Gordon Doherty - Viper of the North

Pavo looked to Gallus, who looked back with the same wide-eyed look of realisation. The Gothic cavalry had pulled free of the Roman snares and now they were reforming on either flank of their spearmen. The artillery and Roman cavalry charge had merely wounded the Goths. Now they were enraged.

Only one option remained.

At the Roman centre, Traianus held his sword aloft, the tip pointing to the Gothic lines. ‘Forward!’ Traianus roared.

The buccinas sang out and the battered Roman army charged into the fray.

The late-afternoon sun baked the carpet of dead and tortured the living who fought on in the clouds of flies and flocks of carrion birds.

Pavo’s body was numb as he stumbled from foe to foe. He did not hear the screaming now, seeing only the red wetness at the back of each opponent’s throat. That and the pure whites of their eyes, stark against the ubiquitous crimson masks worn by all on the field. The formations had disintegrated and the battlefield was speckled randomly with pockets of Romans and Goths, fighting to the last.

Pavo slashed out at one Goth who ran at him, cutting the man from neck to belly. Then, gasping for breath, he stumbled over the tangle of bodies, sliding on a slick of blood to fall by the staring eyes of a dead cataphractus; the blood had dried on the gaping wound on the man’s throat and his mount was cleaved to its core. The eastern riders and the artillery had been the difference that morning, but that seemed so long ago. Both forces had been shattered since then, and now only a few riders remained, fighting on foot alongside the artillery crewmen. And the skirmishers had all been felled bar the tight pocket of sagittarii who fought on with their swords and daggers near the wrecked remnants of the Roman artillery.

He staggered to his feet again, hearing only a faint hiss, the tumult of battle sounding dull and far away. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw Quadratus, locked in combat with a pair of Goths. Beside the big centurion was Avitus. The little optio was mouthing something to him, growing more and more agitated. Pavo squinted at Avitus, his thoughts dreamlike. Then, a searing pain ripped across his neck and, at once, feeling and hearing returned to him like a wave crashing onto a shore.

‘Pavo! Pavo! ’ Avitus cried.

Pavo spun, roaring, clutching at the deep gash on the side of his neck. He only had a heartbeat to check it was not an arterial cut before the two Goths who had rushed him lunged forward again, jabbing and slashing their longswords. Pavo staggered back; out of formation like this, a Roman spatha was at a disadvantage against these lengthy Gothic swords. He butted and parried, but the Goths were relentless. His arms were trembling with fatigue and he held his sword lower and lower. Then Avitus rushed to his aid, sliding his spatha into one Goth’s gut. But, before the optio could rip his blade free, the other Goth smashed his longsword across Avitus’ forearm, and the little Roman fell back with a cry. Pavo roared out in fury at this, as did Quadratus, still locked in battle only paces away.

Avitus slumped to his knees, clutching the wound. The Goth who had struck Avitus lined up for the death blow, but Pavo tore a dagger from the eye socket of a dead legionary and hurled it. The blade punched into the forehead of the Goth, who dropped like a sack of rubble. Then he ran to Avitus.

‘It’s over for me,’ Avitus panted, shrugging him away.

‘No it’s bloody not!’ Quadratus roared over his shoulder from only paces away, still locked in a swordfight with two Goths.

‘You heard your centurion,’ Pavo cried, pushing his own sword hilt into Avitus’ good hand, ‘now get u. . ’ his words trailed off as he saw the black blood pumping from the optio’s arm. The bone was smashed and his sword hand hung at an absurd angle

‘Leave me!’ Avitus barked, slumping back down.

Then the air echoed with the cry of a buccina. It was a series of shrill notes Pavo recognised, and it sent a shiver down his spine.

‘Listen!’ Avitus pushed him away. ‘Traianus is calling for a last stand. Get back to the main body of the legions and protect the eagles!’

Pavo’s eyes widened as he saw the optio’s face greying, breaths coming in rasps. Avitus was dying. Then he heard Felicia’s pained words in his mind, distant and pleading. Find the truth, Pavo, I beg of you.

Another wave of Goths rushed for the pair, followed by a trio of cavalry. He had moments.

He stared into Avitus’ eyes. ‘Sir, I have to ask you again. . ’

‘Pavo!’ Quadratus yelled, slaying one of his three opponents and glancing at the onrushing Goths. ‘Watch my flank!’

Pavo glanced up, then back to Avitus. ‘Were you a speculatore?’

Avitus’ face slackened at this, and he gazed into Pavo’s eyes, his pupils dilating. ‘I was, just as her brother was. They sent him to finish the mission that I could not.’

‘Pavo!’ Quadratus roared, eyes widening as the Goths rushed closer.

Pavo frowned. ‘What mission?’

‘To kill Gallus,’ Avitus choked on the words, shaking his head.

‘Gallus?’ Pavo gasped. ‘Why?’

‘We all have a past, Pavo. All of us,’ he rasped, then looked Pavo in the eye. ‘Tell her. . I’m sorry.’

Pavo’s eyes widened and his lips flapped uselessly, then he looked up to see that the Goths had their spears hoisted, ready to hurl them at Quadratus’ flank. He leapt up, throwing himself in front of Quadratus just as the Goths loosed their spears. But then, as the missiles hurtled for his unshielded midriff, Avitus jolted into a last spasm of life, up from his knees to lurch forward and into the path of the speartips.

Pavo froze. Quadratus spun round with a cry.

But the spears smashed into Avitus’ chest. In a spray of blood, the optio crashed to the ground, his body shattered, his blood adding to the mire underfoot.

Avitus of the XI Claudia was gone.

‘ Whoresons! ’ Quadratus cried, his face twisted in pain. The big Gaul swiped the head from one of his foes and kicked another back into the mire, then rushed at the rest.

Pavo grabbed his wrist. ‘Sir, it’s too late,’ he pointed all around, where the Gothic numbers seemed to be telling, the many clusters of them having formed into massed ranks again. But Quadratus wrenched his arm free. Then Pavo barked at him. ‘He died to save you, sir. Now come on, we need to form up with what’s left of the legions.’

Quadratus issued a pained growl and hurled his sword at the Goths, then turned and followed Pavo.

Pavo called back over his shoulder. ‘We’ll honour his memory with Gothic blood, sir, once we gather with the rest of the legions.’ Then he looked up to see the cluster of only a few hundred legionaries some fifty paces ahead, bristling in defiance with broken spearshafts and bent spathas in a ragged square. There were barely a cohort’s worth of them.

In their midst were the five silver eagles of the Roman army.

Amongst this cluster of bloodied men he saw Traianus, Gallus, Zosimus and Felix. Then he saw Sura on the front line, crying out, urging them on.

Pavo tumbled into the Roman cluster and shot glances all around; every direction presented Goths in dense packs; at least a third of their original number still lived. A full morning and afternoon of butchery and still the enemy had a massive numerical advantage. And now they encircled the Roman remnant, readying for the kill.

Then his eyes froze on Draga and Ivo who headed one wing of Gothic riders. He felt Draga’s burning glare on his skin as it swept over the tatters of the Roman army.

The Viper had sighted its prey.

‘Stand firm, stay together!’ Gallus rallied those around him as he grappled the handle of a round Gothic shield, salvaged from a dead warrior. The battered legionaries pushed up next to him, shoulder to shoulder. Then the Goths smashed home and the compact Roman square was shattered.