The Last Witch of Rome: An Epic Fantasy Series: Books 1-3 + Prequel Novella by Rhett Gervais

Author:Rhett Gervais [Gervais, Rhett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781777891411
Published: 2021-09-27T22:00:00+00:00

Six

Street to Street

The carpentum came to a grinding with halt with a harsh jolt, and Lucilla had to hold on for dear life or risk being thrown from her seat. In front of her, Senator Magnus had taken on a hint of green in his pale complexion, and she frowned in disgust, remembering the man’s weak constitution. “Take deep breaths, Magnus. I don’t want your breakfast all over me.”

“Apologies, I have a weak belly. It has been this way since I was a child.”

Knowing him well enough, she began to agree, when a piercing scream filled the air, followed by a hollow thud as their driver fell from his seat. “Stay here,” said Lucilla in a rush, circling behind the carpentum for cover, cursing when she saw the rough shaft of a spear sticking out of their driver's chest.

“Get back inside, it's not safe out here,” shouted Albus, cringing when he bent his knee to duck down beside her. “I don’t think we can make it to that pillar of shadow, and I was about to order the driver to turn around. That doesn’t look like it will be happening now, so the safest place for you is inside.”

Ignoring his concern, Lucilla peeked out, seeing that the senator’s men were engaged in a chaotic melee with a group of dark-skinned warriors, with flaking, white paint drawn over their bodies in strange patterns. “What is the meaning of this? Who would dare attack us here, in the heart of the—”

“I don’t know, but they were lying in wait for us,” he said, his voice calm despite the chaos around them. “The senator’s men, I told them to wait, fall back, but they’ve charged ahead, and now are being cut to pieces.”

“And the men of the watch you brought with you?” she asked.

“I ordered them to fall back to cover the minute we were attacked.”

“A wise man indeed,” said Lucilla, squeezing the first centurion's shoulder. “We can’t let these invaders get a foothold in the city. We must get to the source of all this, root them out before it's too late. Can we have the men press ahead with a phalanx?”

“You know a thing or two about tactics?” he said, his thick brows shooting up in surprise.

“I traveled a great deal with my first husband,” she said, catching a glimpse of a man hurling spears, with deadly accuracy from the roof of the insulae. “We couldn’t bear to be apart when we were first married. I spent more hours than I could count in the corner of a tent, listening to his advisors discuss war and tactics.”

“Very well,” he said, falling back to organize the legionaries. “I will have the men form up.”

“Albus, one last thing,” she said, eyeing the men on the roof.

“Yes?”

“Take your best javelin throwers, the men with the strongest arms. Make sure they are well supplied from the rest of the men. Have them throwing from the rear to cover the phalanx from the attackers on the roof.

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