“Lead them aboard,” I ordered Gemellusas I stepped to the side to let the men pass, ignoring thesidelong, questioning looks on their faces as they tramped up theplank.
When I did step out of the way, it wasto the side where the shack was, which was still standing; the planhad been to bring it down as the last task before we began the workof actually making the ship ready for repair. This was by design,and while it was a risk to do so, I was counting on the distractionof my men boarding the Brizoby whoever was watching that they would not notice me moving,slowly but steadily, towards the shack. It was when Saloninusreached the spot I had occupied that I stepped quickly into theshack, pulling the ill-fitting door shut, then using a crackbetween the planks forming the wall to watch. There was not enoughroom for all of my men on deck, of course, but while Gemellusremained abovedeck, it was so that his standard was visible, whileMus led most of the Century down below. Saloninus and the Secondwould stay above, although it was crowded, but not only were theynot going far, it was the appearance that mattered most. Now thatthe townspeople saw we had no intention of falling upon them, thosewho had reached their homes came out to join those who had not, andI could see through the crack that they were now more or lessmotionless, standing in both the closest street paralleling theriver and the one we had used that ran from the dock.
On the downriver side of the crowd, adisturbance of some sort developed, and I heard shouts, universallymasculine, although it was the commanding note in what I wascertain were orders, which I assumed were meant for thetownspeople, telling them to move out of the way. This new noiseprompted me to move to the opposite side of the shed to use asimilar crack to watch, just in time to see that they obeyed, and apathway opened up. Leading the way was the warrior who was my size,and he was carrying a spear and shield, although he also had along gladius at his waist, asdid most of his comrades as they came striding up the street fromwhere they had been lounging about and debauching. The shack wasnot large, and I crossed it in two strides to see that the plankwas being lifted back up. This was the most important thing; I didnot believe that this warrior and his companions would be foolhardyenough to try and rush up the plank where my men were armed andwaiting, but neither did I want to risk being wrong. Since theshack had no floor, I could feel the vibration as the black-beardedwarrior and his comrades broke into a run, the quality of the soundimmediately changing when they reached the edge of the dock, theclattering of their boots making it impossible to hear anythingelse, but to my eyes, it appeared as if the warrior had everyintention of trying to leap aboard, plank or no plank. I could nothear Saloninus give the command, but I could see the arms of hismen, each of them holding a pilum, sweep back in preparation for him to givethe command to release. The Parisii had never encountered theRoman pila before, but theydid not need to in order to understand that, at this range and withthe height advantage provided by the ship, they would beslaughtered.
Despite being confident that Saloninuswould not do anything rash, I was unsure about the black-beardedwarrior, so when he bellowed something that brought the other mencrashing to a stop, I could not hold back a sigh of relief. Oh, thewarrior was clearly not happy about it, and there was a fair amountof pointing, fist shaking, and other gestures that registered thelevel of Parisii outrage, but what was important was that, when thecrew used the two long poles to push the ship from the dock to getout into the current, they made no attempt to stop them. Theyentered my blind spot, but in a moment, I heard the splashing soundof oars being thrust out and into the water. It was true we did nothave a full crew any longer now that half the Parisii had beenreleased, but this was not crucial, at least when movingdownstream. Coming back might be more challenging, but I trustedMotius to be able to handle it, including having my men take a spoton the oars. Now my role was to simply wait and not make any noise.Outside the shack, the tumult continued, but using the cracks, Iwas pleased to see that the warriors who had been in town werealready running in the general direction of the large enclosurewhere those with horses kept them. It was a gamble, certainly, butI did not think it was a big one. Essentially, we were counting ona number of related things taking place. I could not see if thewarrior Ivomagus had pointed out to me was still standing therewith his mount, which was a bit worrying, but I decided to believethat he had done what we wanted him to do, leap on his horse and gogalloping up the road to the hall where Ivomagus was presumablypreparing for the feast, while the warriors who had been nearbywere hurrying to make ready to move downstream in order to keep aneye on what, to their eyes, was a trireme filled with armed Romans heading topoints unknown.
Now, I knew that if Ivomagus had beenpresent, he would in all likelihood caution against rushingheadlong after the ship as he attempted to discern the real purposebehind this action of ours. However, I was also counting on, if notIvomagus outright panicking when the warrior rushed into the hallto inform him of this development, at least being alarmed enoughthat he did not take a pause to think matters through. One questionthat would be answered soon was whether or not the black-beardedwarrior, who I was certain was the nominal leader of this group ofwarriors who were
