“I'm giving the orders here,” he snapped,his face turning red.
There was a silence, the air feeling like itsuddenly had become imbued with tiny particles of lead that onecould not see, but could feel like an oppressive weight, whilethings seemed to slow down. I could see that Macrinus’ eyes hadsuddenly dilated, and even from where I was sitting on Ocelus, Icould hear his breathing; harsh but regular as he deliberatelyturned to me, completely ignoring Primus.
“What are your orders, Prefect?”
Because my eyes were on Macrinus, I did notsee Primus’ face, yet I could clearly hear him gasp in shock.
“Prefect, I order this man arrested,immediately!” the Praetor shouted.
Then Flaminius, his face set and determined,also faced me, repeating the question, word for word.
“Him too,” Primus screamed, and it was onlythen that I faced him.
His face was almost purple with rage as hepointed at Flaminius. Only Masala moved, but he looked extremelyuneasy, putting his hand on his sword, heading his horse in thegeneral direction of the two Primi Pili. Lucullus, seeing Masalaand interpreting his move as obedience to Primus’ order, spurredhis horse to a spot in between Primus’ aide and the two PrimiPili.
“You!” Primus shrilled. “You too?”
The Praetor whirled around, his eyes wild ashe looked for help, but then Libo turned away from the Praetor and,in a shaking voice, asked the same question as Macrinus andFlaminius. Immediately following Libo was Capito. Only then didMarcus Primus see that he was alone and isolated. I had not plannedthis, and in fact did not want to have a confrontation with MarcusPrimus at all, but the dice had been thrown and now I had tochoose. On impulse, I nudged Ocelus to trot next to Primus, wholooked equal parts angry and frightened. Staring down at him, mymind raced, trying to think of some way to dispel the tension. Icould sense that there were hundreds of eyes now staring at us, themen near the command group clearly seeing something out of theordinary taking place.
“Praetor, on my honor as a Legionary ofRome, I did not want this,” I whispered so that only he couldhear.
His fat face contorted with the bitternessand rage of the man who has seen exactly what others think ofhim.
“Yes, you did,” he hissed. “And I'll haveyou scourged, I swear it on Jupiter’s stone!”
“Praetor,” I remained calm, ignoring therapid beating of my heart. “I'd be very careful about makingthreats like that. Do you think Masala is enough to protectyou?”
A look of fear flashed across his face andhis eyes darted about. Although I did not look, I knew that the menwatching him were doing so with anything but friendly stares.
Primus drew a shaky breath, closed his eyes,then asked, “What do you want?”
“I want you to give the order that we'regoing to bypass the Thracians.”
“But that's not what I want,” he pouted.
I jerked my head at the other men.
“It’s what they want.”
“And what you want,” he said accusingly, andthat was true enough.
“Forget about what I want,” I told him.Then, I was struck by an idea. “How about a compromise?”
He looked at me warily.
“What kind of compromise?”
I explained what I was thinking. When Ifinished, he said nothing for several moments, finally giving anabrupt nod.
In a voice loud enough to carry so that thecommand group could hear, but no one else beyond our immediatecircle, I asked, “Praetor, what are your orders?”
Primus’ mouth opened, nothing coming out atfirst.
Then, in a strangled voice, he called out,“Yes, I have decided that our best course of action is to bypassthose Thracians on the hill. However, we need to find out whattribe they belong to. I don’t want them in our rear if they areTriballi. So tonight, after we make camp, I'm ordering a raid totake prisoners so that we can determine exactly who these Thracianscum are.”
There was a momentary pause before firstMacrinus, followed by Flaminius, saluted, then hurried off to theirrespective Legions, each having grown increasingly restless at thedelay. Libo followed suit, then Capito, while Masala and Lucullusglared at each other for a moment before Lucullus turned his mountaside, letting Masala pass to move to Primus’ side.
Before he reached us, Primus said softly, “Iwill not forget this Prefect.”
“Neither will I,” I told him. “And rememberthis, Primus. I have a lot more friends out here than you do.”
Without waiting for his response, I turnedaway and we resumed the march.
We had to make a wide circuit of the hill onwhich the Thracians sat. In order to avoid detection, we kept thefirst hill between us for as long as we could. It was not much of aruse; it is impossible to hide the dust raised by more than tenthousand pairs of feet and almost as many hooves, yet I judged thatevery moment we gained while the Thracians wondered what we were upto helped our cause. It was a very real concern that we wereessentially putting a force in our rear, and if we had beenmarching on a campaign that would take more than one season, Iprobably would have chosen to go ahead and engage with theThracians, trying to bloody them to make them move. But since thiswas going to be of a short duration, or at least so I hoped, with adefined objective, and we were carrying most of what we would needduring that time, it was not so much of a concern. Our biggestworry was forage for the animals; fortunately, this is also theeasiest to come by, except for the high quality feed needed for thecavalry horses, and of course the mounts of the command group andEvocati. We were carrying five wagons full of barley, which maysound like a lot and, if this was supplemented with grass or hay,would hopefully last for most of the campaign. However, if for somereason we could not obtain enough forage, then we were in trouble.Nothing will cripple an army like losing their cavalry, because itessentially blinds the commander on the march, along with robbinghim of his screening ability. This was why, on the logistical sideof things, I was
