“They’ve stopped for lunch by looks of it, the head of the column has widened, and they don’t seem to be moving.” Salinus peered back.
“We shall do the same in another few miles but ensure the men don’t use their hot food rations, we will save the hot meals for evening when we have established a camp.”
Salinus nodded, “that sounds reasonable to me, we might be the smaller force intended to clear a path but we are still a large unit and stopping completely out on the open would be foolish.”
The next few miles past quickly and Marcus brought the cohort to a halt on a large hill, forming rings around the hill to ensure cohesion was maintained. The main column was now too far behind to be seen as the terrain blocked a view back to them. This did not deter them though and soon they were back on the move, this time at a slightly slower pace, comfortable that they were still faster than the main column who will have also spent more time stopping for food. The miles continued to tick by with Salinus following their movements as closely as he could on a map provided to him from the local tribes and Legion’s own knowledge.
“We’ll be coming up to 25 miles soon Marcus, I hate to put the brakes on us, but it will be worth stopping to build camp soon and giving the men a good rest.”
“I agree” Marcus said looking up at the sun. “It is mid-afternoon I suppose, and we need to find a suitable place to camp. Send word around the cohort we are too look for a suitable hill or area to camp.”
Salinus nodded before moving about the cohort.
Nestled among hills on all sides a flat grassy area emerged in front of them another mile further on the march and Marcus seemed satisfied by its location. It was large enough for them to establish a defendable camp with a few men on each hill around it acting as sentries ensured it was easy to detect anyone unwanted that might try to approach.
The camp was quickly erected with trenches and mounds of earth dug out as well as a few make shift towers. As the final tents went up Marcus walked among his men. They were the finest men in the Legion with the most years of experience making them the expert soldiers. Marcus had once thought that the greatest honour he would achieve would be a junior officer in the 1st cohort but now he was leading it and he enjoyed the company of the men he commanded. Salinus and the skirmishers had left the camp to scout beyond the hills and the camp seemed at ease.
Salinus returned with little to report other than noises from hills that were too distant to investigate in fading light and the entire force came to rest, with cooking fires lit and wine rations shared. As the camp began to go to sleep Marcus remained awake, wandering the perimeter several times inspecting the defences and men on guard before retiring to his tent himself.
Night quickly passed, and the dawn rose to awaken the cohort. Marcus stepped out of his tent, refreshed and ready for the march to continue. Salinus walked across to him as Marcus fastened the last of his straps on his armour and signalled for the tent to be pulled down.
“Anything to report from the night Salinus?” Marcus asked, fastening his belongings to his horse.
“It was quiet all night except for one thing.”
Marcus turned to him. “What is it?”
“A few hours ago some of the sentries reported hearing something on the wind, like screams but it only lasted a minute and there was nothing else to be seen or heard so they thought nothing of it until this morning.”
Marcus looked puzzled at Salinus who seemed disturbed.
“What’s the matter Salinus?”
Salinus looked at Marcus, “They can smell burning Marcus, and not wood. Burning flesh and the type from a cooking fire.”
Marcus seemed startled. “Take me to the sentry post now.”
Atop the hill Marcus removed his helmet and inhaled deeply only to cough, repulsed by the smell. Many of the sentries had placed cloths over their mouths and noses to reduce the smell.
“Where is that smell coming from? There aren’t any settlements in these hills large enough to produce that smell.”
“There was a faint smoke trail 2 miles in that direction sir.” A sentry pointed out to the west.
“Salinus gather up a small detachment of troops and have them make ready to investigate it and have the camp put on hold until we know what it is.”
Salinus saluted and made his way back to the camp where deconstruction was about to begin.
Marcus rode back down the hill a few moments later to find 40 men ready to move out.
“I will lead them myself, if we have not returned by late morning follow me.” He ordered one of the Centurions who nodded.
The small detachment was predominantly skirmishers and was able to quickly move out of the camp and across the hills with Marcus and Salinus in tow. As they reached the top of the hill where smoke had been seen coming from they gripped their noses.
“This is definitely where the smell is coming from.” Salinus said almost vomiting.
“Down there, an opening into a quarry or something.” Marcus said, pointing at a stony area with a pile of rocks resting against an opening.
“This must be one of the enemy’s labour camps but why does it smell so foul when its abandoned?” Salinus asked as the group began to work their way cautiously into the clearing.
Marcus signalled for some of the rubble against the mine entrance to be pulled away and 10 of the men moved to do so only to be repulsed by the smell and sight that emerged as they removed the top rocks.
“We can’t move anymore sir.” One man said as 3 vomited.
Marcus and Salinus moved up the rocks and peered into the mine only to be repulsed as well.
“It’s the workers!” Salinus cried in horror.
“They must have got what they wanted from the mine and decided to dispose of the workers.” Marcus said covering his mouth and signalling for the rocks to be replaced to hide the sight.
“They burned them alive in the mine they had slaved in. These beasts are nothing more than ruthless animals, Gods curse them!” Salinus gritted his teeth.
“They don’t deserve the swift death we will deliver them.” He said gripping his gladius.
“Let’s get back to the cohort so that we may give them the painful death they deserve.” Marcus said with determination.
Chapter 11
Rain hammered at the small cloaked figures clinging to the side of a rocky moorland ridge. They sat perfectly still, watching, unseen by any others, as they had done for some hours. Beneath them a valley with 2 small quarries dug out in semi-circle shape either side was a hive of activity. The rain would put any man off their work but not the beast horde who continued with their heavy work of moving the stone slabs that had been quarried. In the centre of the valley construction of the stone circle was under way as the tall heavy stone slabs were lifted and dropped into the shallow holes prepared for them before more earth was mounded around the base of the slabs, reinforcing them in an upright position.
Branching off from the construction furnaces roared and the sound of hammers striking metal on anvils echoed from beneath the wooden shelters assembled around the furnaces. Outside each of the shelters weapons were piled up before being collected by Satyrs who rushed about with hand carts laden with weapons or materials.
“They’re preparing for war.” Salinus said from beneath his rain sodden hood, “there must be some 10,000 beasts down there.”
“And in preparation for 100,000 more.” Marcus said anxiously.
“The main column will be arriving by the end of the day and we’ve stopped the enemies supplies from most of their camps getting through for 2 days, how can they still be so prepared and ahead of the predicted construction?” Salinus wiped the water from his face.
“I don’t know but it looks like that damned stone circle will be completed in less than a day if they aren’t interrupted.”
With a slow movement of the hand Marcus signalled for group to leave back up the ridge and away. All the way back to their hideout 2 miles away no one spo
ke a word. Marcus was clearly deep in thought and the weather made conversation difficult regardless as wind and rain lashed at them. As they reached their woodland hideout most of the group was dismissed to find shelter and warmth while Salinus and Marcus headed for the command tent. Inside men were coming and going with various reports of enemy movement which were written down before being passed on to others who transcribed them onto a large map covering a makeshift table of small wooden posts with a flat shield nailed on top.
On the map was much of the local landscape with the enemy’s main camp in the centre. The enemy camp was marked with a small black rag mounted to a twig, creating a miniature banner, and placed central of the valley that ran east to west. To the southeast of it were 10 crudely carved wooden Eagles laid out in a checkerboard patter on the map. Marcus had reached the position sooner than expected and, knowing he could not engage with enemy head on, had settled in a defensive position straight on top of the route the combined Roman and Britons forces would be marching along. Keeping 1000 men hidden was no small feat but with the luck of the Gods Marcus and Salinus had somehow managed it. With several diversions created north of the enemy’s camp, drawing their forces in the opposite direction, as well as regular patrols around their own scattered encampments the 1st cohort and skirmishers remained undetected.
From this position raids on supplies and the enemy’s own patrols had proved fruitful and the morale of the men was high, but this did not improve Marcus and Salinus’s spirits. They looked down at the map towards a larger carved Eagle that had been slowly pushed further into the centre of the map. They had both gone out to the same spot and watched the enemy’s camp for an hour at a time 4 times a day and were becoming familiar with the patterns.
“Governor Falco is cautious, he doesn’t trust the Britons to up held their allegiances and will not seek a swift battle to eliminate the threat.” Marcus began to speak, causing the tent to fall silent.
“Even with our harassment the stone circle seems to be getting built faster and faster. We won’t have time to slowly engage the enemy, especially if this weather lets up and the ground dries.”
The officers around the tent were in agreement as Marcus looked at the map.
“We can’t launch an all-out attack of our own though, the enemy outnumbers us 10 to 1 and we know that their strength counts some of them as two. The odds are against us until the main force under Governor Falco arrives.” Salinus said, shaking his head.
“Then we lure the enemy out in small numbers.”
“It won’t work, the enemy patrols have reduced to nothing except around the entrances to the valley. They know how close they are to finishing and aren’t interested, they have the supplies they need to finish the stone circle, anything else that gets through our blockade is a bonus to them but not essential.”
Frustration filled the officers as they all muttered and grumbled. They all sought to finish the enemy off quickly so they could return to Eboracum and resume the normality of their lives. The concept of spending several days continuing their operations in the area made them anxious.
“I was given free reign to command us as I see fit and I have taken advice from all of you. It’s time we began the initial stages of the attack and hope it forces the Governor ’s hand when he arrives.”
Marcus began to move the 10 Eagles towards the centre, “The enemy knows that the sides of the valley are too steep or rocky for any sort of force to attack from so they are stationing most of their forces at the entrances to the valley. We will exploit this weakness.”
Marcus manoeuvred the Eagles on the map so that the Eagles stared down the into the valley from the southern side of the valley.
“The valley is wide Marcus and we only have slingers and javelins at our disposal, it will not take the enemy long to move out of our range and plan a counter attack.” Salinus signalled, putting carved bull head figures on the map before moving them around the back of the Eagles to surround them.
“That is the beauty of the attack though. When the enemy mobilises their troops to come out of the valley we will have time to withdraw or adopt a more ‘radical’ plan.”
Marcus pulled 4 Eagles from the valley side, placing them further back and staggered so that gaps were left between them. The bull figures were now surrounded by Eagles.
“With the right number of skirmishers, we can draw a reasonable force out before wiping them out.”
Marcus seemed proud with his plan and the officers around him were in general agreement.
“We could arrange this to happen within an hour Marcus.” An officer said with others nodding.
“Make it so.” Marcus said before turning and entering his private quarters within the tent.
He removed most of the wet clothes he had been wearing, replacing them with dry ones before taking his armour off its stand and putting it over the clean tunic and fastening the straps. He emerged after only a short while to find the various officers stood with helmets under their arm.
“The troops are ready, although in our haste several patrols are still out so we are down to fighting with only 700 men if we want to leave a detachment defending the camp.” An officer said as they all followed Marcus out of the tent.
“We are only intending to bloody the enemy Centurion 700 will be more than sufficient for this.”
Marcus looked along the thin line of Legionaries who stood patiently in the rain, “Advance on the valley’s south side then. When we are close to ridge the skirmishers can set up for the attack while we hold back to tackle any counter attack the enemy might muster.”
With a quick signal banners were thrust into the sky and the troops began to march forward into the rain. The forest lasted for only a mile before they walked out into the open hilly moorlands that surrounded the valley. Stopping at a hill barely 100 metres away from the ridge that raised up over the valley Marcus gave Salinus the signal to advance with the skirmishers while the Legionaries knelt in the damp moorlands watching through the rain.
Salinus slowed his men as he crept them slowly to the ridge, spreading them as wide as he dared, before stopping and looking down on the valley. Work was still under way as the various beasts seemed ignorant to the rain’s effect. Salinus gave a steady signal and the skirmishers prepared, pulling back their javelins and loading their slings. With a quick glance behind to check the cohort’s readiness he gave the signal.
Javelins were launched into the valley before they rained down on the beasts moving about the edge of the construction, unaware until the javelins began to thump into the ground around them.
“Fire at will!” Salinus cried, throwing his own javelins as far into the camp as he could before swapping to his sling when he had thrown his last one.
The camp erupted in chaos as beasts threw down their construction tools and materials, running to grab weapons and headed for the valley’s entrances. A few tried to scale the steep valley side, only to shot down by the skirmishers on the ridge. Satyrs rushed forward with short bows and attempted to return fire on the skirmishers who ducked behind the ridge while reloading.
Confident that the beasts were heading for them Salinus gave the signal to a flag bearer crouching behind the ridge to wave the flag, alerting the cohort of the coming attack and for the skirmishers to rally together. Marcus held the flat of his gladius against his shield as he and the rest of the cohort watched. It was perfect, the beasts, too enraged by the attack from the skirmishers paid no attention to the cohort and rushed straight for the skirmishers who prepared themselves. As the beasts rushed towards the ridge Marcus began to bang his gladius which was quickly echoed by the Legionaries before they themselves began to rush forward with short columns of men running ahead of the main line like teeth dividing the even more confused beasts.
Marcus lead from the front of the central column that cut through the beasts and met the skirmishers front line with ease. The beasts began to scatter in panic, not knowing which way to turn. The columns widened, open
ing a path down their centre for the skirmishers to rush down and get out of harm’s way.
“Drive them over the ridge!” Marcus ordered, causing shields to immediately lock into each other. Slowly but surely, they pushed against the beasts who tried to resist only to be cut down or driven backwards over the ridge, falling down the rocky valley side with only a few staggering back to their feet at the bottom.
A tremendous cheer went up as the last of the attacking beasts were slain. Marcus peered down into the valley where Minotaurs and Satyrs began to line up and set off in organised herds to engage them.
“We better withdraw now while we have the chance or we’ll be cut off.” Salinus said as he watched the herds assemble.
“I agree. Back to the camp, double time!” Marcus ordered and signalled the men back with his gladius.
The attack had worked, construction had halted, and Marcus was sure that several hundred beasts were dead or wounded. The sound of horns and hooves gave him cause to worry though as the cohort hurried back into the hills towards the forest.
Glancing behind for a moment he saw Satyrs lining up only a short distance behind, scrapping their hooves into the wet ground.
‘What are they waiting for?’ He thought trying to keep watching them as he moved quickly towards the forest. A great horn blow was heard and followed by a thundering of hooves, yet the Satyrs did not move. The cohort had reached the tree line and slowed their pace to spread ranks to allow movement through the trees.
“Cohort halt! Turn face, shields up!” Marcus ordered at the rear lines who were practically stood still. They executed the orders quickly and precision, with a solid line of shields formed in seconds in time to see their attackers approaching.
Wielding crudely forged doubled ended spears with long curved blades a host of Centaurs galloped at the cohort who seemed spooked by their sudden appearance.
“This is new for us.” Salinus said, moving forward to Marcus who stood at the back of the 5 lines that had prepared for the charge.
Remus Rising Page 11