire wardens, he knew that the two warehouses were only a few of many other buildings in the vast storage area. They were all full to the brim with recently unloaded cargoes of Egyptian grain, and especially reserved for a massive grain donative to the citizens for the new emperor’s celebrations.

He made the fateful decision to evacuate the warehouses adjacent to the raging inferno, and ordered his team to tear down the neighbouring buildings with axes to create wide firebreaks. His order came not a moment too soon. The buildings adjacent to the blazing warehouses started to smoke as the work gangs furiously swung their axes and tore down the outer walls and cleared the perimeters.

Next to the firebreak boundaries, Tullius’ workers covered the nearby roofs with seawater-soaked leather tarpaulins to extinguish the swirling cinders that the roaring firestorm lifted high into the night.

The malevolent fire blazed relentlessly, its flaming fingers discharging red cinders, but the changing hues told the experienced fire crews that it was diminishing. An enormous tragedy with resounding repercussions had been averted, with limited loss of the precious grain. The crews stood exhausted, covered in sweat, ashes, and dirt as they watched the flames abate and burning timbers crash into crackling mayhem. Tullius knew that a fire of this magnitude would trigger an imperial enquiry, and he involuntarily shuddered when he thought of the possible consequences, if he or any member of his team were found to have neglected their duties. He lifted his eyes to the smoky night sky and mouthed a plea to the gods to grant him and his team favour in the coming enquiry.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the blaze burnt out and the boundaries of the blackened wreckage were cordoned off with ropes, and guards were posted to secure the area.

Crews of inspectors trawled and sieved through the twisted debris for traces of evidence. Sturdy ox drawn carts rumbled away day and night, fully laden with discarded rubble to be dumped in the surrounding countryside.

Eventually the stricken area was cleared. In the far recesses of one of the huge warehouses, the inspectors located a charred corpse next to a hole, with cooking implements turned to glass littering the ground. Someone had been lighting a cooking fire in the building. The senior inspector stared at the twisted and charred remains of the small male corpse.

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