Casca 21: The Trench Soldier (17 page)

When, an hour later, another British ship came upon the floating wreckage, the crew found only the wounded soldiers floating on the orange crates. They hauled them on board, but none showed any sign of life.

This freighter, the H.M.S.
Abyrton, was on an urgent mission carrying war materiel and a few troops. The captain wanted to get clear of the submarine-infested waters as quickly as he could. He rang the engine room telegraph for full speed ahead and put the matter of the corpses on his deck out of mind.

There was no time to heave to for a decent burial service, and the captain read a few hasty words from a Bible as the weighted bodies were thrown back into the sea from the moving ship.

The burial detail was startled to find that Casca's body was still warm despite its time in the cold sea.

Concussed, his skin burned to charcoal, and nearly drowned, Casca was yet kept alive by the curse of the prophet he had executed two thousand years earlier.

"Captain, I think this man may be alive," the bo's'n said.

"Well, just as well we didn't throw him over. He sure isn't very alive, though, is he?"

"No, sir. I suppose he'll die soon enough."

"Well, we'll have to carry him along with us until he does die, and we'll put him over the side then. We can't stop to put him ashore,
bo's'n. We have our orders for Gallipoli."

A slave of the savage Tatars, Casca is a champion in the blood-sports that make his masters rich…a rare prize for those who wager for his skills…and a nightmare for those who face him in a fight where only one survives.  Then Casca is stolen by a Mongol rebel – a young outcast among his own people.  Only blood and power can quench the burning thirst of his ambition.  With Casca at his side, the rebel unites a people and cuts a bloody swath across Asia into Europe.  Nations fall beneath an army horde that knows no mercy…

And an empire rises from the slaughter.

For more information on the entire Casca series see
www.casca.net

The Barry Sadler website
www.barrysadler.com