Legion of the Occult by Roberto Genovesi

Author:Roberto Genovesi [Genovesi, Roberto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838932992
Publisher: Head of Zeus

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The only sound was the silence, a deafening nothingness, and no movement among the rocks accompanied that silent concert. Even the bushes clinging to the inlets of the vertical crevasses were as immobile as carvings.

Side by side, three horses and their riders stood motionless in front of the entrance to the green and white tableau whose colours, intertwined in a thousand shades, were all muted by the fog.

“Don’t tell me you want to go in there,” said Dryantilla.

“What do you think?” asked Sibiam.

“I hate this accursed power to see things before they happen.”

“So you knew before you asked?”

The girl nodded.

“What will become of them?”

“The soldiers we left behind?”

Sibiam turned to look at her. “Nothing good, is it?”

“Many will die.”

“And then?”

“You know that I can’t see any further than that.”

“Stop bickering,” said Jago, “and follow me.”

The blind youth moved to the head of the group and, giving his mount a firm slap on the haunches, set off into the viscous ocean of dense fog which enveloped the clearing.

The noise of the hooves broke the spell and the world around the three seemed to come back to life. A stubborn wind began to whistle between the horses’ legs, growing more and more powerful until it almost lifted them off the ground.

“They were waiting for us, it seems,” said Jago, continuing to advance at a trot.

“But I don’t see anyone,” said the dark-skinned giant.

“He wasn’t talking about the Salassi,” explained Dryantilla. “Stop!”

At the woman’s order the three mounts froze like statues of ice.

“What is it?” asked Sibiam.

“They’re coming.”

Jago dismounted very slowly. He grabbed his staff and put the end on the ground then spread his nostrils and took a deep breath. The fog that had been growing thicker and thicker since the three scouts had set off into the pass seemed to throb with a life of its own. It was damp and when it entered the lungs and passed through the throat it left a sweetish aftertaste on the palate. The taste of rotting bodies. The shadowy silhouettes only became visible when they were a few steps away. They moved slowly, dragging themselves as if their feet were attached to the ground.

“Who… what are they?” asked Sibiam, holding up his shield. “Ghosts? Demons?”

Dryantilla squinted instinctively as she backed up her mount. “I can’t see but I know that they will do us no harm.”

“They are soldiers,” said Jago. “Our soldiers.”

The Roman legionaries advanced in no particular order. There might have been ten of them, maybe more. The fog spat them out and then swallowed them up again, the translucent tongues of mist playing games with the incredulous eyes of the three youths while the soldiers’ armour glinted in the dim light.

One of the them touched the blind youth’s shoulder, sending a shiver down his spine, then walked past him and disappeared into the fog as he headed towards the Roman outposts. His companions did the same, ignoring Sibiam and Dryantilla.

“What’s happening?” the metal tamer wondered aloud. “Who on earth are they?”

“The dead

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