Those who have never fought in battle talk of cavalry being able to roll up an enemy flank, but armies are not carpets and thousands of soldiers cannot simply be rolled up and put away like some scroll on a library shelf. It is impossible to control, much less direct, hundreds of horsemen across a two-mile front. All one can hope for is that their officers and those they lead stay calm and remember their training, that they try to put aside their fear and bloodlust and keep to their task. But it is hard, so very hard. Gauls were running in all directions and we were cutting them down, but in front of us, haphazard and disjointed, a new line was steadily forming as knights and chiefs frantically herded their men into place, forming a thin shield wall that was slowly thickening. Between that line and the groups of Gauls who we had isolated during our first charge, lay a corpse-strewn ground that stretched for nearly two miles. We pulled back to a point just in front of the Gauls’ new line. But not all of the cavalry was reforming. I glanced behind me and saw Gallia shouting and gesticulating as her women formed a cordon around a large group of Gauls. Burebista had ridden to join me. He had a nasty gash on his right arm that was bleeding heavily.
‘Get that seen to.’ I pointed to the thickening Gaul line to our front. ‘Keep an eye on them but don’t attack them, not yet. Wait for me here.’
I rode back to Gallia, who was stringing an arrow in her bow. In front of me her riders were shooting the enemy to pieces. She had ordered all her women to remove their helmets, thus revealing their sex to the enemy. The Gauls took the bait, jeering and throwing their shields to the ground, and then thrusting their hips obscenely at them. Most of the Gauls were stripped from the waist up, some were naked altogether and smeared in war paint. They thought it hilarious that their opponents included a group of women. Some were still laughing and exposing their genitals when the first volley of arrows cut through flesh, sinew and bone. One hundred bows shooting three arrows a minute soon reduced the Gauls to a mound of dead and dying men.
Gallia next ordered her women, who had now put their helmets back on, to reform around the next group, about a hundred men mustered around a banner of a bull’s skull draped with what appeared to be strips of flesh, human I assumed. They truly revolted me.
‘You think my women are a waste of equipment now, Pacorus?’ Gallia’s eyes were aflame with fury. I was suitably put in my place.
‘No, lady,’ I replied. ‘I thank Shamash that you are here.’
She kicked Epona and rode away. Her women now surrounded the bull’s skull standard. Praxima galloped up and saluted her. Was this a dream?
‘They are ready, lady.’
Gallia walked Epona to within fifty feet of the Gauls and removed her helmet. I rode over to be beside her. She spoke in Latin, not in her native tongue.
‘Warriors of the Senones. I am one of you but fight against you. You are beaten, the price you have paid for fighting alongside the Romans. Put down your weapons and prostrate yourselves before me and you shall be spared. Refuse this and you will die.’
The Gauls whooped and jeered in response, some turning around, bending over and exposing their backsides, others laughing and inviting Gallia to come down from her horse and play with their manhoods. She merely smiled at them then shouted ‘Fire’. The arrows made a hissing noise as they cut through the air followed by a dull thud as each one found its target. Their shooting was impeccable, almost beautiful.
The first volley cut down scores of Gauls, as the others desperately grabbed their shields and attempted to form some sort of defence, but Gallia’s archers were firing from a stationary position and were taking careful aim. The second volley produced another heap of dead, this time arrows striking eye sockets and necks as only the knights among them wore helmets. The rest were bare headed, with their long hair washed in lime and combed into points. There was nowhere for them to hide, and some threw down their shields and spears and held up their arms to signal their surrender, but their tormentors were in no mood for mercy, and so a third volley felled what was left of the men who only a short time before had been hurling insults and taunts. From the circle of dead and dying came pitiful moans and cries of pain, and I saw a few figures writhing in agony on the ground with arrows sticking in them. Others were attempting to crawl, using their arms to drag their pierced bodies to seek safety. It was a forlorn hope, for Gallia nodded to Praxima who slipped her bow back in its case and jumped from her saddle. She was joined by every fifth woman, while the rest covered their comrades with their bows. Praxima drew her sword and then calmly walked among the Gauls, killing any she came across. The others did likewise. I watched in horror as this went on, but I knew that if the roles had been reversed we would have received a similar fate. Gafarn sat next to Diana, who I noticed took no part in the killing, and a glance at her quiver revealed she had fired no arrows. She was not of the disposition to be a slayer, but Gallia liked to keep her close and Gafarn watched over her like a hawk.
Praxima had sheathed her sword and had drawn her dagger, with which she used to cut off the genitals of a dead Gaul. Grinning, she held up her bloody trophy for me to admire. I heard squeals and yelps as the last Gauls were finished off. Gallia was studying me intently. ‘When your women have finished their sport, rejoin the line.’ I wheeled Remus away and returned to where my companies were reforming. Burebista was riding along the line shouting encouragement and telling the men that it would take only one more charge, and they would break. Only one more charge. But I knew we could not make that charge. We had done well and killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Gauls, but several hundred feet in front of us was a new line of them and those we would not be able to break. For one thing our horses were tired, and for another they would not run at a solid wall of shields and spears. We had failed.
I spurred Remus forward to take a closer look at the new Gaul line, halting him about two hundred feet from them. There was much shouting coming from their ranks, directed towards me no doubt. Suddenly an arrow slammed into my saddle. I quickly moved Remus back to rejoin the rest of the horsemen. I had been lucky; if it had struck six inches to the right it would have hit me in the groin. A lucky escape, but as I looked at three-side head I realised that it was one of our own arrows. How could this be?
I peered towards where the Gauls were grouped and could just make out small black slivers dropping from the sky into their ranks. Now I understood. Castus’ men must be grinding their way into the Gauls, who were no longer protected by their rows of stakes. And behind Castus and his centuries were Nergal and his archers. This was confirmed when I edged Remus forward and began to see arrows fall just in front of the ragged enemy line that was facing us. These were missiles that were overshooting their intended target. I gestured for Burebista to join me. When he arrived I saw that his injured arm was now heavily bandaged. I pointed towards the enemy.
‘Those are our arrows that are falling among them. See how some have hoisted their shields above their heads. Castus and his men must be cutting through them. And see how their line doesn’t move. If they were still advancing against our men they would be moving away from us. They are going to break. Pass the word and tell your men to be ready.’
He looked at me in amazement. ‘Are you certain, lord?’
‘Of course I am,’ I snapped irritably. ‘Now go!’
I wasn’t absolutely certain, but my instincts told me that soon the Gauls would be running for their lives. I glanced behind me to my left and right, and saw men drawing their swords as word passed along the line of what was going to happen. Gallia halted Epona beside me, followed by Gafarn and Rhesus on my other side, as her women formed up behind me. She had her helmet back on and its cheek guards closed, but I could still see that her eyes were alight with excitement.