Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [97]
‘So, you think that word of the general and the praefectus forming an alliance might have leaked out?’ Ian asked Fabulous as they walked along the corridor towards the library.
Events since the previous day had excited Ian as, though still mutually suspicious, Gaius and Thalius did (finally) seem to be pulling in the same direction, spending over an hour together in the Villa Praefectus with Gemellus the previous evening, discussing tactics against their mutual enemies. Not just the Zealots and the other terrorist insurgents, but also within their own forces.
However, both Gemellus, and now Fabulous, were quick to warn Ian that as events were moving, so the conspirators were bound to be moving with them.
‘I should say such a thing would be inevitable,’ Fabulous noted. For whensoever great men are to be found, there shall be, not many steps behind, lesser men. Is that not so?’
As he asked the question, both spotted Erastus heading in the opposite direction.
‘I hear you had a bit of an adventure today,’ Ian said brightly, and the trainer nodded, though his look was one of regret rather than pride.
‘Such events are a necessary part of life in this place,’
Erastus added, with a melancholy edge that Ian found surprising.
As they talked, Ian was vaguely aware of a fourth presence in the corridor and he raised his head and turned it to his left just as a guardsman, wearing the uniform of the praetorian staff, raced towards him with a knife clasped firmly in his hand.
It wasn’t the first time that Ian Chesterton had found himself the focus of an assassination attempt. In fact he was getting heartily sick of such things. He turned at just the right moment, catching the onrushing villain a glancing blow on the side of the head with his elbow; stunned, the man dropped to one knee and Erastus fell on him just as the assassin threw the knife at Ian from close range.
Chesterton closed his eyes and waited for the searing pain of impact, but it never came. Instead he opened them to find Erastus lying prostrate over the struggling guard and Fabulous slumped against the wall, the knife in his stomach.
Ian instantly forgot about the assassin and knelt beside his friend who was staring at his own hands, covered in blood.
‘I have never been a man for whom luck has had a lot of time, Fabulous noted with a dry chuckle. ‘A poor throw, to be sure. Perhaps our friend Erastus could spend some time training this fellow to do better in future.’
Erastus raised his head and yelled along the corridor for help. Within seconds, there came the sound of approaching, running feet.
‘Fabulous,’ Ian said painfully ‘I am so sorry. That was meant for me.’
‘Then it is better that I should be its recipient, is it not?’
asked the old librarian as he coughed, placed a bloodied hand to Ian’s cheek, and died.
Drusus, Gemellus, Tobias and others, including armed guards, were all approaching from different directions now.
But for a moment, all Ian could do was hold his fallen friend.
‘Who sent you on this errand of betrayal?’ Erastus asked his still-struggling captive. ‘Upon whose orders do you murder in the Villa Praefectus?’
The guard shook his head. A spine-shaking punch in the face by Erastus brought only a statement that he would rather cut out his own tongue than betray his master.
‘That might well be arranged,’ said Drusus as he helped Erastus to haul the man to his feet, leaving Ian alone on the corridor floor staring silently into space.
To Barbara, observing the bewildering kaleidoscope of nationalities and cultures that were present in Byzantium, this was in itself an education. For two days she wandered around the city, soaking up as much information as she could that would help her to remain alive and at liberty. On the first night she stayed with a Jewish family who treated her with respectful silence, as though mindful of Hieronymous’s edict about her. Careful not to overstay her welcome, Barbara left early the following morning and found herself in the Arab quarter where, much to her surprise, she befriended