Cade shrugged, earning himself a furious glare.

“Any of you?”

When no one replied, the man threw up his hands in anger. “At least we have a new home,” he said.

He turned to Marius. “Centurion,” he snapped. “Return to our camp and instruct them that we are relocating our base of operations here.”

Marius blanched. “Legatus, I ask dispensation for twenty men to accompany me.”

The commander—which was what the word legatus meant—snorted at the request.

“All the men are needed here in case of a counterattack. We do not know if the enemy patrol sent word back to their headquarters.”

Marius’s face paled further. “Legatus, if I am captured or killed, my message will not get through and our camp will be left vulnerable.”

The commander pursed his lips. “Take the donkey’s friends,” he said finally. “They will be little use to me. In the meantime, I shall interrogate him.”

Cade moved to protest, but felt Quintus’s grip tighten on his shoulder.

“Wait,” was all Quintus whispered.

Marius’s face was drawn, but he nodded at the order.

“Go. Now,” the legatus ordered.

Marius nodded and marched away from the formation.

He stopped at the gatehouse’s doorway, beckoning for Cade to follow. Quintus gave him a gentle shove, surprising him. Clearly his friend thought they would be safer out there than here. But as he turned to question Quintus, a glare of such feeling as Cade had never seen before greeted him.

“Come on,” Cade said, motioning at the others. “We’ll do as he says.”

Cade stopped at the doorway beside Marius and quickly unbuckled the armor he wore, leaving it in a pile beside the sledges. If this was to be a long march, the ill-fitting, heavy armor would be a bad idea.

“Get some water,” Cade said, picking up one of the smaller amphorae himself. “We don’t know how long we will be out there.”

With that done, Cade snatched up some bandages from a pile where the Roman medic had left them, and hurried after Marius, who was already walking outside.

“Cade,” Amber hissed as they emerged into the sunlight of the battlements. “What are we doing?”

The others had likely understood little of the conversation, despite their now-rudimentary understanding of Latin. But Cade was wondering the same himself. Everything was moving so quickly, he’d had hardly any time to think. But they were alive, and five minutes ago he hadn’t thought that was possible.

Still, he somehow found little joy in the arrival of their new allies. The legatus had given them a cold welcome, and treated his men almost as badly. It did not bode well.

“We have to trust Quintus,” was all he could say. “Right now, he knows more about these Romans than the rest of us. He wants us to go, so that’s what we’re doing.”

“We don’t even know what’s out there,” Scott chimed in. “Marius looked terrified. He asked for twenty men, if I understood the Latin!”

“Well, good thing we’re worth twice as many,” Cade said, forcing a smile.