Caesar boggled for a moment and then sighed.
“Do what you have to. Just get me in that city.”
He turned to the rest of the officers.
“Have the legions construct a camp, then. Looks like we’ll be here for a while.”
* * * * *
Fronto stared at Tetricus.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The tribune turned back to see his legate and smiled, the moonlight picking out details on his man’s frame, as he collected the massive, coiled rope from the ground beside him. Camp had been completed in mid afternoon and already the ditch and rampart had been begun, stretching half a mile with six feet of depth and height respectively. The finished product would be twice that.
“Measuring the height of the tower.”
“What?”
Tetricus grinned.
“We need to know the height of the cliffs so we can work out what dimensions the tower must be. I estimated earlier on, but we need a more accurate measurement.”
Fronto laughed. Only an engineer…
“So you’re out in the no-mans-land in the dark with a rope. You are a madman, you know that?”
Tetricus shrugged.
“Safer at night. This is actually a lot easier in bright sun, but the Aduatuci would probably drop things on me.”
Fronto blinked.
“You’re actually going to climb that in the dark and measure it?”
“No, no, no. It’s very simple. I know I’m five feet and four inches tall, yes?”
“If you say so.”
“And I’ve measured my shadow and cut a length of rope to fit.”
“Err… alright” Fronto agreed hesitantly.
“So while the moon is at this height, that length of rope is equal to five feet four inches.”
“Yes?” the legate said uncertainly.
“So now I just have to get to the base of the cliff and measure the shadow of the cliff and I can work out how tall it is.”
“If you say so.”
Tetricus laughed.
“You’re not a scientific man, are you, sir?”
“You have no idea, my friend. Come on. I’ll be your bodyguard while you do your sums.”
The two men strode off quickly and quietly into the moonlit night, leaving behind the lights and sounds of the camp. While they walked, Tetricus frowned as he regarded his superior officer.
“Would you be offended if I asked you a couple of personal questions, sir?”
Fronto laughed quietly.
“Gaius, I think we’ve known one another long enough by now you can stop calling me sir when there are none of the junior ranks around.”
“Force of habit. Would you mind?”
“Go ahead.”
The jagged rocks that formed the massive fortress of the Aduatuci loomed less than a quarter of a mile distant and it occurred once again to Fronto that this could be a dangerous and even foolhardy little jaunt.
“Your arm’s not getting any better, is it?”
Fronto shook his head. He’d been trying not to think too hard about that. A future as a one-armed man was not a pretty picture.
“Perhaps not. I’m not sure. The doctors say that since I can still feel the pain in it, then it’s still alive. They think the…” he tried to think back to what he’d been told. “Like in torsion artillery, where you wind ropes tight? Well that’s sort of how the arm works. The doc said that some of the most important points in the workings have been badly damaged. He said that if it’s still viable that it’ll slowly heal and I’ll start to get some movement back, though it’ll take a long time and a lot of exercise.”
He sighed.
“Or possibly there was too much damage and it’s severed inside. Then basically I have a decorative limb. I’m sort of hoping that’s not the case.”
Tetricus nodded.
“You’re a very private person, I’ve noticed, legate? No one has dared ask you about your arm before now, I’ll bet.”
Fronto nodded.
“Stop looking into my mind… it’s irritating.”
Tetricus smiled.
“I think that a lot of people who think they know you don’t know you half as well as they think they do.”
Fronto gave him a warning glance.
“Anything else?”
Tetricus took a deep breath.
“The woman.”
“What?”
“That native woman you left in Noviodunum?”
Fronto, unseen in the night, rolled his eyes.
“What about her?”
“Why look after her only to then leave her behind? You should by rights have thrown her in with the captives. She should be sold in Rome with the rest of them. Most officers would have done that… or killed her.”
“I don’t like killing girls.”
“But to protect her from everyone and then just discard her among the Belgae?”
Fronto looked across at his companion. Tetricus was clearly weighing him up somehow.
“Go on…”
“Well.” The tribune took a deep breath. “I hope you don’t take offence at this, but… well, I saw the way you looked at her.”
“What?”
“Like a hungry man staring at a cooked lamb. I know that look.”
Fronto growled.
“I think this conversation is over.”
“Fair enough. Any time you want to talk, though, I’ll listen.”
The tribune turned back to look at the looming cliff, missing the unpleasant glare that Fronto threw after him. Muttering things under his breath that he wasn’t really sure even he believed, he hurried and caught up with the tribune, just as they passed into the shadow cast by the bright moon in the east.
“Not far now.”
Fronto nodded.
“So what? We pin the rope and then walk back to camp?”
Tetricus nodded.
“I’ve got to…” he trailed off. “Did you see that?”
Fronto’s face took on a sudden serious cast.
“What?”
He frowned and follows Tetricus’ pointing finger.
“Shit!”
Shadowy shapes moved, silhouetted, across the ground between the oppidum and the partially-constructed siege works.
“These bastards are tricky. We’d best go warn the legions. Obviously they’ve not been seen or we’d have heard the call go up.”
Tetricus grasped his wrist as he turned.
“No point” he hissed. “Watch them…”
Fronto stopped and squinted into the moonlight at the black shapes. Tetricus was right; they were swarming back up the slope toward the oppidum’s gate.
The tribune raised an eyebrow. Do we go check, or just back to camp?”
“We check. I don’t like the look of this. The guards at the rampart should have raised the alarm. They must have seen them.”
Tetricus dropped the length of rope and the two men jogged across the eerie moonlit landscape with its streaks of black, grey and white where poplars cast their shadows. They watched the last few shadowy shapes disappear among the defences on the slope as they came within clear view of the fortifications.
The torches and braziers of the guards still burned, but there was no polished reflection of helm or spear in the silvery glare.
“This is not good.”
The two men skittered to a halt at the near end, where the ditch in front was only two feet deep, with the rampart of discarded earth the same height. Fronto strode purposefully across to the nearest brazier. Soldiers should have been sheltering over it, warming their hands in the night breeze, but no. No men here.
Scanning the area, he noted shapes on the floor nearby. With a sigh, he strode over, already sure of the guards’ fate.
Sure enough, only a few yards from the brazier, a contubernium of eight men lay piled atop each other. Reaching down, he rolled the top man aside. Tetricus crouched next to him and examined the man.
“Strangled with a laqueus. From behind, clearly.”
He examined the pile of men.
“Same for them all. They must have come out of nowhere and overwhelmed all the guards before they could raise an alarm.”