The Centurion's Choice by Sandra Schwab

Author:Sandra Schwab
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, m/m romance
Publisher: Sandra Schwab
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

At first there was a sea of pain, and though Lucius heard voices around him, he couldn’t find the strength to open his eyes. All he could do was to let the pain wash over him. There was movement, he thought, and he felt as if all his bones were being rattled in his body.

So much pain…

He might have moaned, and he could still feel embarrassment for that.

But then there was a hand on his jaw, and vile-tasting liquid in this mouth, and no matter how much he fought against it, it trickled down his throat and he had to swallow or he would have drowned for real, and then there was only blessed darkness.

Later, he could never say for how long the darkness alternated with the rattling movement and the terrible pain and the vile liquid that brought on the darkness again. For a while, it seemed a never-ending circle, one of the torments suffered by the damned in the depths of Hades.

But finally, one day, when Lucius surfaced from the darkness, the pain had become manageable and he did open his eyes.

To his surprise, he found himself not in Hades, but in what very much looked like a hospital.

A Roman military hospital.

And then Reginius, the physician of the Septem Gallorum, leaned over him, his face grey with tiredness. “Ah, so you’ve come back to us, Satrius.” He patted Lucius’ hand. “Excellent. Most excellent.”

Around them wafted the sounds of men in pain, and the smell of incense hung in the air, not quite masking less pleasant smells.

“You didn’t lose the leg, my lad, which was damn good luck,” Reginius said, and if it hadn’t taken too much effort, Lucius would have asked, Which leg? He couldn’t help wondering how he had gotten here, for the last thing he remembered…

Lucius frowned.

The last thing he remembered was the battlefield and…

“But you’ll still be here for a while, and you’ll need all the rest you can get,” the physician continued. He gave Lucius some watered-down wine to drink, and then more of the vile-tasting liquid, and then the darkness rose once more to envelop Lucius.

The next time he emerged from it, his thoughts were clearer and he remembered more of what had happened.

The sounds of battle, moving through the ranks of the cohort to get to the rear for the retreat, and then standing over the tesserarius, who had fallen…

Lucius briefly closed his eyes and swallowed.

Cantum. He was dead, wasn’t he? Must be dead. Damn it all to Hades!

The man had been a good comrade, a good friend.

Those damned Germanic bastards!

And then he remembered the mace—had it been a mace? or something else?—thrown against his own leg, and the white-hot pain that had shattered his consciousness.

Lucius blinked and lay very still.

Reginius had indicated that the leg had been saved, and indeed, it still hurt like Hades, but, of course, he had heard from other men whose missing limbs sometimes still hurt even years later.

Reginius had assured him…

Nevertheless, Lucius couldn’t help wondering.

Very carefully, he moved his hand over the blanket, down over the body beneath.

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