Finally, he took one last careful look alongthe coast, which to my eye appeared just as flat as the northernplains of Germania, and I do not know if in this last look he sawsomething that drove his decision, or he simply decided to throwthe dice and hope they came up Venus and not Dogs.
“We head north,” he said at last. “Ihave never seen our lands from this point of view before, butit feels as if we are inParisii lands, and the Abis is north of us.”
Motius leaned against the steeringoar, the bow of the boat nudged about until the coast was on ourleft side, then the Hortatorbegan beating out a rhythm to get us moving again. It couldonly be charitably called a normal rhythm, but we were at least inmotion, and the faint breeze finally began to sharpen. It did helpa bit, but with every stroke, the tension increased, as one of theremaining crewmen actually climbed up onto the prow, the highestpoint of the ship without the mast, clinging to it while searchingfor the sign we were near the Abis. Cador allowed Ivomagus toremain above but instead he chose to go be with his comrades below,leaving me and the two seamen standing on the rear upperdeck.
I know how odd it sounds, but this was thefirst moment that a thought struck me, and I turned to Motius toask, “Did you ask Ivomagus if his people will have what we need toreplace a mast?”
To my intense relief, Motius nodded.
“Yes, he said that while this size andstyle of ship is unknown to their shipbuilders, they can replace amast.”
It was only later that we realized it hadnever occurred to us to think about whether a member of the Parisiiroyalty would know a fucking thing about ships.
There was perhaps a third of a watch ofdaylight left when we reached the river’s mouth, but it was notuntil after dark we were far enough upstream for the water from theriver to not be mixed with seawater, but before we began fillingthe barrels, I asked Ivomagus, “How far upstream is the nearestvillage belonging to your people?”
“Perhaps two more miles. Why?” heasked curiously.
“How many people live there?” Hefrowned, then finally said, “No more than two hundred people,Centurion. But why do you ask?”
“Because I don’t want my men gettingsick from drinking water that’s filled with yourcac,” I answered, and for somereason, this seemed to offend him. Ignoring this, I explained, “Twohundred people isn’t very many, it’s true, but my men are alreadyweakened as it is. Still,” I gazed across the river in the fallinglight; it was a bit more than a mile wide at this point, “I don’tthink we need to row upstream.” Pointing to the opposite bank toMotius, I said, “Let’s get closer to that bank before we draw ourwater.”
The delay was not long; if you hadasked any of us, and I include myself, we would have sworn on theblack stone that it took at least a third of a watch to cross thatriver. It was true that the current was strong this close to thesea, but I doubt it took half the amount of time we thought. Themen were almost impossible to control, behaving much like livestockthat have been deprived of water who smell it ahead and gostampeding away, and it finally took me retrieving myvitus, which I had not used once onthe voyage, before I convinced the men that we were still RomanLegionaries. Regardless, it was a noisy affair, and now thatIvomagus was back on the upper deck, I noticed how he kept glancingnervously at the northern bank about two hundred paces away, whichI felt was sufficient to put us out of range of anyarchers.
“We haven’t seen anyone on that sideof the river,” I offered, but he gave me a scornfully amusedlook.
“Centurion, both my people and theBrigantes have been aware of our presence since before we enteredthe river’s mouth.”
He said this with such confidence that itirked me, if only because I had made sure to have several of my menwho were abovedeck to keep their eye on both sides of the river andthey had reported no sign of movement.
“How can you be socertain?”
“My people always have someone alongthe river entrance, watching the northern bank for the Brigantes toattempt a raid. And,” he added dryly, “I imagine that the Brigantesdo the same to us.”
When explained like that, I felt somewhatfoolish, so I returned my attention to the process of droppingwater barrels attached by a rope over the side, while men werebeing allowed to bring their cups from their mess kits to dip inand drink it. Which, of course, meant that the barrels were beingemptied almost as fast as we could fill them. The only men notallowed on deck were the slaves, and it was at the suggestion ofIvomagus, which I found surprising.
“I know most of these men well,Centurion,” he assured me. “Even before we were captured, I atleast knew them by face or name and some I knew well. And,” hepointed to the opposite side of the river, where his homeland wastantalizingly close, “if we give them a chance to do so, the sightof our home would be too much, and they would be willing to throwthemselves into the river and try to swim across.”
“But the current is too strong, andit’s too wide,” I pointed out.
“Centurion,” he turned to look me inthe eye, “imagine if you were in our position. We have been slaves,rowing this ship for almost three years now. And, whileVellocatus,” I do not know why, but I was surprised that Ivomagusknew his name, “was not cruel, whenever our feet touched dry land,as seldom as it was,
