VI
Pestis Populus
‘People of the Plague’
It was a sickly cracking and prying that woke Lucius up. The darkness was lightened by grey light filtering in through small gaps in the black and stinking walls about him. More and more light assaulted his eyes, and someone beside him began to moan.
Einion!
Before Lucius could speak, he remembered the horrors of the previous night and felt his body shudder where it lay hunched over Lunaris’ massacred form.
There, his face buried in the bloody coat of his horse, Lucius wept, the convulsions stronger and more desperate for all the grief that now washed over him.
He could feel the light spreading around him now, but he did not care. Lunaris was dead, he who had carried Lucius into countless battles. They had travelled the empire together, and i
