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I have done, even if I had been at home? I would be dead now, with my family.
At least this way, I'll have some vengeance."
I reached out and squeezed his shoulder and then I turned to Picus. "We'd
better be going."
"Yes, you're right. Sulla, my friend, there is nothing I can say to ease your
pain, but we can offer retribution, for what it is worth, on the heads of your
enemies. Farewell."
I passed the word back through the ranks and we moved out. Within a quarter
mile we found the farm track and followed it until we reached the fork. There
we swung to the south, following the wheel ruts in the chalky ground until we
began to climb. As we rode higher the wind died away. Picus stopped me and
signalled to one of his men who rode directly behind us. The man came up to
where we waited.
"General?"
"The wind is gone. It was blowing from our right, taking our noise away from
the enemy. Any minute now, we are going to start smelling smoke from the
burning buildings. It won't be pleasant. Pass the word back to bind the
horses' nostrils. We don't want to wake anyone below with the noise of their
whinnying.
And tell the men to take it slowly. I want no noise, is that clear?"
"Yes, General."
"Good. Then make sure it is equally clear to everyone you tell it to, and tell
it to everyone!"
We started moving again, riding two abreast, slowly enough that our horses
took the gradient easily. I
had bound a kerchief over Germanicus's muzzle and Picus had bound his mount's
with a scarf. We rode in silence until Picus spoke in a low voice.
"My heart cries out for poor Sulla. It must be purgatory to wait as he does,
within two short miles of home, not knowing if your loved ones are alive or
dead."
"Aye," I responded. "I don't know if I could bear up as stoically as he under
the same circumstances. It's ripping me up inside just trying to imagine it.
God only knows what he's going through, knowing that it's real."
We rode on again in silence for a distance, and again it was Picus who spoke.
"Where do you think they came from, Varrus?"
"I've been racking my brains on that one. They have to have come up from the
south."
"But that's what? Thirty miles? Forty?"
"Easily. Perhaps more."
"Inland, Varrus? It doesn't make sense. Why so far? On almost any other
stretch of coast on the island, they'd have come across a town or a village
within twenty miles. Their leader must have iron balls. Forty miles into
hostile territory is a lot of risk."
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"They may not be from the sea."
He jerked his head around to look at me. "What do you mean?"
"They could be outlaws."
"Rebels? Where from, in God's name?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea, Picus, but I know there are small groups of
outlaws around. I ran foul of one group the first time I came out to your
father's villa, before it became the Colony. That was a long time ago. Perhaps
they are growing stronger, organizing themselves."
"But where would they come from?"
"Where do desperate men ever come from? They might be deserters. They could be
farmers who have lost their farms, or villagers whose own homes have been
destroyed who knows?"
"By the living Christ! If these are deserters I'll crucify every one of them,
living or dead!"
"Then again, they might have come down from the north-west, through the hills
from the estuary, but that's even more unlikely. That's Ullic's territory, and
his people watch those shorelines like eagles. I just can't imagine them
getting through Ullic's country unseen, even though much of it is brush and
heavy woodland."
"Well, we'll know in a couple of hours."
We had reached the pasture at the top of the hill and we could see the burning
ruins quite plainly now in the valley below us. We looked down at the
smoke-wreathed scene in grim silence.
"Sulla said to hold to the right and follow the line of the trees." Picus
pulled his mount around and led us downhill until the tree line loomed up out
of the darkness ahead of us, blocking the burning farm from our view. The
smoke was heavy now, oily and sour-smelling. As we rode on along the line of
trees, each man among us began to prepare himself for what lay ahead of us. We
were coming very close now to battle.
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