The Baby and the Battlefield

Chapter Seventeen: Byford Augusta

Byford Augusta was a jewel of a town. It nestled between the forest to the North and great swaths of farmland, riddled with irrigation canals, to the South. The fields were green and gold with ripening grains, and the grey city stood on a river that wove through the fields like a blue hair-ribbon. The city walls were of limestone and stood tall, the parapets at least two stories above the traveller's heads as they reached the gates. There were men up there, clad in chain mail bearing the imperial sigil. They looked curiously down at the travellers as customs agents questioned them wearily.

The sight of the imperial soldiers patrolling the walls made Marcus’ heart settle comfortably where it belonged, neither in his mouth nor in the deepest pit of his stomach. They would be safe here, or, at least, safer. If anyone dared to try anything, it was only steps to the law provided by the imperial garrison. This was a good place to rest, before continuing on to Arcius and Marcus' duty to his dead brother.

Petro, too, looked relieved. Byford Augusta looked like his type of town. It was the type of town he had grown up in – prosperous and solid enough to be full of little inns and taverns where a man could find a drink and relax, with maybe hope of finding a pretty girl afterwards. And baths, a town this size in an area that had been under imperial control for generations would have at least one bath house, and it would be nice to be clean again. The baby was the only one who had been regularly bathed, and even she was starting to smell musty with sweat. In Petro’s opinion, Marcus in particular was starting to smell pretty ripe.

Mulberry was intrigued by the town. The way Marcus and Petro talked about it, it was fairly small – nothing compared to the imperial capital – but still bigger than the town she had grown up in, or any of the market towns she had visited. She found she liked the tall, grey walls much better than she did a palisade of wood. The walls were beautiful where the palisades of her childhood had only been functional. The imperial soldiers at the gates were well-dressed and well-fed, looking better than most of the men in Marcus and Petro’s legion. She was curious, too, to see what the town might look like within the walls.

She was not, however, to have her curiosity satisfied as quickly as she hoped. The great wooden gates swung open to reveal not a bustling town, but a grassy verge bordered by another, inner wall, the exact twin of the outer wall. To Marcus’ considerable delight, there was a stable between the inner and outer walls of the town. Like many imperial towns, horses and horse-drawn vehicles were not allowed within the city proper, and this stable was manned by members of the imperial garrison. Thus, after a few documents out of Marcus’ pouch and one out of Petro’s proved that they were travelling on official business, the horses could be boarded for free. Once the horses had been passed off to a pair of young guards, the three adults and one baby sat on the grass and argued. That is, Marcus and Petro argued. Mulberry and Aurelia just listened.

They sat on a patch of grass between the two rows of walls, close enough to the stables that the occasional whiff of horse was carried on the breeze. Marcus wanted to stay with the garrison, even though that meant they’d most likely end up pitching their tent here between the walls. Petro, on the other hand, definitely wanted to stay at an inn.

“An inn with soft beds, and clean sheets, and acres of fluffy pillows,” he said in nostalgic tones, thinking of inns he had stayed in, now and then, on his travels.

“But that requires going in to town. We’re safer with the garrison here between the walls, and besides, I don’t want to spend the money,” Marcus replied.

“Cheapskate,” Petro retorted with a roll of his eyes, “So you don’t want to go into town at all?”

“Not if I can help it,” Marcus replied stubbornly.