Gnaeus was standing there, panting, althoughnot that hard if I am being honest, and he was the first person todo anything, suddenly spinning on his heel and walking over towhere Bronwen was standing next to Tincommius. This broke the spellas people, recovering their voices, began murmuring to each other,but I kept my eyes on Gnaeus, whose back was to me again, so I sawhow every Parisii arrayed along that side of the makeshift squarereacted, which was to recoil at his approach, some more violentlythan others. Still, if I had to summarize the collective demeanorof those people, it was of naked fear and, understandably, awe.Gnaeus’ head never turned to Tincommius, who, while he did react ina similar manner, was more restrained, although he still took astep backward from the square. There was one, and only one personwho did not shrink from Gnaeus’ approach, but while I could not seeBronwen, it was clear that it was her.
“What…what did we justsee?”
It was, on balance, a good question fromIvomagus, and perhaps if I had had time to think, I would haveoffered a different answer, but what came out was, “You just sawwhy Rome will never fall, Ivomagus. And,” I turned to look himdirectly in the eye, “I expect your brother to honor hisagreement…this time.”
This made Ivomagus flush, but Cogidubnusbehaved as if we were not there, his eyes fixed on Berdic, whosebody had finally toppled over onto the floor, although his face wasstill visible, only because his head was turned at an impossibleangle. Standing up, his eyes stayed on the dead man as he walked tothe edge of the table, irritably waving away the men who offered tohelp him down. For the moment, Gnaeus was occupied with Bronwen,while Ivomagus and I stood side by side, completely ignored.
“I have never seenanything like that,” Ivomagus’ voice seemed to have gone hoarse,and I noticed that his hand reached up and clutched something underhis tunic, which I assumed was some sort of talisman or sacredobject, while his gaze was on his brother.
“I don’t know if it willmake you feel better, but neither have I,” I confessed tohim.
With a wave of his hand, Cogidubnus sent thecrowd at this corner of the square away, saying something thatbecame clear by the manner in which some of the men reacted,because they dragged the tables that met at the corner of thesquare apart to allow the king to walk over to Berdic. When heknelt down, he turned slightly so that I could see his face, buthis expression was impossible for me to interpret, yet somehow, Ihad the sense that he was not displeased. Or, perhaps I am nowcoloring that memory now with all that I learned later. Whateverthe case, after a few heartbeats, Cogidubnus rose and walked a paceor two in Gnaeus’ direction, who was obviously warned, because heturned about to face the king. My heart seemed to skip, because Iwas concerned that the face Gnaeus would present to Cogidubnus wasthe one that I had caught just a glimpse of perhaps a hundredheartbeats earlier, although the blood streaming down his leftcheek partially obscured it. I blew out a breath in relief when thedemeanor he presented to the Parisii king was nothing like what ithad been, although he did appear cautious.
“I should go,” Ivomagusmuttered, and he hopped down and hurried to his brothers’ side,with a haste that I found somewhat unusual.
I did not know much about Bronwen at thatmoment, but I did know she could have acted as interpreter, yet forwhatever reason, Ivomagus did not seem to want this to happen. Lefton my own, I contented myself with scanning the crowd of people,all of them having drifted away from the remnants of the square,but I had to stifle a smile as I watched men who were clearlymembers of the warrior class as they kept casting nervous glancesat the giant Roman who had just destroyed one of their mostformidable warriors with an almost contemptuous ease.
My next memory was staring down intoBerdic’s eyes as he seemingly looked up at me, but it only took aheartbeat for me to see that those eyes were no longer seeinganything. Unless, of course, there is an afterlife, but thatthought did not cross my mind until later. In that moment, I wasmore concerned with trying to understand how I had gone fromremembering Berdic punching me in the face to looking down on him,with the top of his skull crushed and his neck obviously broken,wearing an expression that I have seen on more men than I caneasily count, both on the faces of vanquished foes and fallencomrades. For some reason, I found the pool of blood that wasspreading from his skull extremely interesting, although it alsoreminded me of the warm liquid running down my left cheek. Itouched it, wincing as I felt the cut that I suppose must have beencaused by one of Berdic’s punches, and I knew that it would requirestitches. This was the moment I remembered what I had seen justbefore…whatever happened, and I turned to see that Bronwen wasstill standing there, wedged in between the men who, just a fewheartbeats earlier, had been baying for blood but were nowcompletely silent or murmuring, seemingly to themselves. Perhaps ifI had been in a better frame of mind, I would have found the waythey scurried off as I crossed the square amusing, althoughTincommius did
