Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 03] Invasion- Caledonia

by Griff Hosker

  “Master what is it?”

  Agricola picked up the half eaten cake. “It was this. Strabo how do you feel?”

  “Fine. I had there of these and I have no ill effects.”

  “The prefect has been poisoned.” Atticus ran from the tent and Agricola and the others began to loosen the prefect’s clothing.

  “What do we do?” The three men so confident and competent in war knew not what to do. It was obvious that the man had been poisoned but what could they do?

  “Get the surgeon.”

  Cominius ran from the tent just as Atticus returned with a black power and some water. Throwing the wine from the untouched beaker of the prefect he poured the black powder in and then the water. He began to stir, flicking his eyes constantly at the prefect. “Hold him up he must drink this.” Agricola and Strabo were too stunned to wonder at a mere slave ordering them around nor could they even begin to question what concoction he was giving the obviously dying man. “Put his head horizontally,” ordered the slave who began to pour the black, viscous liquid down the prefect’s throat. Suddenly Marcus’s body began to contort and Atticus had to hold his mouth shut and pinch his nose. “Hold his arms and legs! Stop him from thrashing around.” The two Romans easily controlled his arms and legs and the prefect had to swallow. Cominius had returned with the surgeon as Marcus began vomiting a black and yellow liquid.

  “What did you give him Atticus?”

  “Ground charcoal and water sir!”

  “Good. Is this the poisoned cake?” Stunned, they all nodded. The surgeon sniffed it and put a tiny morsel on his tongue. He immediately spat it on the floor. “Either monk’s bane or wolfsbane. Well done Atticus you may have saved your prefect’s life.” He went to the tent’s entrance and shouted. “You two troopers come here.” A moment later the two men entered the tent shocked at the sight they beheld. “Take the prefect to his tent. Take off his armour and cover him. Atticus you must stay besides your prefect and give him more of the charcoal and water. When the vomit is purely black you may stop,” As the four men left Agricola spoke for all of them. “We need to find the quartermaster. This was an attempt on the life of the prefect. An attempt which may well have succeeded. Prefect Strabo go and find the quartermaster, Sura bring Decius.”

  By now the whole camp had heard of the attempt and Agricola found a flurry of decurions at the tent. “Decius order your decurions to bring the ala to readiness. Then join the quartermaster in the prefect’s tent!”

  The Quartermaster was white. “Sir I…”

  “You are not a suspect in this Quartermaster. I need to know where you bought these cakes.”

  “I have been using an old woman in the village, Ailsa. She made those.” He pointed to the cakes left by Strabo.

  “The general pointed at the cake being examined by the surgeon. “And those?”

  “No those were made by a new woman in the village. Una.”

  Decius had returned to hear the last words. Agricola considered the cake as though it could speak.” Why did you acquire these for the prefect?”

  “She made them especially for him. He had one last week and enjoyed it.”

  Decius spoke his voice hard and quiet. “This woman, Una? When did you first see her in the settlement?”

  “A week ago. She helped Ailsa and…”

  “Describe her.”

  “She is small, not young and yet not old. Her eyes…”

  “They are the colour of young violas and you felt your loins ache when you saw her?”

  Agricola and the two prefects turned to stare, along with Porcius at the Decurion Princeps who suddenly had second sight. “Decius how did you know?”

  His face drained of all colour he turned to the general. “The prefect described her to me when they were travelling back from Mona. It was Fainch the witch. The woman who murdered the Queen and caused the death of the prefect’s wife and child has tried to kill him again for it was she who tried to burn him in the wicker cage.”

  “Decurion Princeps take four turmae and turn that settlement inside and out. Porcius accompany them. I want this Una taken and Ailsa, she may or may not be an accomplice but we need to find out.” He turned to the two prefects. “Get back to your commands until we get to the bottom of this I want everyone on full alert. Tell Decius Brutus at the Ninth what is going on.”

  Agricola struck the desk with his fist in anger. This was the kind of warfare he did not care for. Barbarians could try sneak attacks, they could ambush his men but to poison and kidnap went against everything Agricola held dear. What galled him the most was that it was a woman, a druid; the rest had died but the last remnant of a foul, decadent and evil religion was wreaking havoc with this war. The woman would have to be found and when she was found there was only one punishment, crucifixion.

  Decius was in a grim mood when he and Porcius confronted the baker, Ailsa. “But sir she was just a woman who offered to help me. I did not know her. I swear.”

  “Listen you piece of vermin, my prefect has been poisoned and the poison came from here. I care not that you are a woman. If I don’t find that woman then you will suffer her punishment, crucifixion for I will have revenge and my general will have revenge. Whether you are innocent or not does not matter. The poison came from this hovel and before we leave here this hovel will be ashes and, if I do not get the answers I want so will you.”

  Porcius put his arm out as though to restrain Decius. “Decurion Ailsa is a good woman.”

  Decius grabbed the portly Quartermaster by the throat and put his face close to him. “Listen you fat piece of shit! You were the one who bought the food! You were the one who gave it to the prefect. You are so close to having my dagger rip out your throat that I would keep quiet if I were you.”

  Gaius stepped forward and pulled Decius off. “Decius this will not get us Marcus’ poisoner. The witch will be found but stop attacking everyone. We know how cunning the witch was. Don’t we? Would the prefect have threatened an innocent woman?” Decius began to turn on Gaius. “She is innocent Decius. Would she still be here if she were guilty? The Quartermaster is innocent. All that he did was to get those things which pleased the prefect. Like getting the wine you liked, the food we wanted and all those things we have taken for granted. I know that you are Decurion Princeps but if you continue to rant and rail believe me I will have you arrested.” Decius looked up angrily. “You are not yourself. You are not thinking. Now go outside and kick something and let me question the woman. Macro, see the Decurion Princeps outside.”

  It was a tense moment; Decius was torn. Inside him something told him that Gaius was right but his heart told him to kill everyone and that would cure the Prefect. Macro looked at one of the three men he admired in the world and, catching Gaius’ eye nodded and put his arm firmly around the Decurion Princeps. “Come on sir a bit of fresh air will do us both good.” He added affably. “You can hit me if you like.”

  Ailsa was a quaking, quivering wreck sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. Porcius Verres was as white as Gaius had ever seen another human. Gaius looked at him. “Quartermaster I need you to focus. You know this woman and I need to know what she knows.”

  “Yes Decurion. You are quite right.”

  “Ailsa when did the, when did Una leave? Calm down and tell me.”

  Between sobs she blurted out her answers. “It was last night sir. She said she had to get some more herbs and berries.” She spoke haltingly and the tears coursed down her cheeks.

  “Which way did she go?” The woman pointed over her shoulder. “North west. Good . That makes sense she is heading back to Calgathus. Is there anything more you can tell us about her? Anything to help us identify her?” The woman shook her head. “Think, a mark, a scar anything?”

  Suddenly she sat up. “A scar sir. She has a scar. I saw a scar.”

  “Where is it?”

  “It runs from her wrist to her elbow.” The woman used her finger to show, on her own arm where it was.”


  “Good. Now Ailsa. I believe you are innocent and the quartermaster believes you are innocent but the Decurion Princeps is a bitter man. He will hurt you if he can and that would hurt him. Have you anywhere you can go away from here?”

  The woman looked around as though Decius might come in with his pugeo and kill her. Decius stroked her head to calm her. “My sister she lives south of here. I could go there.”

  “Then go, slip out of the back now and go. Porcius go with her and then return to the fort. I think it best if Decius does not see you right now.”

  By the time Gaius got outside Decius was a little calmer. “She went north west up the valley yesterday.”

  Decius said dully, “Towards Calgathus.”

  “Towards Calgathus. Macro take your turma and ride up the valley, take Gaelwyn with you and try to find her trail. Be back before dark.”

  “Sir.”

  When they were alone Decius looked up at Gaius. “Sorry about that son. I made a bit of a dick of myself.”

  “That’s alright Decius we all share your anger but sometimes you have to be cool. Remember the prefect when he found his wife and son had died, he didn’t rant and rave. He was calmness itself. We couldn’t understand it then but you know Decius I do now and I think I admire him all the more for it.”

  “But he was poisoned.”

  “Yes like the Queen and by the same woman. The thing is we have more of an idea now. If Marcus or you had described the witch do you think that Porcius might have recognised her?”

  Understanding suddenly dawned on the Decurion Princeps. “Yes. Oh what fools we were. We kept it to ourselves, privacy I don’t know what. We should have told you all. He would still be alive.”

  “First off he isn’t dead yet. From what I understand Atticus has given him the chance of a life Secondly we now know even more. She has a scar running along her wrist. We tell others of the scar and the eyes.”

  “Who?”

  “Everybody! You know how the auxiliaries and the legionaries feel about Marcus. Ten thousand men looking for the witch! Decius we have a chance. Now let us go and report to the general.”

  “Excellent work gentlemen. And I agree we tell everyone what this which looks like. I think we will return to Roman rations for the rest of this campaign.”

  “How is the prefect sir?”

  “He appears, Gaius, to be holding his own. I think that concoction has helped. There was less yellow material in the last vomit but he is still not awake. Decurion Princeps until he recovers please take command of the ala. All we can do now is see if the remarkable Gaelwyn and the redoubtable Macro can find any clues.”

  As soon as Gaelwyn and Macro appeared at the fort, long after dark, it was obvious that their quest had been in vain. “Found her trail sir. How he does it I have no idea but Gaelwyn must be part hound. Followed it right up the valley but there was a hill fort and her trail led right up to it. The ala might have taken it with siege engines but not one turma. Besides Gaelwyn reckoned she wouldn’t have stayed there. We know where she will be now. With Calgathus.”

  “Then the sooner we meet that bastard in battle the better.”

  Atticus once again mopped the prefect’s brow. The vomit had become black the previous day and the surgeon had said that the worst was past. After four days Atticus hoped so. He believed that but he wanted a sign that the prefect would return to life. The prefect was sweating heavily and Atticus remembered a saying from his mother, ‘feed a cold, and starve a fever’. Perhaps his old mother knew best for the prefect had eaten nothing for more than four days and he still had a raging fever. His cloth was soaking wet and the old man picked up a dry one. As he leaned over the prefect opened one eye and said, “Atticus, I am starving. Have we any of those honey cakes left?”

  Atticus was so relieved he burst out laughing and crying at the same time. “Sorry prefect they are all gone.”

  Chapter 15

  Centurion Aurelius was heartily sick of the Usipi. They were the most unpleasant and uncooperative cohort he had ever trained. The only consolation was that now that they were close to Inchutil he could at least share his woes with the auxiliary prefects Strabo and Sura as they drank in the small beer house close to their camps. Its owner had quickly realised the potential of selling barely brewed beer to Romans who just wanted to be out of their camp and talking... “The trouble is they don’t actually want to be here. Your Batavians how do they feel about Britannia?”

  “They actually quite like it. They get fed well, they enjoy the discipline and they enjoy the fighting.”

  “That is what I don’t get. These bastards volunteer and then decide they don’t like it and the worst is Adelmar. He was always a bastard but in the last year he has become a sneaky bastard.”

  Vettius had just wandered into the beer house and ordered a beer. “Who is a sneaky bastard? There are hundreds of them round here.” He took a sip of the beer and looked sourly at the owner who just shrugged and wandered off to another customer, the Romans always spent well and there was no other choice for ale.

  “The centurion here has some Germans who aren’t working as they should and they have a ring leader, Adelmar.”

  “Tell me Decurion do you have problems with your recruits?”

  “No centurion. The Decurion Princeps scares the shit out of them and then we have a seriously good weapon trainer, Macro.”

  “He is one hard man centurion.”

  “You are right Cominius I wouldn’t want to face him.”

  “They are both right and, to be honest, most of the lads quite like being in Marcus’ Horse. I could have a word with the prefect; we are having a bit of a slack time at the moment building up to the final push next year. Without blowing our own buccina we have a good set of trainers, Agrippa, Cato, Decius and Macro.”

  “He is right centurion. We would both like them working with our lads and ours are good cohorts.”

  “Well I have nothing to lose. If you can swing this Decurion I will see you right. Some more of that gnat’s piss you pass off for ale you robbing bastard.” The landlord wandered over shrugging off the insult. Soon these Romans would be gone and he would have profited from their short occupation.

  Marcus was not fully recovered but he was improving. The general happened to be visiting and he heard Vettius’ request. “Well Marcus if you can spare them that would help me. I have fourteen thousand auxiliaries but these Usipi are a thorn in our side. If Decius and his men could improve them it would bring this campaign to an end quicker.”

  As soon as Decius saw Adelmar he identified him as trouble. Still rankling over the poisoning of Marcus, Decius was in no mood for the sulky ways of the German. “Right you German twats. I am Decius Flavinius Decurion Princeps of Marcus’ Horse, the finest auxiliaries not only in Britannia but the whole of the Roman bleeding Empire. These decurions train my men and they are good. You, on the other hand are the most useless bastards in the whole of General Gnaeus Julius Agricola’s army.” He took a breath and gave them the thousand paces stare. “But we are going to change that. Right we will start with a little run to the coast in full armour, now move.”

  The coast was ten miles away and Decius knew that when they got there they would see the whole of the Classis Britannica. He had wanted a show of force to intimidate them. He winked at the centurion as he jogged past them. Macro smiled, a year ago and the Decurion Princeps would already have been out of breath, now he moved as easily as any of the troopers

  By the end of the day the Usipi were exhausted but, surprisingly some of them had a satisfied look on their faces and Centurion Aurelius drew Decius to one side. “It is only a small change but I think we are winning. Some of them actually look like they feel better for this; more like soldiers. Thank you Decurion Princeps.”

  “Don’t thank me I enjoyed it but a word of advice. Get rid of that bastard Adelmar. He is a bad ‘un and you are not going to change him. A little training accident perhaps?”

  “I know Decius, I kn
ow but I have been given a duty and I must carry out that duty.”

  Later that night the bad ’un met with Fainch in the sand dunes close to their camp. “I fear that the Romans are turning my men, some of them wish to please the centurion.”

  “It is time to do something about it. When you run to the beach are there ships there?”

  “Yes the whole fleet.”

  “Are some of the close to the shore.”

  “Yes. The marines are cleaning the things that cling to the bottom of their hulls.”

  “Then the answer is before you. When you go there and you rest, kill the Romans, capture the ships and sail away to your homeland.”

  The idea seemed so simple that Adelmar said, “Yes.” The problems of sailing a ship across the ocean did not occur to him for he had become accustomed to ruling his men and this Decurion Princeps was undermining his influence. Within a short time most of the Usipi would be happy to serve the Romans. He would have to take his chances when the opportunity arose.

  The opportunity did not arise for a few days for Macro took over the training and gave them sword and combat practice. This also made more of the Usipi want to follow Rome for they enjoyed the easy manner of the affable giant. Finally a few days later Decius and Vettius turned up to take them for their training run to the coast. The cohort ran much more easily and Decius and the centurion at the rear nodded to each other. “It is working Decius, I can feel the change.”

  “Me too. I will have to leave you half way to the beach, I left a horse there, I have a meeting with the prefects and the general but Vettius will chase their arses, he is a good man. “

  “Thank you. You cannot know how much I owe you.”

  “We stick together don’t we? All for the general and bloody Rome.” Laughing they jogged on.

  Later as Vettius halted them on the beach they slumped to the ground. The marines from the ships laughed at their exhaustion and ate their noon food happy that they were not the auxiliary tramping around this bleak land. Adelmar waited until Vettius and Aurelius were relieving themselves before he initiated his plan; he wanted to take no chances. He needed the two officers to have their backs to him and his killers. Twenty of his chosen men raced to the two officers, stones and daggers in their hands, the other two hundred, whom Adelmar trusted, ran for the ships. Vettius and the centurion died ignominiously with no chance of defending themselves, hacked and crushed to death by the savage Germans. The marines also died almost to a man as the two ships were flooded with fierce warriors. Adelmar was careful to try to retain some of the marines to help him sail the two small ships. Many of the Usipi stood on the beach looking at the mauled and mutilated bodies of the two officers and watched the perpetrators scrambling aboard the ships. They honourably decided to take their chances with Rome and Adelmar cursed them as the ships were wedged off the beach.” You spineless dogs. I hope the Romans crucify you!”