opened mouth as I looked directly at him. His eyes rolledback in his head, while I was forced to use my free hand to shovehis head off my blade as I withdrew it, sending his helmettumbling, but I did not use enough force, so that despite myintention to shove his body off of the wagon, his corpse wasslumped over it. I was surprised that this actually worked in myfavor, because it obstructed any of his comrades from trying toforce themselves through what was now the only gap in the line ofshields along the parapet. Before I had time to appreciate this,the corpse suddenly vanished, pulled out of the way by anotherBrigantes, who clearly had the idea that his comrade had of usingthis space as the way to penetrate our defenses. The men on eitherside of me were furiously engaged, shouting what sounded likecurses as they made brutally powerful thrusts with their spearsdown into the mass of Brigantes, all of whom had now reached themakeshift gate. I had completely forgotten about Tincommius and themen he was bringing; all that existed in this moment was keepingthese bastards from overwhelming the nine men still fighting tokeep the Brigantes from overwhelming us. This is the onlyexplanation I can offer for what, under any circumstances, was anincredibly foolish thing to do, which was to leap up onto thesideboard of the wagon in the space that was just vacated; Isuppose my intention was to plug the hole. By doing so, Iimmediately exposed myself; more specifically, I exposed my lowerlegs to attack, and I was not even wearing greaves. Somehow, Imanaged to parry the first spear thrust, knocking the blade aside,and I even evaded the second, if only because I kicked it aside,but the third attempt by one of the Brigantes landed, or perhaps Ishould say glanced off, slicing into my right leg just above myankle. It hurt like Dis, but it actually saved my life, of that Ihave no doubt, because I immediately made a hopping step backwardoff of the side of the wagon. Somehow, I managed to land squarelyon the two planks that were our parapet, but most importantly,without having any conscious thought of doing so, I twisted mytorso as one of the Brigantes executed another thrust, and I sensedmore than saw the point shoot past me. This time, I was not quickenough to snatch the spear, and I was sufficiently distracted bythe feeling of warm liquid running down my leg to not make any sortof offensive move. Once I checked myself to see that it was not aparticularly deep gash, I began thinking about how I could usemy spatha when, from behindus, there came a shout of my name. To my intense relief, I sawTincommius approaching, still mounted, but he was leading the menof the reserve, and it was not a moment too soon, because anotherof the original defenders let out a shriek of agony, and I spunabout just in time to see the man at the farthest end from me dropto his knees onto the pair of planks, both hands clamped around thearea of his left eye. Then, the relief arrived, and I leapt down tomake room since these men, like the original defenders were allequipped with a shield. Tincommius dismounted, and since there wasno point in saying anything, I gave him a nod that I hoped wouldcommunicate my approval of his prompt response.
It was odd, and quite uncomfortable being ina position where the only way I could tell how the fight for thegate was going was by observing the backs of the men who were onthe parapet. I suspect that it was from fatigue, but in this periodwhere I stood with Tincommius watching, one by one the original tenmen were either driven off the parapet or came staggering backwardbecause of some wound. The thought struck me that, if this hadtaken place even a hundred heartbeats sooner, there would have beenenough gaps in our defenses that the Brigantes could have emulatedthe warrior I had killed, but actually be successful. Whoseslaying, I confess, I had completely forgotten when Tincommiusnudged me, startling me somewhat, and when I looked at him, hesimply pointed down to my blade, which I was holding loosely.
“Brigantes?”
He said another word after this, which Iassumed was probably “blood,” so I nodded.
“Good,” he said in Latin, which Ibelieve exhausted his entire vocabulary, and I gave him a smile andrepeated, “Yes, very good.”
There had been no alarms raisedanywhere else around the town wall, so I was beginning to thinkthat perhaps, just perhaps, we would somehow prevail and somehowmanage to survive long enough for Cogidubnus, wherever he was, toarrive. And, of course, this was when the gods decided not to justpiss all over me, but squat and bury me under a load ofdivine cac.
The first indication that my hopes wouldfounder was when, from the opposite end of the eastern wall, therewas the sense of movement that attracted both Tincommius and me,but it took me a heartbeat longer to interpret the meaning of it,while the Parisii warrior reacted more quickly. That he did so bybreaking into a run on foot, towards where Ivomagus and the fortywarriors had headed, was what prompted me to follow him, and I wasa few paces behind him when a man, carrying his shield but missinghis spear, entered the pool of light from what was now two fullyinvolved buildings, running directly for us. Even if he had notbeen looking over his shoulder, I would have known just by hismanner that he was fleeing in panic, and it was left to Tincommiusto try and stop the warrior as he shouted what sounded like acommand. Which did not work to even slow the man down, although hedid shout something to Tincommius as he dodged Tincommius’ attemptto stop the coward, which left me in an awkward position. If I hadhad time to think about it, I might have done something different,but in the moment, what I saw was a scared and broken man trying torun from the fight, and if I would not have
