GateChapter 6
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In an hour I was able to get out and tell Claudia that I was not killing her daughter. She had come by the same idea. She said, "How is she acting now?"
"I hope she is acting better but I do not want her to fall back to what she was like recently. I saw the same symptoms in you. I want friends and family, not servants or slaves."
"Was I... ?"
"Yes you were. I will keep the life preservers handy just in case there is a relapse."
She smiled at me this time and said, "I think I have learned my lesson. I hope Patricia has too."
The officers started arriving soon after. I had a rough idea of the number of passengers and basically filled a room to capacity then told the men to fill the rest as best they could.
The hemp was carried on by hand and was stacked into the hold. A leak was reported but nothing the bilge pumps could not take care of. A little while later the armour taken from the Alemmani was loaded. Much of it was blood splattered but I could do nothing about that.
Patricia welcomed me back the old way and said, "Who were you talking to?"
"I explained to your mother that I was not actually killing you."
She smiled at me and said, "You tried to."
"You are very important to me. I would do all that it takes to keep you with me as a strong mate."
"Not a wife?"
"Patricia, I want a woman for a wife when the time comes. It was you that was changing. Please don't do that to me again." The hug and smile showed that she understood.
By dawn everybody had arrived. Some of the officers wanted to bring slaves or their horse. They didn't seem too angry when I told them what had to be. Only six men were Julian's bodyguards and the rest were staff officers. After Julian counted heads we left.
As we left Lutetia, we spotted bloated bodies in the Seine. This was the way some people disposed of their dead. I had preached against this on a variety of reasons but people were not that rational.
Aulus had experience with the sawmill and he stoked the engine for us. Julian pumped the bilges then took the wheel while I looked after Rufus and the remainder of the crew. The barge was packed with people and many just moved to the hold and made their beds on the hemp.
I let Julian give orders so that everybody had a chance to learn to be sailors even if they started with the bilge pumps. They could not complain because Julian and I had our turns too.
Two days after leaving it looked like the worst of the crew members would make it. Rufus was able to take the wheel part of the time. When he could not stand I had him teach in one of the rooms with a blackboard. The officers didn't mind attending when Julian said that they should. I had to assume that the Roman navy would soon have steam engines. Then again Julian may want some captains for his own shipping.
We never stopped this time. I took the wheel when it got dark while others stoked the fire. Patricia stayed with me and I was happy even though she found it difficult. She thought her place was beside me and I thought so too.
We didn't stop to fish but we did put out the net. I was not awake at the time but I heard that the men worked like a group of boys happy to be fishing. This carried into the night and torches had to be lit so we could continue to fish and clean as we travelled.
Rufus sold fish to the forts as we passed and there was no news of the plague yet. I gave what precautions I thought best to the officers onboard. The officers were put ashore to talk to the commanders about my worries and Julian's. Julian didn't want to do all the talking or he would be days at each installation.
After two days, we just dropped men off and continued on our way. I knew that time meant lives if the plague had got to my home.
Julian was with me as I started up the river that split my property from that of Lucius'. Julian had lots of questions about the dry dock. I was concerned because there was nobody working in this area. More ships of the Patricia class were slated to be built. So was a larger barge with an engine of its own. I didn't want the whistle to be used now just in case.
A few minutes later we came upon the shipyard with the Enterprise. The masts had not been stepped but again I was worried because there were less than a dozen men working on the hull.
Julian commented on how much the 'Enterprise' had changed. I said, "There's a problem. There are few workers here and none in the dry dock. I think I am going to get my armour."
Julian now gave orders and his men made ready for war. I wanted to check on Lucius' home as well as Licinia and my children. We tied the barge up and I ordered Rufus to stay on the ship and go back to the Rhine with the women on it. He didn't need to be told twice.
The women were nervous and I explained my feelings and Julian said that he could fight much better without worrying about his family. I had only four stingers but that was usually enough.
It was about four in the afternoon and there should have been a few people around even if the harvest was in.
I approached the men working on the ship. New canvas tarps were over different portions of the ships. This same material would be our sails. It now kept the weather at bay.
One man stood more erect and I walked to him. I had not seen this man before but there were always people coming to work or me or to learn.
"Hello, will you tell me where everyone is?"
"What do you mean, Sir?"
"The dry docs were abandoned and I left orders that this ship be worked on by more than a dozen men."
The man acted guilty instead of ignorant of the answer. "I have no idea, Sir. I was just working here."
"What portion were you working on?"
"I was just cleaning up the chips."
"Well your orders are being changed. I need something put on the hull and it needs to get done before I leave again. Call the other man and follow me."
The man did as I asked and stopped suddenly at seeing Julian's robe with its purple trim. The man then continued after me. In a moment I was on the other side of the ship looking purposefully at a thick plank. Julian and his men came with us to see what was happening.
I looked at the men and none of them had wood particles on them except where they had been sitting or laying down. They had not been working and I had to assume that they had been told to stay here and watch. Each had a long knife that could be used as a sword if the need arose. Five of the men kept their hands close to their weapons. They had to be nervous.
When everyone was close I said, "My name is Jón of Germania. I own the ship you were on. I want to know who each of you are and why you were told to stay here on the ship."
Three of the men put their hands on their weapons but didn't draw them. Very few would bring a sword out in the presence of the Caesar. The man I talked to said, "My name is Niraemius sir. We were told to work here."
"Who told you?"
The man paused and then said, "Tertius the son of Lucius."
"Tertius does not oversee the shipbuilding. I say that you are sent here to spy. There are seven of us, armed with swords and wearing armour. There are a dozen of you. Are you going to fight and die, or tell us what you know?"
"I know nothing, Sir."
"Take your knife out and drop it. Then the rest will do the same one at a time."
The man didn't do so. "Sir, I am just a new employee. I just do as I am told."
"I told you to drop the knife. Do it now, or die."
The man did then fell to his knees in front of me but still close to his knife.
Julian had his sword out and said, "You seem to know who I am. I am not as merciful as Jón. I want to hear the story and I want it to be the truth."
"But Caesar, we are telling the truth."
The rest of the men were dropping their knives and they too fell to their knees. One of the guards put away his sword and held his knife as he got close and removed all the knives from the ground. I noticed that all of them were steel and made in my forge.
In a quiet voice I said, "Lie down now." Niraemius reluctantly did so. I reached out and touched him while I took most the man's ability to use his muscles. I did this eleven more times then started to separate the men.
Julian said, "What did you do?"
"Aldúlfr showed me how to remove a man's strength. Without me giving it back, these men will be cripples for the rest of their lives."
"That sounds humane but not too threatening."
"When I went to Britannica, I did the same thing, then made some of the nerves a man has very sensitive. They screamed in pain by just the touch of their clothing. The barest breeze is excruciating."
"I would like to see this."
I went to Niraemius and gave him the ability to speak just a bit louder and said, "You heard what I said, if I left you this way you would beg for death but you would not have the strength to carry it out."
"I am but one of your workers."
Niraemius face changed abruptly as he now felt everything on the surface of his body. The scream was short lived until I woke him up and then removed this ability to escape from him. His screams were like loud whispers and they went on and on.
I walked over to the next man and said, "The gods gave me this power. Will you talk or be like Niraemius?"
"I am a worker too, Lord."
The man screamed and screamed.
It was the forth man that said, "I will talk, Sir. Just don't touch me."
I went back to the other three and removed their pain and they fell into unconsciousness. "Talk or I will not remove your pain if I think you are lying."
"My... my name is Sulinus. I... I was sent here to watch for you."
"Who sent you?"
Julian came over and said, "I too would like to hear this."
The man spoke names that I had not heard before and Julian took over the questioning. He turned to me and said, "My cousin is interested in you."
"Will you find out what these men have been doing and who we will be facing?"
"I would like to know that too."
Sulinus answered quickly. When he slowed down on one question, I moved my finger close and he hurried to answer then. We were facing nearly a hundred Christian acolytes and a legion pulled off the Danube for this operation. Those legions were not under Julian's orders.
We soon found that six men had raced off to warn of our approach and we would have company soon. I was not anxious to kill Romans now.
When I asked about Licinia and her family I heard, "They were taken away along with Lucius and Tertius. The Augustus wanted to talk to them personally."
I asked a great many more questions about this but already I was considering some possibilities.
Julian said to me, "You are very important to get an entire legion to come after you."
"They may be after me because of you."
He thought and answered with a nod of his head. "What do you want to do?"
I pointed in the direction of the coal mine and then stopped as if to reconsider. I then went around and touched each of the twelve men to put them to sleep for at least a few days.
I said, "I want to go after Lucius and his family. Would your cousin have them killed for knowing me?"
Julian paused then said, "He is not stupid but he may threaten them unless you surrender yourself to him."
"Which way would they go?"
"They may go through the mountains but I do not think they are heading for Rome. If the legion makes its home on the Danube then they may go that way. That leads to Constantinople or Persia. There are two ways to get to the Danube and the Main River is the usual choice."
"They have four days head start but I think I can catch them. I assume that they would still travel up the Rhine. I will just have to find which route they took."
"You can ask at the forts."
"We can catch them with the Patricia."
"They may be in one of the forts but that would only be during the nights if they chose to wait."
"I could catch them but I know a few of the officers on the upper Rhine."
Julian asked, "What are you going to do when you catch up to them? You cannot use your stingers on the ship."
I was in a quandary now because he was right. "There are many places to stop along the way but I think they would favour the forts. I would have difficulty getting them back. This may further be complicated by the fact that Lucius would oppose me because his movements were the orders of his Augustus."
Julian said, "We can get them back but I am afraid all of the men escorting the family would have to die."
"Maybe not. I have mace. If I use this I can take the family by force but kill nobody. Lucius may still want to follow orders but at the least, I can put him to sleep. The other option is to put the rest of the detail to sleep too."
Julian did some thinking and said, "I do not want to start a new dispute with my cousin that will effect what will happen but one of my men can go with you to hunt down those you search for."
"Thank you but Rufus may do the same thing and not involve you. I also want to clean up my land. I need to keep things running and I am afraid that if the furnaces were allowed to cool then I will have to build new ones. If my people were killed then I will demand Roman law be enforced even if it was at the command of your cousin."
Julian said, "He probably used the legion he did just because they didn't know me or in the area I rule. It may also be one of his favourites that is in command."
We took the man that spoke to us with three more. One of those was Niraemius.
We purposely dragged them so the marks led to the river and we took possession of a Roman patrol boat. I did not leave though and waited for only five minutes until a calvary detachment came our way and I slipped onto the ship and we left.
The horses could outrun us but it took a while for them to even think of following. When they did they just followed and gave neither threats or arrows because they tried to hide their presence. They would be ineffective if they tried to attack and I had something in case they did.
We had witnesses as we climbed onto the Patricia. In a moment we were heading downstream but only for a while.
Patricia and Claudia were upset at what was happening but wisely said nothing. I awoke the talkative man and again he was asked to clarify the situation for us.
When he was done, he took a nap and I worked on Niraemius. It only took a minute more and he was going to tell us anything we wanted to know. He was actually in charge of this detail and had more information.
I packed for my campaign and now went upriver. We went slowly and on the other side of the river so that the calvary detachment would not see us.
Patricia didn't know what was actually happening so I said to her, "I was attacked by the Augustus. I have a plan to get the intruders on my land to leave but I have to do it alone. When I come back here, I immediately have to leave to rescue Lucius and his family. You and your family are going to be dropped off at a nearby fort so that you can say that you know of nothing I am going to do."
"What are you going to do? I know it is dangerous. I can help."
I sat up and kissed her and said, "You cannot help yet and not in the way I require."
We stopped at the dock of Lucius' neighbour. Cassianus, the previous owner, was dead but Mamercus and his wife Fausta now looked after the estate. Rufus and his men helped me remove my property and put it on the dock as some of Mamercus' men looked on.
I shook hands with Julian and said, "You can return to my property without any problems in a day or so. I will put up the marker and you will know that it is from me."
"How are you going to make the legion leave? You have still not told me."
"They are here to catch me and probably take me to see Constantius. I will simply have a private talk to those in charge. If they have done something wrong then they will pay. In any case I will put them to work while Rufus and I go after Lucius. When I come back, the leader of the Christian unit will say that this is what he wanted all along and I will go to Persia. If you remember a while ago I said I will have to go and now I can go with an official escort."
Julian said, "I cannot see how you can do any of that but then again I cannot see how you do anything. Do you have any suggestions?"
I got close and whispered, "You will soon have the Patricia and you can see if Clovis will want to accompany you on a trip. Constantius II will die soon. If you are nearby you can take over the war. You are then seen as the man that removed the threat of the Persians."
I backed up and it took Julian a moment to say, "I can see how that might work. I may not need all of my men either as long as I have your father's Auxiliary."
"That is true."
"I will do it then."
I smiled and put out my hand. Julian knew that this was our contract.
I kissed Patricia and gave some last minute instructions to Rufus before untying the boat and pushing it off.
Patricia and Claudia were holding Julian as Aulus and Postuma held their mother.
I turned to the men and said, "Hi, Duronius. Is there a cart nearby? I need to talk to Mamercus?"
"Who was that man Sir. He had a lot of purple on his robe."
"The Caesar in charge of Germania, Gallia, Iberia and Britannica."
It took a while but Duronius snapped out of it and ordered a man to run to the house for a cart. I had healed most of the men and they were all favourably disposed towards me. I was also Mamercus' biggest customer.
I asked, "What have you heard about Lucius' and my land in recent weeks?"
"Some soldiers came, Sir. They didn't talk to us just the master."
"Anything else?"
"There are only rumours but none of them are stronger than another. What is happening?"
"That is what I am trying to find out, Duronius."
A cart came in a few minutes and so did Mamercus. We shook hand but he looked worried. With so many ears around we had to wait until we could talk. The only way to do this was for us to dismiss the retainers.
Mamercus said, "What is going on Jón?"
"First tell me what the legion asked you?"
"They wanted to know where you were and basically everything I knew about you. Fausta was asked the same questions and they were very direct about it and threatened us."
When Mamercus said no more, I said, "Some important people sent a legion to take me to Constantinople. They may have hurt my people and damaged my property. It is necessary that they pay if they have done so. Now before we continue, have you noticed any sickness in your people or others?"
"I have not noticed much but this time of year we are not busy. What is the problem?"
"I was in Lutetia recently and learned how to cure the plague."
Mamercus stopped his horse abruptly and I just continued our leisurely pace. He did catch up and whispered, "The plague?"
"I said that I learned to cure it. It is not a danger now."
"But... what if it is on my land?"
"Bring all your people together and I will cure them if they have the disease. It is quick. Aldúlfr was responsible for the help." Mentioning a god was good in this situation.
Mamercus rode back the way he had come and ordered his men to come to the house with all their families. He caught up to me before I reached his home.
Mamercus had his family and household servants immediately come to meet me and I went through a small religious service and touched each of them with my much quicker healing command. It was only after that I explained about the plague and how I had cured it. My smile and unhurried mannerisms I hoped would relax them.
It took a few more minutes to talk about what was happening on my property and that of our common neighbour Lucius. They were all Roman but they were also loyal to me. Rome protected them with her armies but my help was a lot more personal. I think they still had a lot of conflict.
It was a half hour later that I went out and touched all of the rest of the people on the farm. I only told them that there was a sickness and I was trying to keep it from affecting them.
I called Mamercus out to ensure that I had found everybody. Two men and a woman were sick and those were the only ones that I checked more intensely. They had other problems and not the plague.
Mamercus loaned me two horses. One was for my belongings and I gave my goodbyes to all of them.
I knew where the legion had set up its main camp as well as six much smaller forts to patrol this area. There were a lot of game trails in this area but the Romans would also be out hunting the animals that used them.
The Romans or I were lucky. I saw a lot of tracks made by men and horses. I spotted the fort near eight o'clock. A drizzle had begun but I welcomed the cloud cover even though I would get wet.
I spent the time avoiding the patrols and checking to see if they were following the standard procedures. They looked to be just as competent as Julian's men.
The patrols came and went and I got a feeling for their regularity then hurried to the wall of logs. The torn earth had been turned to mud but I was prepared for this and pole-vaulted the obstacle. There were patrols out here too so the pole was set among the much larger ones protecting the camp.
An end of rope was thrown over one of the upright logs while the other end went through a space between the logs. I peered through the cracks and saw only the back of the officer's tents and four guards patrolling this area.
I had my black ninja suit on and my very strong arms had me easily to the top of the wall. There was no internal platform so I held on with one hand and tossed the rope back to the ground. I climbed over quickly when it looked clear and let myself fall to the ground inside the camp. I pulled the end of the rope through the wall so that it would not be found by any of the Romans.
There was no place to hide me or the rope but it was also fairly dark. It must have been ten minutes before all of the guards were looking away from me before I sprinted across the open area.
I waited breathlessly among the tents while listening for an alarm but heard none.
There was too much traffic around and I slipped into a smaller tent. There were no officers but there were three slaves. I worked quickly and struck each of them to stun them. In a moment I had each unable to move because I removed their control of their bodies.
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