‘You know you’re not bad with a horse.’ Ario gave him an approving nod. ‘For an infantryman.’
‘I appreciate your qualifying the statement,’
Marius answered drily. ‘My father taught me when I was a boy.’
He regretted the words the second they were out of his mouth. In thirteen years, barely a day had gone by when he wasn’t reminded of his father’s dishonour in one way or another, but the number of times he’d spoken about him out loud could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet since he’d told Livia about him—as part of what now struck him as a particularly unromantic proposal—he felt as if an old injury had reopened. Her comments about his father’s motives for mutinying yesterday had only rubbed salt in the wound. Now the memory of his childhood riding lessons made his chest heave with an emotion he thought he’d put behind him a long time ago.
‘Varro?’ Ario was looking at him quizzically, he realised, and he straightened his shoulders, once again bemoaning his lack of sleep, just in time to see something move in the woodland ahead.
‘Hold!’ He raised a hand, bringing the turmae to a halt.
‘What is it?’ Ario spoke in an undertone.
‘Something moving. Over there in the trees.’
‘An animal maybe?’
‘Maybe.’ Although if it had been an animal, it was something large. A stag or a bear maybe. Far more likely for it to have been a man.
‘Keep half of your men here. I’ll go ahead with the rest on foot.’
Ario looked dubious. ‘It might be a trap.’
Marius nodded sternly. If he’d seen what he thought he’d just seen, it probably was a trap. They were following the rutted remains of the old Roman road where it passed along the edge of some woodland, an almost perfect spot for an ambush, and the northern tribes were skilled at laying those. It was a large part of the reason why the Roman army had never fully conquered Caledonia. Still, it would be surprising if the tribes attacked so soon, in full daylight and against cavalry to boot. If they did, then it meant they were either very confident or desperate to prevent them from going any further and finding something. But it was still better to hunt them down in the trees than follow the road into a trap.
‘We need to find out. Wait here. We’ll march on and draw them out if they’re there. You come and help if necessary.’
To his relief, Ario didn’t argue, quickly dividing his men and holding half of them back while he gave the order to dismount and led the rest straight towards the trees.
The attack came even sooner than he expected, a volley of arrows hissing out of the undergrowth before they’d gone barely fifty paces.
‘Shield wall! Testudo!’ Marius bellowed, digging his shield into the dirt and crouching behind it as more arrows whistled overhead. The rest of Ario’s men did likewise, forming an impenetrable line of shields in front, around and even above their heads as another volley of missiles slammed into them.
A moment later a horde of warriors emerged from the woodland, seemingly all at once, roaring a bloodthirsty battle cry as they charged towards them almost completely naked, wearing only short braccae and copper bands around their necks and arms, with no armour except their leather shields.
Marius braced himself as the cry built to an almost deafening fever pitch and the combined force of a hundred bodies hurled themselves into the shield wall, forcing them back a few steps. He yelled orders at his men, bellowing at them to hold the line as he strained his feet in the dirt, pushing back against the press of warriors with all his strength.
There was a momentary lull and he took advantage of it, jabbing his sword between a narrow gap in the shields and thrusting it at the first warrior he saw. He heard a grunt of pain, followed by a bellow of anger, and thrust again, lunging forward in a ferocious counter-attack, heartened to find the two men on either side of him doing the same.
‘We need prisoners!’ he shouted over the din.
‘Tell them that!’ Ario’s voice rose to meet his and he peered out, just in time to see the cavalry thunder past them and start to encircle the warriors.
Then there was only the sound of combat, every voice drowned out by the clash of weapons and the heavy thud of sword upon shield. Marius felt a fresh burst of energy, swiping and smashing his sword over the top of the shield wall, parrying away spears and axes that tried to find their way through the gaps.
Then it was over. The rebels must have realised their mistake as the horses reared and pounded the earth around them, fleeing back to the safety of the trees even faster than they’d burst out of them before. Only one straggler slipped on the mud as he ran, dropping his axe as he struggled to regain his footing.
Marius was after him in a heartbeat, tossing his shield to one side as he ran forward and grabbed hold of the warrior’s arm before he could reach his axe again. Then he raised his sword, about to land a blow with the hilt and knock him unconscious when he saw the age of the face looking back. It was that of a boy, not a man, in his late teens perhaps, but still young enough to make him spin the blade around, pressing it up against his throat instead.
‘Yield.’ He ground out one of the few Caledonian words he knew, relieved when the boy lifted both of his hands in the air in surrender.
It was enough. He had a prisoner.
* * *
Whatever the commotion was, it was coming from the direction of the gates. Livia stood on the top step of the quartermaster’s storeroom, looking out over the top of the clustered auxiliaries, trying to catch a glimpse of the returning soldiers. They were back sooner, far sooner than expected—so soon that having slept for most of the morning, she’d barely had a chance to get dressed. Was their early return a good or a bad thing? she wondered. She wouldn’t know for sure until she found Marius.
She stretched up on her tiptoes, heart beating frantically in her chest as she sought for him, torn between gut-wrenching anxiety, guilt and a new sense of trepidation. After the unexpected, and frankly breathtaking, intimacy of their night together, she felt almost shy at the thought of seeing him again, though not enough to stop her from wanting to repeat the experience as soon as possible. If he wanted to... She still wasn’t sure about that. As much as she’d enjoyed what had happened, it had been as one-sided as the rest of their relationship. He hadn’t joined with her. Hadn’t he wanted to? Although that was a good thing, she chided herself, since she still hadn’t told him the truth about her past! This time she was determined not to be a coward again...