CHAPTER TEN
“Sneeze!?” Phoenix stared at Jade in disbelief. He couldn’t decide whether to laugh or slap her back in congratulations. “You’ve got this cool magic to use and you get your enemies to sneeze?” All around them, Roman soldiers convulsed and fell over, unable to keep their feet or see straight.
“Well,” Jade sent him a hurt look, “it worked didn’t it?” She waved a hand around the clearing, indicating the twenty or so soldiers collapsing as wave after wave of sneezes shook them.
Phoenix gazed at them then gave way to the relieved laughter bubbling inside him. Jade’s frown changed to a reluctant smile. Marcus and Brynn exchanged amazed looks then Brynn, too, howled with laughter. Marcus permitted himself a small smile, though his eyes were troubled.
It took several seconds before they were in control enough to gather their weapons and gear again. Ignoring the Centurion officer, who staggered after them swearing, sneezing and feebly waving his sword, the four companions filled their water skins at the stream and wove their way through the shuddering soldiers toward the other side of the clearing. A final glance showed them men who looked truly miserable. They certainly weren’t capable to retaking their prisoners.
Still chuckling, Phoenix wiped his eyes. He noticed Brynn snatch up a woven bag one of the soldiers had dropped at the edge of the clearing. Catching the boy’s bold gaze, Phoenix frowned then shrugged. It might contain something useful and they could use all the help they could get at this point. Brynn grinned and flipped the sack over his shoulder with a jaunty whistle.
A sharp pain in his side made Phoenix wince. He touched his hip gingerly and felt a shallow slice there, bleeding sluggishly. There wasn’t much he could do now. They had to get back into the forest and away from these soldiers. Gritting his teeth, he followed the others.
“Let’s get out of here before it wears off,” he ordered, limping into line behind Jade. The sounds of wild sneezing faded and the group became more serious again as the gloom deepened beneath the green canopy.
“So how long does that spell last?” he asked.
“About an hour,” she shrugged.
Phoenix grunted and nodded to Brynn to pick up the pace a bit. They had to get somewhere safe for the night before the soldiers found their trail again. The cover of darkness was still a few hours away.
“Why not something a bit more permanent, like ‘disappear’ or ‘die’ or ‘explode’?” Phoenix gave voice to the question that had been nagging him for the last ten minutes. Marcus nodded and Brynn dropped back to listen, evidently wanting to know the answer as well.
Jade, who seemed to be lost in thought, frowned before answering. “It has to be a single word imperative verb that they are capable of performing,” she replied at last.
He blinked at her. “In stupid-people speak, please.”
“Oh. Sorry. I was thinking of something else. The spell is limited,” she explained, “You can only use one word. It has to be an order to do something but it has to be something they are actually able to do.” She raised her eyebrows at Phoenix who nodded, doubtfully. “You can’t order someone to explode because they’re not physically capable to doing that. So I’d pour all my energy into the spell and it would just suck me dry trying to achieve what I’d asked. The person wouldn’t explode but I’d die.”
“Ah,” Phoenix said, understanding. “So you’ve got a few more useful words up your sleeve, I hope. I mean,” he added wryly, “sneezing isn’t exactly the most awe-inspiring way of defeating our enemies.”
Jade pursed her lips. “It was all I could think of at the time. I’d be happy to hear any better suggestions. Anyway,” there was a hint of hurt in her voice again, “my sister gets hayfever with massive sneezing fits. She says it’s like your brains explode out through your nose and get replaced by snot. She can’t think clearly all day. I’m sure it will keep the soldiers off our trail for long enough.” Apparently satisfied that she’d explained herself, she glanced around the forest with a frown. “Can you guys hear something? Like a voice, whispering?”
When the others shook their heads, she frowned again and chewed on her lip, sinking back into whatever had been preoccupying her before.
Phoenix exchanged rueful glances with Brynn and gestured for him to continue leading the way.
They walked well into the evening without stopping again to eat or rest. Twice Brynn led them up streams to cover their tracks and once they hopped for several hundred metres across an area of exposed boulders and logs. At one point, they came to a fork in the path. Both ways were indistinct. Brynn hesitated.
“Go right.” Jade’s voice and expression were somewhat dreamy.
“You sure?” Phoenix glanced around. The forest looked the same in both directions but, as far as he could tell, going right would take them more north than west. It would also lead further into the deep woods – further into Fair Folk territory. Somehow they’d been lucky enough to pass unnoticed through their land so far. Was it worth pushing their luck?
Jade blinked slowly at him then shook her head as though to free it of fog. She was her normal self when she replied, “We’ll be safe. We’re being watched but we won’t be harmed.”
“How do you know?” He gripped his sword, not liking the thought that they were still being watched.
“I…,” she hesitated then shrugged. “I just do. You’ll have to trust me on this one.”
Unsatisfactory as that answer was, Phoenix had to accept it. She was, after all, an Elf and therefore attuned to all things natural. If this was a Forest Folk haven, it made sense that her character would feel bound to it.
Still, it made him uneasy.
In the end, it was so dark that they all had to rely on Jade’s night vision to guide them. It annoyed Phoenix to feel so dependent on anyone but they needed to put some distance between them and the Romans before they could camp for the night. Finally, she stopped and told them to wait. Phoenix stood in the gloom with Marcus and Brynn, feeling stupid. When she whispered in his ear, he almost yelled in shock.
“There’s a small cave just a little way up this hill. It’s off the path and hidden behind a stand of trees. We should be able to light a fire.” She took his hand. He groped for Brynn and the boy snatched Marcus’ hand. Jade guided them through the blackness, murmuring soft instructions about where to put their feet.
When they reached the cave, Phoenix dropped his pack and shield with relief. Jade and Brynn gathered wood near the cave entrance and started a small fire, well hidden by piled up rocks and a thicket of trees outside.
Marcus began to gut and pluck the pheasant he’d caught. Phoenix skinned a hare, although he had to suppress the urge to chuck. Luckily his character knew how to do this stuff, because he’d certainly never had to do anything like it in the real world. Chopping up dead animals was the last thing he wanted to do. His hip ached and so did his sword arm. They were all exhausted but he refused to be the one to admit it. Technically, he was older and stronger than all the others. If they could keep going, so could he.
Brynn tended the fire as Marcus added bits of meat into a pot of boiling water. Jade tossed in some wild onion and herbs and the stew began to smell appetising. Phoenix finished cleaning and butchering the hare and pigeons. After a moment of thought, he rigged a drying rack above the fire and hung the strips of meat up. With luck, in the morning, they would be smoked enough to keep the next day. He could finish cooking them the next night.
At last he sat back down and stared blankly into the leaping flames. Listening to Jade bemoan their lack of bowls and spoons, Phoenix was reminded of the woven bag Brynn had collected from the soldiers. Maybe there were spoons in it. Or maybe treasure.
“Let’s see what we have here then.” He picked up the bag and tipped it out on the dirt floor. Brynn protested that it was his b
ag but subsided when Phoenix glared at him. There wasn’t all that much of interest as far as he could tell, anyway. There were two spoons and two small wooden bowls, a loaf of flat bread, a little sack of dried leaves, a coil of thin rope and another bag – made of some shiny black material. Jade pounced on the bowls then examined the dried leaves, declaring them to be bay leaves – native to Greece. She put one into the stew and tucked the rest into her backpack for use in seasoning food. The bread went into their foodstores. She passed the rope to Marcus. He wrapped it around his waist like a belt, saying it might be useful sometime.
Phoenix picked up the black bag and turned it over in his hands. It only weighed a few grams and felt slippery, cool and decidedly empty. The bag itself wasn’t huge but the drawstring mouth seemed enormous and the red cords holding it shut were very long. It looked as though the bag could be opened right up to lay flat on the ground. Curious, he tried it.
He tugged the mouth open as far as it would go then spread it out on the ground. Sure enough, it formed an almost perfect circle about a metre across. He reached out to smooth the black material flat but Brynn snatched at his hand.
“Don’t touch it!” the boy exclaimed, wide eyed with wonder.
“Why? Do you know what it is?” Phoenix drew his hand back.
“I think it’s a Hyllion Bagia,” Brynn breathed. “A magic bag made of cave-spider silk. They’re really, really rare and really really valuable.” His eyes sparkled with interest, greed and a hint of fear.
“That doesn’t help me much,” Phoenix grumbled.
He searched his character’s memories but his Warrior hadn’t come into contact with much magic in his short life. The ancient Brittonic words Hyllion Bagia translated literally as ‘all I bag’, which didn’t make a great deal of sense. Frowning, he tried to remember what little he’d read about magical items in the game rulebook but nothing helpful leapt to mind. He glanced at Marcus, who shook his head to indicate his ignorance.
Jade knelt beside Brynn and examined the bag without touching it, her head tilted to one side. “I can kind of see the magic shimmering around it like a sort of purple-blue glow,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
Phoenix stared at it hard but it only shimmered when his eyes began to water. “So what does it do?”
“Well,” Brynn picked up a small stone and held it over the open bag, “this.”
He dropped the stone onto the black opening.
The stone vanished.
Jade gasped. Phoenix reached out but yanked his arm back just in time. If the stone had disappeared, what would happen to his arm if he touched the material?
“Where did it go?” she breathed.
Phoenix reached to her. “Hold my hand. I’m going to find out.”
“No,” Marcus laid a hand on his shoulder. When he turned angrily on the Roman, Marcus just tightened his grip and shook his head. “I’m the least valuable member. Brynn’s your guide. Jade’s a Spellweaver and a woman. You’re their leader. I should be the one to try it out.”
“But…” Jade protested.
“No, Jade,” Marcus said gently. “I…we don’t want to risk losing yo…anyone.” The Roman boy caught Phoenix’s astonished look and turned away, flushing red.
Jade looked annoyed, confused then quietly pleased.
“Nobody needs to go,” Brynn interrupted. They all looked at him. “It’s just a Hold-all. You put stuff in and you take it back out again when you need it. It never gets heavier so you can put as much as you like into it.”
Phoenix eyed the empty blackness dubiously. “But how do you get it back out again?”
Brynn swallowed and bravely reached into the bag. His arm disappeared up to the elbow. Jade choked a warning and Marcus turned a few shades paler.
“Stone,” the boy murmured then withdrew his hand. There, in his palm, was the small stone he’d cast in moments before.
“So you have to name what it is you want before it will come out?” Jade asked.
“As far as I’ve heard, that’s the way it works.” Brynn nodded. His usual, cocky expression was back now he’d shown them, without mishap, how the bag worked.
“But what if there’s lots of stuff in there already?” Phoenix was troubled. Who knew what the Romans had already stashed in there.
Brynn shrugged. “Unless you know what it is, it’s staying in there.” He screwed up his nose and added, “but I suppose you could guess and fish around a few times. These bags are supposed to be harmless.”
Phoenix glanced at Marcus. “What do you think the Romans would have stored in here?”
Marcus crouched beside him and gazed into the black hole for a long moment. Shaking his head, he replied thoughtfully, “I’m finding it hard to believe they even had one. We…” he stopped then started again, “they don’t really believe in this sort of magic.”
“What do you mean ‘this sort of magic’?” Jade demanded. “Do they believe in some sort?”
Marcus nodded slowly. “The Gods have a magic of their own. They use it to help or hinder mortals when they feel like interfering in our lives. Romans don’t believe in….er….Earth-magic or magic items, like this.”
“‘Earth-magic’?” she prompted.
The Roman looked uncomfortable, glancing at Jade then away again. “The sort that you practice – using plants and the like. The sort that comes from being close to the land; part of the land – like Elves are.” He seemed to feel he’d said enough and sat back to tend the stew.
Phoenix raised an eyebrow at Jade. “Shall we give it a go?”
“Nothing to lose, I suppose,” she replied dubiously.
“Except maybe an arm,” quipped Brynn.
Phoenix glared. The boy grinned back irrepressibly.
Gingerly, Phoenix inserted his right hand into the bag. There was a strange, tingly-coldness as his fingers disappeared. He wriggled them and waved his hand around but encountered nothing. Thinking, he said aloud,
“Knife.” Nothing. “Bread.” Nothing. “Helmet.” Still nothing.
“Let me try,” Jade reached her hand in. “Hat.” Nothing. “Shoes.” Nothing. “Cheese.”
Phoenix stared at her. “Cheese?”
Brynn snickered.
She shrugged. “Just a thought.”
He studied the size of the opening, wondering what a Roman would fit through it that might be useful. Mentally, he pictured the Romans as he’d seen them in the clearing. They’d looked pretty much like every picture of Roman soldiers he’d ever seen. Armour made of small plates of metal covering their chests. Metal helmets. Short leather and iron skirt-things. Sandals. Short swords. Big shields. What was missing?
“Try ‘Pilum’,” Marcus suggested.
“What?” Phoenix frowned. “What’s that?”
“A sort of spear the infantry carry,” he replied.
“Yes!” Phoenix slapped his own thigh. “That’s what was missing.” He put his hand back in. “Pilum.”
Thump. Something wooden and heavy slammed into his hand. His fingers closed around it automatically and he drew it out…and out….and out. The spear was so long that he had to turn it so it pointed out the entrance of the cave before he could get it clear of the bag without hitting the roof.
They all stared at the long wooden shaft and the thin metal length and tip attached to it then back at the small black bag in astonishment.
“I wonder how many are in there,” Jade breathed.
“There are eighty men in a Centuria,” Marcus said. “It’s possible the Centurion officer was using the bag to carry the pila for all his men.”
The other three gazed at him now in bewilderment.
“You mean there might be seventy-nine more in that little bag?” Phoenix said.
Marcus looked thoughtful. “Personally, I think it would be impractical to have eighty me
n all trying to get their weapons out of one small bag. It’s more likely that he only used it to carry his own possessions or maybe the pila of his own Contubernium.” Seeing their blank looks, he explained. “A Contubernium is eight men; a Centuria is ten lots of Contubernia.”
Phoenix did the mental calculation then shook himself.
“So, basically,” his heart sank even as he said it, “what you’re saying is that we’ve now got the Centurion’s personal magic bag, probably full of his own personal items.”
“Probably,” Marcus agreed. He thought for a moment, and then added, “You could try asking for Roman coins, too.”
With a portentous feeling, Phoenix plunged his hand back in and said, “Roman coins.”
Instantly, his hand was full of what felt like money. He drew them out and dribbled the silver coins onto the ground. Brynn pounced on them. Marcus picked one up and nodded.
“Roman coins - denarii,” he confirmed. “Either the Centurion’s own hoard or the pay for his men.”
“Well, I did forget to bring any with me,” Phoenix grinned at Jade.
“Oh no.” Jade stared at the little pile of coins Brynn was counting. “We’ve beaten their soldiers, stolen their money and they know about Marcus and me.” She bit her lip. “I’m afraid we’ve just given eighty soldiers a really good reason to keep chasing us.”
Marcus grimaced. “I hate to say it but it’s not going to be just one Centuria of eighty men any more. They…don’t like to be humiliated. It’s more likely to be the entire Cohort they belong to.” He returned their horrified stares stoically. “Four hundred and eighty soldiers will be after us now.”
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