Death of an Empire Read Online Free PDF

roughshod over the dreams of ordinary men.’
    ‘Not him. He’ll survive the worst that fate can throw at him and still flourish. We’d best be gone before first light, for I’d not put it past that devil to steal you away for the sake of his precious honour.’
    ‘Aye.’ Myrddion nodded in agreement. ‘Wake me at dawn.’
    The night was as cold as ever and the dried grasses under the copse of trees made an uncomfortable and itchy bed, but Myrddion was suddenly so exhausted that he couldn’t keep his eyes open. He plunged into the river of sleep as if he meant to drown himself, and through the marshes of the darkness night-horses sent horrors after him until his cries disturbed the other sleepers and Finn was forced to wake him with a worried frown.
    Londinium was a city that had been infiltrated and defeated by stealth. As the healers rode through its outskirts, heading for the southeastern roadway that would lead to Dubris on the coast,Myrddion couldn’t fail to recognise the hordes of Saxon traders clogging the Roman streets and a growing accumulation of filth where the clean outlines of stone drains had been become blurred with rubbish. The Roman passion for cleanliness was beginning to fade, while Celt, Saxon and dark-skinned traders from other lands hawked their wares in an argot of many mixed languages. Myrddion spied Romanised Celts dressed in togas and robes wearing expressions of permanent confusion, as if puzzled by the changes that had turned Londinium into a slatternly city.
    ‘The barbarians have taken Londinium without a single blow. See the traders? And beyond the villages, there are northern palisades that have no place in these lands.’ Cadoc’s face whitened a little and he shook his head like a shaggy hound. ‘Londinium can’t be allowed to fall, lord. What will happen to us if all sorts of wild men gain a foothold here?’
    ‘I don’t know, Cadoc,’ Myrddion whispered softly. ‘Hengist and his sons have set down roots in the north of the country, so many more Saxon ships will soon follow from the east. Before I die, I fear that the days will come when our whole green land will belong to the invaders . . . and our customs will be consigned to the middens of the past. Change has come, my friend, whether we want it or not.’
    Cadoc was affronted by Myrddion’s opinion, so he busied himself by carefully handling the reins of the four horses that were dragging the heavy wagon. ‘The Saxons won’t be permitted to lord it over our people while we can still fight. I know what those bastards are like. They destroy everything that is good in the name of their savage gods.’
    ‘I hope you’re right, Cadoc, but reason tells me that a change has come and only a fool pretends he can stop it. The Saxons aren’t wicked, just determined to find a permanent home. Perhaps Uther Pendragon can stop them, if anyone can.’
    ‘Now there’s a horrible thought,’ Cadoc muttered as he concentrated on controlling his team.
    ‘As you know, the cure is sometimes worse than the illness,’ Myrddion whispered, but his words were blown away in the stiffening breeze from the sea.
    The inhabitants of the towns of the south were nervous and inclined to be suspicious of strangers, for these people had endured the invasions led by Vortigern’s Saxon bodyguards, Hengist and Horsa, and struggled with Vortimer’s bloody retribution for their incursions into the Cantii lands, so the local elders now waited for the void created by warfare to be filled by some new, as yet unknown, threat. Strangers were not to be trusted, for lies come easily to the lips of greedy and ambitious men. But healers were in demand, so the wealth in Myrddion’s strongbox gradually increased through payments of silver and bronze coin and the odd rough gem, besides the barter of fresh vegetables and eggs in return for their ministrations. Of necessity, such aid as they could offer to the citizens along the road to Dubris slowed their