Anthony Riches - The Wolf's gold

She smiled at him, her confidence returning after the shock of his revelation.

‘Far from it, Tribune. It was Rome that was tedious, compared to all the fun we had once my brother was serving. There was always a senior officer willing to look after Gerwulf’s career in return for my favours, and to protect me from being sent back to Rome. It was much more fun after he took command of these Germans though. An independent command provides so many more opportunities for mischief.’

‘Not to mention profit. And murder. And when the two of you got skilled at putting profit and murder together, you had the idea to rob the Ravenstone? It was your idea?’

Theodora laughed, her tone when she answered dripping with sarcasm.

‘Oh, aren’t you clever? Of course it was. Gerwulf’s such a boy at heart, only happy when he’s hacking his way through his enemies. Whereas I. .’

She pirouetted before him, and Scaurus applauded softly.

‘Yes, you’re the real brains. So, having heard about this place you came here and found yourself a mine owner who was single, wormed your way into his affections and persuaded him to marry you.’

She nodded.

‘I made him happier than you can imagine, Tribune. If only for a short time.’

‘Until you had him killed and took over his business.’

She shrugged.

‘Mining’s such a dangerous way to earn a living. And he had no family you see, so there was no-one to dispute my claim to the mine. Besides, by that point I was already gracing Procurator Maximus’s bed with my decorous presence, so all that tedious nonsense about the laws of inheritance could safely be ignored. After all, how else do you think I could arrange for my husband to die in such unexpected circumstances?’

‘We have to free the miners, before the men outside build up sufficient strength to break in. That gate’s not strong enough to withstand a serious attack.’

‘And yet if we do set them free, they’re likely to tear us to pieces.’

Marcus grimaced at the truth in Cattanius’s words.

‘So we either find a way to get out without being battered to death by the men we’re here to free, or we have to turn them loose and take the consequences.’

Marcus looked about him, seeing a row of a dozen barracks buildings enclosed by the palisade’s twelve-foot-high circle of half-logs, the split tree trunks presenting their flat surfaces to the raiding party.

‘There’s no way to climb that.’ Shaking his head, he turned back to his comrades in time to see a bloodied Lugos push his way out of the guard house’s doorway. ‘Cattanius, it’s on you whether we get away with this or not. Get searching for a way out. The rest of you, with me. We’ve got to leave them enough weaponry out for them to fight off the men at the gate, and that means opening the tool stores. Lugos, smash open everything I point at.’

The beneficiarius hurried to the far side of the camp, looking for any sign of another exit from the trap into which they had forced themselves, muttering under his breath at the lack of any obvious answer.

‘Nothing, no handy little gates to slip through, no need for the builders to leave a hidden exit route in a prison wall. .’ He pushed at one of the split tree trunks that composed the curved wall that enclosed the camp, shaking his head at its solidity. Running his hand down the wood as far as the ground, he found the thin space between wood and turf where the builders had dug a deep hole in which to anchor the log, and hadn’t bothered to completely fill the resulting gap. Pulling out his dagger he ran the blade along the fingertip-wide space until he reached the next log, encountering sudden resistance from the soil packed around it. Looking up, he realised that the split tree trunk was secured on either side by wooden battens that were nailed across the joins between them.

‘Got you!’

He hurried over to Marcus.

‘I’ve found the back door, but I’ll need him to open it.’

The Roman looked at Lugos, hooking a thumb at the Briton.

‘Lugos, help Cattanius. How long will you need?’

The beneficiarius shook his head.

‘That depends on him. Perhaps fifty heartbeats. But if I open the hole too quickly the boys outside will realise what’s going on and be there to meet us.’

Marcus thought for a moment, looking at the heavy tools which his comrades had scattered across the ground before the barracks, having used Lugos’s immense strength to smash open the stores in which they were secured. The miners had realised that something was happening, and the noise from inside their barracks was growing as men hurled themselves fruitlessly at the barred doors and windows.

‘We’ll open one barrack once you’re ready to do whatever it is you’re planning, and they can do the rest of the work on their own. Just make sure you can get this fence open quickly enough, or we’ll be the first men they lay hands on. And from the sound of it they’re not in the best of moods.’

Cattanius led the rest of the party back to the wall, explaining what it was he had in mind.

‘This log’s not been sunk into the ground, just stood on the earth and nailed to the trunks to either side. So, all we have to do-’

Lugos stepped forward and swung his hammer, turning it to present the hooked blade that opposed the heavy iron beak, already black with blood. The first of the two battens that held the log in place nine feet above the ground splintered under the blow, and a second swing of the hammer tore away its companion to leave only the two at knee level intact.

‘Wait.’

Running for the corner of the barracks the beneficiarius sprinted to Marcus, who was watching calmly as the palisade’s main gate rocked under a succession of blows from the other side.

‘I hope you’re ready. That gate isn’t going to hold for much longer.’

Cattanius nodded at the barrack’s lock.

‘Do it!’

As he ran back to the palisade, Marcus and Dubnus lifted the second of the three thick wooden bars that secured the barrack’s entrance out of its brackets, throwing it aside as the men inside heaved against the doors and provoked a creaking tear in the sole remaining bar. With a crash of splintering wood one of the palisade gates was smashed open, a stream of infuriated Germans storming through the gap and goggling at the corpses of their fellows scattered around the archway. Sighting the two men outside the last barrack in the row of buildings, they charged down the line, and Dubnus pointed at the remaining door bar as the miners inside heaved at the rapidly failing barricade.

‘It’s about to break! Run!’

They turned tail and followed Cattanius, rounding the barrack’s corner just in time to watch as Lugos swung his hammer to smash the remaining battens holding the log in place. A sudden roar of voices told them that the miners were free, and an instant later, as the log toppled away from the palisade to leave a gap large enough for the raiders to escape through, the screams and howls of a pitched battle began.

Gerwulf panted up the wall’s steps at the head of his bodyguard, standing on the rampart’s fighting platform with his chest heaving from his run down the valley.

‘Where’s this damned cohort then, eh Hadro?’

His deputy pointed out into the darkness at a line of flickering lights.

‘There, Prefect!’

The German followed the pointing hand and stared out across the valley’s darkness, feeling his sense of unease growing as he stared at distant flames, his voice suddenly acerbic as he realised what it was he was seeing.

‘They don’t seem to be moving, do they Centurion?’

‘No Wolf, they marched up the road and then stopped. .’