The Golden Lion by Peter Darman

Author:Peter Darman [Darman, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2021-01-25T02:39:09+00:00

Chapter 9

The march back to camp was a slow, laborious affair, many Almogavars carrying injuries of varying severity that required the assistance of their comrades. Jordi was hobbling, Luca had a pain in his side and held a hand to his wound and everyone was tired. But more than the physical discomfort, they all felt mentally drained, especially after having failed to defeat the Roman army. They had killed many of the enemy, it was true, and the stakes planted in the wheat fields had been a stroke of genius that had all but destroyed the enemy’s horsemen. But still, this was not a battle to rival the great victories at Anaia and Apros. Despite the apparent mauling at the hands of the Romans, Hector was more sanguine about the outcome of the battle. He walked beside Luca and was in an unusually talkative mood.

‘That is the last we will see of the army of the Empress Irene,’ he predicted. ‘She has lost too many men, especially horsemen.’

‘What about our own horsemen?’ enquired Luca.

‘They were supposed to return to the battlefield once we had engaged the enemy, to strike the Romans in the flank and rear. But I assume the Roman commander deployed all his archers against Alfonso and beat them off. It does not matter.’

‘It doesn’t?’ said Luca.

‘Alfonso, and Melek and Halil Ece for that matter, are too experienced to give the enemy a cheap victory. The end result, though, is that we still have all our horsemen whereas the Romans have left their best riders dead in the wheat fields.’

‘Poor Bernat,’ said Luca.

‘He lost his way,’ stated Hector. ‘When we were fighting the French he was a ruthless bastard and a good soldier. But when he started playing at being a king, that was the beginning of his downfall. He made one large miscalculation.’

‘What was that?’

‘He thought real kings and queens would treat him as an equal rather than seeing him as the leader of a group of ruthless mercenaries. As soon as we received word the Pope had excommunicated the whole company, I suspected our days in Kallipolis were numbered. Mercenaries need money and when it ran out, we had to find pastures new.’

‘Once we get to Athens, perhaps we will be offered land,’ said Luca.

Hector shook his head. ‘Not in the Duchy of Athens itself. This new French duke might want to hire our services, but he will not want us settling on his lands.’

‘Then we will back in the same position we were in after being forced to quit Kallipolis.’

‘Not quite,’ said Hector. ‘Bernat believed we could seize some Roman territory on the edge of the Duchy of Athens, the new duke lending us support if the Romans tried to take it back. To carve out our own region just like the other Catholic lords have done in Greece.’

‘Even though the company is excommunicated?’

Hector’s lips creased with a wry smile. ‘The new Duke of Athens has hired us despite the company being excommunicated. Besides, I forget the number of times we were excommunicated during the war in Sicily.

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