The Goose Guards Read Online Free PDF

much!”

    The stranger peered at her through the darkness. “One man with an army behind him can,” he said.
    “Oh,” Fabia muttered, and I felt pleased to see her squashed.
    “Lord Furius has the army ready to attack,” Cominius explained.

    “But he needs orders. He needs me to return and tell him you wish to be rescued.”
    Marcus Manlius led the way to the temple where the priests and the soldiers were eating a miserable meal of corn and watery wine. “My friends, we have news from Lord Furius,” he said. “The army is gathered at Veii. He wants to know if we want his help.”

    Marius rose to his feet. Like Fabia, his manner was quiet and tired now. “Lord Furius was banished from Rome. He is a rogue and we sent him away for his crimes.”
    Marcus Manlius said, “Then we can stay here and die. The Gauls will overrun the temples. They will pull down the statues of our gods.

    The past three weeks of struggle will have been wasted. We may as well have given in on that first day. Is that what you want, Marius?”
    Marius shook his head wearily. “Let us send for Furius,” he conceded.

    The young soldier, Cominius, thanked him and set off back down the secret path to Veii.
    Everyone on the Capitol Hill was cheered by the thought of rescue.

    “It will take two days for Furius to reach us. We have barely enough food to live on.” He laughed. “It would be good to have a feast when they arrive. But we can’t.”
    And that’s when I stepped forward. It was the plan I’d been dreaming of for days.
    “There is a way we can eat like lords,” I said brightly.
    “How?” Marcus asked.
    I turned and looked at Fabia. “By killing those great, fat geese, of course!” I said.
    “No!” she screamed. “Not the geese! You can’t! They’re holy birds and we need them to protect Rome!” She wailed and sobbed till she was too tired to cry any longer.

    But Marcus Manlius nodded. “When rescue comes, we will feast on the geese,” he agreed.
    I smiled to myself. My revenge was almost complete.

SIX
    I walked past the geese the next morning. They clacked their yellow beaks at me and hissed their hatred.

    But that day I smiled and licked my lips. “Tomorrow, my feathered friends. Tomorrow, we’ll be rescued by Lord Furius and then I will eat you. That’ll be nice … for me … won’t it?”
    I walked off, laughing, and on my way I passed the tearful Fabia going to give the geese their last-ever meal.

    The head priest Marius didn’t shout at me in class that day. He taught us the right way to sacrifice a goat.

    “It is wrong to kill an animal if it doesn’t want to be killed,” he told us. “What you must do is hold out some food. The animal will stretch out its neck to take it. That is a sign that it wants to have its throat cut. Then you cut it.”
    Fabia was silent.
    “Will it work with the geese, sir?” I asked eagerly, and I heard Fabia let out a small sob.

    “Probably,” Marius sighed. “But I am not sure that we should be sacrificing the holy geese…”
    “Of course we shouldn’t,” Fabia sniffled. “They’re Rome’s protectors.”
    “But they didn’t save Rome, did they?” I jeered. I turned back to Marius. “Can I be there when you kill them?”
    The priest nodded. “Unless we receive a sign from the gods,” he said, and I sighed with happiness.

    You must be thinking I was cruel and spiteful. You are right. I wanted to hurt Fabia, so I wasn’t thinking about the geese. Boys can be stupid and blind.
    Marius said the geese needed a miracle if they were going to live. And I suppose what happened that night was a miracle…
    While I had been tormenting the geese, and Fabia, that morning, the Gaul guards at the foot of the cliffs had seen the broken branches and crushed plants on the cliff. It was the trail Cominius had left when he climbed down to get help. Now the Gauls knew there was a way up.

    King Brennus had seen us beat his men on the path to the Capitol Hill. He knew