Emperor's Mercenary by Tony Roberts

Author:Tony Roberts [Roberts, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-08-22T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Night. Darkness cloaked the city, choking it. Fear ran everywhere, it was in everyone’s eyes. People walked hurriedly, heads down, and made for their homes. Casca stood in the shadows looking across the ill-lit street at the looming palace atop a small hill. Fires were burning within the building, so people were still working and living there. Whether the negotiations had finished, broken down, or were still being conducted was anyone’s guess. Whether they were in the palace or outside, again it was not known.

It was two hours after darkness and coming towards midnight. He made his mind up and stepped out into the silent street. The quarter moon filtered a weak light down from the night sky. Enough to see by.

The stone wall that ran at the rear of the palace was tall but ill-repaired and the plasterwork had fallen off in many places, and small weeds were growing out of the gaps in between the bricks and stones. This was enough to give Casca purchase points to climb, especially where rain and wind had scoured some of the stones and brickwork, leaving holes and crevices.

The wall was twelve feet high and Casca was up and over in a few moments, sweating with the effort and collecting a few scratches and scrapes. He slid over the top and dangled down, holding onto the top. He would be only four feet or so off the ground so he let go and landed with a thump, bending his knees and rolling to absorb the shock.

Stinging nettles. Fuck they stung! Leaping out in haste, he stood on a worn path and rubbed his tingling and aching flesh. The building was ahead. There would be guards, he knew, and the grim realisation that from now on anyone he met, no matter what faction they professed allegiance to, would be an enemy, even if they didn’t know it. Circumstances had put him into this position, and his curiosity now got the better of him.

As he slipped through the untended grass and water features of the garden, sadly overgrown and dried up now, his mind tried to come to terms with the realization that what he was doing was strictly a shut-ended mission. Once he had recovered whatever it was he was to fetch, he was to be killed. Whatever it was, was far too valuable and important that he could be risked to talk about it to anyone.

So what could it be? The surrender negotiations between the two leaders could feasibly include the artefact, he guessed, but he wasn’t going to chance it. No, Honorius wanted whatever it was and also wanted him and Flavius silenced. Best to let the two complete their mission, turn up at the agreed place and then dispose of them.

That was why it was insisted they do it on the evening after the city’s surrender, of course. Things would be confused, and there would be enough soldiers to take care of the two on hand.

Another thought went through

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