First Session: Eagle's Flight. Second post: Duty calls away from warm baths.
So anyways, Meloch and I spend a couple of peaceful years being sold around the Empire before winding up as this thirteen-year-old girl’s birthday present from her mom at the absolute ends of the earth in Northern Britannia, in the Roman fort of Eburacum. Now, I have nothing against Cornelia, that’s the young one – she gives me lots of extra treats and scratches my head without using her hands, a trick she learned from Meloch. Her mother, Licinia Luculla, on the other hand, the Roman noblewoman who sent us to Britannia, maybe out of guilt for having abandoned her mate and child several years back, she’s terrifying. But more on that later.
So, it’s been about three years, and the only thing keeping me from freezing my tail off in Britannia are the horrific little plaid wool jackets and booties that Cornelia’s nurse, Nanna Alma, knits for me. One day, Cornelia’s father, G. Cornelius Crispus, who’s a big military man, Legate, or 2nd in charge, of the Sixth Legion, Valeria Victrix, of Rome, invites some guests over for dinner and a meeting. Meloch and I are there doing our juggle-and-scamper routine.
The one who seems most like the alpha is the youngest and most befuddled, one Quintus Caecilius Metellus, a Tribune of the Legion from a very noble family. (Later we find out that he’s second cousin once removed to the Emperor.) Then there’s a big, older fellow, retired Centurion Marcus Alexandros, who you’d expect to be in charge if these were monkeys, but the humans have more complex ways of establishing their dominance. Last is a young Briton in his late 20s, decked out in the uniform of a Roman auxiliary engineer, Marcus Tacitus Llyr, known as Spearmaker to his family. (He’s apparently also a Prince of the local Brigantes tribe, but this is somehow less important than the Roman ranks.)
After a pleasant supper (imported figs! I love figs), the Legate informs the three Legionaries that he is relieving the first two of active duty and calling the third back to duty, for a special mission. Seven years ago, the legion stationed in Eburacum was not the VIth Victrix, but the Ninth Hispana. The governor at the time, down in Londinium, heard reports that the northern tribes were attacking the garrisoned forts of Bremenium and Tremontium, north of Hadrian's Wall, and sent the Ninth north of the wall to regarrison the forts and deal with the problem. Not one man of the Ninth ever returned.
More importantly, neither did the Eagle, the standard of the Legion.
Without an Eagle, the Ninth could not be reformed, and its remaining members, wounded or on other duties at the time of the northern expedition, were folded into other Legions. One of these was Alexandros. He seems pretty upset at having lost his whole Legion, which seems rather like a 6000-large tribe of monkeys.
The Legate has summoned them because merchants and traveling
doctors have informed him both that the northern tribes seem to be massing for war again, and that the Eagle has been seen, somewhere, north of the furthermost Wall. At this point he pulls out an elaborate and accurate map. The relevant highlights of the map are as follows: the province Caledonia, which was never conquered
permanently by the Romans, Valentia, to the south of Caledonia, which was once a Roman province, but was largely abandoned 26 years ago, the Antonine Wall, a rough wall of turf which once marked the boundary of Valentia from Caledonia , Hadrian's
Wall, which separates Valentia from the established Roman province, Trimontium and Bremenium, the two eastern forts along the old Roman roads that the Ninth was going
to garrison.
The Eagle is supposedly somewhere in southeastern Caledonia. The mission is to go north, find out what happened to the Ninth, why it happened, and, if at all possible, retrieve or destroy the Eagle. I get all this explained to me later by Meloch, especially about this Eagle, which turns out not to be exactly a real eagle, but a statue of an Eagle, carried as a banner in war, which made Alexandros and all his fellow Legionaries really eager to fight and good at it. Apparently, Alexandros can’t re-form his tribe without the Eagle, and on the other side, if the Caledonii have it, they can use it against the Romans as a powerful magical artifact.
This all sounds like it will make a nice exciting story for my memoirs when the three Legionaries get back, or a brief tragic elegy about the young Metellus’s senseless death. Then the truly awful thing happens. The Legionaries decide they want to disguise themselves before trooping up into tribal lands and ask if they can borrow Meloch to aid them in their disguise as magical trinket sellers.
And that sweet girl Cornelia says yes! And then Meloch tells me over the mental link, as I screech, that I have to come too, despite the fact that it will be even colder in Caledonia and I won’t be able to take a nice hot bath every day. Maybe Meloch’s right in the disadvantages of this whole slavery thing.
About this time, a local blacksmith and spirit-worker, a large dark-haired man named Heilyn, arrives. The Legate, afraid for the Legionaries' success if they have only swords against the Druids' evil powers, tries to enlist the
blacksmith by offering him a. an exclusive metalworking contract for the
Ninth if it's reformed and b. no more commissions from the VIth Legion ever if he refuses. He accepts, reluctantly. The Legate also mentions that the group should keep an eye out for a traveling vates or philosopher-sage, Wena of the Iceni, whom the Legate sent north to gather information.
The next day, Cornelia runs away from her father and the warm baths, for no good reason, and uses the stuff she’s been picking up from Meloch to cast a spell on Tribune Metellus to persuade him into taking her along, on the argument that she may have useful knowledge about the Celts and can speak to their women. The Tribune initially accepts, but later can't believe he was so stupid and resolves to protect her at all costs or throw himself on his sword due to the dishonor. By then, it's too late to send her back.
This means that Cato, Cornelia’s owl, with whom she has a mental contact, has to come along too. Furthermore, since Cornelia doesn’t want the incredibly naive Metellus to know she can do magic, Cato has to ride on Meloch’s other shoulder and pretend to be his other partner. This is nearly the last straw. I burrow into the saddlebags and proceed to ignore Meloch and everyone else.
Oh, and did I mention that the smith Heilyn brought along an enormous wolfhound and two small yippy dogs with the combined intelligence of a desert rat? Of course, everyone pays them more attention, because they can “get food.” I could get food if we were living in a sensible climate with fruit on the trees, but no. We have to be riding a doomed goat through Caledonia.