November 482
20
‘My Lord,’ Aeddan whispered, ‘I can see a girl over there.’
Sure enough Malvern could see a girl just beyond the two Silurian warriors. Malvern watched as one of the men got to his feet and pushed the girl against a tree and then turned to face the danger as his fellow warrior rose to his feet.
‘Stay here,’ Malvern told Aeddan, ‘while we deal them.’
Malvern and Calcas rushed out of the trees towards the Silurians. The first man tried to parry Malvern’s spear, but the Roman commander expected the low sweep of the ash staff, and raised his own weapon above it as he thrust his weapon home. It all happened so fast for the watching Aeddan. One moment the Silurian was a threatening figure in war gear and then he was twitching as Malvern rammed the heavy spearhead through the leather armour and deep into his chest. And Calcas was already past him, yelling as he swung the sword. His war scream was a cry of triumph.
The second man had a heartbeat’s more warning than his dying companion and so he had dropped into a spearmen’s crouch from which he could spring forward with killing force. Calcas leaped at him, and as the spear came at him in a bright, sun touched lunge of steel Calcas twisted aside and parried with his blade, not so hard as to lose control of the steel, but just enough to slide the man’s weapon past his right side as he whirled the sword around. He brought the sword hard down on to the side of the Silurian’s neck.
Calcas’s steel buried itself in the Silurian’s neck like an axe biting into rotten wood. Calcas watched the man’s dying effort to pull the spear back for a second thrust, but then his life rattled in his throat and a great wash of blood ran down his leather covered chest as he slumped on to the leaf mould.
Calcas turned and looked back towards Aeddan who was visibly shocked by what he had just witnessed. ‘Just be pleased that there were only two of them,’ he called to the boy.
The girl was now lying up against a tree and she was shaking. Malvern walked over to her. ‘Who are you?’ he asked.
‘Tegwen,’ she managed to answer.
‘You are Silurian?’ he asked her.
Tegwen looked a little confused. ‘I am from Powys,’ she finally answered.
‘You will come with us to Glevum,’ Malvern said.
A bird screamed in the high leaves as Malvern walked over to Calcas. ‘You’re always efficient,’ he said with a smile. ‘Let’s hope there aren’t anymore of these bastards,’ he continued, ‘for I’m getting tired.’ He patted his lieutenant on the shoulder.
‘What now?’ Calcas asked.
‘We go back to the others,’ he said with a smile, ‘but first we’ll see what we’ve won.’
Calcas took his victim’s sword scabbard that was made of willow stiffened leather and found it fitted his sword tolerably well and then they searched the two bodies for what little plunder they could find. There was an unripe apple, an old coin worn smooth, two cloaks, the weapons, some leather thongs and a bone handled knife. Malvern debated whether they should go back and fetch the two horses and then decided they did not have the time.
Calcas got hold Tegwen and led her back to the main part of the party. Marya looked relieved when she saw them returning. ‘What happened?’ she asked Malvern.
‘We had to kill two Silurians,’ Malvern as he handed one of the Silurian spears to Clust who seemed delighted.
‘So there could be more nearby?’ Marya said. ‘We need to get out of here.’
Malvern smiled. ‘As you command, my lady.’
‘Who is that?’ said the princess pointing as Tegwen.
‘We found her with the Silurians,’ Malvern answered. ‘She can come back to Glevum with us.’
Malvern went over to Clust. ‘Keep an eye on the girl,’ he told him and Clust looked thrilled to be given some responsibility.
So they went on their way back to Glevum and only stopped one more time at stream so that everyone could have a drink of water.
Just as Malvern was ready to depart once more he heard a scream. He turned back towards the stream and found Clust lying at the edge of the water with a nasty leg wound. Nearby Tegwen stood holding the Silurian spear and she had tears streaming down her face. ‘He attacked me,’ she shrieked at Malvern.
‘Give me the spear,’ Malvern said and the girl flung to the ground.
Calcas appeared to see what the commotion was.
‘She was trying to escape,’ Clust said and the young man was trying not to cry even though he was in a great deal of pain.
Tegwen shook her head and was almost hysterical. ‘He tried to kiss me and called me a whore,’ she shouted.
Malvern had a look at Clust’s wound. ‘You’ll live,’ he said. ‘It looks far worse than it is.’ He turned back to Tegwen. ‘You will be walking with Calcas and no one else will go near you,’ he said.
‘I was just doing as you said,’ Clust shouted.
‘Get up,’ said Malvern, ‘I think you’ll be able to walk.’