"A spare for every man. That should do it. "
"Good, then take half as many again, as a reserve. You can't replace a cavalry mount in the field unless you have one with you. "
I had a sudden image of my expedition travelling overland: more than twelve hundred horses! "My God, " I said. "The logistics of that are frightening!"
"Then delegate, Brother. We've no lack of logistics personnel. You'll need either wagons or pack animals to carry grain and other supplies. Wagons would be better, but they'll tie you to the roads again. Your spare animals can carry packs and your Scouts will all care for their own animals, so you won't need an army of camp followers to tend your needs. "
"We'll be moving slowly, then. "
He looked at me from beneath raised eyebrows. "What does that mean? Your' slowly' will yet be faster than heavy troopers or infantry could move. You won't be galloping all the way, but you'll move easily enough. So, are we agreed on this? Me for Cambria with the two legions and you for the far northeast with five hundred Scouts?"
I nodded my head. "We are. When do we begin?"
"We've begun, Brother. Now all we have to do is put our agreement into effect/Within the week, we'll both be gone from here, and Camulod will be safe in the able hands of Dedalus. Have you given any thought to your route? And how long would you expect to be away?"
"Two questions, one affecting the other. " I paused considering both of diem. "I think my best route would be the one you and I took last time. At least I'm familiar with it. We'll head east from here until we reach the Saxon occupied territories, and then abandon the roads and strike out northward, overland, probably sooner than we did before, since the occupied area has probably grown bigger. What are you smiling at?"
His smile grew broader. "Remembering our magic feat, the day we made ourselves identical and terrified those raiders by shooting at them alternately from places we could not possibly have been as one man alone, and yet all they could see was one man. What was that big Anglian's name, the farmer whose life we saved, do you recall?"
I thought for a moment, remembering the occasion from eight, could it have been nine years earlier? "Something ungodly, almost unpronounceable. Guth? Guth-something or other. "
"Guthilrod, wasn't it? There was a strange 'thlr' not a Celtic one—in there somewhere."
"Gethelrud! That was it, Gethelrud. "
"Will you visit him, think you?''
"Visit him? D' you think me mad, with five hundred men and three times that many horses? I can imagine his face, seeing me there in his yard! We couldn't even speak to each other last time, when I was alone. "
My brother was still smiling. "He may have learned our tongue since then. "
"Latin? Oh yes, I'm sure he must have, almost certainly. He probably writes regularly to the Emperor nowadays, in Constantinople. No, Brother, I'll be doing no visiting. I'll be moving as quickly as I can. As for how long it may take me to come back, how long do you expect to be in Cambria? I'll come back when I can, but not before I've done what must be done. Three months would be the shortest time, I'd guess."
"Aye, that's what I thought. You might then have to come and rescue me from Cambria."
I smiled at that. "I will, if I have to, and I'll bring the Third Legion with me, since the threat from the northeast will be resolved by then." I looked at my brother, taking great strength from his confidence and his ardour for the crucial task at hand. "Have I ever told you how glad I am you're here?" He looked at me in surprise and I grinned at him. "No, I mean it. I shudder to think of what my life would be, had you and I not met. I would have missed the better half of myself and would have had to live with half a brain. I thank God, frequently, for your existence, for the fact that we are kin, and for the miracle of meeting you."
"Kin? Man, we are practically twins."
"I know, and that calls for a drink." I glanced around me. "I suppose everyone else is long abed. We've been talking here for long enough to outlive the lamps, and the fire's almost dead."
Ambrose sat up straight and grunted. "Aye, well I'll replenish the fire and see to some of the lamps, if you'll find us some mead. There should be some left on the shelves in the triclinium."
By the time I returned, clutching a flask and two stemmed glass cups, he had remade the fire and was pouring oil carefully into one of the failing lamps. I sat down and poured mead for both of us, then waited until he returned to his seat and picked up his cup.
"You know, while I was looking for the mead, one thing occurred to me—a flaw. It's the only one I can see in what we've planned, but it's enormous."
He sipped at his drink, and I watched the expressions flow across his face as he tried to guess what I was talking about. "Very well, you must be more perceptive than I am, because I can't see it. What is it?"
'The whole thing is backwards."
He frowned, trying to make sense of that. "I don't follow you. What's backwards?"
"Our plan. I should be the one going to Cambria and you the one headed for Northumbria, because I don't speak the languages they use up there and you do."
Now he scowled. "That's nonsense, on three counts. First, Vortigern speaks Latin—"
"Granted, but Vortigern and all his people might be dead, and you speak the tongue of the Outlanders, the Danes."
"Aye, but only poorly, and I've no knowledge of the other tongues at all—Anglian, and the gibbering of the Jutes."
"But it's Horsa's Danes who worry us. Theirs is the tongue we need, even for listening. It doesn't matter if we ever talk to them, as long as we can listen to them speak among themselves, hear them and know what they are saying. I'm useless there. You should be the one to go."
"No, I disagree. And here's my second objection. If I go there and find Vortigern alive, I might have difficulty leaving again."
That caught me unprepared. "What d'you mean? You would prefer to stay there?"
"Of course not! It's simply that..." He hesitated, seeking the right words. "If Vortigern's alive, and I turn up there in his lands with half a thousand horsemen, he might be inclined to... seek to restrain me from leaving again. My force would give him an enormous advantage."
"You think he might use force?"
"No, not at all. Discourage me from leaving would be more accurate. Don't forget, I was once among his senior and most trusted captains. Until I met you and decided to come south to meet my own people, he had all my loyalty. In any event, he would try to find some way to persuade me to use my troops in his support. "
"It would be no different if I were leading them. "
"Ah, but it would. You would leave when the time came, and he would be quite powerless to stop you, whereas he might convince himself that I yet owe him loyalty. He might make it very... difficult for me. I would defy him, if I had to, but I would not enjoy that, and the thought of having to lead my men against his—against him—makes me cold with loathing. "
That made me pause. I had almost forgotten the extent of Ambrose's former ties to Vortigern. But then, evaluating what he had said, I accepted it and moved on. "You said my suggestion made no sense on three counts. You've given me two—what is the other?"
"Ah! You're not familiar with my campaign plan for Cambria, or with the strategy I've devised. "
"We can change that in a matter of days. How well do you know Cambria?"
"I don't, not well at all. "
"And do you speak the tongue fluently? Or that of Cornwall?'
He shook his head.
"And I do. I speak the tongues, and I know the land and the terrain. You explain your strategy to me, and I'll carry it out. On the matter of Vortigern's being tempted to coerce you into staying, I doubt that's likely. I don't think Vortigern would dare to make an enemy of you and your force. He has too many real enemies already. So I'll act as you intended to, and you will act as I would have, had I gone to Northumbria. Remember, we are almost identical, so no one seeing either of us from afar will be able to tell which of us he is seeing anyway. It only makes sense, then, that each of us should do what he does best. Don't you agree?'