Jack Whyte - The Eagles' Brood

"There is trouble brewing as we speak. Not all the people who are gathered here are sheep. A corps of resistance has emerged, although belatedly, and a violent confrontation seems inevitable. The entire town could be in flames before dawn. People will die there tonight, Merlyn, and as time goes on and the numbers grow, things will deteriorate further and more quickly." He paused and cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. "I came to ask if you would use your men to assert control in the town. As I've said, I have my own escort, but they are not enough. I will put them at your disposal."

I could hardly believe what I had heard, although I did not doubt one word of it. Nor did I doubt that my own men were crucial to the well-being of everyone in Verulamium. The doubt that crashed down upon me immediately concerned my right to plunge my men into a confrontation that was, in reality, none of their affair—a confrontation that would almost certainly be violent and bloodily brutal if it took place, as it undoubtedly would, in the streets of the town...particularly if those same streets were filled with civilian rioters. I looked to Lucanus for support, but he had his head down, staring into the fire. My gaze moved to Bishop Patricius. He sat gazing stolidly at me, his face betraying nothing but concern, whether for my plight or the town's, I could not guess. Germanus stared levelly into my eyes.

"Damnation, Bishop," I said, fighting my feelings of rising panic, "I can't order my men into the town. I have no right, no authority for that. They are here with me on an embassy, no more; to demonstrate a presence on behalf of our Colony. I have no right to endanger their lives in a situation such as this."

"You endangered them to help us."

"That was different. You were being attacked by Saxon raiders, Outlanders. The people in that town are Britons." I shook my head, hating myself. "No, I cannot order my people to do this."

He nodded. "I understand your reluctance." A long pause, then: "You could ask them, however."

I looked at him. "What d'you mean, ask them? To volunteer?"

"Yes."

"And what if they refuse, as they ought to?"

"Then they refuse."

I sat in silence for several long moments, staring sightlessly into the flames of the fireplace, my mind spinning with possibilities. By the time I looked up again, my eyes dazzled by the firelight, I had decided. I called for Donuil and sent him to assemble my officers here at my tent. I said nothing further to the others and we waited together in silence for the time it took for the men I had summoned to arrive and stand in a knot just beyond the firelight. When all thirteen of them were there I called them forward, introduced Germanus, whom they knew, and Patricius, whom they did not, and then told them what had transpired. They listened in silence, and when I had finished speaking, they, too, considered in silence what I had said. I had made no effort to hide my own misgivings over Germanus's request, and I had gone out of my way to emphasize that I held them under no obligation. When I thought they had had sufficient time to think it over, I asked them for their opinions on what we should do. Pellus, my Chief of Scouts, spoke up immediately.

"No need for discussion, Commander. We should go in. Not tonight, if we can avoid it...not without taking a good look around...but there's a job to be done, and we can't just sit back and let this kind of thing go on. Let these whoresons get away with this here, and they'll be somewhere else next week, or next month." He turned to look at Cyrus Appius, the leader of the First Squadron. "What do you say, Cyrus?"

Appius nodded. "Absolutely correct, sir," he agreed, his eyes on mine. "It's not something we expected, but we can't ignore it. We really have no choice but to go in there and put things to rights. We should organize some food foraging parties, too:"

I looked at the others. "Does anyone disagree? Anyone want to bring anything else up for discussion?" No one moved or spoke.

"Very well, then," I continued. "But the criteria that I applied to you must also apply to your men. There can be no coercion. This is an affair for volunteers only. Summon your people. I'll speak to them as soon as they're assembled in the commissary area."

As the officers dispersed I turned back to Germanus. "Well, you have it, it seems. With their officers in favour, I expect half of the men will go along."

He shook his head and smiled. "No, Merlyn, all of them will, and I am grateful...We are grateful." Bishop Patricius nodded in agreement.

My mind was already grappling with logistics. "I can have your twelve Romans?''

"Of course."

"Good, then here's what we'll do. Pellus, my Chief Scout, is going to want to go into town now to look around and gauge the temper of things. I shall go with him, but not in uniform. That would be incendiary, I think. As has also been made clear, we don't want to send our people in there tonight if it can be avoided. We'll put them on alert at once, just in case, but we'll have them ready to move in at dawn, when most people will be asleep. That way, we'll be in situ before anyone can object, and after that it will be easier. In the meantime, please arrange for your Roman escort, who have already been seen by everyone, to be prepared to come inside tonight and extract us in the event of trouble. Can you arrange that?" He nodded. "I shall also need to meet with this aedile, Michelus, and his people. Have them meet with us at the tenth hour by the main entrance to the basilica. And the others you spoke of, the ones organizing the resistance to these thieves, can you bring me to them?" He nodded again, betraying no sign of rancour at my assumption of the role of Legate. I was thinking quickly, trying to remember anything else that might be important. Finally I shook my head. "That's all I can think of, for the moment. The troops should be assembled soon." They were gathering as I spoke. "As soon as they are ready, I'll speak to them and ask for volunteers. As soon as that's done, they will have to start preparing for whatever comes. At that point, there will be nothing to keep you here, Bishop Germanus. You may then go and look after the things I have requested, and we'll meet your people inside, by the basilica, at the time arranged. By then I will have had time to walk around the town and assess it for myself."

When our troopers volunteered to a man, Germanus squeezed my arm, thanked me again and left our camp.

That turned out to be a long night. After making my way into town at the time arranged, accompanied by a well-armed but discreet escort, I met with Germanus and his contingent of local leaders in the darkened courtyard of the town basilica. The bishop had been correct. Violent death was already loose in the streets of Verulamium: we had found several corpses casually strewn in the streets and alleys we traversed. There was an almost palpable air of tension surrounding the furtive group that awaited me in the light of the guttering flames of six matched pairs of cressets, and looking at their shadowed faces I had not the slightest doubt that what had already occurred would be as nothing once the spark ignited among the volatile tinder evident in the bearing of these men.

Introductions were brief and the meeting began with bad news. The thieves, aware of the danger they now faced from the organizers of the resistance, had immured themselves in a strong house against the town walls. One of them had been captured earlier, however, and had volunteered the information, before carelessly falling to his death from a rooftop, that a messenger had already been sent out the previous day to summon reinforcement from the renegades' base camp some thirty miles away. At least another hundred of these wastrels were on their way to Verulamium, panting in the expectation of riches, and were expected to arrive before daybreak.