Medi-Evil 1 (A collection of historical terror and fantasy) by Paul Finch

Author:Paul Finch [Finch, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Brentwood Press
Published: 2011-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

THE GODS OF GREEN AND GREY

It was a drowned landscape … a great plain of silt-dark water, stretching from horizon to horizon, stippled by a maze-work of muddy dykes and emerald swathes of reed-bed. At first glance, the mackerel sky arching over it seemed colossal and empty, though in reality it was filled, flocks of wild-fowl – geese, ducks and plover – skirting the salt-smelling estuaries or soaring high and wide, the wetland wilderness alive with their cries. At the surface, there was equal activity: otters chased each other across the slow waterways; glittering blue dragonflies hummed back and forth through the bogbean and white willow; herons waded the shorelines, bitterns boomed in the sedge and marsh-fern. Everywhere one listened, there was a frantic warbling and chattering.

Decimus optio Livius stood at the prow of the rush-raft, and surveyed it all uncomfortably. He was a young man, Livius, but a lean and ambitious one. He had keen plans to rise through the ranks, and to do that, he knew he had a key role to play in this great ‘taming of Britain’, as his commanding officers had called it. That meant more than just taming the people; it meant taming the land as well … though to manage that here would surely take more legionaries than the eight he currently had. He turned to view them; for comfort, the four on this first raft had removed their helmets and stripped down to their scarlet under-tunics, but were still poling strongly, talking idly and enjoying the unaccustomed relaxation. This was much the case with those four on the second raft, though their cargo of timber and cattle-hides was heavier, and they had to work that little bit harder.

Livius wasn’t concerned by that. Work was good; work kept his men alert and in the trim. He gazed ahead again, and a moment later was joined by Marcus Ursus, the engineer from Londinium.

“You told me,” Livius said, “that this place was like Elysium.”

Ursus, an older, squatter man, with a head of white hair and lined, sun-bronzed skin, could only smile. “A garden of a thousand delights but also a thousand perils.”

“And as if that isn’t enough, I hear our guide will be an Iceni?”

Ursus nodded. “That is true.”

It was seventy-two years since Boudicca’s revolt, but Livius still found this unsettling. “Are you sure you trust him?”

The old engineer shrugged. “It’s a case of needs-must. Nobody knows these northern fens like the Iceni.”

“That isn’t very reassuring.”

Ursus took a sip from his cup of watered wine. “Reassurance isn’t part of my remit. I’m here to draw maps and build causeways. You’re the one who provides the muscle.”

The soldier considered. A fantastically coloured butterfly fluttered past. Beyond it, the labyrinthine broads gleamed and rippled in the June sun. Livius took off his helmet and mopped a sheen of sweat from his brow. He’d served in warmer climes than this, but there was something lush and exotic about Britain in the summer-time. Profusions of flowers seemed to break

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.