Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 12] Roman Wall (36 page)

Suddenly there were wild screams as the naked priestesses flung themselves at the troopers.  Flavia took the momentary distraction to run towards the cave.

Two of Marcus’ troopers were distracted by the naked women and surprised by the sudden attack.  Both men paid for that with their lives. Briac, too, tried to use the reinforcements to his own advantage. He spun around and brought his spatha two handed around Marcus’ back. Marcus was nimble on his feet and he stepped to the side and chopped down with his sword. The Brigante blade bounced off a rock. Briac tried to force Marcus backwards by pushing as hard as he could on his sword.  Their faces were close together. Briac snarled, “You are half Brigante! You have the Sword of Cartimandua.  How can you fight for the Romans?”

“I am half Roman and I know that the world of Rome is right for the Brigante.”

Briac hooked his leg around the back of Marcus’ knee and pushed.  Marcus fell backwards.  He had not been expecting the blow.  He reached out with his left hand to stop himself falling and clutched at Briac’s mail.  They fell together.  Marcus felt the warm spurt of blood as the sword of Brigante sank deep into Briac’s heart and the last issue of Venutius died.

Marcus pushed the body from him and looked around. Five of his troopers were dead but the Brigante warriors had been slain and five priestesses lay dead.  Of Flavia and the survivors there was no sign.

“Where are they?”

“They ran to the cave.”

“Gnaeus bring ten men and come with me.  The rest of you see to the wounded.”

This would be the end of it.  He had them trapped in the cave.

In the cave Caronwyn cursed the Romans.  The five priestesses followed the hysterical Flavia deep into the cave.  One of them had a mortal wound to her stomach. 

“We are outnumbered.  There is no escape!”

“I know.  We will take as many of them as we can.  Here take this.”  She handed them a mushroom each.  She took them from the bag of potions and powders. She looked at Flavia.  “Eat this and they will have no power over you.” The priestesses snuffed out the torches but one and the cave became eerily blue.

Flavia eagerly took it and greedily ate it.  “Thank you sister.  And when they have gone?”

“Then we will be with the Mother.”

Flavia felt a sudden pain in her chest.  Her breathing became more difficult and yet her head was filled with a euphoria she had not felt since her brother had died. Caronwyn eased her to the ground and kissed her on the head.  “Soon I will join you!”

Gnaeus and the first four troopers burst into the cave.  Their eyes were not used to the dark and they sought their foes. Marcus, Felix and Wolf followed. The dog growled and his ears went down.  Like Felix he felt the power of the cave.  While Marcus followed his men Felix and the dog remained fearfully at the entrance.

Suddenly the torches were snuffed out and they were in complete darkness. Marcus yelled, “The rest of you wait at the entrance!”

He heard the clash of blades and then a shout as one of his troopers died.  Marcus backed off to the side of the cave so that his back was to the damp wall. He heard more metal on metal and this time they were the screams and shouts of women as they died.

Gnaeus appeared from the dark and lurched towards Marcus.  He was trying to hold his entrails in. “I will see you in the Otherworld.” He slumped into Marcus’ arms. Even in death his Chosen Man did his job.  The wounded priestess stabbed the corpse in the back thinking it was Marcus. The decurion ripped his sword across her throat and her dead body fell across that of Gnaeus.

Silence filled the cave.  Then Marcus heard the steady drip of water from the roof.  Somewhere ahead one of the wounded gasped their dying breath and then was gone.

He heard a cackle from the corner, “So bearer of the Sword of Cartimandua you have escaped me yet.” Marcus said nothing.  He was trying to locate the witch through the sound of her voice.  He did not want to let her know where he was. “I know you live still.  I can feel you breathing. You have no power in this holy place, for this is the cave of the mother.”

He sensed a movement to his left and, as he turned, a wounded priestess hurled herself at him.  Her eyes were wild with fury and she had bared teeth.  Marcus thought his time had come until Felix’s arrow erupted like a third eye.

“You have luck, spawn of Ailis, I will give you that but now I will take it away from you.  I curse you and your line.  I call upon the power of the Mother to make you all suffer a long and painful death. I curse your family, your mother, your wife, your brother, your children.  I curse your land and I curse your animals.  And when you come to the Otherworld then I will inflict the direst of tortures upon you and your issue. And I will sit in this cave until my prediction comes to pass. I will watch generations suffer until there are none left to curse.” There was a pause. “I come!” The silence, punctuated by the drip returned.

Marcus waited an age.  He felt frozen to the ground. He was about to shout out when one of the troopers lit a torch and stood in the entrance. The sight which greeted him was horrific. The bodies of his troopers lay entwined with the dead priestesses.  He saw Flavia lying on the ground with a smile upon her face and there, seated beneath the dripping water sat a naked Caronwyn.  Her back was to the wall and on her head she wore the crown of the Brigante given to her by her mother, Morwenna.

Marcus knew that if he did not move now he would never move.  He sprang away from the wall and leapt for the entrance. Felix and Wolf preceded him. He would not enter the cave again.  No-one would.

“Lentius take four men and prise those rocks from above the entrance to the cave.  I want it sealed up forever.”

“But sir, the men!”

“I gave an order.  They died well and their bodies will not be harmed within this tomb.  Let them sleep with the witches and mayhap their spirits will protect us.”

The curse had worried Marcus.  All those who had heard it felt the power of the words.  Felix was shaking as they walked back to the horses. As they saddled the horses and laid the bodies of their men who had fallen in the camp on their mounts they heard a sound like thunder.  Lentius and his men stood atop the witch’s head and the rocks buried the cave. It was gone.

As they rode north in silence no-one wished to talk of the end of the line of Fainch, Morwenna and Venutius.  All were thinking of their own fate. The rebellion had been ended but its effects would linger.

Epilogue

As the VI
^th
finally disposed of the last of the Selgovae First Spear Quintus Broccus felt a sense of satisfaction.  The fortress they had built had survived.  The wall had not been breached and the rebellion was suppressed. He knew they could not have done it without the invaluable auxiliaries.  He even felt a little guilt for he had barely forty casualties and that included wounded.  He had seen, as they had marched west, the bodies which marked the defence of the wall. He had already sent a rider back to bring up the 11
^nd
Cohort.  The 1
^st
would return to Eboracum when they arrived but he would ensure that the legion had a presence on the wall.  He knew that it had been a mistake to withdraw it.

Banquo and his four oathsworn made it all the way to the west coast well below the wall.  Killing the fisherman and stealing his boat was simple.  He decided to head north. He would seek sanctuary at the court of King Tole and he would continue his fight against the Romans.  He was not the naïve warrior he had been.  He had learned much and the Romans would learn of his education.

As ‘
The Swan’
headed south Legate Julius Demetrius wondered if he should retire. He knew that not all of his decisions had been good ones. They had won but only just. Perhaps he should consider Furax’s words. He was too old to fight and he remembered when he had been a young officer in the ala how he had wondered at men too old to fight who gave orders.  Perhaps it was true that the great leaders such as Alexander and Julius Caesar had all died young. Old men like Crassus led men to their deaths and not to glory. He would wait until he was in warmer climes before he made that decision but his mind was already drifting south to the sun.

Marcus led his turma towards his brother’s farm. They would be arriving late at night but he would be given a welcome and he would feel safe there. Felix was silent as they headed along the track from the Roman Road.  The scene in the cave, Gnaeus’ death, all of it had upset the youth.  Marcus had thought that finding the last of the rebels would end it.  He was wrong.  He now had Caronwyn in his head.  The witch had known what she was doing when she cursed him and then took her own life. He smiled when he saw the familiar walls ahead.  The torches burning at the gate were welcoming and warm.

The man on the gate recognised them and shouted, “It is the decurion and his troopers!”

The gate swung open and he saw his brother advancing towards him. Behind him he saw Drugi with his arm around Frann. There were no welcoming smiles.

Marcus dismounted and Decius walked up to him.  He had been crying. He put his arms around Marcus’ shoulders. “Our mother is dead, brother.”

Marcus felt a chill grip his heart and squeeze.  He said, very quietly, “When?”

“Just after dark.  She was at the table.  She stood and cried, ‘It is the witch! She fell forward and she died.”

Marcus fell to his knees and began to sob.  The curse had begun. Who would be the next to fall victim to the witch?

The End

Maps

Maps Courtesy of Wikipedia

Historical Background

Aulus Nepos was the Governor of Britannia for a short time and it was his decision to enlarge Hadrian’s original ideas.  That proved expensive and his tenure was a mere three years. He was responsible for Housesteads and the other forts on the wall as well as those built north of the wall. His successor, Trebius Germanus, was a vague figure who may or may not have been Governor in 127 A.D.  As the next governor we know for certain was Sextus Severus 131-133, I have used Germanus.

The Dacians were stationed at Vercovicium on the wall and the Syrian archers did arrive at about the time the novel was set although they were not in time to aid Julius. South Shields became Arbeia or Arab Town, when the Hamians and the river boatmen from the Euphrates and Tigris arrived in the province making the north east quite a cosmopolitan place.

The Selgovae, Votadini and Brigante kept on revolting right up until the reign of Antoninus Pius who built the Antonine Wall to subjugate those tribes.  It never quite worked out and eventually Hadrian’s Wall became the northern frontier and the Brigante finally accepted Roman rule.

The building of the two walls was the last work of the legions in Britannia and the defence of the wall was left to the auxiliaries who were sent to the northern frontier to guard it. The wall itself was built largely as described.  Where there was plenty of local stone, in the east and the middle then it was made of stone.  In the west it was made of turf which is why the best sections to explore are in the centre of the wall.