Casca 7: The Damned by Barry Sadler Read Free Book Online

frontiers.
    Alaric was not long in coming. The death of Stilicho had removed the last great obstacle from his path and he moved into Italy, again gathering to him the warriors that escaped the slaughter of Radagaisus, and even the tribesmen that fought so valiantly for Rome under the leadership of Stilicho came to him and added another thirty thousand hard men to his standards.
    Casca and Vergix killed time in Ravenna on guard details and escort duty for the Emperor, who decided to stay behind the high walls of Ravenna rather than return to Rome. He was much safer here than in the eternal city. . Alaric marched south, leaving Ravenna alone. He wasn't going to make the same mistake that Radagaisus had and tie down his men in a long exhausting siege. He was after the greater prize Rome itself and would not be denied it this time.
    City after city fell to him Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia and Cremona. He marched along the coast of the Adriatic, using the roads built by Rome to transport his own legions along the Falminian Way by passing Narni. The Goths pitched their tents outside the walls of Rome. At the court of Ravenna, Honorius continued his life style and luxury, but in his capital, the ravens of death had gathered.
    Casca knew what the word siege meant starvation and disease, hardship to such a degree that the average person would readily perform acts he would never have thought himself capable of.
    Nothing entered the gates of Rome. The food stopped and those inside came face to face with the worst nightmare in the six hundred year history of the city.
    Alaric required neighboring states to provide his forces with regular shipments of supplies and made no further moves. He was now going to try and consolidate his gains and take over actual control of what remained of the Roman Empire and he still accepted delegations from Honorius showing them courtesy and restraint in his demands. He knew that the counselors of Honorius were looking for any sign of weakness on his part and that wishful thinking and the need to reinforce the image would force them to try and take advantage of him.
    He waited, and it wasn't long in coming that Honorius, at the urging of Olympius, ordered six thousand of his Dalmatians to march to Rome, right through the lands occupied by the Goths and their allies. Casca and Vergix were ordered to go along with them as part of a small contingent of his Imperial Guard to show the Emperor's colors in Rome.
    They never reached the gates. The six thousand under the command of Valens died under the lances and blades of fifty thousand Goths and Huns. Only Valens with a hundred soldiers escaped the slaughter; the rest lay broken on the fields and the few survivors were being herded off to slave pens.
    Casca and Vergix marched with them. Vergix had a broken arm and Casca showed several cuts on his already well -marked hide. He had been knocked unconscious by a thrown axe that nearly split his helmet open and Vergix had stood over his body fighting like a madman until he was so exhausted he could barely stand. His arm was broken by a club wielding Vandal.
    When Vergix fell, he raised his face and called to Father Odin with what he thought would be his last breath. That was what saved him. The Vandal halted in midair what was to be Vergix's death blow.
    "Are you of the tribes?"
    Vergix avowed as how he was and that he was ready to die. A Goth officer rode up at that time and asked what the matter was and when told Vergix was German, he gave the Vandal orders to take him prisoner. Alaric wished for all men from the tribes found in Roman uniform to be brought to him. As Casca was unconscious and of fair enough coloring to pass, Vergix told them he, too, was of the tribes. Therefore, Casca was permitted to survive this day and was taken from the field chained by the neck, marching along with several hundred others, but kept apart from them.
    Casca's head throbbed for three days and spots of many colors danced before his