Ironroot

S. J. A. Turney Ironroot

I always take a walk the night before a fight; always have. Helps clear the mind and lets you focus on the job at hand. Some people drink; some make love. I walk. Of course, it helps that I’m an officer and I can leave the camp any time I like.

Where we’d camped that night there was a small river a little to the north. Not much of a river really; more of a stream, but it ran down into a deep copse of copper coloured beech trees. I strolled from the north gate out into the moonlit night and wandered aimlessly in the general direction of the copse.

I had my armour on and my sword with me, partially because over the years it’s become such habit I often forget I’m wearing them, but also because I was leaving the camp and there were barbarians out there. To the south, for sure, but you never know.

The peace out there on the blasted moonlit heath was a balm and a blessing once you left the echoes of the raucous and nervous men in the camp far behind. The only sounds were the wind blowing through the heather and the long grass, the occasional rustle as something nocturnal scampered away from you, and once or twice the eerie, haunting call of an owl.

I’d no need of a torch or lantern. A lantern would have guttered and died in the moorland winds anyway, but the moon was full and white and shone with the aura of the Huntress. It was almost as bright as day. And I descended the slope toward the stream, my boots beginning to make sucking sounds as I stepped into the soft peat on the hillside. Reaching the stream, I stopped for a moment, trying to decide which direction to take. I may have been drawn toward the copse, or perhaps I later imagined that, given the events that unfolded. For whatever the reason, I turned and followed the babbling brook into the trees.

There everything was dark; a sort of primal darkness, such as must fill the endless halls of the underworld. I almost turned back; should have really. I’d walked far enough and needed to be among the men before we turned in. Something made me go on; again I’m not sure whether it was mere curiosity or something more. Sounds mystical and strange, I know. I’m not really a very religious man. Like most of us brought up in the chaos of the Imperial Interregnum, I paid lip service to the Gods of the Empire while maintaining my own private belief in the ability of a man to control his own destiny.

The Gods may have had other ideas. You see there are many other Gods that aren’t commonly prayed to in the Empire, but that are held in equally high esteem by the peoples on our borders. I’d been fighting the northern barbarians long enough to become quite familiar with some of these fringe deities, such as the wolf of battle, Hrogar and, of course, Cernus.

And as I stumbled along in the claustrophobic darkness of the trees, I stumbled upon a slope; almost tumbled rather than stumbled, I should say. I reached out and grasped the rough bark of a tree and regained my footing. A single animal track, probably a badger, led away and down to my right and curiously I followed it into a dell; a shallow depression sheltering a pool. It was a small pool, still as glass and reflecting the bright moon on its dark surface, framed by wavering branches. It was so still and peaceful as I wandered down through the trees to the water’s edge.

And saw the truth of these ‘fringe Gods’. I saw Cernus.

Across the water, on the far shore he stood. Among the shadows but bathed in silver moonlight, the great white stag watched me calmly. I’ve met ordinary low barbarians who became chieftains and led armies into battle just because they’d seen Cernus in the flesh. To see the Stag God by the light of the full moon is one of the tribes’ most powerful portents, though at the time I was blissfully unaware of this. I felt something that I find difficult to describe; as though I had been skewered by a thought. A single consciousness had passed from the great Stag across the water and entered my eyes, filling me with a silvery certainty. Something vast and important had just occurred that was not for me to yet fully understand. All I knew for certain was that this creature was no forest game, but a spirit of the most powerful and profound sort. And I still feel that there was no accident involved; no coincidence. Cernus drew me to that wood. Over the coming weeks it was an opinion shared by two others.

For that moment, I stood rigid, my mind filled with the shimmering light of the lake and the God that stood beside it.

And suddenly I was dismissed. My mind cleared and I actually staggered a little. A sceptic would say that a cloud drifted across the moon and shattered the silvery reflection on the water’s surface, and this is indeed true, but that was the coincidence. The stag let out a deep breath, a cloud of steam whisked away by the low breeze in the dell.

I felt in some way hollow; as though I’d just lost something truly important from my being. And yet, at the same time, I felt a certainty; a surety that something important had just transpired, but that something of even greater import lay ahead. One thing of which I was certain was that the battle the next morning held no fear for me. I would survive the following day.

I bowed once; quietly and with military precision and with an almost imperceptible acknowledgement, Cernus turned and strode silently away through the dark hollow beneath the trees. With a sense of purpose, I turned on my heel and picked my way up the difficult badger track and along through the copse to the point where the stream entered. Climbing the sucking, peaty slope once more, I set my gaze on the distant flicker of torches and made my way back to the comfort and human warmth of the camp.

Chapter One

Lucius Varro, captain of the second cohort of the fourth army, tightened his grip on the large, heavy shield covering most of his body. The knuckles of his right hand whitened as he held fast to the short sword by his side, watching the ragged line of the barbarians only a hundred yards away, taunting their enemy, chanting unintelligible war cries and howling. Such behaviour may frighten their neighbouring tribes but it would take more than a few grunts and screams to turn the hearts of the Imperial army. Glancing down, he carefully memorised once more the ground beneath his feet.

A low grassy slope leading up to the enemy line; not the best terrain. There had been a strategy meeting in the command tent yesterday and Varro had been only one of several arguing over the need to make the terrain work with the army, but the prefect had been adamant that the incline be granted to the barbarians in order to keep the sun behind the imperial line. The discussion had raged on into the late afternoon, the Commander waving aside all suggestions regarding archers, slingers and artillery. This would be an easy fight, after all. Prefect Cristus had a disconcerting habit of ignoring the best tactical advice of his officers, yet had a track record of glorious successes regardless. But then the prefect would not be there to see the effect of his decisions, travelling to Vengen for a staff meeting as he now was. And though Varro had taken a long walk last night before the battle, it had done little to calm him. His eyes refocused on the grassy incline.

Only a couple of feet ahead lay what looked like a rabbit hole. Better be careful of that. One slip and he’d be delivered back to the fort in the dead-wagon. He shrugged his shoulders and felt the interlocking plates of his armour settle slightly as the weight distributed, eradicating that annoying pinch in his shoulder. He smiled.

Glancing to his left, he saw the standard bearer holding aloft the magnificent raven banner with the image of the emperor and the ram with a lightning bolt, symbol of the Fourth. Belianus glanced back at him and grinned.

“I wish they’d just charge. My feet ache.”

Varro laughed and returned his gaze to the enemy, whose blue-painted faces twisted with violent lust. Someone behind him began to whistle. He began to drift into a reverie once more, his mind tracking back through nineteen years in the Third and then Fourth Northern Armies, and five years of the civil war before that, serving in the private army of Velutio. Things had changed so much in his short time in this world. Shaking his head slightly, he returned his focus to the enemy line and saw some of the warriors in the centre lurch forward. Their companions remained in place, howling, and the bulge soon flattened back into the line. Stupid! How could anyone fight a battle without tactics or direction? Still, the barbarians were getting twitchy and any moment now that line would break as they surged down the hill towards the waiting steel line of the Empire. The second cohort, along with the first and the third, held the centre of the Imperial line. It was here the charge would hit hardest. He cleared his throat.