The Centurion - 14. Chapter 14

Part II: Domus

Chapter One: The Circle

A Study of Law and Customs in Domus... by Melkior, first High Ambassador.

While Domus has a society built around war, it protects its children from that reality until they reach the age of 21. Domus, with its massive Home Guard to police and protect it, is a place of innocence compared to the outside world. Those customs also applied to sex. As custom dictated, enforced by the harshest of punishments, no Centurion adult was allowed to initiate intimate contact with an uncircumcised male. Since a young man does not undergo the ceremony until his twenty-first year, that became the age of consent. That did not mean that men younger than twenty-one reached that age with their virginity intact. Centurion youths were notorious for their sexual adventurism when they began their training at one of the Empire’s many military schools and even at the Academy where future Centurion officers and Legatio youths are schooled.

Arriving back to his men just as the sun was setting, Philip found they had already built a circle made up of small stones. Horn, already in his armor, had his pike in hand. “It’s time!” Horn demanded as he walked into the circle of stones. “I need my armor,” Philip said not able to hide his nervousness as he watched the sun disappear under the horizon.

Horn grinned as he saw the last ray of the sun disappear behind the mountains. “No... the sun has set. By law you must face me now or forfeit your life.”

“Horn!” Ged protested. He did not like the idea that he had put his commander in this situation.

“It is the law,” one of the other men, a sergeant, grunted. “The commander must face Horn now.”

“So be it...” Philip grunted as he tore off his uniform, leaving only his loin cloth

“Your sword,” a sergeant said as he handed Philip his double-bladed sword.

Philip took hold of the weapon, a cross between a quarterstaff and a sword. On both ends the three-foot long blades shone orange from the light of the torches, held together by a foot and a half of handle. The weapon was extremely heavy, requiring a great deal of strength and dexterity to use. Philip had both, but without his armor he would have to be careful not to cut his arms, as he was used to having it to deflect his own swings, a fact everyone knew.

Philip stepped into the circle, twirling the seven and a half foot long weapon over his head. Horn wielded a six-foot pike but, as Philip could only hold his weapon in the middle where the handle was, Horn had the advantage of reach.

The two men bowed to each other and waited for the challenge to begin. They did not have to wait long. With a torch being thrown into the center of the circle by an officer, all the men in Philip’s unit began to beat their swords against their metal shields making a racket that spread across the camp.

Philip, unsure how to handle his sword without his armor made a few practice swings and regretted it. Instead of the armor he usually wore stopping the opposite blade, the sword cut into his skin. On seeing Philip’s predicament, Horn laughed and moved in with confidence.

As his foe walked gingerly closer, Philip knew what he had to do, he had to make a fatal stab at Horn’s abdomen. The problem Philip was facing was that even with his great strength he could not change his sword’s direction easily or quickly. So it was a race... could he deflect Horn’s pike and make a fatal blow before Horn could recover

and make one himself.

As he circled his opponent, the wound on his side slowed him down, as the area swelled. Philip tried three times to break through Horn’s defenses, but each time he either missed or had to jump back to avoid a deadly jab by Horn. Philip knew that if he did not change his tactics soon he would eventually end up on the wrong end of Horn’s pike.

This required him to do something drastic. After deflecting another of Horn’s jabs, he let his hands slip down the sword till he was gripping the sharp edges of the opposite blade he had pointed at Horn. He then used the extra reach to make a final, long stab, breaking through Horn’s armor and hitting him in the chest.

Horn, as he fell back, tried desperately to return the attack, thrusting his pike towards Philip’s stomach. It only managed to scratch the skin, however, before falling out of his hands.

Philip quickly took up the pike with both hands and took hold of it, pointing the pike at Horn’s own abdomen, ready to give the fatal thrust.

Seeing his own death was at hand, Horn made a final request.

“Please... make it quick.”

Philip nodded. He aimed the tip of the pike to a spot just below the diaphragm and made a hard stab. There was a crunching sound as if something hard had been cracked and when Philip removed the pike it was coated in a luminescent blue fluid.

“Thank you...” Horn sighed with his last breath.

Then, there was silence. Two men came into the circle and took Horn’s now lifeless body away while another two came in with a bucket of water and some bandages. Philip, finding he had to use the pike to remain standing, let his men clean and bandage his wounds. They were deep, but due to his Centurion heritage Philip knew they would be healed by morning.

After the commander’s wounds had been cared for, a lieutenant

went up to Philip. “What do you want done with his remains.”

“Collect Horn’s anima... Sell his bones to the Legatio healers, the money to be given to his children. Be sure his skull is saved for proper burial, however... He died with honor.”

“Yes sir.” The man bowed. Philip called for a stool to be brought to so he could sit while

the healer extracted the blue fluid from Horn’s body. When it was done, they handed it to him reverently in a large crystal vial that gave off a

faint blue glow. “I will be at the carriage,” Philip told his lieutenants before

leaving, the vial still in his left hand.

“Sleep in, sir. We will make sure the men get up on time,” the lieutenant said.

“No... the men need to see that I am fine. Any weakness on my

part might tempt another one to challenge me.” “As you wish, commander,” the man saluted.