The Carpathian Interlude

Immortui-4

"You all right, sir?" the soldier asked.

"Good gods, man! Let me vomit in peace!" he barked back.

"Sorry, sir."

He shook his head after the final purge, hearing Fulvia's voice when she told him to go easy on the drink. You can't match your men when it comes to drinking, my love. Stick to swords and spears. Mithras and Mars, dear. Not Bacchus. Gaius splashed cold water on his face and dressed in a clean tunic. He put on his cingulum and gladius and threw his crimson cloak about his shoulders. He had slept in his boots.

"Take me to the boy!" he said to the trooper when he stepped out. "I want to see him first."

When they arrived at the boy's room, the medicus was with him, calming him.

"What happened?" Gaius asked.

"Ah, Optio. Seems our young guest is acquainted with a man we've taken from the river."Gaius looked at the boy, he had obviously been crying.

"Does the man say anything?"

"It’s incoherent. He's insane, it seems. But, he did recognize the boy whom I was bringing back here after washing. The man ran toward us and made to grab the boy. The troopers accompanying him held him fast. The boy was afraid, but he did recognize the man. I don't know what he said, but the boy has been crying ever since."

"We'll talk to him…or try. First, notify the commander. He'll want to know. And send for Centurion Lycus also."

"Yes, Optio." Stefanos snapped his fingers and an orderly came running. He was gone a few moments later to the Praetorium. Gaius knelt down beside the boy's bed and held out his hand. The boy grabbed it and held tightly as he buried his face in a pillow and continued to cry.

Two guards stood watch over the door where the new arrival had been placed. The yelling was audible as Gaius approached, though he could not make it out. The boy stayed behind him with the medicus. Gaius nodded and one trooper opened the door.

"Wait!" Julius' voice boomed down the hall. "Hold, Optio." Gaius stopped short.

"Sir."

"You'll not go in alone. Who knows what madness is on him."

"After you, sir." Gaius stepped aside. It was not time for pleasantries. He could tell Julius was in a mood, most likely because all the men were hung over.

Inside the room, the first noticeable thing was the smell, of stale sweat and faeces, of fear. In a corner the man sat mumbling to himself, one inaudible word, over and over. His eyes took in the big centurion and the others, then lingered on the boy a moment longer. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Oi! You there!" Julius stepped up, his vinerod smacking into his hand. "Do you understand me? What happened to you?" Nothing. "By Mithras!" Julius cursed. "When will these Thracian bastards learn Latin?" He stepped back frustrated. "Optio, you try. You know some of the dialect."

"Yes, sir." Gaius stepped forward, his hand on the pommel of his gladius "Pios isse?"

Immediately the man's eyes fixed on Gaius, imploring, fearful. Then he pointed at the boy who clung to the medicus' hand.

"Ime o theeos tou. Ap to horio."

"He says he's uncle to the boy," Gaius translated for Julius. "That he is from the same village."

"Ask him what happened. I want to know what in Hades has these two cowering like beaten whores." Julius looked back at the boy and then to the man. "Go on, Optio. Ask him."

Gaius hoped the man would say something soon. Julius could be a kind old bear but he could also lash a man to within an inch of his life to get the information he wanted. He turned back to the man.

"Pou ine to horio sas?" The man answered. Gaius translated. "He says his village is beyond the river, to the north and west, in the woods on the slope of the mountain."

"You came that far?" the medicus asked in Greek of both the boy and the man. They nodded, seemingly understanding his own educated dialect. Gaius looked into the man's frightened eyes.

"Ti synevi?” Gaius asked him what was wrong. He didn't know if it was the question or the memory of the answer that did it, but the man rose up on the bed and yelled at the boy.

"Oli necri! Oli necri!"

"He's saying they're all dead, sir."

"Who, Optio? Tell him to sit down or I'll have him beaten!" Behind Julius, Stefanos was comforting the boy who now bawled full-on.

"Stamata!" Gaius told him to stop. "Pios necri?" At this, the man fixed on the boy, tears burning his reddened face. "Who is dead?" Gaius repeated.

"Oikogenia mas!"

"He says their family is dead. Oli? All of them?"

"Oli." The man pursed his lips, hunched his body. "Oikogenia mas! Oli necri!" After this he launched himself at the door. "Athan-" but fell flat when Julius' vinerod caught him on the side of the head.

"That'll shut him up! Good gods! What a racket."

"Sir," Gaius interrupted. "The boy is distraught at news of his family. Perhaps we should let him rest?"

"I can give him a sleeping draught," Stefanos added, his hand on the boy's shoulders.

Just then there was a flurry of activity in the hall. Julius went out to see their tribune, Misenus, coming up.

"Lycus!"

"Yes, sir!" Julius answered, saluting.

"The commander wants you and Justus to report to the Praetorium immediately. You're to bring the boy and the man." He looked down at the limp form on the floor. "Wake him up."

"Yes, sir. We'll be there right away." The tribune stalked off, his red cloak billowing about him as he turned a corner. Julius looked down and beckoned the two guards. "Bring him along, you two. Let's not keep the commander waiting."

The two troopers hauled the prostrate man up by the arms and went after Julius. Gaius, Stefanos and the boy followed.

The Praetorium was bustling as usual, a steady flow of messengers going in and out of the tribunes' offices. The commander came out of his larger meeting space into the courtyard to see Julius, Gaius and their two stray Thracians.

"So, Lycus, what's this we have here? Who are they?"

"Two Thracian settlers from across the river, Commander. The boy was pulled out of the river two nights past by my optio, and this man was found swimming across today by sixth cohort. Optio Justus discovered from the man that he is the boy's uncle, that they are from the same village in the mountains, and that their entire family is dead."

"Dead?" The commander stepped forward. "All of them?"

"That's what he said, Commander."

"Did he say what happened?"

"No, sir. He made a run for the door before I clubbed him." The commander looked at the boy and at the man hanging between the two guards.

"Well, wake him and ask him now. We need more information." By now the other tribunes and several legionaries had come out to flank the commander.

"Optio." Julius nodded to Gaius who went over and spoke to the man. When he made no response, he slapped him.

"Ti synevi?” Gaius asked indicating he should repeat for the commander. The man looked confused and startled for a moment at all the red cloaks about him. He strained lightly but the troopers held him. "Who killed your family?" Gaius asked.

The man fell to his knees, weeping.

"Athanatoi," he mumbled through his grief, his fear.

"Ti?" Gaius asked, straining to hear. "What?"

The man fixed wild eyes on him. "Athanatoi," he said clearly this time, pronouncing each syllable in frightening tones.

"What?" Gaius looked back at the boy. Stefanos shook his head, unbelieving.

"What did he say, Optio?" the commander asked.

"Commander, sir. I asked him who killed his family and he says…he says… Immortui."

Some of the men gathered gasped, others laughed. It was the laughter that set him off for, gazing about at the laughing Romans, the man grew angry. In a moment he shot up from the ground, shoving his guards aside and charged for the commander's throat.

"Athanatoi!" he yelled.

It was his final word before the commander, in one swift, smooth motion, drew his gladius from his side to impale the maddened man on the end of it.

Gaius looked on in shocked horror at the transfixed body, the man's last word burning in his mind. Athanatoi. Undead… Immortui.

The Praetorium was in an uproar as men rushed to pull the body away, to bicker about what the man had said before attacking their commander.

"Enough!" the commander's voice seemed to crack the very walls of the courtyard. He handed his gladius to one of his staff to clean and stepped up to Julius. "Centurion."

"Yes, Commander."

"We've been charged by the Emperor to keep a close watch on the Danuvius frontier, to stomp out any resistance." He rubbed his chin, pacing the cobbles before his men. "I don't believe this rubbish of immortui. No end of superstition among the Thracians. If this poor boy's family has been massacred, whoever did it has got to pay. We're going to extend our Pax Romana across the river, and we can't have that threatened."

"Yes, Commander," Julius said. "My thought was that it is likely some renegade barbarians fresh from defeat at Rome's hands. They must have been moving east."

"We are of like mind, Centurion." The commander stopped pacing. "I want you, Centurion Lycus, to take half of III Century across the river tomorrow. I want you to find this village and root out these dregs. Put them to the sword or take them prisoner. Whatever is easiest. Just put a stop to this before they attack any other settlements.

"Yes, Commander!"

"Optio Justus can remain behind with the other half of your men." He looked at Gaius and then went into his offices followed by the tribunes.

After a few minutes, the only people left in the courtyard were Julius, Gaius, Stefanos the medicus, and the boy who stared at the small pool of blood on the cobbles where his uncle had died. Gaius put his hand on the boy's shoulder and led him back to the hospital.

"Gaius, you can't be serious! Immortui? Really? I thought you were an educated man," Julius chided him as he gathered his kit for the following day. After the men had been dismissed for the night, Gaius had gone to the centurion's quarters to talk.

"What if there's something to it, Julius?"

"The man was out of his mind, Gaius. Come now, the Undead? More like bastard Dacians, or something like that."

"The boy isn't mad. What about him?" Ever since his uncle said it, he's been saying the word too. Athanatoi is no small thing to these people."

"And I'm the new Croesus!" Julius mocked. "Listen, my friend." He put his beefy hands on Gaius' shoulders. "The boy's lost his whole family. He's the only survivor. Of course he's going to be lashed with grief. He's only a child!"

"Exactly!" Gaius agreed.

"That's why I'm going to march up to those mountains and make those baseborn bastard sons of devils wish they'd died in Pannonia." Julius slammed his gladius home in its scabbard. "Now, if you don't mind, Heliodromus, Saturn is setting out at first light and needs his sleep."

"Yes, Pater," Gaius answered, using the Mithraic title.

"And you have first watch of the day before drills."

"Great."

Julius led Gaius to the door. "Don't worry." He smiled. "I’m the bloody most decorated bloody centurion in the legion!"

Dawn was close to stroking the sky with her rays when Gaius stepped out of his room in full uniform for the first watch of the day. Sleep had eluded him, his thoughts plagued by what had happened at the Praetorium. The dream he had had flashed through his mind continually. Most of all, he was rocked with pity for the boy. Gaius figured he must have known his family was dead but that perhaps the confirmation of this by this uncle had hit him hard. He had tried soothing him with vain words of comfort and vengeance the night before as Stefanos had mixed the sleeping draught. The boy cried still but in a more exhausted way.