Sword of Rome: Standard Bearer Read Online Free PDF Page B

with
the other – and plunged it into his enemy’s right eye. The blood curdling
scream cut through the air, as all matter of creatures retreated further into
the woods, frightened by the unnatural noise. Reacting at the same time – and
with the same swiftness - Oppius pulled out his
dagger and threw it into the barrel-chest of the youth who still had an arrow nooked upon his bow. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by the
other brigand to his right. Oppius caught his
knife-hand though as he was about to slash – and slammed his forearm into his
opponent’s face, crunching and crushing the cartilage in his nose. Oppius then twisted his hand back so the brigand
relinquished his dagger to him. The blood gushing from his face soon ran into
that coming from his throat, as the centurion sliced open his neck. Oppius looked up to check where the remaining brigand was,
readying himself to fend him off – but all he could see was a figure racing
through the forest. The wood was too dense for Teucer to take him down with a shot from his bow.
    “How far is the nearest village?” Oppius asked, concerned that the remaining brigand could
quickly raise a larger force.
    “Far enough, but we should get moving,” the
Briton replied, seemingly unmoved by the news about his mother and older
brother.

 

 
 
    13.

 
    Evening fell.
    Caesar finally dismissed his legates and
high-ranking centurions. On his own, he sighed and buried his head in his
hands, his elbows resting upon a make-shift map unfurled upon the table. He
closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Not even Servilia was this exhausting, he joked to himself. The encampment was fortified though
and supplies sufficient, for now. Yet a prospective shortage of food and the
absence of his cavalry meant that he could not make further inroads into
Britain and satisfy his ambitions. He sighed again and screwed up his face in
disdain as he thought of how he would have to court and win over some of the
local tribal chieftains. It should have been that they needed to court and win
him over. Perhaps he should make an example of one of the tribes – and the rest
might fall into line. Yet such an action could galvanise them against him. Yet they already seemed to have allied themselves against
him. Original intelligence had suggested that factional in-fighting would
prevent a grand alliance. Was it the case that the Roman agent on these shores
was not just recruiting soldiers for Gaul, but conspiring with the tribes here
to defeat him?
    Caesar briefly turned his thoughts to his new
centurion and wondered how he was progressing. He had fought well in the
shallows upon the beach; Caesar envisioned that he would fare equally well upon
being thrown in at the deep end. One of the legates had approached him that
day, saying that one of Oppius ’ comrades, one Roscius , said that he would be willing to be sent out to
help the centurion with his mission. Caesar admired the centurion for the
loyalty and friendship he had inspired but he refused the request. At the very
least he hoped that Oppius would be able to kill the
traitor. Joseph had asked him the other evening that if the centurion returned
and said that he had completed his mission and murdered the agent how would he
know if he was telling the truth?
    “Soldiers are honest souls Joseph - it’s a
politician who you need to distrust when he promises you something.”
    Caesar next turned his attention to some of
the correspondence on his table. Letters from Brutus, Pompey and Balbus all needed responding to. Yet the first letters he
replied to were that of Julia, his daughter, and Octavius ,
his young nephew. He smiled upon reading Julia’s letter when she mentioned
overhearing Cicero at a party.
    “Do you know any man, even if he has
concentrated on the art of oratory to the exclusion of all else, who can speak
better than Caesar? Or anyone who makes so many witty
remarks? Or whose vocabulary is so varied and yet so exact?”
    He