Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough Page A

mild warmth was delightful.
    “This,” said Sulla, “will be an excellent winter camp!” And sat himself and his army down on the opposite bank of the streamlet from his adversary. The cavalry were sent back to Beneventum under the charge of Cethegus, while Sulla himself gave a new party of envoys explicit instructions on how to proceed in negotiating a truce with Scipio Asiagenus.
    “He's not an old client of Gaius Marius's, so he'll be much easier to deal with than Norbanus,” said Sulla to Metellus Pius and Pompey. His face was still in remission and his intake of wine was somewhat less than on the journey from Beneventum, which meant that his mood was cheerful and his mind very clear.
    “Maybe,” said the Piglet, looking doubtful. “If it were only Scipio, I'd agree wholeheartedly. But he has Quintus Sertorius with him, and you know what that means, Lucius Cornelius.”
    “Trouble,” said Sulla, sounding unworried.
    “Ought you not be thinking how to render Sertorius impotent?”
    “I won't need to do that, Piglet dear. Scipio will do it for me.” He pointed with a stick toward the place where a sharp bend in the little river drew his camp's boundary very close to the boundary of Scipio's camp on the far shore. “Can your veterans dig, Gnaeus Pompeius?”
    Pompey blinked. “With the best!”
    “Good. Then while the rest are finishing off the winter fortifications, your fellows can excavate the bank outside our wall, and make a great big swimming pool,” said Sulla blandly.
    “What a terrific idea!” said Pompey with equal sangfroid, and smiled. “I'll get them onto it straightaway.” He paused, took the stick from Sulla and pointed it at the far bank. “If it's all right with you, General, I'll break down the bank and concentrate on widening the river, rather than make a separate swimming hole. And I think it would be very nice for our chaps if I roofed at least a part of it over-less chilly later on.”
    “Good thinking! Do that,” said Sulla cordially, and stood watching Pompey stride purposefully away.
    “What was all that about?'' asked Metellus Pius, frowning; he hated to see Sulla so affable to that conceited young prig!
    “He knew,” said Sulla cryptically.
    “Well, I don't!” said the Piglet crossly. “Enlighten me!”
    “Fraternization, Piglet dear! Do you think Scipio's men are going to be able to resist Pompeius's winter spa? Even in summer? After all, our men are Roman soldiers too. There is nothing like a truly pleasurable activity shared in common to breed friendship. The moment Pompeius's pool is finished, there will be as many of Scipio's men enjoying it as ours. And they'll all get chatty in no time-same jokes, same complaints, same sort of life. It's my bet we won't have to fight a battle.”
    “And he understood that from the little you said?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “I'm surprised he agreed to help! He's after a battle.”
    “True. But he's got my measure, Pius, and he knows he will not get a battle this side of spring. It's no part of Pompeius's strategy to annoy me, you know. He needs me just as much as I need him,” said Sulla, and laughed softly without moving his face.
    “He strikes me as the sort who might prematurely decide that he doesn't need you.”
    “Then you mistake him.”
    Three days later, Sulla and Scipio Asiagenus parleyed on the road between Teanum and Cales, and agreed to an armistice. About this moment Pompey finished his swimming hole, and-typically methodical-after publishing a roster for its use that allowed sufficient space for invaders from across the river, threw it open for troop recreation. Within two more days the coming and going between the two camps was so great that,
    “We may as well abandon any pretense that we're on opposite sides,” said Quintus Sertorius to his commander.
    Scipio Asiagenus looked surprised. “What harm does it do?” he asked gently.
    The one eye Sertorius was left with rolled toward the sky. Always a big