Jack Whyte - The Skystone

"Aye. " Caius nodded. "They overlook all of the plains below. I had already decided the same thing myself. Hearing you back my judgment settles it. There is one less than a mile from where we sit right now. When it was in use it must have been prodigious. I have examined it, and I believe it could be adapted to our needs with very little effort. Comparatively speaking, of course. "

Plautus smiled a wicked smile. "General Britannicus, how firm are you on the old disciplines?"

"Completely. "

"Then I'm with you. " He smiled that wicked smile again. "So! There's your first priority: defence. How many forts do you think we'll need?" Caius's tone was confident. "One will suffice for now. The others can come later. As we grow stronger. "

Plautus nodded, accepting this. "Then you think we will grow stronger?"

"I know it. "

"Good. What next?"

"After defences?" Caius looked around his listeners, catching each man's eye before continuing. "People. We have to start planning for our future needs. We will need builders, stonemasons, bakers, weavers, thatchers, barrelmakers and a hundred other tradesmen. " Tonius Cicero interrupted. "What about control? In the sense of law, I mean. Government. Have you thought about that?"

"I have. I would like to see a Council established, exactly like the ancient Senate. "

There was a murmur of approval. Our start had been well made. The rest of the night was given over to planning in more detail. The more we talked, the greater grew the problems we foresaw, and yet, in spite of that, our vision grew apace with them, and our thinking became the more ambitious.

Plans were made to buy up surrounding villas and to link them all defensively as soon as possible. We knew we had time to measure in years, but we could not bank on even one decade.

Lists were compiled of all the skilled people we would need to make us self-supporting, and each man there was alert from that time on to finding men of the calibre we sought. Before the discussion ended, everyone present was sworn to secrecy in the knowledge that, until the day came when the legions left, our entire scheme was treasonous. Talking carelessly of it could mean death for everyone concerned.

By the time the wedding feast came to an end four days later, others had been recruited, and each man who knew our plans took home with him a dream of hope for the future. Each knew that the safety and well-being of his entire family lay in his own hands. And each had already begun to plan how he would transport his worldly goods to Caius's Colony when the time came. There were heartfelt smiles and handclasps at the time of parting.

XXVI

On the morning after the last of our guests left, I was up with the larks and away into the Mendip Hills alone, not even wishing to share this visit with Equus. I left my wife abed, smiling with smug satisfaction, while my own mind concentrated singularly on the search for my skystones. Now that all the festivities were over, I was frustrated and impatient. The stones I had found were all too small. They were far from tiny, but none of them was large enough to offer me any great hope of being able to smelt heavenly metals from them. I felt strongly that there was something in the Valley of the Dragons, as we had come to call it, that I was missing — something that lay just beyond my vision, or just beyond my comprehension. More than three months had gone by since my last visit, and I was hoping that the time lag would enable me to see the valley with new eyes.

My hope was fulfilled that day in a way that I could not have dreamed of. The information my eyes relayed to my brain was so startling and so overwhelming that I did not trust myself to believe the evidence of my own senses. I rode back to the villa at breakneck speed, almost choking on my excitement.

It was dark by the time I got back. I leaped from my horse before its hooves stopped clattering on the cobblestones of the courtyard and shouted a greeting to my wife, who came running to welcome me home. We bathed together and I told her of my discoveries, and then for a long time we made little noise.

It must have been approaching the tenth hour when I entered Caius's cubiculum and found him reading by the light of two bright lamps. I was surprised to find him there, for I had presumed him abed long since. He was immersed in Ovid's Art of Love and feeling, he told me later, mildly nostalgic for the vanished pleasures of youth.

"Caius? Am I disturbing you?"

He looked up with pleased surprise. "No, not at all! It is a pleasure to see you back on your feet again. "

I felt the blankness of incomprehension on my face. "What?"

"I said it's good to see you up and around again. Marriage makes more men take to their beds than illness ever will. "

"Ohh!" I smiled, suddenly self-conscious. "I see what you mean. "

"Come in. Sit down and pay no attention to me. I was merely tweaking your nose. Perhaps I am growing jealous of your youth. "

"Are you so old, then, General? So suddenly?"

"Don't call me that. I'm old enough to know what I can do and what I'll never do again, my friend. What have you done today?"

"Caius —"

I started to blurt out what it was I had to tell him, but then I restrained myself. He watched me clench my lips and inhale deeply through my nostrils. Then I bit down on my breath and expelled the air explosively between my lips, the way a horse does. Caius waited, patient as always, for me to arrange my thoughts in order. Finally, I began speaking, feeling that I had the right words.

"I wanted to come to you with this as soon as I got back, but I was —

distracted — as you have observed. "

He smiled. "Where is she now, that your distraction has faded?"

"Asleep. Caius, what had you planned to do tomorrow?"

"Nothing that cannot be changed. What do you have in mind for me to do?"

"Could you stand the journey up into the hills with me? There's something I would like to show you. I need your advice. "

"I can think of nothing I would enjoy more. What do you have to show me?"

I shook my head. "I would rather not say, right now. You might think I had lost my wits. But it's important. I think I'm right. In fact, I know I'm right. But I haven't got the courage yet to back up my conviction. That's why I want you to see this for yourself, and to advise me. If I'm wrong, and I could be, I'd feel very foolish. "

The Britannican eyebrow was up. "You intrigue me, Publius. This sounds fascinating. I can hardly wait to see what it is. Will I recognize it?"

"I hope so, Caius. I hope so!"

"It has to do with your skystones, obviously. "

"Yes, it does. "

He raised his thumb and forefinger to the sides of his mouth, pinching his lower lip outward and downward, as though wiping away dried crumbs from a recent meal. "I saw some of them this morning, in the smithy.

Equus told me what they were. I was hoping to talk to you about them. "

"What were you doing in the smithy? You don't often go down there. " He smiled and told me what he had done that morning.

Apparently the villa had been as quiet as a tomb that day, after all the preceding weeks of hurly-burly, and Caius had been hard put to remind himself that this was normal. He had prowled the grounds like a lost soul, angry at himself for having slept later than usual and losing some precious hours. Then he found out I had been gone since dawn, up into the hills, and that increased his bad temper, for some reason. Luceiia, he said, had tried to be nice to him over breakfast but knew her brother well enough to see that he was in one of his most foul frames of mind and left him to his own devices.

He had spent two fruitless and frustrating hours trying to write, but found himself too volatile to concentrate for any length of time on what he was about, and eventually, some time after noon, he had found himself in the smithy, watching Equus pounding a glowing ingot.