Retalio

by Alison Morton

  ‘Great Jupiter!’ I said.

  ‘Exactly, domina.’ The deputy stood right behind me. ‘What are we supposed to do with these… these pets? The gods know they’ll need a fortune in feed and then there’s mucking out. And what use are they?’

  ‘You need to do nothing, woman,’ said Miklós. ‘Just ignore them. My cousin and I will look after them. You may go about your business.’ He waved his hand at her in dismissal. I’d never heard him be so rude.

  The deputy stood there, lips parted, but no words coming out. She shot an angry look at him, then took a deep breath.

  I stepped between them.

  ‘This is unexpected, of course, and I will talk to Regulus when he is available. Perhaps you would ask him to come and see me?’ I used my most conciliatory tone.

  She nodded abruptly, threw another angry look at Miklós and stamped off hitting every cobble on the courtyard with furious intent.

  ‘Well, that was a good start to the morning.’ I turned to him. ‘Why were you so rude to her?’

  ‘She couldn’t have shown more contempt if she’d tried. They aren’t pets. They’re all tough, well-built horses, bred to endure.’

  The old Romans had used mounted units for scouting, skirmishing, and outpost duties, crucial when conducting operations over long distances in hostile or unfamiliar territory. We were certainly going into hostile territory, but not unfamiliar. Later Roman commanders had used mounted units more and more; for speed, mobility and shock value, they were unrivalled. But today?

  ‘Miklós, they are magnificent. They remind me of Bátor, your first beautiful horse when we met in Berlin, but how will they help us?’

  He looked at me, eyes half closed. ‘Do you really think you are going to be able to sneak around Roma Nova with a convoy of noisy old trucks and vans? You say you are going to use surprise as a weapon, but you know yourself how good the Roma Nova military are at stopping the least opposition. But nobody is prepared for horses.’

  ‘But what impact will a dozen or so horses have?’

  ‘There are twenty here and another thirty at a stables south of Graz. They can ride cross-country at fifty kilometres an hour if required, don’t need special refuelling and don’t show up on any radar.’

  Part III

  INVASION

  33

  At a meeting of the heads of families and communities representing our three thousand souls, I explained that we needed to step up security as Lentilius, one of the council members, had disappeared in unclear circumstances.

  Unfortunately Edward Soane had been unable to coax his colleague in Lentilius’s bank to disclose any details other than ‘more than sufficient funds to meet any contingency’. Lentilius had been receiving only a small allowance as a council member, so it was disquieting when the bank used those words; it usually meant substantial funds. But unless we could see his statements, we could prove nothing.

  ‘We’re still searching for Lentilius but in the meantime we need to take precautions,’ I continued. ‘I must now ask you to register whenever you go out of this building and when you come back in.’

  Groans.

  ‘I know it’s a nuisance but everybody will be subject to it. We’ll post notices by the exits and Praetorians will staff these points. The council would appreciate you informing your communities and families about the new checking in and out and the reason for it. We cannot be too careful, which brings me on to another matter. What I am about to say must not go beyond this room, however tempted you might be to share it.’

  The mumbling and grumbling stopped and I waited until I was sure I had everybody’s attention.

  ‘Our colonia here in Vienna is temporary as our aim is to go back to Roma Nova. I accept that some may wish to start a new life here and I wish them bona fortuna. If anybody in your community wishes to do this, please ask them to give their names to Vibianus who will assist them to leave and settle outside. But I think that almost all of us want to go home.’

  ‘Aio! Aio!’

  ‘Well,’ I said and then smiled. ‘That may be coming sooner rather than later.’

  ‘When? When?’ people shouted. Many of these sober leaders rose to their feet and punched fists in the air, others glanced at each other, a few cried in each others’ arms.

  After a while I called for silence.

  ‘This must be kept secret for the moment. Of course, rumours will leak out as activity steps up while our preparations are finalised. I count on you to disown them or at least keep them to a minimum. You can disclose Lentilius’s disappearance as the reason for the inevitable additional security. I know it’s tempting to want to reveal a big secret to impress others. We are human as well as Romans.’

  A few smiles at that.

  ‘But we must restrain ourselves. In the meantime, please encourage people to keep their fitness up and to attend every training session the military runs. We’ll be allocating tasks and forming specialist tactical teams during the next week.’

  People started murmuring again. I held my hand up for silence.

  ‘One last thing. While we may be excited about returning to Roma Nova, we must remember that our fight back is dangerous; the odds are against us. We can’t just drive up to the main border crossing and start shooting every nat in sight.’

  ‘Why not?’ came a shout. ‘Kill the bastards!’

  ‘A strong temptation, I know, but the only way we’ll win this take-back is by being clever. Our tactics must be clean, sharp and coordinated. But I warn you that however smart we are and however strong your resolution and courage, we will lose friends and family members. Or they may be badly injured. We may experience small failures, we will certainly be frightened and exhausted. But we will liberate our country, lift oppression from our people and regain our homeland.’

  * * *

  Volusenia, Junia and Atrius spent the evening drawing up the lists of units and tasking squads for each specific task. A clerk sat filling in a pile of form letters with individual orders and stuffing them in brown envelopes. I left them to it; they didn’t need me. I drew the door shut behind me as I left Volusenia’s office and paused in the corridor. However fired up the leaders had been earlier, they might sober up when they handed out individual posting letters to their people.

  Upstairs, I knocked on Silvia’s door. She opened it only a few centimetres.

  ‘May I come in for a moment?’ I said.

  ‘Um, I’m just doing something. Can we leave it until the morning?’ She glanced away. What was she up to?

  ‘I’m afraid not, darling. I’m going up to the listening posts first thing.’

  ‘Oh. Well, I suppose you’d better come in.’

  Inside, clothes, mostly jeans and walking trousers, shirts and two fleeces were lying across the bed. The drawers in the small unit were hanging open and draped over the chair were her training clothes and boots that all Junia’s troops wore. Silvia had insisted, and I’d backed her, that she had to do the same military drills as everybody else. She had to be able to defend herself as well as feel part of it. And she was admired for her willingness to buckle down to the discipline and hard training with everybody else. She looked at me and flushed.

  ‘Are you having a sort-out?’ I said.

  ‘No. Well, yes, actually. I want to be ready to go.’ She looked up at me, her expression half defiant, half pleading. I sighed.

  ‘Darling, you know you can’t go with the tactical groups or even the reserves. Nor can you step a foot inside Roma Nova until we have a secure route to the city.’

  ‘My place is with my troops.’

  ‘Your place is to inspire them, to represent what they are fighting for, not leading in the front line. That’s the job of the optiones and centurions.’

  ‘I’m as fit and trained as the others of my age. I’m going.’

  ‘No, you are not going with the assault groups.’

  ‘You can’t stop me. I command you let me.’ Damn, this was a bad time for Silvia to play the t
ruculent teenager.

  ‘Look, Silvia, I can’t fault your fighting spirit nor your courage. It’s no less than I expect of you, but after all the effort we’ve made to rescue and protect you, I will not have you killed by a stray bullet or your throat cut by some treacherous nat.’

  ‘You’ll be going, of course,’ she retorted.

  ‘Well, actually, I won’t. Not until the towns of Aquae Caesaris and Castra Lucilla have been taken. You have no idea how much it pains me not to be there fighting on my own land for my own people, but Volusenia has tasked me first with handling communications and reserves from here.’

  ‘I’d like to have been there when she told you that.’

  ‘I was disappointed, but I accepted it. Volusenia’s plan is tight and precise and we have to play the part according to our competences.’

  ‘Huh.’

  ‘Besides, she outranks me.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘This next phase is purely military and she controls it. Once we take back territory, then I will regain my imperial councillor authority. For now, we all have to submit and that includes you, Imperatrix.’

  * * *

  Both listening posts now had a permanent guard of a dozen troops, plus disguised perimeter guards on the approach roads. Caius must have worked out by now we were listening and the posts would have been juicy targets. But once armed with the weapons in the back of our van that Styrax was driving, they would be extremely difficult to take. If he tried, the physical and electronic noise of such a firefight or bombing from the air would alert the New Austrians and they’d be sure to intervene. A kilometre out we passed a couple of hikers who smiled and waved at us. But as I looked in the mirror I saw one appeared to be talking into her sleeve. One of ours then.

  ‘Salve, Major,’ the optio greeted me with a bright smile after we’d parked in the lea of the trees.

  ‘Diana. Everything in order?’

  ‘Yes, mostly quite boring, except for yesterday.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Well, radio traffic has been diminishing steadily over the past month, not by much, but definitely downward. Last Tuesday there was nothing between the city and Castra Lucilla, which was strange. I sent the colonel a report, but then there was a movement of a small detachment of vehicles yesterday towards Castra Lucilla, and some new radio traffic. We sent it all back to Vienna.’

  I hadn’t seen Volusenia this morning as I’d set off before seven. Well, she’d brief me when I got back.

  ‘Apart from bringing you these new toys’—I gestured towards Styrax and her colleague unloading the arms and boxes of ammunition—‘I’ve brought this.’ I gave her a brown envelope marked ‘Eyes Only’. She shot a glance at me and ripped the envelope open.

  ‘At last!’ she breathed.

  * * *

  At Virunum I greeted the professor in charge of the dig with due formality. I’d dragged him out of his cosy department on a cold January day as my excuse for visiting a site so open to satellite surveillance. He was determined to show me everything. I followed him round in the freezing wind as he showed me foundations, lead water pipes, and a large, mostly intact mosaic. He was very enthusiastic about the amphitheatre excavation he was working on and praised the team we had provided to help him.

  After twenty minutes I extricated myself, thanking him profusely. He was reasonably content as I’d promised him a hefty contribution to the dig when it reopened in May. After he’d driven off down the winding road, his car’s snow chains clanking, I strode over to the administration hut. The only sign it wasn’t entirely that was the satellite dish twenty metres away, shielded from sight by the tree line.

  I knocked and a figure with a stubble chin and wearing a fleece and jeans with a small trowel sticking out of his pocket opened the door.

  ‘Sergius. Digging much up?’ I said as I entered the fuggy, warm room.

  He grinned, but when he’d read the contents of the envelope I handed him his features became solemn. He watched in silence as Styrax and her comrade walked through to the storeroom and deposited the weapons we’d brought for them.

  ‘You’re on active operational status as from now.’

  * * *

  We hit the Vienna rush hour, stuffed with tin boxes driven by normal people rushing home to their supper, then reading to their children at bedtime and settling down to a drama on the television or a chat on the phone with friends. As we escaped the worst of it and drove along the country lane to the Jagdschloss, we seemed to be stuck behind a small convoy of at least a dozen small lorries crawling along. The gods knew what they were doing here. I was more than surprised when they turned into the Jagdschloss driveway and then swung round to the back and through the archway into the stable courtyard where we also parked our little van. Tired as I was from the long day, I wanted to know who and what they were. Regulus, the transport manager, leapt out of the first one and waved his arms around. The other drivers gathered round him, shouting and laughing, flicking fingers at each other, sharing some joke. I walked over and they calmed. Regulus looked a little hesitant.

  ‘I apologise if I’m interrupting, but what’s going on? Something good, I think?’

  ‘We’ve just come back from an auction, domina, and scooped all these vehicles. I couldn’t believe it. They were being sold off as a job lot.’ He shook his head. ‘I expect they’ll need a lot of work on them, but we can afford to cannibalise a couple of them. The colonel only wanted six more.’ He grinned.

  ‘Well, I think the beers are on me,’ I said. ‘Or maybe I’ll put them on Colonel Volusenia’s tab.’ That made them laugh.

  As we walked towards the back door, I told Regulus about Miklós’s horses.

  ‘Well, it’s a bit unusual, but I can see his point. I’m not the strategist, thank Mercury, but it seems to me that making that first border crossing a surprise isn’t going to be easy.’ He stopped and looked at me. ‘Look, domina, I just get what’s needed to the place it’s needed. I’m prepared to use whatever’s available. Do you want me to talk to him about saddles and reins and stuff?’

  I nodded. I couldn’t say anything; I was just so grateful to the gods that this capable young man had fallen on us like a box of treasure.

  ‘I’ve got something else to tell the colonel when I get her alone,’ he continued. ‘I’ve been able to call in a favour. A transport company in Graz I did business with before… before the rebellion still has the same facilities manager. I went and saw him on the off-chance and he’s agreed to be a POL point.’

  I stared at him. Being able to refuel at Graz would considerably increase our range and lessen our need for so many tankers.

  ‘Mars’ balls, Regulus, do you know what a genius you are?’

  He blushed.

  ‘You have just solved the last problem. Come with me to see Colonel Volusenia. She’ll probably open a bottle of champagne.’

  34

  Regulus’s reward was indeed champagne, but only one glass as Volusenia ordered him to draft in every mechanic he could find and get the vehicles up to standard, starting work at six the next morning.

  ‘I’ve ordered a general parade in the ballroom for 07.00 hours,’ Volusenia said as we took a late walk in the courtyard. ‘We daren’t risk assembling two thousand people outside in case the bloody surveillance satellites are working. We have enough trouble hiding all those trucks.’

  ‘If Caius’s EUS friends are helping with technical equipment as we heard from the groups in the city, then we have to assume the satellites are working and that they’re getting a daily feed,’ I replied.

  ‘Well, all the posting letters have gone now, so I need to see what kind of rabble we are stuck with to get this operation active.’ She drew on her cigarette. ‘I’m not optimistic.’

  ‘You’ll just have to view them as irregular forces. They’ll do their best but they’re not going to look as shiny as your Praetorians.’

  ‘Ha!’

  ‘I’ve watched them training,’ I said. �
��Junia Sestina’s worked miracles but you can’t inject years of training in a few months or weeks. Don’t you have confidence in your own plan?’

  ‘You know, I can see why you’re a politician. You can flip any argument back at your opponent.’

  ‘Are you my opponent?’ I asked in a quiet voice.

  ‘You know what I mean,’ she grumped.

  ‘So when can we go?’

  ‘Second day after tomorrow suit you?’

  ‘I’ll check my diary.’ Then I grinned at her, stretched my arm out to grasp hers in the traditional salute. Her fierce grip and gleaming eyes said it all.

  Crushed into the former ballroom, the parade went well; Volusenia even had seventy volunteers for the horse squads.

  ‘I have to confess that although I love riding I never thought of using them operationally,’ she said. ‘We’ll look like something out of a comic opera.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ I said. ‘I’ll ride a giraffe into the city if it’ll get me there.’

  * * *

  The very worst part of being part of the senior command structure was waiting; waiting to start, waiting for news, waiting for casualties.

  Two days later at midnight, twenty of the mounted squad set off on horseback for the stables south of Graz; the remainder of the riders travelled with Miklós in two trucks with saddles and equipment for the other horses. I worried about training the riders; although they’d all been through Junia’s hands and had some military knowledge, most were leisure riders. Miklós had spent the previous day assessing them. He’d only rejected eight, assuring me that horsemanship was the main skill needed. Tomorrow, the first riders would cross into Roma Nova by back roads either side of the western border post and meet up with Frontius.

  The signals office had reported regular contact with Frontius and arranged a rendezvous with a fall-back point. Once the horse troops had taken that post our infantry, brought in by trucks, would take over. That western border post should be an easy gain despite Regulus’s worry, as Frontius kept the border guards there sweetened with a generous supply of contraband goods.