The Kin

  ***

  Marius watched with despair as the second building went up in flames. He was exhausted from fighting the fire, but despite their efforts one of the barracks had almost gone up in flames thanks to a spark from a nearby building. They’d managed to put it out, but if any more buildings in the vicus went up, as seemed likely, then it was only a matter of time before the fort did.

  He had to make a choice now. They could stay here, risk the fire and wait for the dawn and pray they could leave once the sun was up. Or leave now and go through the main street, which was still passable, and take their chances with the Kin.

  If they left they wouldn’t be defenceless, they’d have torches with them and they walk in a circle. He’d seen it done before in Parthia, but they’d been trained men, experienced with fighting the Kin and not tired veterans who’d only known about them for two days. This time the odds were stacked against them, especially as the Kin here were soldiers and experienced fighters. Yet, even bearing that in mind, they probably had a better chance against them than staying here and burning to death.

  “Sir, the water channel, it’s flooding,” someone yelled at him. Marius gave his container to the man next to him and looked at the soldier.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The water coming into the fort is flooding.”

  Marius was too tired to feel panic. So the Kin had decided to drown them as well. That certainly made up his mind: they couldn’t stay here any longer; it was time to take their chances and leave.

  Auticus arrived, panting. “Commander, the channel coming into the fort is small, but the one to the settlement’s much bigger. If our one is flooding then the larger one will be as well. It could put out the fires.”

  Marius stared at him. “How could that happen?” he asked.

  “There’s a weir behind the fort. Someone could have opened it and flooded the valley.”

  “Junius,” he said quietly.

  “Sir?” Auticus queried.

  For the first time since sundown, Marius smiled. He remembered what Junius had said before he’d made that astonishing leap. “I might be of more use to you outside.” And he’d been right.

  Marius turned away feeling tears prick his eyes. His friend was still loyal, still looking after his men and saving Rome. “Thank you, old friend,” he whispered into the night.

  “Sir! The water! It’s flooding the street. See, the weir’s been opened.”

  Marius looked and sure enough he saw water swirling through the settlement, quenching the fires and ending the last onslaught of the Kin. They watched from the battlements as the fires burned themselves out and though a few more were kindled into life, they soon dwindled and died as the floodwater poured like a raging torrent through the streets, then subsided almost as quickly, leaving debris and sodden smelly mulch in its wake.

  Inside the fort they made everyone stand on the battlements as the water rose then fell back, but it never reached the same heights as the flood outside thanks to the walls which kept the worst of it out.

  The Kin, terrified of the rising water, retreated to the hillside and watched sullenly as the waters ebbed and flowed. Then, realising that they’d lost the siege, they drifted back into the shadows and disappeared.