Without warning, the order to halt rang out and the opposing ranks shuddered to a disciplined stop. Brutus raised his eyebrows in surprise, scanning the faces of the enemy. He caught sight of Julius and suddenly laughed out loud, to the bemusement of those around him.

“Stand down!” he ordered his twenty and watched as they restrapped their javelins and sheathed their swords. When everything was back in place, he marched them toward the halted soldiers, chuckling.

Julius spoke first.

“Have you any idea how close I just came to carving you up?” he asked, grinning.

“I was thinking much the same thing. My men would have dropped a couple of spears through you before you came ten paces closer. Still lucky, I see.”

“I recognized you,” Cabera interjected smugly.

Brutus whooped to see the old man still alive. All three embraced, to the complete confusion of the battle lines surrounding them. Julius broke away first and noticed the three linked arrows on Brutus’s breastplate.

“Gods! That’s Primigenia, isn’t it?”

Brutus nodded, his eyes bright. “I have command, though we’re a little understrength at present.”

“How much understrength?”

“By about four thousand men, as it happens, but I am working on it.”

Julius whistled softly. “We have a lot to talk about. Does Tubruk know I’m back?”

Brutus looked over his shoulder at the white walls of the estate. The figure of the estate manager raised an arm in greeting from the top. Cabera waved back enthusiastically.

“Yes, he knows,” Brutus replied, smiling wryly.

“I’m going to have to find barracks in the city for my men,” Julius said. “They can set up tents on the estate while I see to a few matters, but I need somewhere permanent for them as well as training facilities.”

“I know just the place and the man to train them,” Brutus responded. “Renius came back with me.”

“I’ll need him, and you,” Julius replied, already planning.

Brutus smiled. His heart felt light as he looked on his old friend. There were new scars on his face that gave him a harsher look than he remembered, but it was still the same man. On impulse, he put out his arm and Julius gripped it firmly, caught up in the same emotion.

“Is my wife safe?” Julius asked, searching Brutus’s face for news.

“She’s here, with your daughter.”

“I have a daughter?” Julius’s smile stretched right across his face in a foolish beam. “Why are we standing here? A daughter! Come on!”