JANISSARIES

"I will." He hesitated, then came closer to her. "I will."

She took two steps forward into his open arms. She let him hold her, but she felt her distended belly pressing against him and she was afraid, afraid to care for anyone ever again, and she hated herself for wanting to.

PART SIX:

WAR LEADER

I

Most of the outbuildings and slave quarters had been burned, but the villa still stood. Rick was surprised that it remained. Despite everything he could do, it was difficult to convince the camp followers that their purpose was loot, not pillage and rapine. He had trouble enough keeping the army itself from breaking ranks and joining in, and only constant threats to abandon them thirty miles inside the imperial boundary stones kept them in line.

A hundred candles burned inside the villa, and most of his officer corps were getting drunk in the main hall. For that matter, there was plenty of wine in the smaller room where Rick assembled the senior commanders.

"They won't be fit for anything in the morning," Rick complained. "Listen to them out there."

"They'll be all right," Drumold said. "Tis their way of celebrating."

"They ought to be ashamed, not celebrating," Rick said.

"We won," Balquhain protested.

Tylara looked at her brother in contempt. "Won a fight you were not supposed to be in," she said. "Drove away the local militia and lost three men-at-arms doing it. Were you no told to wait for the army?"

"I do not run from a fight," Balquhain protested. "The next time, you will," Rick said. "Or I'll send you back as escort for the wagon train."

"You'll not dare-"

"He dares," Drumold said. "We hae all sworn an oath to fight as Rick commands. We will keep that oath."

"I will ride with the scouts in the morning," Tylara said. "If you do not understand what Rick wants from you, I do."

Both Rick and Balquhain spoke at once. "There's no need for that-"

"There is," Tylara said. "The maps brought back today were wretched. You'll need better." She eyed Rick defiantly.

The problem was, she was right. Dozens of medieval armies were defeated because they hadn't an elementary notion of the terrain they operated in. Rick had laughed in contempt when he read how the crusade commanders hadn't even known where their own columns were, but now he was begi

Nobody but Tylara. She'd had experience with maps in her western county, and she had a good eye for distance and detail. Her troops would obey her, too, which meant that a detachment she led would actually scout instead of stop at frequent intervals for loot. But dammit- There wasn't a lot of choice. They were deep in the imperial province, and if they marched on without locating the local garrison, they'd all be killed. "Tylara will take the scouts tomorrow," Rick said. "Balquhain will stay with the heavy cavalry."

Balquhain opened his mouth to protest, but he saw his father's look and subsided.

"That's an important job," Rick said. "They'll take orders only from you or your father."

The heavy cavalrymen were a pain in the arse, and he'd be better off sending them home, but that was out of the question. The trouble was, all the armored men were aristocrats, and that meant they had silly notions about the obligation of the aristocracy to get out front and fight for their honor-which would mean that most of his officer corps would be slaughtered in the first five minutes of real combat, and that would demoralize the infantry. Somehow he'd have to keep his two hundred armored horsemen out of it until the pikes and arrows had settled the matter. "Drumold, I think you should entrust your ba

Drumold nodded seriously, and Baiquhain seemed satisfied. Tylara concealed a grin from her brother. Sometimes Rick thought she was the only one in the army who paid attention to his lectures on tactics.

They marched in oblique order. The First Pike Regiment, a block of a thousand, was ahead and to the right. Behind and left of them was the First Archers, then the Second Pikes, his main body and two thousand strong. The Second Archers and Third Pikes, another thousand-man block, followed on the road. Rick kept the heavy cavalry force with him, just behind the First Pikes. That way he could keep an eye on them. If anyone was likely to do something stupid, it would be his armored iron-heads.

The wagons and pack horses came last. They were escorted by a screen of mounted archers acting as MPs under Mason's command. It had taken some doing to convince Drumold and his subchiefs that carrying food into the Empire would be a good idea. There'd been shouting and sulking. By now Rick was getting very good at pretending rage. He shuddered at the alternative; the army would have to break up into foraging groups every time they wanted a meal.

Tylara's scouts fa

Caius Marius Marselius, Caesar's Prefect of the Western Marches, was a

He was also careful. The militia officer had seen only light cavalry, but he thought there might be a larger body of barbarians behind the cavalry screen. He'd been unable to get through to find out.

That was unusual enough to make Marselius take notice. Normally these tribesmen, came in like a flood, looted whatever they could, and ran. They had no thought of security. Marselius wondered if a Roman officer had defected and was now leading the barbarians. He couldn't think of anyone, but it was possible.

"We'll have to go into the hills and teach them a lesson," he told his legates. "It's been ten years since we had an expedition beyond the borders. High time."

The senior legate looked at him curiously. Marselius smiled faintly. He knew what the man was thinking. Initiative was not encouraged in Caesar's prefects. An outstanding officer might be contemplating rebellion. Caesar needed no generals who commanded greater respect from their legions than Caesar held.

And perhaps the legate was right. Marselius knew he was no threat to Caesar. He wanted only to retire. But would Caesar believe that?

The Empire would fall to that kind of suspicion someday. Marselius was convinced of it. When prefects were afraid to carry out their plain duty- "Whether we follow them to the hills or not, we will want to destroy these barbarians," he said. "Not merely defeat them, but kill so many that they will tremble at the very thought of Caesar. For this we will require the full legion. Send for the reservists, call up the local knights, and bring in the detachments from Caracorum and Malevenutum. We will strike when they are all assembled."

"That gives the barbarians time to gather loot. Many of the landholders will be ruined, and they will protest to Rome," the senior legate said.

"Let them. There are few patricians in the border hills. God's breath, must I live in perpetual fear of Caesar's wrath?"

The legate did not answer. He did not need to.

Four days later, Marselius listened to the reports with growing amazement. The barbarians had not stopped to loot the foothill country. They had marched straight into the province.