Descendants of Rome (#3 in Gladiator Series)

Epilogue

Chapter 57/Epilogue

The torch lights, it transpired an hour later when they docked in the port, were not coming from Romans but rather a mass of common village people that had gathered to welcome the bodies of Krista, Artorius, Leonidas, Frieda, Cato and Diomed.

Their children stood on the deck and looked across the stream of flickering torch lights which seemed to spread from the port and up towards the cliff on their left when Egbert reached them.

"I hope you don't mind," Bert smiled as he paused beside them, "I sent word on ahead of us."

"But-" Cassia gasped, "But who are all these people?"

"Why, little girl, they are the people that believed in your parents, they are the ones your parents helped." Bert reached out and patted her on the head which Cassia did not appreciate and ducked into Lazarus's side out of Bert's reach.

Bert just gave a small chuckle before his face turned solemn, "We should not keep them waiting." He walked down the plank from the ship deck to the port followed instantly by the rest of his crew.

Lazarus, Marcia, Cassia, Zeph and Ahern were the last to leave the ship and they did so with a crowd of crying mourners at their feet, watching their arrival with a mixture of awe and sadness.

At they stepped onto the ground, the still floor beneath their feet a change to the constant moving deck they had grown accustomed to, a woman broke through the crowd.

"Marcia! Ahern! Oh my-" A middle aged woman with her curly brown hair sticking out on ends wrapped her arms around Marcia's shoulders before she turned and hugged Ahern close, "You are safe, thank the Gods. I was so worried."

Marcia recognised her as their neighbour and the woman who Marcia's parents had placed Marcia and Ahern's care into the hands of.

Marcia gave her a reassuring smile when another person stepped forth from the crowd. He was a much older gentleman with white hair tied in a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. A torch was resting in his left hand and the lines on his face showed that he had experienced a long life.

"Lazarus, Marcia," The man bowed a little to them as if they were royalty, "If you please it, the others and I have set up some funeral pyres on the cliff top." The man spoke in such a soft tone that it seemed to soothe all of Marcia's worries but she was taken aback by his words.

They had already set up funeral pyres?

Marcia felt as if she was being denied a vital part in the funeral of her parents but as Lazarus stated a few moments later to her, their parents had already been at sea for nearly a week.

It was terrible to think it, and it felt a lot worse to say it, but their families bodies would not remain fresh for much longer despite the herbs which had been laid across them.

With their approval, the bodies of Krista, Artorius, Frieda, Diomed, Leonidas and Cato were brought from the ship and carried on the shoulders of Bert's crew through the port and up towards the cliff top amongst a sea of warm torchlight.

The salty sea wind began to grow colder the further they walked, whipping the fire in the torches around until it appeared that they were dancing in the night sky.

As they reached the cliff top, Marcia saw that six separate funeral pyres had been created and laid out in a row near the cliff's edge, looking out over the sea. They were nearly six feet in height and four feet wide with a bed of dry hay laid across the top of them.