Horses were neighing, but this was notunusual given the circumstances, as men were picking their mountout of the bunch, then leading them to wherever their saddle andtack were stored. It was getting stuffy in the shed, although myeyes had adjusted the scant amount of light coming through thecracks, and I had just resumed my spot on the crate when, over theunderlying noise, I heard the sound of galloping hooves. I leapt upand was just in time to see Ivomagus come into view, along with theman he had pointed out, who had done exactly as we hoped. I alsosaw that the black-bearded warrior was still there, although he hadmounted what I presumed was his own horse. Even if I had been ableto understand their tongue, they were too far away to hear clearly,so I was consigned to trying to interpret gestures, of which therewere many, particularly on the part of the warrior. Finally,Ivomagus brought a hand down in a chopping gesture, and since thewarrior was facing me, it was easy to see the anger in his face,and to my eyes it appeared as if he was seriously consideringpressing the matter. Then, he gave an abrupt nod; most importantly,he wrenched the head of his animal around, making me curse under mybreath, but what was important was the direction he was nowheading, downriver. He did wait for Ivomagus, who had already beenfacing in that direction, to move past him at a quick trot, thendropped in behind him, followed by a double line of mountedwarriors. They had taken the bait, but I fought the urge tocongratulate myself; there was still so much that could go wrong.When the rap on the door came, I almost jumped out of my skin, butwhen the door opened, it was Alex.
“Why haven’t you gotten out of yourarmor yet?” he demanded, which was a good question that I onlyanswered with a shrug.
With his help, I shrugged out ofthe hamata, then putthe baltea back on so that Iwas now attired like the other men who would beparticipating.
Thinking of them prompted me to ask, “Didthey come with you from camp?”
“Yes.” He nodded as he foldedthe hamata. “They’re on thedock now.”
I emerged with him to see that Acisculus wasstanding with what would be our raiding party. Most importantly, Isaw that the men from the camp had brought with them the singlesledge and the makeshift harness that we would be using.
“All right, let’s load up the boat,” Iordered, and we began the next phase of this plan.
As plans went, it was relativelystraightforward, but what made it complicated were all the thingsthat had to happen, and while the first part, the diversion, hadworked well, we were far from over, and there was still so muchthat could go wrong. I was encouraged to see that the collectiveattention of the townspeople was still on watching the column ofParisii warriors as they followed the ship, the dust cloud hangingin the air above the downriver wall still in sight but movingsteadily away from Petuar, but I knew it could not last forever. Ihad entrusted Motius with the task of informing Acisculus, when heand Cador came to prepare the Brizo, which of the Parisii boats that had beenmoved to the upstream end of the dock would be suitable for ourpurposes, which was where Acisculus led the working party. It wasthe largest boat by far, but it still looked more like a canoebecause of the equally tapered ends, although it was broader, andthere was a mast about ten feet high, with a leather sail that wasnaturally furled against the crosspiece at the top of the mast.What concerned me was the shallow keel, and when the men manhandledthe sledge, which was nothing more than a wooden platform with twolong wooden runners that were faced with iron nailed in place, tomy eye, the boat dropped dangerously low into the water, and thatwas before we got in. Somehow, though, as the men climbed in one byone, the boat did not sink much more, although I had yet to climbin, and I was the heaviest by far. Acisculus was the next to last,and just as he was stepping carefully down into the boat, there wasa shout from behind us. I cannot say I was surprised to see fourwarriors shoving their way through the crowd; if I was Ivomagus, Iwould have ordered some men to stay behind, but it did not keep mefrom cursing bitterly.
Turning to Alex, I said, “Get back to thecamp, now.”
“What about them?” His hands were fullwith my armor, so he used his head to indicate the approachingwarriors, but I pointed to the men of Acisculus’ original workingparty, who, as I had ordered, arrayed themselves across the dock.“They’re not going to fightthose bastards, are they?” he gasped, and while I did notwant to spare the time, I assured him, “No, they’re just there tostall them.”
Then I stepped into the boat, and twoof the men on the dock side, using their paddles, shoved us awayfrom the dock, just as the warriors reached the men of the workingparty, none of whom were wearing their gladii. I had warned them that, barring being infear for their lives, they were not to put up a fight, but I alsonoticed that they were each holding a tool,
