“No,” I cut him off. “I did see ithappen,” I said tersely, trying to quell the sudden rush of emotionthat instantly transported me to a forest in Germania and all thesubsequent events that had transformed my entire world. “I wasserving in his Cohort at the time, and I saw him fall.”
“As I said, I am sorry, Centurion.But,” he added, “perhaps it is not such a bad fate for a warrior,is it? To fall in battle? I know my father would have preferred todie that way than how he did.”
More to turn the subject away from me thanany real interest, I asked, “Oh? How did he die?”
“He died while trying to defecate,” heanswered, his face expressionless. “His bowels had stopped workingproperly, and…” His voice trailed off, and he shrugged.
I tried; the gods know I tried, but I couldnot stifle the snicker, and at first, I was worried that I hadmortally offended Ivomagus as he turned and shot me a furious look.Which, I was mortified to discover, only made it worse, and now Iwas certain that I had done so; then, he began laughing as well, tothe point where Cogidubnus turned from watching the work to regardus with a raised eyebrow. I have no idea what Ivomagus said to hisbrother, although I doubt it was the truth.
When he turned back to me, he wiped an eyeand said, “I hated my father, Centurion, and as far as I amconcerned, that was a fitting way for him to go.” I felt his eyeson me as he added shrewdly, “But I suspect that you feltdifferently about your father.”
“I did,” I said. “I did,indeed.”
The work was not finished that day, but allthat remained for the next was the setting of the mast, and to mysurprise, while the crane was used, setting the mast into place wasaccomplished more by brute strength, as gangs of my men hauled on arope, of which there were several, to lift the mast up into avertical position. From my perspective, the crane was used only toavoid men getting hurt in the event that one of the ropes snappedor, for some reason, the men holding one of them let go. Thehardest part was apparently making sure that the mast was perfectlyvertical and did not lean slightly in any direction.
“It may not seem like it,” Motiusexplained, “but even if a mast is off this much,” he held twofingers perhaps an inch apart, “it makes the ship almost impossibleto handle because of the balance.”
That seemed unlikely, but I was notinclined to argue, and since there was no reason to doubt that hewas telling the truth, I wanted them to get it right. Finally, thework was done, and all that remained of this part of the work wasthe crane lifting the ship back up off the ground and moving itslowly back over the water. This time was slightly differentbecause two men of the crew was standing on the upper deck, readyto throw out the lines to moor it back to the dock. It took morethan a dozen small boats to perform the opposite maneuver, rowingout into the river to pull their lines taut to pull theBrizo back towards the water, whilea mixed party of men and animals provided tension on land, therebykeeping the large craft under control from two opposing directions.It also had to be done very slowly to keep the ship from rockingfrom the motion, which Acisculus had warned was actually the mostdangerous aspect of the entire operation and with the highestlikelihood of something going wrong. Consequently, I found that Iwas holding my breath as we watched, and while I doubt Cogidubnusor Ivomagus were quite as anxious as I was, a glance told me theirattention was as riveted on the scene as mine. It was then I alsonoticed how quiet it had become as, during the preparations, therehad been a steady buzz from the townspeople surrounding the dock,and a glance over my shoulder saw that they were in a similarstate, all eyes on something that, before we arrived, I am certainthey never thought they would see, a ship larger than they had everseen before, hanging in the air. Only later, when I had time tothink about it, I formed the belief that, of all the demonstrationswe could have made about the might of Rome, none of them would havebeen as potent as what was taking place in this moment. And, whileit was certainly unusual for us, it was only the circumstances andwhere we were at, because every man of both Centuries had beenpresent for what was a daily occurrence when we constructed ourpart of the fleet two years before.
As far as the men went, those notinvolved in the work were still cooped up in the camp, although Ihad allowed the officers to come and watch this final part.Finally, the Brizo wassuspended a couple of feet above the water, parallel to the dock asthe men rowing the boats strained at the oars to keep theirindividual lines taut, but rather than lower it slowly into theriver, Acisculus yanked the handle that worked the ratchet, thepiece of iron that engages the cog by inserting itself in betweenthe cog’s teeth. By doing so, it allowed the ship to just dropstraight into the water, but while it was only a matter of a coupleof feet, it created a huge splash that sent water high up into theair…and drenching every person standing on the dock. Acisculusswore on the black stone that it was unintentional, but I stillhave my doubts. And I will say this, it pleased the crowd, the airfilling with their roars of laughter at seeing their king, hisbrother, and I assume the large Roman standing next to them getsoaking wet. Cogidubnus apparently had his mouth open, because onceI wiped my eyes, I saw him gagging and spitting out river water,while Ivomagus was shaking his head like a dog, sending sprayeverywhere. There was a moment where I thought that Acisculus haddone for us, because Cogidubnus’ initial reaction was one of fury,his eyes
