“Pluto’s cock,” he gasped. “That’s Gaius!”
He was correct, and once he was fully up onthe deck, with Marcellus still grasping him firmly by one arm, heapparently decided that further struggle was useless, but whenMarcellus began guiding him, it was away from us, towards thestern.
That was when I recalled, “He never sawGaius with us. He doesn’t know that he’s with us.”
Cupping my hands, I called to Marcellus, whoturned with a puzzled expression, but when I beckoned to him, heturned about and, still holding Gaius’ arm, came back in ourdirection. Demeter, having seen the disturbance, was naturallyinterested, and he handed the steering oar to another crewman, thenwent scrambling down the ladder to the main deck to followMarcellus and his captive. Who, to my eyes, looked to be bothscared out of his wits, but also mulishly determined, his chinstuck out in a gesture that seemed familiar to me, though I did notplace it until later, when I recall my mother accusing me of doingthat very thing when I had my mind set on something that she wasset on talking me out of for some reason.
“I would ask,” Marcellus said as thepair approached, “but I can tell by the way you’re looking at himthat you know him.”
“Oh,” Alex said angrily, “we know him.He’s my brother.”
“Half-brother,” Gaius spoke for thefirst time, and while it was said with the same kind of anger Alexhad displayed, I was certain there was more to it, which heconfirmed by reminding his older sibling, “That’s what you say,anyway. I’m just your half-brother.”
I glanced over at Alex, and it was clearthat this had wounded him, but instead of lashing out, he sighedand answered, “You’re right, Gaius. But we’ll talk about thatlater. Besides,” he said sternly, “the half of me that is yourbrother wants to know what you were thinking.”
“And why are you here?” Septimusasked.
To me, the answer was obvious, so beforeGaius could speak for himself, I did it for him, “He’s a Pullus,his family is in trouble, and he wants to help.”
“That is all very nice,” a new voicecut in, and we all turned to see Demeter had reached our group, andhe was even angrier than Alex, understandably so in my view, “but Iwant to know how you got aboard this ship, past my men on watch!Because,” he growled, “when I find out who was standing watch,they’re going to wish they had never been born! Now,” he poked afinger in Gaius’ face, “you tell me everything!”
Before he said anything, Gaius glanced overat us, but surprisingly, he looked at me as if he was asking mypermission, so I nodded.
“I waited until it was dark andeveryone went to sleep in the villa,” he began, looking only at thedeck. “Then I went to the docks, and I watched your ship for a longtime. I saw that the man who was standing there walked from theback to the front, and he would stay there for a bit, then turnaround and come back. So,” he shrugged, “I waited until he hadpassed the plank onto the ship as he was going back to the front,and I came onboard. And,” Marcellus allowed him to twist his bodyto point to the ladder down to the lower deck, “I climbed downthat.”
Demeter’s expression was still one of anger,but he growled, “First thing, boy, is that the front is called thebow, and the rear is called the stern.” Then, he asked Marcellus,“Where did you find him?”
“I caught him coming out of that stackof crates,” Marcellus answered, but then he added ruefully, “ormaybe I should say he caught me, because he scared thecac out of me popping up like hedid.”
Seeing everyone looking at him, Gaiusapparently felt the need to explain, “I moved some of the cratesand made a space between them where I could hide. But,” his faceturned red, “I had to piss.”
Most of us chuckled at this, and whileDemeter did not, I saw that he was not quite as angry as before, soI decided to take matters into my own hands.
“Marcellus, take the prisoner,” I wasusing the tone I would have used with a ranker, and I ignoredGaius’ look of alarm at the characterization of his status, “to gotake a piss over the side.” Marcellus seemed to grasp what I wasdoing, because to my surprise, he answered crisply, “I understandand will obey, Centurion.”
Once I saw that Marcellus understood that Iwanted Gaius out of earshot, I addressed Demeter, intending toforestall what I was certain would come up by reminding him, “As Irecall, we paid for eight passengers, and only seven of us cameaboard.”
It was easy to see that he did not like it,but he agreed, “You are correct, Centurion. But,” he pointed atGaius, “I still want to know exactly how he got aboard my ship, andwhen.”
“Why is when he did it important?”Septimus asked, and I knew the answer before it came out ofDemeter’s mouth.
“Because when I find out which one ofmy crew was standing watch, I am going to flay him,” hesnapped.
In the Legions, Centurions and Optiosthreaten their men with being flayed all the time, but it is neversomething we would ever do, at least not taking all of a man’s skinoff of him. However, there was something about Demeter that led meto believe that this threat may actually have been literal innature.
More to steer the conversation away fromthis topic, I broached what, in my mind, was the most importantissue, asking the others, “And what do we do with Gaius?”
“Stop at the first port and put himashore with just enough money to get home and nowhere else,” Alexanswered immediately, and completely unsurprisingly.
When I glanced over at Septimus, however, hewas not nodding his head in affirmation, prompting me to ask, “Youdon’t seem to think
