Chapter 19

Caledonii Training Camp, Outside Devnum

Lucilla was out again, watching men train. Although she had been given Ky’s proxy and had been feeding him reports, she found that it hadn’t added that much to her actual schedule. Since shortly before the insurrection, Ky had been handing off more responsibilities to the commanders and business leaders overseeing the tasks needing to be done, and not getting involved in the day-to-day business of any of them.

That had made Lucilla happy when he’d first done it, since she’d been watching him work at a pace that seemed impossible to keep up, even with his super-human abilities. Now though, she wished he’d delegated a little less, to at least give her something to do where she could feel useful, especially after pushing so hard to make sure everyone took her seriously in this new role.

Her solution to the problem had been to spend time observing the various units train and taking tours of the factories and foundries. Unlike Ky, who had Sophus in his head feeding him what seemed like an infinite supply of information, Lucilla didn’t understand most of the more technical details, especially when it came to the factories. The parts she did understand all seemed to be well supervised, and she’d just be in the way if she tried to get involved.

She instead took a page from her father, who she’d watched govern her entire life. He would often just sit and listen to his advisors and watch the mechanisms of government-run without giving much in the way of comments. He found that, if people knew they were being observed and got the occasional positive feedback on their efforts, they tended to work harder. He did, occasionally, offer input when he saw something headed the wrong way, but he didn’t believe in micromanaging the people he’d delegated to do the work.

Which is why she was watching the Caledonii learn to fight with the Romans. Since these were the men who’d chosen not to join the legions themselves, and wanted to fight in their own traditions, they weren’t learning to fight mixed in with the legions themselves, since that would weaken the strengths of both units. Instead, they had been loaned a century and they were learning to fight on the wings of the arm as skirmishers and light infantry, while remaining in close contact with the heavier Roman infantry, instead of charging ahead, leaving both their and the Romans’ flanks exposed.

Romans had fought with auxiliaries as light infantry for some time. It wasn’t a new thing for them, but the Caledonii had been used to a less tactical form of warfare and were having trouble keeping their vigor in check. Or so it appeared to Lucilla from where she sat.

She saw her guards bristle slightly, which was usually an indicator of someone approaching her. Ever since the killings had started, but especially since the Senator, they had been on high alert, becoming wildly overprotective, in her opinion.

She turned to find Llassar approaching her on horseback. She’d rarely seen him on the back of a horse and found it a novel sight, but he rode with ease, which suggested he’d spent a fair time astride one in the past. She’d noticed him throughout the morning, riding here and there, working with his men. She had not, until this moment, noticed him coming this way, however.

“Good morning, little bird,” he said as he rode up.

“How long are all of you going to keep calling me that?”

“For a long time, I imagine. Don’t think of it as an insult, although I know that’s the way it was used the other day.”

“How does that make it not an insult?”

“There’s a story that goes far back before you people ever came to this island and we were still living in the south. It’s called Culhwch and Olwen. Culhwch wanted to marry Olwen, the beautiful daughter of a giant. The problem was the giant was prophesied to die the night of his daughter’s wedding. The chieftain sent the young warrior on an impossible task. He was to retrieve the three birds of Rhiannon, who could ‘wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.’ The rest of the story is of daring deeds and winning the hand of the one he loved, but the birds have lived on as something greater than the legend and are a popular reference point among my people. The men couldn’t help but notice you left the man who faced you in the dirt, sleeping like a baby and have heard the stories of how you barely escaped death and brought someone to save your father, who was also supposed to die. So, when they call you little bird, they are saying you are one of the birds of Rhiannon. It is a very high compliment.”

“Oh,” Lucilla said.

Despite living in close proximity to their people her entire life, Lucilla realized she didn’t know much about the Caledonii, especially their culture and customs.

“I heard a story that you and some of the men went drinking the other day,” he said, changing the subject.

“Did you?” she asked, feigning disinterest.

The whole interaction with the Caledonii warriors was still perplexing to her, and she was unsure of how they’d take letting a woman get the best of them again.

“I also heard that you walked out of the bar without even a wobble in your step, while the very large men who’d gone in with you were unable to stand on their own and had to be carried out.”

“Maybe your men should learn to hold their drinks better,” she said, a slight smile escaping in spite of herself. “Or maybe you should send some of your women with me instead, so we can drink longer.”

Llassar leaned, letting out a bellowing laugh that went on for several seconds before he straightened himself and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I will ask around and see if there are any brave souls among them,” he said. He turned his horse to leave, then paused and looked back. “If you keep leaving unconscious men in your wake everywhere you go, I think the name ‘little bird’ will probably stick around for a while.”

Lucilla stayed and watched the Caledonians for a while longer. She was just considering where to go next, when a messenger from Velius arrived requesting her presence at his command tent. The request was worded with the normal pleasantries expected when addressing someone of her station, which meant it only said ‘as soon as she found convenient’ but the harried nature of the message suggested he had been sent out urgently, and she should probably delay as little as possible.

Since Velius was in overall command of all of Rome’s military, the Seventh legion was camped more or less in the middle of all of the legions’ separate training grounds, meaning it didn’t take her very long to ride from the Caledonii training fields to where the Seventh was training.

As she approached, his guards pulled the tent flaps back, a clear sign to go straight in. Normal decorum suggested they meet outside, she and he both being single, so the gesture surprised her until she saw that the large tent was already full of other officers from all of the legions. Which is why she wasn’t surprised to see Llassar enter the tent a few minutes after her. The thing that did throw her was the presence of Ramirus, who usually worked closely with the Emperor and senators, but rarely came out to the legions. His being there suggested something had changed.

“Good, you’re all here and we can begin,” Velius said, bringing the group to silence. “So far, we’ve been operating under the assumption that the Carthaginian attack would come after the snows thawed, which won’t be until about three months from now. This was mostly based on normal military operations we’ve seen from them in the past, and not on any specific intel. That made it a guess, but we were all comfortable with the assumption, because moving an army in freezing temperatures will kill off most of your army.”

“Maybe for you southerners,” Llassar said, which surprisingly got a chuckle out of the rest of the men.

Considering how hostile even the most loyal legates had been to be bringing Caledonii warriors into the fold, Lucilla had expected that kind of comment to cause the men to bristle. It was possible it just didn’t take long for men like this to bond on a soldierly level, or perhaps they’d been working more closely together than she’d noticed until now. Either way, the fact that one of the Caledonii could make a joke at the expense of the Roman legions and the legates not take it personally was a good sign that there might be some hope for this cooperation yet.

“Sure, but that would go doubly for our Carthaginian friends. Our reports suggest that most of the troops sent to replace what they lost in the last battle and bolster their forces came from tribal auxiliaries in Iberia, they’d have even less of a reason to begin their march before the snows thawed. From all of the reports we’ve gotten, they’ve bled most of the villages in the area they control dry, and they rarely run long supply lines, preferring to strip the countryside bare to feed their armies. This time of the year, there’d be hardly anything left to take. Any people they run across will be halfway through the food they’d stored for the winter, so supply would be a major problem too.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming,” Lucilla said.

“Unfortunately, you are correct. Our assumptions seem to have been wrong. We’ve been running small patrols along the southern border where their last advance stopped, and we’ve picked up three Carthaginian scouts, all headed north and all along the main road that ran through Venonis, before they burned it to the ground. It’s the direct route to Londinium, the one their last army took, and the one their new attack will almost certainly use. One might be something routine, making sure we aren’t making any moves, but three is definitely a prelude to an invasion.”

“What does this mean for our timetable?” Lucilla asked.

“I don’t know. Best case, they’re just being over-prepared and they’ll still move at the first thaw, but I don’t think so. Their current governor has never shown much interest in being clever and he’s amazingly arrogant, so I don’t think he’s the type to play things either safe or careful. If his generals are sending scouts, then they’re building up to their attack. As to when? I don’t know.”

“My last reports say they are still unloading men from the mainland,” Ramirus said. “They’ve had issues with the weather slowing down their troop transports and one has gone down entirely with more than a hundred men aboard. My best guess is they won’t be able to move for a month at least. That would still be a lot earlier than all of our previous estimates and doesn’t leave us a lot of time to finish production. I am going to speak to Hortensius later today about the production of military supplies, but he is already running three shifts flat out as it is. It seems unlikely he will be able to increase production much more than its current level. We may find ourselves running short of just about everything.”

“I’m not sure this leaves us any choice,” Lucilla said. “We have the basics of Ky’s plan now. I think it’s time we shift from general training to preparing for his plan. Although it requires some of his abilities to make it work, there will still be the need for tight coordination among our forces, especially between the legions and the Caledonian warriors, if I understand the plan correctly. I would suggest you start practicing that coordination now, so when the Consul returns, we will be ready to execute his plan.”

“I agree,” Velius said. “Llassar and I will work on a training schedule now and should be able to start drills in the next few days. I will be speaking with each legate about preparing for full-scale training of all legions simultaneously, which should be able to start as soon as two or three weeks from now. It still gives us less time than I’d like to train for something this complex, but we will at least be partially ready for it.”

“I also believe the plan requires some of our engineers to begin with their preparations now if they are going to be ready a month from now. They also need to keep in mind that the ground will continue to have snow on it. I’m not sure what effect that will have on the theories and mixtures that Ky has given them to prepare.”

“Without the Consul, I’m not sure they know, either,” Ramirus said.

“I will send word to him and check the information he left for me. Hopefully, I will be able to provide something of an answer for that soon. Is there any other bad news you have for me?” Lucilla asked.

“No, my lady.”

“Then I believe you have a lot of work to do and a very short time to do it.”

The rest of the day was spent advancing training schedules to the bare minimums that the commanders felt they could allow, and still be able to execute the outlined battle plans Ky had explained. For some of the commanders, they’d probably cut too much training, but Velius was a realist and had cut down any arguments over why they should continue training just one week more.

They also increased patrols further south into what was nominally Carthage-held territory, which would hopefully give them enough warning that, if the Carthaginians moved while they were still in training, they could get the legions formed up and ready in time. That was all necessary planning, but what they really needed was for Ky to come back from the north as soon as possible, since the most crucial parts of his play relied on his special abilities, which nothing they could do could replicate.

Lucilla sat quietly through it all, listening and absorbing as much as she could, although she knew Sophus was listening passively through the device Ky had given her, and would be recording it on its own. She had clicked the device to make it chime once, which was the signal that it should start listening and recording to what was happening, so it could pass the information on more accurately than she would have been able to do. Still, she felt she had an obligation to try and understand as much of it as she could. Some of the moves she didn’t fully understand the need for, but she’d check with Ky or Sophus later about them before she voiced any concerns to the commanders.