Legionary: Viper of the North Read Online Free PDF Page A

soles worn to almost nothing. He shrugged. ‘So where did this one come from?’
     
    Avitus glanced at Quadratus, who nodded. ‘Thrift and, er, swift thinking,’ he replied.
     
    Avitus continued; ‘Aye, let’s just say we, er, salvaged what we could before the vultures took everything we had east, with the comitatenses. This fine device you see is hand-crafted from timber hewn from the warehouse shelves and iron smelted from a set of mail vests that . . . went missing.’
     
    Pavo grinned. ‘Nice work . . . ’ his words tailed off and the ground started to shake, he spun in the direction of the fortress. The decurion from the training field led his turmaof thirty equites at a trot towards the bridge. The riders were carrying the ruby and gold shields of the XI Claudia, holding hasta spears vertical and wearing mail shirts and intercisa helmets, their ruby cloaks fluttering in their wake. Behind them marched a column of fifty legionaries.
     
    ‘Really? Another vexillatio?’ Sura moaned.
     
    Pavo mouthed the same question. This was the sixth detachment that had been sent out in the last two days.
     
    ‘Aye. Something’s very wrong over there,’ Avitus frowned, looking north. ‘It’s all very well keeping the peace with Fritigern, but we must be down to what, a few hundred men?’
     
    The decurion at the head of the vexillatio issued a brisk salute to which Quadratus responded. Then, with a thunder of boots and hooves on timber, the party moved onto the bridge and on into Gutthiuda.
     
    Quadratus sighed and shrugged almost apologetically. ‘The order for that lot to be despatched came direct from Dux Vergilius, tucked up in the safety of a villa, miles to the south. What can we do when we are at the whims of a fool like him?’
     
    Pavo frowned. He had never met in person the Magister Militum Per Illyricum , the man nominally in charge of the armies of all Moesia and the river fleet. However, he had witnessed the man’s last visit to the fort: a grossly overweight, red-faced and constantly trembling individual, at ease only after he had emptied several goblets of wine.
     
    ‘Hello?’ Avitus chirped, shielding his eyes from the sun to look back to the fort. ‘Seems we have reinforcements?’
     
    Pavo and the rest of the group turned to look. There, approaching the fort gates from the southern highway, a column approached. A cluster of some fifteen finely armoured riders headed a column of two centuries of legionaries who filed up behind them, carrying freshly painted blue shields. The lead rider, distinguished by an old-style and somewhat exaggerated horsehair plume on his helmet, was calling up to the gatehouse. The sentry atop the walls was pointing north, right at the giant ballista. The leader nodded then barked to his infantry and all but ten of them split off to file inside the fort. Then, the remaining ten legionaries and the riders moved towards the ballista.
     
    ‘Comitatenses?’ Pavo reasoned, noticing the fine scale vests the foot soldiers wore. ‘I thought they had all gone east?’
     
    ‘Not all of them,’ Quadratus said with a sigh.
     
    ‘Sir?’ Pavo quizzed.
     
    ‘Going by the ridiculous plume, I’d say that was Comes Lupicinus. He was in charge of the Thracian field armies. I’d heard rumours that he had been left behind with a few centuries of men while his legions were summoned east. And let’s just say that Emperor Valens left him back here for a reason,’ the big Gaulish centurion rolled his eyes.
     
    ‘Aye,’ Avitus added, ‘I’ve heard of him; an arsehole who wouldn’t know the right end of a spatha until you shoved it in his gut.’
     
    Just then, a young legionary stumbled from the training field and into the path of the plumed rider’s horse. Then the rider thrashed at the young man with a cane and a sharp crack of wood on skin split the air followed by a roar of pain.
     
    ‘Just stay quiet, I’ll deal with him,’ Quadratus insisted.
     
    Pavo