The Gold of Tolosa by Matyszak Philip

Author:Matyszak, Philip [Matyszak, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monashee Mountain Publishing
Published: 2013-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

41 .

Vidnu grunted a single word. Madric nodded. 'Treachery. That works too. Chances are that some Roman sympathizer has opened a postern gate. Easier to do that by night. Our prince here knows his own people best. Maybe your Sertorius did a deal or two. Offered lenient treatment for those rats prepared to sink a sinking ship, if you know what I mean.'

'So forget the treasure house. Drive straight for the western wall.'

Vidnu interpreted my tone rather than my words. An ungentle pricking above my kidneys reminded me that the Galatian could indeed use a dagger with his wounded arm.

'The prince feels we should stop at the treasure house, since it is on our way.' Madric informed me. 'And he asks that you don't make him press the point home, which is quite a cool pun, when you think about it.'

'Ho ho. Momina, please, let's get those ponies moving.' From the eastern ramparts a roar issued from thousands of throats. It signified that legionaries were charging forward with siege ladders. They would literally be at the walls in seconds. Somewhere in the shadows close at hand a woman started to wail. We put our heads below the duck-boards of the cart and let Momina guide it into the throng on the streets.

With every able-bodied Gallic man heading east to fight off the assault, the men in our group would have looked decidedly odd heading determinedly in the other direction. But a woman apparently alone in a cart was totally unremarkable, and indeed a quick peek over the boards showed a few other women determined to get as far away from the assault as possible. Some carried children, and one pushed a high-piled wheelbarrow, though what she was expecting to achieve by this was beyond me.

The break-down in law and order which inevitably accompanies these occasions manifested itself about a hundred paces down the road. I had been cursing our slow progress and mentally urging Momina onward when she was unexpectedly bowled over backwards into the body of the cart. She lay still as a balding middle-aged man struggled to his knees above her, fumbling at his trousers with one hand and the hem of Momina's dress with the other.

In other circumstances it would have been comical to see how his expression changed as his eyes adjusted to the gloom and he found himself kneeling in the midst of a group of armed warriors. As the stranger opened his mouth to say something Vidnu's huge hand clamped over his face. There came a sharp snap as though someone had broken a broomstick over one knee, and the man went limp. Vidnu threw the corpse aside like a broken puppet, and without a word, Momina scrambled to the front of the cart to regain control of the reins. The whole incident took less than ten breaths. There was screaming also from some of the houses alongside us, which suggested that not all the menfolk were at the wall. Some looting and pillage was not going to wait for the Romans.

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.