‘You met a pair of Second Cohort centurions at Arab Town, when you went to pick up our replacements?’
Julius scratched his head, still itching after a full day beneath his crested helmet.
‘Decent enough lads, as I recall. Tertius and …’
‘Appius.’
‘Yes, that’s it. Our brother officer Marcus has just had a visit from Tertius. They met on the march today, by pure good fortune. Tertius wanted to warn Marcus that the Second Cohort’s prefect is convinced he’s the son of a disgraced Roman senator, and that he’s recruited this Appius to find him and deliver proof of his whereabouts. The Bear told me that he was around our lines at Noisy Valley only a few minutes after I sent the Eighth out on night exercise.’
Julius frowned, shaking his head at the apparent inevitability of the net closing around them.
‘After which Prefect Furius will denounce the fugitive, take the credit for his discovery, and do his level best to have us all nailed up alongside Two Knives?’
Frontinius nodded.
‘Exactly. From what I’ve heard he might even have a go at sticking it to Prefect Scaurus.’
Julius frowned.
‘Why would this Tertius be so keen to tell us this? Surely he’d be better off just keeping his mouth shut?’
Frontinius acknowledged the point, reaching for his helmet and vine stick.
‘It’s a longer story than we’ve got time for now. Suffice to say that Centurion Tertius has quite a good reason not to be all that fond of his new prefect. I’m off to the Sixth Legion’s lines now, there’s a command conference. We’ll finish this discussion later, but for the time being let’s keep Centurion Corvus under as much cover as possible.’
The detachment’s senior officers gathered in the command tent, waiting for Tribune Antonius to make his entrance. The auxiliary cohorts’ prefects and first spears rubbed shoulders with three hard-faced legion senior centurions and a pair of junior tribunes, the latters’ equestrian status clear from the thin purple strip on both men’s tunics. Antonius entered the tent a moment later, and every eye was upon the senior tribune as he walked to the briefing table to announce his intended plan of attack. He stepped up to the table, pointing to the rough map sketched on its surface and speaking in a clear, confident voice.
‘This ought to be straightforward enough, I should think. There are reported to be about fifteen hundred of them camped on that hill. They know we’re here, so they will be ready, but they probably haven’t eaten all day and they’ve already fought one pitched battle. With six cohorts we outnumber them by nearly three to one, so good enough odds for an assault, I’d say. Nothing too fancy, unless anyone’s got any better ideas – we simply break in, we put them to the sword, and Calgus has one less warband to play with.’
He paused, looking around the tent at the gathered officers.
‘I’m reminded that it’s usual for auxiliary cohort commanders to be offered the first crack at the enemy in this sort of situation.’
I’ll bet he’s been reminded of that old tradition, mused Frontinius inwardly. In fact I’ll bet he had a queue of centurions falling over each other to remind him of it. ‘So, gentlemen, it’s up to you. Will the Tungrians and Cugerni lead the line for this action?’
Prefect Furius stepped forward, nodding decisively, to the amazement of the other two prefects and their first spears. Neuto’s face froze into immobility, only his eyes betraying his surprise.
‘Yes, Tribune, I think you’ll find that we’re more than up to the task. I propose that we make up the first wave, and that your legion infantry be kept in close reserve, ready to assist us if the going gets difficult.’
Antonius nodded approvingly, a brief smile twitching his lips.
‘Well said, Prefect Furius, excellent spirit. Very well, I suggest that you take some time between the three of you to lay out your battle plan. The Sixth Legion will back you up in whatever you decide. Thank you, gentlemen.’
Outside the tent a thin-lipped Scaurus put a hand on Furius’s arm, his anger clearly boiling over.
‘Next time you decide to do something that stupid I’d appreciate some bloody warning!’
Furius bristled indignantly, and the Cugerni prefect walked away a few paces, studiously ignoring the two men as the 2nd Tungrians’ prefect pointed a finger at his colleague.
‘Stupid? I think you should explain yourself, Rutilius Scaurus.’
Scaurus held his ground, his voice lowered to avoid the words carrying back into the command tent.
‘When Antonius offered us first place in the line he was simply doing what the legions always do, putting dispensable auxiliaries to his front to soak up the worst of the casualties, but what you offered him went a long way beyond that. You’ve just let him off the hook for this battle’s conduct, and given him a cast-iron excuse for holding his cohorts back as long as he likes. We’re not four thousand men attacking fifteen hundred any more, in fact we’re not much better than evenly matched unless Antonius throws his men in alongside us, and he won’t do that until we’ve already got the barbarians beaten. So we’d better do some quick thinking as to how this battle’s going to be fought, because I don’t think a frontal assault is going to be good enough.’ He caught the lurking Cugerni prefect’s eye and raised his voice. ‘I suggest you both come to my tent in an hour.’
He summoned Frontinius with a jerk of the head and stalked away, his mind working fast, heading back to his own cohort’s lines and talking as he walked.
‘So you’ve got another chance at glory, First Spear Frontinius. We’re to assault the hill fort with the other auxiliary cohorts while the Sixth Legion sits on its backside and watches us go about it. I’d imagine that young Antonius couldn’t have imagined a better result if he’d tried.’
The First Spear shook his head in disbelief.
‘We get to attack a barbarian warband uphill, into prepared defences, while the legion cohorts sit and laugh at us from behind their shields. We might win, but it’ll be a bloody victory. I’d take Lost Eagle over the goat-fuck this could turn into if Cocidius decides we’ve had enough divine favour for one lifetime.’
Scaurus nodded.
‘Unless we can turn their flank, and avoid a frontal attack, I’m forced to agree with you.’
Frontinius snorted.
‘Turn their flank? Unlikely, since they’re defending a circular position.’
They walked into the prefect’s tent, and Scaurus slumped into a chair, gesturing the first spear into the other.
‘I take your point. Talk me through it, then. You’re the leader of this particular warband. How do you go about defending yourself when the Romans come to play?’
Frontinius scratched a circle in the tent’s dirt floor.
‘They’ll assume that we’re coming from the south, since they know well enough that we’re camped here. They’ve not had the time to put up any kind of palisade, so if it was me in command of that rabble I’d line them up behind the southern side of the earth rampart, ready to fight but safe from any artillery we might have with us. Then I’d post a few men on top of the wall, perhaps four or five each to north, south, east and west, to watch for our approach. He knows that a force this size can’t approach silently, so a few men with sharp eyes and ears ought to be enough to warn him of an advance from any direction. After that it’d be simple enough to move his force around the wall to match our point of attack. And, when we do show our hands, he’s got time to get any field defences he’s prepared into place, sharpened stakes, tribuli, that sort of thing. If we had any sense we’d just sit back and wait for them to give up for lack of food and water.’
‘And if we split our forces?’
‘He splits his, and the basic problem remains unchanged.’
Scaurus nodded slowly.
‘So the watchers on the wall are the key. If they fail to give a warning, the warband remains oriented on our most likely line of advance.’
Frontinius glanced acro
ss at him sharply.
‘Yes?’
‘Well … I was just thinking about the Eighth Century …’
Frontinius nodded unhappily.
‘So was I. We’ve got a problem with Centurion Corvus’s visibility already, and I suspect your idea’s about to make it worse.’
Five minutes later the two men walked into the 8th Century’s section of the camp and sought out Marcus, quickly outlining the prefect’s idea to the young centurion.
‘Could it work?’
Marcus nodded slowly.
‘I think so, Prefect. There’s a man who’ll have a better judgement than mine, though.’
He called for Qadir. The chosen man mulled the idea for a moment, and then he too nodded.
‘Yes, we can do this. But not wearing armour.’
He held up a hand to silence the first spear’s reaction.
‘Please believe me, First Spear Frontinius, we can only perform this task if all conditions are right. We must be in position at exactly the right moment, when the rising sun lights up the men on the earth wall. We must reach that position completely undetected, or we will lose the element of surprise. And to do this we must not be burdened with your heavy mail shirts, helmets and shields. It would be impossible for us to make a silent approach carrying all that weight, and your plan, Prefect, depends on our being as silent as a fox hunting across the desert at night.’
Frontinius pulled a sceptical face.
‘And if the barbarians discover you? What will you do against hundreds of them without your equipment?’
The tall chosen man returned his stare without blinking for several seconds.
‘First Spear, in the Eighth Century you have one hundred and sixty of the best archers in the world at your command. Every one of us is capable of putting three arrows into a man-sized target at one hundred paces in less time than it would take a man to run the distance. It would be a brave warrior that could run into that.’
The prefect looked at Marcus questioningly.
‘Do you agree?’
‘Yes, sir. I suggest we wear our cloaks to cover up our tunics, but otherwise it should work well enough … if we can deal with their flank sentries undetected.’
Scaurus took a deep breath.
‘In that case, First Spear, I suggest we go and speak to my fellow prefects. Although whether Gracilus Furius will appreciate our pulling his balls out of the fire is debatable.’
As it happened, both Furius and the Cugerni prefect agreed with the plan readily enough, while Tribune Antonius picked a piece of lint from the broad senatorial stripe that decorated the right shoulder of his tunic and smiled in quiet amusement at the contrast between this quiet acceptance and the man’s bluster of an hour before. He dismissed the officers to their preparations with a last quiet word of encouragement.
‘Well, gentlemen, you’d better go and warn your centurions that tomorrow starts early and will end in victory. I’m looking forward to seeing the cohorts that won us the battle of the Lost Eagle in action again.’
Appius waited until well after dark before leaving his tent, with both cohorts bedded down for the night and the sentries’ attention turned mainly outside the marching fort’s earth wall. Dressed in his dark leggings and tunic, and keeping to the shadows, he made swift and silent progress through the camp and into the 1st Cohort’s lines, slipping from the shadow of one tent to the next with a careful eye open for the patrolling soldiers, all the time keeping the other closed to protect it from the torches providing patchy illumination for the rows of tents. Within minutes he had found the tents housing the Hamians, slinking noiselessly up their line until he reached the spot where he estimated the centurion’s tent would be positioned. Worming his way round the tent, he lifted the front flap fractionally, peeking into the darkened interior with the previously closed eye wide open. A single body was lying rolled up in a blanket, a centurion’s helmet laid alongside the bed with a vine stick next to it. He slipped quietly inside the tent and across the grass floor to the neatly folded pile of clothes that awaited the young officer’s wakening, ignoring the wooden chest at Marcus’s feet for fear of a noisy hinge waking the sleeping man.
Running his hands across the garments, he encountered a hard object, the prick of a pin to his finger telling him that it was the cloak pin he had picked up from the floor of the Arab Town officers’ mess. He pulled the metal disc from its hiding place beneath the man’s cloak and grinned to himself in triumph, slipping it into his pocket and moving silently back to the tent’s entrance. Opening the flap a fraction, he froze into immobility as a patrolling sentry padded past, the man’s attention clearly elsewhere since the slight movement went unnoticed. When the soldier was twenty paces farther down the line of tents the intruder slipped out of the small opening, leaving the sleeping centurion none the wiser as to his presence.
The cohorts mustered for their short march to the hill fort an hour before first light, hundreds of torches blazing out into the darkness. Marcus walked with Qadir as the chosen man checked his men’s equipment in the flickering light, watching as the Hamian and his watch officer took each man’s bow in turn and tested its draw.
‘It is customary,’ the big man had told him. ‘They expect us to examine every man’s bow before we use them in battle. If I were to ignore the ritual they would fear some form of bad luck befalling them. Besides, better for a man’s bowstring to part here than in the heat of battle.’
Dubnus walked down to the 8th’s place at the rear of the Tungrians’ column, smiling grimly at the sight of Marcus in his cloak, the heavy wool held closed with a borrowed bronze pin. He glanced at Antenoch, noting the clerk’s sombre demeanour.
‘What’s wrong with him? Don’t tell me he’s getting nervy before a fight for the first time in his life?’
His friend frowned in the flickering torchlight.
‘No, nothing like that. My cloak pin’s gone missing and he’s blaming himself. I’ve told him it’s my fault, it probably fell off last night, so it’ll either be trampled into the mud or safely tucked away in some lucky soldier’s pack.’
His friend grimaced his sympathy.
‘Everyone in the cohort knows it’s yours, so if it’s found it’ll come back. And besides, you’re better off with that bronze pin this particular morning. It’s just a shame you’ve no armour underneath the cloak.’
Marcus returned the smile with a raised eyebrow and lifted the heavy wool to reveal his mail shirt.
‘We haven’t all given up on the virtues of a good strong defence. Once the blue-noses realise what’s happening they’ll come across that fort like a pack of dogs after raw meat, and someone’s going to have to deal with the men that dodge our arrows.’
His former chosen man nodded solemnly.
‘We’ll be with you as quickly as possible.’
Marcus tapped the hilts of his swords.
‘And until then I’ll be getting some practice with these. Just don’t take too long.’
He shook hands with Morban, detailed by the first spear to remain behind and look after Lupus, much to his disgust. Frontinius had ignored his protests, waving him away dismissively.
‘It’s not as if a standard’s going to make much difference in this instance, and you should have made sure he was being cared for. Grin and bear it, Standard-bearer, because it isn’t going to change.’
The auxiliary cohorts led the column out of their temporary camp in a blaze of torchlight, making their way across the intervening ground between the marching camp and the hill fort at a brisk pace. The 8th Century, dressed in their dark cloaks and without armour or shields, slipped in quietly behind the last of the three auxiliary cohorts, keeping back far enough to be sure that the torchlight would not betray their presence to any lurking scouts. Marcus and Qadir watched from the darkness behind their comrades as the cohorts paraded for the assault before the hill fort’s southern rampart, the centurions marshalling their men with bellowed orders.
‘
Is it always this way? They’re making enough noise to summon the dead from their resting places.’
Marcus shook his head despite the darkness.
‘No, they’re making a special effort to get noticed. Once the warband have taken the bait we can get moving.’
They waited for a long moment before Qadir tugged at his centurion’s sleeve, pointing as vague figures appeared on the wall in the pale golden light of the cohorts’ torches.
‘There. On the wall! There must be hundreds of them.’
Marcus strained his eyes, watching as men appeared along the length of the fort’s southern rampart.
‘Yes, and there will be many more hidden behind the wall. A target for every arrow we have and more besides. Follow me!’
Marcus led the 8th away into the deeper darkness, scouting away to the west around the fort’s curving earth wall, moving slowly to ensure that the century stayed together as they crossed the rough ground. When he judged the distance they had moved away from the main force was sufficient he stopped the advance with a soft command to Qadir, and the Hamians settled down to wait for the dawn. In the distance they could clearly hear the sounds of men being prepared for a fight, shouts of command and the occasional blare of a trumpeter’s horn, all the while answered by the harsh cries of the barbarians waiting for them. Qadir spoke quietly into his ear.
‘There must be thousands of the savages, to judge from their noise. If this goes badly then ours will not be the only lives lost this day. I have read about assaults on defended positions like this, and I fear your friends will pay a steep price to take that ground.’
Marcus nodded into the darkness, his face grim as he searched the invisible horizon for any sign of the coming dawn.
Arrows of Fury: Empire Volume Two Page 23