A Most Dangerous Weapon

Chapter 67: Salute

Camilla had followed Evander shortly after realizing what I had done. When they didn't return within the hour, I sent Kilgorian and Theo to find them in case they were in trouble. Turns out Evander had only run about fifty yards west of our campsite. He and Camilla weren't in any danger, so Kilgorian and Theo let them be. Evander promised to come back at sunup.

He did his best to act like nothing was wrong. He was all smiles and filled with conversational topics, and he seemed to still be on board with the plan despite losing his primary motivation. To an outsider, nothing was out of the ordinary. But I could see the subtle differences in his behaviour. He no longer purposefully searched for me in a crowd, nor did he jump to attention at the sound of my voice. When we were both involved in group conversations he would avoid speaking to me and focus solely on everyone else. And when I addressed him directly with instructions, he found my presence painfully unavoidable so he'd make eye contact for the briefest of moments while muttering one syllable responses, and then he would hurry away with a huge sigh of relief. He seemed to think he was playing it off well, but our friends quickly noticed the shift in interaction between us.

But our awkwardness had to take a back seat to the real issue at hand.

Maximus was furious after our late night encounter. He spent the next few days sending out groups of soldiers to find me, completely setting aside his plans for his brother. Apparently getting revenge on me for humiliating him was pulling focus, so much so that he seemed to be losing his composure around his men. Though I suppose he knew that he would have to eliminate me anyways if he truly wanted to hold all the power; The Miracle of Romallia couldn't be at large. Regarding Gaius, Maximus and I, there was still only room for one winner in this war. Nevertheless, his obsession to find me became ridiculous.

I deserved the consequences of our encounter, but my friends and the gladiators didn't. But unfortunately they had to deal with Maximus' tantrum just as I did. We spent our days jumping from one campsite location to the next to outrun the Romallian search parties. It was extremely hard to hide a hundred gladiators, especially since we also couldn't wander too far off from the Galacian Capital. Whenever the soldiers got too close for comfort, we would dispatch a handful of fighters to eliminate them. The one good thing that came out of this cat and mouse chase was the extra weapons we obtained from the dead soldiers.

Just when the running and waiting for war became unbearable, Maximus finally stopped sending men after us to refocus his efforts on his brother. I could only assume that the Commander had talked some sense into him, reminding the Emperor that every day wasted on me was another day given to his brother to refortify the Capital. They had to strike Gaius while he was still scrambling to recoup his forces after being so heavily defeated in Romallian territory. His numbers were still impressive, but this was the first time that Gaius would have to face his enemy on his own doorstep. The Capital defences were only improving with each passing day.

I was quite sure that Commander would have also pointed out that Maximus would probably find me again on the battlefield. I made my intention to kill both royal brothers quite clear, and the dead Romallian soldiers he sent after me were only proof that I was still in the area, watching and waiting to strike. Why go after me when I had every intention of finding him myself?

So on the fourth day we found ourselves finally settled in a secure campsite to the north of the Capital without the threat of Maximus' searching soldiers. His forces remained primarily south of the Capital with a couple hundred fanning out to the east and west, creating an almost semi-circle affect. We had been correct in assuming that the main battle would be taken place in the flat plains and farmland that rest south. The terrain further north provided no benefits to either army. It was too uneven and treacherous for the horses, catapults, and battle formations to be affective, and the terrain was filled with trees and foliage that would block projectiles and prove cumbersome to swinging blades. And of course there was the laughable fact that it was impossible to enter the city from the north without climbing up almost four hundred feet of vertical stone. I suppose that was one of the draws in choosing this city as his Capital; Gaius only had to guard the city in three directions. I had originally debated whether or not we should just avoid the battle all together and climb the stone wall into the city, but testing this theory now proved to be fruitless. It was even harder to climb than the cliff's drop back at Tiberius' training grounds. I barely hit fifteen feet before losing my grip, and even that attempt took far too long and left me bruised, bloodied and out of breath. Being the best climber of the bunch, aside from my brother, the idea was nixed the moment I tumbled to the ground.