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The soldiers went down, protecting Venator to their last breath

Suddenly his feet were in the water, and he sprang forward, diving the instant it rose above his knees He gli ship and feverishly paddled toward it, not daring to look back

The soldiers still on the bluff countere

d everything that was thrown at the for a weak spot in the Rorouped in ed, and four times they were hurled back, but not before they took down a few ionaries The square becaht shoulder to shoulder Bloody heaps of dead and dying carpeted the land, their blood flowing in streams down the slopes And still the Romans resisted

The battle had been raging without let-up for nearly two hours, but the barbarians were attacking with the sa

They began to se

Severus broke off the arrow shafts that protruded froht on Barbarian corpses carpeted the ground around hiionaries remained at his side One by one they perished, sword in hand, buried beneath swarms of rocks, arrows and spears

Severus was the last to fall His legs folded under hier lift his sword He swayed on his knees, made a futile effort to rise, then looked up to the sky and muttered softly, "Mother, Father, carry me to your arms"

As if in answer to his plea, the barbarians rushed forward and savagely clubbed hiony

In the water, Venator gris in a desperate atte ship His effort was in vain

The river's current and a puff of wind pushed the merchant vessel further away

He shouted to the crew and frantically waved his free hand A group of sea at hi the ship around They continued their escape down river as if Venator did not exist

They were abandoning him, he realized helplessly There would be no rescue He beat a fist on the spar in anguish and sobbed uncontrollably, convinced that his God had forsaken hiazed at the carnage and devastation

The expedition was gone, vanished in a nightmare

PART I