Chapter 4

I called my own people to help us after the one sided fighting stopped. They came out with some of their own improvised weapons but there was no need to use them. I lifted and pulled the horses so the unconscious men could be slid out. Two more died while this was happening because I could not be in more than one place at once.

The injured were stabilised but I did not do a lot to heal them further. Duronius was one of those that were not only still alive but fairly healthy too.

It was touch and go for a while with some of the men. I had the two Romans hold some wounds closed as I had the patient's body start the repair. Now I would have witnesses to what was happening.

A long line of people soon came from the coal mine and the foundry. Those in the lead galloped to me in greeting until they saw the wounded men. They were very glad to see me and also happy to see this group of men in the condition they were now in.

The wagons dedicated for the mill usage were hitched to the horses and the wounded placed on them.

During the trip to the fort, I asked for reports concerning the invasion. Many people clamoured to be heard. Apparently there was a lot that the legion had to make retribution for. The deaths were mainly men protecting my property from theft but the rest were caused by Duronius' inquisition.

It was near five when the large procession came to the fort. I had only one stinger left but I was prepared to use it if the legion recovered from their fear of me. When I got close to the fort, the main doors stayed open. On the other side of the fort was the platform that I asked to be constructed.

Baebius and a dozen of his officers came out to greet me and I greeted them civilly. I asked, "Will you place your men like spokes from the platform so my people have an equal view to see that justice is done?"

"At once, Sir."

It was the officers that gave out the commands to lesser officers until the legionnaires double timed it to where I wanted. It took a full fifteen minutes to get the three thousand men in position. In a way the officers had done a good job with the unfamiliar order.

The Christians were all brought forward and then my own people filled in the gaps. There were twice as many but most were just children.

Baebius and I got on the platform and I gave another sermon relating to how to deal with those of other beliefs. I then went onto Roman law on how to deal with theft, murder, robbery and rape.

"Roman law is usually very good except when some powerful person is allowed to influence the magistrates. I want all of you here to listen carefully to what is said, and then I want you to decide."

I did not want to be here days so I listed all of the crimes I had heard and truthfully said that I had only heard a fraction of them.

Duronius was brought up and he was healthy enough to stand alone. He even showed a great deal of his natural arrogance. Before I could make verbal charges against him he called on the legionnaires to rise up and save him.

He pled for three minutes until I said loudly, "I charge you Duronius with murder and common theft. How do you plead?"

"You have no right to try me. The Augustus, Constantius II, personally sent me here to find out about you."

"Did he tell you to rob the people as you past them or kill them if they do not believe the same thing you do?"

"They are heathens and so are you. You do not believe in the sacred blood of Christ..." he went on and on trying to intrench his own ideas into what he considered sacred text.

When he wound down I said, "I was in Asgard..."

Duronius interrupted me and I let him again continue for a moment until I simply put my hand on him and he froze in position and he could not speak.

I said, "I let you speak then you interrupt me. As I said, I was in Asgard and learned a great deal. I know that many men cloak themselves in religion and do despicable acts in the name of one deity or another. I claim, that you, Duronius, are one of those men."

I felt a bit hypocritical but not much. All religions did this to promote their own point of view and suppress others. I did feel a lot better about sticking to the law and having this trial out in the open so all could see. Mobs and juries could be swayed by a leaders with strong charisma but I would try to stick to the facts and cut down on excess verbiage.

Another touch allowed the man to talk but not move. "What have you done to me?"

"Aldúlfr, one of our gods, has taught me how to heal. This time, instead of gathering your energy to fight a disease of injury, the energy is used to keep you immobile and quiet so I have my turn to talk."

"Your gods cannot do that."

"Then you are also a fool, for nearly nine thousand people here, saw it happen."

Duronius didn't know just want to say then said, "My god is the only god."

"That is quite pompous of you. Our religion allows all faiths and beliefs to coexist. All they have to do is follow the laws of man."

"My laws come from my Lord."

"So he told you to torture and kill men and then rob their families?"

"They are heathens and need to be brought into the light."

"By killing them?"

"They would get a second chance after they died."

"You preach that the heaven can only be entered by believers. Why would a man that believes in Woden want to be converted under torture to Christianity? They die usually with only a curse on their lips against you and your religion."

"It is better that they die."

"I say that your religion is based on a man with a vision that believed in peace. He had no power other than his ability to talk to men persuasively. I do believe though that he was a good man much like what others have been."

Duronius started spouting his religion loudly as he retorted my accusation.

When he wound down I said, "Call on your god to smite me. Your religion claimed recently, when they tortured my people, that your god was supreme. Now is the time to refute that claim or stand by it."

"You have bewitched me. You are an agent of Satan..." Again he went on and on until I had to touch him to shut him up.

"Is your god stronger than Satan? Your teachings say that this is not so. I claim that my god is Woden. My mentor is the wise Aldúlfr. Refute your claim in front of these people. I at least am not causing pain or threatening a man's family while I ask." I gave him a touch and he started right off once more as if I had not stopped him.

I let the charade go on for a few minutes then shut him up once more. Because I was able to deal so easily with the man, everybody, including Duronius, knew which pantheon of gods was stronger.

"Call on your god for protection to protect you so you may continue to spew your lies to the people you have hurt." I gave another touch and the man was released and almost fell down. He staggered and collided with Baebius. In a surprising amount of speed, Duronius grabbed Baebius' dagger and charged at me.

My katana came out and with an upward cut severed the man's arm from his body and the reverse stroke decapitated him.

The body fell to the platform and I just stood with the point of the katana on the rough log.

I turned to Baebius and said, "My people will now come to you with the news of the crimes committed against them. You will record the names, the crimes and the guilty parties. Those men that come forward and admit their guilt will be given a lesser punishment if possible. Those that run will be chased and suffer more than they ever believed possible. Those that lie will suffer the same way."

I called up the man with the cancerous stomach. I had my doctor's supplies from the mill. The body was removed and in a few minutes we would begin. The man was very nervous, especially since I just killed a man but I whispered, "The entire legion is watching you. Be brave. I will not let you come to harm; on my honour."

The man stood straighter and nodded his head. In a moment he had his uniform off. The man laid down in a clean area and went to sleep. The physicians were called up. I quickly shaved the man's abdomen then washed my tools and my hands. It was only a matter of two minutes until I had the cancer exposed and the physicians attested to its presence.

I started another call to heal the man while I cut off the flow of blood to the cancer. I simply closed up the simple but deep wound I had made and said to the physicians, "The cancer will completely die within hours. The wound itself will heal in a few weeks. Part of what I say can be proved by how quickly the man heals from the wound I caused."

The patient was stood up and awoken. There was no pain. I said to him, "Your cancer is dying and the wound will heal in a few weeks. Your stomach will heal in a month. Do not drink wine and eat only soft food."

"Thank you my lord. I don't feel any pain."

"There is pain but your mind does not receive it. If you die, I look bad so do as I said." The man smiled and was helped down to the ground.

I called on more men with different ailments that could be quickly cured. I called my own people and some of those came up. A few were wounded by the same Romans that watched us.

Wounds were cleaned and then closed by hand and they stayed closed as their bodies began to work harder to do what was necessary.

By the time eight o'clock came, I was very tired. I had not slept last night and I wanted to start after Lucius as soon as possible.

I called Baebius, and said in a low voice, "You will stay on my land and complete what I asked of you. I am going after Lucius and his family. You will protect my family here with your lives or you will have all of eternity to regret it." I didn't mind the threats. Other religions had done the same thing for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years.

A calvary detail rode with me to the dry docks. I built a large fire and put up a flag from a pole nearby to be illuminated by its light. In less than ten minutes the Patricia came by.

Julian called out, "Are you all right Jón?"

"I'm tired. It's your turn now.

It took less than five minutes to bring Julian up to speed on current events. All the while, I held onto Patricia. This was not a good situation for Julian because he would be directly thwarting his cousin. I had to remove Constantius or there would be a civil war. A war would pull troops from the frontier and then thousands of people would die when invaders took advantage of this situation.

The calvary were very interested in helping the Caesar now. I gave some last minute thoughts and shook hands or hugged those that would be staying. I gave Patricia one final kiss. It hurt when she cried as she left.

I said to Rufus, "We better get going."

The night was dark again but Rufus knew the river well enough to keep going. I went to sleep and didn't wake up until noon the next day.

I noticed that we had a wind off our stern quarter and the mast and sails had been set. I admired the rigging and said, "I see that you have been busy."

Rufus smiled and said, "And there are less of us too."

I felt bad again because more had died and I had done nothing to ensure that their families were cared for.

In a moment he asked me, "What did you do when you left us?"

"I used my power of healing to cause pain. I am not proud of this but it was the only way to get the officers to do what I said until they could be convinced that I was right."

"You took on the whole legion?"

"Only the senior officers, Rufus. When a man finds that he is helpless he tends to open his mind to new ideas. There were only a few that had to be convinced the hard way. The rest were just held immobile and watched without interfering with the dialogue."

After three days we stopped at some of the forts and asked about the group that was taking Lucius and his family. We were very worried for a while because the people we were following could have taken the River Main instead of going north instead. The northern route was less well travelled but they could gain the Danube quicker but after a long portage.

We were running low on fuel and resorted to cutting dead wood near the shore and cutting up the tree as we travelled upstream.

The navigable portion of this section of the Rhine ended at a large falls not far ahead. On a whim I took the Patricia into the large bay formed by the rushing water and stared at the falls. It was nothing like Niagara but it was still beautiful. It looked to be about twenty five metres high and a hundred and fifty metres wide.

We found that we were quite an attraction too with our ship being propelled by unseen oars because the sails were now furled.

Near dusk, we pulled into the town near the base of the falls. Rufus and I got into the city dressed as wealthy merchants while the crew dickered with some traders for a load of dry wood.

The town must have held twenty thousand people and was quite large. Some silver changed hands until we found out about Gennadius Memmius and where his men were sleeping. There were thirty three soldiers and six of Duronius men escorting fourteen members of Lucius' family.

That number would stay in the forts but it was possible that Lucius was not exactly held prisoner and would stay in an inn. We soon found that this was not the case.

The trail to and then along the Danube was very well fortified and the procession would have a secure place to stay each night of their travels. Rescuing the family further along the trail was just as difficult and then we would be further from the Patricia.

Rufus had been here many times and actually in the fort a few times too. He told me what he knew. "There is probably a cohort stationed here before this group arrived. There may be more visitors too that we know nothing about. Even if you can get in, you are going to have difficulty getting the women and children out without them being detected."

"That may be true but the soldiers have been dry for a few weeks now and will want to take advantage of the whores and the wineshops.

I studied the fort. This was not a crude wooden palisade but made of cut stone like the walls around the town. There were no windows that I could see but there was an inner walkway for patrols and four large gates.

After walking around the fort once, I said to Rufus, "Let's go visit the whoever is in charge of this place?"

Rufus looked worried and said, "You really want to do that?"

I smiled and said, "No, just see the inside and try to find Lucius if we can."

We had no trouble walking past the guards and into the camp. We were dressed like the well-to-do and therefore could not be here for anything but business. My hair colour attracted them but they didn't seem to be agitated by it.

The plan of the fort had the some interior buildings sharing a wall with the fort perimeter while other buildings were standing alone. I urged Rufus to investigate the former first as it was easier to get away from this area.

Ten minutes later we spotted a woman holding her infant and three more little ones standing beside her as she starred over the battlements.

I said to Rufus, "We found one of Lucius' daughter-in-laws."

"You can see that far? I forgot, you have the eyes of an eagle."

We climbed the stone steps but I was much quicker than Rufus because I didn't want to show us as together just yet. When I was a few metres away from the woman, I called gaily, "Porcia, how are you?"

She turned quickly and then looked both ways. She showed a lot of fear in her face and posture. "You have to get away from here quickly. They are looking for you."

I got closer and squatted down to greet the children and I got a hug from all of them. I said a few words to each then stood. "I came here to take you back home."

"We can't go. They won't let us and besides there is a legion there."

I smiled and said, "I took care of the legion. The Caesar is now with them. There were some bad men with the soldiers and the leader of that group is now dead. We won't have any problems."

"They say the Augustus wants to talk to us."

Rufus joined us and I said to Porcia, "That will all be taken care of. Where are you housed?"

"Almost directly below us."

"All of you?"

"Yes, but there are guards around us and especially Lucius. I can get out only because they know I can do nothing by myself and with the children."

"Tell me how to get to your apartments?"

Porcia gave me a rough layout of the building and I asked more questions. Rufus thought a moment and he too asked about some features.

It was getting dark now and it was better to proceed before everybody left the streets. Rufus left to find a rope or two and make sure the boilers were hot and the fuel loaded.

Porcia and I waited until Rufus returned in fifteen minutes with one of the crew members carrying the rope. It would seem odd to have Rufus do this type of work while wearing the clothes he had on.

He gave me the sign that all was ready and we went below to see Lucius. I was not that tall but I was wide and looked very strong. Porcia walked ahead of me and I held one of the children in my arms.

Two legionnaires stood in front of a door. Porcia started to talk to them but they watched me instead. I put the child down and then threw out my foot and connected with the sternum of the closest man. The other went for his sword but Porcia was hindering him enough that I was able to get in and strike him twice and his fighting stopped.

The first man had difficulty breathing and I touched him and his friend until they both quieted. The door opened quickly and I found a strange man in front of me. I immediately attacked, striking him in the abdomen then the throat as I moved into the room. There were three more men that were drawing weapons. I was able to get to the first and took the weapon from him and pulped the man's nose with the heal of my hand.

My new weapon came up to deflect an overhand blow and I used my foot again to kick the man. I connected solidly with his scrotum and he looked stunned. One more blow to his throat with my hand and I was ready for the last. Lucius was already there and was wrestling with the man. I just moved in and held the man's sword hand for a few seconds until he froze in place.

I said, "Hold him now. He's frozen."

Lucius was shocked at me and at what I did. He said, "Why are you here Jón? These men came from the Augustus himself."

"I talked to you before about this. Julian is now at my home straightening out the legion. I want to leave here now before we are caught."

Lucius paused to do a lot of thinking. His wife and children were close to him. He said, "We are in a lot of danger if we leave now."

I said, "You will be in more when you are in Constantius' clutches."

He nodded his head and said, "How do we get out?"

"Rufus and one of the crewmen are outside this wall waiting for us. I think your family can mainly walk out but you and the male members better take to the rope. The Patricia is at the dock with a full head of steam."

I went to the men and froze all of them including the two guards that I brought in from the hall.

Licinia was nervous and I said, "Gennadius Memmius is now talking to your husband and he wants some privacy so Lucius asked you to go look at the falls. You are taking the children. If the guards ask more, just ask the way to the falls and where it is best to see it from."

"Are we really defying Constantius?"

"Don't worry about it now. You are much safer with me."

The women and children were escorted to the courtyard and Lucius hugged his wife and sent her off as if nothing was the matter.

Back in the room I asked Lucius, "Which one is Gennadius Memmius?"

Lucius used his toe to indicate the man he had been fighting. "He is an objectionable man. He is almost as bad as Duronius."

"Maybe he should have the pleasure of our company on the trip back?"

"You want this man with us? Why?"

"I will tell you on the ship."

We gathered up all the belongings and Lucius went to each of the men except the guards and kicked them and took their purses. He looked stern to me when he said, "They robbed us when they came and then took more when we were on the trip here."

Lucius and Tertius stripped the guards at my suggestion and put on the uniforms. The two of us walked up one level and then to the wall. When it looked good, Rufus threw us the rope. Beside him were the women and children. We tied the ropes off then casually walked back to the apartments and took out the luggage and when it was clear we threw it over the edge. The women took the luggage and hurried to the ship.

Tertius was very excited and I had to put my hand on him to get him calmed down. He and his brother climbed down the rope and waited at the bottom with Rufus.

Lucius and I were now the last. We sauntered back to the apartments and we made it there without any problems. I crouched down to talk to all of the people there and healed their ills and then said, "Woden has seen fit to not take your lives this time. The way your bodies went rigid could also happen to your hearts."

I let them digest this and added, "Gennadius Memmius is going to come with us so we can have a talk. You are free to do anything you want including following me. If you do come back you will be prosecuted for any crimes you have done. In a few hours, you will be able to move much better and to talk too. In half of a day you will feel very good because I have begun the healing process for all of you. It is a gift."

Gennadius was hoisted up and we walked with him to the battlement. We were not so lucky this time and we were stopped. Romans always drank wine so I pretended to be helping a drunk friend. We were still inside the rooms and luckily there were only two men from the detail that had come here from my land.