Ironroot (Tales of the Empire) Read online

  “Long indeed,” Sabian replied quietly, his gaze slowly wandering down to rest on his boots. “Always knew you’d be commissioned, Varro. Even in the old days, I mean. I suspect if I hadn’t given command of the Fourth to Cristus, it would have wound up with you, sooner or later.”

  Varro blinked a few times, gently shaking his head. Likely it was the fault of the drugs and the drowsiness, but his mind seemed to be refusing to work correctly. He was suddenly entirely unsure of the situation around him and the scene felt increasingly unreal to him.

  Here was the second most powerful man in the Empire, a close friend of the Emperor himself, speaking to him as though they were campfire companions on campaign in the wilderness; suggesting that he could be a staff officer in the right circumstances. Oh, not that he hadn’t considered that himself from time to time, but had never thought to hear it from above. And perhaps he hadn’t done. It wouldn’t entirely surprise him to find his mind was playing tricks on him. He focused once more on Sabian, aware that the marshal had continued to talk, long after he’d stopped listening.

  “…and so you might still get that chance, Varro; probably will in fact.”

  The marshal raised those insightful eyes, ‘a window onto genius’ as some poet had once written of him, and rested them on Varro.

  “But for that to happen,” he said with surprising force, ”I need you to do something.”

  Varro blinked in alarm. He’d missed something. Trying not to sound panicked, he settled slightly in the seat and gave a reassuring smile.

  “Can you just repeat that, sir?”

  Sabian gave him an odd look; disturbingly reminiscent of the one Catilina had given him in the street outside the bathhouse.

  “Prefect Cristus will, tomorrow, be formally announcing his decision to step down from command.”

  Again Varro blinked and Sabian’s eyes narrowed.

  “You are taking all this in, aren’t you Varro? If I didn’t know better I’d say you were topped up on Mare’s Mead.” His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward in his seat.

  The captain shook his head.

  “Sorry sir. Strong medicine our cohort doctor put me on. Took a stab wound in the side yesterday and it pinches a bit.”

  Sabian smiled.

  “I expect it does, Varro; I expect it does. Still, it’ll be towards the end of the year before Cristus can actually fully step down. He’s plenty to do before then, but he’ll be looking at a position on the Imperial Council in Velutio. And that’s where I need to strike a bargain with you, Varro.”

  “Sir?” The captain’s brow furrowed. Taking this in at face value was hard enough. Digesting the details and trying to read between the lines was positively crippling in his current state, though with the marshal it was always worth checking.

  Sabian sighed and leaned forward over the plume of his helmet, resting his elbows on the knees of his black breeches and steepling his fingers.

  “Catilina.”

  “Catilina, sir?” replied Varro, thoughts rushing around his head and refusing to settle. For certain Sabian had known of their dalliance; Varro would never have been foolish enough to tangle with the marshal’s daughter in secret. But that had been over for years now, hadn’t it? And yet the marshal had come to his house; the house of a lowly captain, to speak of her?

  “Yes Varro,” Sabian continued, his voice clear and suddenly much less familiar, “Catilina. I know the two of you had something together; a few years ago, back in Vengen. I might have been busy, but I couldn’t miss my daughter fawning and swooning over a scarred captain on a furlough. Besides,” he continued, “my son knew well enough. And he and I talk.”

  A momentary panic seized Varro but faded into disbelief. Catilina was not a woman to whom anyone would apply words like ‘fawn’ and ‘swoon’.

  “It was truly nothing sir. We never…”

  Sabian stopped him with a hard look.

  “She was sixteen and headstrong,” the marshal interrupted. “She’s always known exactly what she’s doing and I trusted her judgement even then; even with you.”

  His look softened once more.

  “But the problem is this: Cristus has asked me for permission to court her.”

  Varro leaned back heavily in the chair. He tried to find his voice, but nothing seemed to be coming out, no matter how hard he tried.

  Sabian continued to stare directly at him.

  “Cristus will be one of the most powerful politicians in the Empire. Very suitable as a match for Catilina. But the problem is: I am very much afraid she still carries a torch for you. A worryingly bright torch. I almost had you broken when you went back the next month. You left her a mess, though she would have no one tell you of it. A father knows, though.”

  Again Varro’s mouth moved with hardly any sound emerging.

  “I won’t have her marry a soldier, Varro. It’s a dangerous profession, no matter how good at it one is. I love my daughter and I won’t have her destroyed because the man she loves is lying face down in a mountain pass with a spear in his back. Do you understand me?”

  Varro nodded and managed an affirmative sound. He really was having trouble now. It was one thing to be feeling light headed and woolly, but he was now having real difficulty forming words in his head, let alone voicing them.

  Shaking his head again in a vain attempt to clear it a little, he squinted and focused on his commander.

  “I understand that sir. Catilina’s n’extraordinary woman sir, but I never expected her to…”

  Again he fumbled with his words.

  “I wouldn’t…”

  He was saved any further attempt as Sabian nodded.

  “Calm yourself, Varro. I’m not here to rake over the past with you. My visit here concerns the future. All I’m asking you to do is keep my daughter at arm’s length and, if she insists on being near you, to try and put her off; to dissuade her from pursuing this. She doesn’t know about Cristus’ troth yet, but she will do so before we return to Vengen at the end of the week.”

  Varro nodded uncertainly.

  “This may sound a little unfair to you, Varro,” the marshal continued. “But I’ve watched both you and Cristus. He’s moderately ambitious on a personal level and actively seeks a lifestyle that I’d like him to be able to provide for Catilina. You are an outstanding field officer. I’ve said as much many times. You may even be a truly great officer. But one thing I’m also certain of is that you will live and die a soldier. I’ve known your sort many times. Many of my closest friends fit that very mould.” He sat back once more.

  “But that’s just not for my daughter.”

  Varro shook his head again. Nothing he tried was clearing the fog that continued to settle on his mind. He smiled weakly at the marshal.

  “So,” Sabian went on, “the fact remains that when Cristus steps down at the end of the year, the fourth will need a new prefect. By general right of seniority, I should give the position to the captain of the first cohort, but you know Parestes as well as I do.”

  Varro nodded and cleared his throat.

  “He’s ‘by th’ book’ sir. Good enough, but no ‘magination.” Why the hell wouldn’t his tongue work properly. Surely the drugs must be wearing off by now.

  “He hasn’t an imaginative bone in his body, Varro. Moreover, though he’s commanding the senior cohort, you actually have more years’ active service than he. You were just held back by that incident at Fallowford. My doing, I know, and probably unfair, but necessary at the time.” The marshal smiled.

  “So I’m going to name you. It’s my prerogative, and I really don’t think Parestes will be put out over the matter. He knows you have more ‘time-in’ than him.”

  Varro nodded again, and then shook his head.

  “Thank you sir.”

  Sabian flexed his shoulders and pulled himself upright.

  “Very well, Varro. I’ll see you at the headquarters tomorrow morning. Get some rest. That wound’s clearly taken a lot out of you
.”

  “I will, sir” the captain replied and hauled himself out of the chair, wobbling slightly as he came upright.

  “Goodbye, captain.” The marshal inclined his head slightly and, turning, left the room.

  Varro saluted as his superior departed, and then staggered slightly.

  He turned to find the chair he’d been in, and as he spun, noted with fascination the way the light from the oil lamps in the recessed alcoves streaked along, like a greasy stain on a pane of glass. He smiled at that, or at least he thought he smiled. His mind didn’t seem to be functioning properly at that moment. He spotted what could well have been the expensive, carved oak chair with the leather padding and reached out to grasp the handle and sit while the feeling passed.

  Varro pitched forward with all his weight, unconscious even before he fell through the oak chair with a crash, splintering the finely carved legs and coming, after a brief roll, to a halt amid the wreckage, viscera leaking from his reopened wound and fresh blood seeping from half a dozen new cuts.

  When Varro awoke it felt as though his body were pierced through in a dozen places with jagged knives. His head felt heavy and thick and he had a headache that threatened to break through his skull, but the uncertain fluffiness of before seemed to have retreated. His eyes flickered open. The light immediately made his head thump all the louder, but he was grateful to note that after mere moments a dark wooden beamed ceiling swum into view. At least he could see.

  With a groan he began to rise to a seated position and suddenly hands were on him, gently pushing him back down. In a minor panic, he turned his head, sending fresh thumping beats and waves of nausea through him. Two medical orderlies were performing some menial task over by the side bench.

  The hospital then. He’d been here before often enough.

  Very slowly and carefully rolling his head the other way, two more figures came into view.

  Corda, clad in his dress tunic and cloak, stood beside the table, a look of great concern on his pale features. With a start, Varro realised his second in command was covered in dried rivulets and pools of blood. Varro’s blood, plainly.

  Standing behind Corda was another figure in white. Even with his back to Varro, the captain recognised the low rumble of disapproval that was a trademark of Scortius, the chief doctor of the second cohort. The man was hunched over something on a table. Varro looked weakly up at Corda.

  “Am I…”

  The sergeant reached out a hand and clasped Varro’s in a time-honoured fashion.

  “I found you on your floor. Don’t know how long you’d been out, but there was quite a pool of blood. You’re looking quite pale and Scortius had to take a chunk of chair out of your back. Another wound, sir, I’m afraid.”

  Varro tried to lift his head from the table, failing drastically. There was so little strength in his body and the muscles refused to obey. Breathing deeply and collapsing back he closed his eyes. Corda cleared his throat.

  “Your other wound opened right up again too. Scortius has been having a good look inside you.”

  “Has he,” gurgled Varro with an edge of resentment. “And did he find anything he liked?”

  Slowly the doctor turned and approached the table.

  “Varro,” he said quietly, “lie still. You’re putting too much strain on what’s left of your body.”

  “Nice.” The captain rolled his eyes. “At least I feel better.”

  The doctor cleared his throat and leaned closer.

  “You only feel better because I’ve filled you so full of pain-killing remedies that you probably couldn’t stand straight even if you were in full health.” He sighed. “I’ve got to tell you something; something you’re not going to like.”

  Varro merely nodded as best he could.

  “I’d a feeling something was wrong. I’ve been wounded many times, but it’s never hit me like this. Even worse-looking wounds I’ve suffered. But surely I can’t die from this? I mean; it’s not that bad a wound, surely?”

  Resting the heels of his hands on the side of the surgical table, Scortius leaned over the captain and Varro felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the look in the doctor’s eyes; the same look that crossed them every time the man thought of his long-gone son, Terentius; a look that carried loss, and despair and utter hollowness. A look that frightened Varro to his very core.

  “What…?” The captain’s voice came out little more than a croak, or a whisper.

  “There’s nothing I can do, Varro.”

  The captain’s eyes closed for a moment and then he frowned deeply before opening them once more.

  “Would you just care to run that by me again, Scortius?”

  The doctor sighed and, reaching out, pulled a basic wooden chair across to the table and took a seat.

  “It’s not the wound. The wound is alright. It’s nasty, but it’d heal, as would the new furniture wound in your back.”

  “So…” Varro’s frown deepened, “what are we talking about then?”

  Scortius rested his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands together and raised his sad eyes to Varro.

  “Have you ever heard of Ironroot?”

  Varro shook his head, pensively.

  The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “I can’t say I’m really surprised. Ironroot is the Imperial name for a substance the Pelasians know as Sher-Thais. It’s harvested from the seeds of a plant the locals call the ‘suicide tree’. I’ve seen it used in the eastern provinces as both a poison and a pesticide, but never this far north or west.”

  Varro stared at the doctor, confusion and panic fighting for control of his expression.

  “I’m sorry,” Scortius shook his head. ”There’s no cure.” He sat back with a flat look on his face.

  Varro tried once more to raise his head, growling.

  “How can this happen?”

  Scortius pinched his nose again and frowned.

  “There appears to be some discoloration of the organs and flesh around your wound. At this point, I’d say that the blade that cut you was coated with the stuff. Very nasty. And curious…”

  “Curious?”

  Varro’s growl deepened.

  “Curious? That’s all you have to say?”

  The doctor sat back slightly. “Curious that a hairy, unwashed barbarian from the northern mountains would have a sword coated with an exotic and expensive poison from the other side of the world? I’m sorry this has happened Varro, and if I could stop it, I would, but I can’t help being curious as to how he got it.”

  “How long have I got?”

  Scortius shrugged slightly. “He’s obviously used a strong dose. And straight into your body. Normally I’d expect a few days at most, but I think I can give you things that’ll keep you going longer than that. A week? Maybe two? I’d have liked to see that sword. Perhaps we could have learned more.”

  Varro collapsed back, exhausted and stunned, as the doctor gave a weak and sympathetic half-smile.

  “I’ll go see what I can mix up for you.” The doctor shuffled off among his bottles and bags in the corner, muttering “for pain, stimulation, retardation and blood. Hmm…”

  Varro blinked and turned his head to look at Corda, clearly stunned, his face bleak, but showing the first signs of anger. The sergeant leaned down toward his officer and growled.

  “I take it the bastard’s dead? We’ll not be able to find out.”

  Varro’s eyes narrowed.

  “The barbarian’s dead alright, but I don’t think he was the problem.”

  “What?” Corda frowned and leaned closer. The captain closed his eyes and the veins on his temple pulsed as he tracked back over the last two days.

  “The sword.“ Varro’s hand reached up and grasped his sergeant by the shoulder. “The bastard that stuck me had an Imperial sword; a nice one too. A proper officer’s sword. That hairy piece of shit didn’t get the poison at all. This is someone else’s doing! One of our own, for Gods’ sake, Corda�
�� one of our own!”

  Corda’s expression hardened.

  “I’m going to go see the quartermaster and go through the loot; see if I can find an Imperial sword.” He looked up at Scortius as the captain sank wearily back to the table. “You get him up and about. I don’t care how you have to do it. Just get him moving.”

  Corda gave his captain a last determined glance, grasped his shoulder, and then strode out of the tent as though he’d do battle with the Gods.

  Varro watched Scortius approaching the table once more, his soul hardening like baked clay as he lay there. There was more to this than simple chance. Someone had engineered Varro’s death, and that made him angry. Hopefully angry enough to stay alive long enough to settle this. Someone was going to pay for this. Someone would pay.

  And cleft in two does history lie…

  I opened my eyes. It took a few moments for me to place myself and my surroundings, but after a minute or so I remembered being helped back to my house by two medical orderlies. Scortius had given me some compound that quickly begun to clear my head and return the strength to my body. I know I was still feeling a little strange and confused as I woke, but some of that could well have been natural grogginess on waking from deep sleep.

  I wasn’t prepared for what happened.