Legatus Legionis: Book Two in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy (43 page)

"That's stupid!" Quintus said. "That demon could be worth . . ." He paused when he saw the look of barely controlled anger on Gaius' face.

"Get back to your post!" Gaius roared angrily, then he turned to the other soldiers. "All of you!" He turned back to Quintus, and spat, "Just for once in your miserable life, forget your wretched money!"

Quintus backed away, half wanting to protest, but not knowing what to say. Gaius turned to the creature and waved it towards the craft.

"Celts!" one of the soldiers roared. The soldiers had been staring at the silvery craft, assuming it would terrify the Celts, but they had overlooked the fact that those on the track were totally unaware of the craft's existence. All they could see was that the Romans, for some reason, were not dropping rocks, and hence they had ran as fast as they could up-hill, to cover as much of the track as they could before they were spotted. They had now almost reached the top of the hill.

Gaius ordered the soldiers into a small wedge formation, then he and Timothy grabbed their bows. He managed to get off two arrows before the soldiers and Celts met. The fighting was furious from the Celts, efficient from the Romans, but Gaius quickly realized that they had missed their opportunity. To defeat these Celts, they had had to have killed far many more of them on the track.

Wretched creature! So much for saving the wretched thing's life. Then, despite the crisis, he could not resist turning to see the strange metallic object that had dropped from the skies. There, on the ladder was creature, gesturing as if offering Gaius the chance to board the craft.

The prophecy! First, Athene had said, "
You have three possible futures. In a few years you will find yourself on a high hill, besieged by enemies. By yourself, you and your loved ones will die, miserably and in extreme pain. There will be a way out, if you are not too afraid . . .
"

Here he was, on a high hill, besieged by enemies, and a miserable death in extreme pain was definitely likely. But there will be a way out, if . . . Then there was the later part, ". .
there will come a time when you will die if you go north, if you go south, if you go east or if you go west. You will recognize it when it comes, and you will know what to do
." At the time that had seemed ridiculous. It implied that all directions led to death, except possibly to escape down a mine. But now there might be an alternative: upwards! Let the Celts eat that! But first, he had to be sure. Gaius pointed to himself, then at the craft, and the creature nodded its head, as if in the affirmative.

Gaius stared at the craft. Once on board, they would be at the creature's mercy, but if they stayed where they were, the men would be killed or tortured, or both, and his wife and sister would probably be raped to death. That was not going to happen. There was no option.

"Vipsania," Gaius said.

"We're going to lose, aren't we?" Vipsania asked softly, in a matter of fact tone. "Gaius, would you please kill me! I do not wish to be mob raped by . . ."

"We're going to lose if we stay here," Gaius confirmed, "but there's a way out."

Vipsania looked doubtfully at him, and asked, "How?"

"The creature! Look!"

Vipsania looked towards the silvery craft. The creature was still waving.

"Are you game?" Gaius asked softly.

Vipsania continued to stare doubtfully at it. "In that? Where will it take us?"

"Off this hill," Gaius shrugged. "After that, I don't know, but I'd rather take my chances there than have to kill you here."

"If you say so," Vipsania replied very doubtfully.

Gaius gave her a hug of encouragement, and said softly, "You'll have to be very brave, but remember, it won't get any worse than it is now." He looked over towards the track and could see the five remaining soldiers on this part of the hill were in danger of being encircled. Even as he noted that, another fell. "Fall back!" he ordered. He looked over to Quintus, who was standing stupidly, wondering what to do next. "Over to that craft!" Gaius yelled. He had decided.

"You're not thinking about . . .?"

"Move!" Gaius yelled. He looked across. The men began falling back, but the Celts advanced. Suddenly there was a flash from the craft, and a small line of Celts fell to the ground, dead and clearly badly burned. The remaining Celts saw this, and for the first time really saw the ship. They stopped, then dived behind rocks. A Roman fell, badly wounded, and the three others stared at Gaius.

The alien continued encouraging the Romans to board.

"We board," Gaius said simply. "If we don't, the Celts will still be there. Timothy, keep close to Vipsania and Lucilla. Quintus . . ."

"I'm not going on that . . . that . . ."

"It's the only way out!"

"We'll be prisoners of demons! I'm not . . ."

"I must stay with Quintus," Lucilla said simply. "It is my duty and . . ."

Gaius stared at her, and shook his head. Up to a point she was correct, but he was not going to leave his sister. "You two!" Gaius ordered two soldiers, "Take Quintus and get him up those steps, kicking, screaming, whatever, but get him."

The soldiers stared at this strange craft, but orders were orders. Timothy led the way up the stairs, Lucilla and Vipsania followed, then Gaius followed, clutching his two sacks of personal treasures. Then came the three remaining soldiers, and Quintus, who was now yelling and screaming.

The door closed and they were given seats. Nothing happened for a brief period, then a voice was heard from the ship itself, "You are about to be taken away from this hill but first you will be secured to your seats, and these will move into a machine. Do not be frightened. No harm will come to you, and what is going to happen is for your own benefit. If it does not happen to you, you will be squashed."

"What . . ?" Just as a soldier said that, bands encircled them, and held them in the seats. Then Gaius found his seat transformed to a bed, which began to move towards the back of the cylinder, where it slid into another cylinder. He dropped his sacks before he reached the cylinder. The end was closed, but while he felt frightened, he was not going to say anything. A warmish feeling struck his feet, and very slowly began moving up his body. He guessed that this had something to do with the aliens searching him for the hidden weapon, and he smiled to himself that he had taken the precaution to secrete it in his sack. Then, finally, after the warm feeling had passed over the top of his head, the end of the cylinder opened, his bed was wheeled out and as he was returned to where it had started, he grabbed his precious sacks and brought them close to his feet. When the movement stopped, the "bed" returned to being a chair, whereupon Timothy's chair began the same routine.

"What happened?" Vipsania asked.

"I don't know," Gaius said, "but the voice was correct in one respect. It did not hurt, and as far as I can tell, no damage has been done."

"No damage was done," the strange voice said, "and when any other's turn comes, if he or she has any wounds, they will be repaired."

Before long, Timothy reappeared, and Vipsania's chair began to move. The process was slow, but before long, all chairs were returned to their initial positions.

"You are now ready to fly," the voice said. "I shall let you see what happens." As soon as the voice finished, the wall in front of them appeared to disappear so they could see out. In front of the ship there was a row of dead Celts. Then there was a shudder, and the ship lifted.

"No!" Quintus yelled.

"Keep that idiot quiet!" Gaius said angrily.

The soldiers stared at the wall as the ground began to recede. Two of them seemed terrified, but one of them, Gaius noted, seemed to be enjoying himself. Then they were in a cloud. Discipline held, and a soldier made a gesture of smashing Quintus' face. Quintus took the hint, and sat back.

"I'm sorry," Gaius said softly to Lucilla, "but we have to keep discipline."

"Do you know what's going to happen?" Lucilla asked. She clutched the side of her seat, her knuckles white.

"Don't ask me how I know this," Gaius replied softly, "but you and I will see Rome again. But not straight away."

A strange feeling crossed over Gaius. That prophecy! He would walk amongst the Gods. They were going up! He would return to Rome in ruins. Whoever could fly could defeat Rome. That must be the meaning of the prophecy. But he was to earn his
agnomen
. His task was clear. He had to stay with these demons, learn from them, then somehow defeat them.

The outside became dark, yet the flight seemed to go on and on. Then suddenly there was a huge silver object beside them that totally filled their view, and their craft then seemed to be drawn inside it.

"I don't like this," Vipsania shuddered.

"Neither do I," Gaius replied. One thing was clear. This was no simple rescue, because otherwise they could have been put down somewhere else. Gaius could see that both Lucilla and Vipsania had reached this conclusion as well.

"We should never have got on board," Quintus muttered.

"You might be right," Gaius shrugged coldly, "but if we had stayed there we would be dead by now, and you know what would have happened to your wife. We don't know what's happening, but we are still alive. Now, above all other times, we must behave like Romans. We must not lose control, and we must be ready to do what we have to do, on orders only."

"You don't order me around . . ." Quintus started.

"Right now I do," Gaius said firmly. He paused and then said more softly, "Quintus, the only way we can survive is if we act together, in a disciplined way. If you want to suggest something, I'll listen. What I'm saying is that nobody must start something on their own.

"You men," he continued to the soldiers, "I'll admit I don't know what's going to happen, but the only way we are going to survive is to behave with dignity. Unless any of you know how to fly, these creatures have to take us home. We have to persuade them to do so, and we're hardly likely to do that by making nuisances of ourselves."

The soldiers nodded.

It was then that the door opened, their creature stood up and walked out. There seemed to be a silence, then began what appeared to be a very heated debate in another language, with another quite strange and different voice. The debate got stronger, then it stopped, and shortly after, there appeared at the door another . . . what? It had two arms, two legs, was made of metal and glass, and had a sort of mouth, and eyes. Its torso was a cylinder, with odd-looking fastenings holding bits together.

"Follow me!" it said. It spoke Latin, in a rather strange metallic tone.

"Do so," Gaius ordered. "Same order as entering. Quintus, please behave with dignity. You men surround him. If he behaves, treat him as of senatorial class. If he . . ."

"Gaius," Quintus said firmly and arrogantly. "There will be no need for that. Personally, I was completely opposed to getting on this flying ship, but since we are here I agree with your proposal. We must work together to persuade these people to return us."

The party slowly made its way though the doorway into a large corridor. They marched along, following what Gaius called the Tin Man. They stopped in front of a wall that slid open to reveal a small room.

"Four in, the rest wait here and I shall come back and get you," the Tin Man said.

"You men wait," Gaius ordered. "Timothy, Vipsania, Lucilla, let's go."

They entered, and the door closed. Then the whole floor moved.

"What's happening!" Lucilla said, a touch of fear in her voice.

"We're just being taken somewhere else," Gaius said calmly. He hardly felt calm, but he had to give the impression that he was not overawed.

"Correct," the Tin Man said calmly. "Don't be afraid. You will not be hurt." He stopped, and then said to Gaius, "You find something fascinating?"

"I am curious to know how those pieces of metal are joined so finely together."

The Tin Man stood motionless for a moment, then said, "We are there." The door opened.

"You are not going to tell me?" Gaius asked, "or don't you know?"

"I may show you later on," the Tin Man said. "Follow!" They walked along a corridor, and to the right there were cages, with animals. Animals that Gaius had never considered possible. Then through a door to more cages. There were two lions, two zebras...

Then an empty cage, with straw on the floor.

"I am sorry that I do not believe this is appropriate," the Tin Man said, "but it is the only place I can put you where you cannot do harm."

"Gaius," Vipsania said with fear in her voice. "If we go in there, we can't get out again . . ."

"We'll get out," Gaius said. "Please do as he says."

"You are cooperative," the Tin Man said as he closed the door behind them and locked it. "That is good. Tell me, why do you cooperate when you know you are prisoners."

"Because I can't do anything to remedy the situation," Gaius replied simply, "and there's no point in my doing something when I cannot gain."

"Logical," the Tin Man replied.

"What will happen to us?" Lucilla asked.

"I will let you know later," the Tin Man replied. "I must get the other four."

"What's going on?" Lucilla asked when the Tin Man was out of sight.

"You want my guess," Vipsania said softly. When nobody replied, she said, "We're being collected."

"Collected?" Timothy frowned.

"Didn't you notice all those animals? Two of everything. And some of them are weird and frightening. I think we're going to end up in some sort of games."

"Oh God!" Lucilla shuddered.

"The last bit doesn't follow," Gaius said in as comforting a tone as he could manage, and placed his hand on her arm. "I'm sorry for getting you into this mess," he said. "I think Quintus might have been right, at least to the extent that these creatures are not here to help us."

"We would have all been killed down there," Lucilla reassured him.

"Anyway, all's not lost," Gaius tried to reassure them all. "I'll get you out of this."