Wulfhelm's Prey by Clayton Keir

Author:Clayton, Keir [Clayton, Keir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardiemills
Published: 2022-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

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The sound of squabbling gulls, fighting over the scraps of food discarded from their previous day’s meal, woke Gallus with a start. Lucius was already up and bathing naked in the cold sea, taking the opportunity to clean himself before the journey into the unknown. Gallus joined him and ducked the younger man playfully under the water. Lucius came up spluttering and returned to the shore to join Martinus who was organising a breakfast of boiled gull eggs he had found in the dunes higher up on the beach.

After they had eaten, they lifted the pannier bags onto the mules and secured their belly-straps. Leaving the beach, the small convoy travelled towards the west, their route hugging the estuary shore. The land here was reasonably flat and they followed deer and boar tracks through the unforgiving woodlands of the north. Gallus knew that this route would eventually bring them to the abandoned Roman wall. His intention was to bury the hoard close to the wall using the stone plaques laid down by the wall builders as markers, this would make it easier for them to recover the spoils when they returned south.

It was mid-afternoon when they arrived at the first derelict fort. All that remained were its defensive ditches; the wooden walls had rotted away years ago. North of the fort, they reached the turf wall and followed a path towards the west.

Gallus pointed at a large slab monument covered in lichen. “Over there!” He called out.

Lucius followed the direction of Gallus’s pointing finger.

“We’ll use that as one of the markers,” Gallus suggested.

From one of the mule pannier bags, Gallus fetched digging implements and handed one to each of his companions.

“Follow me, we have work to do,” Gallus ordered.

Close to a large rock, Gallus carefully dug the turf and laid it aside. Then they took it in turns to dig a hole deep enough in which to bury the plunder in thick leather bags. They filled in the hole and used the mules to carry the excess soil and dump it in a stream.

Gallus dusted his hands. “Not bad. It’ll be difficult to know anyone had dug here.”

On a wax tablet Gallus made a rough drawing of the wall showing the location of the stone monument marker.

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