This caused me to straighten up; so I was not mistaken. Excitedly, I whispered back, “I saw it too. I thought I must have been seeing something, but I swore I saw him peeking at us.”
Sitting there for a moment, all three of us were clearly unable to speak. The implications were enormous; if Didius was accused by us and was found guilty, he would be crucified in front of the entire army, but not before he was scourged first as an example to all of what happened to cowards. As much as I despised him, I was not sure that I wanted the burden of such a horrible death on my conscience.
With that in my mind, I looked at Scribonius and asked, “What do you think we should do?”
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think there's anything we can do.”
This did not sit well with me, or Vibius for that matter and we both spoke up in protest, which Scribonius silenced with a wave of his hand.
“Think about it Pullus. It’s well known that you hate him, and he you. And it’s well known that he threatened you. I went and got Vellusius to split with him as close comrade, so there'll be suspicions about me as well.”
He paused to let this sink in, and I realized he was right.
However, I still did not feel right about it. “There has to be something we can do.”
Vibius spoke. “There is. But we can’t do it now. We’ll have to wait until we get back to the main camp.”
Searching his face in the gloom, it bore no hint of what he had in mind, so I accepted this idea with a shrug, as did Scribonius. With that matter temporarily settled we lay down, pulling our cloaks from our packs to keep out the evening chill, aware that getting as much rest as possible under the circumstances was vital. It was not until I lay down that I was struck by a thought, sitting bolt upright with a curse, startling Vibius and the other men around me.
“What in the name of Dis has gotten into you?” Vibius demanded.
Ignoring him, I quickly undid my harness instead, then climbed to my knees, shaking my armor until something dropped out. Vibius obviously heard something plop on the ground, and asked curiously, “What was that?”
I did not answer; instead, I picked up the finger then held it close enough for him to see what it was. He squinted as I moved it almost under his nose, then his eyes shot open in shock and he recoiled.
“You bastard!”
He said this loudly enough for others to drown him out with orders to shut his mouth, and I don’t think I had ever laughed that hard in my life. Throwing the finger out over the parapet and still chuckling, I lay back down, falling asleep immediately.
Suddenly awakened by the call “To arms!” I opened my eyes to chaos. Men on relief were scrambling to their feet, fumbling for their weapons in the dark, while all around us was the crashing din and cries of men fighting.
“What’s happening?” Vibius called out as we tried to make sense of the situation.
Out of the dark, the answer made our hearts drop.
“The wall's been breached!”
Whirling around, I tried to determine where the danger was coming from, but doing so was extremely difficult because of the gloom. Consequently, it took a moment before I could determine where the sounds of battle seemed to be emanating from, and I turned to Vibius who had just finished pulling on his helmet. Indicating he was ready, we began making our way to the sounds of the battle, but the bulk of the Pilus Prior suddenly appeared from the dark, and I felt his rough hand grab my arm.
“Where do you think you’re going you big oaf?” he growled.
“To the fighting Pilus Prior.”
I could barely make out the crest on his helmet moving as he sneered, “And what if this is just a diversion? That’s just what the cunni want us to do.”
“But I thought the wall was breached.”
He laughed. “That’s just some woman posing as a Legionary saying that. They attacked all right, but they haven’t breached anything yet and aren’t going to, unless you fall for a trap like that.”
Chastened, I turned back in the direction of where I thought my position was, with him giving me a helping shove to get back to my post. Stumbling back over to our designated area, where those comrades already on watch were still standing, Vibius and I joined them to peer into the dark. A short distance away, we could see the winking lights of the enemy campfires, the Lusitani camping far enough away where it was impossible to determine whether there were men gathered around it.
“Figures those bastards would pull a stunt like this and put us on full alert so we won’t get a wink of sleep. Or a bite to eat.”
Vaguely I recognized the voice of a man in the second section, since the first five had drawn first duty, and I sympathized, but sleep was now out of the question, at least for me so I spoke up, “How about we take over and you boys go get your rations, as long as you promise to come back here quick so we all don’t get on the punishment list for deserting our posts?”
I sensed a movement as someone turned to peer in my direction in the gloom, trying to make out who their benefactor was. “Pullus, is that you? That’s a splendid idea. May Fortuna smile on you for thinking of us and grant you long life.”
I flushed with pleasure as they hurried by, proud of myself for what I had done.
“You do realize that when he’s wishing you a long life, it just means that he’s wishing the same for himself, since if you live the chances are good he will too,” this came from Vibius, who always had a knack for finding the rat turd in the honey.
“You don’t know that,” I responded indignantly, “because I may die a week from now, and he might die tomorrow.”
“True, but first we have to get through tonight.”
Pilus Prior Crastinus had been right; the attack was a diversion. Apparently during their council of war, they decided on a different approach than what they used during their daylight attack, instead setting out to do the worst thing that they could under our circumstances, what we had feared since we climbed the hill, or at least since Calienus made us aware of it. As they were making a demonstration on one side, the bulk of the remaining Lusitani, using their skills as hunters, climbed stealthily up to within a few paces of the wall before leaping up with a great cry. It was as if apparitions from the underworld just materialized from the ground, the kind of numen that mothers tell young children about to make them behave. Faint moonlight glinted silver on their brandished weapons as they closed the distance to the wall in a matter of a few heartbeats, with the main impact several paces away from me. Even though the Lusitani focused their attack across a narrow area, we could not afford to move to help the others trying to hold them back since the Lusitani in the rear ranks would immediately shift from their spot to flow over the deserted wall like a raging flood sweeps away an earthen barrier. Consequently, we were forced to endure the sounds of fighting, more furious than ever before, and for the first time we heard the cries of our own men dying, crying out in our tongue as they fell. Gripping my sword tightly, as if it would help me to shut out the sounds, I kept my eye on the area in front of me and I am sure that my comrades were trying to do the same thing. I heard the bellows of the Pilus Prior, along with Pilus Posterior Vetruvius, exhorting the men around them to hold, using a combination of threats and promises as a means to motivate our men to fight ever harder. For the second time that night, we heard the cry that the wall was breached, and I peered hard in that direction, trying to determine whether this was another false alarm. It did seem that this time there was more of a tumult, an impression of a flurry of movement, while the noise changed, sounding nearer than ever before. Gritting my teeth, I turned to head over in that direction, but a hand pushed at my chest.