Emperor 2 - The Death of Kings by Conn Iggulden

Author:Conn Iggulden
Language: bul
Format: epub, pdf

Sighing, he poured himself a third cup of wine, despite the acid feeling in his

empty stomach as it rebelled at such punishment so early in the day. He ignored

the discomfort irritably as he tipped it back. In a little while, he would have

to tell his sons that they had cost lives by not moving fast enough during the

night.

He drank more and more as the day wore on and the scouts returned on lathered

mounts with nothing to report. Of all the camp, only Mithridates the king had

drunk himself to sleep as night fell.

* * *

Julius knew the estimates of the short night raid were going to be vague or

exaggerated. It was the nature of soldiers to claim greater success than they

had achieved. Yet even allowing for that, he thought they had reduced

Mithridates' force by between eight hundred and a thousand, losing only eleven

of their own. Those men would not be buried under the eyes of Roman gods. There

had been no time to collect the bodies, but it was still a thorn under the skin

of the veterans, who had never liked to leave their own in enemy hands.

The younger men had released some of the night's tension as soon as they reached

the safety of the tree line in the hills and Julius had given permission to

stand down. They had whooped and cheered until they were hoarse, while the

veterans looked on smiling, more concerned with cleaning and oiling their

equipment than celebrating.

Quertorus had sent out fifty of their best hunters to bring back meat, and by

mid-morning had a steaming meal ready, roasting hares and deer together on small

fires. Any flame was a risk, but the trees would break up the smoke and Julius

knew they needed the rejuvenation and warmth of hot meat, and only insisted the

fires be scattered as soon as the last of the hunters' kills were cooked.

The difference that age makes was clear that afternoon. The young recruits were

fully recovered, moving energetically about the camp in small groups, chatting

and laughing. The veterans lay like the dead, without even turning in sleep, so

they woke stiff and cramped. Bruises spread under their skins, appearing where

there had been no mark the night before. The younger ones shrugged off their

wounds, but didn't mock the veterans for their stiffness. They had seen their

skill and not their age.

Julius had found Cornix chewing amiably as he sat close to the cooking fires,

obviously enjoying the warmth in his old bones.

“You survived, then,” Julius said, genuinely pleased the old man had lived

through the chaos of the attack. The knee was still heavily wrapped and flat

against the ground to rest.

Cornix gestured in welcome, waving a piece of meat vaguely. “They couldn't kill

me, right enough,” he agreed, sucking dry the meat he held before pressing it

into his cheek to soften enough for chewing. “There were a lot of them, I

noticed.” His eyes searched out Julius's, full of interest in the young man.

“Eight or nine thousand left, we think,” Julius said.

Cornix frowned. “It'll take forever to kill that many,” he observed seriously as

he worked the piece of meat around his mouth, ruminating.

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