Naturally, I agreed, and within perhaps ahundred heartbeats, we knew that he had relayed the good news bythe dull roar that emanated from belowdecks.
When I returned to my cabin, Alex waswaiting, and I asked him, “Did you get anything to eat?”
He shook his head, saying only, “I thoughtthe men should eat first.”
“Well,” I reached into the sack that Ihad asked the Parisii to provide that was stuffed with the leftovermeat and half a loaf of their oat bread and tossed it to him, “thisshould help.”
He will never admit it, but I know that if Ihad managed to somehow summon Algaia to this spot and presented himwith a choice, he would have stepped over his woman to wolf downthe contents of that sack. Oh, he would have hesitated, but hewould have done it anyway. Women certainly satisfy a hunger, exceptthis time, that hunger was nothing compared to the sound of hisstomach complaining, which I could hear across the cabin.
Just before we set out before dawn thenext morning, a pair of Parisii appeared on the dock, and throughIvomagus, we learned that they were men who had experience on thisriver, and Cador and Motius welcomed them aboard. Ivomagus stayedwith us as well, telling me that his brother was leaving for Petuarat the same time, and naturally, he would arrive well before wedid. I had actually managed almost two full watches of sleep, and Ifelt better than I had in some time, although I was still unhappybecause, while my men were in better shape than they had been, theywere still hungry. We actually held a private meeting, becauseIvomagus had offered to command the women of the village bake morebread, but it would not be ready until sometime after dawn, so wemade the decision that it would be better to let the men go hungryfor another couple of watches than only partially quelling theirhunger now. Naturally, none of the officers uttered a word to themen, who I had allowed to return to wearing just their tunics, withthe exception of a section from each Century, who were on deck,arrayed on both sides, and we pulled away from the dock. For mypart, I had to constantly remind myself that this was no time tocelebrate; any number of things could go wrong, but although I didnot discount the possibility that Cogidubnus might do exactly whathe had threatened, and be waiting with several hundred warriors ormore in Petuar to seize his captive tribesmen and slaughter us inthe process, I honestly did not believe he would. Idid have concerns, not about thetrustworthiness of the Parisii, but because, from what I had seenat this first village, I held doubts that even in what Ivomagustold me was a town of five thousand people, that Petuar had theability to allow us to replace the mast and the buckled timbersbelow the waterline that, when I was taken below to examine it,looked like nothing more than a square of pitched canvas had beennailed in place around the hole. Motius had informed me that, whileit was leaking, it was not a problem provided that we had mencontinually bailing.
“But if we have another storm anywherenear the power of the first one,” he had informed me grimly, “wewill be in big trouble.”
Those were the two main repairs that had tobe made that were beyond the capability of the crew, although itwas only because they lacked the materials and the means to drag aship this size up onto land to effect repairs. Food was mostcritical in the short term, but I was unwilling to risk the livesof my men crossing the channel to Gaul, even if, as we haddiscussed, we made landfall in a Gallic port then marched back toUbiorum, rather than sail back around the coast to the Rhenus. Oncewe were underway, our progress was maddeningly slow because we wererowing upstream, and we knew it was not because of the Parisii, whowere every bit as anxious and eager to finish what should be thelast watches of their time as slaves. Both Motius and Cador hadresigned themselves to losing the Parisii, but they alternated intheir attempts to get me to change my mind about agreeing torelease of the rest of the crew. Finally, I had had enough, and Ihad to give them a display of my temper before they desisted.Again, I was not unsympathetic, because I understood it would bevery costly to purchase another crew, but my reasoning was, andstill is that, given how the Parisii reacted to the idea of theother men remaining in their status as slaves, I was savingMotius’, Cador’s, and the gods only know how many other lives. And,honestly, they should have anticipated that there would be a bondbetween these men who had endured what is a miserable existence,and in truth, ever since that time, I have had more reservationsabout the wisdom of using slave crews than I ever had in my lifeprior to that moment.
Our passage did not go unnoticed; as theriver made a long sweeping bend that put the village out of view,we passed small farms on our left, while the right side of theriver, Brigantes land, seemed mostly untouched. It was the samekind of marshland for the first couple of miles, but then thevegetation began changing, with small clumps of forest, some ofwhich came all the way to the riverbank. It was nowhere near asthickly forested as Germania, but it was Motius who called myattention to something that, as we would learn fairly soon, wouldpose yet another challenge.
“Centurion, have you noticed anythingabout the difference between the Parisii lands and theBrigantes?”
As I walked over to where Motius wasstanding on the left side of the ship—Cador was doing the steering,which made sense given his experience with navigating on theriver—I considered Motius’ question.
“Evidently not,” I answered as Ijoined him, leaning on the railing.
The truth was that I had not reallybeen paying as much
