"Prefect, we need to get the doctor hereimmediately," Lucullus told me. "We're going to need an expert todeal with this."
Before I could answer, Ocelus suddenly gavea shudder, and that made my mind up for me.
"We can't wait," I said, noticing thatalready my jaw was beginning to ache from clenching it. "The spearwent through my leg and into Ocelus. We have to get it out of him,now."
"But if we don't extract the spearcarefully, we could sever a blood vessel, and you know that wouldkill you," Silanus protested.
"Then," I told him, "don't fuck up."
I would recount what happened next, but thetruth is that I do not remember, because in the span of a heartbeatafter Lucullus, whose face I was sure was paler than mine was,began pulling the spear out, I passed out. Fortunately, Silanus hadenlisted the help of Libo to hold me steady. At the same time,Flavianus, who had come across by this point, was chosen to holdOcelus by the reins, since he was familiar with Flavianus' scentand Flavianus had actually ridden Ocelus on one occasion. Despitethe less than ideal circumstances, Lucullus managed to extract thespear with minimal further damage, other than making me faint. Butthe best news of all was that the wound to Ocelus turned out to beminor, just a little less than an inch of the point of the spearactually penetrating. In fact, he recuperated much more quicklythan I did, and even now has nothing but a scar to show for it,while I still walk with a decided limp. The fact that I walk at allis a minor miracle, at least according to the army physician, whoattributed it to the favor of the gods, which I refuse to accept.It was luck, nothing more. The larger situation, on the other hand,was an equal mix of good and bad. The vanguard Century not onlylost more than twenty men dead, and another fifteen wounded, whilefour of those would be invalided out, they also lost theirCenturion. He had been one of the first killed, just after orderingthe orbis, along with the cornicen, explaining why Ihad not seen him. But it also told me that this attack had not beena matter of a handful of hotheads, or done on a whim. While theyhad taken an opportunity presented to them, the fact that accordingto all the surviving Legionaries of the Century, they hadspecifically targeted the Centurion and cornicen, and theOptio as well, but he had fought them off, some thought had goneinto this attack. I did not think it likely that in the amount oftime after they saw us coming, perhaps a third of a watch beforethe attack, that they could muster that many warriors, hide them,and then conduct such a coordinated assault. What clinched it forme was the fact that the Century standard had been lost; despitethe best efforts of those Legionaries I had seen dashing after theMoesian who had grabbed the standard shortly before I got into myown difficulty, they had withdrawn with the standard. What theycould not have foreseen was that they had actually done me anenormous favor. The loss of a standard was more than enough of apretext to attack Naissus, as long as we could prove that theseMoesians came from there. Although it would later turn out thatthis was indeed the case, the truth was that it would not havemattered; I was sure every man in the army would swear on Jupiter'sblack stone that they saw with their very own eyes the Moesiansscurrying through the gates of the city. I had my war.
Once more, I found myself loaded into theback of a wagon, and despite the slung hammock, I was sure that thejolting I received did as much harm as it did good. Fortunately, itwas a short trip, the army stopping just a little more than a milesouth of Naissus, its wooden walls plainly visible across the flatground, still nestled in the crook of the two rivers. From mywagon, I directed Flavianus, who as praefecti fabrorumtechnically outranked me, but had immediately waived that honor atthe very beginning of the campaign, to select a campsite from wherewe could do our work. I no longer had to worry about coming up withan excuse to spend several days here, but I honestly did not thinkit would take very long to reduce the city. Flavianus selected aspot due south and a little east of Naissus, using the Sava tosecure our left flank, unlike the last time when we made one of ourtwo camps so that the Sava was between us and Naissus. As the armybegan the task of throwing up a camp, I received the report fromFlavianus and the Tribunes. There was another piece of good news,which Lucullus provided.
"The trail those bastards left could befollowed by a blind man, and it leads directly to the southern gateof the town," he told me.
This was indeed welcome information,although it did not really change anything. When Lucullus finished,Flavianus began, and that was when the good news stopped.
"Since we were here so recently, we're goingto have to go farther afield to find sufficient timber to buildwhat we're going to need. There's enough available to build thetowers for the camp, and perhaps one or two artillery platforms tocover the men as they work on the towers, but that's it. Weare going to assault with towers, I assume?"
"If you tell me that it's the fastest way toget men into the city, then yes," I replied.
Somewhat to my surprise, he did not answerimmediately, instead looking
