Conn Iggulden - Emperor 02

by The Death of Kings

  “It's all right. I came back as quick as I could. I didn't see them in the crowd. Usually I keep a lookout for them, but I was hurrying and . . .” he broke off into sobs and Alexandria put her arm around him, waving Tabbic away.

  “Go on with you, Tabbic. He doesn't want an examination. He's had a bad time and he needs care and rest.”

  Tabbic stood clear as she took the boy into the back room and up the stairs to his home above the shop. Alone, he sighed and rubbed his grizzled face with a hand, scratching at the gray stubble that had come through since his morning shave. Shaking his head, he turned to his bench and began selecting the tools he would need to remake the ring for Gethus.

  He worked in silence for a few minutes, then paused and looked back at the narrow stairs as a thought struck him.

  “I'll have to make you a decent knife, my lad,” he muttered to himself, before taking up the tools once more. After a while, as he was sketching the setting with chalk, he murmured, “And teach you to use the thing, as well.”

  * * *

  Brutus stood on the Campus Martius, with the eagle standard of Primigenia in the ground at his side. He had been pleased to see that some of the other recruiting legions had to use banners of woven cloth, whereas the old standard Marius had made had been found for him. Hammered gold over copper, it caught the morning sun and he hoped it would catch the eye of more than a few of the crowd of boys who had been gathering since before dawn. Not all of them would be signing on with a legion. Some had come just to watch, and for those the food-sellers had set up stalls before first light. The smells of grilled meat and vegetables made him hungry, and he thought of getting an early lunch, jingling the coins in his pouch as he eyed the crowd around the line of standards.

  He'd expected it to be easier. Renius looked every inch a lion of the old Rome, and the ten men they'd brought with them were impressive in new armor, polished to a high sheen for the admiration of the crowd. Yet Brutus had been forced to watch as all along the line, hundreds of young Romans signed up to be legionaries without one of them coming near his post. A few times, smaller groups had gathered, pointing and whispering, then moved on. He'd been tempted to grab a couple of the lads and find out what they'd said, but he held his temper. With noon close, the crowd had halved and, as far as he could see, Primigenia was the only standard not to be surrounded by windfalls from the new generation.

  He gritted his teeth. The ones who had already joined would attract more to those eagles. By now, he imagined people asking what was wrong with Primigenia that no one wanted to join it. Hands would cover mouths and they would whisper with puerile excitement of the traitor legion. He cleared his throat and spat on the sandy soil. The testing finished at sundown and there was nothing to do but stand and wait for it to end, hoping perhaps to pick up a few stragglers as the light faded. The thought made him burn with embarrassment. He knew if Marius were there, he would have been walking amongst the young men, cajoling, joking, and persuading them to join his legion. Of course, back then there had been a legion to join.

  Brutus resumed his sullen appraisal of the crowd, wishing he could make them understand. Three young men wandered toward his standard and he smiled at them as welcomingly as he could.

  “Primigenia, is it?” one of them said.

  Brutus watched as one of them hid a smile. They were here for sport, he guessed. For a fleeting instant, he considered knocking their heads together, but he controlled himself, sensing the eyes of his ten men on him. He could feel Renius bristle at his side, but the older man kept his peace.

  “We were the legion of Marius, consul of Rome,” he said, “victors in Africa and all over Roman lands. There is a glorious history here, for the right men who join us.”

  “What's the pay like then?” the tallest said, with a mock-serious tone.

  Brutus took a slow breath. They knew the Senate set the pay for all legions. With Crassus to back him, he would have loved to offer more, but the limit was there to prevent wealthy sponsors undermining the whole system.

  “Seventy-five denarii, same as the others,” he replied quickly.

  “Hold on, Primigenia? Weren't they the ones who smashed the city up?” the tall boy asked as if he had been given a sudden revelation. He turned to his grinning friends, who were happy to let him give the show.

  “It is!” he said, delighted. “Sulla broke them, didn't he? They were led by some traitor or other.”

  The tall one paused as he caught the change in his friends' expressions, realizing he had gone too far. As he turned back, Brutus swung his fist, but Renius blocked the blow with an outstretched arm. The three young men all flinched at the threat, but their leader quickly recovered his confidence, his mouth twisting into a sneer.

  Before he could speak, Renius stepped in close to him. “What's your name?”

  “Germinius Cato,” he replied haughtily. “You will have heard of my father.”

  Renius turned to the soldiers behind him. “Put his name down. He's in.”

  The arrogance faded into amazement as Germinius watched his name inked onto the bare scroll.

  “You can't do that! My father will have your—”

  “You're in, boy. In front of witnesses,” Renius replied. “These men will swear it was voluntary. When we dismiss you, you'll be free to run and tell your father how proud you are.”

  Cato's son glared at the older men, his confidence surging back. “My name will be off that scroll before sundown,” he said.

  Renius stepped close to him again. “Tell him Renius took the name. He'll know me. Tell him you'll always be known as the boy who tried to back out of serving the city in the legions. He'll be destroyed if something like that gets out, wouldn't you say? You think you'll follow in his footsteps after shame like that? The Senate doesn't like cowards, boy.”

  The young man paled with anger and frustration. “I will . . .” He paused and a terrible doubt crept into his face.

  “What you'll do is stand by this eagle until we're ready to give you the oath. Until I'm told different, you're the first recruit of the day.”

  “You can't stop me leaving!” Germinius replied, his voice cracking.

  “Disobeying a lawful order? I'll have you whipped if you take another step away from me. Stand to attention before I lose my patience!”

  The bark of an order held Germinius in impotent rage. Under Renius's eye, he drew himself straight. At his side, his friends began to edge away.

  “Your names!” Renius snapped, freezing them. They looked mutely at him and he shrugged.

  “Mark them down as legionaries two and three of the day. That will serve, now I know your faces. Stand straight for the crowd, boys.” He turned to the soldiers of Primigenia behind him for a moment, ignoring their amazement.

  “If they run,” he said clearly, “I want them dragged back and flogged on the field. It'll cost us a few recruits, but the others might as well see there's a hard side to all that glory.”

  The three young Romans faced the crowd stiffly, and Renius looked surprised as Brutus drew him a few steps out of their hearing.

  “Cato will go berserk,” Brutus muttered. “Of all legions, he won't want his son in this one.”

  Renius cleared his throat and spat on the dusty grass of the field. “He won't want him branded a coward, either. It's your choice, but you'll gain nothing by letting them go now. He may try to buy you off or he may endure it. We'll know in a day or two.”

  Brutus looked closely at the old gladiator and shook his head in disbelief. “You've forced this on me now, so I'll see it through.”

  Renius glanced at him. “If you'd hit him, his father would have killed you.”

  “You didn't know who he was when you stopped me!” Brutus retorted.

  Renius sighed. “I taught you better, lad, I really did. What else should I think when a boy wears his father's crest on a gold ring big enough to buy a house with?”

  Brutus blinked at him, then walked over to the three new recr
uits and examined Germinius's hand for a moment without speaking. He was about to return to Renius when three more boys detached from the crowd and approached the Primigenia eagle.

  “Sign your names on the scroll there and stand with the others, lads,” Renius told them. “We'll give you the oath when there's enough of a crowd.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he waved them over.

  CHAPTER 22

  Between the heat of Greece and the excuses, Julius was finding it hard to keep his temper. He was desperate for recruits, but the walled Roman city had forgotten its founding duty and every demand was met with delay and discussion.

  “I have the young men. Now bring out the veterans,” Julius said to the city elder.

  “What? Would you leave us defenseless?” the man spluttered in indignation.

  Julius remained silent, waiting a few moments before replying, as Renius used to. He'd found the small pauses gave weight to his words like nothing else.

  “My men are going directly from here to attack Mithridates. There is no one else for you to defend against. I do not have time to train more farmers to be legionaries, and from what you say, there is no other Roman force within a hundred miles of here.

  “Every man within these walls who has ever held a sword in service of Rome, I want out here, armed and armored as best you can.”

  The besieged elder began to speak again and Julius interrupted him, raising his voice slightly. “I do not expect to have to mention the conditions of their retirement. It would be an attack on their honor for me to remind them that they were given land on the understanding that if Rome called them, they would answer. She calls. Fetch them out.”

  The elder turned away, almost running back to the council hall. Julius waited with his men standing to attention at his back. He had suffered enough of the council's delays, and part of him had no sympathy at all. They were in a conquered land and the constant worry of rebellion had occurred. Did they expect to sit it out behind their fine walls? He wondered what might have happened if Mithridates had reached them first. Hardly worth betting that they would have declared loyalty to him out of fear for their families, throwing open the gates and kneeling in the dust.

  “Someone's coming up the main street,” Gaditicus said behind him.

  Julius turned to his left and listened to the measured step of at least a century of legionaries. He swore under his breath. The last thing he needed at that moment was to come face-to-face with another officer from the regular legions.

  As they came into sight, Julius's spirits leaped.

  “Legionaries . . . halt!” came a graveled voice, its bark echoing back from the walls of the small square.

  One of Julius's men whistled softly in surprise at what they saw. The men were old. They wore armor that dated back almost fifty years in some cases, with simpler designs of plate and mail. Their bodies showed the results of decades of war. Some lacked an eye or a hand. Others showed ancient puckered scars on their faces and limbs, poorly stitched, seaming their skins in long crescents.

  The commander was a burly man with a shaven head and a powerful set of shoulders. His face was deeply wrinkled, but he still gave an impression of strength that reminded Julius vaguely of Renius as he saluted, judging Julius's command instinctively by the distance he kept from the others.

  “Quertorus Far reporting, sir. We thought the council would talk all day, so we sent out the call without them. The veterans are ready to be inspected, sir.”

  Julius nodded and followed the man, watching as more and more of them entered the square and lined up in neat formation.

  “How many are there?” he asked, trying to judge the worth of the whitebeards he saw standing straight in the winter sun.

  “Altogether, nearly four hundred, sir, though some are still making their way in from outlying farms. We should be all in by dark tonight.”

  “And the average age?” Julius continued.

  Quertorus stopped and turned to face the young officer before him. “They're veterans, sir. That means old. But they're all volunteers and they're as hard and tough as you're going to need to smoke out Mithridates. They need a few days to drill together, but remember, they've all been tested and they've all come through. A lot of men have died for Rome over the years. These are the ones that won.”

  The man had an insolent expression, but Julius could hear the belief in his words as he tried to reassure the stern young officer who had come to their city for an army.

  “And you, Quertorus? Do you command them?”

  The bald man laughed, a short chop of sound, quickly cut off. “Not me, sir. The council thinks it does, I suppose, but these men go their own way and have done for a long time, most of them. Mind you, when Mithridates took the port, they began polishing their swords again, if you understand me.”

  “You don't talk as if you were one of them,” Julius said, turning it into a question.

  Quertorus raised his eyebrows. “Didn't mean to, sir. I did my twenty years with the First Cyrenaica, ten of them as optio.”

  Some instinct prompted Julius to ask, “The last ten?”

  Quertorus cleared his throat and looked away for a moment. “More like ten in the middle, sir. Lost my rank toward the end for excessive gambling.”

  “I see. Well, Quertorus. It seems we're gambling again, you and I,” Julius said quietly.

  Quertorus beamed at him, revealing missing teeth in his lower jaw. “I wouldn't bet against them, sir, not if you knew them.”

  Julius eyed the massed ranks with less confidence than he showed. “I hope you're right. Now step into rank yourself and I'll address them.”

  For a second, he thought Quertorus might refuse and he wondered if the man had lost his rank for more than just gambling, a fairly common occupation of legionaries not on duty. Then the bald man stepped into the ranks and came to attention, his eyes on Julius with interest. Julius filled his lungs with air.

  “Veterans of Rome!” he bellowed, making those closest to him jump. He'd always had a powerful voice, but part of him wondered if it would be enough if some of them were deaf.

  “My men and I passed two villages to the south before we came here, collecting recruits. The news we heard is that Mithridates is camped about a hundred miles to the west. You can be sure that fresh Roman legions will be on the march as I speak, coming east from the coast ports at Dyrrhachium and Apollonia. I intend to force him toward them; to be the hammer for the Roman anvil.”

  He had their interest, all right. Every eye was on him, from his own men and the grizzled veterans. He thanked his gods for the decision to march ten miles north to recruit at the city.

  “With you, I have a thousand at my command to attack Mithridates. Some from this city and the villages are untrained. Others I have brought with me are used only to fighting at sea in Roman galleys. You were the land legions and you must be the backbone as we march. I will give each of you a sword brother from my men to train.”

  He paused, but there was silence and he knew then that the veterans still remembered the old discipline. He wondered how many would last the miles before they even saw action. With young, fresh soldiers, he could cover the distance in less than three or four days, but with these? There was no way of knowing.

  “I need one of you to be quartermaster, preparing packs, equipment, and food from what you can find within the city walls.”

  Quertorus stepped forward, his eyes glinting with pleasure.

  “Quertorus?” Julius said to him.

  “Quartermaster, sir, with your permission. I've been wanting a chance to poke the eye of the council for a long time.”

  “Very well, but their complaints will come to me and I will treat them seriously. Take three of my men and start readying the supplies. We need a shield for every man and any spears or bows you can find. I want a field kitchen outside the walls with a meal ready for all of them before dark. There's still light enough for drill and I want to see how well these men can move. They will be hu
ngry when we're done.”

  Quertorus saluted and marched smartly over to Gaditicus, who remained at attention where Julius had left him with the others. Julius watched as three were selected to go with him, and tried to ignore forebodings that he had just let the wolf loose amongst the geese. As they hurried away, Julius saw the city elder come rushing out of the council hall, making his way directly to the assembled veterans. Julius turned away from him without interest. Whatever the council had decided was no longer of importance.

  “I've seen you can stand and I know from your scars that you can fight,” he shouted along the ranks. “Now I need to see if you can remember your formations.”

  At his order, they turned and marched along the main street to the gate that led out of the small city. Those who had waited in the side roads filed in behind the others with precision, and Julius signaled Gaditicus to bring up the rear. The two men exchanged glances as they joined the column marching out, leaving the council elder calling behind them, his voice fading as he finally realized they would not listen to him any longer.

  * * *

  It took a while for the legionaries to form four equal lines, the veterans mixed with the younger men. Julius walked stiffly up and down the rows, judging the quality of the men who had gathered in his name. As he frowned at them, he fought to remember the lessons on field tactics and routines that Renius had drummed into him so many years ago. None of them had dealt with starting a legion from scratch, but some of it came easily to him as soon as he thought about the practical problems of having the large group move and respond to orders. The worry that would not leave him was that one of the veterans would realize he had never commanded infantry before. He deepened his frown. He would just have to bluff it through.

  Beginning with the corner men, he set up a simple square, working through the figures in his head while they waited. He separated the others into thirty numbered rows, then directed the corner men to take their positions. When they were ready, Julius shouted the order, “Slow march to square formation!”