Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 00.5] Ulpius Felix- Warrior of Rome (21 page)

They all laughed as Drusus said, “We all saw the way you fell from your horse and we aren’t sure you have anything left down there at all.” He turned to the two young troopers.  “You are probably right lads.  Pick another night because after they have had Drusus then I have ruined them for other men!”

Once they reached the vicus they split into  two groups; Marcus and Livius headed for the tavern while the others headed for the queue outside the whore’s hut. Drusus shouted.  “The rest will join you lads quickly but I may be some time.  Don’t drink all the ale.”

Metellus shouted over his shoulder, “He’ll probably take one look at them and spill his seed there and then!”

Marcus was glad that he and Lucius were not going to the whore house; he had barely known his mother, having been taken from the corpses of his tribe at the age of seven but, to him, she was always smiling, pretty and loving.  It would take some time before he would think about a woman as Drusus and the others did.  They saw Wolf and Cava outside the tavern.  They both stood to attention and saluted. “Sir!” They chorussed.

Wolf smiled.  The two lads were about his age when he had joined and he wondered had he ever looked that young, with baby faces that did not need shaving and the terrified look of frightened deer when officers appeared. “Relax lads. You are off duty. Are you going in for an ale?”

“Yes sir, I have never tried one before.”

“Well take it slowly Lucius.  Strong ale can make a man behave differently and Maeve serves strong ale.”

“It’s not a problem sir.  I will look after him.”

Wolf looked at the young rider with a raised eyebrow, it made his good eye seem absurdly huge, “Oh and you are the experienced drinker eh?”

Shyly he said, “Well not really sir but when I worked in the Thracian stables in Gaul I watched the troopers drinking. Two is my limit besides I don’t want to waste my pay in one night do I sir. I think I will save up and have a nice little pugeo made.”

Wolf turned to Cava.  “See Decurion, they are not all like Drusus and the others.  Some of my lads can not only ride but have sense.  Enjoy yourselves lads.” The two officers headed over to the queue at the whorehouse where there was a little pushing and shoving taking place.

When the boys walked in the place was relatively quiet as most of the men had chosen to use Sare and Eide before they drank themselves into oblivion. Gaius Cresens was seated in the corner, by the fire; he had booked a room in the inn and was awaiting his food. When he saw the two young boys walk in his eyes lit up. The queue for the whores had meant his first choice was off the menu as he did not fancy following a bunch of hairy arsed barbarians after they had finished with the girls.  He would visit them another time but the two boys, well one of them was definitely pretty enough and who knows, they could both be virgins.

Maeve eyed them up as they came in.  She had learned to assess potential for danger as soon as a trooper walked in and these two were her perfect customers; young and quiet.  She knew that when the rest came in , later on, they would be noisy and boating of their sexual exploits which, she knew from Sare and Eide were all a fiction.  The fact that these two had come here first told her of their mettle.  “Right lads, two beakers of ale?”

“Yes please.”

Her heart warmed to them.  They were polite.  Had her sons lived she hoped that they would have turned out the same.  The troopers thought she was a hard woman, and she could be, but he could still soften and seeing these two, who would have been of an age with her son, made her eye moisten a little. “Right sit in the corner, where it’s quiet and I’ll bring them over.”

Marcus was pleased that the others had visited the girls first.  He had dreaded them all having a drinking contest. He only intended to have a couple and this way they could.  They would tell them that they had had five beakers when they came in and then they could return to the barracks.  Marcus had seen the Thracian troopers returning to their barracks and spending the night vomiting after a heavy drinking session and the next day he had seen them fall from their horses.  That would not happen to him. He suspected Lucius felt the same. “You are from this land then Lucius?”

“Yes, like Drusus I am Iceni.”

“The flat country close to the sea?”

“Yes.  Our king Prasutagus, is an ally of Rome and likes all things Roman.  He encouraged all the warriors our age to join the Roman army.”

“What about the older ones?  Why not them?”

He lowered his voice, “They do not like the Romans and they hate the way our king panders to them.  It is said that his wife Boudicca is a priestess of the Mother cult.”

“The Mother cult? I did not hear of that in Gaul.”

“The centre is on Mona, where the legions are fighting the druids and they are a fierce enemy of Rome.  They worship Mother Earth and make sacrifices.  It is rumoured that the Queen and her daughters are all priestesses.”

Maeve brought their ale and smiled maternally, “Now you take it steady. That will be a denarii and I will give you one more for that price.” Then she leaned over, “And after that go home eh?  This will be no place for you when your mates get here. It will be a bit rough.”

“Thank you gammer.” Maeve ruffled Lucius’ head and went back to the back room dabbing her eye.

“What does that word mean, gammer?”

“It is a word of this land it is a term of respect for someone older, a woman, it sort of means, mother. We use the word uncle for a man who is an older man worthy of respect.”

“Ah well to us all older men are gaffers.”

Lucius nodded.  “We too are taught to respect our elders.” He sipped his ale. “Tell me Marcus, what happened to the Decurion, his eye I mean?”

“I was told that he was the standard bearer when he was a young man and had no shield.  An enemy stone took out his eye.”

“His other one works well enough. He misses nothing.”

Marcus laughed, “He is not called Wolf for nothing but I am glad we serve him.  Ulpius Felix is the best officer in the ala, believe me.”

“How do you know?”

“I worked with the Thracians for eight years and I saw many officers.  You learn to see who the good ones are and who are the nasty ones.  He is a good one; although most of the others seem like good officers.”

“What even Decurion Murgus?”

Marcus laughed, “He is all show.  You can tell he has a good heart; he is just strict.”

By the time the second ale had come they knew all there was to know about each other. “I think if we go back now we will avoid their stories about how big their dicks are.”

“Good idea Marcus.  Thank you gammer.”

Maeve came out to see them off, “Come again boys.  You are more than welcome.”

As they reached the door Gaius Cresens pounced.  He moistened his pudgy red lips in anticipation of his evening of pleasure. He had watched them from across the room and knew which one was his prey, the diffident shy one. “Ah boys.  You serve with the ala?”

They both saw he bore the uniform of the Legate’s staff and they stood stiffly to attention. “Sir, yes sir.”

Cresens put a flabby hand on Lucius’ shoulder, “I have my horse in the stable and as you are cavalrymen I wondered if you might look at him.  I am not sure he is walking right.”

Lucius tried to disengage himself.  “Marcus is the trooper for that sir.”

Cresens had an edge to his voice and his hand gripped the Iceni’s shoulder.  “No trooper.  I am ordering you to come with me and look at my horse.”

His eyes pleaded with Marcus for help as he said, “Yes sir.”

Cresens led him off to the stable and Marcus shouted, “I’ll come with you too.”

Cresens face was dark and angry as he hissed.  “You go back to the barracks! That is an order.”

Marcus did not like the look of the staff officer but he did not know what to do. He thought of returning to the bar but what could Maeve do and then he saw, at the end of the vicus the Decurion. He was watching the rapidly diminishing queue outside the whores.  Marcus ran up to him. “Yes Marcus what is it?  Off back to the barracks?” He looked behind Marcus.  “Don’t tell me young Lucius has gone to the whores?”

Marcus’ face showed real concern as he blurted out, “Sir a staff officer insisted that Lucius looked at his horse.  We tried to tell him I was the horse warrior but he insisted and… well I…” He tailed off, not knowing how to tell the Decurion what he feared.  He had seen men do things to each other in the stables and the staff officer had that sort of look on his face.

“This officer was a a little podgy looking?”

“Yes sir!”

“Cresens.  Come with me.”

They raced down the vicus and the men in the queue stared and wondered why.  The tavern and stable was at the end of the vicus on the road north. When they entered the stables they saw that Lucius was lying unconscious on the floor and his buttocks were bare, Cresens stood above him and his intention was obvious. Wolf did not hesitate, he ran up to him and, swinging his leg as far back as he could he kicked him as hard as he could.  The heavy caligae connected and the fat officer fell as though struck with a poleaxe. “Get Lucius outside.”

As Marcus poured water on the boy’s face Ulpius Felix took out his dagger and placed it next to Cresens’ ear. “Listen you fat pervert.  If you ever touch one of my boys again I will castrate you and then feed you your own balls.  You are only alive now because you did not have your way.  Do you understand me?”

The staff officer tried to struggle to his feet.  “How dare you! I am on the Legate’s staff!”

“Listen to me, you sickeningly depraved piece of shit, I don’t give a fuck if you are the Emperor’s cousin.  No-one touches my boys. This will be a reminder of what can happen if you ignore me.” In one swift motion he sliced off the lower lobe of his right ear. The blood flowed and he screamed.

Wolf felt an arm on his shoulder; he looked up to see Cava above him. “Marcus told me.” He leaned over to speak in the officer’s whole ear. “Whatever my friend threatened it goes double for me and I would not visit this vicus again or you will not leave whole. And we will make it quite clear to everyone just what you were trying to do if you mention to anyone. I am sure that your promising career would end here in Britannia if it came to be known that, not only were you a bum boy but a rapist too.” He then pulled his arm back and smashed it into the face of Gaius Cresens. They left the unconscious officer face down in a pool of his own blood.

Chapter 11

The Legate’s party was visible for many miles as it rode up the Via Nero.  He was escorted by the Tribune and his turma of cavalry.  It had been some weeks since the incident with his aide and Wolf and Cava had wondered when he would make return visit. They had told the other officers, but no the troopers, of the attempted rape and their treatment of Gaius Cresens was seen as mild by all of them. Flavius told Marius who was not surprised. “It may be against the law but that does not mean that half the senators do not engage in it on a regular basis but Wolf and Cava did the right thing.”

“What if he makes a complaint?”

“Then I will deal with it. Of course he had no reason to be in the vicus. The troopers had permission; he did not.”

The turma rotated in pairs and on the day that the Legate returned to Cataractonium it happened to be Wolf and his friend Kadarcs on patrol.  Marius was at the Porta Praetorium to greet the Legate and he noticed that Cresens was present and his face and ear still showed signs of his beating..

The Tribune and the Legate entered the office and the Legate dismissed the clerk so that they could talk privately. “Is your Decurion Princeps still at Derventio Prefect.”

“Yes we alternate the duty. It stops us getting stale.  Variety you know sir.”

“Quite.  Well the new fortress at Eboracum is coming on well.  The First Cohort will be based there and I want the second one based here while they extend the Via Nero as far as the Dunum.”

“There is no bridge there sir.”

“There will be when the Ninth build it.  Oh not a stone structure you understand, just a wooden affair so that we can extend our influence.”

“It risks the barbarians using it as a way in to the Province.”

“From what I understand the river is not wide and if they chose they could get across easily enough.”

Marius nodded, “You are probably right sir.  You want my ala to be based at Derventio then?”

“No I want you based here, all of you.  Derventio is not as important now that we have the fort at Eboracum and I want the Ninth protected from any raids by Venutius.  He may just resent this new road across his land.”

“It will be a little crowded sir.”

“Oh the Ninth can throw up their own camp I daresay. But, and this is the reason I made this visit my self, when my aide was up here he was attacked in the vicus.”

“He didn’t say anything to my men.”

“Oh I didn’t know that.  Probably embarrassed.  What I need to know is how safe is the vicus?  Are there troublemakers here?  Do we need to make an example of them?”

“No they are loyal.  Their livelihood depends on us being here.” He paused and noticed the lightest of smiles on Gnaeus’ lips. “If you don’t mind me saying so Legate, your aide has the ability to annoy people.  His manner you know?  He could have upset some of the locals with a throwaway comment.  They still see themselves as independent of Rome.”

“Which of course they aren’t whether they like it or not. I suppose you are right.” He leaned forwards, “Between us three I am doing a favour for an old friend.  However I want you Prefect to ensure that the vicus is safe. I don’t want to put the men building the new road at risk eh?”

“I will initiate patrols sir.”

“How is the rest of the Province then sir?”

“The Silures and Deceangli are being stirred up again by the druids so that the Governor is having to organise a campaign. It means that we have to patrol as far south as the land of the Iceni now. When you have finished on the road we will have to move some of the ala further south.”

“But I thought the Iceni were allies?”

“Oh they are but Prasutagus is not well and his wife, she is a real bitch let me tell you, is not so enamoured of Rome, in fact the rumour is she wishes we were back in Gaul.  Of course she doesn’t say that to our face. The annoying part is that the Province to the east and south is peaceful and even here, in the north, there is little trouble. Anyway I will be leaving with the Tribune to inspect the land to the Dunum. Could you supply us with a couple of turmae as scouts?”