As Caenis sucked in the second breath she was yanked back beneath the river, her hand stretched towards Vespasian; reaching out for it, on impulse, he felt the warrior gain momentum in the struggle. He forced himself to abandon his lover to the depths as he continued his fight; Caenis' opponent surfaced, pus.h.i.+ng down, gasping once, before plunging under.

Cursing, Vespasian renewed his efforts in the churning water.

Magnus and Sabinus wrestled their adversaries, each struggling to get secure holds on slick skin as the Britons squirmed in their grip, attempting to turn and face the threat tackling them from behind. Vespasian forced his man down, squeezing his hold around the Briton's throat, as the legs kicked without aim and the arms struggled to free him from the deathly embrace. He felt the struggling begin to ease and then slacken; letting go of his victim he surged forward to where he had last seen Caenis. Beneath his feet he felt the current swirl with the exertions of underwater combat; he dived down and hauled on the first thing he could find: hair. Lungs bursting, he kicked for the surface, pulling the struggling pair behind him, their battle not letting up. Breaking out into air he gasped a ragged breath as the body he heaved jerked with the spasm of death. Pulling it up in terror he came face to face with the dead eyes of a warrior in his teens; Caenis broke the surface, a wild look on her face as she filled her lungs again and again until she calmed enough to look in triumph at her lover and raise her right hand. 'I almost forgot I had it.'

Vespasian gasped in relief and let the dead warrior go as he saw the knife. 'Paelignus finally did something good.'

Caenis nodded, her chest still heaving. 'Without it I would have been lost.' She looked at the young warrior as he floated away; she started to shake.

Vespasian said nothing and pulled her to him as she contemplated taking life for the first time and coming so close within the reach of death herself.

'I don't suppose we get hugs for killing our b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,' Magnus hissed as he released his drowned victim to be taken off by the soft current.

'You probably enjoyed it.'

Sabinus peered back over the lip, pus.h.i.+ng himself up on the corpse of his opponent. 'They were all too busy having fun to notice,' he observed flopping back down into the water.

Vespasian let go of Caenis. 'Quick, let's go. We might be lucky finding a boat further downriver.' He kicked out with his feet and hauled himself along the wall, praying all the time that one of the human torches would not jump into the water bringing more of the macabre spectators with it. Only the dogs seemed to enjoy the river, swimming on ahead and then back as their four human companions edged their way slowly along in the lee of the quay.

The concrete ended after fifty paces or so giving way to natural riverbank and an un-dredged riverbed that they could, with the exception of Caenis, just reach on tiptoe. With Caenis clinging onto Sabinus they speeded up and soon the sound of misery was fading and the light from the human torches was just a glow in the distance. After a mile they were in near complete silence and darkness as the moon was covered by a thick and heavy layer of cloud.

'That's enough river,' Vespasian said, scrambling up the bank.

'At least we don't stink like a tannery any more,' Caenis pointed out as Sabinus heaved her out. 'I'm sorry that you had to crawl through my sick.'

'Just don't ever talk about it, my love, and I'm sure the memory will fade with time.'

Caenis laughed and tore off a strip from the bottom of her stola and gave it to Vespasian. 'Use that as a pad for your wound; how is it?'

'It stings but it isn't bleeding so much; I think the water was good for it.'

Magnus joined them on the bank pointing downstream. 'There's a light on the river.'

Vespasian squinted into the dark and, sure enough, there was a thin p.r.i.c.k of light, some way off, but definitely either on or just next to the river. 'Let's go and see what it is; hopefully it's someone with a boat. Whoever it is I doubt they're part of the rebellion, otherwise they would be in the town; but you never know.' He drew his sword and moved off towards the light.

Closer to, Vespasian could see that the light was a fire that had burnt low; in its faint glow a couple of bodies could be seen wrapped in blankets, evidently asleep. A boat was tied to a tree just nearby.

'We're in luck,' Sabinus said, creeping forward with Magnus; as they neared the men one stirred in his sleep. Sabinus and Magnus froze and then once the breathing became more regular crept forward again. Standing over the nearer one, Sabinus put his blade to the man's throat. 'Wakey, wakey.'

The eyes slowly opened and then the body jerked with shock as the man registered what he saw. Magnus restrained the second man as he awoke.

'We need your boat.'

Vespasian stepped forward into the light. 'Let him go, Sabinus; I know him.' He looked down at the man. 'Did you find Hormus, my freedman?'

'I did, sir. I was on my way back to Camulodunum with a reply but then saw the smoke and flames as I approached so thought it best to wait until morning to see what was occurring.'

'Take my word, you don't want to go back there at the moment. What did Hormus say?'

The fisherman sat up now that Sabinus had withdrawn the blade from his throat. 'I don't know.' He rummaged about in a sack next to him and brought out a scroll; he handed it to Vespasian.

Squatting down next to the fire he broke the seal and unrolled it and began to read.

'Well?' Sabinus asked, impatiently.

'Well, things aren't looking good.'

'What do you mean?'

Vespasian looked at the fisherman. 'When did Hormus write this?'

'Midday yesterday. He told me to come straight back with it; we was lucky with the tides there and back again.'

Vespasian looked at his brother. 'That's not good at all. Hormus says he's heard that a messenger from Paulinus has told the garrison commander and the procurator that he won't arrive in Londinium for two days.'

'So that's tomorrow, the day we had hoped that he'd be arriving here; what kept him?'

'I don't know but he's not going to get here for at least three days.'

'Cerialis!'

'I know; he's got to withdraw tonight. You take Caenis and get back to Londinium in that boat. Tell Paulinus when he arrives tomorrow what's happened here but don't get into recriminations about Decia.n.u.s; that won't help.'

Sabinus bridled. 'Don't patronise me, you little s.h.i.+t.'

'Sorry, but I know what you're like.'

'What do you mean, "what I'm like"?'

'This isn't helping either,' Caenis b.u.t.ted in. 'We'll just tell Paulinus the facts and then he can decide what to do.'

'Exactly,' Vespasian said, relieved that Caenis had averted a spate of bickering.

'What about me and the dogs?' Magnus asked. 'What are we going to do?'

'You're coming with me.'

'Where to?'

'We're off to find Cerialis tonight, alert him to the fact that he's on his own and advise that he withdraws to Londinium.'

'But he's on the Lindum road on the other side of Camulodunum with the whole Iceni tribe between him and us.'

'We'll skirt around to the west and then head north. If we don't find him by dawn then I very much doubt that his legion will see dusk.'

CHAPTER XIIII.

'CAN YOU HEAR anything?' Vespasian whispered, standing just beyond the glow of a torched farm, listening to the soft sounds of the night.

'Just the horses,' Magnus muttered back, restraining Castor and Pollux by the collars, 'and the crackle of the fire, of course.'

Vespasian listened again; no human sounds came from the burnt-out farm. Smoke still wafted from smouldering timbers; here and there was the flicker of flaming wood but there was no sign of any Iceni in the firelight. Yet they must have been there because tethered in a small, still-intact orchard, twenty paces away, were half a dozen ponies of the s.h.a.ggy sort favoured by Britannic hors.e.m.e.n; the saddles on the beasts confirmed the origins of their riders but of them there was no sign. 'They must be asleep.'

'Tiring work, all this ma.s.sacring.'

Vespasian looked at the bodies of the former occupants of the house, nailed by their wrists to the trunk of an oak tree: a man and wife and their three young children. Their heads had been removed and, judging by the wounds to their chests, so had their hearts. 'I'd like to do the same thing to the savages that did that.'

'Another time, perhaps; let's just take the horses and get away.' Magnus moved forward at a crouch with his dogs.

Vespasian followed, drawing his sword as he did, praying that they would get away unnoticed. They had already been travelling for four hours, skirting around the south of Camulodunum, and had come across n.o.body in the night; they had begun to believe that the rebels had stayed in the town and that they might get through to Cerialis without incident until they had seen the burning farm. If it had not been for the ponies they would have given it a wide berth; however, the chance of quick transport had outweighed the danger of coming close to a small war band.

The ponies s.h.i.+fted about nervously in reaction to Castor and Pollux approaching; a couple of wickers and a snort made Magnus stop and let go of the dogs' collars. 'Sit!' he hissed and, to Vespasian's surprise, the dogs did as they were told. Magnus moved forward.

Vespasian moved past the sitting dogs and on into the orchard after Magnus; quickly they began to untether the ponies whose nervousness had not been abated by the dogs' halting. Another couple of snorts, a wicker and then a full whinny as the first beast untethered by Magnus kicked and bolted, its hoofs pounding.

'Juno's tight a.r.s.e!' Magnus swore as he worked on the second tether in the dim light.

Vespasian tore at his knot with his fingers for a few moments and then shook his head in disbelief at his stupidity, drew his knife and severed the tether.

Another whinny came from the bolting horse; sharper this time.

Magnus followed Vespasian's example and swapped to knife-work.

A deep growl rumbled out and then both hounds started vicious barking as a shout came from out of the night.

's.h.i.+t!' Vespasian slashed at a second tether, cutting it, and then a third, keeping hold of it and control of the pony as the other two trotted off. Thankful that the beast was not a full-sized horse, he swung his leg over its haunches and hauled himself into the saddle as figures appeared, fifteen paces away, from close to the burning house, by which, presumably, they had been sleeping, warmed by their handiwork. Vespasian kicked his mount into action.

Slapping the rump of the final pony to be released, Magnus mounted his and urged it after Vespasian as Castor and Pollux, still barking, bounded after him.

A couple of javelins slammed into the ground to Magnus' right; furious shouting followed them.

Leaning forward, close to his mount's neck, Vespasian accelerated away, outpacing Magnus who had less skill in the saddle, but, due to the darkness of the night, he soon had to slow again as they got further from the burning house. The shouts from behind them continued and, rather than diminish into the distance, they seemed to stay constant and then, gradually, got closer.

They were being chased.

After another few hundred paces, Vespasian looked behind; Magnus was ten paces away with Castor and Pollux lolloping beside him, almost invisible in the dark. Behind were the silhouettes of at least two pursuers and they were gaining. He looked forward into the night and could see no way of increasing his speed without running the risk of being dismounted, and yet if they did not they would surely be ridden down. Not to get through could be the death sentence for a legion. 'We need to turn and face them,' he shouted over his shoulder to Magnus, 'otherwise they'll catch us.' He slowed and turned his mount, rearing on its back legs; Magnus managed the manoeuvre with less panache as the pursuit came on at speed, now less than twenty paces out. Drawing his sword, Vespasian urged his mount back towards them, slapping its rump with the flat of his blade. The two pursuers checked their pace, unsure of this confidence in their quarry; two dark shadows suddenly appeared, flying towards them, and, before they had time to register the attack, they were punched from the saddles. Castor and Pollux landed on their prey in a welter of ripping and growling; screams of abject terror of being devoured by unknown things-of-the-night issued from the Britons, long and hard, as they fought these monsters that could just materialise out of nothing.

Vespasian and Magnus both watched as the life was eaten out of the men, feeling that such a death was no more than their due; quickly, their struggles ceased and they were silent and still.

'Good boys,' Magnus purred with genuine affection for his pets as he dismounted and eased them off their feasts. 'But we haven't got time for a snack just at the moment.' He tickled each under its b.l.o.o.d.y muzzle and leapt back up into the saddle as the sound of pursuit on foot reached them.

Off they sped into the night, travelling as fast as they dared for the first quarter of a mile and then, once they had outpaced their pursuit, slowing down to a trot, heading ever northward.

With no care for the fatigue of their ponies, Vespasian and Magnus pressed on and soon, directly to the east, to their right, they could see the distant glow of Camulodunum.

'We're level with the town now,' Vespasian said. 'If we carry on for another mile or so and then head northeast we should hit the Lindum road and then we've got about an hour left of the night to find the Ninth.'

'Well, I hope they've got something good to eat; we haven't had anything since yesterday and that ain't good at my age. I'm starting to feel very weak.'

Vespasian said nothing on the subject; he was feeling the effects of hunger too and felt that talking about it would only make things worse. They rode in silence for a while.

In the distance the glow of the town grew, even though they were drawing away from it. 'They must have really put it to the torch,' Vespasian observed some time later, 'for it to be burning like that eleven hours later.'

'We shouldn't have stayed there,' Magnus said, 'it was almost suicide.'

'It was for a lot of people but had they had fled then they would have stood even less chance in the open. It was the Trinovantes within the walls breaking them down that really tipped the balance.'

'b.o.l.l.o.c.ks it was; it was the sheer f.u.c.king size of their army. It'll take a few legions to stop it.'

'Which we'll have when they all converge.'

Magnus grunted and expressed no further opinion; they kept to their own thoughts until, a short time later, the sound of their ponies' hoofs on stone alerted them to the fact that they had finally reached the road.

And then a strange sound, faint and yet strong at the same time, floated on the pre-dawn air; Vespasian c.o.c.ked his ear, frowning. 'What's that?'

They halted their tired ponies and listened.

It was a rumble that they could hear; a rumble not of inanimate objects but rather voices, male voices, thousands of them, in fact, tens of thousands of them. The Iceni army was on the move.

'They're heading up the Lindum road to surprise Cerialis!' Vespasian said, realising what Boudicca planned to do. 'If she takes us one legion at a time we're finished. There's not a moment to lose.' He kicked his long-suffering pony back into action and they raced away, their path along the road easier to see as the dawn glow in the east strengthened.

Behind them they could just make out a great shadow to the south, spread out to either side of the road. They thrashed their beasts north, hoping that Cerialis had already pulled back. But they did not have far to travel for, after half a mile, another shadow became distinct, this time ahead of them.

It did not take Vespasian too long to work out what it was. 'Cerialis, you fool. You're marching your legion towards certain death.'

But Cerialis did not know that he was marching towards annihilation, not because he was marching in the cla.s.sic Roman fas.h.i.+on, without scouts; but because the scouts he had sent out had not, so far, returned. And so, Vespasian and Magnus were not challenged as they pelted up the road towards the VIIII Hispana.

'Where're his scouting units?' Vespasian wondered aloud as the cohort leading the legion's advance became distinct in the ever growing light. They swerved off the road and raced down the ranks and ranks of legionaries; past two cohorts they went until they approached the command position to see Cerialis, fifty paces away, sitting proudly on his horse with the legion's Eagle parading before him and his tribunes and his escort cavalry behind. The first rays of the newborn sun glinted pale off their helms.

'Cerialis, Cerialis!' Vespasian shouted, galloping towards the legate.

Cerialis looked towards his father-in-law but failed to recognise him in the dawn light with his unshaven face and dishevelled clothing. With a barked order to a decurion he sent him and four others of his escort against Vespasian and Magnus. Detaching themselves from the rest of the legionary cavalry they accelerated towards the two incoming riders.

'We're Roman! Roman!' Vespasian roared, slowing his pony and spreading his arms to show that he was not armed.

Magnus growled an order at his dogs to keep them in check.

'Roman!' Vespasian shouted again as the decurion and his men approached. 'Mutilus,' Vespasian cried, recognising the officer as the same man who had escorted him south from Lindum, 'it's me, Senator Vespasian; I must speak with the legate at once.'

Mutilus squinted at him and then recognition flooded onto his face. 'Of course, sir, right away.' The decurion spun his horse about and led the way back to Cerialis.