The Wolf's Gold: Empire V

by Anthony Riches

  The long column ground away into the dawn, the lead century initially setting an easy pace at Julius’s command to preserve his men’s remaining energy for the long march before them. By the meagre light of the sunless sky the sullen Tungrians marched away from Stone Fort in silence, and headed south for the Ravenstone valley.

  The Tungrians broke their first day’s march at the Fifth Legion’s headquarters in Napoca, a hard day’s forced march from their starting point. The arrival of a strange infantry cohort in a garrison town where the resident troops were absent was usually a cause for both excitement and nervousness among the inhabitants of the fort’s vicus, but on this rare occasion neither would have been justified. The small town’s whorehouses and drinking establishments found themselves somewhat disappointed by the Tungrians’ lack of interest in their attractions, the soldiers swiftly succumbing to an exhausted sleep once the stoves in the empty barrack blocks were hot and their rations distributed and eaten, many of them still fully dressed to ease the pain of an early start the next day.

  ‘Can you give me another three days at the same pace, First Spear?’

  Julius nodded less than enthusiastically at his tribune’s question.

  ‘Yes, sir. But they’ll be beaten men by the end of it, Tribune, good for nothing much more than leaning on their spears to hold themselves up. It’s a relief that we’ll not have to carve out any marching camps, or they probably wouldn’t even make it as far as the Ravenstone.’

  Scaurus scowled despite himself.

  ‘I know. And if I could take it any easier on them I would.’

  Julius stood in silence for a moment, judging his next words carefully.

  ‘Tribune, what are we going to do when we get there? It’s all very well burning through what’s left of these men’s candles charging back to the mine, but what happens then? Surely all we can do is camp at the front door, and send Silus out to watch the obvious exit routes. And besides that, once Gerwulf gets even a sniff that we’re in the area I’d expect him to make a swift exit over the border and off across the plains with all the gold his men can carry. These lads will be in no state to stop him, even if he does wait for us to get there before making a run for it.’

  The tribune shrugged, staring exhaustedly at the floor of his temporary quarter.

  ‘What will we do, once we’re standing in front of the valley’s earth wall? That’s a work in progress I’m afraid. All I can think about for the time being is getting the cohorts up to the mine and working it out from there. In truth First Spear, no matter how much we might both hate the idea, I’m trusting to luck to provide us with some way to prevent Gerwulf’s escape.’

  Julius nodded wearily, saluted, and left his superior officer to his rumination. The barracks in which the Tungrians were housed for the night were for the most part silent, and after making a swift round of the yawning sentries, he headed for the Fifth Century’s barrack to resume his earlier discussion with Marcus. His disbelief on discovering that Lupus had accompanied the cohorts on their desperate mission had swiftly turned to anger, and only his desire to avoid a public argument in front of the soldiery had restrained his temper. But when he stamped into the officers’ quarter at the far end of the Fifth Century’s barrack, he found the room occupied by rather more men than he had expected. Dubnus and Silus were leaning against the wall facing Marcus, who was sitting on the bed explaining something to them. Lupus himself was squatting in a corner alongside his grandfather, listlessly essaying an attempt at cleaning Marcus’s boot with a look on his face that the senior centurion struggled to construe at first glance. Dubnus stepped forward and held a hand up to Julius with a knowing look.

  ‘Before you rip our colleague’s balls off and offer them to him on a plate, you might want to hear what he has to say.’

  Julius looked at Dubnus for a moment and then shrugged, shaking his head.

  ‘You’ve gone mad as well, have you, Dubnus? Well I don’t suppose my temper’s going to cool much for being restrained for a little while longer, so have your say, Centurion Corvus, before I reach for the rusty spoon and relieve your wife of the risk of having to carry any more of your brats.’ He looked at the drinks in the men’s hands. ‘Is that wine I see?’

  Silus passed him a cup with a weary grin.

  ‘Quite acceptable too, I have to say. Our colleague offered Morban a way out of his rather foolish wager on the subject of ice fighting, if he could procure us a couple of jars of the good stuff. It’s funny how fast the standard bearer can move for an old man when he has to.’

  Julius sat down on the wooden floor and took a sip, grimacing at the wine’s rough bite.

  ‘This is the good stuff, is it? It needs more water. Go on then, what path to insanity has our brother in arms convinced you all we should be skipping down? I presume it has something to do with the boy here, or was that just soft-headed stupidity as opposed to the carefully thought through kind?’

  Marcus looked at him from the bed.

  ‘Our problem’s obvious. If we march fast enough to get to the Ravenstone valley before Gerwulf decamps with the gold, then we’ll arrive with two cohorts of exhausted men fit only for a week’s light duties and sleep. And in any case, the Germans will probably see us coming and march out to the north before we even get to the valley, which means that we’ll never catch them. Whereas if we march at a pace which will leave the men fit to fight, we risk getting there too late to do anything other than bury the bodies. Mithras only knows how many of the miners he’ll have murdered in order to encourage the rest of them to screw every possible ounce of gold out of the place. Either way we lose, the tribune loses his position and we end up at the mercy of whoever gets appointed in his place. We’ll end up being sent who knows where to deal with the next border dispute to arise, and never see Britannia again.’

  Julius nodded and raised his cup to drink again.

  ‘Right enough, I’ve already made just the same point to the tribune. We know it, he knows it, and all he can think to do is throw us down the road in an attempt to catch that German bastard napping. Do you have a better idea? Because he doesn’t, and neither do I.’

  Silus spoke up.

  ‘I do. My horsemen could be in Apulum by tomorrow night, and knocking on the door of the Ravenstone by the middle of the day after.’

  Julius shrugged wearily, taking another mouthful of wine before replying.

  ‘And then what? Ride up to the gates and demand that the Wolf drops his linen and parts his buttocks for you? What can thirty horsemen do that two cohorts of foot can’t?’ He held out his cup. ‘Fill that up, will you?’

  ‘They can cover ground faster. Much faster. And if they leave the road north from Apulum at the right time, they can work their way around any scouts Gerwulf puts on the road into the mountains.’

  The first spear sniffed indifferently, and sipped thoughtfully at his wine.

  ‘So you can ride around their scouts and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to get eyes on whatever’s happening in the valley without being spotted yourselves. So what? It doesn’t help us to get there any earlier with enough strength to do anything more than watch, does it?’

  Marcus smiled tightly at him.

  ‘That rather depends on how many men we think we need to liberate the valley.’

  Julius shook his head in exasperation.

  ‘Spit it out will you, whatever it is that’s bouncing around between your ears?’

  The Roman’s voice took on a note of urgency.

  ‘There’s a body of men far stronger than our two cohorts, and who’ll be filled with enough anger to rip the Germans to pieces, if we could just unleash them in numbers.’ Julius looked up from the floorboards with a gleam of interest in his eyes. ‘The miners. We can be sure that Gerwulf showed his hand the night after we left, and ever since then he’ll have been riding them as hard as he can, partly to get the most gold out of the ground in the time he has, but mainly just because he can. It won’t have escaped your n
otice that he’s not only capable of just about anything, but that he takes considerable pleasure in his men’s depravity. He’ll have had them beating and executing the miners at the slightest excuse, and more than likely making free with their women, so if we could just release those angry men at the right time they would do the hard work for us. And do you remember what Cattanius told us? The miners are locked up and lightly guarded at night . . .’

  He looked into Julius’s eyes for a moment to gauge his superior’s reaction before continuing. The first spear nodded reluctantly, gesturing for him to continue.

  ‘And here’s the key to making that happen, not that I particularly like it. Rather than try to force our way in through the front door we could send a few picked men into the valley overnight. All we have to do is kill the men set to guard the miners. Once they’re roused and armed it would take more than the strength that Gerwulf has to stop them, especially when his soldiers will be staggering out of their beds still half asleep when the wave washes over them, if we get it right.’

  Julius nodded slowly.

  ‘It makes sense as far as it goes, even if the whole idea feels little better than rolling the dice and praying for sixes. But how would you propose to get into the valley unnoticed, even at night? They’ll have men on the heights watching out for exactly the sort of sneaking about you’ve described.’

  Marcus pursed his lips.

  ‘There’s one person in this room who knows a way into the valley that doesn’t depend on us having to smash the gate in, or climb over the wall, or climb over the mountains for that matter. Don’t you Lupus?’

  The men’s eyes turned to the child, who had long since stopped any pretence of cleaning Marcus’s boots. Julius looked at Marcus in amazement.

  ‘This whole idea depends on a child? And I thought I was a ruthless bastard . . .’

  ‘Yes. He’s the only one of us who’s been inside the mountain. And as it happens, the boy Mus showed him something that might be the answer to our dilemma.’ He ushered the boy forward. ‘Tell the first spear your story, Lupus.’

  The child’s voice was small in the room’s silence, and his face was pale.

  ‘My friend Mus took me into the mine. He showed me a tunnel they don’t use any more, one that opens on the mountain beneath the Raven’s Head. The opening is hidden from above by the rock.’

  Marcus patted him on the arm.

  ‘Well done, Lupus. Julius, the tunnel opening that the boy Mus showed Lupus is on the south side of the mountain, the highest level of the mine that was worked out years ago as the miners were forced to dig deeper to find the gold. Nobody works in it anymore, and it would appear to have been forgotten. A party of men could enter the mine from the south, make their way through the mountain and down into the active levels. From there they could infiltrate the valley without being seen, if they were careful . . .’

  Julius waved Marcus to silence, turning to Lupus.

  ‘And if they were lucky. Very lucky. So this would all depend on you, Lupus, wouldn’t it? We’d need you to show us where the tunnel entrance is. Can you remember?’

  The child nodded silently, his face white.

  ‘You can’t ask the boy to—’

  Julius flicked his hand at Morban impatiently.

  ‘Be quiet, Standard Bearer. The boy wanted to come along with us, and he seems to be the hinge on which this entire dubious plan swings, so you can let him speak for himself. Now, Lupus, you’re sure you can find this secret entrance to the valley, bearing in mind it’ll have to be a nighttime approach?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘You think so . . .’ The senior centurion put his head in his hands for a moment before standing up, draining his cup. ‘Come along then, all of you. We’d better lay this whole idea out for the tribune. Although whether he’ll see it as the answer to his dilemma or a good way to warn the Wolf that we’re on our way and get thirty men killed, is beyond me. And bring what’s left of that wine with you. He’s going to need a drink when he hears this one.’

  ‘If the Gods take pity on you and actually allow you to find the way into the valley, then you are under no circumstances to take on the Germans once you’ve freed the miners. For a start there are far too many of them, and if you do manage to release enough of the prisoners to start a fight, they won’t be able to see the difference between you and the men that have been abusing them. Understood? The best thing that you can do will be to head back for the mine and make your escape. And those are orders, Centurion.’

  Julius looked up at Marcus until the Roman nodded his understanding, then switched his attention to the tribune mounted alongside the young centurion’s mare.

  ‘As for you, Tribune, I strongly suggest that you restrict your part in this scheme to getting into the woman’s house. Once you have the mine owners freed you can step back and let them organise their people, if they have the balls for it.’ He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. ‘I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this . . .’

  A snort of grim laughter from behind him made the first spear turn to find a big cavalry horse close enough that the animal was nibbling his helmet’s crest.

  ‘You can’t fucking believe it? You haven’t got to lead this bunch of amateurs halfway across Dacia hoping that none of them falls off or puts his spear up the arse of the beast in front of him. Just when I’ve got one collection of idiots properly trained to handle horses, you make half of them go back to hoofing it and give me a fresh set of virgins to break in.’

  Silus had walked his horse back down the line of mounted men, expertly assessing their readiness to ride with his usual mix of jaundiced disappointment and rough humour. Julius cracked a smile for the first time that morning.

  ‘Every dark cloud conceals a little gold, Decurion! In this case at least the prospect of my having to thrash my poor lads south at the double march will be tempered by the thought of your happy face every time one of these trainee donkey wallopers does something to upset you.’ He turned back to his superior with an expression of renewed concern. ‘And speaking of breaking in virgins, Tribune, I’d be most grateful if you could manage not to get yourself killed? I don’t want to end up being told what to do by some other weak-chinned aristo when I’ve just got used to being told what to do by you.’

  He watched with pursed lips as the squadron clattered out of the fort’s gates and into the grey light of dawn, waiting until the riders were out of sight before turning back to his officers.

  ‘Well then, now that this morning’s excitement is over I think we’d best get back to the challenge of putting another thirty miles under our belts before the sun hits the horizon on the far side. You’d better take Silus’s dismounts under your wing, Otho, I expect the poor lambs will be needing some serious encouragement before we’ve made the lunch stop. Right then, let’s put some hobnails on the cobbles!’

  The mounted detachment made better progress than Silus had feared might be the case, although their arrival at Mountain Fort soon after midday was accompanied by postures that spoke of considerable discomfort from some of the less experienced riders. The decurion ranged alongside their short column with a look of disdain for those men grimacing at their saddle sores.

  ‘We’ve another thirty miles to cover before we reach Apulum, so you can have a short break to water your horses and get some fodder down their necks, and your own if there’s time. Men with sore arses, report to me!’

  He was amused to see the tribune join the small group of men brave enough to risk his acerbic humour.

  ‘Well now, Tribune Scaurus queuing up for the rider’s remedy with his men, that is a sight I never thought I’d see. Here you go, sir.’

  He passed Scaurus a jar which the tribune uncorked, gingerly sniffing at the contents. ‘It’s not for sticking under your nose, Tribune; it’s for rubbing on the sore skin. Best quality rabbit fat that is, nothing better for saddle sores.’

  He winked at the senior officer as Scaurus dipped a fing
er into the jar with a look of distaste.

  ‘No, nothing better unless you can get a skinful of a good rough red. The headache you’ll have in the morning takes your mind right off your sore flaps!’

  Arminius dismounted stiffly from his massive beast, reaching up to help Lupus down from the animal’s back where he had ridden in front of the German.

  ‘Does your backside hurt?’

  The boy shook his head, his eyes wide at the sight of his tribune with one hand inside his leggings and a smile of relief as the fat he was rubbing between his legs eased the soreness caused by the saddle’s hard surface. Arminius grinned, ignoring the tribune’s narrowed eyes.

  ‘That’s the sheepskin for you. I’m just glad I had a spare piece of it in my kit.’ Silus walked across and pointed to the fleece he had given Arminius to fashion a makeshift saddle for the boy before their departure from Napoca. ‘If only we had a few more then we might have been spared the sight of this lot greasing themselves up for the afternoon, eh?’

  The raiding party gathered in an empty barrack in the legionary fortress of Apulum that night, once the mounted detachment’s horses had been fed and watered, and those of the squadron’s original riders who had not dismounted and were left to march with the infantry had been provided with food and beds. Scaurus looked around the room at the men he had chosen to make the attempt to infiltrate the valley, meeting each man’s eyes in turn.

  ‘So once we’re through the mine and into the Ravenstone, I’ll go to Theodora’s villa with Arminius and two of our Hamians, and free the mine owners from whatever duress Gerwulf has them under. At the same time, Cattanius will lead Centurions Corvus, Qadir and Dubnus plus Arabus and the other two Hamians to the miners’ camp along with Martos. Our main objective is to release those labourers, and to protect them for long enough that they can get to their tools and gather enough strength to break out. Once that’s achieved we’ll all meet back at the mine entrance, which will be guarded by Lugos and Lupus. If Arminius and I don’t make it back to the mine at the appointed time then I’ll remind you all again that I expect you to continue as planned and make your way back through the mine to the southern side. There will be no heroic attempts to find or rescue me, since it will be highly likely that we will both already be dead.’