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From Hilarion, his Senior Centenarius, he learned a good deal more than Julius Gavros had told him about the Frontier Wolves.
"And there are the terrible lizards, of course," said Hilarion, matter-of-fact.
Alexios had no idea what a terrible lizard might be, and it sounded entirely far-fetched, as far-fetched as Hilarion's intimation that first night that the Frontier Wolves were wolves in truth.
"Terrible lizards." He kept his voice flat and quirked an eyebrow at Hilarion.
"Oh yes, quite terrible. Although they will be growing sluggish soon enough, with the cooling weather. It is in spring and summer that we have to worry about them, mostly. They're not much bigger than a dog, but even a little nibble will have a man sicken and die within days."
"I see," said Alexios, who saw very well that Hilarion was the man every unit had, the one who made a joke of everything and took nothing seriously; that if something amusingly inconvenient happened, Hilarion nearly always had something to do with it; and that half the things that came out of his mouth were as fanciful as the children's tales Alexios' Irish nurse had told him.
"I thought you were making a joke." Alexios' voice sounded distant and terrifyingly calm even to his own ears. He looked at the body of the creature--the terrible lizard creature that had rushed at him on two swift legs like some kind of scaled goose from the underworld, its mouthful of needle-sharp teeth gaping--and Hilarion standing over it with his sword dripping with its blood.
Hilarion's lean chest was still heaving, and his freckles stood out stark against his bloodless face. "I don't," he said, panting. "I don't joke about important things, sir."
"And how, exactly, was I supposed to know that something which sounded like a tale to frighten children was an important thing?" Alexios felt perilously close to yelling; he kept his voice even only because for a moment there Hilarion had looked utterly terrified, and it would not do for them both to panic.
Hilarion stared at him, and then started laughing. After a moment, Alexios joined him and then they were leaning on each other in the meadow and laughing until they could scarce draw breath.
"I suppose," said Hilarion finally, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, "I ought to give you some kind of sign when I am not joking, or perhaps I should have killed one of the beasts and hauled its carcass back to the Sacellum to show you."
"I would have been convinced," said Alexios.
"Only think of the trouble getting the bloodstains out of the tile."
They returned to Castellum with their arms about each other's shoulders, Hilarion whistling cheerfully. No one would ever believe him when he returned from the frontier, Alexios thought, and nearly began laughing again when he imagined writing to his mother: Today my Senior Centenarius saved my life by killing a terrible lizard that was something like a temple goose but with more teeth and scales. It sounds ridiculous, but one bite can kill a man…
She would cry, of course, as she usually did. Quite likely with laughter, this time.