“And servants, and fifty porters leading a hundred pack animals,” Camithon continued.
“Rations? How long can you live without forage?”
Camithon shrugged. “A day? There was little enough forage in the wake of this army!”
Rick nodded. Well, that was another four hundred mouths to feed. Plus horses, who’d need grain and hay. There’d be no centaurs among picked Drantos troops.
One more damn thing to worry about.
“This is primarily a Tamaerthan expedition,” Rick said. “And it is my command. This is understood?”
“Aye, lord. By me and by His Highness.”
“Good. Then have the courtesy to inform the Wanax that when His Majesty is finished with his ablutions, the Commander-in-Chief would like to see him.”
16
Titus Licinius Frugi reined in his horse and resisted the impulse to stand in the stirrups. His officers were watching; they should not see him appear uneasy.
They were among a thin wood at the top of a long ridge that lay parallel to his enemy’s line of march. They could see most of Marselius’s force from here: the center, with Marselius himself, lay on Frugi’s left, ready to march up the military road to Rome.
On that side Frugi had four legions to face Marselius. More than enough to sweep Marselius from the field—but that would be wasteful of men. Frontal assaults always were.
But if he could bring a legion around the ridge to take Marselius from behind— Marselius had entrusted his left wing to barbarians. To Frugi’s right, at the bottom of the ridge, was a secondary road in a thin strip of cleared level ground perfect for his heavy cavalry. The barbarians, separated from Marselius by the ridge, would march into that.
He pointed to the road. “How far up it did they come?” he asked.
“There.” One of his staff officers pointed down the slope.
“That far. Excellent.” If the barbarians had scouted that distance last night, they would surely do so again now that they were marching…
First would come the barbarian light cavalry. They’d be no match for cataphracti; drive them back, back upon their own marching columns—and charge on, using the fleeing enemy as a screen.
And if the enemy came on without sending scouts ahead? Even better. The road ran between the forest and a stream. The barbarians would have to march close to the trees; close enough that their archers would have little time for their deadly volleys as his hidden troops burst out. Let his legionaries get among the archers, and the barbarian army was his. Kill the archers! The pikemen were not of themselves dangerous. Horse archers could shoot them down—provided that they were not in turn shot down by those bright-kilted fiends with their long, gullfeathered arrows that could outrange his best by half again.
He shuddered at the memory of the disaster at Sentinius. Not again! Never again would he send cataphracti charging at the pikes while the grey gulls flew in thick flights…
From his ridge he could see all the way back to the river. Most of it was fertile farmland, but there were scattered orchards, patches of forest, and low rolling hills to block his view.
A horseman rode up behind him. “It is a splendid view. A pity to spoil it with the ugliness of war.”
“Yes, my Lord Bishop.” And how much of that did my Lord Bishop Polycarp believe? Possibly all of it. To the best of Frugi’s knowledge, Polycarp was a good man—despite having the favor of Flaminius.
Marselius, my old friend. Were you right to revolt? Has Flaminius the Scholar brought us to that? But civil war is always the worst of disasters, the worst of evils. Better a dozen bad emperors than an endless series of wars for the purple. Once, Rome ruled from the sea to the West Escarpment, to the borders of the Five Kingdoms. Aye, even the High Rexja sent gifts to Caesar. Then came a year when three Caesars claimed the throne at once.
“But will not the trees and hills there prove troublesome?” the bishop asked. “They will hide your enemy.”
“They serve to block Marselius’s view as well, Your Grace.”
“And that is important?”
“All important, Your Grace. If we but knew where all of Marselius’s forces were, we would have them. We could win a bloodless—well, nearly bloodless- victory.”
“How is this?”
Have I better things to do than give lessons in tactics to a servant of the Prince of Peace? No. Not for an hour. Perhaps longer. “If we know where each is, we can concentrate all our force against a small part of theirs. Break through their line, sweep about their flanks, come from behind. Their soldiers like this war no more than we. Given the chance, they will come to us rather than die for Marselius.”
“Will you give them quarter, then?”
“Yes.”
“Yet Caesar has ordered—”
“I know what Caesar has ordered, Your Grace. And I know what I must do. I will send the remnants of Marselius’s force to the frontier posts.” If there are any remnants. I have six legions. Two that Marselius doesn’t know about. Enough force to roll right over, smash my way—”I will give them quarter if I can.”
“And you are certain of winning?”
“I am, Your Grace. We have six legions plus the foot. Even counting the barbarians as a legion, Marselius has but four.”
“So you have half again his strength.”
“More, Your Grace. With forces matched this evenly, it is as the square of the two. Say thirty-six to sixteen. As if we had double his force. But that would be for a frontal assault. I think we can do better when Marselius advances. He always was a rash leader.”
Polycarp looked at him sharply. “Be certain of victory. Then go with God. For Rome can little enough afford the loss of her knights, when the barbarians pound at our gates, and the star our ancestors called Beelzebub hangs higher each day. But—will not Marselius simply remain where he is? Why should he place his head in your snare?”
“He has little choice, Your Grace. There is very nearly nothing to eat where he is encamped.” Flaminius Caesar had rightly forbidden him to strip all of the lands along Marselius’s line of march; but he had allowed him this valley. A raven crossing that land would need to carry rations.
Marselius and the barbarians carried rations, of course. Grain and fodder for the horses, too. But never enough, not for that army. Marselius would have to fight, on ground chosen by Frugi. And Marselius would lose.
An hour passed. Trumpets sounded from the west. Marselius was on the march. But the barbarians were deploying as if for battle. They hadn’t moved up the road. Not even their light cavalry.
Then there were shouts from his troops. A staff officer rode up jabbering.
“What? Speak up, man!”
The officer pointed.
Two miles away, a brightly colored object trailing black smoke rose in the sky. A wind carried it toward him. When he strained his eyes, he thought he could see a thin line connecting it to the ground. Smoke rose from the place it was tethered.
“What?” Frugi asked. “Surely it is nothing to fear.” But he felt fear, all the same. Fear and terror of the unknown. Star weapons…
Star weapons are only weapons, he told himself. Like bows, with long-ranging arrows. Like ballistae that shoot far. But as bows need arrows, the star weapons need-need something I don’t have a word for. But something. And their supplies are limited.
Another staff officer rode up. A frumentarius. Why was he so excited?
“Balloon,” the intelligence officer stammered.
Titus Frugi frowned in puzzlement.
“We heard of them from the Pirate Lands, Proconsul,” the officer said. “But we paid no heed. Until now.”
“What are you jabbering about?”
“Balloon,” he said. “See, it drifts toward us on the wind. And it is higher than we can shoot. Look closely, Proconsul.”
Titus Frugi looked, and saw disaster. There were men in the basket hanging below the balloon. They were pointing at the troops hidden in ambush.
The semaphore flags waved. An acolyte of Yatar stared at the basket beneath the balloon and called out letters. Another wrote the message.
“S-T-A-F-F BREAK 0-N BREAK Y-O-N-D-E-R BREAK R-I-D-G-E BREAK STOP.”
“We have found the enemy’s staff officers, lord,” the scribe said.
Rick hid a thin smile of amusement. These lads were so proud of being among the very few who could read that they forgot that anyone else could. “Thank you.” He turned to Mason. “Think it’s worth dropping a couple on the ridge?”
Mason shrugged. “Sure.”
“We’ll wait a bit more, though,” Rick said. “Ah. Murphy’s located an ambush force. Just about where I’d figured from the map. But it’s nice to have it confirmed. Dismounted. They’ll be out of action for a while—”
Gradually he gathered details as the semaphore flags wagged and waved. Two legions poised here. Another there, masked by an orchard. Two more in reserve. Hah. Titus Frugi had more force than Marselius had suspected. Must have drained everything, every trooper he could raise—