Camulod Chronicles Book 8 - Clothar the Frank Read Online Free PDF Page A

Father?"
    I looked up at my youngest son, noting his hushed voice and seeing the curiosity and wonder in his wide eyes, and then I pushed myself to my feet and looked back again at the lumpy shapes of the bones beneath the bed skins.
    "A friend, Clovis, and more than that, trusted above all others save one, yet trusted equally with that one. A dear and priceless friend, although his very name struck terror into other people's souls. The man who fleshed these bones was a hero in the truest sense, greater than any hero you have ever dreamed of. Larger than life itself and more marvelous than any tale could tell of him."
    I stooped again and tucked the dusty coverings more securely around the ethereal form on the bed. "In addition to that, he was the sole man in Britain who had perhaps more integrity and honour than the King himself; a champion, born of the noblest blood of ancient Rome . . . as well as a teacher and a mentor greater than any I have ever known, including the blessed Germanus." Again I straightened up, my eyes still fixed on the body's outline. "Above all else, however, first and last, he was my friend, although he forced me to abandon all my friends and thereby saved my life. This is Merlyn, Clovis."
    I heard a strangled, gurgling gasp. My son's face was now filled with fear and horror. "He was a leper!"
    I fought to swallow my sudden, unreasonable anger. It was I myself who had told Clovis of the leprosy, but I had no control over the fear the very mention of the dread disease could generate. I willed myself to smile, disparaging his fear without demeaning him. "At least you didn't say he was a sorcerer. Most people did, and many thought he was both: leper and sorcerer, cursed by Heaven." The lad stood motionless, gazing at me wide eyed, and I stepped closer to him, placing one arm about his shoulders and sweeping the other towards the bed. "He has been dead for years, Clovis, you can see that, so any threat of leprosy that ever was is long since gone. And he was never a sorcerer, despite what silly people say. You have nothing to fear from Merlyn, nor would you have were he alive and sitting here today, so take that awestruck look off your face. We have work to do here."
    My son swallowed and made an effort to empty his face of fear. "What kind of work, Father?"
    "A burial, for one thing. And we have to make a litter to carry those." I gestured to the two large bundles lying between us and the bed. "If you look, I think you'll find they are for me."
    He blinked, frowning, then bent over to peer at the bundles before stretching out one hand to tug a small oblong package free from the leather strips that bound the larger. He held it up to his eyes, squinting in the gloom of the tiny room as his lips formed the letters of the single word written on it.
    "Hastatus? What does that mean?"
    "It means I'm right. That was his name for me. It means spearman in the old Roman tongue."

    "No, that's lancearius."

    "Aye, it is now, but a lancearius is a spear thrower and he's a cavalryman, throwing from horseback. The old word was hastatus, and the hastatus was an infantryman. He held on to his spear. Had he thrown it, he would have left himself weaponless."
    Clearly mystified, Clovis frowned and held the package out to me. I took it, hefting it in my hand and gauging the weight of it as being equal to four, perhaps six sheets of parchment.
    "Spearman," he repeated, as though testing the sound of the word.
    "Aye, Spearman. Sometimes he shortened it to Spear— Hasta."
    "I thought the old word for a spear was pilum."
    I glanced at him again, surprised to hear that he had even heard of the weapon. "It was, but the pilum was a different kind of spear from the hasta, heavy and cumbersome with a long, thin iron neck—a rod that made up half the length of the thing. It was too heavy to throw far, a defensive weapon, designed to be thrust into an enemy's shield. The pilum would bite deep and then the iron rod would bend and the