The Reaping Of The Sea by Hagan Francis

Author:Hagan, Francis [Hagan, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

B O O K T W O

The Longest Dark

CHAPTER ONE

Blood Will Run Dry Long Before the Ink Which Orders That Fate

That evening saw the last of the scaphae exploratoriae move up alongside the stone jetties of Deva Victrix. Men shouted and swore as the mooring cables snaked ashore and were made fast to wooden posts while others secured the oars, stepped the masts and bound up the heavy canvas sails. One by one, the Tigris , the Orontes , the Mygdonus , the Phasis , the Orontes , and finally the Diaba eased in and were secured. Seagulls crowded above that long line of assault craft echoing the shouts and arguments below as the Barcarii moved to tie-off the last of ropes and assemble along the wide stone dock area. Alone, the Liburnian remained in the wide channel of the Deva, its anchors out fore and aft, securing it against the tidal wash. The Sagitta ’s deck crew and oarsmen assembled along the bulwarks to watch the mooring up of the scaphae while Paternus strode up and down that long, lean, war galley, pulling figures back to balance the galley in the ebb of the river. His craggy face was keenly alert, knowing that this was a moment when the classis was vulnerable, and so the Liburnian stood alone, guarding those assault craft, the ballistae primed.

Not far, on the other shore and near a wide stone bridge on flaring arches which crossed the Deva, the Heruli galleys had long-since slid ashore and now those dark figures under Medua had erected tents and rude shelters within the burnt-out remains of a settlement there. Smoke trails were drifting now up into the lowering sky as the sun set in the west and the clouds shifted in hue from a leaden colour to a deep umber.

The dock area south of Deva Victrix a little was a ruin. It had borne the brunt of the savage fighting when the Scotti had arrived many days ago and attempted a brief siege of the legion castrum. The vessels moored there had been knocked in and their hulls lay now in the shallow waters. The large grain horrea and supply sheds had all been torched. All the poor trading stalls and rude tavernae had been looted and then despoiled. Now it was a blasted area but one which the Numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium had been allocated as a billet.

Walking slowly about its ruins, Flavius Sabinus allowed himself a small sigh of relief despite the burnt and broken nature of the ground he moved through. At his side, Araxes glided making no more sound than a panther stalking its prey with Naxios also, cursing and rumbling in his throat as if perpetually angry at the world itself. He smiled a little at that, feeling the slight relief deepening in him. They walked along the old stone of the main jetty, down along the length of one scaphae after another. All about him, Barcarii were securing those assault craft while

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