Videssos Cycle, Volume 1 by Harry Turtledove Read Free Book Online Page B

things we don’t.”
    “Gaius Philippus and I already noticed that,” Marcus said, and mentioned the iron riding-aids and horseshoes on Tzimiskes’ mount. Glabrio nodded; he had spotted them too. So had Viridovix, who paid close attention to anything related to war. Blaesus and Adiatun looked surprised.
    “The other problem, of course, is what happens to us if we don’t join the Videssians,” Glabrio said. The junior centurion had a gift for going to the heart of things, Scaurus thought.
    “We couldn’t stay under arms, not in the middle of their country,” Gaius Philippus said with a reluctant nod. “I’m too old to enjoy life as a brigand, and that’s the best we could hope for, setting up on our own. There aren’t enough of us to go conquering here.”
    “And if we disarm, they can deal with us piecemeal, turn us into slaves or whatever they do to foreigners,” Marcus said. “Together we have power, but none as individuals.”
    Ever since they’d met Tzimiskes, he had been looking for a more palatable answer than mercenary service and failing to find one. He’d hoped the others would see something he had missed, but the choice looked inescapable.
    “Lucky we are they buy soldiers,” Adiatun said. “Otherwise they would be hunting us down now.” As a foreign auxiliary, he was already practically a mercenary; he would not earn Roman citizenship till his discharge. He did not seem much upset at the prospect of becoming a Videssian instead.
    “All bets are off if we find out where Rome is, though,” Gaius Philippus said. Everyone nodded, but with less hope and eagerness than Scaurus would have thought possible a few days before. Seeing alien stars in the sky night after night painfully reminded him how far from home the legionaries were. The Videssian priest’s healing magic was an even stronger jolt; like Gorgidas, the tribune knew no Greek or Roman could have matched it.
    Gaius Philippus was the last one to leave Scaurus’ tent. He threw the tribune a salute straight from the drill fields. “You’d best start planning to live up to it,” he said, chuckling at Marcus’ bemused expression. “After all,
you’re
Caesar now.”
    Startled, Marcus burst out laughing, but as he crawled into his bedroll he realized the senior centurion was right. Indeed, Gaius Philippus had understated things. Not even Caesar had ever commanded all the Romans there were. The thought was daunting enough to keep him awake half the night.
    The market outside Imbros was established over the next couple of days. The quality of goods and food the locals offered was high, the pricesreasonable. That relieved Marcus, for his men had left much of their wealth behind with the legionary bankers before setting out on their last, fateful mission.
    Nor were the Romans yet in the official service of Videssos. Vourtzes said he would fix that as soon as he could. He sent a messenger south to the capital with word of their arrival. Scaurus noticed that Proklos Mouzalon disappeared about the same time. He carefully did not remark on it to Tzimiskes, who stayed with the Romans as an informal liaison despite Vourtzes’ disapproval. Faction against faction …
    Mouzalon’s mission must have succeeded, for the imperial commissioner who came to Imbros ten days later to inspect the strange troops was not a man to gladden Vourtzes’ heart. No bureaucrat he, but a veteran warrior whose matter-of-fact competence and impatience with any kind of formality reminded Marcus of Gaius Philippus.
    The commissioner, whose name was Nephon Khoumnos, walked through the semipermanent camp the Romans had set up outside Imbros’ walls. He had nothing but admiration for its good order, neatness, and sensible sanitation. When his inspection was done, he said to Marcus, “Hell’s ice, man, where did you people spring from? You may know the tricks of the soldier’s trade better than we do, you’re no folk we’ve set eyes on before, and you appear inside