I paused then, and from the darkness, Irecognized the voice of Frugi, the Sergeant of my Eighth Section.“How much water do we have left, Pilus Prior?”
“Enough for two days, three if weration it,” I answered, then before anyone could ask somethingelse, I took the opening he had offered by telling them, “which iswhy we’re headed for Britannia, because we should be there in twodays.”
Later, I realized that the sudden, heavysilence was because the men of both Centuries were too shocked, butwhile it was quiet, there was a sudden stir of movement on bothsides of the ship, although not from my rankers. The slaves who hadseemed to be disinterested were the first to react, most of themsitting bolt upright on their benches, and there was a suddenbuzzing of muted talk that, even if I could have heard it, wouldnot have understood. But, as Alex had predicted, the Parisii amongthe crew obviously understood our destination.
“Britannia?”
That started it, and while I could notreally blame the ranker who broke the silence, I still would havestriped him for it if I had recognized his voice.
Before it got out of hand, I raised myvoice, not quite to full volume. “Remember what I said, youbastards! If you act like a bunch of women and make enough noise,you won’t have to worry about getting to Britannia!”
I was intensely relieved that this worked,although it was no longer quiet, so it meant that the ranker whoasked the next question had to raise his voice. “What if we’reattacked by the first barbarians we run into, Pilus Prior? Whatthen?”
“We’ll fucking fight,” I snapped.“What do you think?” Then, I added, “But we’re not going to have toworry about that, because we have a plan.”
“What is it?”
I turned towards the bow, which was wherethe question originated.
“That’s something you don’t need toworry about, Capito,” recognizing the voice of my formerCornicen, despite the mumblingquality because of his broken jaw. “Just know that we have aplan.”
“How long do you think we’ll be stuckthere, Pilus Prior?”
For the span of a heartbeat, Iconsidered refusing to answer, mainly because I had no idea, but Iknew I had to offer them something, so I told him, “I can’t see thefuture, Rufus, but I can promise you this. The moment thenavarch tells us the repairs havebeen made, and we’ve restocked our supplies, we’ll be leaving onthe first tide after that.”
There was some muttering to this, and it wasnot happy, but that was all that happened.
“Now, get some rest, because you’regoing to be spelling the slaves so that we can get to ourdestination sooner. Nobody,” I hardened my tone, “has a problemwith that, do they?” Again, the response was not exactly what Iwould expect, but I deemed it acceptable. Turning to Saloninus, Ispoke quietly, “And that goes for all of us. Get some sleep. It’sbeen a busy day.”
I heard him chuckling at my understatementas I walked to the stern and exited the compartment.
If we thought the previous days had been anordeal, we were disabused of that notion by the next two, becausethey were brutally hot, with almost no wind. In simple terms, itforced us to make a decision about the water rationing much soonerthan we anticipated. As I recall, it was at end of first daylightwatch when Cador and Motius approached me. We were allowing the mento spend time on the upper deck, in numbers that were greater thanwe had previously, thinking that it would at least help theirspirits to be in the fresh air. I had appropriated the raised deckat the bow as the spot for the officers, and I was sitting with myback to the side with Saloninus on one side and Columella on theother, watching our men as they sat on the main deck in smallgroups, listlessly playing dice or talking.
Saloninus spotted the pair weaving aroundthe clusters of men first, nudging me as I pretended to be deep inthought but was actually dozing, and I looked up just as theyscrambled up the ladder, with Cador calling, “Centurions! We needto talk.”
They dropped down on their haunches withtheir backs to the main deck, but while they partially blocked myview, I could see that the dice games and conversations weretemporarily forgotten as all eyes were on us at the bow.
Cador wisely kept his voice low, barelyabove a whisper as he said simply, “As you can tell, it is going tobe hot today.” He paused, and realizing he was waiting for anacknowledgement, I simply nodded. “I know I do not have to tell youthat it means the slaves, and your men when it is their turn torow, will need more water than we anticipated.”
He did not need to go any farther.
“Which means,” I muttered, “we’regoing to need to start rationing right now.”
Cador nodded, but it was Motius who spokenext. “And, Centurion, I believe that this weather will hold for atleast the next day.”
“How do you know that?” Saloninusasked.
“When you make your living on the sea,you learn to read the weather,” Motius answered simply. “And thisfeels like it will hold until we reach Britannia. And,” he remindedus, “please remember I do not know exactly where we will be when wesight land.”
“So what do you suggest? Half rationnow?” I responded, accepting Motius’ prediction that this was whatwe would be facing the rest of this day and the next.
I cannot say I was altogether surprised whenthey both shook their heads, and it was Motius who replied flatly,“A quarter cup of water per man per watch…” He hesitated, and Iunderstood why when he continued, “…but only when
