Vengeance & Remission (Introduction) Page 9
tall, calm legionnaire with an unpleasant smell. She watched how Octavian’s second supporter pressed Marcus Lucius’s body onto the bed with both hands and how Octavian placed the iron on his chest. Marcus Lucius woke up for a moment and yelled in pain. His look was blurry, disorientated, inhuman. Julia suffered with him. She observed that Marcus Lucius was too weak to fight against Octavian and his man. Instead, he let them burn out the wound with the glowing, hot iron piece. Just for looking at the scene, Julia fainted. Her skin was colourless. Her breath was short. Her anger was rising increasingly. She was so furious that she wasn’t able to scream anymore.
Julia remembered her dog and the moment, her father killed the animal. It had the same kind of look in the eyes. She was afraid that Marcus Lucius would not survive it. Her anxiety rose exponentially to her anger. Octavian put the iron away and ordered to decrease the pressure on Marcus Lucius's shoulder immediately. The soldier, who held her tight, let her go and left the wagon. The other legionnaire followed. Octavian stood emotionless over Marcus Lucius, who was unconscious again. Julia stepped to him and beat twice on Octavian's chest, but this action could not bring her any advantages. Octavian pushed her away and didn't seem to be hurt or even nerved about the sudden attack.
-Let me know when he gets back to his senses. - He ordered as he left the wagon and came back with a bottle of alcohol. - And use this to wash his wound. - Octavian added hastily.
Julia wanted to kill Octavian with her look, if it was only possible. She caught the thrown bottle and turned her back to the man she hated at the moment. The wagon door was closed quite loudly, quickly, nervously, with one movement. Octavian seemed to be irritated, too. It was the only good thing in Julia's eyes.
Julia stepped forward to Marcus Lucius's body and looked at the burned skin. It smelled awful and she had to fight against vomiting. She opened the bottle with the alcohol and took a swig. Her throat burned and her head pulsated like a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation like the one observed by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish in 1967. However, Julia would describe her pain as regular, not pulsating, rather the standard type like nearly all headaches known to humanity since the human race occurred after the Big Bang. She had typical primary disorders such as tension-type headaches, no migraine. As described in modern medicine books the pain radiated from the lower back of the head, the neck, the eyes, and other muscle groups in the body. The symptoms only visualised her anger, disappointment and lack of hope and forced inhalation of the icky smell. She needed to rest, but there was no time. She knelt down next to Marcus Lucius and gazed at his wound for a while. Finally, she rose up and cautiously, sedulously, tirelessly cleaned millimetre after millimetre of his skin around the chest injury. The room smelled of burned human flesh mixed with alcohol, an awful combination. She inhaled the odour and her headache grew stronger.
Then, she carefully cleaned the wound itself. Her head and the rest of her body felt hot like an exploding volcano, so she wasn't able to estimate how high Marcus Lucius's fever was. She wiped off his sweat drops and then started her cleaning tour again. Somewhere, in the middle of the procedure, she stopped and gazed at Marcus Lucius. His face looked tired, his beard has not been shaven for at least two weeks and his nose moved minimally, what proved that he was still breathing. She was relieved, but still tensed.
After the fourth round of cleaning and one additional longer pause, during which Julia didn't even leave the wagon, the girl noticed that Marcus Lucius moved a bit. His arm changed position and he quietly sighed a few times. When she moved slightly, she felt how Marcus Lucius caught her arm and kept holding strongly, determined. When he opened his eyes and won back the clearness of sight, he eased the grip and finally let her go. However, his eyes were focused on her. He seemed not to know where he was and what he was doing here. Julia could firmly read the question marks in his look.
-We're on the way to Britannia as Appius ordered. Your wound bled heavily. - She started explaining while Marcus Lucius touched his naked breast and wondered about the burned skin without saying something. Apparently, he ignored her words. He didn't even nod pretending to listen. Instead, he simply examined his chest and the burned injury. It took his entire attention.
Julia was ashamed, because she blamed herself for not being able to stop Octavian from burning Marcus Lucius’s chest. The way he gazed at the injury made her think that he could be annoyed and think she didn't act properly. It was her duty to protect him, when he wasn't able to do it himself. She had to put more effort into this. She felt completely guilty and stopped talking. Her last words sounded rather rachitic than normal.
Suddenly, he looked at her and his eyes were clear and focussed. He collected his thoughts and memories. He didn't need any additional help from her to know what was going on.
-Tell Octavian it's good. - He whispered with a dry mouth. She gave him water and he swallowed a few times.
-Now? - She wondered, because his request wasn't clear enough.
He minimally shook his head.
-When he comes... - He added and he kept looking at her. - Don't go away now.
She nodded and simply kept sitting next to him. She watched how he became sleepy. His voice sounded nice, pleasant. It wasn't cold as Octavian's. She wanted to hear more, but he didn't share his further thoughts with her. Apparently, all soldiers counted and limited their words automatically as if they were gold coins. Julia wasn't sure what she should think. She wasn't brave enough to step forward and to look at Marcus Lucius's chest from a closer distance. He could wake up any moment. It was too risky. But her curiosity brought her to the limits of her patience. She waited until Marcus Lucius fell deeper asleep and when she was absolutely sure he wasn't able to perceive her at all, she looked at the burned part. It indeed looked better now. However, it was still disgusting, foul. Noisome odour was in the air even through the alcohol smell.
After Marcus Lucius fell asleep, Julia felt sleepy as well. However, she was a dutiful person, so she knocked on the wagon's door and waited for it to stop. As expected, Octavian stepped into the room and shortly analysed the situation.
-He'll get better now. The wound will finally heal. - He judged after a quick look at Marcus Lucius's chest. Then, he covered the injury with a piece of material.
-We should have done it already at the beginning of the journey... - He added, and the stopped talking as if he thought about further things.
Julia wasn't able to read his mind. The soldier was concerned, but it wasn't about the wound as Julia felt. The spoken sentences were directed straight to her. They were supposed to calm her down and give some relief, or even new joy. It didn't work, because Julia was still mad at Octavian. She was still convinced that this burning method was cruel and unnecessary. Additionally, she didn't like to be pushed aside so brutally. First signs of upcoming bruises showed on her body and she was relieved that her dress covered the affected parts of her skin. She ignored the legionnaire as far as it was possible. She wanted him to feel her anger. Octavian noticed it and left the wagon. This time, he tried not to touch her at all. As Julia felt the wiggling again, she knew that they were on the way again. It was a good sign.
The days passed by routinely. Every morning, Julia went out of the wagon and while the legionnaires were still asleep, she went here and there to stretch her legs and arms. It didn't matter whether it rained or not - she enjoyed the moment the same way. As soon as the sun showed itself completely, she looked for hideout in the wagon. Then, Marcus Lucius woke up shortly and said “Good morning” with a dry throat. She gave him water and with time, a piece of bread and things the medico gave to Octavian. The second medico was brought in by Nerva just two days after Octavian had burned the wound. Julia wasn't allowed to be present while the medico checked Marcus Lucius's condition. New glasses with further stinking substances of strange consistency were left with him and some herbal mixtures to drink were prescribed for daily use.
After Marcus Luciu
s got his medicine, he fell asleep and Julia took care about his hygiene. She washed him and rubbed the new substances into his body. Definitely, he was the cleanest man in the convoy. Octavian and other legionnaires always had signs of being on the road in their faces. Some dust and sweat glued to them. During the three weeks of the journey, they had no possibility to take a bath. They used lakes or rivers on the way, but it was rather a rare occasion. Julia felt dirty, too. She was the only woman in the convoy. It wasn't comfortable to go and completely wash herself, when she knew that her guards would follow her. It was embarrassing, so she rather lived with the dirt than the looks of the men at her naked body.
When she finished the cleaning tour of Marcus Lucius's body, she sat down on the floor and drank a bit of water. Even then, she cautiously observed the beautiful stranger. He slept a lot. His breath was regular, and therefore, his chest kept moving rhythmically. This calmed her down. Sometimes, she went closer and inhaled the scent of his skin. Even the stinking, icky substances