THE INVASION OF GAUL (46 page)

Fronto sighed.

“
You leave that to me.”

A capsarius appeared and knelt next to the trooper. He reached round behind him and gingerly touched the shaft of the arrow. A small trickle of blood came out from below the entry wound. Ingenuus frowned.

“
How many in your scouting party?”

“
Three sir.”

“
And you’re the only one who made it?”

The trooper nodded and then winced at the pain the movement caused.

“
Am I going to die?”

The capsarius looked up at the officers from where he knelt behind the man and made ‘unlikely’ motions at them.

“
I don’t think so lad. These Gaulish arrows are fairly narrow-bladed, without barbs. There’s not a massive blood flow and your complexion’s good, so I don’t think it pierced an organ. You’re going to be out of action for a while though.”

He turned to the nearest legionary.

“
Help me get him in a cart.”

Another soldier brought the nearest baggage cart around and halted the horses near the wounded man. Velius whacked his vine staff on the side of the cart in anger.

“
We’ve got too close to them. We should’ve given them a wider berth. Now they know we’re here they might just consider it worth the delay to turn round and do for us.”

Fronto sighed.

“
It was my decision, Lucius; my fault. I didn’t think we could spare any more time. We’ve got to get to Vesontio. If we don’t get past the Germans soon, we’ll end up with them between us and the rest of the army. We’ll just have to pick up speed again.”

Velius growled.

“
We can’t pick up any more speed. The troops are moving as fast as they can. They’re exhausted. It’s late afternoon and by rights we’d normally be making camp shortly. We can’t do with weeks of three hours rest a night.”

“
Lucius, they’re going to
have
to move faster. Exhausted is better than dead. Ingenuus.”

The cavalry prefect turned to face him.

“
Sir?”

“
Have one of your decurions take a turma and ride like the wind for Vesontio. See if the rest of the army has reached there yet. If they have, detail our situation to Caesar, Longinus and Priscus, the primus pilus of the Tenth.”

“
Yes sir.”

“
Oh, and have the scouts pull back in to a visible radius. I don’t want any more losses like that.”

As Ingenuus ran off to take care of the task, Velius turned to his commander.

“
Sir, the troops would be able to move faster if they could dispose of their tools and entrenching gear. It’s not like we’re going to have time to build marching camps between here and Vesontio.”

Fronto nodded.

“
Have them put the gear in the carts with the rest of the baggage. How far is Vesontio d’you reckon?”

Velius tapped his chin.

“
I really don’t know. Too far?”

Fronto looked back at the cavalry scout who was being loaded onto the cart by the capsarius and another soldier.

“
How much faster do you think the cavalry are capable of moving than the cohort?”

The trooper winced as he bumped down into the cart.

“
At least twice as fast, maybe three times. A lot more if we can change horses, but we don’t have fresh horses here.”

The legate smiled.

“
Late afternoon. Making camp.”

Velius raised an eyebrow. He knew that smile all too well.

“
What are you thinking?”

“
The Germans are only moving as fast as us because they travel very light and don’t have a lot of baggage with them. They’re all warriors, not a tribe like the Helvetii with their women, children, the old and all the baggage. They don’t know there’s Romans ahead of them, so they’re in no hurry, are they? They presumably camp down properly every night.”

Velius shrugged.

“
I would have thought so, yes. You’ve got a plan, haven’t you?”

Nodding, Fronto grinned at Velius.

“
Is it insane by any chance?”

Another nod.

Velius started to grin back.

“
Tell me.”

“
The Germans have a fairly strong cavalry arm. They must corral their horses at night. We just have to work out a way to get around three hundred horses out and back to the cohort without getting the whole German nation on our heels.”

Velius nodded.

“
Then we might as well let the column rest here for now. No use us getting the horses if we can’t find the cohort afterwards.”

“
Agreed. Give the orders and then meet me over by that copse of trees off to the left.”

As Velius walked off to the signifer to give the orders for making camp, Fronto scanned the line for Ingenuus. The prefect was briefing one of his decurions a few yards away.

“
Ingenuus!”

The prefect looked round at his name being called and saw Fronto walking towards him.

“
Sir?”

“
Belay that order.”

He turned to the decurion who was arranging the riders.

“
No message needs to be sent right now. Instead I just want a small unit sent out, giving the Germans a suitably wide berth, to ride to Vesontio and see if the army’s there yet. If they are, inform the commanders that we’re on the way, but the Germans will be close behind us, yes?”

The decurion mounted his horse again.

“
Yes sir. I’ll do it right away.”

Fronto turned back to Ingenuus.

“
I want you to join me and Velius in a touch of planning.”

By the time the two had walked over to the copse, the grizzled centurion was already there, making marks in the earth at the foot of the tree with his vine staff.

“
I’ve been giving some thought to the problem. Removing the guards quietly might be a bit of a problem, but the big trouble comes when we try and shift three hundred horses quietly.”

Ingenuus stared at the centurion.

“
What?
”

Fronto grinned.

“
We’re going to get the whole cohort mounted. Put them on German horses and then try to reach Vesontio in less than half the time.”

He smiled at Ingenuus, who continued to stare in stunned amazement at the centurion.

“
What we need
you
to do is figure that problem out. Three hundred horses, quietly and quickly.”

He turned to Velius.

“
We’re obviously going to have to be sneaky. No armour or shields. I think the only weapon we should take is a pugio. We can’t afford to get drawn into a proper fight anyway, so just something for a quick, quiet kill.”

Velius nodded.

“
We’ve got a few auxiliary archers with us, but they’d make too much noise. I think there’s some Balearic slingers too, though. They’d be useful.”

“
Indeed. We don’t want a large group to go in though. I reckon about a dozen. The sneakiest bastards you can find. Sneaky, mind you, not mad. We don’t need the lunatics you like to hang around with; those mad bastards who charged the rocks when the Helvetii were entrenched.”

He was greeted with a warm smile.

“
We don’t need Nonus and Curtius, sir. We’ve got plenty of prize sneaky bastards in our cohort. Just give me an hour and I’ll bring ‘em back here dressed just right. You’ll think you’re looking at a bunch of burglars and bandits from the backstreets of the Aventine back in Rome.”

Fronto looked up at the sky.

“
Light’s starting to fade. We’ll set off in about an hour and a half. Ingenuus, what d’you think?”

The cavalry prefect shook his head, his eyes still wide with disbelief every time he looked at the others.

“
Commander Longinus said he thought I’d be good for this assignment, but he did ask me if
I
thought I would. He said, and I quote here sir so no offence intended, that ‘the leaders of the Tenth are dangerous, idiotic and possibly insane’. I think I’m beginning to see what he means.”

The other two grinned wildly at him. Velius snorted.

“
Don’t have a problem with that. To the Tenth, that’s probably a compliment!”

Fronto laughed.

“
Anyway, true confessions aside, have you any ideas?”

Ingenuus shrugged.

“
To move three hundred horses quietly and quickly, the only really feasible way is to have three hundred riders standing by. My only suggestion is that the cohort looks after our horses here and the entire ala follows you in on foot, keeping far enough back to prevent discovery. As soon as it’s clear for them, they mount up and ride the horses back here.”

Fronto smiled.

“
It’s a plan. More people than I’d usually like to take on a quiet bit of subterfuge, but if it’s the only way, then it’s the only way. Talk to your decurions and arrange it. Have them muster here in an hour dressed the same way as we will be.”

Ingenuus frowned.

“
You mean all three of us are going on this loopy adventure, sir? Begging your pardon, but shouldn’t you stay and command the cohort. What happens if you get hurt?”

Fronto grinned wolfishly.

“
If you think I’m missing out on a bit of fun like this, you’ve got another thing coming. Anyway, I’m not essential to the daily running of the cohort. That’s what centurions are for.”

As Ingenuus jogged off in the direction of the milling cavalry, Fronto smiled at Velius.

“
I know your opinion of the cavalry in general Lucius, but what do you think of the man?”

Velius shrugged.

“
He seems to be good at the job. Pleasant in a kind of wet way. He charged in to save his colleagues despite stupid odds, which means he’s brave. Oh, he’s alright. Bit of a prat, but better than most of the mind-blowingly stupid cavalry officers who couldn’t find their own arse with both hands and a map.”

The legate smiled.

“
Don’t pull blows Lucius, speak your mind man.”

“
I tell it like I see it.”

Fronto tapped his chin.

“
I’m thinking of requesting that he be transferred to the Tenth. We don’t have any good cavalry officers. Think I’ll have a word with Longinus when we get back and ask him if he’s happy with that.”

Another shrug.

“
One day you’ll find him trying to wear his own arse like a hat, mark my words.”

* * * * *

“
Ow!”

Velius turned and whispered “Shut the hell up!”

Fronto, hobbling on the foot he had just stubbed against the heavy bole of a tree, swore very quietly and whispered back to the centurion.

“
What kind of way is that to speak to your commanding officer? Anyway, we can’t be near them yet. I can’t hear the horses.”

“
Begging the legate’s bloody pardon, but
I
could hear them until you started all that muttering!”

Fronto winced at the temporary pain and clamped his mouth shut. He glanced around and felt, once again, how truly clumsy he was in comparison with some people. He never really considered legionaries agile; they were the heavy infantry that hit the enemy line like a rolling boulder. It was a surprise, then, to see the dozen men that Velius had picked out. They had stained their white tunics with soot that had turned them charcoal grey, and had wiped the blades of their daggers with wet carbon to dull the gleaming. With the same applied to their faces and arms, they were barely visible in the darkness of the woods. They moved with a catlike grace and made virtually no sound. To his own ears Fronto, on the other hand, sounded like Hannibal’s Elephant parade crossing the Alps. He had cut himself no less than six times since entering the woodland and had stubbed his toe twice. He was beginning to wonder why he had come after all. He should have stayed at the column with the slingers. Velius had looked them over briefly and then decided that they would be too noisy and visible.

Velius stopped dead. Fronto was equally surprised at the dexterity and quiet with which the veteran centurion moved. As he watched, the man made a number of mysterious motions at the legionaries, who dropped low and spread out, moving forward very slowly. Fronto shrugged at him and could see the irritated look on the man’s face even under these conditions. He would have to buy the centurion some good wine after all this was over. Velius repeated his arcane gesture and Fronto shrugged again.

Moments later, a crackly voice next to his ear whispered “The centurion’s asking you to drop low and move forward to his position slowly sir.”

He turned, startled, to see a short, wiry, blackened man crouched next to him.

“
Oh. Alright.”

With a minimum of grunting, Fronto picked his way forward to Velius. When he arrived next to the man, he dropped down and whispered to him.

“
Who the hell is the really short one? He moves like lightening and I didn’t even see him coming.”