Quintus stared at him, then muttered, "Your stupid wife would've benefited, you know."
"Quintus, either you fight with us, or start running. Make up your mind."
Quintus backed away, and said nothing.
"If you're going to stay, unless you are any use with sword or long spear, you should simply throw rocks," Gaius ordered. "Your position will be on this point here. This is the steepest part, and anyone climbing will have to use their hands, and go slowly. I doubt too many will try, but if they do, you must hit them with a rock, at least as big as this," and he picked up a rock that would have weighed several kilograms.
"I can't throw that very far," Quintus shook his head.
"No need. It will fall quite adequately by itself, and if the man wants to leap back to dodge it, well and good. Unless you think you can hit someone on the track S-bends down below, let your targets get as close as you dare, that way you are more likely to hit them. Right, everybody else! You might as well gather rocks as well. Timothy, bring all the arrows we've got."
"Is there anything I can do?" Vipsania asked.
"Gather firewood, if you can find any up here," Gaius nodded. "If there's enough, light a fire that can be seen from the west."
"For Vespasian's men?"
"Yes," Gaius said. "It'll be dark in a couple of hours, and we'll get help a lot faster if they can guess where we are."
"Gaius?"
"Yes?"
"What did Quintus mean just then, about the corn, I mean?"
"Quintus wasn't siphoning corn off, but he was involved in siphoning money off for friends of your father."
"What?"
"My guess is, another plot to get rid of Claudius."
A look of horror passed over Vipsania's face, as she said, "Honestly, I didn't know anything. ."
"I believe you totally," Gaius said, and he held her for a moment, then added with a wry smile, "I know I once promised I wouldn't ignore you again, but we're going to have to concentrate on surviving right now. I know there isn't much to burn up here, but see what you can find. That's one thing you can do."
"I'll do what I can," she said doubtfully, as she looked around the rather barren stony terrain.
Gaius walked over to the edge and looked down. The Celts were massing for what seemed to be a frontal attack. That was, perhaps, not surprising. There was always the chance the Romans could escape during the night, so now was the time for an attack. There was one obvious path up the hill, where they could walk while carrying weapons while the slope was steep enough everywhere else that they would need hands for climbing.
The attack began. The Celts began to advance up the track. One of the soldiers looked towards Gaius, but he shook his head. They should wait.
"What's this!" Quintus.
Gaius turned to see Quintus standing before the creature. "I thought your position was by that rock," Gaius growled.
"This thing's got a light turning on and off!"
Gaius stared at the creature and saw that Quintus was correct. There was a strange metal object about the creature's wrist, and on it a blue light was turning on and off. The creature at first had seemed to be at pains to hide this, but now simply stood there, and if Gaius was reading its mannerisms correctly, it was almost frightened.
"Quintus, you're correct to point that out," Gaius nodded. "However, I don't think it can do us any immediate harm, and the Celts can. Back to your post, please."
"It could be getting help!"
"That little light's going to be seen a long way off," one of the men scoffed.
"We don't know what our creature's up to and Quintus might be right," Gaius said in as conciliatory tone as he could, "but we do know what's coming up that hill."
"We should kill it while we can," Quintus growled.
"We protect it," Gaius ordered, and noticed that, as soon as he had said it, the creature visibly relaxed. He suddenly understood that the creature understood Latin quite well, and it had been playing dumb. Still, that was a problem for later. No need to let on that he knew. He turned to the creature and made hand gestures to the effect that it should stay put, and they would defend it. It nodded that it understood. Yes, it did, Gaius thought to himself, but only because it understood the conversation. His hand gestures could have been interpreted in many ways. Gaius walked back to the brow of the hill.
The Celts were three quarters of the way up the track, now in single file as the track had narrowed, and they began to break into a charge. Gaius gave the signal, and the party began to drop boulders onto the Celts. As weapons, these were quite effective. They hurt, but more importantly they dislodged.
There were fearful screams as bodies tumbled over the edge, and gathered pace. There was nothing to hold onto, and over a hundred meters to drop. Celts stopped, to stare up, to see more boulders. Some raised a shield, and occasionally a boulder could be deflected, but often the shear force of the boulder caused the shield bearer to lose balance. The small round Celtic shields were also rather useless, Gaius noted, because the user really had to watch the boulder all the way to the shield. The locked Roman shields, at the correct angle, would nullify this attack.
It was then the Celts began to retreat. Gaius ordered the soldiers to cease, and he watched the Celts retreat further. Then, about three quarters of the way to the bottom, they stopped, and began to cluster. Gaius looked across to Quintus, and saw him struggling to lever a huge rock.
"You two!" Gaius ordered two soldiers. "Help over there."
They took up positions behind the rock and began heaving. Gaius looked over the edge, and saw the huddle still there, right below Quintus. Then, with a final heave and a curse, the rock moved. It was over half way down before anyone below heard anything. One man looked up, and stared in disbelief for a fraction of a second. Then he let out a yell, but it was too late.
There were more fearful screams of pain as the rock crashed into them, then continued its path to the stream below. The Celts now began to flee to the safety of the flat ground below.
"Good work," Gaius nodded to Quintus.
"Now what?" Quintus asked. His tone was aggressive, Gaius noted. His anger was not to be diverted by praise.
"Now what indeed," Gaius said. "It will be dark soon, and we have two choices. We can stay here, or we can try to break out. Anyone wish to comment?"
"With respect, sir," a Centurion began.
"Go on!"
"A break-out in the dark will be very slow once we get to the bottom, because we won't be able to see where we're going. On the other hand, there'll be a moon tonight, and that'll be enough for any Celtic guard to see us clambering down the side of the hill. Then, even if we make it, they'll track us tomorrow, and we'll be exhausted and in the open."
"If they catch us!" Quintus countered. "If we stay here, they'll be up the side tomorrow. There's too many of them, and we'll all be killed."
Some of the soldiers gave a scowl at this last remark, but Gaius put up his hand. "Those two view points are the nub of the problem," he said. "There is no guarantee, either way," he added, "but we have to do something. In my opinion, there are two constraints. We can only defend this hill for so long, and how long depends on how skilful they are. Put yourselves in their shoes. If there were that many of you down there, and this few of them up here, how long would it take you?"
"It's hopeless staying here," Quintus grumbled.
"It is true that if they can work out a way of defending themselves against the rocks," the Centurion nodded, "they must reach the top."
"I tend to favour the break-out," Gaius nodded, "and the only point not in its favour is how long it will take men from the Augusta to find us. If we can defend long enough, we win. If the break-out doesn't work, we. ."