Videssos Cycle, Volume 1 (45 page)

Marcus could hear horse shouts of triumph as the Yezda gave chase. Too many for all to enter at once, the Videssians and their mercenaries jammed together at the six gates of the imperial camp. Their foes, whooping with glee, sent flight after flight of arrows into those tempting targets. Men toppled in slow motion from their saddles; horses screamed as they were hit. The wounded beasts bolted in all directions, adding to the chaos round the gates.

Worse yet, in the turmoil and the fading light there was no way for the army to tell Khamorth friends from Yezda foes. More than a few invaders got into the camp in the guise of allies, then went on killing rampages until shot from their horses. Scaurus watched in horrified admiration as a Yezda sabered down three Videssian footsoldiers in quick succession, then leaped his horse over the breast-high palisade and into dusk’s safety.

Khamorth were killed too, mistaken for enemies by panicky Videssians. Once or twice their clan-brothers, seeing comrades die before their eyes, took summary revenge. War within the Emperor’s army was suddenly as real a threat as the enemy outside.

Much later, Marcus would hear Phostis Apokavkos retell the story of that dreadful night and say, “I’d sooner be dead than live through another time like that.” From the proud, confident host that had set out from Videssos, the army was reduced in the early hours of that evening to little more than a terror-stricken mob, huddling behind the flimsy barricades that were all that kept it from the clutches of its foes.

If the Yezda had mounted an assault then and there, Marcus thought the Videssian force would have broken before them like so many dry sticks. But the nomads were leery of attacking a fortified camp, and perhaps the constant motion inside—in reality as meaningless as the scurrying of ants when their hill is disturbed—looked from outside like the preparations of battle-ready troops. The onslaught did not come, and little by little the Emperor began to get his men in hand once more.

He seemed everywhere at once, not in robes of state now but gilded armor above the crimson imperial boots. He dragged skulkers to the palisade from the false security of their tents. His army’s position was hardly enviable, but he was far too much a soldier to quit without a fight.

When he came to the Roman section of the camp, weary approval lit his face. “Very neat,” he complimented Scaurus. “Ditch, rampart, stakes—aye, and water too, I see—just like a drill. Are your men’s spirits holding up?”

“Well enough, your Majesty,” the tribune replied.

“There’s no need to fret over that,” Viridovix put in. “The lot of these Romans are too thick-skinned to be afraid.”

Gaius Philippus bristled instinctively, but the Emperor waved him to silence. “Easy, there. On a night like this, you’d be better off if that were so. Phos knows, I wish I could say it.” Not even the ruddy campfires could bring much color to his face; in their flickering light he looked wan and old. Shoulders bent as if under a heavy load, he turned and went his way.

His brother the Sevastokrator was rallying the staggered army too, in his own more direct fashion. “Phos’ left hairy nut!” Marcus heard him shouting not far away. “Give me that bow, you worthless crock of dung!” A bowstring thrummed; Thorisin cursed heartily at a miss. He shot again. Somewhere in the gloom a horse gave a contralto shriek of agony. “There!” the Sevastokrator said. “That’s how it’s done!”

Strangely enough, Ortaias Sphrantzes also helped pull the Videssian army back together. He went wandering through the camp declaiming such pedantries as, “Wisdom-loving men—for I name you philosophers rather than soldiers—should show the barbarians that their eagerness is deathless,” and, “The souls of the Yezda are not double, nor are their bodies made of adamant. They, too, are initiated into the mysteries of death.”

The performance should have been ludicrous, and indeed it was. Men smiled to hear the young noble mouthing his platitudes, but in that place smiles were hard to come by. Moreover, however long-winded Sphrantzes was, he also spoke the truth, and those who took the time to listen were not worse for it.

Priests circulated, praying with the soldiers and re-swearing them to loyalty to the Empire. No one seemed to care this night if a Namdalener added a clause to the creed Videssos followed, or if a man of Vaspurakan styled himself a son of Phos’ firstborn. In the face of peril, everyone was for once united.

When asked, the pagan Khamorth, too, took fresh oaths of allegiance. No priests would hear them, but before some of Mavrikios’ scribes they swore by their swords to hold faith with the Emperor. Their very reluctance after the mishaps at the gates convinced Scaurus their word was good. Had they intended betrayal, he thought, they would have made their vows more readily, the better to deceive.

“Hello, hello.” That was Nepos, who had been standing at the tribune’s elbow for a couple of minutes without managing to be noticed. The little priest looked as somber as his plump, merry features would allow. He said diffidently, “Might I ask you and yours to join the rest of this army in pledging your loyalty to Videssos? I hold no suspicions and mean no offense, but this seems a time for renewing faith.”

“Of course,” Scaurus nodded. Had the Romans been singled out for such treatment he would have taken it ill, but, as the priest said, every man in the camp was reaffirming his loyalty. “What oath would satisfy you, though? Most of us do not follow your ways.”

“Hmm.” Nepos scratched his shaven head. “A poser—have you any suggestions?”

Marcus thought for a moment, then said, “It is our custom, when taking service in a legion, for one man to take the oath, and everyone swear to follow his example. If I swear that oath again, this time by my gods and your own, would it suffice?”

“I fail to see how I could ask for anything more.”

“All right.” At the tribune’s command, the buccinators sounded their horns to gain the legionaries’ attention. The clear trumpet notes
cut through the tumult; Romans snapped their heads around to see what the matter was.

When Marcus saw they were all watching him, he asked if there was any man unwilling to give the promise Nepos asked. No one spoke. “Very well, then,” he told them. “By the gods we brought from Rome and by the god we met here, I pledge myself to obey the Emperor and do his bidding as best I can. Do you now swear to do the same as I?”

“Iuramus!”
they cried in the same Latin they had used when first joining their legions. “We swear it!” Nepos might not understand the word, but its meaning was unmistakable. He bowed his thanks to Marcus and hurried away to confirm some other unit’s allegiance.

The din outside the camp was unbelievable. Not quite bold enough to storm its ramparts, the Yezda did everything they could to bring terror to the men within. Some rode up close to scream threats in broken Videssian, while others contented themselves with wordless shrieks of hate.

Worse still, Marcus thought, were the great drums that boomed around every Yezda campfire like the irregular heartbeats of a dying, demented god. The vibration came through the ground as much as through the air and seemed to echo and re-echo inside a man’s bones.

To sleep in such circumstances was a forlorn hope, even for the phlegmatic Scaurus. He welcomed the messenger announcing Mavrikios’ nightly council with enough eagerness to send the man off shaking his head in confusion. There was no need for directions to the Emperor’s tent. Not only was it bigger than any other, it also stood on the highest ground in the campsite, to let Mavrikios have as good a view as he could of the surrounding terrain.

Reaching it, though, was like fighting through the crowds that always filled the forum of Palamas in the imperial capital. Men were on the move all through the camp, some with purposeful strides, others wandering aimlessly, using the simple fact of their motion as an anodyne against thought. Despite having a definite goal, the tribune also paid less attention to his surroundings than he might have. Gaius Philippus’ warning was too slow to keep him from bumping into a Haloga from behind.

The blond giant swung round in annoyance; he wore a leather patch over his right eye. “Watch your feet, you oafish—” He stopped short.

“Skapti!” Marcus exclaimed. “I did not think you were with the Emperor’s army. You should have visited us long ago.”

“When I saw you last, I said we’d meet again.” The commander of the Imbros garrison shrugged. To himself more than the Romans, he went on, “A man’s weird is a strange thing—if he will not come to it, it comes to him instead.”

He took Scaurus’ hand in both his own in the Haloga fashion, then shook his head, rueful amusement on his face. Giving the Romans no time to puzzle out his riddle, he turned and went on his way, tall, lonely, and proud.

Staring at his back, Gaius Philippus said, “I’ve seen men with that look to them before. Fey, Viridovix would call him.”

“Aye, and he seems to think somehow I’m part of his fate—may the gods prove him wrong.” Something else struck Scaurus. “When did you, of all people, take to borrowing words from the Celt?”

The centurion wore the same expression Skapti Modolf’s son had shown a moment before. “It does fit, though, doesn’t it?”

“That I can’t argue. Come on—let’s see if Mavrikios’ wizards have come up with a way to give us all wings and get us out of this pickle.”

No wizards were at the battle conference, with or without word of wings. Mavrikios had brought them with his force, to be sure, but more to foil enemy sorcery than to use his own as a weapon of offense—he was a man of arms by birth and training. The fight he faced now might not be on the terms he wanted, but he did not intend to dodge it.

Indeed, he was surprisingly cheerful, saying to Ortaias Sphrantzes, “I don’t think this is the way Kalokyres would have recommended luring the enemy into battle, but it shouldn’t work out too badly. Unless I miss my guess, the nomads will be so pumped up from today’s fighting that they’ll stand against us for once. And when they do, we’ll break them. In hand-to-hand they don’t have a prayer against us.”

Marcus thought the Emperor had every chance of being right. From what he had seen of the Yezda, victory would make them reckless. They would probably be so eager to finish off the Videssians as to be easy to snare.

The Emperor’s thoughts were running along the same lines. He gave his orders to his brother and Sphrantzes accordingly, “You two on the wings will be crucial in making this work, since you have most of the light cavalry. Spread wide—funnel the Yezda down to the center. The heavy troopers there will stop them; once they’re well engaged, close the wings like this.” He brought his outstretched arms together in front of his body. “We’ll surround them on three sides or, Phos willing, all four, and that should do it.”

Thorisin quietly listened to Mavrikios’ outline, now and then nodding as the Emperor made a point. “He’s cool enough, isn’t he?” Gaius Philippus murmured to Scaurus.

“Why not? This scheme can’t be news to him. He and Mavrikios likely have been working it through since sundown.”

Ortaias Sphrantzes was hearing it all for the first time, and his eyes glowed with excitement. “A classic ploy, your Majesty,” he breathed, “and surely a trap to catch the undisciplined barbarian rabble.” Scaurus was inclined to agree with the first part of what he said, but rather resented the rest. Mavrikios’ plan reminded him of Hannibal’s at Cannae, and that trap had closed around Romans.

The Emperor was pleased by the praise. “Thank you, Ortaias,” he said graciously. “I look to you to hearten your men tomorrow with a fine rousing speech.” Mavrikios was in a confident mood indeed, thought Marcus, if he was willing to be so courteous to his rival’s nephew.

“I shall! I’ve prepared one against the day of need, nicely calculated to raise martial ferocity.”

“Excellent.”

Next to Scaurus, Gaius Philippus rolled his eyes and groaned, but so low in his throat only the tribune could hear. The senior centurion had listened to part of that speech, Marcus recalled, and was anything but impressed. It did not really matter. Scaurus had watched Nephon Khoumnos, well down in the formal order of precedence, listening to Mavrikios’ scheme, and could fairly see the old warhorse plan its execution. Everyone—save possibly Ortaias Sphrantzes—knew the left wing was really his.

Out in the darkness beyond the encircled camp, the drums paused in their discordant pounding, were silent for a moment, then began
anew, this time all together:
thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump
. The two-beat phrase, repeated endlessly, maddeningly, made teeth rattle in their sockets, brought dull pain to the head. The harsh voices of the Yezda joined the drums: “Avshar! Avshar! Avshar! Avshar!”

Marcus felt his hands curl into fists when he understood the invaders’ chant. He glanced over to see Mavrikios’ reaction. The Emperor met his eye, quirked an eyebrow upward. “All the pieces are on the board,” he said. “Now we can play.”

The day dawned clear and hot, the brassy sun fairly leaping into a sky of flawless blue. The tribune’s eyes were gritty as he spooned up his breakfast porridge. The drums had not stopped throbbing all night, and what sleep he’d had was shallow and shot through with evil dreams. All through the Videssian camp, men yawned while they ate.

Quintus Glabrio scoured his empty bowl with sand, put it back in his pack. He was yawning too, but not worried about it. “Unless all the men out of Yezd are deaf, they had as much trouble sleeping as I did,” he said. Marcus nodded, appreciating his sense of proportion.

Yezda tents lay scattered over the plain like multicolored toadstools. There were more of them to the west of the Videssian camp; many were grouped around a great pavilion of jet-black felt. Without need for conscious thought, Scaurus was sure it was Avshar’s. Yezda streamed toward it. The tribune watched their battle line begin taking shape.

As he had feared, the nomads tried to keep the imperial army besieged in its camp, but Mavrikios was equal to that. Archers from behind the palisade made them keep their distance, and, when three or four dart-throwing catapults added their fire, the Yezda drew back toward their own lines. The Emperor then used his light horse as he had before, to form a curtain behind which his main force could deploy.