“What is it?” I asked.
Ivomagus shook his head, and to my eyes,appeared embarrassed, which was explained when he muttered, “Thedog doesn’t believe I am who I say I am. He thinks I’m an imposter,or,” he added more ominously, “a traitor who is attempting to lullhim into allowing us to land. And,” he said accusingly to me, “Ican see why he would think as much, given your men are armed andready to fight!”
Suddenly, my decision did not appearquite as wise, but I was not going to dwell on it or allow theother three to do so, and I asked bluntly, “So, how do we solve it?And,” the thought suddenly occurred to me, “are you who you say you are,Ivomagus?”
“I am!” he shot back angrily, but thenhe softened somewhat as he added, “but this man has not seen mesince I was barely a teenager. And,” he glanced down at himself, “Idid not look anything like this.”
When put that way, I could see why the manwas reluctant, but that did not solve the problem. I knew that wecould land if we needed to, and I also was certain that the men ofboth Centuries would love to have an outlet for their anger andfrustration at their plight. Of course, that would completelydestroy any chance of being resupplied, let alone repairing themast.
“How far away is your brother?” Iasked.
“If he’s at Danum, which is ourcapital city, he could be here by nightfall,” he answered. “But mybrother does not like to stay in one place very long.”
I did not want to ask, but I could not stopmyself, “And if he’s at the point farthest away from here?”
“Three days,” he answered grimly.“That’s if he’s willing to kill his horses. And,” he added withsome heavy humor, “my brother loveshis horses.”
And, I thought suddenly, how much doesyour brother love you? Ittook an effort on my part not to groan aloud as my mind racedforward with this thought. One thing we have learned from thevarious barbarian tribes that Rome deals with is that therelationships and connections with members of the nobility couldcompete with our patricians when it comes to complexity and doubledealing. One only had to look at Arminius and his brother; theyhated each other, and here was the brother of this king of theParisii, and it had never occurred to me to at least try and findout whether Ivomagus would be welcomed back as a long-lost brotheror viewed as a potential usurper.
Keeping those thoughts from being read on myface, I said to the Parisii, “You need to ask him to send amessenger to your brother and ask him to come as quickly aspossible.” Suddenly, Ivomagus looked hesitant and a bit concerned,which made my stomach flip over in knots; was my suspicion about tobe confirmed? “What is it?” I demanded. “Why are you hesitatinglike that?”
For a moment, I thought he would not answer,but time was passing, and our situation was not getting any betterby delay.
“It is just that,” he spokereluctantly, “the last words my brother and I had werenot…happy.”
“Not happy?” I snapped. “What the fuckdoes that mean, Ivomagus?”
“It is just that the raid that I wasleading when I was captured,” he said unhappily, “he had forbiddenme to go on.”
“Pluto’s balls,” it was all I could do to keep fromroaring in frustration and a fair amount of anger; my oneconsolation was that Cador and Motius were clearly of the samemind, although their oaths were in their tongue and not mine. Westood there in silence for a span of heartbeats, then I decided,“Well, hopefully, he’s forgiven you enough to come running, becauseif he doesn’t, my men are going to want to tear you to pieces. Theywon’t,” I assured him, but his look of relief was short-lived, “butonly because I’ll kill you myself before they can. Now,” I thrustmy arm in the general direction of the dock, “for all of our sakes,Ivomagus, for my men and for yours, convince this lord to send foryour brother.”
Ivomagus obeyed readily enough, but beforehe called back to the lord, he asked, “What if he does not come,Centurion?”
“Then we’re all fucked,” I told himcalmly.
Chapter Three
Since I am dictating this after the event,obviously we survived, because, thank the gods, it turned out thatCogidubnus loved his brother. And, even better for us, he wasactually even closer to the village than the capital Danum whenIvomagus made his request, because he had been alerted in the nightby a pair of those eyes that we did not see watching us who rodeimmediately for the king, who in turn was actually in his palace atthe capital despite Ivomagus’ fears. This was certainly good news;what was not as good was that, when he came, he brought all fivehundred men of his personal bodyguard, although two hundred of themwere spearmen who arrived well after the king. We spent this timeanchored, having backed out into the river to put us out of missilerange, and while I allowed the men to relax, I kept them in theirarmor. The civilian crowd gradually dispersed, while the members ofthe local lord’s bodyguard remained, but were lounging around muchlike my men. It was tense for a bit, but then the boredom set in,and I spent the time with my officers talking over how we shouldrespond depending on what the Parisii did.
“We’re only going to defend ourselves,and that’s only if there’s a real threat, and I mean areal threat,” I told them sternly.“If someone throws cac at
