Steam Legion (6 page)

“Dyna, child,” he chastised her. “You need to reexamine your priorities.”

“For tonight, Master Heron, my only priority is to end every last Zealot who has dared violate my home.”

She smiled as she spoke, brushing her hand along his weathered cheek before turning away and heading to the table. As was normal, it was covered in the plans and prints for his projects, so she took exaggerated care to roll them up and store them safely away. She recognized the drawings for his rolling server, a small, wheeled toy powered by a water-filled counterweight and controlled by knotted ropes. Dyna smiled, remembering the night Heron had unleashed five of the little toys upon the Senators visiting Alexandria.

The surprisingly quick little toys had rolled around, bringing wine to each seat just as he’d designed them to, wowing the Senators to such an extent that the Master had secured their patronage for his work, and the work of a multitude of others, with that single display. The genius of encoding the motions of the toys into the knots of the rope still staggered her with its elegant simplicity and effective practicality.

She had spent months working to adapt the same control system to a series of scorpion automatons so that a single Commander could direct fire to any preset range from multiple siege weapons, but so far she had been unable to create a system that worked for a mobile force. The complexity was such that her design only really worked for fixed defenses, and she hadn’t yet devised a reliable way to rearm the devices after they fired the first time.

Master Heron had, of course, moved on to other things since then, but her project was beginning to founder. Dyna suspected that she was only months now from losing her patronage, and her project. She dreamed of carving her place here in the Library, but after years of work, Dyna knew that whatever else she was…she was no match for Master Heron’s mind.

She just finished clearing the table before Cassius arrived with five men in tow and a bundle of maps between them.

“Lay out the city map,” she commanded, gesturing to the table. “We have little time to waste.”

Cassius dropped the bundle to one corner of the table and quickly unrolled the large map of Alexandria. He dropped brass weights at the four corners to keep it flat, then pulled coins from his pocket and scattered them across the map.

“These are some of the areas our scouts report enemy forces at,” he said, pointing to half a handful of coins dropped across the map closest to the Library. “We pushed back the most organized force in the battle earlier—”

One of the younger men chuckled, “That was no battle, Centurion. It was a slaughter.”

The others laughed as well, bringing a reluctant smile from even Cassius, but the professional soldier quickly masked it with a serious glare.

“Beware that complacency,” he cautioned. “The known forces the Zealots control within our city walls are at least five times our own. The Legio Vigesima Secunda Deiotariana are four hundred mile markers from here, responding to Zealot attacks since the loss of the Garrison in Jerusalem and the Twelfth at the coast. Without the Legion, and with our own Garrison badly mauled, that battle may be the last victory we have in this war.”

“They’re still thugs and bandits, not fell soldiers,” the youngest man objected.

“Thugs and bandits can kill just as easily as the Legion,” Cassius warned. “Easier by times when you are forced to fight within the city streets. They can flank us, render our phalanx worthless, and mob us until we fall. The Zealots have more men to lose, and they are more willing to spend those lives than we either are or can be. We need our men; we need them tonight and we need them tomorrow. That gives our enemy an advantage in this situation that we may not be able to counter.”

A silence fell on the room, those words sinking into the minds of the assembled members of the Legion. Dyna let it rest on them all for a moment, then stepped into the quiet with her own softly spoken, yet confident, words.

“While I take your words of caution seriously, Cassius,” she said, “I don’t believe that we have seen our last victory of this little war.”

They all looked to her, all but Cassius surprised that she was even speaking.

“Do you have a plan, my Lady?” Cassius asked.

“I have some ideas,” she confirmed. “We can’t fight them traditionally. We don’t have the numbers to cover our territory. If we try, they will do as you say, Cassius: Flank us in the cross streets, come in from behind our forces, and pin us between two or more groups at once.”

“What are you thinking then?”

“We use smaller squads, we ambush
them
from the side streets,” she said. “These are our streets. We know them, many of them may not. Their numbers are too great to be merely a local uprising. So we herd them like the animals they are, drive them to a point we choose, and there we meet them line to line.”

Cassius’s eyes fell to the map, gauging what she was suggesting. It had merit. If they could pull off the ambushes, it could work. He frowned, considering it, then shook his head.

“No, there’s a problem, my Lady.”

“What?” she asked calmly.

“The very reason we are considering your idea,” he said. “We don’t have enough men. We could do as you say, and it could work. Once we got them herded to the central position, however, we would not have enough men to finish the job. We could not defeat them with the forces available. I am sorry, my Lady.”

Dyna grimaced, pushing away from the table. “There must be a way.”

“They’re lighting fires as they go. Our fire teams are doing their best,” one of the others said. “And with the pumps provided by the Library, they’re doing better than I would have gambled on, but we’re losing men to that as well. Centurion Cassius is correct. We simply don’t have the forces to defeat them entail.”

Dyna snarled, baring her teeth as she slammed a hand down on the table. “I say there
must
be a way! You are of the Legion, I am born of Spartan blood, we belong to the Empire of Rome by Zeus. These fools are not to our capacity. We cannot be defeated by them; I will not submit to common bandits! I care not for their belief or how committed they are to their damned fool God. My ancestor faced three million Persian warriors with but three hundred Spartans at his side. If he could do that, we can solve this problem here.”

“I would remind you, Lady,” the man replied, “that first of all, your ancestor had three thousand Greek hoplites at his side that day. Second, he and all of his forces died in the battle. And finally, they were fighting a defensive battle at a strategic choke point. What we need to do here is far more complex, even if less daunting.”

“He is right, my Lady,” Cassius spoke up. “We have better trained men, yes, I agree, but there comes a point where the finest of soldiers will be worn down by the endless rain.”

Dyna growled, stepping away from the table. She paced briefly, shaking her head as she thought furiously through the problem. She refused to believe that there was no way to repel the invaders in her city, not when she had access to men who were better trained, better equipped, and backed by superior minds of military and logical prowess.

“Fine,” she said, turning back. She stepped up to the table, planting her hands in front of her as she leaned forward. “We need more men…or, at least, we need them to think we have more men.”

“Subterfuge?” one of the assembled men considered. “Possible. We could dress civilians up in armor, align them as a Legion Cohort. It would be a chancy affair, though. Should the Zealots see through the strategy, or attack anyway, they would be slaughtered.”

Dyna nodded grimly, but saw little other option. To do anything else was to bid welcome to the dark side of Ares himself within the confines of the city. Alexandria may survive it, but a great many of the great city’s people would not.

She was about to say as much when Cassius lifted a hand, one finger up to call on her and the others to hold for a moment. He was looking into the other side of the shop, face pensive, as if he were deeply pondering something to a degree she’d rarely seen in the man. Dyna remained silent, letting him finish his train of thought.

Finally he spoke. “If the strategy is to be deception…then let us embrace it wholeheartedly. Master Heron.”

“Yes, lad,” the old man asked from where he was sitting comfortably in the corner, apparently having listened in on every word.

“I hate to ask it of you, but do you believe you could brave the night air this one time?” Cassius asked.

“To do what?” Heron leaned forward, clearly curious.

“Cassius, you cannot ask the Master to go out into battle,” Dyna objected.

“To supervise,” Cassius said, for once ignoring Dyna. “How long would it take to mount your final play in one of the side streets of Alexandria?”

The men of the Legion were confused, but the eyes of Dyna, Heron, and Cassius moved as one until they fell on the eight Spartan warriors standing against the far wall of the shop. Their armor glinted in the light of the candles and oil lamps, standing at the ready and certainly fully prepared in appearance, at least, to make one final stand.

Heron considered it, eyes moving to the complex of ropes and weights that ran the elements of his last and, supposedly, greatest play.

“It is a job that would take days,” he said finally and slowly.

Cassius winced and sighed wearily as he assented to what he’d feared would be the answer.

Before he could say anything, however, Heron continued.

“So give me twenty men and I’ll have it done before dawn’s light touches the Pharos.”

Cassius smiled, eyes falling on Dyna, who was smiling in turn.

“Very well,” she spoke. “Then we have our plan of action. Cassius, you and the others organize your men into half squads and hand out the orders. Harass the enemy, show them neither peace nor mercy this night, and drive them…”

Her finger traced a line on the map until it fell on a street that narrowed to an appropriate degree and was crossed by a tall aqueduct. She nodded and tapped her finger on the spot.

“Right here. Master Heron, myself, and as many workmen, slaves, and Pedes as you can spare will have a reception prepared for them. Give us all the time you can, but it would be best if they arrived at this point just before, or just after the dawning light touches the sands of the desert.”

“Yes, my Lady,” Cassius said. “We can do it. On my honor, it will be done.”

He saluted, fist over chest as he stepped back from the table. The others looked surprised, but when Centurion Cassius glared at them, they too straightened and offered her a salute before he broke ranks and led them out.

Dyna turned to where Heron was rising to his feet, stretching painfully, and shook her head as she gave him a mildly disgusted look.

“You have bought yourself a long and painful night, Master Heron,” she told him.

He merely shrugged in reply. “All my nights of late have been long and painful, Dyna, child. This one will be productive as well, and there is really little more I could ask of the Gods than that. If it were my last night on this Earth, better I spend it accomplishing one last thing of note than to waste away in my bed until Hades comes to take me away.”

“If Hades were to come while I stood here, I would fight him for you,” she told him solemnly. “You’re worth so much more than anyone else I have ever known. I would not lose you easily.”

“And yet you would lose me anyway, Dyna, child,” he told her sadly, smiling all the same. “Besides, you are wrong. I am worth no more than most, and less than some. My life is complete, save for a few loose threads yet to weave. Yours is only just beginning. Find your fate, Dyna of Sparta, for I suspect it will be greater than mine.”

She snorted, shaking her head as she walked past him. “I will fetch the workers. We have many hours ahead of us before this will be done, hours to go and miles to walk before we may rest.”

When she was gone from the building, Heron looked to the eight Spartan warriors lined up on his wall and wondered which of them was right.

“Hours to go and miles to walk indeed,” he said finally, beginning to mentally map out the task at hand. “What will you and I find at the end then, I wonder? Ah, Dyna, child, you’re the student I waited my entire life for. Why did you come when it was so close to the end?”

Master Heron, the chief of staff at the Great Library of Alexandria, smiled sadly as he pushed those thoughts away to focus on each step that had to be done to accomplish what his city, his Library, and his student needed done.

My finest play ever.

Chapter 6

Oh my lord, Jupiter above us all,
Cassius thought as he and his three-man squad paralleled the Zealot thugs, using their knowledge of the streets to keep pace with them as they ravaged the city and its inhabitants.
How did these fools ever get within the city walls?

They wouldn’t have, had the Garrison been at full strength. Of that much he was certain. While they were proving committed and brutal, there was no skill in the assault or discipline in the way they were pillaging the city. The Legion would have broken them within days, had they tried to serve the Empire. They were sloppy in how they wet about pillaging private homes and businesses, missing several places known to hold valuable goods in the process. No member of the Legion under his command would have missed such obvious loot.

Cassius waved his archer forward, pointing to the group standing in the light of a streetlamp while harassing women they’d pulled from one of the buildings. The bodies of men on the ground around them were enough to tell him that the lives of the women likely wouldn’t be extended long beyond the amusement of the thugs.

“Sagitarii, take one of them, you choose,” he ordered the archer softly. “Dead or crippled, no light injuries.”

The archer nodded, notching an arrow to his composite bow and drawing back to his ear. The bow issued by the Legion was an asymmetric design, the upper section longer by half again the length of the lower so that the weapon could be used from horseback as well as on foot. He judged the range for a moment, then lifted the bow skyward and loosed the fletched arrow into the night.