It must have been close to midnight when Uther approached me again, an excited look on his face. I was surprised to see him still awake and told him so, but he just shook his head briefly in that characteristic way of his, managing to convey the triviality of my thought in one gesture. "We're blind, Cay. Stone blind and foolish."
"Why? And how?"
"I've been racking my brain trying to think of the quickest back to Camulod come daylight. I imagine you have too?" I nodded and he went on, "Well, it suddenly hit me! Where are we and why are we here?"
"You mean here and now?"
"Yes, I mean right here and right now, and don't even bother trying to think about the answer, because I'm going to tell you. We are in the middle of nowhere, travelling a confused route from the camp to Camulod because we have to remain hidden, correct?"
"Correct. So? What's your point?"
"My point, Cousin, is that we are behaving like idiots. There is no need for secrecy now. Lot is at Camulod and all we have to do is get there as quickly as possible...And there's a road less than seven miles to the east of us that will take us within five miles of Camulod! We can mount a forced march down an open road now. No need to go on blundering through this damned forest."
I had jumped to my feet as he was speaking. "By the Christ! You're right, Uther! I am a fool!"
"Well, you're hardly lacking for company."
"Seven miles to the road, you say?"
"At the most. Perhaps half that far. I don't know. I've never been so far off the road in these parts. I know the last villa the Atribatus brothers bought is somewhere to the south-west of us—that was the last new property the Colony acquired—but exactly how far away it is—again, I don't know, perhaps ten miles. But from there, it's only eight miles to the road. We've been swinging in an arc. We must be close to the road right now."
I headed for my horse. "I'm going to find it right now."
"In the dark?"
"You're fire Mind. It's a clear, moonlit night."
"Wait then. I'm coming with you."
So we rode together and once away from the firelight it was easy to find our way between the clumps of trees that dotted the landscape. The road was less than two miles from our starting point, stretching black and straight and open from north to south. We rode straight up onto the roadway and sat there laughing at each other, until Uther spoke.
"Well, what do you think?"
"No need to think. I know. If we roust out our column now, we can be within a few miles of Camulod by dawn."
"My thoughts exactly. What are we waiting for?"
We galloped back to our camp like a pair of excited boys and roused everyone. The fires and the heat of the summer night had undone the damage of the storm and all of the men had managed to obtain some rest. There was some alarm and panic when we clattered in, but soon every man in the place was gathered around us as we sat there on our horses. Uther held up his hands for silence, and when he had it he looked at me in inquiry.
"Go ahead," I told him. "It's your show."
He grinned and raised his voice. "Hear me!" The silence grew more attentive. "You all heard the news today. Lot is at the gates of Camulod. The storm last night delayed us badly, and we will be hard put to come to Camulod before tomorrow night, taking this route. And if we do not come, our friends and families will die." Nobody moved or spoke. Uther looked at me again and then continued. "We have been blind, soldiers of Camulod. The road the Romans built is less than two miles from where we stand. If we go now, we can be close to Camulod by dawn. What say you?" The roar of surprised approval raised goose-flesh on my body. "So be it. Leave your supplies and tents here and mount up. Bring only what you need for fighting. The commissary wagons will stay here and follow later. We have a lesson to teach the usurper from Cornwall. We leave within the quarter-hour!"
XXI
We arrived back at Camulod in the heavy darkness before dawn and immediately deployed our men within the fringes of the forest that framed die great military practice plain at the foot of the hill. Uther had sent out some of his Celts earlier to range ahead of us and try to determine what had happened during our absence, but to a major and alarming extent we could see for ourselves.
Camulod was burning with a lurid, awe-inspiring glare that lit up the entire top of the hill, and we could hear the noises of a continuing battle at the bottom of the hill, around the hastily improvised fortifications that Popilius had been building, when Lot's army arrived: On our right, to the north, fires still burned sullenly in the wreckage of the villa. Even from more than two miles away, the scene resembled a madman's vision of Hades and bitter, acrid smoke blown on the breeze caught at the throat.
"Well?" Uther's voice was rough and abrupt in my ear. "What's our move?"
I shook my head, my mind in a turmoil from the evidence of destruction in front of us. I was fighting against tears of anger and frustration and had to swallow hard several times before I could trust my voice to answer him. "I don't know, Uther, I don't know. It's too dark. If we attack now we will have only the firelight to guide us. There could be any number of men out there, hidden in the darkness."
"Aye, there could be." His voice was taut and rough with his own rage. "But the whoresons will never expect to find a thousand of us smashing at their ears. Let's hit them now."
I was strongly tempted to agree with him, but then I remembered we had scouts out there in the darkness and became freshly aware of the silent army at our backs. They had been warned under pain of court martial to make no noise that might betray our presence. I realized that throwing our men into a night attack would be wasteful for several reasons. I jerked my head in a negative. "No, Uther. If we move against them now, we lose our initiative. They won't see our strength, and I want them to see us—a thousand fresh horsemen. Fresh to this fight, at least. Fresh to them. We have to wait for daylight and for our scouts to come back."
"Come back? They may all be dead, Cay! That's Camulod burning up there! Your father is up there, so is my grandmother."
"Uther, I know that." I wanted to scream at him, but managed to keep my voice low and urgent. "Do you think me blind and a fool? But the choice is simple: either we attack now in anger, in darkness, as a blind rabble, and risk achieving nothing, or we wait for an hour and attack in daylight when our strength can be seen by Lot's people and by our own. Lot obviously thinks he has the battle in his hand, or he would not have his men fighting through the night. He is trying to wear our people down, but he is wearing his own down, too. Come daylight, they will not be ready to withstand the sight of a fresh army of cavalry at their backs. Our people, on the other hand, will take new heart at the sight of us."
He was unconvinced. "But what about the fort? It's burning, Cay. They must be fighting up there, too. " "I hope not," I responded, showing my own uncertainty. "But if they are, there is nothing we can do to help them. There are two armies between us and them."