The Demons of Rome

XXVIII - The Siege of Alesia

Alesia looked much the same as it did a day ago, except that now soldiers patrolled the wooden walls. When they saw Roman army marching up the road shouts rang out across the city and there was the unmistakable sound of men arming themselves.

"Form up!" came the shout from somewhere in the middle of the army and the men stopped marching to lock shields and ready weapons.

On the other side of the city, nestled in the woods that surrounded the city on two sides, a group of Romans waited.

"This is never going to work," Max said glumly as he batted vainly at the bush concealing him.

"Will you shut up," one of the soldiers accompanying them hissed.

Max, Iatus and eight soldiers had swapped out their full armour for dark tunics, black leather boots, charcoal coloured woollen hats and a mud mask. Each man had a large hook on the end of a long rope and a short sword. All in all, they were very uncomfortable.

"Iatus, what are you doing?" Illiria asked.

Iatus blinked at her in surprise, she had been there when they received their orders, had she forgotten already, or had she not been listening at all?

Iatus sighed, "We're hiding and waiting for night."

"Why are you doing that? The sun's so pretty!"

"We're doing it so that the Gaul's don't see us when we sneak in and open the gates."

Illiria blinked in confusion, "Can't we just ask the people inside?"

Iatus sighed, "No."

"Why not?"

How to put this so that you will understand...

"Because they're bad people, and we're going to go and punish them for being bad."

"Oh, okay."

"Will you two cut it out!" another of the soldiers hissed, "We're supposed to be invisible! Remember?"

"Invisible? Like this?" Illiria said and winked out of existence.

The soldiers took in gasps of breath and one fell over from his crouching position.

"Illiria, can you do that for us too?" Max asked.

"Sure Maxy!" came a disembodied voice then everyone around Iatus became invisible too.

"Where'd everyone go? Centurion?" came the voice of one of the soldiers.

"This is stupid, we can't see each other!" came another voice.

"Illiria, put everyone back to normal," Iatus said calmly.

"Okay," she said in his ear and he jerked away in shock, her laughing face materializing in front of him.

Iatus glared at her, causing her to giggle even more.

The sun was begging to set now, and the men were getting more fidgety as they readied for battle.

"We should go now, it's harder to see in the twilight than in the dark, with the sun behind us they won't see us at all," one of the soldiers whispered to the ranking officer.

The officer nodded.

"Get ready everyone, you three," he motioned to Illiria, Iatus and Max, "Stay at the back and keep out of our way. When we open the gate, send up some fire to order the attack. Once we secure the entrance it will be up to you to lead us to this weapon of yours."