Captain of Rome (33 page)

‘Steady,’ Atticus said as he placed his hand on Gaius’s shoulder, the helmsman gripping the tiller with a force that turned his knuckles white.

The solid line of Carthaginian galleys seemed to stretch forever before the bow of the
Aquila
, the quinqueremes in the centre a terrifying combination of speed and brute strength, their hulls dwarfing the smaller galleys on the flanks and the single galley that sailed towards them.

Atticus looked to the main deck and the sight of Septimus forming his men into protective ranks. The men moved with grit determination, their faces grim under iron helmets and cheek-plates, every sword drawn for the fight to come. Atticus checked his own weapon by his side, drawing the blade an inch out of its scabbard, feeling the familiar weight before slamming it home, his attention returning once again to the enemy.

Atticus counted to the centre galley, the lead ship, its masthead banners unfurling languidly behind and in an instant he was transported back to Tyndaris weeks before, remembering those same banners on a fleeing quinquereme, Hamilcar Barca’s galley. Atticus ran to the side-rail, locking his gaze on the masthead of the enemy galley, confirming
what he believed, realising that his target was ever more deadly because it carried the military commander of Carthage.

Atticus stood back from the rail and moved to the centre of the aft-deck, his eyes sweeping once more over the deck of his ship. Corin had descended from the masthead and he stood with the rest of the crew on main deck, the men in a tight knot as Lucius issued final orders to each man. The legionaries beyond were in their own ranks but Atticus noticed glances being exchanged between the two groups, expressions that marked their shared fate, Roman and provincial citizen alike.

Septimus stepped away from his men and strode to the aftdeck. ‘They’re ready,’ he said, his expression grim, unrelenting.

Atticus nodded, ‘Expect two attacks at least,’ he said, tension in his voice for the first time as the distance to the enemy fell below four hundred yards. ‘My crew will try and hold the aft, you hold the main.’

Septimus nodded, looking at Atticus closely, seeing the shadow of uncertainty in his friend’s face.

‘This is something,’ he said and Atticus gave him a quizzical look.

‘I said we needed to do something,’ Septimus explained, a slight smile reaching the corners of his mouth, ‘and this is it.’

‘We had to give the Ninth some chance…’ Atticus said, glad that Septimus understood his order to charge the Carthaginian line. He looked to the advancing enemy, the odds overwhelming and he turned to his friend.

‘About Hadria,’ Atticus began, unsure of what he was about to say.

Septimus looked at Atticus, holding his gaze. ‘She told me,’ he said, the shadow of an emotion sweeping across his face, ‘that she won’t give you up.’

‘And you can’t accept that?’ Atticus asked, silently willing Septimus to relent.

Septimus looked to the waters ahead, each drum beat and oar stroke taking the
Aquila
closer to certain defeat and the very fate he had wished to shield his sister from, the loss of another love in battle. He turned once more to Atticus.

‘Not today,’ he said and walked back towards his men, his hand reaching for his sword and drawing it with one sweep of his arm, the metal singing against the scabbard.

Atticus watched Septimus for a moment longer. Not today, he thought and he drew his sword, the grip of the hardwood hilt solid between his fingers. He caught Lucius’s eye, nodding to him in command, the older man nodding back imperceptibly before ordering the crew to make ready.

The
Aquila
sped on, her two hundred oars never faltering, the banner at her masthead whipping out to release the eagle in flight, the seventy-ton hull like an arrow set loose from the draw, skimming the wave tops, taking deadly aim. Atticus stepped back to the helm, seeing Gaius’s hard stare, his gaze never wavering and Atticus took strength from the helmsman. He looked to the enemy. Two hundred yards.

‘Ramming speed!’

One hundred yards, thirteen knots, the enemy surging forward, the edges of the line disappearing as all focus turned to the centre, the drum beat crashing out, the oars slicing through the air and surging through the water.

‘Steady
Aquila
,’ Atticus whispered, placing one hand on the tiller behind Gaius’s grip, his vision filled with the sight of the charging behemoth bearing down.

Fifty yards.

‘All hands, prepare to be boarded!’

Forty yards. Thirty.

‘Now, Gaius!’ Atticus roared and threw himself against the
tiller, the helmsman surging with him, their every strength throwing the rudder hard left, the
Aquila
responding in opposition, her bow slicing right into the path of the flagship, her hull turning in seconds to create a solid wall of timber, iron and men across the enemy front.

T
he
Alissar
struck the fore section of the
Aquila
with all the force of her one hundred ton hull, her eleven-knot momentum driving the ram cleanly into the
Aquila
, punching through the seasoned oak, the blunt-faced fist propelled deep into the slave deck of the trireme. Sixty yards along the hull, the second quinquereme struck, her ram taking the
Aquila
deep below the waterline, flooding the lower hold, the splintered timbers of the
Aquila
clawing at the lower cutwater of the quinquereme as if desperately trying to stay the blow.

Hamilcar regained his feet and charged to the front of the aft-deck, scarcely believing the sight before him. A huge crash and screech of timbers made him spin around in time to see two of his galleys collide, a quinquereme turning into the path of another as it swerved to avoid the aft-section of the Roman ship. He swore at the top of his lungs, cursing the idiotic captain who had caused the collision, cursing the Roman galley that shattered the centre of his line. He looked to the trireme, his gaze sweeping her chaotic decks, the galley somehow familiar but the thought cast aside as fury overwhelmed him, his sword leaping from his scabbard without conscious thought. He ran to the main deck, gathering his
crew as he did, leading them on, a gathering storm, surging towards the fore and beyond to the enemy deck.

‘It’s the
Aquila
!’ the masthead roared and Varro whipped his head around, watching as the trireme was rammed by two of the enemy quinqueremes. The sight transfixed him, his mind flooded with doubt, anger and confusion.

‘We have to help them!’ a voice shouted beside him and the captain’s call was taken up across the deck. Varro snapped around, his expression furious.

‘Hold your course!’ he roared, striding over to the captain.

‘Helm! Collision course!’ the masthead roared, his voice manic.

Varro and the captain looked directly to the water ahead, to the three Roman galleys that had turned and were sailing directly across the
Orcus
’s line and towards the Carthaginian attack, their crews having also seen the
Aquila
’s lone charge, the sight spurring all to follow.

‘Helm, evasive course!’ the captain shouted and the
Orcus
turned to starboard.

Varro looked to the helm and beyond to the ragged anarchic formation that had once been his squadron, his gaze immediately picking up the sight of a dozen more galleys turning into the fight, the sound of shouted orders and angry calls for support gathering every ship to the fight, the effect rippling down the line with other Roman galleys turning directly into the seaward enemy attack.

‘Tribune,’ the captain said, his face stern. ‘Your orders.’

Varro turned to the captain, his eyes darting beyond to the empty sea ahead and the coastline. It was close, minutes away.

‘Your orders,’ the captain repeated.

Varro put his hand to the hilt of his sword, fighting the urge to draw the blade, to run the captain through, to escape.
He looked at the captain directly, seeing the challenge in his eyes, the naked contempt for Varro’s indecision.

‘Hard to port,’ Varro growled and the captain instantly reacted, shouting the command to the helm, the
Orcus
turning once more, this time into the face of the oncoming enemy attack.

Varro watched the scene change before the bow of his galley, the coastline giving way to open sea and then the Carthaginian formation, a gaping maw in the centre of their line, a savage tear caused by the
Aquila.

‘Perennis,’ Varro whispered, all his hate and fear forged into one man, the Greek captain who seemed set to ruin his fate once more, the
Aquila
’s lone attack exposing Varro’s retreat in all its shame. There would have been others to blame after the battle, the captain of the
Orcus
, of other galleys, men lost in a chaotic fight against overwhelming odds whose deaths Varro would use to tangle and bury the truth, but now that confusion was gone, replaced with the clarity of attack, the entire Roman third squadron taking the fight to the enemy. Varro’s order to retreat would be remembered, reported, his reputation ruined forever. One man had precipitated this, one man who had come so close before. Varro turned to the captain once more.

‘Steer a course to the
Aquila
,’ he said. ‘We will go to her aid.’

‘Yes, Tribune,’ the captain said, concurring unequivocally with the order. The
Orcus
was the largest galley of the squadron, only she could pass unmolested through the open centre of the Carthaginian line and save the brave men of the
Aquila.

Varro caught the captain’s expression of approval and he turned away, hiding the rage that rose unbidden to his face.

‘Vitulus!’ he shouted. The guard commander ran to the tribune.

‘We will soon board the
Aquila
,’ Varro said, his voice low and menacing. ‘There will be confusion, chaos, many will be killed. Make sure one of those is Perennis.’

Vitulus nodded, his eyes cold as he saluted the tribune, stepping back to draw his sword, his gaze following Varro’s as both men turned to the sea ahead.

The Carthaginian warriors flooded onto the port-side fore and main decks of the
Aquila
in a savage wave of iron and fury, their war cries screaming hate and death to the Romans, their momentum a relentless force that swung towards the tightly packed semi-circle of legionaries backed up to the starboard rail. Septimus shouted the release of
pila
, the spears striking the mid and rear ranks of the Punic charge, the front line too close to maul, the Carthaginians bearing down behind their shields as they ran across the ram-tilted deck towards the Roman shield wall.

‘Steady the line!’ Septimus roared, no other command to give, the sea behind them an enemy as merciless as the
Punici.

The Carthaginians struck the legionaries with an incredible force and the Roman line buckled and caved, the men behind pushing forward against the front, heaving the formation back into shape with the desperate strength of sixty against two hundred. Septimus struck out with all his might, driving his sword home with a ferocity born of a forlorn hope, his roar giving vent to all his bravery, all his strength, the men to his sides matching his savage aggression, giving no quarter, expecting none, remorseless enemies on all sides.

The Carthaginians surged around the Roman shield wall, enveloping it, hemming it in against the fragile starboard rail, sensing the kill, their blood-lust unleashed while others ran towards the aft-deck, a baying pack of wolf-hounds searching for prey. Atticus stood unmoved; the crew of the
Aquila
to
his back, Lucius and Gaius to his side, anger wrought on every face, knowing their ship was dying beneath them. The Carthaginians gained the aft-deck, spreading out, never faltering as they ran onwards. Atticus raised his sword, holding it high, the unsullied forged iron blade light in his hand. He summoned up his will and let fly with a roar: ‘
Aquila
!’ The call unleashed his crew and their war cry surged out before them as they ran full-on into the Carthaginian charge, Atticus running deep into the enemy ranks, sweeping his sword down into enemy flesh, the blade drenched with blood that fell to the deck of the dying galley. The crew were swallowed by the Carthaginian horde, the fight on all sides as Atticus held his ground at the centre of the aftdeck with a small knot of men, every man fighting with a demonic fierceness that defied the greater strength of the
Punici.

Beyond the decks of the
Aquila
the Carthaginian flanks struck the ragged attack of the Roman third squadron, the galleys colliding head-on, the quinqueremes breaking through, the Carthaginian triremes held fast, the Romans streaming across boarding ramps as the battle descended into single combats. A single Roman quinquereme slipped through the line, tearing through the water at twelve knots with the ranks of a full maniple forming on her decks, their shields raised and swords drawn, the standard of a Roman tribune flying from the masthead.

The
Baal Hammon
reversed oars, her ram at first resisting the pull, the splintered hull of the Roman trireme clawing at the bow of the Carthaginian galley. Hanno watched the death throes of the enemy ship from the aft-deck, his gaze darting left and right, to the archers on his own galley who ceaselessly rained death on the Roman decks, the legionaries hidden
behind shield ramparts, forestalling the certain death that awaited them and their ship.

Hanno looked beyond the galley to the fight at large, the lines of battle now a tangled net. He suddenly thought of Hamilcar’s strategy, the plan Hanno had agreed to before the battle, to feign retreat and then counter-attack but to avoid a full engagement against the
corvus
-armed Roman galleys, Hamilcar warning Hanno that the enemy could not be beaten on their terms, that the ramp still held sway in open battle. Hanno looked to the sinking trireme before the
Baal Hammon
, the Romans dying before his eyes, the quinquereme, finally released, turning quickly to seek new prey. He smiled derisively. Hamilcar was a fool, or worse he was hoping to take the lion’s share of the victory, his strategy a clever ruse to minimise Hanno’s impact on the outcome.

The
Baal Hammon
came full about and Hanno was afforded a wider view along the length of the battle. Carnage was everywhere, the sea strewn with wreckage, rammed Roman galleys amidst Carthaginian pyres, the galleys set aflame by victorious legionaries. Half of the fleet on each side was engaged, most of the galleys fighting in desperate ship-to-ship battles, the Romans fighting to take Carthaginian decks they had boarded across the infernal ramps.

Hanno felt a sudden sliver of doubt as he stared at the dozen fights closest to the
Baal Hammon.
The Romans were prevailing in every clash where they had managed to deploy their boarding ramps, the Carthaginians only succeeding when the ram had decided. In close quarters, with little sea room, the Roman tactics had the advantage and the words of Hamilcar’s warning echoed once more in Hanno’s mind.

Atticus punched hard with his
hoplon
shield, the copper boss slamming into the Carthaginian’s chest, driving him back,
robbing him of his balance and Atticus lunged forward, striking low, his blade tearing through the enemy’s groin, the Carthaginian falling even as Atticus withdrew his sword. Lucius stood to his side, the seasoned veteran drawing on the strength of a thousand fights, his sword arm never tiring, his thoughts still firmly locked on sweeping the Carthaginians from his ship and somehow saving her from the sea’s grasp.

Atticus felt the side-rail slam into his lower back as he backstepped away from a furious assault, the Carthaginian soldier’s blade a blur of iron in a deadly sequence of sword-strokes, Atticus’s arm going numb under the shield that bore the brunt. He stabbed out with his sword, a desperate jab to force his enemy to relent and through sweat-stained eyes he saw the Carthaginian block left with his shield, giving Atticus the opening he needed. He pushed forward from the rail, his sword instinctively following a series of strikes, the years of single combat commanding his every action, every move and the Carthaginian gave ground slowly until he backed into another fight, forcing him to stand firm. The Carthaginian responded with a frenzied counter-attack and Atticus turned his shield once more in defence, his eyes locked on the Carthaginian’s, seeing the fury there, the eyes anticipating the sword. Atticus shortened his defence, closing the distance to beneath a swordlength, breaking the Carthaginian’s assault and Atticus pushed forward until the two were chest to chest, the stink of sweat and aggression filling his senses. Atticus ignored the continued blows on his shield, the close quarters negating their strength and he swung his sword out low and wide, bringing the blade in behind the Carthaginian, sweeping it back until it sliced into the enemy’s hamstring, the Carthaginian screaming out in pain as his tendon split, his leg buckling under his own weight and he fell to the deck, dropping his sword to reach for his wound, his face a mask of agony.

Atticus jumped back, bringing his sword up quickly, the fight pressing in on all sides as two Carthaginians quickly stepped over the man he had downed, their swords charged against Atticus, their expressions malevolent, taunting, their quarry singled out before them. Atticus brought his shield up to his shoulder, his sword dropping low for the first attack, his eyes darting from the first man to the second, crouching slightly to coil the energy of his legs, ready for the lunge. The two Carthaginians moved in, one of them smiling viciously and Atticus smiled back, his eyes ever cold. He paused as the moment to attack neared and he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. He was about to charge but he checked himself, realising a sudden unease on the faces of his attackers, their eyes no longer on Atticus but to a point behind him and they began to back off.

Atticus glanced over his shoulder, the breath that he had held releasing as the sight before him overwhelmed his mind. The
Orcus
was less than fifty yards away, her
corvus
already partially lowered, the serried ranks of a full maniple drawn up behind, a solid wall of shields above which iron helmets and cheek-plates framed hostile and determined faces. The
Orcus
closed the gap in seconds, her oars dipped and held to slow the galley and the bow of the quinquereme struck the stern of the
Aquila
lightly, the
corvus
falling firmly onto the aft-deck, the spikes hammering into the timbers.

The legionaries flooded across, forming a line, the strident commands of a centurion marching them forward. The Carthaginians faltered then quickly turned into the new threat, a ragged few joined by scores in a matter of seconds, the
Punici
slamming into the shield wall, hammering with all the frenzy of hate against leather and brass.

Atticus called the remaining crew of the
Aquila
to the rails to continue their fight on the flanks, wary that in the confusion
of battle the armourless crew might be mistaken for Carthaginians by the legionaries. He looked to the main deck and the embattled men of Septimus’s command, his attention drawn away from the
Orcus
, never seeing Vitulus run across the
corvus
, his own gaze looking beyond the front line of the legionaries, searching for his prey.