I ignored the initial looks of anger,followed immediately by fear when they recognized it was the CampPrefect treating them so roughly, intent only on reaching the lastpoint I had seen Gaius standing erect. Ocelus labored mightilyagainst the press of horseflesh, the other animals reacting to hispresence with laid back ears and rolling eyes, though, like theirriders, they seemed to sense that choosing to stand their ground atthat moment was not a good idea. It was a scene of utter chaos anddestruction, a riot of sight and sound that I saw much differentlyon this occasion than all the times before. I had not been deeply,truly afraid like I was at that moment for many, many years. I hadgrown accustomed to war, to killing and seeing men die, and I hadgrieved for comrades and friends lost, but never before had I beenso afraid of losing someone in battle, not even Scribonius, noteven Balbus. Gaius was not just my nephew; he was my future, mylegacy, and my heart was in my throat as I pushed my way closer.Suddenly, the logjam at the point of Libo’s attack broke, thewell-built Thracian suddenly struck down by a downward thrust fromLibo himself. That was all it took to cause the Thraciansimmediately surrounding him to lose heart. In the amount of time ittakes to blink, they gave up the fight and turned to flee. Theirheadlong flight ran directly into the oncoming Thracian cavalrythat was just arriving at the point of the breakthrough by our men.Thracian horse smashed into Thracian infantry, making a cavalrytrooper’s dream, and I could hear the shouts of triumph of Libo andhis men pouring through the now yawning gap to slam into theconfused mass of enemy warriors. I gave them barely a secondglance, sliding off Ocelus, in hindsight an incredibly stupid thingto do, but I only had eyes for a small cluster of Legionariessurrounding a supine comrade. I knew without looking that it had tobe Gaius, recognizing some of the men from his Century. There wasno immediate danger, the Thracian infantry they had been engagedwith having been broken by Libo’s charge, and were now being cutdown a few dozen paces away. Using Ocelus as a shield, I led himquickly to where the men were standing, saw that one knelt by theman on the ground. Even knowing it was Gaius, when I saw his face,pale and upturned to the sky with his eyes closed, it was like allthe strength left my legs and immediately my knees buckled.Fortunately, I disguised this as dropping to my knees beside mynephew. His helmet was off, lying on the ground next to him, but Icould not tell if it had been knocked off or if one of his men hadpulled it off to examine him. I reached out, ignoring the shakingof my hands, running them gently over his body, trying to feel forobvious broken bones.
“Did anyone see what happened?” I asked.
The man kneeling next to him on the oppositeside from me nodded.
“He was run down by our own men,” he said,the bitterness in his voice plain to hear. Shaking his head, helooked up at me, and I could see real concern in the man’s eyes,reminding me that Gaius was well loved by his men.
“We shouted a warning, but he was fightingthat big Thracian bastard in the fancy armor and either didn’t orcouldn’t disengage. That’s when the Tribune’s horse hit him andknocked him to the side. He was out before he hit the ground.”
Despite my partial relief that I did notfeel any obviously broken bones, I also knew that if he had beendamaged internally, he was very likely going to die. The last partof his body that needed to be examined was his head, and it waswhen I reached around to feel under the back of his skull that Ifelt the wetness and the huge lump on his skull. Probing gentlywith my fingers, I tried to determine if his skull was fractured,but I could not tell. I was rewarded with a low moan, then Gaius’eyes fluttered open, and he stared blankly up at the sky forseveral moments, so long, in fact, that I thought he had lost hiswits. I was fighting back tears when suddenly he seemed to focus onsomething as he looked around without moving his head.
“Where am I?” he asked groggily, lookingfirst to his left, where the other man was kneeling. Frowning, hesaid severely, “Placus, you better have a good reason for not beingin the fight.”
This drew a round of laughter from the menaround him, and I felt my body go limp with relief. Turning hishead to look at me, Gaius reacted with surprise, so much so that helifted up off the ground, but only for a moment as he winced inpain.
“Uncle? What are you doing here looking likea worried mother?”
“That’s no way to talk to a superior,” Ichided him.
Despite my admonishment, I could feel afoolish grin on my face even as I said it. Gaius struggled to rise,but I immediately pushed him back down on the ground, gently butfirmly.
“Placus,” I called to Gaius’ man, not takingmy eyes off my nephew. “Go get a stretcher bearer.”
“I don’t need a stretcher,” Gaius protested,except I was not going to be swayed.
“You’ll get on a stretcher as you are, orI’ll put you into a condition where you need one,” I growled, andfinally he subsided.
Placus returned with two stretcher bearersand a medici, who immediately took charge, shooing the restof us away to examine Gaius, then supervised him being lifted,still protesting, onto the litter.
“I’llll come see you as soon as I can,” Ipromised.
“It’s all your fault that I’m being treatedlike this,” he grumbled as they carried him off.
I turned to see his men standing there,looks of cautious relief on their faces, since all of them knew,like I did, that he was not out of danger. We had all either seenor heard of men with head injuries who had seemed perfectly finefor a full watch, sometimes even a day
