The Legate's Daughter: A Novel by Wallace Breem

Author:Wallace Breem [Breem, Wallace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, ISBN 0 297 84880 1
ISBN: 9781780225388
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2012-11-15T01:23:32+00:00

C H A P T E R X I V

he augur had stood with his back to the north and had pronounced

the omens propitious for the journey; the sacrifice had been made

before the assembled troops and their officers; and now Cornelius Silius,

his cloak blowing about him, faced the altar that had been erected on the

mole. The divine figure stood silhouetted against a broken sky, and the

braziers that flanked it sent black smoke streaming toward the heavens.

The beaked ships in the harbor stirred as the tide began to turn, while

the seabirds, hunched along the wall, and whom many believed to be the

souls of the dead, watched and waited in silence.

Cornelius Silius, his head cowled in his toga, raised his arms in sup-

plication and cried, "Immortal Vesta, guardian of the sacred flame; on

you I call, to you I pray: make soft the waves and calm the sky; avert the

evils of the night and the demons of the sun; grant a safe journey now to

these thy people of Rome."

The ceremony concluded, he turned to Curtius Rufus and said blunt-

ly, "Keep me informed and if you need help don't be too proud to ask

for it." To Criton he said, "Look after him. He depends on you." Criton smiled shyly, and the tribune said, "I shall miss your company, all of you.

It can be lonely here."

They sailed on the dawn tide of the first day of the new month and,

as the ships cleared harbor and stood out to sea, Curtius Rufus, looking

back to the harbor, could still see the figure of a man standing alone upon

the mole.

Criton, who had joined him, said anxiously, "I wonder if she is watch-

ing from the palace roof. I am surprised she did not send for us to say

goodbye."

Curtius Rufus said, "We are all still under one sky," and then moved

229

away and went below. For the rest of that day he was in a bad mood and

spoke little.

The sea voyage was uneventful and with a wind to help them most of

the way they reached Portus Sigensis in five days and four nights. Portus

Sigensis was an imposing name for a mud-walled village of one street.

"It was a Phoenician trading post," said Lucius Eggius sadly. "They never bothered with harbors; just ran their boats up on the beach and left

them there." The village boasted a blacksmith, two elderly boat-build-

ers, a handful of Greek and Jewish merchants, and little else. Behind lay

a pattern of cultivated fields, a flock or two of sheep, the inevitable goats,

and a great emptiness that stretched to the horizon.

"We shall do better at Siga," said Lucius Eggius in answer to a ques-

tion. "It is a few miles inland and has a flourishing market once every

eight days. You will be able to secure your mules there, Vatinus, as well

as the last of our supplies." He smiled at Marcus Pedius, who was look-

ing worried.

The supply centurion said, "How long will it take us to get there?"

"About nineteen days. There's plenty of water if one is careful but

little to be bought in the way of food.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.