I was a bit surprised that Ivomagus did nothesitate or ask me to rephrase it, which I found curious. However,in all of Ivomagus’ gibberish, I heard a word that I thought was aname, which seemed to be confirmed because immediately afterIvomagus said it, I saw Cogidubnus’ eyes flick to a corner of thehall. It was a corner that I had seemingly barely glanced at when Icame in, but had seen the black-bearded warrior standing, gloweringat me. So, his name is Berdic, I thought, tucking this away forlater.
When Ivomagus turned back to me, I took itas a sign to continue, “I did not do this lightly, nor was it myintention to rupture the peace between your people and theBrigantes. I,” I shrugged, “just want to get my men home safely, sothat they can see their families again, and I thought this was thefastest way to do so once I learned that the only timber in Parisiiland that was suitable was so far away.”
I fell silent, watching the king’s face asIvomagus translated my words, but when he was through, Cogidubnussaid something that seemed to catch his brother by surprise,although it was a shade compared to my own reaction.
“My brother wants to know why, whenyou were confronted by the Brigantes, that you did not just killall of them?”
Is this a trap? This was the thought thatwent through my mind, yet I also sensed that I needed to nothesitate, though I cannot say why.
“Because,” I answered quickly, “I didnot want to offend the king by killing enemies that he would haverather slain himself.”
I saw that I had given the rightanswer in Ivomagus’ eyes, and his mustache twitched before heturned and relayed my words. And, I confess that at first I thoughtwe were both wrong, because Cogidubnus did not react immediately,choosing instead to just stare at me with those hard, unyieldingeyes. Suddenly, without any warning, once again, he began bellowingwith laughter, long, loud, and hard, until he was bent over at thewaist, while all the men in the room followed suit, although I amcertain this was through sycophancy and not out of any thought itwas truly humorous. More importantly, he walked over to the table,moving around it to stand next to me while I came to my feet. Hereached out to clasp my shoulder, and even with myhamata, I could feel the power therein his grip, but what mattered was what he said, which Ivomagustranslated.
“My brother says,” Ivomagus wassmiling, “he knew he had made the right decision when he decided tospare you and your men.”
I cannot say I cared for it being put thatway, but I pretended to enjoy the humor; if my laughter rangfalsely, he did not seem to notice. He turned and said something toIvomagus.
“My brother says that he would like tocome and observe you and your men as you make your repairs,”Ivomagus relayed.
And, even if I had been disposed todisagree, I knew it was not a request, so I answered, “We would behonored.”
With that, I was offered a horse to returnto the camp, and I was even allowed to do so on my own. I enteredthe camp to find that Saloninus was in the process of assemblingthe men to come and search for me, and I was happy to tell themthere was no need.
“We’re starting in the morning,” Iinformed the officers, though I did it outside my tent. “Andhopefully, we’ll be leaving this fucking island in two or threedays.”
That, as it turned out, was accurate; atleast, it was accurate for almost everyone.
Being honest, the actual repairs tothe trireme were somewhatanticlimactic. Despite our fears that the cog or the ratchet wouldfail because the iron was not tempered properly, it workedperfectly. Not that seeing a large ship being lifted out of thewater, then hauled over to the spot on the riverbank next to thedock by an even dozen ropes, each of them being pulled by acombination of oxen and a half-dozen of my men, before beinglowered gently to the ground is not impressive, and Cogidubnuswatched with what I would describe as rapt attention. He was notalone; I believe that the entire town had turned out to watch, andin fact, we had to ask the king to use some of his men to move thecrowd back and safely out of the way. I did catch a glimpse of thecopper-haired girl, and our eyes met, but then Cogidubnus asked aquestion, which Ivomagus translated, and I had to turn my attentionaway. Aiding our cause was that, to our relief, the planks that hadto be replaced in the hull were those that Motius and Cador hadseen from the inside of the ship, although I learned that therewere aspects of replacing the planks that presented a number ofchallenges.
“The lumber that we must use was notmeant for a ship,” Motius explained. “It is seasoned, but not tothe degree that we would normally use for the hull.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” he answered my questionwith a sober expression, “that we will have leaking. But,” he addedquickly, probably because he saw my face, “nothing that we cannotdeal with by bailing until the plank swells.”
This was not good news, certainly, but Itrusted Motius to know better, and he was not overly concerned.Actually, the only real difficulty came about as a result of yetanother thing I had not thought about beforehand, but neither hadanyone else except for Saloninus.
“What about the Parisii and the otherslaves who are still on the ship?” he had asked that morning as weleft the camp. “They can’t be onboard when the ship is lifted outof the water, but I don’t think we can afford to release thembefore the repairs are complete.
