Ivomagus shook his head.
“You do not understand, Centurion.This is not the Parisii way. Nor,” he added, “is it the way of anyof the tribes here.” He glanced over at Berdic, then back to me.“Berdic wants a chance to redeem his honor by combat.”
Thank the gods, I thought, since this wasexactly what I wanted, and I tried not to smile as I indicatedmyself and said, “I’m already dressed for it. Tell him he can takeall the time he needs.”
This was when Ivomagus suddenly threw mycarefully laid plans into the latrine, because he shook hishead.
“No, Centurion,” he said firmly. “Thiswill not be decided with weapons. This,” he indicated the hall, “isa feast. One,” he added disapprovingly, “in your honor. But at afeast, no weapons are allowed, as I told you before, despite thefact that my brother chose to overlook you wearing a sword intothis hall.”
“So?” I waved at him with my cup,deliberately slopping the contents out of it because I wasdetermined to keep up the fiction that I was drunk as long as Icould. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Ivomagus’ tone turnedcold, “that you and Berdic will face each other withoutweapons.”
I will not lie and say that I wasunworried; certainly, I have fought with my fists before, but whenone is a paid man like I am, entering the Centurionate means thatyou do not have the same experience as a man from the ranks in thekind of combat that is a feature of life under the standard. Oh,there was the brawl at The Dancing Faun, but this was altogether adifferent thing, because while my father and I wanted to make anexample of the officers of the15th, we never intended tokill them, and I was under no illusion that Berdic would do hisbest to kill me.
Outwardly, I simply shrugged indifferently,but Ivomagus addressed Alex next, informing him, “The King hasordered that Centurion Pullus will not be allowed to leave Parisiilands until Berdic has the opportunity to avenge this insult. And,”he added, unnecessarily in my opinion since I knew exactly what Ihad done, “for this assault on his person.”
“I’m sitting right here,” I spoke up,slurring my words, and I saw a flicker cross Alex’s face thatwarned me he was catching up, rapidly. “You don’t have to tellhim.”
“I am informing him because he was theman who brought your ransom,” Ivomagus explained patiently. “And Iknow that you respect him.” This was certainly true, but I couldnot discern why Ivomagus was speaking in this manner, until hecontinued, “The King has ordered that, if Centurion Pullusapologizes for this offense, Berdic will accept it. Perhaps you canconvince him to do this. Because,” he looked down at me with somedisdain, and I saw in his eyes that I had completely fooled himinto thinking I was inebriated, “he certainly will not listen tome, not in his current state.”
The silence that was hanging over the hallwas becoming oppressive, although it did mean I did not have toraise my voice when I addressed Alex, “You know better than to eventry, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered immediately,sighing as he did so. “I do.” Addressing Ivomagus, Alex said, “Asyou can see, the Centurion has no intention of apologizing, so yourman can try and extract one from him. But,” he shrugged, and I sawthe slight twitch of his mouth as he added, “you should warn himthat he won’t be facing a woman.”
This angered Ivomagus, it was plain to see,and when he relayed the words Alex had spoken, the silence in thehall was replaced by a guttural growl, and whatever good feelingsthese Parisii held for me were nowhere in evidence now.
“Very well,” Ivomagus finallyresponded after a brief exchange with Cogidubnus. “We will make thepreparations. You,” he turned to look directly at me, “need toremove your armor, Centurion. And,” he warned, “you will besearched before you face Berdic.” He held a hand up to cut off myprotest. “As will he.”
“All right,” I nodded, “I’ll get outof this.”
When I stood, I made a show of staggering,but it was so clumsily done, I heard Alex snicker behind me; thanksto Fortuna, Ivomagus and essentially everyone else present hadturned their attention to making the preparations.
I started to fumble with my harness, butAlex stepped in, speaking loudly enough to be heard, “You’re toodrunk to do that, let me.” As he undid the buckles, he whispered,“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Instead of replying verbally, I just gavehim a nod, and very quickly, we became absorbed in shedding myarmor, so that when I heard the disturbance as people not onlyresumed talking, but were doing something, I turned around toreceive a surprise.
“What are they doing?” I askedIvomagus.
He gave me a withering look, but he answeredreadily enough, “They are preparing the square, Centurion.”
I honestly cannot say why I was surprised;in the moment, I did wonder if perhaps my sip of mead had addled mywits more than I thought, but the sight of tables being draggedoutside to clear the middle of the hall caught me off guard.
“We’re not going to fight outside?” Iasked, and Ivomagus shook his head.
“No, Centurion. You and Berdic willface each other here and now, and only when one of you yields willmy brother declare a halt.”
I was certain in the moment that Ivomagusunderstood that neither Berdic nor I would be submitting as long aswe had a breath in our body; later events confirmed this beyond anydoubt. The mood in the hall, which had been wildly swinging fromthe sentimentality from the exchange between Mandubracius and me,to the shock, then anger when I had slapped Berdic, was now one ofeager anticipation, and if I closed my eyes, I could have been atthe little arena in Ubiorum waiting to watch a gladiatorialcontest. Berdic had vanished, but Bronwen was still there, tryingto make herself as inconspicuous as she could if I was any judge,standing against the far wall with the other women. The men whowere not involved in preparing the area had already claimed thebest vantage points, and I knew that none of the
