Death in Londinium by John Drake

Author:John Drake [Drake, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2016-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

“No!” said Maligoterix. “You cannot say that, and you cannot do that. Not if he were a horse or even a dog. Not when he has eaten your bread and slept under your roof.”

Cogidubnus stamped and growled. He ignored me and yelled at Maligoterix.

“I say different!” he cried, “and I am King!” But Maligoterix sneered and mocked.

“King, he says? And when his time comes, and the king enters the tomb of his ancestors, does he cherish hopes of the joyful life beyond?”

“Yes!” roared Cogidubnus, and Maligoterix smiled.

“And who shall perform the rites to pass you beyond the tomb? Who shall save you from the loathsome pit where serpents writhe and spiders crawl?”

Faced with that truth, Cogidubnus lost his temper and yelled at Maligoterix, while Maligoterix calmly stood with his hands in his sleeves and waited until Cogidubnus had exhausted his rage, and had groaned and sighed, and finally admitted by reluctant, resentful looks, that he had lost the argument. For such is the power of faith and such is the fear of hell.

Cogidubnus hardly spoke after that, but stood chewing his knuckles and uttering sighs. The rest of the conversation was between myself and Maligoterix, and it was a most fascinating conversation since, having failed with his own method of interrogation, Maligoterix was intuitively using mine. He was a clever and perceptive man and studied my face as intently as I studied his. It was a match between two gladiators.

Maligoterix spoke first.

“You have heard my truthful words,” he said. He said it in Greek, and Cogidubnus who could not follow, objected and seized Maligoterix’s arm. But Maligoterix gave a Gorgon stare, and Cogidubnus let go the arm, with profuse apology, which Maligoterix accepted with a sneer, and wagged a finger to indicate that Cogidubnus should fall back a pace.

“So!” said Maligoterix and looked at me, and continued in Greek.

“You and your Romans are guests of this royal house,” he said, “and will leave tomorrow, safe and unharmed.” I nodded, but said nothing, because silence is very persuasive in causing a man to say what is hidden in his mind. So we stared at each other for a while and Maligoterix stepped so close that his nose almost touched mine. He was worrying and wondering.

“What are you?” he said. “Are you a holy man among your own people?”

“No,” I said. “I am an engineer.”

“Yes,” he said, impatiently. “We know all that,” and he stared harder. “But engineering is mere mechanics. You have greater powers. You are a necromancer. So what creed do you serve? What doctrine do you worship?”

“I try to be a Stoic” I said. “And what creed do you serve?”

“Ancient truth,” he said. “Ancient power,” and he nodded in profound satisfaction, confident in his faith, and secure in his determination to tell me nothing of it. So I quoted Badrogid. I quoted him in the original Britannic.

“Oak and ash, hart and hind, fox shall bark and ivy bind,” I said, and Maligoterix jumped as if stabbed, for he

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