They’d managed to keep grass from growing on the walls while she was away, which was a good sign. Hopefully everything else would be in similarly good order. Riding next to her was Mal Fletcher, then came the Two Hundred followed by three thousand men and women, mostly on foot. After two moons travelling around Britain, Lowa had hoped for at least twice the amount of infantry recruits. She now had around ten thousand foot soldiers in total. According to Atlas and the others’ previous reconnaissance, the Romans could send double that, possibly more. She had a much smaller number of chariots and cavalry as well as the infantry, but the Romans would have cavalry, too, and in a full-force, pitched battle on open ground – the kind the Romans would strive to make her fight and she might not be able to avoid – infantry numbers would be the most important factor. Unless Felix’s dark legion slaughtered all the Britons before they so much as clashed swords with a legionary, that was, as it had done to the Nervee in the woods.
