The Emperor Series Books 1-4. Conn Iggulden
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locked in an empty basement store. The dead horses proved a more difficult problem. All weapons had been stripped from the fort and there wasn't an axe to be found anywhere. The slippery carcasses could be lifted by five or six of the men working at once, but not carried up the stone steps to be put over the ramparts. In the end, Peritas had stacked the heavy, limp bodies against the gate to slow down attackers. It was the best they could hope for. No one expected to make it through the night and fear and resignation hung heavily on all of them. Up on the walls, Marcus watched the campfires with narrowed eyes.
‘What I don't understand,’ he muttered to Peppis, ‘is why we were allowed back into the fort. They have taken it once and they must have lost some lives, so why not cut us down on the trail?’
Peppis shrugged. ‘They're savages, sir. Perhaps they enjoy a challenge, or humiliating us.’ He carried on with his task of sharpening blades on a worn concave whetstone. ‘Peritas says we will be missed when we don't get back by morning and they'll send out a strike force by tomorrow evening, perhaps even earlier. We don't have to hold out for long, but I don't think the blueskins will give us that kind of time.’ He continued wiping the stone along a silver blade.
‘I think we could hold this place for a day or so. They have the numbers, granted, but that's all they have. Mind you, they did take it once.’
Marcus paused as a chant began in the near darkness. If he strained his eyes, he could see dancing figures silhouetted against the flames of the fires.
‘Someone is having a good time tonight,’ he muttered. His mouth watered. The fort well had been poisoned with rotting flesh and everything else edible had been removed. Truth to tell, if the reinforcements didn't get to them in a day or two, thirst would do the blueskins' job for them. Perhaps they intended the Romans to die with dry throats in the burning sun. That would match the cruel tales he had heard about them, given a fresh airing amongst the nervous soldiers as night fell on the fort.
Peppis peered over the wall into the gloom and snorted.
‘There's one of them peeing against the wall down there,’ he said, his voice caught between outrage and amusement.
‘Watch yourself, don't lean out or put your head up too high,’ Marcus replied as he pressed his own head closer to the rough stone, trying to peer over the edge whilst exposing as little of himself as possible.
Astonishingly close and directly below them was a swaying blueskin holding his parts and spraying the fort with dark urine in short sweeping arcs. The grinning figure caught sight of the movement above and jumped, recovering quickly. He waved a hand at the pair who watched him and waggled his privates in their direction.
‘He's had a little too much to drink, I'd say,’ Marcus murmured, grinning despite himself. He watched the man pull a bloated wineskin around his body and suck on the mouth of it, spilling more than he took in. Blearily, the blueskin shoved in the stopper on his third attempt and gestured up again, calling out something in his slushy tongue.
Tiring of their lack of response, he took two steps and fell flat on his face.
Marcus and Peppis watched him. He was still.
‘Not dead, I can see his chest moving. Dead drunk maybe,’ Peppis whispered. ‘It's bound to be a trap. Devious, the blueskins are, everyone says.’
‘Maybe, but I can only see one of them and I can take one. We could do with that wine. I know I could, anyway,’ Marcus replied. ‘I'm going down there. Fetch me a rope. I can drop over the wall and climb back up before there's any real danger.’
Peppis scurried off on his errand and Marcus focused on the prone figure and the surrounding ground. He weighed the risks and then smiled sardonically. They were all going to die in the night or at dawn, so what did the risks matter? The problem receded and he felt his tension relax. There was something about almost certain death that was quite calming in its way. At least he would have a drink. That wine sack had looked full enough to give nearly all of them a cupful.
Peppis tied up his end of the rope and sent the rest uncoiling silently down the twenty-foot drop. Marcus made sure his gladius was secure and ruffled the hair of the lad.
‘See you soon,’ he whispered, putting one leg over the parapet and disappearing into the gloom below.
The dark was so complete that Peppis could barely make him out as he crept towards the still figure, the gladius drawn and ready in his hand.
Marcus felt the itch again and clenched his jaw. Something was wrong with the scene and it was too late to avoid the trap. He reached out a foot to stir the drunken blueskin and wasn't surprised when the man suddenly sprang up. Marcus took his throat out before the expression of triumph could fully form. Then two more blue men rose out of the dirt. It was their presence he'd sensed, hidden in shallow graves and lying perfectly still for hours with almost inhuman discipline. They had probably dug themselves in to wait before the Roman caravan even appeared, Marcus realised as he attacked. They were not wild savages, but warriors.
There seemed to be just the three of them, young men out for status or a first kill. They had risen with swords in their hands and his first backhand blow was blocked with a loud ring of metal that made Marcus wince. There would be more of them coming. He had to get clear before the whole blueskin army arrived.
Marcus' blade slid along the dust-covered warrior's and clashed against a crude bronze guard. The man leered and Marcus punched him in the stomach with his other fist, ripping the blade back and through him as he doubled over in pained surprise. He collapsed as his neck veins parted and hit the ground wretchedly.
The third was not as skilled as his companion, but Marcus could hear shouts and knew time was running out. His haste made him careless and he ducked late on a wild slash that nicked his ear and scored a line in his scalp.
He slid to his left and punched the blade into the man's heart through the blue-stained ribs from the side. As the warrior fell with a gurgling cry, Marcus could hear the slap of running feet he remembered so vividly from the afternoon scramble into the fort. It was too late to run for the rope, so he turned and detached the wineskin from the first body, pulling out the stopper and taking a deep draught as the night around him filled with swords and blue shadows.
They formed a circle around him, swords ready, eyes bright even in the darkness. Marcus eased the wine bag to his feet and held his gladius high. They made no move and he saw eyes roam over the bodies. Long seconds stretched in silence, then one of them stepped forward, large, bald and blue, and carrying a long, curved blade.
The warrior pointed off into the distance and gestured at Marcus. Marcus shook his head and pointed back at the fort. Someone jeered, but a curt hand signal from the man cut their noise off. The warrior stepped forward fearlessly, his sword pointed at Marcus' throat. With his other arm he pointed again at the campfires and then at the young Roman. The circle tightened silently and Marcus could feel the closeness of the men behind him.
‘Tortured to death over the fire it is, then,’ he said, pointing to the campfires himself.
The big blue warrior nodded, his eyes never leaving Marcus. He spoke a few words of command and another warrior placed his hand on Marcus' sword blade, gently removing it from his grip.
‘Oh, unarmed and tortured to death, I didn't understand at first,’ Marcus continued, forcing his voice to pleasant tones and knowing they didn't understand. He smiled and they smiled back at him.
They left the fort behind in the darkness and it was probably just his imagination that he caught a glimpse of Peppis' face outlined against the sky for a moment when he looked back.
They walked with strutting confidence into the blue-skin camp with their prisoner. Marcus could see they were readying themselves for war. Weapons were stacked in bundles and the warriors danced and howled at the fires, spitting what must have been raw alcohol, judging by the blue flames that burst and flickered as the streams of liquid hit them. They whooped and wrestled and more than one sat slathering a pale mud onto his arms and face – the source, Marcus guessed, of the blue dye.
He barely