Strategos: Island in the Storm Read Online Free PDF

which to guard the mouth of that route. While our garrison holds the former and the sultan’s men the latter, neither side has the advantage. But should the sultan seize Manzikert, then he will be master of the Gateway. He will be free to pour his armies into these lands,’ he swept a hand back in the direction from which they had come, ‘and upon our homes.’ His men fell silent at the thought. Even the surly rider had paled.
    ‘That is why our emperor summons us and the rest of his armies to march east at haste, to seize Chliat from Seljuk hands and to make Lake Van our own.’ He clenched a fist and met each of their eyes. ‘So when the sultan comes calling, he will find only a wall of steel and sharpened spears – and the gateway closed to him and his hordes!’
    They cheered at this, rapping their spears on their shields. Just behind, the ranks of the infantry joined in for good measure. ‘ Ha-ga!´ they chanted.
    Apion rode ahead again, satisfied that he had quelled their doubts and fired their hearts. He started to think ahead, glancing to the sun and judging how far they had to ride before they would be at the Euphrates. Just then, Sha ranged level with him, Kaspax coming with the Malian.
    ‘We should probably form a vanguard, sir,’ Sha suggested.
    Apion squinted into the shimmering golden mountains that lay before them. ‘True, we are at the edge of the empire.’
    ‘Kaspax here reckons he’s ready to lead the van,’ Sha motioned to the lad.
    Apion looked Kaspax over. His tanned features and curly, dark locks were reminiscent of the lad’s father. But the similarities ended there: while everything about Atticus’ demeanour had cried boldness, Kaspax’s taut lips and wide eyes reeked of apprehension. He considered sending Sha on to lead the vanguard instead, then wondered what it might do to the lad’s confidence. Maybe confidence, that delicate flower, is all that is missing? he mused. ‘Take ten riders and stay vigilant,’ he flicked his head forward.
    Kaspax issued a stiff salute and set off, waving a clutch of ten horsemen with him.
    ‘He’s a good rider, sir,’ Sha said, reading Apion’s thoughts. ‘He just needs to understand that. Keeps comparing himself to his father.’
    ‘Understandable. Atticus was a boisterous big whoreson,’ Apion chuckled, recalling the time the hulking soldier had challenged Blastares to a bout of wrestling after several skins of wine. That had been a messy evening.
    With impeccable timing, a snorting noise sounded from behind them. Blastares, leading the infantry there, spat the contents of his throat to the ground then struck up a tuneless chorus to rouse the march-weary men;
    ‘So I woke in a byre one morning,’
    The men perked up and joined in. So I woke in a byre one morning,
    ‘With me what I thought was a whore,’
    With me what I thought was a whore,
    ‘But when I opened my eyes, I got a mighty surprise,’
    But when I opened my eyes, I got a mighty surprise . . . the men continued albeit a little more uncertainly.
    ‘When I saw that I had screwed a boar!’ Blastares roared in a joyous crescendo before falling silent, realising he was singing alone.
    The column slowed just a fraction, all the riders looking at Blastares in horror. Apion and Sha shared a bemused glance as the big man reddened in shame.
    ‘Eyes front!’ Blastares barked to the riders, then twisted to the infantry who had let him down. ‘And you lot, stay in line!’ Red-faced, Blastares ranged forward to join Sha and Apion, cricking his neck this way and that in an overly-vigorous manner. ‘Just trying to lift their spirits. Ungrateful bast - ’
    ‘How is Tetradia?’ Sha cut in.
    Blastares’ mood lifted at once, his humiliation of moments ago forgotten. ‘Wondrous,’ he beamed.
    Apion chuckled, recalling the curvaceous and ‘lively’ woman the big soldier had met at Melitene in the previous year’s campaign.
    ‘Wondrous, aye?’ another voice added. Old Procopius rode