Maddie spent most of the next three days moving from village to village, feeling bored. There was no real opposition and she wasn’t called upon to do any more fighting. The soldiers handled it easily.

On the afternoon of the third day a runner arrived in their camp. He conferred with Septimus and left with a few coins and a small mirror.

“We’ve just gotten word,” he told Maddy, “The Picts are mobilizing a war band and marching this way.”

“So now we fight?”

“No, now we head back to the wall. We’ll wait for them there. If necessary, we’ll take the wall and let them through.”

“So, all of this was a ruse to get the Picts to attack the Britons?”

“Pretty much. Let’s move out!” he shouted to the rest of the men.

They arrived back at the fort the next day. Septimus had been keeping track of the Picts’ movements, conferring with his spies via mirror. They hurried so that they could get back to their fort before the Picts got too close. When they arrived, they found a couple of dozen people chained up in the main building. They were all dressed in British uniforms.

“Captives from the Army’s various campaigns. Dressed them up so that when the Picts take this place they think they’ll be getting us.”

The captives were all emaciated. Many were injured, some seriously. They were all chained up. None of them seemed to have the will to fight. Any that did hadn’t survived the trip.

“We’ll keep a few people here to make it look good. The rest of us will head back to the wall. We’re fighting on the other side, now.”

The British soldiers changed their clothes to become Picts. Someone went around painting blue tattoos on all the men. Spears were traded out for the longswords that the Picts preferred. /in a matter of hours they were ready for their “brethren” to arrive. They behind a hill near to the camp so that they could blend in with the rest of the warband. Maddie was to stay at the fort, since she was too conspicuous. Septimus told her to put up a token resistance and then leave.

It didn’t take long for the real warband to arrive. Severus’s men successfully joined them without anybody noticing. The fort erupted in a flurry of activity. Men on the wall with spears faced down the larger Pictish forces. Arrows flew. The men left behind had quickly removed the captives’ chains and given them blunted weapons. They rushed around to create a ruckus and loosed a few arrows at the Picts. Then they prepared to leave.

Maddie stood by the opening in the wall as the warband approached. She flourished her sword and shouted imprecations at the warriors in Breton, which they could just about understand. As warriors massed to attack the fort, Maddie moved into the crowd. She made a few calculated strikes -- targeting the weakest soldiers rather than the strongest ones. Once she had established herself as a threat, she allowed some of the stronger fighters to challenge her. She killed one easily but allowed the others to get the upper hand. Seemingly overmatched, she shadow-stepped to the fort where she put up another token fight before fleeing with the remaining soldiers and one or two prisoners, for show. Septimus’s men made sure that there were no survivors in the fort and snuck away unnoticed. They reconvened just as Maddie was killing the prisoners they had left with.

They took another few days to make sure that the warband would attempt the wall. Spies within the Pictish forces championed the idea and riled up the rest of the warriors. Soon more clans were sent for and after about a week the Picts marched on the wall. The Army of Mars, still disguised, made sure that they took it. Maddie surreptitiously did some structural damage to the wall and then hid nearby.

The Picts took the wall and continued south. There was no guarantee that they would survive contact with the real British soldiers or with one of the Roman Legions stationed there, but the wheels were set in motion. Each side would know that the other was coming for them. From there things should get out of hand.

Maddie separated from Septimus a few days south of the wall. He was stationed there to see the fallout from their mission, she was to head on to the next job. She had to meet Tereus in a small fishing town called Caer Lug.