Votan and Other Novels (FANTASY MASTERWORKS) Read Online Free PDF Page B

it.
    I closed the gate and thought hard. If Julia was crying her heart out with the Syrian, there was no knowing what they were plotting between them. I might not have Scapellus round at once, but I’d probably have Publiolus at the door first thing in the morning. How long was I to stay indoors? A week? A month? Even if I did stay inside, there was nothing to stop Scapellus and his bullies from pushing the door in. And once husbands began to think over Julia’s troubles – nothing could hide Scapellus coming back five days early – there was no knowing who might be coming round.
    So what was I to do? I could hardly leave Vindabonum; I was, however you looked at it, under arrest. Anywhere else I could just have got out of town, just like I did at Ostia, when the husband came back, and after that unfortunate affair with the pimp in Alexandria, and as for Tyre, I never thought I’d find a Levantine who’d play with my dice. But in each of those places I had a ship to get back to and comrades who were at least as deep in it as I was. But there was no travelling about the Empire for me, with a pack of vengeful husbands all eager to put me under arrest. I was trapped, with the river at my back. Then it struck me. A river is a road, water is a way. I slipped through the internal gate into Otho’s courtyard and went into his office. Otho and Donar looked at me curiously. Occa was greasing his boots.
    ‘Don’t go for an hour or so,’ I told them. ‘I’m coming with you.’

1
    I went straight back to my own room and called Ursa.
    ‘Quick,’ I told her, in German. ‘Get me some German clothes. Shirt, trews, short cloak, sandals. Quick.’
    Out of the cupboard I heaved a leather bag with a shoulder strap, made for a pack mule once but better this way. In it I put my best sky-blue silk tunic and a spare pair of sandals. I had a few pieces of silver handy, but after what I’d heard I didn’t think it worth taking gold. I looked round and found one or two pieces of silver plate, old-fashioned embossed stuff. Then I took a leather water bottle with a strap, one I used to use out hunting.
    If I were going north to meet the Amber Kings, I thought, I needed a king’s clothes. I had a helmet, no, not a helmet, a cap of boiled leather, all covered and patterned with gold leaf, and this I put in, and a cuirass to match, for show not for war, soft leather and gold wire. These had come from the east somewhere, long ago, and had caught my fancy. I took a sword, the first I learnt to use, a Kopis, pointed, curved, one edge razor-sharp, the other finger-thick, blunt, the bone breaker, a fine hilt, but a plain scabbard. The general effect was of something meant for real use, but I knew well the metal wasn’t of the best.
    I was writing a letter to my father when Ursa came back with the clothes. She had a complete German suit, red woollen shirt, and red and yellow checked trousers. It was unworn, and a perfect fit; she must have started making it for me weeks before. Trousers are funny things to wear. You can always feel them on your legs. It takes you a long time to get used to riding a horse in them, the cloth spoils the contact with the beast’s side.
    She didn’t bring me a German cloak. They are short. Shebrought me my own long grey horseman’s cloak, down to my heels.
    ‘This is good for blanket, sleep in it,’ she told me. I finished the letter to my father. I stood up to go. Ursa threw her arms around my neck.
    ‘Rejoice,’ she said; she said it in Greek, it was one of the few words she knew, then in German:
    ‘Rejoice. Joy goes with you. Joy awaits you. Joy sends you on. Rejoice.’
    I went down into our courtyard on the soft German sandals. Hobnails are no use out there beyond the Frontier, there are no paved roads. I went through the postern into Otho’s courtyard, right under the town wall. The others were there, and a crowd of slaves, all talking at once.
    ‘When do we start?’ I asked Occa.
    ‘Now,’ he