When we left, we had taken the roan horse with us, I had put on my lorica, a cloak over that, and armed myself with my khopesh, and pugio.I gave Leif my gladuius, and an extra pugio, I wished I was able to get him a lorica, or some other form of armor for what we were about to attempt. I also wished for a shield, two good scutums would have been better. There were a lot of wishes I had, but they wouldn’t be fulfilled, not without a lot of hard work .

On the way to the salt mine where the majority of my cohorts were imprisoned I mulled over the best way to attack it with only two people. A thought hit me, and it made me smile, and snicker. Leif looked at me and asked “what’s on your mind?”

I grinned “I know how we’re going to get into the mine. If we’re quick about it we might even have the guards outnumbered.”

Leif canted his head and asked “How are we going to do that?”

I explained, “you said that there was only two guards patrolling the mine at night. I also know that at the end of a long night watch you don’t have all your horses pulling in tandem, you think slowly. What I have in mind is I’ll throw you onto the back of the horse and call for help. You’re going to moan, and howell. Better yet make some gods awful unnatural noises as loud as you possible can. Sound like a raving madman, as soon as one of the guards comes down to shut you up, or help me out we attack. If we’re fast enough we can kill both of the guards, and get into the slave barracks to rescue them.”

Leif chuckled replying “That’s not too bad of a plan, but why am I on the horse?”

“Easy” I said “I speak the language of P’Tah. Do you?”

Leif shook his head “Nope.”

The walk to the salt mine took most of the night and the moon had dropped below the horizon when the mine came into sight. We then rested, the same rules for a long night applied to us. There we napped until about two hours before the sun rise, then finished the trip to the mine. Before we came over the last rise Leif got up on the horse, flopped down on his stomach, and he started really wailing and moaning.

I approached the gate and shouted above Leif’s performance in the language of P’Tah “Hello!! My friend needs help!” To add to the point Leif began clucking.

The guard very tiredly questioned “what in the devil is wrong with him!?”

“He needs help!” I yelled back, and Leif howelled at the stars in a raspy howell before calling.

The second guard came to investigate, and questioned “Can you shut him up?!”

I shook my head and spread my arms apart “No! You can come down and give it a try, if you want to!”

The second guard laughed “How bout I put an arrow in him? That’ll quiet him down, and I won’t have to climb down!”

Leif gulped, and made a indescribable sound, I shouted above the mildly panicked Leif “You might shoot my horse! You don’t want to have to buy it do you?!”

The guard smiled, and threatened “How about we shoot you too and get some peace?! Go away!”

I cringed, and demanded “my friend needs help, we need your torch light! We’re not going until you help us! We need help!”

Finally one of the guards groaned, set his bow down, and started down from his post, followed closely by his counterpart. The gate opened and Leif poured on the caterwauling, he bleated like a sheep, squawked like a peacock, made unintelligible noises of every type, and the two guards came closer. Both of them, paid more attention to to Leif, and I stepped back letting them get closer. Then all of a sudden Leif stopped his squalling, snapped his head up, looked the guard at his head in the eye, and thrust the pugio into his throat. While at the same time I slashed the second guard in the throat from ear to ear. They both gurgled and choked while they tried to fight back.

Leif vaulted over the horse, and stabbed his guard in the side, place a leg behind his, and shouldered into him knocking him to the ground, before he could draw his weapon. Leif then held the guards mouth, and nose to stifle the sound of their struggle. My guard clumsily thrust his hasta, a spear meant for thrusting at me, as blood gushed from his gullette, I grabbed the spear, and twisted it, disarming it from his blood slicked hands and thrust it into his gut, black blood oozed from the guards wound. We left the horse ground tied near the gate Leif picked up the spear, I picked up the sword from the other guard, and we crept into the mine.

Leif indicated the guard barracks, and we barricaded the door. It wouldn’t last too long before someone would need to relieve themselves but it would slow the rest of the guards down after that. The gate around the slave barracks, and the mine proper was next. We had to hurry, the gate was barred from the outside, there was no lock, Leif, and I unbarred it, and slipped into the slave barracks.

The slave barracks was a squaller, littered with shovels, refuse, in one corner there was an older slave that was coughing up blood. In a salt mine, the powdered salt enters the lungs and desiccates them slowly; like salting a brisket, or a roast for storage. The slaves were worked to exhaustion, and barely fed, they slept heavily as we entered their barracks.

I found, one of the legionaries from the second cohort, a man named Decimus. He was a good soldier, capable fighter, and efficient in his tasks. I gripped his shoulder, and shook him, he woke with a start but recognised Leif, and I. It took him moments to shake off the fog of sleep. I put my finger to my lips, shushed him I said “we, going to free you, start waking the others.” He nodded, and I handed Decimus the sword, a sica used to cut around shields. I asked him “where do they keep their weapons?”

Decimus replied “in the guard barracks.” I mentally groaned, that was something I should have thought off. At about that time I heard the beginnings of the guards becoming awoken, and trying to kick down the door through the barricade Leif and I put up. “I should have thought of that. Hurry Decimus, pass the word to wake up the other legionnaires, and meet Leif, and I at the gate.” I indicated the gate separating the slaves and guards.