Druids (54 page)

“You told me that you defend the women, remember? That is what I require of you now, stay here and be the man m this lodge while I am away.”

His eyes sparkled at hearing himself called a man. “Just give me a sword and I’ll cut anyone who tries to hurt them to bits!” He might have seemed ridiculous, standing there with his legs planted and his hairless chest inflated, but there was something in the child’s eyes… .

From the very bottom of my carved chest, where it had lain untouched all these seasons, I took my father’s sword. I was embarrassed to discover rust on the blade, “Can you wield this, Cormiac?”

He seized the sword with eager hands. At first the weight staggered him, but recovering quickly, he swung the weapon in a broad arc, making the air sing. Both my women jumped back.

‘ ‘You’ll have to practice using it,” I said. “Rub that blade with vinegar and sand and borrow a whetstone for it.”

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He nodded, his eyes fixed on the sword with the expression most other farmers’ sons wear when regarding a good team of

oxen.

I spent the rest of the day in the grove. When I returned I felt

restored, my brain burnished and sharpened. I had been too long away, my thoughts had grown rusty. But now I had an inspired

plan… .

That night I held Briga very tightly, as if I would melt our flesh together. We mated with a desperate urgency and slept without

ever separating our bodies.

In the gray light of morning I surveyed the inhabitants of the chief druid’s lodge. Briga, Lakutu, the infant, Gias, the boy, Cormiac Ru. My acquired family. The bonds between us were invisible but very strong.

I beckoned to Briga to accompany me outside. “When Caesar is defeated and I return, we’ll initiate you into the Order,” I promised, adding on the same breath, “and at the next Bellaine I’ll marry Lakutu.”

Her eyebrows shot up alarmingly. “Just like that? Without ask-ing me?’*

“Are you and I supposed to ask one another’s permission for things?” I could not resist inquiring in all innocence.

She opened her mouth, closed it, frowned; started again to speak, stopped. A laugh struggled to break through a mask of simulated anger. “While you’re away, Ainvar, I’m going to leam how to outthink a chief druid!”

“Good. I like intelligent women.”

I could tell she was not really displeased. If she and Lakutu had not become such good friends, I would never have considered the arrangement. But now Briga, prince’s daughter, would have a woman to whom she was officially senior and whom she could

order about if she chose.

But I knew her; she was too tenderhearted to order a friend

about.

We had a more somber matter still to discuss. “While I’m away, I’m going to leave a heavy responsibility on your shoulders, Briga. If I don’t return … if Caesar wins …” She started to protest, but I silenced her. “If Caesar wins, go to Aberth. Ask him to free your spirits before the Romans come to enslave you.”

“Lakutu and the boys too?”

“And you. Yes. My family.”

Here was the ultimate test of the faith I had tried to give her, the proof of my success as a druid. I watched her face anxiously.

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Her chin came up. She met my eyes with a level, fearless gaze. “I shall do as you ask, Ainvar. Death is only a small thing. I know we are all perfectly safe.” Then she smiled. My Briga.

When I left the Fort of the Grove, people shouted, “Come back to us a free person!”

My bodyguards and I were forced to hold our horses to a trot ; so the recruits running with us could keep up. More promised to

; follow. We hardly paused for rest, since Caesar would speedily I, rejoin his legions. We made a brief visit to the sacred grove of the ” Bituriges so I could talk with Nantua, then hurried on to Vercingetorix at his camp beyond Avaricum. As our patrols subsequently informed me, I reached him on the same day Caesar returned to his army.

“I’m planning to attack immediately, before he has tune to rest,” Rixtold me.

“I doubt if Caesar is tired, Rix. Or if he is, he won’t let it ;:. hamper him, any more than you would. And his men are both ; rested and well fed, thanks to the stores of Avaricum. Our situation isn’t as good as theirs. Before you fight Caesar we should be •••.. in a position of advantage. A stronghold.”

” Avaricum and Cenabum are ruins, so what do you suggest?” “Gergovia.” I knew he would fight best on his own soil. And Ifae time it would take us to get there would allow my plan to mature.

Rix considered the suggestion, then nodded. “Gergovia.” Breaking camp, the army of Gaul marched southward. Along die way I met with various druids, and discussed with the Goban Saor methods of strengthening Gaulish strongholds.

We were following the river AUier, in flood at that season. Soon we learned that Caesar’s army was coming after us down the opposite bank. At once Rix sent cavalry ahead to destroy all the bridges so Caesar could not cross the swollen river and attack us. The two armies then proceeded to march southward almost together, usually in sight of one another, separated only by a tur-bulent vein of swift brown water across which the men shouted challenges and occasional crude jokes.

“• Unnoticed by our patrols, Caesar detained a company of his

men in a dense woodland opposite one of the broken bridges. ” When the two armies were out of sight, he emerged and proceeded to supervise the repair of the bridge. The Roman then recalled his legions, crossed the river, and at the next dawn our

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astonished patrols reported that the entire Roman army was com-ing up behind us.

The warriors of free Gaul cursed Caesar with every expletive

known to the Celtic imagination.

Vercingetorix led us at utmost speed, hoping to reach the Arvernian stronghold before the Romans could force us to fight a pitched battle in the open. They outnumbered us; all the advantage would be theirs. Five days of hard marching brought us to Gergovia, which was perched atop a mountain with difficult approaches on every side, just as I remembered. Here was, indeed, a position of advantage for us.

Vercingetorix dispatched a company of cavalry to slow the Roman advance while his men set up camp on the heights around the stronghold, with a commanding view of the terrain below. Additional garrisons were established on nearby hillsides, to guard the fresh water sources that supplied Gergovia.

Rix assigned various tribes to stations around the outer walls of the fortified town. In plain view of the Romans below them, the warriors practiced their most intimidating battle feats and screamed their most terrifying war cries. Most of the tribes had archers who rained arrows down on the enemy troops whenever they came too close. We were less lavish with our spears, however, as they were more valuable.

Observing the preparations Rix made, I was impressed. Just as 1 had studied druidry, so he had studied war, and he was a champion- Was it still a game for him on some level, a contest between

honorable opponents even though he knew all the rules were changed? I did not know; we did not discuss it. Rix did not enjoy discussing the abstracts that fascinate druids.

He was warrior, I was druid. He commanded soldiers according to one pattern, I commanded the druid network according to

another.

After meeting with me in the sacred grove of the Bituriges,

Nantua had sent his druids east on fast horses to meet with Aeduan members of the Order. Together they then approached the new chief magistrate of the Aedui, whom Caesar had just confirmed in mat office. The magistrate had been educated by the druids; he

was susceptible to druidic persuasion.

The druids talked; the magistrate listened. With inspired tongues, the druids convinced him thai the future of all Gaul lay in supporting the Gaulish confederacy against the invader. The magistrate then brought his influence to bear upon a young noble

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called Litaviccus, who had been commissioned by Caesar to lead ten thousand Aeduan warriors to Join the Roman army.

Caesar already had a contingent of choice Aeduan cavalry with him, but demanded more fighting men.

Having been kept apprised of these developments, I had issued additional instructions during our march southward.

Under the command of Litaviccus and his brothers, the Aeduan reinforcements set out to rendezvous with Caesar at Gergovia. But when they entered Arvemian territory they encountered, thanks to Secumos, chief druid of the Arvemi, a band of wild-eyed druids disguised as Gaulish deserters from the Roman army.

These druids told Litaviccus and his men a harrowing tale that had been concocted by me, with added flourishes by Hanesa the

bard. The druids were very convincing. Afterward, Litaviccus addressed his followers with tears in his eyes, tears resulting from a potion slipped him by one of the druids.

“These men were witnesses to a monstrous deed!” he cried. “They heard Caesar falsely accuse the leaders of his Aeduan cavalry of entering into a treacherous conspiracy with the Arvemi. Then Caesar’s followers massacred the Aeduan cavalry without proof or trial! Even the Aeduan princes were slain, men we knew and loved. This is the treatment we can expect of Caesar if we join him. We are warned to beware of Roman perfidy!”

Litaviccus’s followers responded with a roar of rage. They fell upon the handful of Romans who were accompanying them with grain and provisions and slaughtered them to the last man. Then they turned back toward their homeland to spread the tale and avenge the slain cavalry by killing every Roman they found.

As I had taken into account when formulating this plan, Celts are impetuous and easily aroused.

Thus while Caesar was preparing to fight Vercingetorix, he received the distressing news of a potentially catastrophic revolt among the Aedui. If the revolt succeeded, it would undoubtedly spread to the other tribes still loyal to him around the perimeter of free Gaul, making his situation untenable.

I understood very well me handicap of a distracted mind, a handicap I had now inflicted on Caesar.

He would have to go after the Aeduans and persuade them of their error. There had been no treachery on the part of his Aeduan cavalry, and no massacre. The cavalry was alive and well, and astonished to hear of the defection of Litaviccus’s ten thousand warriors. They pleaded with Caesar not to punish them for the deeds of their tribesmen.

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However, simultaneously he was just solidifying his position before launching a siege on Gergovia. The Romans had overrun a small Arvemian garrison on a nearby hill, where they were building an entrenchment that would allow them to get closer to

the town.

It was night. Rix and I stood together outside the gates of the

fort, looking down on the lights of the sprawling Roman encampment: thousands and thousands of men.

“Caesar sits by one of those fires,” Rix mused. “What do you

suppose he’s thinking tonight, Ainvar?”

I reached out, searching for the mind of the Roman. There was something magical about knowing he was so close, our thoughts mingling like smoke in the dark. “He’s wondering what you’re

thinking,” I hazarded.

“The Aeduan deception was brilliant, you know.”

“Inspired,” I said simply. 1’ Caesar will be forced to divide his army if he means to pursue

the Aeduans.”

“I know. I should think he’ll leave at first light, with as many

men remaining, in camp as he can spare. He really has no other

option.”

“Then let’s feast to our success!” cried Vercingetorix.

As long as the stars shone, the leaders of free Gaul ate and drank and sang in the king’s lodge in Gergovia-Victory was like

wine in the air and in the blood.

When men are certain of winning, they acquire a special arrogance. Listening to them as I sat beside Rix, 1 hoped the warlords realized this was a high point of their lives. I leaned over to say this to Hanesa, who was sitting across from me devouring a

haunch of roast pig.

The bard wiped the grease from his mouth with the ends of his beard. “1 once told you I would be able to compose an epic if I stayed with Vercingetorix,” he reminded me.

“Have you begun it?”

“Begun it?” Hanesa bellowed with laughter and slapped his massive paunch. “I’ve nearly finished it. All I need is a triumphant climax. It’s a pity Caesar won’t meet Vercingetorix in single combat. In a battle of champions our leader would break that puny

Roman in half.”

‘ ‘Which is one reason why you never see Caesar anywhere near

Vercingetorix on the battlefield,” I pointed out. “The Roman is too clever to make that mistake. Besides, single combat is not part of his pattern.”

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He fights in other ways, my head silendy remarked.

Caesar’s brain, rather than his body, was the champion fighting for supremacy. And the brain matched against him was mine. We were a team, Rix and I. He the heart, 1 the head.

Two faces of Gaul.

Among the women serving the feast that night was Onuava, Rix’s wife. I do not know what I had expected of the woman Rix had chosen to marry, but my first glimpse of her had been something of a surprise. She was a very fair, very tall, very sinewy woman with a lion’s mane of hair and a catlike way of moving, a tawny creature who looked only half-tamed.

Under my breath, 1 said to Rix, “I thought you told me you married the woman who gave you the least trouble.”

He slanted a sleepy-eyed look at Onuava. “I did. She gives me no trouble.”

Feeling our eyes on her, Onuava threw the pair of us a bright, hot smile of blatantly sexual invitation. To both of us. At the same time.

“You’re lying. King of the World,” I told Rix.

He shrugged and laughed.

When the first light of dawn made tarnished silver of the eastern sky, Rix and I mounted the palisade of Gergovia to watch Caesar leave in pursuit of the Aeduans. He took four legions with him and all of his cavalry, which told me-how serious he considered the Aeduan revolt to be. As the precise columns of men set off eastward, my eyes sought out one tiny figure at the very head of the foremost column, distinctive in a crimson cloak.