Pendragon and Merlin's Tomb by C.J. Brown

Author:C.J. Brown [Brown, C.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-18T23:41:06+00:00

12

Into the City

The legion loyal to Lucius arrived in Verona to find the city burned to the ground and the forest beyond scorched. The townsfolk told of invading hordes and no Romans to protect them. Arriving at the garrison, the men found thousands of decaying and burnt corpses stripped of their clothes.

It was easy to deduce that the legion had been decimated by the invading horde who had then stolen all the valuables. Fresh snow the night before made it difficult to track which direction the horde proceeded to. Riders were sent to villages and hamlets just south of Verona only to be told that no horde was seen. But a horde of ten thousand men, it seems, were encamped in the seaside town of Patavium, in the southeast.

“That must be the horde that did our work for us,” the commander chided to his lieutenant.

“Should we go and thank them?” the lieutenant replied, jokingly.

“The two men looked at each other, realizing that they would return to Rome as heroes of the empire and be rewarded for vanquishing the emperor’s enemies. They just had to word their report correctly. By neglecting to tell the emperor of the horde, they would be the heroes.

***

Within eight days, the men of Felix Fortis, on foot, and the men of Gemina Maxima, by sea, assembled in unprecedented numbers just twenty leagues from the imperial city of Rome. Uther Pendragon was now on his tenth day of capture. Not a morsel of food had passed his lips. He feared an attempt to poison him. On the third day of his capture, he had grown accustomed to the fast. After the eighth, he had lost his vigor and energy. But he knew that his fate would not be relegated to the men who served obsequiously to the usurper.

Lucius only had one full legion at his disposal and he had sent that one to deal with Arthur. In the city, he had five thousand Praetorian Guards to protect him—all had sworn allegiance to him, and him alone—not the throne. In the days after arresting Uther and finding out that an essential cog to his plan could not be found, he realized that the army was at a disadvantage. Only the news of the legion in Verona alleviated his concerns. But still, he thought, the time to kill Uther was not yet at hand.

Lucius praised himself when holding court, telling whoever would listen that he had gotten the best of Uther and his men. His rule over Rome was now certain and secured. All the while, Titus looked upon him, knowing deep in his heart that all was not well.

Until he could see Uther’s body laying on the granite of the palace alongside his wife and his son, nothing was certain. Titus knew that Igraine had allies in the provinces and Arthur was not as easily killed as Lucius thought he would be. He tried to relay that concern to the emperor, but Lucius was too buried within his own fantasy to see that all was not yet in the clear.

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