The Peacekeeper by Jess Steven Hughes

Author:Jess Steven Hughes [Hughes, Jess Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620067604
Publisher: Milford House Press
Published: 2018-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

*

Casperius Niger led the century of honor guard of one hundred men, escorting my family and me the twenty-two miles to Rome. Eleyne and my sons rode in a canopied wagon drawn by four horses while I rode next to Casperius. The rest of our household rode behind us in baggage carts pulled by mules.

Considered a hardship post, Ostia would not be a long-term assignment for Casperius. He was scheduled to rotate from Ostia to Rome during the Ides of August. Neither officers nor troops at the seaport were posted there for more than four months. Primarily trained to arrest felons and quell riots, duties of firefighting were considered hazardous and unpopular among the ranks of the City Guard—fit for only the Watch.

“Of course,” Casperius explained, “at the Calends of December, they’ll rotate me back. Then I can’t complain I was kept in Ostia permanently, which is what the Imperial bureaucrats want!”

I facetiously reassured Casperius I wouldn’t put a stop to the routine by the bureaucrats. He didn’t laugh.

Enroute, Casperius briefed me on events in Rome and the deteriorating situation under Nero. Although I had learned much about Nero through my correspondence with Sabinus, I had underestimated the emperor’s tyrannical lust for power.

“Has Lord Sabinus written to you about Nero’s murdering ways?” Casperius asked.

My chest tightened, and for the length of a heartbeat, I pulled back on the reins of my horse, jolting him to a halt. I kicked his sides, and he moved forward. “You mean the thirty senators who were falsely accused of treason?” I asked returning to Casperius’s side.

“The same. They were executed or forced to commit suicide.”

I still hadn’t forgotten how much this bothered me when I’d received Sabinus’s report. Most of the senators were honorable men. “Gods only know how many more will be slaughtered before he’s finished.”

Casperius exhaled. “Lord Sabinus has to watch his back.”

“All of us have to watch our backs.”

So far, Nero had confined his terrorism to the Senate, tragic enough because its ranks contained many noble men, excluding Gallus.

During the journey an oppressive humidity lingered in the air, and the sun never cracked the rust-iron clouds. The worst of seasons, only critical business kept Sabinus in Rome during the summer. Usually, he resided at his rambling villa along the foot of the cool Apennines. Because Nero was giving a feast tonight, the nobility had remained in the city, or they all would have escaped to the milder temperatures of the country or the seashore. Only the poor were trapped in Rome during the summer. I planned to send Eleyne to Budar’s coastal villa near Antium, south of Ostia. The tasks ahead would prevent my joining her.

It was late afternoon when we reached Uncle Budar’s estate, across the Tiber from Rome, before I reported to Sabinus. I turned and moved back to the wagon where Eleyne and the boys rode behind Casperius and me. The dust from the long trip failed to hide her drawn face and drooping eyes.

The boys, nine-year-old Marcellus

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