“Don’t tell me you want to stay, after moping around like a lovesick swain for three months.”
“I intend to go to Nicomedia, if only to see what is behind the order,” Constantine said. “But there’s no reason for you to share whatever fate they’ve devised for me. After all ”
“I’m an old man and not able to keep up? Is that it?”
“For God’s sake, no! You can outlast me in a crosscountry run any day, but I don’t see why you should get yourself killed ” “Are you planning to commit suicide?”
“Of course not.”
“Neither am I.” Dacius smiled. “I remember the first day I saw you back in Nicomedia. You’ve got some of the same look on you now, like a man uncertain of what’s going to happen but determined to make the best of it.” Dacius’ hand dropped to Constantine’s shoulder in a warm gesture. “But be careful, lad. Don’t make the same mistake before Galerius that you made here just now.” “Mistake?”
“You swore an oath, in the name of the Christian god.”
Constantine and Dacius
By riding hard, Constantine and Dacius made the journey to Nicomedia in four days. General Licinius looked surprised when they presented themselves before him.
“You made good time I see, Tribune,” he said. “How did you leave Emperor Diocletian?”
“Well, and happy.”
Licinius smiled. “And the cabbages?”
“Thriving. No one near Salonae dares to grow any larger than his. May I ask where I’m being sent, sir?”
“You have been ordered to the Persian frontier, in the realm of Caesar Maximin Daia,” Licinius told him. “I believe you have been through that area.”
“Some years ago, at the time of the Persian War.”
“Then you no doubt know the territory along the Euphrates, and the fortress of Callinicum.”
“Callinicum?” It was Dacius who spoke, the words jolted from him by surprise. “When I was there, Callinicum was commanded by a centurion.”
“Both Caesar Maximin Daia and Augustus Galerius feel the post is important enough now to justify stationing a tribune there,” Licinius explained. “And since both of you are already familiar with the region guarded by the fortress, it seemed a logical place for you to serve.”
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