Authors: L. M. Roth
Marcus
realized it was time to leave Eirinia. There was nothing more he could do for
his friends, and it was time for him to return to his own family. It was with a
heavy heart and a sense of foreboding that he took leave of his Dag and his
family. How they would miss Brenus! And what evil would come out of his impulsive
and hasty marriage and his widow’s continued stay with his family Marcus
shuddered even to think about.
Before he
parted from his friends he had one more private talk with Dag.
“Take care, my
old friend,” he warned. “For I sense some evil is afoot in this land, and the
consequences will be dire if it is not stamped out at once.”
Dag nodded his
head as they walked side by side through the woods that bordered the village.
The air was soft and the breeze bore the scent of fresh grass to their
appreciative nostrils. The call of the morning songbirds came to their ears,
and Marcus thought it must be the most delightful song in all the world. The
sun shed her radiance in a sky of dazzling blue, just as she had countless days
before, and so would do again. Surely it was too lovely a day for evil to
overcome it!
“Yah,” Dag
agreed, his head bent as his shoulders hunched, appearing to be deep in
thought. “First my son made his foolish marriage, and then the village wants to
turn back to their idols. And now Melisande is carrying Brenus’ child and will
stay here, when it would have been for the best for all of us if she had left.”
Marcus was
struck with a sudden thought. His head jerked abruptly in Dag’s direction.
“Dag,” he said
urgently, “do you know whether your daughter-in-law has any god she serves at
all? It is evident she does not serve Dominio: does she serve another? One of
the ones that the Eirini used to serve, for instance? Is her arrival the reason
they want to turn back?”
Dag stared
hard at him and shook his head slowly from side to side.
“No, she
serves none that we know of.”
“What of her
friends?” Marcus persisted. “Does she have any friends among the village women
who serve them, and may have taught her their ways?”
Dag stopped
walking abruptly and rubbed his chin, as though the gesture aided him in his
thoughts. Then a light came into his eyes and he faced Marcus with a growing
comprehension.
“Melisande
does not have any true friends among the village women, except for Niamh,” he
answered. “But not long before Brenus died he commented that Melisande had
started visiting the village of Annick daily, and he was glad she was making
friends.”
Dag suddenly
turned pale and the look of helpless fear that swamped his face almost
frightened Marcus in its intensity. He seemed, Marcus thought, like prey that
was paralyzed at the sight of the hunter who stalked it stealthily and
relentlessly and knows there is nowhere to hide…
“And in Annick
lives the sister of Niamh, Enora, to whom she had not spoken for more than
twenty years, not since we cast the Astra and the Tuadan out of Leith. Enora had
been furious with her sister for turning her back on Eoghan whom they both
served fervently. It was noted that Melisande was the one who brought them back
together and said that sisters should not be estranged.”
The look of
cold fury on his face chilled Marcus almost as much as his next words.
“That happened
right before Spring Festival, when Niamh defied me by thanking Eoghan after I
had expressly forbidden it.”
Marcus knew
there was nothing further he could do to help Dag with the trouble that lay
ahead for him in the days to come. For trouble there would be, of that Marcus
had no doubt. But he had family affairs of his own to settle and must travel
home quickly. There he would deal with his disobedient daughter and make her
see the trouble she had caused for all concerned.
He knew that
the quickest way to reach home was to take the land route from Eirinia into
Valerium, and from there to travel by ship to Lycenium. He knew also that to do
so was to invite danger if he was spotted, yet he was driven by an urgent sense
that he was needed at home.
He decided to
take his chances and risk the land journey from Eirinia to Valerium. There were
no pubic conveyances in all of Eirinia, so he traveled on foot. It had been
long since he had undertaken such an excursion, and he was surprised at how
quickly he adapted to it. Surely he had grown lazy in the years since his
estate had been restored and he was accustomed to having a carriage at his
disposal to convey him wherever he wished!
As he rambled
through the forests of Eirinia, he gradually became aware that the night
terrors still roamed abroad. He recalled his flight through the country long
ago, and sensed that the fear of those beings who walked by night was still on
the land. It was not pleasant to lie under a tree at night and wonder whether
some unseen eyes were watching him. He remembered the tales of those who walked
at night to take back the land they once ruled, remembered also Judoc’s warning
to keep to the path…
He collected
his thoughts and chided himself. He was Marcus Maximus, a soldier of
Alexandros, under the divine protection of Dominio, charged with spreading the
Kingdom of Heaven, and if any of the Tuadan accosted him it would be a mistake
they would regret for a long time to come!
After a
journey of ten days, spent in the forests and the wild places of Eirinia,
Marcus at last entered the borders of Valerium. To his astonishment he became
emotional at the sight of the guards posted at the gates of the great wall that
encompassed her boundaries. It was such vigilance that kept the Empire strong;
nothing was left to chance, and her borders were guarded day and night by the
strongest and most stalwart of her Army.
He would need
to get past their constant vigilance if he were to enter Valerium without the
Emperor’s knowledge. Marcus knew that despite the years of friendship he had
enjoyed with Emperor Urbanus, he would not be exempt from the law forbidding
the worship of Dominio within the environs of Valerium. The thought brought a
bitter taste to his mouth; he had not realized how fond of the Emperor he had
become during their long years of acquaintance. Yet there it was: he could do
nothing about it.
He looked
ahead to where the sentinels stood on patrol on the wall: how to get past them
and enter was not going to be easy. They were stationed two abreast at
intervals of about a quarter of a mile along the massive wall. The wall itself
was approximately twenty feet tall; impossible for him to jump should he be so
fortunate as to find an unguarded space. He puzzled over the dilemma and then
cast his mind back to the lessons on warfare taught him by his father Valerius
Maximus, the renowned Commander of the Imperial Army…
“When invading
new territory always look for a breach in the wall,” Valerius had said. “Look
for a space where the wall looks worn down, perhaps neglected and in need of
repair. Keep looking for you will find it if you search: there is not an army
in the world where a soldier does not grow weary of the long hours on the watch
and grows careless in his vigilance.
“And the
expense of maintaining the wall itself causes some to take shortcuts, delaying
repairs and keeping only what is truly necessary intact. And it is best to try
to breach under cover of darkness when the sentinels are weary and their eyes
play tricks on them. In such a case a lone invader may be taken for an animal,
or a figment of the imagination. In such cases success has been reaped to those
who know the tactics of warfare.”
Hmmm, Marcus
thought. Look for the breach. He did not waste time looking for a visible hole
or space at the top of the wall: that would have been far too noticeable to
those on duty, and mended at once. No, it was at ground level where he must
cast his eyes…
He managed to
stay out of sight of the sentinels by keeping a distance and utilizing some
tools he had brought with him from Eirinia. Before he left, he had asked Dag
for a spade and a large scythe. He knew that he would need to go through
Valerium to get to a port and find a ship that would take him to Lycenium, but
to do so he must remain undetected by the watchmen who guarded the borders into
Valerium. He would need some disguise or a ruse to enter, and decided that some
gardening tools might prove handy; it was possible he might be able to pass
himself off as a gardener working near the wall.
With this
intent in mind, he staked out a small plot of earth about fifty yards across
from the wall. Noting that he had caught the attention of those posted on the
wall, he hailed an innocent looking salute, and was hailed back. Then he fell
to digging a hole in the ground. He took his time with the excavating, and
glanced behind him at some maple trees that erected their leafy height about
thirty feet over his head. He saw some weeds sprouting around their base and
put the scythe to good use, whacking away at the offending invaders.
Marcus soon
collected a heap of weeds and searched for some place to dump them. There was
nowhere in the landscape around him, so he cast his eyes in the direction of
the wall. And he noticed what had escaped his notice before. Just from the base
of the wall where it curved around he saw a tuft of some plants. The rest of
the wall was hidden from his immediate view, so he carried his burden of weeds
with him and set out in the direction of the greenery he had spotted.
The guards
continued their pacing on the wall, and now accustomed to his presence,
disregarded him completely. Marcus casually strolled up close to the wall,
still under the pretext of looking for a place to dump the weeds. He was now
close enough to see what he was looking for. Thistle it was, large clumps of
it; sprouting through the wall itself, a sure indicator of a hole that went
through to the other side. He noted also that there was no sentinel stationed on
this portion of the wall, which allowed the breach to occur in the first place.
Marcus glanced
away and dumped his burden at the edge of the woods that grew wild on the
perimeter of the border of Eirinia. He returned to the plot of earth and
continued digging for about an hour, wiping his brow from the sweat of his
labor, and acting weary from his exertions. At last he collected his tools, and
with a backward glance and salute to the sentinels, strolled back into the
woods from whence he came. When he had traveled about half a mile back into
them and felt safe from detection, he stopped and decided to make camp and
sleep until darkness came.
For when night
fell he would put his plan of escape into execution.
Marcus donned
a dark gray robe and wound a black bandeau around his head, bringing it down to
just above his brow. He did not want any of the sentinels to recognize the
gardener from the afternoon, should they be posted back on the wall. He
gathered his pack and took with him the spade and the scythe, carefully
wrapping them in his cloak so the gleam of metal would not betray him in the
dark.
He crept back
to the border, keeping as low to the ground as he could, stepping stealthily so
that not even a blade of grass crunching beneath his feet should betray his
presence. He was careful to breathe in slow and regulated breaths, and stifled
the sound as best he could. When he reached the wall, he stayed under the
shelter of the maple trees, his shadow blending into their shade, while he
searched the wall for the watchmen posted at the top.
He counted six
sentinels posted at the three nearest stations. He edged to the portion where
he had spotted the thistle earlier, keeping to the shadow of the trees.
Curse his
luck! There were now two sentinels pacing right above the section where the
weeds sprouted through.
What to do
now? He pondered for several minutes: he had not counted on a guard stationed
right above where he planned to break through. His plan was to dig through the
thistle to clear the hole and enter the wall at that spot. But that would not
be possible with two sentinels pacing right overhead.
Could he
create a diversion? Was it possible to draw their attention away from that spot
long enough for him to dig through and breach the wall? Marcus pondered for a
long time, racking his brain to recall all that his father had taught him of
strategic warfare tactics. And then he thought of a new plan…
Quickly he
scurried through the trees to the opposite wall where he saw the six sentinels
posted at intervals earlier in the day. He scrambled back deeper into the cover
of the woods, and hastily gathered some pebbles from the ground. After he had
gathered an armful, he moved closer to the wall, keeping out of sight under the
cover of the trees.
He took a deep
breath to calm himself, and silently prayed to Dominio. Oh grant me success in
this endeavor, great Dominio. Let my tactics fool the sentinels so I may enter
Valerium and make my way home to my family.
A deep peace
suddenly flooded his being, and he knew that Dominio was granting him the
answer to his prayer. He watched the guards until he caught the rhythm of their
pacing, and how long it took each one to cross his section of the wall.