SquidgeWorld Archive

"When they come to tell this story in future years," my friend remarked as we trudged along the road, "they will not mention donkey droppings."

I was too tired to argue. The three of us had been trudging along this road for days. The donkeys were exhausted, the packs we carried were worn, and we were weary. All in all, we were a sorry little band of three travellers and three worn-out beasts.

We had known when we started out that this would not be an easy journey, and so we had travelled light, shedding our usual retinue in favour of speed. At first, I had rather enjoyed the freedom to travel as an ordinary man among ordinary men, but after days on the road, I began to long for the other freedom, the time to think afforded by not having to continually clean one's own clothes, and groom one's own donkey, and cook one's own food. When we had come before the king I, I who should have been able to look him in the eye as an equal among equals, had been only too aware that I looked like a vagabond of the road, probably carrying with me a whiff of the afore-mentioned donkey droppings. I had thought at the time, if you did not know the Roman Army stood behind you, you would never dare to treat visitors in this way...

Then I had laughed at my own foolishness and vanity. Here I was, engaged upon the most important task of my life, of my reign as king, and I was worried because my pride was being insulted?

I looked across at my two companions. Finally free of what we had carried with us for many days, we were hastening for home. Our haste was only partly due to our urge to return to our wives and home countries (and in my case, a clean set of clothes and my library, which I missed, badly). The king was looking for us, and we could not permit him to find us. Hence our pose as ordinary travellers.

They looked as weary as I, if not more so. I was the youngest of the three, and whilst my burden had been the heaviest, it had at least been welcomed with joy by those to whom it had been given as a gift.

Not so theirs, but I did not blame that young family for that. I, too, would not have wanted to receive such gifts at the birth of my son. My friends' two burdens had weighed on them all these many miles, and now that we had fulfilled our task, we had little to say to each other, all of us preferring to reflect privately on what we had seen over the past few days.

We had not said it aloud, but we knew it. The world had changed forever, though perhaps only we three knew this as yet. Soon the entire world, the entire Roman Empire, would know it.

As we entered the inn's courtyard in the early afternoon, intending only to stay for some water and a little food, to give the donkeys time to rest, I noticed two men and a woman standing within. I was tired, but not so tired that I did not notice how strangely they were dressed. Well, one of them was dressed, the older of the two men. The woman with them was clad in the long robes favoured by women in this region (though I noticed that they were clean and well made of good cloth). The man's younger male companion was clad in the tunic and sandals commonly worn in the area, but he himself wore the strangest clothing I had ever seen. A short woollen tunic covered his chest and arms, over which he wore a long dark leather garment. His feet were booted, and his legs were clad entirely in some kind of black cloth.

I had never seen such garb, and his face was pale, unlike the swarthy complexions of most who inhabit this region. I wondered uneasily if he might be Roman, some Army official born in the north of the Empire. I had heard that the tribes who inhabited such cold areas often adopted such dress to survive the rigours of winter. Perhaps he was merely sticking to his homeland's customs. Still, just because he might be Roman, it did not mean he was working for the king. The Roman Army was stationed throughout this occupied land, and not all of it worked for the puppet king. This man and his companions might merely be travelling through on private business.

In any case, I and my companions looked like ordinary travellers, and at a time when the entire region was on the move, returning to their birth towns for the king's census, we appeared the same as everyone else on this road. We need only fear discovery by those who had seen our faces at the king's court, and every mile we put between ourselves and him lessened that risk.

As I trudged wearily towards the stables, I overheard him say: "Right, we need to get that patrol out of the way, and keep those three here a bit longer.""

His companion replied, in an accent I had never heard before, "I can do the second part of that; can you and Rose take care of the first?"

"Of course. Honestly, who's been doing this longest?"

"It's not how long you do it, it's how good you are at the time."

I heard an exasperated snort from the older man, then footsteps. As I turned to enter the door of the stables, I saw that his younger companion had left.

I wondered whom they were talking about. Those three? Could they mean ourselves?

I doubted it. If they knew who we were and meant us ill, they had only to call for a Roman patrol, and we would be politely but firmly escorted to the king's court as fast as a horse could gallop.

I admit, I was frightened by that thought. I am a king, and I believe I am a brave man. But I know only too well that no king can long permit a rival to live, even an infant. I did not doubt the ruler of this land would go to any lengths to discover what we knew, so that he might rid himself of that threat.

I took a deep breath, and reminded myself of that little family. The man, older, a little confused and frightened by what he had been caught up in, but resolutely determined to raise a child not his own.

The woman, young, barely fourteen, but already a mother, brave enough to give birth with no help in wretched surroundings.

That beautiful child.

My companion was right, I thought. When they told this story in future, and I had no doubt they would, they would leave out the donkey droppings.

***

An hour later, I was standing by myself in the doorway of the inn, in the fading light of the afternoon. I looked out at the road stretching away in front of the inn, the small town ahead of us, and was somewhat undecided. My companions were asleep. We had been given our food and told to go and eat it in the stables, as the inn was full, busy with people returning home, and even the place where people would normally eat was stuffed to bursting with tired children and complaining women.

The stables, though smelly, were warm and the hay not unpleasant to sit on, and after so long on the road, my companions, who were not young men, had fallen asleep as soon as we had finished eating. I was trying to decide if I should wake them. We needed to continue our journey, and I was uneasy at the prospect of staying any longer than we needed to, particularly with that strange man still somewhere in the area.

That said, I was aware that we were all tired, and that a day's rest might mean that we were able to travel for longer the next day. I had no proof that he meant us harm.

"Wow, it's really busy round here."

Startled, I turned round to see the woman who had been standing in the courtyard standing beside me. I looked around, but could see no accompanying servants, and neither of her male companions was with her. I was somewhat shocked to see her unchaperoned, but not so shocked as I was to be in a moment, when she removed her veil and headscarf and let her long hair free to flap in the faint breeze of the afternoon.

I noticed with a kind of odd detachment that she, too, was fair-skinned, and her hair was fair. She was old, perhaps at least nineteen, but healthy and well-fed, and quite beautiful. I was astounded that her father (for I assumed that was who he was) allowed her to wander around so brazenly.

She turned towards me. "Have you been travelling long?"

I gaped in surprise. She seemed offended at my silence. "Okay, you don't want to talk. That's fair enough. You must be tired, having been on the road so long."

Perhaps she was simple, a child-woman, unaware of the proper social niceties. If so, the more reason she should be guarded. "We should not be speaking like this. Where is your father?"

She suddenly looked down, and was saddened. "He's dead. He died when I was a child."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I found myself saying. "I assumed that man you were with..."

"Oh, him? I just live with him." She must have sensed my shock, because she replied hastily "Oh, not like that. We just travel together."

Perhaps she was his ward, come under his protection on the death of her father. "I see. And that other man is your servant."

She smiled mischievously. "He wouldn't like to hear you say that."

I smiled back. There was no denying it, she was a pretty woman, and the pleasure of female companionship was something I had missed badly. I should not be doing this, but it was a joy to converse with someone who was not worn down by the road. "Have you travelled far?"

"Oh, yes. A very long way."

"Well, it has been a pleasure to speak with you..." I realised I did not know her name. "I must leave you, and go and wake my companions."

"Oh no, don't do that." She looked alarmed, then smiled. "Please, stay here and keep me company."

I was astounded at her brazenness, but also somewhat charmed. "I can hardly do that. It isn't proper for us to speak."

"Why not?"

She must be from the North, I thought. An educated man, I have always striven to learn as much as I can about the customs of other lands, in case there is something that my own land might benefit from. It is, after all, a king's duty to look after his folk. I had heard that in the North of the empire, it is not unknown for women to walk about unaccompanied, and even to be heads of their own household. I had always wondered how that might be, but to speak with this young woman, I sensed that perhaps in some lands, women might be brought up to have some responsibility, as men are.

"I will ruin your reputation, speaking to you like this, unchaperoned." I admit, I did not wish to leave her company, but I really had no choice. I stood up.

"No, you mustn't go," she insisted, seeming agitated.

"Why not?" I asked.

She seemed undecided for a moment, glancing round, then leaned scandalously close to me and murmured: "There's a Roman patrol looking for you. The man leading it saw you at the king's court."

My heart raced with fear. We had to leave at once. "How do you know?"

"The man you saw me with - he knows."

"How?" I was seriously alarmed.

She looked briefly panicked, then replied: "Well... he... knows things."

My earlier suspicions must have been right. The man was obviously a Roman army spy. I cursed myself for a fool, allowing myself to be charmed by a woman. But then, I thought, why had she told me?

Suddenly, I realised the truth of the matter, and was awed by it. "Were you sent to warn us?"

She smiled and murmured softly, "Yes".

"And your companions - they were sent to protect us?"

"Yes."

Like the star, like the voices that told us to start our journey. I was humbled. All I had needed to do was to have faith that we would be protected, I realised, and gave thanks on the spot. I bowed my head to her, and began to kneel.

"What are you doing that for?" she asked. I looked up, surprised.

"You don't need to do that. I'm just an ordinary person."

Again, I was surprised. She looked like no other being, no other woman I had ever met, and I had begun to believe that she was not, in fact, a woman...

... then I remembered that other. The young mother, her face shining and radiant with the importance of the task she had been entrusted with. Of course. A woman to bear and raise the child, a woman to protect those who had come to greet and welcome it, and instruct the parents on what was to come.

Truly, this new world that I and my companions knew was beginning would be a strange place. I doubted we should live to see all the changes that the child would bring about, but to look upon this young woman, I suddenly trusted that all would be well, that, despite the darkness, all we needed to do was to have faith.

I smiled. "Thank you. I must go and rejoin my friends."

She smiled, and I was suddenly sorry that I would never see that smile again, for I knew I would not. "Are you going to stay overnight?"

I regarded her gravely. "Should we do so?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Then that is what we will do."

She looked relieved. "Good. Have a safe journey home."

"I believe we will. Farewell."

I turned and left, and as I did so I caught a glimpse from the corner of my eye of a tall man standing in the shadows nearby. I realised that her older companion had been observing us all the time. As I watched, she rejoined him, and then they both set out on the road away from the inn. On the other side of the road, I saw an odd dark shape against the wall of a building, that I would have sworn was not there before. I shrugged and continued to walk back to the stables.

Suddenly, there came an odd roar, like that of some beast I had never heard before. I turned to see if I could detect where it was coming from, but as soon as it had begun, it stopped. I listened carefully, but did not hear it again.

As I turned back towards the stables, I would have sworn that the dark shape I had seen moments earlier had vanished, but perhaps it was my eyes tricking me in the heat of the day.

Or perhaps there was some other explanation.

***

Half an hour later.

"Where is he?" The Doctor frowned, and sat up from underneath the TARDIS engine, where he'd been tinkering with the sonic screwdriver for around fifteen minutes, in between fidgeting and muttering crossly about Jack's unreliability. "Honestly, I should never have let you persuade me to bring him along."

Rose sighed, and dropped down to sit beside him. "Oh come on, lighten up. He makes things exciting."

"Are you saying I don't?"

"No, I'm just saying oh my God, what is he wearing?" Rose frowned as, hearing footsteps, she and the Doctor turned round and gaped in unison at the sight of Jack strolling through the TARDIS door, clad in a Roman centurion's outfit, complete with sword and swagger stick. As they watched, dumbfounded, he began to peel it off, then stopped.

"You know, I'm not against appreciation from the public, but do you two realise you're staring?"

"Sorry," Rose replied, reflexively, and looked away as Jack continued to shed the armour, then nonchalently pulled on the jeans and t-shirt he'd left lying on the TARDIS floor earlier. The Doctor shut his mouth, then opened it again and asked "Did you have any luck?"

"Yep." He grinned rakishly. "Amazing what you've got in that box of tricks, Doctor. Makes life so much easier when you have the right clothes. I just rode on up there and ordered them to start searching back the way they came, said that we'd got intelligence that they'd doubled back to confuse us. Said I'd take a small patrol into the town and search there, just in case." He shrugged. "Luckily, those Roman boys are good at obeying orders. Followed me off the road, into a dark alley, and didn't start wondering what I was doing until after I knocked the second one out with a plank. Left them all there. They've got their horses, so they'll be able to make their way back home in the morning."

The Doctor smiled, and leaned on the doorframe of the TARDIS. Rose joined him, her hand slipping into his, and they stared out at the desert night together.

"So, how come these guys are so important, anyway?" she murmured.

"You mean, apart from the fact that they're human and we just saved their lives?"

Rose gave him a wounded look. "There's always a reason why we come back to a particular time. I just wondered what it was."

The Doctor grinned. "Well, you know that one you were chatting up?"

"The young, fit one?"

The Doctor snorted. "Yeah, that's right, the "young, fit one". Caspar. In five years' time, he's going to negotiate a treaty that will send a hundred of his people as slaves to Rome every year, and keep himself in power as king."

"Ugh!" Rose pulled her hand away from his. "That's horrible! We saved him so that he could do that?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, yeah. The alternative was that the Romans conquered his entire country, installed a puppet dictator, enslaved half the population and stole all the best farming land to feed their soldiers."

"Oh."

"That's not all. He's going to keep on reading, keep on learning stuff and trying out new ideas, throughout his reign. In fifteen years' time, he's going to work out a system of crop irrigation and food rationing that will keep nearly the entire population alive during a famine. He'll pass all sorts of laws, create new courts and a proper justice system, allow women to own property. By the time he dies, he'll be known as Caspar the Wise, and he'll be practically a legend."

"So why haven't I heard about him?"

The Doctor yawned and stretched. "No-one's invented the printing press yet. Besides, the Dark Ages wiped out a lot of history. Nothing was written down, and people forgot things. Give it another fifteen hundred years, then you apes can start recording your history properly and getting on with making a bit of social progress."

Rose looked at him. "I guess I never realised... til I met you. We're pretty much the only people who ever get to meet all these people, aren't we? The people history forgot."

"Yeah. It's a shame, really, but that's life. Look at what happened to the memory of Runs Swiftly Over Stones."

"That sounds like an advertising slogan for trainers."

"She invented the wheel."

"You're making that up."

"No, honestly, would I do that?"

They looked at each other and exchanged grins. Rose smiled shyly. "When you said we were going back to here, I thought... well... maybe we were going to see..." She broke off, letting her words trail away.

The Doctor smiled gently and took her hand. "I know. Sorry, Rose. Some things are so important even I shouldn't go mucking about with them." He sighed and looked out into the night. "Besides, they're nowhere near us right now. They're heading for Egypt, flying for their lives."

Rose shivered. "And the king - he's going to start killing children."

The Doctor nodded sadly. "He's already given the orders."

"Can't we do something?"

The Doctor sighed again, and suddenly looked older, and sterner. "Rose, there's only so much I can do. Think of all the massacres throughout history... Where would it end? So many people suddenly living, not dying - it would change history completely." He shook his head. "We've done our best. Time to be hopping in the TARDIS and being on our merry way."

"Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Could we stop off at Mum's on the way and have some chips?"