“Pullus?”
I glanced over to see that Gorteryn wasstanding next to me, and he was the one who called my name with araised eyebrow.
“Nothing.” I shook my head, but Icould see he did not believe me, although at this moment, I was notentirely certain that my eyes were not seeing what I wanted them tosee. After a span of what was probably another thirty heartbeats, Iwas certain enough to turn and, with a broad smile on my face, tellGorteryn, “I’m going home.”
I saw Gnaeus standing on the dock when wewere still more than a furlong away, although I was not altogethercertain it was him because of the blue cloak he was wearing, butduring my time in Petuar, I had not seen any Parisii his size, withthe exception of Berdic, but I could see that this man wasclean-shaven. Once we were close enough that I was certain that itwas him, it is difficult to describe the wave of emotion thatassaulted me. Elation, certainly, but as quickly as it came, it wasshoved aside by the trepidation I felt at the thought of tellinghim of the cost of his freedom. It was this that caused me tosuddenly turn to face Squillus, who was standing at the steeringoar, guiding the ship the final distance to the dock.
Cupping my hands together, I called to him,“Stop! Don’t dock! Not yet!”
He understandably lookedstartled, although he shouted down to theHortator to stop the oarsmen, and hewas not the only one who was surprised.
“Pullus? What is it?”Marcellus asked after coming to stand at my side. “Is somethingwrong?”
“No,” I said quickly, butthen amended, “at least I don’t think so. But I’m wondering ifmaybe I should row ashore first and talk to Gnaeus.”
He considered this, then seemed to acceptit, because he asked, “Do you want one of us to go with you?”
I appreciated the gesture, but I shook myhead.
“I just want to have thechance to talk to Gnaeus first and find out what he wants us todo.”
With that, I made my way to the stern totell Squillus what was happening. He was unhappy about it,muttering something about wasting time, but what mattered was thathe barked out an order to one of the deck crew to unlash the boat,then to another to drop the anchor about a hundred paces downriverfrom the dock, and perhaps twenty from the riverbank. We werewithin missile range, but I did not consider this to be likely, ifonly because none of the people I saw clustered on the dock werewarriors. The crewman who unlashed the boat dropped down into it torow me ashore, and I followed him down into the boat, shakily, butI managed to avoid falling into the water. He began rowing as soonas I sat down, and I saw Gnaeus pushing his way through the crowdso that he could meet me.
As we were pulling alongside the dock, hecalled down, “You took your time! I thought you might have decidedto just go home and forget about me.”
Even without the broad smile on his face, Iwould have known he was jesting, but he was not quite done havingfun with me, because when I raised a hand towards the dock, heleaned over, then with an ease that made it seem as if I was adoll, he lifted me out of the boat with one hand, to the gasps andlaughter from the crowd.
“Do you always have toshow off?” I grumbled, but he just laughed and retorted, “What doyou think?”
Then we were embracing, and I was onlyvaguely aware that the people around us were affected in some way,either shouting with joy, applauding, and some were evenweeping.
“Gnaeus, what did you do?”I asked as soon as we broke our embrace. “Why are these peopleacting like this?” I was about to make a joke about how it wasprobably because they were about to become wealthy, but I held mytongue.
Gnaeus just grinned and, having to speakloudly over the noise from the crowd, he said, “Because I’m a hero,that’s why.”
“A hero?” I did notunderstand, but he just shook his head and said that he wouldexplain later.
Then he turned serious andindicated the Salacia withhis head.
“I’m assuming that theonly reason you’re here is because you were successful,” he said,and when I nodded, I could see that he was pleased, but alsoworried. “How did Septimus raise the money? What did he have tosell?”
I had been dreading this question from themoment we left Arelate, but now it was my turn to say, “It’s notimportant right now. We can talk about it later.” Before he couldsay anything, I asked, “So, what do we do now?”
This clearly startled Gnaeus, and headmitted sheepishly, “Actually, I have no idea.” He considered fora moment, then decided, “I suppose I need to go inform Ivomagusthat you’ve arrived.”
“Ivomagus?” I asked,somewhat confused. “Where’s Cogidubnus?”
Gnaeus made a face as he explained, “He’soff hunting again. He came back to Petuar a few days ago becauseyou’ve been expected, but he makes himself scarce. I’ve only seenhim a couple of times.”
There was something in Gnaeus’ demeanor thattold me there was more going on beyond the obvious, but I did joke,“And Ivomagus is still alive? That must have been hard foryou.”
Again, he did not react as I expected, butall he said was, “A lot has happened, Alex. Now,” his tone changedinto one that I knew meant he was not going to continue on the samesubject, “go ahead and go back to
