The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 3

ALEX CARRIED HER pallet into the main room of the tent, which had been reorganized for Verus to sleep in. Marcus eyed her questioningly, but didn't say anything as she set up to be sleeping head-to-head with her brother. She curled into her cloak and blanket, already missing Ixillius, and tried to sleep.

        To keep Marcus here had been a fight. Ixillius had wanted him back in command of the 6th and 4th, and Alex wanted the person that had taken the keenest interest – and gagged the least – to stay in case she needed help. This fight, on top of the earlier one, on top of the past month, had made for a cold goodbye prior to Ixillius leaving for the night. He'd stormed back in a few seconds later, quietly furious with Marcus for allowing Brasus, who was now officially in command of the 6th and 4th, to have Ixillius's tent set up adjoining the pen where Max and the mare were kept.

        "You're the First File, sir, the men will look for you here," was all Marcus replied.

        Alex wasn't expecting an easy morning, but she couldn't fall asleep. She was queasy from the second round of cleaning Verus's wound. The pus had been much less, but the smell had been a lot worse. She'd marked in ink how far the red line of the infection had traveled toward his knee and the edges of red around the wound in case more lines started or the band increased. Ixillius had been right earlier, the wound at least looked better. That wasn't saying much, though, as what they could see no longer mattered.

        Alex rolled over and tried to find a comfortable position. She needed to wait until tomorrow to judge if Verus was improving before trying to figure out how to go forward in time. She still needed to study the maps for where they were, but that would have to be after tomorrow's march. Her thoughts started listing through any and all arguments that might convince Mikayla to come back to now, hopefully without sounding crazy. Her other option was breaking into a hospital and hoping she stole the right antibiotics.

        If she could even figure out how to go forward in time...

        She tossed off the blanket and, keeping the cloak on, walked over to where Marcus was finishing the day's notes at the table. He smiled tightly as she sat down, turning back to his work as she grabbed a blank page and the charcoal Verus had given her and started to logic through making a better axle. Marcus had convinced Quintus to leave just before Alex had brought her pallet out here to sleep, and he was finishing the Optio's work so that Quintus would get sleep tonight. She was fairly certain the engineering sketches and calculations meant very little to Verus or Marcus, but going through the familiar math helped her calm down and, if she could figure out an available material that was better than the 'whatever wood we found' they were currently using, that would help the Legion as well.

        Her eyelids started getting heavy after a half hour. She glanced over the bronze-banded plank idea, similar to one of the chariots she'd seen – stronger, but with added weight – and decided not to fuss over the details because she was finally sleepy. Alex pushed the page into the satchel carrying her growing pile of random drawings, engineering, doodles and sketches that Verus insisted on keeping. She wished Marcus a good night and kissed Verus's forehead as she rolled back into her blanket, praying that tomorrow Verus would show an improvement.

                                                                ***

        The messengers starting arriving earlier than Ixillius expected. Quintus was able to answer most, and Ixillius simply maintained the orders that Verus had provided the night before for the rest. His authority as First File had been challenged no less than four times before he'd managed to quickly eat the biscuit that Quintus had forced into his hand, and the grumblings in the rumors quickly turned his promotion to another bad omen for the fate of Minerva's 1st.