The light was now back on in the cylinder. He looked very carefully at it, and saw there were notches. Twenty in all, and the light went up to number thirteen. He pointed the weapon at the log, and pushed the lever. Nothing happened, except that the light went out. He pressed the button. Nothing happened. He pulled the lever back to where it had been and pressed the button. There was a cloud of wood dust. He pressed the lever to what was presumably a way of making it safe, then, as an afterthought, looked at the cylinder. It was not glowing. He nodded to himself, pulled the lever back, and the cylinder began glowing. It glowed up to twelve notches. He pressed the lever again, and the glow went off. He could use this weapon twelve more times.
"What in the name of Hades is this?" Timothy's voice asked. Gaius looked up, to see him standing beside the pit.
"I have no idea," Gaius replied, "but it has a killing device we know nothing about." He stepped over to the pit and looked down. "You!" Gaius yelled, and pointed at the creature. "Keep your hands visible!"
The creature simply looked bemused.
"It doesn't understand," Timothy said.
"It'll understand this," Gaius said simply. "You!" he said, pointing to a soldier. "When I point this at you, spread your arms out, and show the palms of your hands."
"Yes sir."
"You!" he continued, pointing at the creature. He showed the weapon, then he flicked the switch, pointed to the green light, and showed it to the creature, then he pointed towards the soldier. The soldier spread the hands as ordered, then Gaius pointed the weapon at the creature. The message was clear. The creature showed the insides of its "hands".
"Get it out of the pit," Gaius nodded towards the soldiers, "but make sure it can't hide behind you, and don't let it reach for hidden weapons."
"It's a demon! I can't. ."
"Yes you can. You saw what it did to the Celts? It used this, and I'm reasonably sure it'll work just as well on it as the Celts." Gaius saw that the man was undecided. He stared coldly at him, and ordered, "Do it!"
The fear on the soldier's face was obvious, but the Roman discipline came to the fore. "Yes sir."
The creature was pulled from the pit without incident.
"Hold its arms out," Gaius ordered, then he reached into the creatures clothes and searched. Before long, he had two further objects that clipped into the handle of the weapon he held, and a small number of other objects, the nature of which he did not understand.
Gaius then took the bag, and noticed it was quite heavy. He pulled on the flap, and was surprised to see it open, admittedly with a strange noise. He pushed the flap back down, and found that when he pressed it, it sealed. He then pulled it open again, and looked inside. Inside was a rather large metallic object, with a tube-like ending. He lifted it carefully, and saw a black ending. He pulled gently at that, and found it came off in his hands, whereupon he found himself looking at a round piece of the clearest glass he had ever seen. The glass had a perfectly uniform clear surface. He glanced back at he creature, and saw that it was a little concerned, as if it were willing him not to break this object. He had no idea what it was, but then he suddenly remembered seeing the silver light up the tree. He guessed that this was some sort of device for watching things from a distance, and since the device had done no harm, and the creature had made no effort to use it against the Celts, he guessed it was not a weapon. He would have to look into this at a later time, but in the meantime, the creature could carry it. He gave another glance at the black object. It and the bag were made of materials he had never seen before. And for that matter, the silvery object was made of a metal he had never seen before. He put the cap back over the glass, put the object back in the bag and handed it back to the creature.
The creature seemed surprised, but it nodded, as if in gratitude that Gaius had not damaged it.
"Sir!"
Gaius looked up to see one of the other soldiers looking as if he had something to say but was not very keen on saying it. "Yes?"
"The soldier, sir, was part of a party escorting a Quintus Flavius. ."
"Escorting?" Gaius asked. "There weren't women in this party?"
"Yes sir. Two."
"What happened?" Gaius asked, his voice filled with the fear of someone who can guess the answer.
"Captured by Celts, sir. Some of them chased him, and. ."
"We have prisoners?"
"Two, sir."
"Good. Ask them where their camp is, how many of them there are, find out what you can. Tell them if they wish to stay alive, they will tell me, now. No! Wait! Tell them if they don't tell me, they'll be brought over here one at a time and given to this demon here!"
The demon was stood up so the Celts could see it. Their superstition was clear, they cowered in fear, and the information flowed.
There was a party of twenty camped a couple of miles ahead, and they were part of a far larger raiding party who had come down from the north. The twenty would rejoin the large party in two days. Gaius nodded. So this was Caratacus' new strategy. Send raiding parties in behind enemy lines, to disrupt communications, steal food, kill. . Possibly, this was as good a strategy as was likely to be open to him. However, for Gaius the message was clear. If he were ever to see his wife again, he would have to do something fairly quickly.
"You," Gaius said to one of his most skilled exploratores, "will take the wounded man as quickly as you can to Vespasian. Stay out of sight, and bring help. Tell Vespasian I am going to try to rescue the Romans while it's still possible. I expect to succeed if all I have to deal with is the small band there, but if the larger party turns up, I will need whatever help I can get, as quickly as possible."
"Yes sir," the man nodded, and turned away.
"A Legate should not go off on silly expeditions," Timothy warned. "You're too important, and. ."
"And they have my wife and my sister," Gaius countered coldly. "What sort of man would I be if. ."
"I know," Timothy interrupted. "I just felt I should point out your duty."
"Timothy," Gaius said with a touch of despair, "I'm not indispensable. If I get killed, in six months time the twentieth will have forgotten I existed. If I do nothing now, I'll be dead for the rest of my life."
"And what about these?" Timothy asked, as he pointed to the two prisoners.
"They will come with us. Let it be made clear to them that if they make any attempt to contact the other Celts, that will be considered a violation of their terms of surrender, and I shall kill them on the spot."
"They've got wounds," Timothy said. "They won't be able to go very fast."
"Tend to them as best you can," Gaius replied, "but let them know they either keep up or die. We shall try to maintain a reasonable but not exhausting pace."
It took almost twenty minutes before the prisoners were ready to march, and this was time that Gaius was loathe to give them, but he needed them to find the camp so the time had to be spent.
As it happened, the prisoners were not as necessary as Gaius had feared. After an hour's moderate march, smoke from the Celtic camp could be seen, and before long, voices could be heard. The Romans crept towards the camp, which was in a clearing.
The value of the Roman marching camp was clear. The layout and construction of this Celtic camp offered no defensive value apart from the fighting skills of the inhabitants. Certainly, there were guards, but they could not look everywhere. There, tied to posts were Vipsania, Lucilla, two soldiers, and that clod Quintus! Yes, they were kept at the side of the camp, which made rescue a little easier. Nevertheless, they were about twenty paces from cover.
There were seemingly two objectives in this operation, but in fact there was only one. Superficially, rescue of the prisoners was a prime objective, but in reality the prime objective was to kill the Celts. If he failed in that, the main party would learn what had happened, and would most likely catch up with him before he could reach the Augusta. While outnumbered even here, there was little doubt that he could defeat the Celts at this camp, provided he made good use of surprise. Equally, there was no doubt that he could not survive an attack by several hundred Celts.