Camulod Chronicles Book 8 - Clothar the Frank Read Online Free

they began to show signs of starting to talk among themselves.
    "Britain," I said loudly, bringing their eyes back towards me. "It may not seem the fairest land you have ever seen, but I had friends here once who swore that it was. There are no vineyards here, no hillsides rich with grapes, and the summer sun that shines later today might leave you cool and longing for your own warm breezes. It can be hot here, but in fact it seldom is. The winters are brutal, too, cold and long and wet . . . always damp and dank and chill. Anil yet this is a land where great ideas and noble ideals took root and flourished for a time, a time you have all heard about. . . and although it was a tragically short and strife-torn time, yet it was wondrous. It was a time without equal, and a time without precedent, and it was my time in the way that today is yours . . . the time of youth, of dreams and high ideals."
    Their expressions were thoughtful, their eyes flickering back and forth from me to each other and sometimes to the drab landscape surrounding us. I nodded and spoke on.
    "Such a time might never come to Gaul, lads, for in Gaul we love our comforts far too much. We have grown too somnolent for such things, too lazy, basking in the warm sun of our provinces. It takes a place like this island, Britain, where the sun is frequently a stranger and cold is more familiar than warmth, to keep men moving and to spur them on to pure ideals, great deeds and high activity. And on that point of high activity, you are about to discover what I mean. You will walk today as you have never walked before . . . fast and far and over rough country." I saw a few smiles break out. "You find that amusing, some of you. Well, that pleases me. But save your smiles and guard them close, and bring them to me fresh when we camp tonight. I warn you, there are no horses out there waiting to be taken and bridled, not today—or if there are, I shall be much surprised. By the time the sun goes down today, before we are halfway to where we are going, you will all be footsore and weary, with aches and pains in places you don't even know exist at this moment. And then, once we reach our destination tomorrow or the day after, depending upon what we find, we will turn around and retrace our path." I looked at each of them, one after the other, moving from left to right, and they stared back at me with ten different expressions, ranging from tolerant amusement to shining eagerness, and even to truculent suspicion. I reached down to fondle the ears of the beast beneath me.
    "None of you is used to, or prepared for, what I will demand of you within these next few days—" I threw up my hand to cut short the mutterings of protest as they began. "And I know, too, that your military training has been long and thorough." That sounded better to them and they shrugged, appeased and slightly mollified, preening themselves and flexing their muscles gently. "But you are trained as horsemen. Mounted warriors. Knights, if you will. Not infantry. Not foot soldiers. And foot soldiers is what you are become, here and now, today and tomorrow, and you will find the effort overwhelming. And so I wish to make it clear immediately that if any one of you—anyone at all—finds the effort too much for him within the next few days, he must say so, and we will leave him safe, with a companion, to await our eventual return. There will be no disgrace attached to that. Some efforts are too much for men not trained in the discipline required, no matter their proficiency in other things. We all have limitations, and none of you has been faced with this hardship before. You may find, any one among you, that your limitations lie in this . . . and if so, you must make that clear to me. Do you understand me?"
    There came a rumbled chorus of assent, and I nodded again. "Good, so be it. Now we must move quickly and quietly—not in silence, but it would be best to make no noise that might be heard from afar. We