They crossed the desert with an escort of twenty of the local warriors from the outer settlements, all of whom were completely covered to avoid Junius identifying them later.
Early in the journey Junius had provided them with the information they required and a rider had ridden off in another direction to inform the necessary people. After that the locals had remained apart from the two Romans for most of the day, until it became apparent that Junius could no longer stay upright on his horse. At this point the leader, who had given his name as Nasir, called a halt and climbed up behind the struggling Roman and then ordered them to continue.
Marius couldn’t see his friend’s face, but from the way he swerved and swayed in the saddle he could tell that Junius was at the limit of his endurance and was now suffering by being abroad in the day.
“Your friend is strong,” Nasir told him as they rode side by side. “Not many would have lasted as he’s done in the circumstances. I suspect he’s a good warrior?”
Marius nodded. He was the only member of the entourage not swathed from head to foot in material and was feeling the heat of the desert. “He was my commanding officer, and still is. He’s a good man, brave and honourable. A true Roman: if anyone can fight it, he can.”
“Yet they concentrated on him rather than you?”
“I was wary, I’m more cautious by nature. Junius is young, he still thinks he’s invulnerable. Well, he did.”
“You have someone?” Nasir asked glancing over to him.
Marius remembered the night spent with Cassia and winced. “I have a woman and three children, who live outside our fort. In ten years when I leave the army, I’ll marry her and settle down somewhere. We haven’t decided where yet.”
“I pray to the old gods that you do, Roman, for you’re a good man. Your friend?”
Marius smiled. “Junius isn’t free to choose who he settles down with, it’s one of the few downsides of his birth. His father will pick his wife for him. In the meantime, he doesn’t let any girl get too close, though it’s not for want of trying on their part.”
Nasir nodded. “I think they sensed this in him. It’s not love that keeps him strong, rather a sense of duty and a desire never to surrender. You have a family; it’s harder for them to reach past that love.”
“You may be right there,” Marius conceded the point, thinking of his own family and how thoughts of them had kept him going when he’d wanted to give up, and the joy of their letters had made even the toughest assignments bearable and strangely shorter. Junius didn’t have that, but he did have an overriding sense of his family’s place in Roman society, which had been drummed into him since childhood, and that seemed to be his main stimulus in life along with his sworn sacramentum to the Emperor and to Rome. To Marius it seemed a cold and empty reason for life when he compared it with the love of his family.