This time, Ivomagus did not hesitate,turning and shouting down the muddy street to the townsmen whosetask it was to extinguish the fires, and they reacted quicklyenough, while I turned and bellowed, “Archers, loose! Loose, youbastards!”
I was certain that this would be useless,yet to my shock, the dozen men immediately did that very thing,drawing and pointing their arrows upward in one motion, hesitatingfor a fraction of a heartbeat, then loosing. Spinning about, Itried to track their flight, but it was too dark, although one ofthe chariots, the fourth in line, veered sharply, before the pointwhere they had been turning, and thanks to the torchbearer, we sawthat the driver was clutching one arm, the shaft of an arrowprotruding from it. Unfortunately, it was not enough; we wereunable to stop one of those fucking chariots, and while three orfour of them missed their targets, by the time the last chariot hadpassed, a half-dozen buildings had their thatch burning in a linedown the length of the town to the southern wall.
“You need to send someone down thestreet to check on those fires.” I did not bother trying to couchthis as a suggestion, but to my surprise, Ivomagus simply gave anod.
He alerted one of the men who were servingas couriers, the man leaping aboard his horse and going immediatelyto the canter, but my attention was drawn by a ragged chorus ofshouts that brought my attention back to the Brigantes. The Parisiiwarrior next to me thrust his spear out, pointing down the wall,and I saw immediately why they were excited.
“Here they come!” I shouted toIvomagus, who had been engaged in another conversation with thesecond of the couriers.
When he turned back, he saw and correctlyinterpreted my glance, saying, “I am sending Meriadoc to make acircuit of the walls to see if these dogs are attacking the otherwalls.”
I was impressed and embarrassed in equalmeasure, because it was an obvious thing to do that I should havethought of doing much sooner.
“Good,” was all I got out, then ourattention was back on the Brigantes.
Fairly quickly, we determined that, whilethey had aligned themselves at regular intervals, they were forcedto get closer to the wall in order to inspect it for spots toexploit because of the darkness. Any delay was good, because itwould give us a chance to respond, but this was the momentDiviciacus chose to send his own archers within range. This becameapparent by the hissing sound the missiles made as they flew past,although it was too late to do anything about it, but whether itwas by chance or skill, the real warning came in the form of astrangled cry from behind us, and I spun about just in time to seeone of the warriors on relief stagger backward, both handsclutching his throat, a shaft protruding from it. I did not wasteany more time; his fate was in the hands of his gods, and we hadbigger concerns.
“Shields up! Shields up!” I shouted,but this time, the men reacted on their own, those on the parapetplacing their protection on the top of the wagon, while the menbehind them raised theirs as they crouched down.
Ivomagus and I were forced to shelter behindthe protection offered by others, and as strange as it sounds, thiswas the first moment I realized something.
“Do you have any chain mail that wouldfit me?” I asked him.
“No, Centurion,” he answered soquickly that I was suspicious, but he was not done. “I sentTincommius to see if he could find something, but he could not. Doyou want a shield?”
I only briefly considered it, then shook myhead.
“I need a gladius, though.”
I saw the look of hesitation there, and Iwas opening my mouth to argue, but then he nodded.
“Very well,” he said.
Being careful to stay behind the protectionof the shields, he called to the last of the couriers, Tincommiusas it happened, shouted something, and Tincommius shouted back, butwas leaping aboard his horse as he did so.
“We moved all of our spare weapons tothe meeting hall here,” Ivomagus explained, having to raise hisvoice a bit because the arrows were still slashing down, althoughthey were blocked by the upraised shields, making a slightlydifferent sound than when a missile struck a Roman shield. “He willbring you whatever swords we have so you can choose.”
I would have thanked him, but when I turnedmy head to do so, I looked over his shoulder and saw that the roofof the third building down was fully involved, lighting the streetaround it in several places in both directions.
“If we don’t control that, everybuilding on this street is going to go up,” I warnedIvomagus.
It was certainly the case that there was alot going on; we were essentially pinned in place because of theirarchers, although my hope was that they would exhaust theirsupplies of missiles soon. Since we were unable to expose ourselvesto see all the way down the wall, we could not tell if theBrigantes had found one or more spots to try and exploit, so we hadto rely on the alarm being sounded by the small groups of men wehad positioned down the eastern wall. In moments such as this, itis impossible to estimate how much time has elapsed, but my guessis that it was about a third of a watch after the Brigantes werespotted, when, at the opposite end of the wall from the easterngate, there was
