The Sword of Attila by David Gibbins Page B

of my wine from where I had stored it to my captors, who admired its quality and passed on the word to the palace. The short of it is that I was invited into the domestic quarters and then the royal dining chamber, where, after being plied with my own wine to test it for poison, I spent a day and a night serving it at a great imperial feast, listening to everything I could. The good news is that a small family wine concern in Hispania Tarraconensis is about to get a surprise order and become very rich indeed. The bad news I’ve just conveyed to Aetius.’
    â€˜Which is?’
    Arturus gave him a grim look. ‘The Sassanids will not countenance an alliance with either the eastern or the western Roman Empire against Attila. The Huns are their enemy, but they prefer to meet them on their own terms in their own territory, on desert ground with which their troops are familiar and where they believe that a Roman ally inexperienced in those conditions would only be an impediment. They believe that they can contain any attack from Attila in the bottleneck of the old Parthian frontier to the north, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea south of the Caucasus Mountains. They also believe that Attila has no intentions on Ctesiphon and that his eye is firmly set on the West, so that any attack on Parthia would only be play, stoking up his warriors and whetting their appetite for the real war of conquest he has planned against the West. Judging by all of the other evidence that Aetius’ agents have gathered, I think the Sassanids are right.’
    â€˜So how does this affect Aetius’ plans?’
    â€˜If an alliance with the Sassanids is out of the question, the only other way of making up sufficient numbers to confront Attila will be to turn to Theodoric and the Visigoths.’
    â€˜His son Thorismud was just here. He left before you arrived.’
    â€˜I managed to collar him on the street as I came in. He knows who I am, as he once saw me when he was a boy and I was a mercenary in Gaeseric’s service, visiting the Visigoth court. He told me he will not go to Aetius directly, but he will bring up the matter with his father in Tolosa at their council of war.’
    â€˜You must not let word of this leak out. Valentinian’s eunuch Heraclius knows how much the Visigoths detest him, and he will do anything to sabotage plans of an alliance between Rome and the Visigoths, even if the consequences doom the western empire.’
    â€˜Heraclius is the main reason why Aetius no longer brings Valentinian into his confidence on intelligence matters,’ Arturus said. ‘The emperor’s predilection for eunuchs, as with Theodosius in the East, is turning him into little more than a figurehead, leaving the
magister militum
holding the real reins of power, but also creating a dangerous vacuum that Heraclius and the eunuchs in the East could fill. Thorismud understands this, and before the council meets he will only bring up the question of an alliance privately with his father, Theodoric.’
    Flavius pursed his lips, and shook his head. ‘I know my uncle well, and I also know Theodoric, a distant kinsman of my Goth grandfather who I met when Thorismud took me to the Visigoth court when were together at the
schola.
They are both men of reason, but they are also warriors who would be reluctant to stand down. The winds of war from the East will have to be strong indeed to sway them from their animosity.’
    â€˜That’s why I’ve come here and why I am telling you this.’ Arturus reached into his tunic and pulled out a wooden tube containing a scroll. ‘That’s confirmation of your appointment as a special tribune in Aetius’ service, and of Macrobius as a centurion in his bodyguard. You now answer directly to Aetius. He has another plan, and it involves both of you.’
    Flavius felt a frisson of excitement. ‘Tell me what I have to do.’
    â€˜First, we