Chapter 66: 64.2: The General

Life in the Emperor's Legion, as described by the recruiter, was ' A glorious way to make your life count by serving the people of the Empire. Wake each day confident with the knowledge you are making things better'.

Legionnaire Christos thought about this as he once again guarded the south gate of the keep. He was starting his fifth year and was still waiting for the confident knowledge to help get him out of bed in the morning. By contrast, an older legionnaire had told him that time in the Legion consisted of 99% boredom and 1% terror. Considering he spent 99% of the time guarding the south gate and being bored, he felt there was some truth in that. But this morning, as he stared down the road to the South, he started to think it was a 1% sort of day.

The road ran straight from the keep for roughly three miles before a turn to the west and some woods obscured his view. He knew very well how long it took a walking or galloping horse to cover that distance and whatever had just turned the corner and was heading towards him was moving much faster than that. He considered for just a second before sounding the alarm. The keep instantly became a beehive of activity. The centurion took one look out the front gate and immediate shouted more orders. He spared a look at Christos. "Good call, Christos, you gave us a few minutes before she gets here. Christos just saluted the centurion and wondered who the hell 'she' was.

He found out five minutes later. He and nine of his fellows were standing in two rows on either side of the gate with shield and spear. Moving up the dirt road was a fast moving chariot pulled by two enormous lions. The driver brought the chariot to a halt, and the lone passenger stepped down.

Marcus moved up to her and saluted. "General Themis, welcome to Rowan Keep."

Marcus had been given no warning that the General would be coming to his small corner of the world. Themis was one of the oldest officers in the legion, but had the look of an active woman in her forties. She wore good quality leather armor, cut similar to standard legion issue, only her helmet and scarlet cloak showing that she was an officer. Her spear had a haft twice as thick as the one Christos was holding, with a much larger head. She had the arms and shoulders to use it.

Only the silver hair and wrinkles around her eyes gave a clue that she was much older.

If the stories were accurate, she often did drills with the men and enjoyed being in the front lines of any fight. To the men of the keep she was the stuff of legends and scary as hell.

The general returned his salute, and walked into the keep past the rows of legionnaires. "Go ahead and let them get back to their business, centurion, I'll do a general inspection later. I'll need quarters for myself and my driver. Eilene will see to the beast’s care, they'd tear apart anyone else. I plan on being here until the end of this little debacle they have the nerve to call 'a war'."

Things came together in Marcus's mind. "You will be passing judgement during the w...during the skirmish between the two groups?"

"Yes. Someone, probably the emperor, felt it would be good to see this little fiasco first hand. I must have pissed someone off and drawn the short straw. But it does have the added bonus of being able to take a look at this old pile of rocks everyone seems so scared of."

"You'll be going to Gadobhra? I'll have an escort ready to accompany you." Marcus

"No need, centurion. I'll have my driver with me, just give me one more for a scale bearer. That's enough to handle anything in this area. Although, maybe I'll get lucky and something breaks out of that cursed city. Wouldn't that be fun?"

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