Chapter 19

Monadhcarden

Lucilla knelt at the little altar she’d asked Modius to set up next to Ky’s bed, whispering prayers to Jupiter. He continued to lay motionless in his nothing state, not awake and yet not asleep. Although she’d made it sound as if she were confident in his recovery when she’d spoken to Talogren, she could feel the fear in the pit of her stomach.

Part of it was the fear of knowing how soon the time was coming when they’d absolutely need him. She was doing her best to ensure things Ky had already put in place continued to progress, but she didn’t know his full plan for the coming battle and wasn’t a military commander. Velius and the rest would do their best, and she knew Ky had shared parts of the plan with them, but they weren’t going to be able to pull everything he set in motion off on their own. Velius was a good man, but he was young and had only commanded in one large-scale battle, and he’d been doing what Ky had instructed him to do there. She also knew that parts of the plan also required Ky’s ability to see what was going on in areas the eye couldn’t see. She’d watched him use the small floating disk once before, explaining he could see what it saw as he sent it flying away. No level of training could allow the Romans to reproduce that on their own.

That was only part of her fear, though. Survival of her people was important, but the other part of her fear was personal. She missed talking to him and knowing he’d be there for her. She missed the smell of him and how he froze up when she kissed him, the strong warrior sent by the gods terrified of what she might do. She missed him and wanted him back.

She must have been deep in thought, because the first indication that there was someone else in the tent with her was the clearing of a throat.

“Yes,” she said, not looking up from the altar where she was praying.

“Talogren asked me to check how things went at Mwynglawdd. You arrived in the middle of the night and came straight here, which he understands, but he’d like an update.”

“I’m surprised none of the men he’d sent with me reported back to him. If he didn’t send men instructed to tell him everything they saw, I’d be disappointed in him. Or is he asking me to report to him as one of his subordinates?”

She realized she was being needlessly caustic with Llassar, who was just the messenger. What Talogren was asking wasn’t unreasonable, even if he did send men to spy on her, and she knew both Ky and her father would have done the same, but she wasn’t in the frame of mind to deal with political maneuvering. She had arrived in the middle of the night, pushing the men with her hard to get back to the Caledonian capital as quickly as they could, and hadn’t slept since she’d gotten back. She was tired and had been on the verge of tears for hours as she begged the gods to return Ky to her.

She knew all that and yet couldn’t stop herself from taking it out on Llassar, and just hoped he would forgive her for her attitude.

“Of course he did, but that isn’t the same as a first-hand report. We all appreciate your concern for the Consul, but many of my people are still unsure of this alliance and will see giving the task of apprehending these Romans to one of their countrymen as a major mistake.”

“I know, and I will see him today. For now, tell him all of the children were returned, the man and his primary agents executed and their property ordered sold and given to the village as restitution, and all of the guards and other men involved given the choice between being placed on forced work details or joining the legions for ten years.”

“That’s what we’d heard, and why he’d wanted to speak with you. The money was a good move, but he wanted to know why more men hadn’t been executed. If it were him or any other Caledonian commander, every man responsible for this crime would have ended up on the stake.”

She sighed and pushed herself up from the altar, blowing out the small flame flicking there from the burned offerings, facing the Caledonian.

“I know, which is why I’d wanted to go in his place. I get that it would make everyone feel better if we just executed everyone involved, but that would have been a mistake. This time, they gave up without harming the captive villagers or their children. When this happens again, if they know we’re just going to execute everyone, there is no reason for the criminals to give up so easily. Men will die apprehending them and people caught in the middle will die out of spite. If those who worked for the men behind the crime know that they won’t be killed outright, they will think twice about fighting.”

“That’s why Talogren wanted them all executed, to keep this from happening ever again.”

“If he thinks a few executions will end this, then he’s a fool.”

Llassar’s face hardened. She knew he liked her as a person, but he had strong personal fealty to Talogren and her insult clearly pushed the boundaries for him.

“I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I know he’s not a fool, but he isn’t thinking this through. There will always be people willing to do this kind of thing, even if they know the penalty is death, and always others desperate enough to follow them. Sometimes they think they can talk their way out of the penalty, sometimes they think they’ll be overlooked or that they can get away, but most of the time they don’t even consider what could happen to them when they’re caught. Greed blinds men from seeing the consequences of their actions. This will happen again, and I want to make sure when it does, we don’t end up with unneeded bloodshed.”

Lucilla paused. The hardest part of dealing with the Caledonians was their rather straightforward way of seeing the world. Other Romans who hadn’t gotten to know them might call it simplistic, but she thought that did them a disservice. They were every bit as complex in their motivations and desires as anyone else, they just culturally preferred to come straight at an issue, rather than talking around it for days and never getting to the point, like Romans seemed to prefer.

In general, she found this approach refreshing, but there were times when it meant they’d bulldoze straight over the complexities of a situation, seeing only the immediate outcome and not predicting the long-term possibilities. Talogren was generally better at this than his countrymen, which is why he’d been able to see far enough ahead to grasp the benefits of the alliance, but even he was sometimes blind beyond his initial impulses.

“I know you and your countrymen aren’t afraid of danger, but the Empire needs you, all of you, and can’t afford to let you throw your lives away over pride. The people responsible are dead, the villagers have all of their children back and have gotten something in return for what they had to endure. The men that helped are going to serve the Empire and help make sure your people remain free from the Carthaginians, and they will be around as living examples to others. Will this lesson have to be taught again to others? Yes. Eventually, there will be enough people telling the story of how they ended up in work details or in the legions to make it harder for those who want to take advantage of others to find help. That, in the long run, will be what protects your people better than any number of executions.”

“I see,” Llassar said.

She thought that, in his understated way, that was him agreeing with her, or at least not disagreeing, but it was impossible to tell. The man was sometimes infuriatingly difficult to read.

“I will go and speak to Talogren shortly, but if you report back to him, let him know I need to take Ky south, so he is on hand for the battle when he wakes up. We’ve passed the winter solstice. Spring will be here shortly, and we have to get final preparations completed.”

“I understand. When will you leave?”

“As soon as we can. Any of the men who traveled here with Ky are welcome to return with us and help in the battle, but I understand if Talogren needs to keep his warriors to make sure the villages you just incorporated stay pacified.”

“I believe most planned to return with the Consul.”

“Yes, that was the original plan, but with him being incapacitated, I know many of your warriors will be rethinking that. I want them to know I understand and there are no hard feelings if that is what they decide to do.”

“I will let them know, although I think you will be surprised by how many will agree to follow you in his stead.”

She thought that she actually wouldn’t be surprised. She was aware of her growing popularity among the north men and, while she didn’t try to exploit it, since they would see that for what it was, she had started to count on it when making her calculations. She also wasn’t going to point that out to Llassar or any of his countrymen. While they generally preferred straightforwardness, to the point where they had made bragging an art, they also wanted humility in their women.

“I hope so.”

She gave Llassar some time to report back before making the trip to see his chieftain directly, if nothing else to spare her having to explain everything she’d done again. She spent the time with Ky praying for his recovery before deciding enough time had passed to pay her respects, and answer for her decisions.

She stopped short of the doorway, putting up a hand to stop the Talogren’s guards from announcing her presence right away. Considering Llassar’s reaction, Lucilla steeled herself for a moment before nodding to the guards outside of Talogren’s hut, letting them know she was ready for them to introduce her.

“So, you returned,” he said when she walked through the hut entrance.

He was sitting at a small table to one side of the hut, eating some kind of burned meat that she could only guess at. She liked a lot of things about the Caledonians, but their culinary traditions had left a lot to be desired, consisting mostly of a wheat mush mixed with goats milk, mostly to cover the already rotting wheat. Because of the way they farmed and the limits to their permanent buildings designed to house grain while keeping it aerated, this far in the winter their supplies had already started to mold and rot. Because it was still their staple food and there weren’t many other options, they tended to continue eating it even in this condition, using strong flavors like fish and goat’s milk to cover the rotting taste.

The richer Caledonians tended to eat a fair amount of goat and sheep, both of which did well in the mountainous conditions. She normally liked sheep, but goat was too gamey for her, and she preferred the Roman preparations over the Caledonian method of cooking it till it was black with little to no seasoning or flavorings.

“I have. Did Llassar report back to you?”

“He did. Does that bother you?”

“No. I would have done the same thing if I was in your position, just like I would have had men that accompanied the expedition report back as soon as they returned with early, even if undetailed, reports. In your position, there is no such thing as too much information.”

“Good. I’m glad you understand. That’s the thing I like about you Romans. You might be arrogant and entitled, but you at least don’t let your honor and personal pride get in the way of practical measures. I love my people, but I usually have to be more secretive about these kinds of things to keep tempers from boiling over at my dishonoring the people I was having watched.”

“Thank you ... I think.”

“So you really feel only executing two of the people responsible will be enough of a deterrent?”

“If by that, you mean do I think it will stop this from happening again ... no. But as I said to Llassar, and he undoubtedly reported word for word back to you, I don’t think any number of bodies would have stopped this from happening again. I do think it will stop some of the people who might considerer doing this, and probably as many as would be stopped by executing all of them. I also think this outcome allows restitution to the villagers and puts a penalty on the rest of the men in a way that best serves the Empire, if not the desire for vengeance. I also think knowing what they are being forced into, and the years of conflict ahead of us, men will think twice about taking these kinds of orders again.”

“I see,” he said, without much emotion. “I still think my solution would stop more of these kinds of people, but I respect your reasoning and see where it has its benefits. Consider this the end of the discussion.”

This would have been the third time he’d heard her explanation, even if it was the first time he’d heard it for himself, so she wasn’t surprised at how nonchalantly he took it.