Hero of Rome

XLI

Valerius rose early on the day of the last battle. Mist disguised the dawn the way a veil hides an ageing woman’s fading looks. It came as a pale suggestion of gold lost in a drifting curtain of smoky, ground-locked cloud and with it came Boudicca’s host. She had picked up the trail Paulinus had left for her while the ashes of Verulamium and the blackened bones of its inhabitants were still hot. For a week, the auxiliaries had led them on, first north, then west; day after day of forced marches and occasional, tantalizing glimpses of the enemy, the red cloaks and polished armour always on the next hill or beyond the next river. They were like wolves now, the Britons, with the Roman scent as thick in their nostrils as the taint of blood from a mortally injured deer as it stumbles towards its final refuge. Thirty days of constant movement, fighting and killing had worn them thin, but the hunger still remained, and with it the hatred. The wrath of Andraste and Boudicca’s need for revenge never diminished. She had spilled enough blood to fill a lake and sent enough souls to the gods to satisfy even their legendary appetite, but still it wasn’t sufficient. Only by smashing the legions and killing the man who led them would she and her people find peace.

As the ghosts of trees appeared a few hundred paces to his left Valerius knew it would be soon. The rebel camp fires had been visible on the horizon when Paulinus’s legions bedded down in their positions for the night. They would have been on the move for more than an hour now, ready for another day chasing shadows. But the shadows were no longer going to run.

From the murk, the familiar, inhuman sound — the buzz of a million bees — filled the air, then the weak sun staggered above the eastern horizon and the mist shredded and burned away. The buzz faded to a confused, unnerving silence, and from his position at the governor’s side Valerius looked out over countless thousands stretching into the distance in a sinuous black column of humanity. Paulinus had spent days manoeuvring towards this position so that Boudicca would be drawn behind him, funnelling her army into the killing ground. The five thousand men of the Fourteenth legion formed a triple defensive line across the narrow valley at the head of a long, gentle slope. Five cohorts of the Twentieth who accompanied Paulinus anchored his flanks against the valley walls. Among them, he set up his ‘shield-splitters’, the ballistas which could fire heavy metal-tipped arrows a quarter of a mile. Beyond them, the cavalry ranged to discourage attempts to bypass or attack the vulnerable flanks. Behind the legions, the auxiliaries waited in reserve, ready to exploit any success or to die in their turn. For there would be no retreat.

‘This is my weakness and my strength,’ Paulinus had explained as he laid out his battle plan. ‘We will have only one opportunity to destroy her. Even if we win a great victory but leave her army intact, we will be so mauled as not to be able to fight for another thirty days, while she would scarce need to draw breath. Our end would be long and slow, but inevitable. We must fight her to a standstill, draw every warrior on to our javelins and our swords, kill and keep killing until no man stands. The position I have chosen means that my soldiers must fight or die, but her confidence and the vast host she leads ensures that Boudicca will never turn back.’

Agricola broke the silence that followed. ‘But if we hold them and she does decide to withdraw…?’

‘Then we all die.’

It took the rebel queen time to bring her forces to battle. Valerius could make no estimate of their numbers, but his eyes told him the army had swelled enormously since he had first seen it on the slope above Colonia, perhaps even doubled in size. Covering an area a thousand paces wide and three times as deep, they seemed as many as the birds in the air or the fish in the sea. The silence had vanished now, replaced by a muted roaring akin to standing too close to an enormous waterfall; a relentless, surging rise and fall that seemed to shake the very air.

His lack of emotion surprised him. He sat on his horse, with the reins still unfamiliar in the grip of his left hand, and watched Boudicca’s forces deploy with the dispassionate detachment of a spectator at a cockfight who had already gambled his last sestertius. Fear had no hold on him because a man could only die once and he had died at Colonia. But how could a soldier fight without passion? Maeve had robbed him of his hand; had she also deprived him of his soul?

He drove her from his head and studied the scene again. A visible thickening was apparent in the numbers at the base of the slope as more and more warriors joined the throng edging its way towards the Roman line a mile distant. A few chariots forced their way to the front and he recognized the glitter from the torcs and arm-rings of the rebel chieftains, but of Boudicca herself there was still no sign. Beyond the mass of fighters he noted the dust cloud as the rebel baggage train and camp followers caught up with the main force, deploying to the left and right for a better view of the battlefield, determined to witness the destruction of the red scourge that had blighted their lives for almost two decades.

Maeve was out there somewhere, he was certain of it. Cearan had been determined to re-join his queen and where he went she would follow, in the knowledge that only she stood between his sanity and the total disintegration of that shattered mind. He closed his eyes, attempting to visualize her among the great swathe of humanity. When he opened them another glint of gold from the van of the rebel army stirred a memory. If you didn’t love me why do you still wear the boar pendant I gave you?

By now it was mid-morning and Paulinus watched in silence as the rebel forces filled the slope in front of him, his shoulders hunched forward, eyes glowering from below the gold-embossed brim of his helmet. He had made his decisions and given his orders. He had no thought of failure because failure was death. The massive head came up as a new figure entered the stage.

Boudicca.

Her fiery mane flowed behind her in the breeze and she stood tall and proud in her chariot as she emerged from the chanting sea of warriors and spun to a halt on the green sward twenty paces ahead of her army. She had her back to the Roman line and Valerius could feel the dismissive contempt in her gesture. As he watched a brown blur flew from beneath her feet and scampered across the field to his right. At first he was puzzled, but then he remembered one of Boudicca’s emblems was the hare. The omen must be positive because an enormous, snarling roar greeted her that sent a shiver through every Roman. At the same time, hundreds of banners, proud symbols of the combined might of the tribes of southern Britain, were raised in acclamation.

He heard her voice for the first time, deep and almost manly, and caught snatches of speech carried on the wind but could make nothing of the words. Paulinus must have heard it too, but if he did the governor dismissed it. ‘Come,’ he ordered, and Valerius and Agricola joined him as he rode along the front of his legionaries, who stood silent and motionless.

‘You fought well on Mona, my Mules, but I have brought you here for a little more javelin practice.’ The words carried along the line and Valerius could see men grinning at the unlikely familiarity. ‘Those who stand before you have murdered, tortured and raped Roman citizens, men, women and children; innocents whose only crime was to attempt to bring civilization to this land. They butchered and mutilated your comrades of the Ninth, and the brave veterans of Colonia who fell defending the Temple of Divine Claudius.’ He paused and the silence was filled by a growl, like an enormous dog gathering itself for the attack. ‘We offered them our friendship, our trust and our aid, and they took all with smiles of thanks, but when we turned our backs they reached for the knife and the sword and the spear, as is their way. They believe you are already defeated.’

‘No!’ The massed roar carried across the valley and echoed from the banks.

‘They are the true face of barbarism. They are your enemy. They show no mercy and they deserve no mercy. Give them none. For Rome!’

‘For Rome!’ The words erupted from ten thousand throats and Valerius felt the ice in his belly melt and the first stirrings of life return to his heart.

‘For Rome,’ he whispered.

An enormous clamour of horns signalled the enemy advance and the Roman ranks opened to allow Paulinus and his aides through to relative safety. From behind the rear cohorts of the Fourteenth Valerius watched as the Britons surged up the slope towards the waiting legionaries. The slope was long and it took time for the first warriors to reach the small stakes the centurions had placed forty paces ahead of the line, the optimum killing range of the pilum. Within that narrow corridor no legionary would miss his target. As the Britons charged, the ballistas tore gaping holes in the front ranks, the big arrows gutting two or three men at a time before they spent their power. Four cohorts made up the first of the Roman lines, including the elite, reinforced First; more than two thousand men. They had time only for a single cast before the howling mass of Britons fell upon them, but that single cast scythed down the vanguard of the attack as if it were made of summer grass and not flesh, blood and bone. Yet Boudicca had an endless, willing supply of fighting men, and those men, it seemed, had an unlimited supply of courage. Only the wealthy were equipped with shield and sword; most fought with spears. When one fell, he was replaced in an instant, and when he fell in his turn, two or three more fought to take his place. Celtic iron and Roman shields met with a clash like the combined fury of the gods, and Celtic iron still outnumbered Roman by ten to one. But once more Valerius witnessed the way the very numerical superiority of the attackers played against them when they met men determined to stand their ground behind the shoulder-high shields. Those in the vanguard of the assault were forced directly on to the Roman line by the weight and numbers of those behind. How can a man fight when he barely has room to breathe? The legionaries grunted and snarled insults as the long swords and wide-bladed spears sought them out, and the Britons grunted and snarled back as they heaved and battered at the impenetrable wall in front of them. But it was the Britons who were dying. Between each pair of shields a gladius punched with the speed of a striking cobra and every blow took its toll with murderous precision. From behind the front line, the cohorts of the second and third lines hurled volley after volley of javelins into the packed ranks in front of the shields. In the first fifteen minutes of the attack Valerius estimated that Boudicca lost five thousand dead and injured. The wounded pleaded, squirmed and wriggled amidst their own gore beneath the feet of the uninjured, only to be trampled and suffocated. Centurions ranged behind the Roman front line shouting themselves hoarse and ordering replacements for men badly wounded or too exhausted to raise their shields. One by one, these fell back to ease parched throats and grab a crust of bread before they were kicked and bullied back into the killing machine. The rotation kept the shield line from cracking and the little swords jabbed out relentlessly, killing or maiming with every thrust. As long as their supply held out the nearly three thousand men of the six supporting cohorts kept up the rain of spears, the heavy lead-weighted missiles plunging down on the mass of flesh below.

By noon, the British casualties were already enormous, but Paulinus’s battle line had weathered every crisis. An hour later, Valerius sensed a weakening of the British resolve. It was nothing tangible; the pressure on the front rank was as relentless as ever. But hour after hour of pushing at the backs of their comrades to no apparent purpose had doused the fire in the hearts of those in the centre and rear. Paulinus noticed it too, and his head came up like a deerhound hitting the scent. He looked out over the battlefield and saw his enemy at a standstill, the rearward ranks lethargic and neutralized. This was the moment, he realized, when the battle was his to win or lose. If he didn’t act, the certainty was that he would eventually be defeated. His men could wield a sword and bear a shield for only so long. A legionary’s strength was finite like that of all men. The alternative was a gamble, but a gamble he must take.

‘Sound “Form wedge”,’ he ordered. The cornicen at his shoulder put his horn to his lips, and the distinctive call rang out along the line.

With swift, orchestrated movements the centuries of the first two lines transformed into the devastating arrowhead attack formations and launched themselves into the face of the Celtic attack. The wedges carved great swathes through the rebel ranks, and behind them came the Roman reserves still in their disciplined lines, their shields beating down any who escaped between the arrowheads.

‘Send in the cavalry,’ Paulinus ordered, and the auxiliary horsemen smashed into the British flanks, adding to the carnage.

Valerius held his breath. Now was the time for Boudicca to withdraw her forces and save what she could. Only twenty thousand or so had been involved in the actual combat; the rest were spectators. If she retired, Paulinus would have to fight her again tomorrow, and the day after that. But it was not within her power to do so. The thousands of booty-laden ox carts and chariots of the rebel baggage train acted like a dam against which the Romans forced back the great seething pool of Boudicca’s followers. If one man fell, ten fell with him and all were crushed beneath the feet of their comrades as they milled and wheeled, looking for somewhere to run or someone to fight. Paulinus turned his horse away.

‘Spare none,’ he said.

Boudicca watched the Roman wedges smash into her stunned forces, the shock waves of their coming fracturing resolve even in the rear where she stood by her chariot with Banna and Rosmerta, helpless to alter the course of a battle she had wanted to fight on another day in another place. In that moment, she recognized her defeat. Andraste had deserted her.

She turned to the two girls and they were surprised to see her eyes damp with tears; it was the first time she had wept since the Romans came to Venta. Neither of them had shared her frightening hunger for vengeance, but they had never left her side. Now they prepared to share her fate.

She reached for the vial which hung at her throat below the golden torc. It was blue and made of fine Roman glass, but she found no irony in that. The contents were a poison of her own manufacture, tested on Roman prisoners who were among the fortunate few to meet a quick and painless end. She found her hand shaking as she raised it to Banna’s mouth, but the blond-haired girl raised her own hand to steady her mother’s before swallowing deeply from the container. Rosmerta swiftly followed suit, her face a mask of determination belied by the frank terror in her eyes. Boudicca’s heart swelled to bursting. How she loved them.

Gwlym looked on emotionless, untroubled by sorrow or pity or fear. Like him, they were all tools of the gods. Victory or defeat had never been of consequence. What mattered was that Boudicca’s name and deeds would live through the ages. Before she consumed the last of the poison Boudicca called him to her. ‘When it is done, take us to a place they will never find us. Bury us deep. If I cannot defeat the Romans in life, I will defeat them in death.’ She put the vial to her lips and drank, then raised her hands to touch each of her daughters on the cheek for the last time. ‘Farewell,’ she said. ‘We will meet again in the Otherworld. Life will be better there.’

The sun dipped low towards the western horizon as Valerius allowed his horse to pick its way warily through the dead. He didn’t know how many there were, only that a man could walk from the top to the bottom of the slope and from east to west across the valley without ever placing his foot upon the earth.

He rode like a blind man, the memory of a single face anchoring him to reality. His senses had long since been overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and smells of butchery on a scale beyond the imagining of any who had not witnessed it. A spectral miasma hung over the battlefield, like a low, thin fog, and he imagined he could taste death on his tongue and feel it clogging his lungs.

The slaughter had continued all through that long, hot afternoon and Paulinus’s thirst for revenge had proved as unquenchable as that of Boudicca. When his officers reported that their men could no longer go on killing because they lacked the strength to wield their swords, he had replied: ‘Let them use their daggers.’ And when the last Celtic warrior bled out his life beside his comrades and the exhausted legionaries lay down thankfully to rest among their victims, he had stormed from his tent and pointed to the thousands of women and children cowering where they had been rounded up by the cavalry. Soon the screaming began again.

Valerius realized the futility of his quest when he reached the thousands of abandoned carts and carriages, their contents strewn about them in a frenzy of looting by the auxiliary cavalry. But something, stronger even than the knowledge that his own sanity depended on the outcome, kept him in the saddle.

It was near dark when he recognized the long chestnut hair fluttering like a fallen banner below the overturned ox cart. In the distance, he imagined he could hear the cry of a hunting owl.