No warrior likes being reminded that theyare not invincible, but Alex was speaking the truth, and I knewit.
I signaled my tacit acceptance of hisargument by asking, “What about just our tunics withbaltea and gladii?”
“Maybe,” he frowned, but I heard thedoubt there, and he pointed out, “except that’s essentially thesame problem. And,” he added, “I actually think that that’s worsethan wearing your armor, because they’ll not only take it as a signyou don’t trust them, but you’re going to be easier to hurt orkill.”
“Fine,” I sighed, knowing he wascorrect. “Tunics it is.”
When the time arrived for us to depart forthe hall, I pulled Saloninus aside.
“I’m not going to order you, and ifyou decide you want to come, I swear I won’t hold it against you,”I told him. “But since we’re not going to be wearing our armor orcarrying our gladii, Ibelieve we need to think about what might happen if Cogidubnus doeshave something planned.”
“I’ll stay here,” he said immediately.“It makes the most sense.”
I did not try to hide my relief, although Idid ask, “Are you sure?”
“You said that they’re bringing meatand mead here?” I nodded, and he grinned. “I’d rather be here withthese misbegotten bastards, Pullus. At least I can understand whatthey’re saying.” He paused, then added, “Most of thetime.”
This made me laugh, and I led Columella,Mus, Herennius, Gemellus, and Tetarfenus out of camp, whereIvomagus was waiting, with seven horses.
“Centurion Saloninus is going toremain behind,” I told him, lying casually, “in order to make surethe men don’t do something stupid if they have too muchmead.”
I was watching carefully, but he did notseem disturbed, and in fact, he said, “That makes sense.”
I swung up onto the horse, hiding myamusement at the sight of the others trying to pretend they wereexperienced horsemen themselves, yet they managed to crawl aboard,and we moved off at a trot as they clung to the reins of theirhorse with a death grip. We heard the sound of the feast evenbefore we came within sight of the hall, the sounds of singingdrifting across the evening air. It was a warm, clear evening inlate summer, and while it was not getting dark as late as it hadbeen earlier, I still realized that we would be undoubtedlyfeasting well past midnight. We had just trotted into the yardoutside the hall when a woman came bursting into view from inside,and one shoulder of her gown had slipped off to the point where onebreast was plainly visible. It might have been a woman trying toflee from being raped, but the fact she was laughing hysterically,and was followed by a young warrior who was in a similarly festivemood told the truth of the tale.
Despite his clear discomfort from bouncingup and down as we trotted to the hall, I glanced over at Mus, whowas wearing a broad grin as he said, “If that’s what’s waiting forus, Pilus Prior, I may not be getting on that ship tomorrow!”
I laughed, and we drew up, dismounted, thenfollowed Ivomagus into the hall. To say that it was already raucouswould be an understatement; a quick glance at the reddened faces ofthe mustachioed and bearded Parisii, almost all of them holding acup of some sort, laughing uproariously at something one of theircomrades had said made me wonder if we were significantly late tothis feast that was supposed to be in our honor.
Perhaps Ivomagus saw my expression andcorrectly discerned my thoughts, because he had to lean closer tobe heard, “Cogidubnus let his men start early.”
“Obviously,” I said, but he wasalready moving, beckoning us to follow him into the hall, where heled us down the central aisle to where two long tables were placed,perpendicular to the three rows of tables that ran the length ofthe hall from front to back.
Cogidubnus was sitting in a large chair witha carved wooden back that boasted the swirling patterns that we hadseen on other things around Petuar, and there was an empty chair oneither side of him. My assumption that one of those seats wasreserved for me turned out to be correct, but I was somewhatunhappy when I saw Ivomagus point to an empty bench at the firsttable of the perpendicular middle row.
“These seats are reserved for yourofficers, Centurion,” Ivomagus almost had to shout, then pointed tothe chair to Cogidubnus’ right, “and that is your seat. My brotheris giving you a very high honor!”
“Please tell your brother that I amvery appreciative,” I told him, as Columella and the others happilydropped down onto the bench Ivomagus had designated; I suspect thefact that seated across from them were six women and not men hadsomething to do with it. That they were all very comely, and likethe first woman we had seen, wore gowns where the neck wasmuch lower than what we wereaccustomed to, at least with women who did not service the Legions,meant that I was suddenly ignored. Moving around the table,Cogidubnus stood as I approached him, and surprising me a greatdeal, he thrust his arm out.
“My brother wants to welcome you inthe Roman manner,” Ivomagus translated his brother’s words. “Hesays he believes that you clasp forearms. Is this true?”
“It is,” but I was reaching to clasphis forearm as I did so, not surprised to feel the hard muscles ofhis forearm while I watched his own eyes widen slightly, which isnot an unusual reaction when a man is able to comprehend how largemy arms are by grasping one of them. It was why I grinned as I saidto Ivomagus, “Tell your brother that he has a strong grip, but Iwould expect that from a warrior like Cogidubnus.”
I could see this pleased him, and wemutually released our grasp, exchanging another grin as we bothrubbed our forearms. Then he turned to face the hall and the otherguests, none of whom seemed to be paying much attention to theirRoman guests. This was about to change, when Cogidubnus began tobellow, although once the tumult died down, he lowered his voice tojust a shout. As he spoke, Ivomagus whispered in my ear.
“He is welcoming you and yourofficers,” he
