Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (40 page)

Chapter 32

A further reason why these orders made little sense, Gaius realized, was the denseness of this forest and the general difficulty in making progress. In all probability, Plautius had no idea because he would never get out of Army Headquarters. However, this forest was so dense and the tracks so narrow that the rear of his thirty man party could not see the leader. A perfect spot for an ambush! His men were trying to be quiet, but . . .

There was a noise ahead. Celtic shouts! From a small party, judging by the number of voices. Gaius ordered some men to guard the horses, then he led the rest forward, as quietly as they could, to take cover outside a clearing. Gaius peered past a bush. On his right, four Celts were doing what they could to kill one solitary Roman soldier, and judging by the wounds already visible, they would soon succeed.

But on his left six other Celts were pursuing . . . what? A man? No! But whatever it was, it had two legs, two arms and a head, and it was dressed, although it was dressed in clothes the likes of which Gaius had never seen. The colour was something like a cross between olive-green and brown, and no dye like that was known to Rome. Then there was the cut: the cloth seemed to fit the body to give maximum freedom, but that must mean an enormous amount of sewing. Two straps ran over his shoulder, to connect with a large black bag, and this seemed to be made of something that Gaius had never seen before. Then there were the boots: quite different from anything he had ever seen. To start with they were jet black, and came half way up his legs, almost seamlessly. The creature was about three-quarters as big as a man, it had a strange leathery skin, a largish head totally devoid of hair, and its arms looked so thin that it would not be able to wield a sword. Apart from a strange silvery object in its right "hand", it had no visible weapon yet it was standing its ground, threatening the Celts.

The Celts were hardly likely to be afraid of that as a weapon! They were not. Four charged, waving swords. The silvery object flashed and a Celt fell to the ground, twitching slightly. The strange creature seemed to think this would warn off the remaining Celts, and then seemed almost frightened when it did not. The object flashed again, another Celt fell to the ground, but then the remaining Celts were almost onto it. It turned to flee, then suddenly disappeared, apparently falling into some sort of disguised pit. But as it fell, the silvery object flew to one side.

There was no alternative. Whatever that silvery thing was, it must not fall into the hands of the Celts. Gaius signalled for archers. Five arrows flew, and cut down the two chasing and the two remaining Celts. The remaining soldiers broke cover to deal with those who would have finished the soldier, but for their surprise at the strange weapon. There was a moment of indecision before they turned to flee, and that moment sealed their fate. The fight was one-sided and brief; they were neither fleeing nor facing properly, and while they were off-balance gladii thrust into their ribs.

Meanwhile, Gaius had sprinted across the clearing to where he had seen the silvery object disappear. It was easily found, and Gaius carefully picked it up.

It was exquisitely made, everything so smooth, so perfect. The main features were a tube-like rod that Gaius had noted had been pointed at the intended victim. Accordingly, he made certain that this was not pointed at himself. Below that was a broad part that the creature had used to hold the object, while near the top of it, on one side, there was a small cylinder that was glowing. At the same point on the other side of the handgrip was a small lever, while in front of the handgrip, a button. At the base of the handgrip there seemed to be a catch. Carefully pointing the object at a log, he pulled on the catch, to find the inside of the handle begin to fall out. He carefully pulled this out, and noticed that the cylinder had ceased glowing. He looked at this new object. This was quite complex, and he understood little or nothing about it, except it clearly had a top and a bottom, and a front and back. It presumably had to be put back in the right way. Since it should be the right way, he pushed it back in, and pushed over the catch.

The light was now back on in the cylinder. He looked very carefully at it, and saw there were notches. Twenty in all, and the light went up to number thirteen. He pointed the weapon at the log, and pushed the lever. Nothing happened, except that the light went out. He pressed the button. Nothing happened. He pulled the lever back to where it had been and pressed the button. There was a cloud of wood dust. He pressed the lever to what was presumably a way of making it safe, then, as an afterthought, looked at the cylinder. It was not glowing. He nodded to himself, pulled the lever back, and the cylinder began glowing. It glowed up to twelve notches. He pressed the lever again, and the glow went off. He could use this weapon twelve more times.

"What in the name of Hades is this?" Timothy's voice asked. Gaius looked up, to see him standing beside the pit.

"I have no idea," Gaius replied, "but it has a killing device we know nothing about." He stepped over to the pit and looked down. "You!" Gaius yelled, and pointed at the creature. "Keep your hands visible!"

The creature simply looked bemused.

"It doesn't understand," Timothy said.

"It'll understand this," Gaius said simply. "You!" he said, pointing to a soldier. "When I point this at you, spread your arms out, and show the palms of your hands."

"Yes sir."

"You!" he continued, pointing at the creature. He showed the weapon, then he flicked the switch, pointed to the green light, and showed it to the creature, then he pointed towards the soldier. The soldier spread the hands as ordered, then Gaius pointed the weapon at the creature. The message was clear. The creature showed the insides of its "hands".

"Get it out of the pit," Gaius nodded towards the soldiers, "but make sure it can't hide behind you, and don't let it reach for hidden weapons."

"It's a demon! I can't . . ."

"Yes you can. You saw what it did to the Celts? It used this, and I'm reasonably sure it'll work just as well on it as the Celts." Gaius saw that the man was undecided. He stared coldly at him, and ordered, "Do it!"

The fear on the soldier's face was obvious, but the Roman discipline came to the fore. "Yes sir."

The creature was pulled from the pit without incident.

"Hold its arms out," Gaius ordered, then he reached into the creatures clothes and searched. Before long, he had two further objects that clipped into the handle of the weapon he held, and a small number of other objects, the nature of which he did not understand.

Gaius then took the bag, and noticed it was quite heavy. He pulled on the flap, and was surprised to see it open, admittedly with a strange noise. He pushed the flap back down, and found that when he pressed it, it sealed. He then pulled it open again, and looked inside. Inside was a rather large metallic object, with a tube-like ending. He lifted it carefully, and saw a black ending. He pulled gently at that, and found it came off in his hands, whereupon he found himself looking at a round piece of the clearest glass he had ever seen. The glass had a perfectly uniform clear surface. He glanced back at he creature, and saw that it was a little concerned, as if it were willing him not to break this object. He had no idea what it was, but then he suddenly remembered seeing the silver light up the tree. He guessed that this was some sort of device for watching things from a distance, and since the device had done no harm, and the creature had made no effort to use it against the Celts, he guessed it was not a weapon. He would have to look into this at a later time, but in the meantime, the creature could carry it. He gave another glance at the black object. It and the bag were made of materials he had never seen before. And for that matter, the silvery object was made of a metal he had never seen before. He put the cap back over the glass, put the object back in the bag and handed it back to the creature.

The creature seemed surprised, but it nodded, as if in gratitude that Gaius had not damaged it.

"Sir!"

Gaius looked up to see one of the other soldiers looking as if he had something to say but was not very keen on saying it. "Yes?"

"The soldier, sir, was part of a party escorting a Quintus Flavius . . ."

"Escorting?" Gaius asked. "There weren't women in this party?"

"Yes sir. Two."

"What happened?" Gaius asked, his voice filled with the fear of someone who can guess the answer.

"Captured by Celts, sir. Some of them chased him, and . . ."

"We have prisoners?"

"Two, sir."

"Good. Ask them where their camp is, how many of them there are, find out what you can. Tell them if they wish to stay alive, they will tell me, now. No! Wait! Tell them if they don't tell me, they'll be brought over here one at a time and given to this demon here!"

The demon was stood up so the Celts could see it. Their superstition was clear, they cowered in fear, and the information flowed.

There was a party of twenty camped a couple of miles ahead, and they were part of a far larger raiding party who had come down from the north. The twenty would rejoin the large party in two days. Gaius nodded. So this was Caratacus' new strategy. Send raiding parties in behind enemy lines, to disrupt communications, steal food, kill . . . Possibly, this was as good a strategy as was likely to be open to him. However, for Gaius the message was clear. If he were ever to see his wife again, he would have to do something fairly quickly.

"You," Gaius said to one of his most skilled
exploratores
, "will take the wounded man as quickly as you can to Vespasian. Stay out of sight, and bring help. Tell Vespasian I am going to try to rescue the Romans while it's still possible. I expect to succeed if all I have to deal with is the small band there, but if the larger party turns up, I will need whatever help I can get, as quickly as possible."

"Yes sir," the man nodded, and turned away.

"A Legate should not go off on silly expeditions," Timothy warned. "You're too important, and . . ."

"And they have my wife and my sister," Gaius countered coldly. "What sort of man would I be if . . ."

"I know," Timothy interrupted. "I just felt I should point out your duty."

"Timothy," Gaius said with a touch of despair, "I'm not indispensable. If I get killed, in six months time the twentieth will have forgotten I existed. If I do nothing now, I'll be dead for the rest of my life."

"And what about these?" Timothy asked, as he pointed to the two prisoners.

"They will come with us. Let it be made clear to them that if they make any attempt to contact the other Celts, that will be considered a violation of their terms of surrender, and I shall kill them on the spot."

"They've got wounds," Timothy said. "They won't be able to go very fast."

"Tend to them as best you can," Gaius replied, "but let them know they either keep up or die. We shall try to maintain a reasonable but not exhausting pace."

It took almost twenty minutes before the prisoners were ready to march, and this was time that Gaius was loathe to give them, but he needed them to find the camp so the time had to be spent.

As it happened, the prisoners were not as necessary as Gaius had feared. After an hour's moderate march, smoke from the Celtic camp could be seen, and before long, voices could be heard. The Romans crept towards the camp, which was in a clearing.

The value of the Roman marching camp was clear. The layout and construction of this Celtic camp offered no defensive value apart from the fighting skills of the inhabitants. Certainly, there were guards, but they could not look everywhere. There, tied to posts were Vipsania, Lucilla, two soldiers, and that clod Quintus! Yes, they were kept at the side of the camp, which made rescue a little easier. Nevertheless, they were about twenty paces from cover.

There were seemingly two objectives in this operation, but in fact there was only one. Superficially, rescue of the prisoners was a prime objective, but in reality the prime objective was to kill the Celts. If he failed in that, the main party would learn what had happened, and would most likely catch up with him before he could reach the
Augusta
. While outnumbered even here, there was little doubt that he could defeat the Celts at this camp, provided he made good use of surprise. Equally, there was no doubt that he could not survive an attack by several hundred Celts.

If all he wanted to do were to rescue the prisoners, the simplest approach would be to sneak in after dark, and rescue them unseen. Unfortunately he may not be unseen, and in the dark escape through this forest would be slow. Finally, every minute made it more likely the major Celtic party would turn up. No! It might seem to be a gamble to launch a frontal attack in full daylight, but the night rescue depended entirely on remaining unseen, and nobody noticing the rescue until the following morning.

Time to commence. First, the prisoners were gagged. They did not like that, but they understood the reason. His archers would creep to the far side of the camp, and should get off two volleys before any effective opposition could be mounted. Half his foot soldiers would protect the archers, and if they remained hidden in the shrubbery until the last instant, each should kill a Celt with a
pilum
before the Celts realized what was really happening. With most of the attention now directed to that side, he would lead the attack from the rear. Three soldiers had to remain behind, one to guard the demon and the others to control the horses and prisoners. Any attempt by the prisoners to make themselves known would lead to their immediate deaths. He took a bow from his horse then he gave the orders and watched everyone get into position.

So far, so good! Everyone was in place, and the Celts were seemingly unaware. The first volley of arrows struck, and four Celts fell. The next volley came, and three more failed to evade quickly enough, and were struck. More arrows flew, and as the Celts bunched together to make better use of their shields, the pilii flew. Wild yelling broke out, and the Celts charged towards the forest, to engage the source of their troubles, but half had had to drop their shields, and arrows tore into them. Gaius noticed that Vipsania had looked up, hope in her eyes. Gaius held his hand up to hold back the men near him until the Celts actually reached the forest boundary. Then he signalled by letting off two arrows.