Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 00.5] Ulpius Felix- Warrior of Rome (27 page)

Tuathal, the leader of her bodyguard burst into her hut, “Apologies your majesty for the interruption but the town is surrounded by Romans and they are outside.”

“How dare they!”

“They outnumber us majesty.”

“Prepare horses for my daughters and myself.  We will escape this night.  See to it.”

“Majesty.”

“And send my daughters to me.”

The two teenage girls had barely made their mother’s side when Legate Cerialis strode in flanked by Gaius Cresens and ten of his men. “How dare you enter my home unannounced!”

“I am Quintus Petillius Cerialis, Legate of Britannia and I have an instruction here to take over the treasure and lands of the Iceni as stipulated in the will of King Prasutagus. You and your daughters will be taken to Camulodunum for your own protection.”

“Protection from whom?”

Ignoring her words he said, “Decurion, take her and her daughters, bind them.”

Inflamed by the assault on her person the Queen pulled out a knife and tried to stab one of the guards.  “How dare you! Take her outside and tie her to the entrance of the door.” Two men took her and Cerialis said quietly, “When I return I want there to be no virgins left in this hut!”

Cresens licked his fat lips in anticipation.  “There won’t be. Hold them down a lift up their tunics!”

Once outside Cerialis noticed that a large crowd had gather.  “First Spear! A protective line and prepare to witness punishment.”

First Spear did not want to obey but he was a twenty year veteran; it was not in his blood to disobey a general. “Face the crowds and lock shields.” At least his men would not have to witness the abomination which was about to take place.

Boudicca was now tied to the door posts and the trooper before her ripped her top off revealing her bare back to the crowd and her breasts to the troopers who leered before her. “Trooper, twenty lashes.”

The sound of the whip cracked across the settlement and the Queen’s moans, which she fought against, masked the screams from inside the hut as her daughters were raped, first by the Decurion and then other troopers.  The Queen’s tears were not tears of pain but tears of rage and anger that she was impotent and could do nothing. When it was finished and she sagged against the ropes, her bloody back testimony to the savage beating Legate Cerialis spoke. “The Emperor Nero has, by the terms of the King’s will, inherited the land and treasury of the Iceni.  You will all now enjoy the benefits of Pax Roman and you are now all liable to the punishments for misdemeanours.  Tomorrow the Queen and her daughters will be taken to Camulodunum to be tried for crimes of insurrection against the state. First Spear, disperse the crowd and then disarm the warriors.”

The reluctant legionaries pushed the crowd back.  They outnumbered the unarmed inhabitants but the Iceni were a proud people and only retreated reluctantly. Cresens had emerged from the hut. “Decurion, secure the Queen in the hut with her daughters and mount a guard on the entrance.”

That evening, as the Treasury was being escorted north by Tribune Celsus’ cavalry and four centuries from the First Cohort, the Legate and the Decurion enjoyed a meal and the knowledge that they had done the Emperor’s bidding.  Both of them would benefit from such loyalty. “These barbarians are no match for Rome and its power Gaius.  They had no order and no systems in place to rule effectively.  There is nothing to stop us.”

Cresens waved a hand around the King’s hall in which they sat.  “And even when they try to emulate us this is the best that they can do.”

“And the Queen prefers a wattle hut!” They both laughed.  “Your men are guarding her?”

“There are three shifts of ten men on each shift.  They will be safe.”

Tuathal knew nothing of the flogging.  He had been too busy gathering the men he needed and as a result had managed to keep thirty warriors who were armed and he had not had to witness the humiliation of his Queen. Although the legionaries guarded the gates this was no Roman fort with four secure entrances and exits, this was an Iceni settlement; there were other ways to leave if you knew the right places. Ten of the warriors who had been disarmed waited beyond the gates with the forty horses which had been grazing in the nearby fields.  Had there been Roman cavalry they would have secured the beasts but the legion was not concerned with such things and that oversight was to cost the province dear. The ten troopers who guarded the hut were lazy, they were sloppy and they were drunk.  They complimented each other on their success and toasted the Decurion and Legate who allowed them to rape young girls and give them the plum jobs.  They laughed at the thought of the other troopers spending the cold spring night out in the open while they toasted themselves by their fires drinking captured ale and food.  This was a good life.

Tuathal contemptuously threw the dead trooper aside as did his fellow warriors.  This had been ridiculously easy and if this was the measure of the Roman army then they would soon destroy the much vaunted war machine. When he saw his Queen he wished he had made the troopers suffer a more painful death.  Boudicca’s green eyes flamed with cold anger. “We will have our revenge but first we must escape.  If they take us to Camulodunum then the three of us will die.  Are there horses?”

“Waiting outside.”

“And the messengers have been sent to raise the army?”

“Yes majesty.”

“Good.  Have two of your men carry my daughters. They have been grievously hurt.” When the bluff warrior saw the bloodstained tunics he knew what it meant and he just wanted to kill and maim Romans. The Queen saw his look and restrained his arm.  “There will come a time for vengeance and it will soon be here.”

They left by a hole her warriors cut in the rear wall.  The dead troopers were propped by the door as though still on guard.  It would not fool a close inspection but Tuathal hoped that they would have escaped long before their deaths were noticed. The guars on the walls were doing what they always did, they were watching for those coming in and not those trying to escape.  The Queen and her party disappeared south long before the alarm was raised.  The rebellion had begun.

Legate Quintus Petillius Cerialis was incandescent with rage when he discovered that the Queen had escaped and Gaius Cresens bore the brunt of his ire.  First Spear took some satisfaction from that but he was annoyed.  His men would have prevented the Queen’s escape. “Destroy the village! And then we will head back to Durobrivae. I want this bitch and her spawn caught and crucified!”

Wolf and his turma were close to the road.  Their orders were to stay there and make sure that the Iceni were not reinforced from outside.  They had made a small camp made of brush and bushes cut to form a perimeter with the horses within.  It would merely give early warning but the Decurion did not trust the Iceni. “Tell me Lucius why did you not stay and fight as a warrior.  You are a good man with a sword.”

“The Queen is a devoted worshipper of the Mother. It is said that she is a priestess of the cult and has studied with the druids on Mona.”

“And that is bad?”

“One of my mother’s sisters was sacrificed to the Mother as a child.  My mother never got over that.  She died three years ago still grieving for her little sister.  I could not fight for a Queen who not only allowed such things but encouraged them and the king, well had he been stronger, I might have stayed but he was weak.” He looked to the east and his homeland, hidden by night’s cloak. “The land seemed blighted by a cult which should have been a joyous one but Boudicca changed it for her own ends.  There were rumours she and Caractacus were lovers which is why the Queen of the Brigantes, Cartimandua handed him over to the Emperor; for spite.”

“You seem to know a lot about the royal family Lucius.”

“My mother was the Queen’s cousin.”

“Which makes you almost royalty.”

“Minor royalty but as my father died too when I was young, we had neither power nor influence.  No I am happy to serve as a warrior of Rome.”

Wolf and four troopers took the first watch, not that Wolf expected anything to happen.  The night felt too quiet but it gave him the opportunity to think about his men and what he knew of them.  When he had first joined the men he had fought alongside had been his friends and he had known them since birth.  Now they were not only strangers but they came from a different land, with different religions.  He would need to work to get to know them for these were the men who would protect his back.  These were the oath takers he fought with now, not his childhood comrades. He was about to wake Gaius when he heard the thunder of hooves and he saw a column of riders heading south. That they were not Roman was obvious from their garb, but as the moon flashed from behind a cloud for an instant, he caught a glimpse of flowing hair.  It was the Queen.  It was Boudicca.

“To arms.  Mount!”

His turma might be young but they were well trained and within a few heartbeats they were mounted and riding south.  He did not gallop for he knew they might have a long ride ahead of them and who knew what dangers.  The fickle moon kept appearing and disappearing but he saw, in the occasional flashes of white light that they were a mile ahead. He slowed the chase down to match the speed of the Queen and her riders. He did not have enough men to tackle them but he could, hopefully ambush them when they rested.

As dawn broke they saw that the Queen and her entourage had halted.  “Gaius take half the turma.  We’ll…” Before he could put his improvised ambush into action the Queen’s party left the road and began to head south east. “Forget it.  Where is she going?”

Riding just a little close now that they were off the road the troopers headed through fields lined with hedges and occasional woods.  Every time they disappeared into a wood Wolf slowed, worrying about an ambush.  As they emerged from a particularly thick wood, to his horror he saw that he could no longer see them and there was a low hill and ridge before him. “Come on let’s see if we can see them from the top of the ridge.” Remembering Osgar’s advice they halted before the top of the hill and Gaius and Wolf crawled to the top, desperate to see the Queen still within sight. As they peeped over the top they saw, not only the Queen and her party but the whole Iceni and rebel army.

“Shit sir! There must be over fifty thousand warriors there.”

Wolf shook his head, ”Too many for us to ambush that is for sure.”

They slid back down the hill.  “Well sir what now?”

“We return to the fort and tell the Legate. We aren’t going to miss this army and even I could follow their trail. It looks like the rebellion has started. The question is where will they attack first!”

“Camulodunum! That is where we will strike.  It is their most important town and it is filled with the Romans who have retired to this land.  We will slaughter every man woman and child and then we will move to Verulamium and Londinium.  All of their precious cities of stone will fall and the land will return to the Mother!” The roar from her men was as much for her as a leader and a symbol as for the action they were going to take.  The warriors had waited a long time for this chance to show the Romans that there were still free men in Britannia who would throw off their shackles and return the land to the people.

By the time they made it back to the fort they were exhausted having ridden hard since they had left the Iceni army.  The Legate and the rest of the forces had just returned and were equally weary.  Wolf’s news was greeted with dismay. “Are you certain Decurion of the numbers? You were tired after all.”

“With respect sir when an army stretches as far as the eye can see from one side of a valley to another and when you cannot see the end of it then it is safe to assume that it is a big army.  I have fought in battles with two legions and three cohorts.  Those numbers were dwarfed by the army of Boudicca.”

“You saw the Queen?”

“ I saw the Queen.  I had already met her when I visited Venta Icenorum with the Quaestor.”

“How far away are they?” The Legate was already ensilaging how he could get his paltry forces down to the vulnerable heartland of the Province before the barbarian hordes were unleashed.

“Using the milestones as a guide I would say forty or fifty miles.  The barbarians were moving quickly.”

He sighed.  Very well we will empty the garrison and march south.  We will head for Camulodunum.  I want a messenger sending to the Governor.  We will need the legions and Tribune, send a rider to bring the other cohorts.”

Prefect Spurius blurted out.  “Surely you are not going to take on that army with two and a half thousand soldiers?”

“May I remind you Prefect that they are barbarians and we are taking with us professional Roman soldiers?  We will defeat them.” The three professional soldiers exchanged looks of dismay.  The policy of keeping pockets of troops in different parts of the province was going to cause unnecessary deaths. A full legion and a full ala might have been sufficient to, at least, slow down Boudicca but the three men knew this was too small an army to do anything other than die.

When they headed south the Legate placed himself close to the Ninth’s regular cavalry and Cresens bandits, as the ala called them.  The other troopers were spread out ahead in a long column ready to investigate any sign of the enemy.  Travelling with the infantry meant that they could only manage twenty five miles a day and at the end of it the legionaries were just fir to sleep and nothing else.  They found the place where the party head left the road. Cava was sent with his turma to investigate while the behemoth that was the Roman vexillation trudged wearily south.

Cava was glad to be away from the slow moving column.  He was a horse man and he needed to ride. “Wolf was right.  A blind man could follow this trail.”

His Chosen Man laughed, “Are you having a go at the Decurion then sir?” Cava looked puzzled and Chosen Man pointed to his own eye.

“No son, he is just half blind but he sees better than any man I know.”

“It looks like they are heading for Camulodunum.”

“Well I hope Decurions Tulla and Murgus have kept their swords sharp.  They will need them.”