old stuff Chapter Three

Book one – chapter three- Fire

“There are flames that warm the soul and those that frighten the heart.
The most dangerous are those small embers that burn deep . . . and long.”
---Mardus of Macedonia

The two-wheeled British war chariots dashed up the hill and halted in a position of gallantry. The Charioteers, dressed only in trousers and flowing cloaks strained to hold the double horses in line. Armed warriors shouted to their leader for command.
Adminius looked down into the valley and saw the fire spreading. The flames twisted and turned, pulling energy into the inferno and raising high into the night until embers mingled with the stars above. Smoke made it difficult for Adminius to see the total extent of the inferno. Flames stretched beyond the tree line and moved into the dry grass of the fields. To his left was a small creek – a little more than a stream- gleaming in the waning moonlight. He called to his men on either side of him. “The land is ablaze with treachery! Quick, let us make an end to this evil!”
Grabbing the reins from his driver, he slapped the leather onto the back of the pair of ponies yoked to the chariots crossbar. The chariots – five in all-each holding two men, rushed toward the flame before it could reach their farmlands.
Adminius knew what they needed to do. Fires, usually started from lightning strikes, had been dealt with before. There had been no storm that night.
They drove the chariots into the creek. The warriors jumped from the boards, splashing wildly as they doused themselves, the ponies and the wicker sides of their chariots in the cool water or the stream. They then took large hides from the chariots and soaked them until they were almost too heavy to lift. These they attached to the back of the chariots to let them drag the ground as they rode. Removing their saturated cloaks, they gently wrapped them around their horse’s eyes- speaking soothing words as they did so.
Adminius stopped short of the creek, grabbed a hide, took a cruise of oil and poured it on to the hide, and placed it behind his chariot. Climbing back into the chariot he yelled to the others, “Follow me! Guard the gap and extinguish this hell!”
Adminius drove his team straight toward the conflagration, pulled hard right on the reins turning the team, and skid the two-wheeled chariot right into the flames. The trailing hide caught aflame. Adminius let out a whoop and aimed the fiery chariot across the open field.
The men shouted at the sight, drew their swords, and rode along the flame path Adminius had made. In this manner, they took advantage of the stream, the open area and the natural lay of the land to create their firebreak ahead of the brushfire. They worked way into the early morning.
. . . .


Alexenah beat the cold ground with her fist. “Save my children, Oh Lord! Hear the voice of my prayer!” She screamed in the direction where her children vanished into the night. Putting her hands to her face, she felt the puffiness of her eyes that held no more tears. The only sounds were the echoes of her cries into the night as she rocked back and forth on her knees. “He took them from me.” She sobbed. Her shoulders heaved. She pulled at her hair and, making a moaning sound, beat her fist against her thighs. She had chased her husband as far as the hill-fort’s massive gate where her heart could bear the weight no longer. Earnestly she prayed. “My God, My God, My dear God. Please hear me.” She repeated it over and over until her voice strained. “In You I put my trust,” She squeezed her eyes shut. She strained to seek solace from her God. “Almighty, let Your eyes see what is out of balance. A man would kill his own children? I cannot understand.” She sank, exhausted, clinging to her skirts that had once held her sons. Like the coming morning fog she saw in the distance, she could feel the darkness of fainting flood her mind. She took a deep breath. There was the smell of smoke, yet she ignored it. “I need every breath to pray for deliverance”, she told herself. Then she sat quietly, just looking down the empty road leading away from the hill fort.
She didn’t know how long she sat there staring into the darkness. In the stillness, she thought of the Patriarch of her people -- Abraham. He had taken his child to the mountain to give him up to his God. Her people passed down the story from generation to generation to show her the Almighty’s tender care for Abraham’s people. He had trusted that the Lord would provide a way of escape for his son. She needed that care. Only a year ago her parents had died in a cart accident. As the only female in the family, she was taken from her home by the tax collector and sold to Regilus the Roman. He later gave her as a slave-wife to Caradoc. He brought her to this land. She had tried her best to serve her husband, to learn his language and his harsh ways. All she could hold on to was her faith in the God of her fathers and the stories of her people. Abraham’s son was saved from the knife of sacrifice that day so long ago, she knew the same love could be shown her children. Alexenah sighed deeply and lifted her face to the coming dawn. “This must be what it was like when Sarah had her son taken from her that day so long ago.” Raising her hands to the fading stars she cried out to her God, “Great Jehovah, protect my sons! I give them to you and withhold them not. You can see my heart.” She crossed her arms to her chest and bowed lower. Her breathing slowed. “My lips will not sin against this man. Caradoc is my husband. By your will I will honor him as you have commanded. I will accept whatever portion You give unto me. Show me Your loving-kindness and I will be satisfied. Save my sons and deliver them from evil.” As she prayed, a peace began to edge out the dark places in her heart. She stopped sobbing.
Alexenah stood, once again wiping her eyes with her dress. She straightened her shoulders. As she looked up, she was startled to see the silhouette of a man against the fog and the red rising sun. She brushed her self off, bowed her head in obedience and waited.
“Alexenah?” Alexenah! Is that you?”
Alexenah lifted her head and let out her breath into the air. It was not Caradoc. It was her brother-in-law – Adminius. As he came running towards her she saw the look of concern on his face. He stopped when he got to her. Breathing heavily, he stood there for a minute and just looked into her eyes. She once again lowered her head. “Alexenah?” He said as he lifted her chin and then brushed a lock of her hair away from her face. Feeling uncomfortable, she stepped back. She brushed her hands on her dress and looked at him. His hair was pulled back. His clean-shaven face smudged with soot, ash and mud. His sword was at his side. He did not wear a cloak, only drab, brown trousers. He smelled of sweat, smoke and blood.
She turned, so that he did not see her perusal. As he called her name again she saw a chariot top the hill behind him and then another and another.
Before they reached them Adminius took her by the shoulders and asked, “Alexenah, where is your husband?”
She did not understand. She stared at him. She shivered in Adminius’ grasp, his touch scared her.
“We came to warn him.”
Adminius’ men jumped down from the chariots as they came up to the gate. “Where is Caradoc?”
Adminius stepped away from Alexenah and greeted his men.
She looked at the men around her. There was Togodumnus, Caradoc’s youngest brother, and the rest were Adminius’ men. She knew them all. Caedman – a wise warrior, Kendall who lived in the big valley, Teague, the poet, and Fergus the strong.
She bowed her head, “He… is…. not.”
“That is not good to hear,” sighed Adminius as the men started to walk up the hill to the fort.
“We believe we have been attacked!”
“By whom we do not know.”
“The druids have all been killed!” Teague shouted.
“It is so, we saw the grove.”
“Or what remains of it.”
“It was Atrebates,“ Togodumnus said.
“Obvious only to you, Togodumnus.”
“The Atrebates?”
“Tincommius, or Epillis?”
“Probably the young Verica himself!” Togodumnus said, this time with a confident nod of his head. “They will not join our cause against Rome.”
“Let’s not place blame,” Adminius said holding his hand up to his men. “Let’s go inside to discuss this.”
“I fear for Caradoc’s safety. King Tasciovaunus is not to be found and now Caradoc is missing as well. This is not good at all.” He motioned to the drivers to put away the horses.
“Why not search for him?” Togodumnus asked.
As the men walked to the great roundhouse of Caradoc, Alexenah felt a tension from the group that was unsettling to her.
Adminius continued, “The call has gone out to the tribes to gather at Camelodinum. We need rest and food before we continue our journey.” Then to Alexenah he said, “I hope that will not put you out.”
Alexenah replied, “Our home is your home.” She pointed to the roundhouse. “The fire is warm.”
“Yes, it is,” he said as she directed him toward the doorway.
. . .
Adminius leaned against the post in the middle of the room by the fire. A slave girl, Mara was tending to the fire. Alexenah nodded to her and immediately began to prepare for the early morning meal. Adminius noticed the girl was local, wearing the colorful dress of their people, and spoke roughly, when she spoke to Alexenah. Alexenah’s appearance was strikingly different from the Celtic woman. She was wearing a light brown peplos style dress. The dress was fastened on the shoulders and fell to just below her knees. It was a very simple, but useful style. He watched her as she pulled her raven locks back and tied it like a pony’s tail. Her eyes were brown; not a dark brown but a soft brown, easy to look into -- like a good cup of herbal tea, Adminius thought. She was slender, even after just having children. He had learned a little about her over the years. Alexenah was born to Jewish parents. She came from Capernaum. Yes, not like the others at all, he thought. In the last nine years, Adminius had seen strength in her nature that let problems run off her, as rain would bead up and flow off an oiled leather boot. She was strong of muscle and mind; always pleasant, never sullen or discouraged about anything. Adminius could not understand how his brother could treat her unkindly.
As he warmed himself by the fire in the center of the great room he watched her work to care for those who were not her own. She moved to the window and drew back the coverings. Soon the sun would come up and brighten the room. Smoke from the hearth drifted up into the rafters where meat cured and flowed out the opening in the thatched roof above.
“Like a thick wool cloak that still keeps you warm and dry even when it gets wet in the winter snow.” He said out loud to himself and moved closer to the warmth of the fire.
“Yes, the fire at home is always the warmest. Don’t you think so, brother?”
It was Togodumnus. He was a man who rarely spoke his mind, but tonight was full of words.
“We really fought that fire all night, didn’t we?”
“We? Where you you? I tried to find you and you were gone. Where did you go brother?”
“I was there.” Togodumnus replied.
Adminius thought nothing of it at first, and had later ruled the absence an unwillingness to do any work. This was part of Togodumnus normal demeanor.
“Yes, brother. Warm, and cozy like.” Togidumnus said again.
Adminius noticed a shaking in the man’s voice
All the men began to enter the roundhouse.
“We saw the smoke.”
“It smells good. Stew?”
“Ahh, I smell a feast coming. Where is the drink?”
Alexenah was used to holding impromptu feasts and Adminius turned to find the table was well set, with drinking cups, pots of mead and fruit in bowls.
Before he sat down with the men, Adminius once again looked around the room. He looked at the great pillars, the coverings and tapestries. Yes, his brother Caradoc lived well, he thought. He marveled at his practice of attempting to show wealth on the outside when everyone knew his status. Yet Caradoc degraded others for doing the same. He looked at the sleeping rooms and then he stopped. In all the noise, something was missing.
“Where are the babies?”

Next chapter - Chapter four and five found on July 26,2008 post. Also changes to chapter three found there.