Джерейнт Джонс - Siege

‘Thanks, sir,’ I muttered, my mind elsewhere. Albus took my indifference for offence.

‘It really is nothing personal,’ he insisted. ‘But last in, first out. I can’t be fairer than that.’

‘It’s fine, sir,’ I told him. ‘I’ll get our kit moved across before watch.’

‘No need for that.’ He waved my suggestion away. ‘We’re only a half-century, so may as well use the space we’ve got. Just pop your head in and link with Livius.’

I did. Livius was an athletic-looking soldier in his mid-twenties. From the little that I had seen of him, he seemed capable. He was also acute enough to smell the salt on me, and know that I was as experienced as any man in the fort.

‘I think there’s a lot I can learn from you.’ The man had smiled, attempting to soften the blow of my demotion.

I couldn’t have cared less for the loss of position. My mind was pulled in every other direction within the fort – what was happening to Titus? Where was Linza, and what was she thinking? Was she thinking about me, and if so, in what manner?

I got the answer to at least one of these questions as I stood watch on the darkness of the battlements, the German cold whipping across my skin and tugging at the scarf I had pulled tight about my face.

I was stamping my own feet to move the blood when I heard other footsteps approach – Centurion H, his face framed by moonlight.

‘That is you under there, isn’t it Felix?’ he asked, and I pulled the scarf down to show him.

‘Why are you up here, sir?’ I asked, puzzled.

‘I thought you should be told before the parade in the morning,’ he explained. ‘You’ll be going there as soon as it’s light, and the watches are changed.’ H’s tone was grim, and my stomach tightened at the implication.

‘What parade?’ I managed.

‘Punishment,’ he told me heavily. ‘They’re putting your friend to death.’

I struggled to comprehend the centurion’s words – Titus, sentenced to death?

By the grey moonlight, H saw the fear and confusion that danced across my cragged features.

‘Prefect Caedicius wants to make an example of him.’

‘It’s just gambling,’ I protested. ‘It’s in every legion!’

‘It’s not that.’ H shook his head. ‘They were taking the good ration of meat for the officers, and selling that on. Replaced it with dog.’ He grimaced, doubtless thinking of what rested inside his own stomach.

‘That wasn’t Titus,’ I swore, certain of it. ‘He’s no fool.’

‘Wasn’t the woman, either,’ H agreed. ‘Titus’s partner Plancus has copped to it, but it doesn’t matter. Prefect wants an example. I expect Malchus just wants someone to die because he was tricked, and ate it.’

I placed my javelin against the wall, and pulled my hand across my face, willing my emotions to quieten. Dawn was only a few hours away, and the death of my friend would come with it. There had to be some way out.

‘How will they do it?’ I forced myself to ask.

‘Beheading,’ the centurion answered coldly. ‘It’s a mercy, compared to what Malchus wanted.’

I didn’t ask what that was, but H told me anyway.

‘He wanted to gut the man alive so that the dogs could eat at him. Poetic end, he said.’

‘Gods,’ I swore. Even after I had seen what Malchus was capable of, he had still managed to surprise me.

‘The man’s a fucking monster,’ H agreed. ‘I looked up to that bastard.’

That was no surprise – who hadn’t? Aside from the few that knew the truth, Malchus was still a hero to all in the fort.

‘Caedicius wants discipline but he’s not sick,’ H summarized. ‘And he’s not stupid, either, Felix. I could see tonight that the fact Romans are eating dog – intentionally or otherwise – has shown him how truly fucked we are here.’

‘He doesn’t think we can hold through winter?’

‘He knows that it doesn’t matter if we do . No one’s coming, winter or spring. Where are the legions going to come from – the Emperor’s arse? Everyone is pretending that we didn’t lose three legions in the forest. There is no relief coming, no matter when. The Rhine is the frontier now, and if it isn’t coming to us…’

‘…we have to go to it,’ I finished, for the idea was simple. It was the execution that mattered.

‘I have a plan,’ H told me then. ‘An idea to get your friend out of his execution, and to get us to the Rhine.’

I could hear in his tone that he believed both things were truly possible. What I could not understand was why he was telling me this on the fort’s walls, instead of putting them into action.

I looked at his face, which had once held nothing but humour, but was now a mask broken by war.

‘Why are you telling me this, H?’ I asked.

‘Because I need you, Felix. I need you to volunteer for something that you shouldn’t expect to come back from.’

Dawn crept over the horizon like a cloaked assassin, thick clouds heavy against a dark sky. There was death coming with the rising gloom, and I had thought of nothing else since H had left me on the battlements to set his plan in motion.

The replacement sections joined our own on the walls. We stood double watch as the darkness slid away, once again revealing nothing before us but frostbitten fields and forests – the terror today would come from within our camp, not without.

It was with a sour stomach and swimming mind that I marched with my century to the parade square. So far as I knew, I was the only one aware of what would await us there. I considered warning my friends, but what would be gained by telling them? No, I’d rather spare them a few moments’ worry in a life that was already soaked in it.

‘This had better not have anything to do with cutting rations again,’ Stumps grumbled. He was walking as stiffly as a corpse from the beating I’d delivered.

‘Can’t cut them any more.’ Livius, our new section commander, tried to smile. ‘My belly button’s already poking out of my back.’

‘Things will change when I get into the QM’s,’ Stumps promised. ‘Consummate professional, I am.

‘What’s up with you?’ he asked me then, irritated at the lack of conversation.

‘Tired,’ I lied, my limbs alive with nervous dread at the thought of what was to come.

‘Bollocks.’ He spat. ‘I’ve seen that look before. You’re either gonna do something stupid, or you’re feeling sorry for yourself. Maybe both. Is it the girl?’ he pressed.

‘Yes,’ I lied again. The truth was that my mind had been so full of worry for Titus, so full of nerves at what H had proposed, that I had had little time to think over my romantic failure.

‘Century!’ Albus called as we reached the parade square. ‘Halt!’

Hobnails tramped down into the packed dirt, frost cracking beneath our feet. Our halt was ragged, a reflection of our state of mind.

‘That was a fucking abortion,’ Albus barked, though I doubted he was in any mood for drill practice between the endless rotations of guard duties.

Limbs soon began to cool as we waited on the square. Coming off watch, we were one of the first subdivisions to arrive. Gradually, the space at the camp’s centre began to fill with blocks of legionaries and archers, and the scattered mass of civilians – the men on the wall aside, all within the fort were obliged to witness what was to come.

‘Maybe the Emperor’s dropped in to boost morale,’ Stumps quipped to a few chuckles amongst the men.

I was silent, my eyes on the headquarters building whence I expected the officers and the condemned to emerge.

They came not long after, Caedicius and Malchus at the fore, the stone-faced pair followed by two sections of soldiers. It was impossible for me to glimpse the prisoners in their midst. When they came to a halt in the centre of the parade square I cursed my position – I could see neither Titus nor his partners, surrounded as they were by shield and armour. What I could see was the wooden block that was thumped menacingly down in front of the fort’s commanders.