Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 06] Druid's Gold (21 page)

The object of Cassius’ speculation Centurion just barked, “Wait here!” and he disappeared into the Praetorium.  Most of the other soldiers they could see ignored them making Cassius think that this was not an uncommon event. He quickly took in the layout.  He needed to know where the tower was and the barracks if he was to slip out later on. He could easily remember the route out.  He had already decided to wait until dark and then head to the point where he had left the pile of olives.  He would expect the decurion to be there if he had succeeded in following and if not then Cassius would have to make his own way north to the meeting point. He almost smiled to himself.  It looked like the assignment, which had once seemed impossible, was going to be a success.

When Centurion came out of the Praetorium he was accompanied by the biggest legionary Cassius had ever seen; a huge scarred warrior but what took his breath away was not the size of the man but what was revealed when they parted and he saw their leader for the man was the double of Livius, his decurion. He quickly hid the shocked expression from his face; it could not be Livius and, as he peered more closely he could clearly see the differences:  the hair was too short and there was something about the sneering smile and the cold dead eyes that marked him as different. He also noticed the way he walked; there was arrogance about this man that marked him as different from the decurion.

When he spoke the voice too could have been that of Livius.  “Thank you gentlemen for joining our little enterprise. I am Decius Lucullus Sallustius and my men call me General.  You will address me as such.  Centurion, you have met and you will meet my friend here I can assure you. “Tiny gave a suitable lopsided and rather frightening grin. “You have left the Roman army with its rules, regulations and er poverty.” The men all laughed for the smile on their new leader’s face told them that he had made a joke.  “You have joined an army which looks out for itself. We are a private enterprise army. We raid where we want and we take what we want.  Soon we will raid even further and be joining another army to fight the Romans.  The same Romans who I don’t doubt flogged all of you many times.” The nods were reassuring for Decius.  It confirmed their implicit acceptance of his putative rebellion. You will be given a uniform, similar to the ones you wore when in the service of Rome and you will be assigned to a century as with Rome.  There the training ends.  Tomorrow you begin to earn your first salary.” He nodded to Tiny who disappeared into the Praetorium. “We do not have many rules however one of them is that you do not leave. We will not call it desertion we will call it, termination of contract. Your contract can only be terminated when you die. Here,” Tiny dragged a man who had obviously been beaten badly, “we have someone who only joined yesterday and tried to leave us last night.” Tiny pulled back the head and Cassius realised, with a sinking heart that it was Seius, one of Drusus’ men. The eyes were almost closed and Cassius prayed that he would not open them and give away his secret.  “You will now see what the punishment is for desertion.”

Centurion nodded to two legionaries who brought out a sharpened stake cut from a young pine tree.  It was as long a man’s body.  They brought it to the centre of the parade ground where Cassius noticed, for the first time, a hole which was surrounded by stained soil and sand.  The men planted the stake in the hole so that it protruded with the spike uppermost, and suddenly Cassius had a sickening vision of what the punishment was to be.

Seius could not see what was coming and he looked exhausted as he was dragged by Tiny to the stake. “This is the punishment for desertion!” Tiny lifted the trooper up as though he was a piece of wood and then placed him slowly onto the sharpened point so that the spike began to enter his lower body. He did it gently at first so that Seius did not know what was coming, however as the point drove deeper upwards he uttered a scream, a scream so loud that Livius and Agrippa heard it, on the edge of the wood and shuddered.  Tiny then let go of the prisoner and Seius’ own body weight drove him down onto the staked which ripped up into his body. His feet flailed around which merely aggravated the effect of the stake. It went further into his body and Cassius watched in horror as the man’s bowels opened and joined the blood which was seeping from his body. After what seemed an age but must have only been moments Seius’ head slumped forward as death and the Allfather mercifully claimed him.

“Now that you have seen the punishment, go and claim your uniform and the rewards of fighting in this army.”

As they trudged slowly away each man’s eyes were drawn to the horror that squatted on the parade ground.  Cassius would have to rethink his escape attempt. He had more to tell Livius than he had expected.  He had found his brother; all of the Exploratores knew the story and knew the anger which burned inside their leader.  There was now an even greater reason for him to escape.  The problem was how for it was now obvious to him that they watched for those who wished to leave the camp.

Later that night after they had tried on and adjusted their armour and made sure the other equipment, including swords and daggers were in good shape Mocius and Cassius strolled around the camp.  They were mindful of the stares that they drew when they approached the perimeter but both men made sure they did not incur the wrath of Centurion or any of the other tough looking officers.  They both found their eyes oddly drawn to the monstrosity that had been Seius.

“Horrible way to go.”

“You are right Mocius.  Not that I was thinking of running but that would certainly stoop me.”

“Really?”

“A man would be stupid to run.”

Mocius bent down to pick up a stone which he casually tossed in the air. He caught it and stared hard at Cassius. “Then why were you leaving a trail when we came into the woods?”

Cassius felt a cold child race through his body. “What do you mean? I wasn’t leaving a trail.”

“You weren’t dropping olives and nuts?”

“What makes you think I was?”

“The fact that I watched you and I saw you do it were fairly big clues.  Listen Cassius, you were considerate and kind today and I won’t forget that.  Whatever you did and for whatever reason your secret is safe with me.  Just be careful.  I would hate to watch you die like that.”

“Don’t worry Mocius you won’t.” Even as he was warned by his new friend Cassius was planning his desertion.  After they had been given their uniform and food Centurion had told them of their first patrol. They were going on a raid the following day and, marked as a cavalryman, he had been assigned the role of scout.  Once out in the open he would defy anyone to catch him.  On foot he was a fish out of water, on a horse and he was like a centaur. He just hoped that Mocius would not suffer repercussions for his actions.

Chapter 13

As dawn approached Livius and Agrippa watched the trail for any sign that Cassius had made good his escape. “I am still not happy about that scream we heard last night.”

“Me neither Agrippa but there is little else we can do.  We’ll have to wait here until someone emerges.  The good news is that if no-one comes out then there will be no more raids for a while and if it is someone other than Cassius we just follow them.”

They settled down to a cold breakfast and watch the early morning mist slowly burn off. They could smell the camp even though it was some miles away.  The smoke from the breakfast fires and the stink of unwashed men wafted through the pine trees and assaulted their senses. Agrippa suddenly dropped his hard tack and started along the ridge and the hedgerow which ran along it.  “Saw some movement sir.  Up there.”

Although Livius had not seen it he trusted the judgement of the ever reliable Agrippa. “Well spotted.  Let us move back into the trees and see who it is.  It may be more recruits joining.” Whoever it was they were moving carefully and trying to stay concealed.  Had Agrippa not caught the slight movement in the hedgerow they could easily have escaped their notice but now that Agrippa knew where they were he was locked onto them like a hound on a scent. Both men slipped their swords from their scabbards and jabbed them point first into the ground.  They strung their bows and notched an arrow ready to defend them if attacked. “I count four.”

“Me too sir. Can’t see any uniform though.”

“Which means they could be rebels, they could be more deserters, or…”he peered into the hedgerow more carefully, “or it could be Marius and his maniple? Signal them.”

Agrippa dropped his bow and putting his hands together gave the bird call which was their signal. The four man patrol stopped and then one of them returned the call. Livius stepped out of the tree line and waved briefly before rushing back before he could be observed from the foggy woods which contained the camp.

“Good to see you sir.  I take it that like us you had a success?”

“Yes Cassius is in their camp which is somewhere in those woods.  And you?”

“Seius managed to get chosen but we lost him about five miles back a couple of nights ago.  We tried to pick up his trail but none of us have the skills of Rufius and we only found it today.  It crossed the land and ended just below the ridge.”

“Yes that is the way they brought Cassius in which is good news because it suggests that this is the main entrance.  Do not go near it though; there are traps everywhere.  Now that we have doubled our numbers send two of your lads left and you and Ovidius go right just in case this is not the main entrance. We know now that we are looking for Cassius and Seius.”

They did not have long to wait but Livius had been wrong because this was not the main entrance. He heard the whistle signal from Ovidius, who waved to show that a column of men was leaving the camp about a mile away and were heading north east. Livius turned to Agrippa.  “A good job Marius turned up we might have missed them.” They waited until Marius waved to them and they knew that it was safe to move.  Agrippa signalled the other two scouts and within a few heartbeats the six men were gathered together; finding shelter amongst the elder bushes and hawthorns which erupted across the ridge.

“That is a large force sir.  We counted ten riders and over a hundred infantry. They are all wearing our armour.  No wonder the Brigante think it was us who inflicted the atrocities.  I thought for a moment that it was us!”

“Right, here is what I want you to do.  Ovidius, you ride to the Prefect and tell him what we have found.  Marius, you ride to the meeting point and wait for the others to arrive.  Let them know what we have found and then wait for us there. Stay hidden and ride south first to avoid being seen. “The two riders galloped off keeping low in the saddle to maintain a low profile and silhouette.

“Metellus and Rufius, you two cut around and ride parallel and to the south, we will do the same to the north.  We’ll have to keep our eyes open for Seius and Cassius.  If they are with this lot then they may well use this as the chance to escape.”

Cassius was in the second pair of riders which made escape impossible at that moment but he was a patient man.  He had found the rider next to him, Salvius, to be a friendly chatty trooper and he was pleased that they were together for he was a mine of information.  Cassius had always been a good listener and he was born to be an Explorate.  Most people just like to hear themselves; not so Cassius, he preferred others to do the talking.

“This is a much better life than with the Gallic Horse.  I mean I know you lads in Marcus’ Horse had all the glory but the Gallic Horse just pissed around on patrol.  This is better. More action and there will be a lot more to come believe me.”

“Really?”

“Oh yes.  We had this Brigante with us, Brennus he was called.  Anyway he was one of that Brigante Queen’s bodyguards.  He fought alongside us at first then one night this boat came in with a bunch of bastard Irish and the Queen.  The next thing is Brennus is away with the Brigante lads building a Brigante camp and a Brigante army; bigger than ours now. Apparently the Queen is coming over soon.”

“How do you know that?”

Salvius showed doubt on his face, “Well I don’t know for certain but some of the lads heard Centurion talking to the General about liaising, whatever that means, with the Queen and Brennus.  Makes sense anyway.  The General is always going on about the future and the freedom and the end of Roman rule.”

“Do you actually think we can overthrow the Romans?”

“Well the Emperors don’t give a fuck about this province do they?  They are always taking away the decent legions and leaving it under strength. Look at us.  Less than four hundred men and yet we have paralysed this part of the country and no-one has bothered to do owt about it. I reckon this General and the Queen might just succeed. Those savages further south still haven’t been defeated.  If this lot joined with them well… we could be on a right result here.  We are in at the start.  If it comes off we’ll be the officers above those who come later.”

Although Salvius was full of hot air Cassius had to admit that what he had said had made sense. “Well that is what I wanted to hear.  One day on the job and already well on the way to a fortune and becoming an officer.”

“That’s the spirit. You stick with me mate and we’ll do alright.”

Centurion, who looked too big and uncomfortable on his horse, halted them about a mile form the sleepy little village that nestled in the less of the hill.  Cassius could see a water mill which suggested that it was prosperous.  Salvius leaned over and whispered.  “There will be a ton of gold here believe me.”

Centurion flashed a savage look at Salvius before addressing them all. “Cavalry, I want you to circle the settlement and stop any bugger leaving. Infantry we go in a column of four. The story is like the others we have used, they are hiding Brigante rebels.  Kill a couple but preferably just wound them, it is better that way.”

From his vantage point on the ridge Livius saw them halt.  The tendrils of smoke had already told him that there was a settlement nearby.  “Well Agrippa this may be our chance. Have you seen Cassius or Seius yet?”