Chapter 7

Gades, Southern Hispania

Cormac steadied his nerves as a much smaller contingent of legionnaires followed him back into the crumbling meeting hall. The past week had been extremely humbling for Cormac. Llassar’s rebuke over his performance during their first attempt at negotiations did not end when he stormed out of the village, continuing for several days as they waited for permission to return and attempt negotiation again. Some blistering words and hard truths had been exchanged between them, but after he calmed down, Cormac begrudgingly admitted that Llassar was right.

At the Caledonian’s suggestion, they had discreetly hired a trusted villager to brief them on the tribe’s customs, where Llassar was proven right once again. The villager told them that elders were deeply respected and wielded great influence over village affairs. Insulting them was tantamount to insulting the entire tribe. Furthermore, only elders actively participated in important discussions; younger men were expected to observe quietly until called upon. The man they had seen was the token warrior, who advised the elders but did not participate in their discussions.

It had been a difficult few days, where Cormac learned that, in nearly every way, he had been wrong. It is a hard thing to have one’s faults laid bare before them, and Cormac had spent a day brooding. Wasted a day. Thankfully, Llassar didn’t hold that against him and allowed him the space to deal with his lessons. How the old warrior once again knew the right thing to do, and gave that space to him, Cormac didn’t know, but it was what he needed. When he eventually came out of his tent, Cormac had made a decision.

He had been resistant in Devnum, where it didn’t matter how much he pushed back against the lessons Llassar was teaching him. He decided he couldn’t do that here. Seeing how badly things nearly turned out, he spent the next several days, while they waited for the elders’ permission to return, listening to the Caledonian about what he did wrong and, more importantly, what he could do better.

It was odd, then, to realize he felt more nervous this time, when he was more prepared for the task at hand than he had been last time, when he’d been so ignorant. The same four elders were seated at the far end of the hall, lined up on their simple wooden chairs. The young warrior was also present, standing silently off to the side.

Cormac inclined his head respectfully towards the elders. “Honored elders, I have returned as you permitted to apologize for my poor conduct last time we met. I offended you greatly with my arrogance and lack of respect. That was not my intent. I am unused to your ways and spoke out of ignorance. However, that does not excuse the disrespect I showed you.”

He used their language for his apology. Although there hadn’t been time to learn the language, they’d had the villager they hired, and their interpreter, teach him that sentence, ensuring the syntax was correct and that it was done in the most respectful way possible. The elders looked at each other in surprise as he started speaking, all except the oldest. The one he’d offended. That elder continued to stare directly at Cormac, never looking away.

Cormac bowed his head, switching back to the Latin he used while in the Romans’ company. “I humbly ask your forgiveness and hope that we may make a fresh start. I wish to understand your people so that we may find common ground.”

The elder didn’t reply right away. He watched Cormac, let him wait patiently. Cormac stood, his hands behind him, trying to seem neither overly cowed, which they would know to be false, nor too confident, as he had last time. It was a fine balance.

“You speak gentle words, but on your previous visit, you marched in with armed men, much like the Carthaginians before they oppressed us. Why should we accept this apology when you show that we are still not equals to you?”

“Yes, we did. However, my soldiers are only here to guard me on the roads, not to threaten you. We were warned about the banditry that has taken place on the roads north of the port where we are now based and thought it a necessary precaution. In truth, my subordinates were displeased when we brought only thirty soldiers, thinking it not enough. Were we misinformed? Are the roads not dangerous? And, looking at the men you have here, would thirty have been enough to defend ourselves if you had turned out to be loyal still to the Carthaginians? I am, of course, not saying that is the case. However, we did not know that the first time we came. Now that we do, I left the majority of my men at our camp, out of respect for you.”

To make his point, he looked around the room at the larger number of armed young men around the walls and the absence of the older men, women, and especially children who had been here the previous time.

“As for why you should accept my apology, I cannot demand that you do so. I can only endeavor to show through my conduct that it is genuine. This is the first time I have been tasked with diplomacy. I am still learning how to approach other cultures respectfully.”

“So they sent an ignorant stripling to threaten us while keeping your skilled negotiators for tribes you think more important. What does this say about how your Empire views us?”

Although Cormac didn’t understand his words, at least not until they were translated, he listened to the way the elder was speaking. Llassar had talked to him about not only listening to the words the other party said, but how they said them. This, at least, hadn’t been new information for him. He’d dealt with this before. Many of the nobles would come to the king, offering respectful words, without the respect behind them.

The elder’s words might have sounded angry, offended, but his tone had been prodding, almost quizzical. He was testing Cormac, trying to see if he could bring out the disrespectful man who’d come to them last time.

“A fair question,” Cormac said. “It is true I am still learning about diplomacy. However, I am the son of King Conchobar of the Ulaid, one of the three powers that makes up the Britannic Empire. As such, I have the authority to negotiate binding agreements on behalf of the Empire, where even a skilled diplomat might not. We deemed it better to send someone who can speak decisively rather than a functionary who would have to return to our homelands to obtain the approval of others.”

He met the elder’s gaze with equal determination. “Make no mistake, we greatly value ties with your people. My being here was meant to show that to be true, not as an insult.”

The elder watched him for another moment, before turning to the others and conversing in hushed tones. Their translator stepped up to Cormac, to tell him what the men were saying, but Cormac waved him back. It wasn’t hard to figure out what the men were discussing. Instead, he listened to the way they said it, to get a handle on who was swayed and who might be a problem later. It’s also how he saw that the chief elder witnessed his motion and gave an approving smile.

“Very well,” the elder said when he turned back to Cormac. “We accept your apology and will hear you out. This time. But heed that our patience has limits.”

“A fair decision,” Cormac said. “My goal here is to build trust between our peoples, and hopefully find a way to work together so we can each be more secure than we would be otherwise.”

He gestured to Llassar to bring forth the items they had brought as gifts for the elders. Llassar stepped forward, presenting muskets, small powder horns, along with swords and daggers made of high-quality Britannian steel, a pair of arcuballistas, and some household and farming implements, again made of Britannian steel.

“We have heard about these,” the elder said, reaching out and taking the musket. “Your thunder weapons. Several of our people were at Daramouda when your armies destroyed the Carthaginians. They returned with frightening tales.”

“These are for you, regardless of whether you choose to work with us. When we finish our discussions, Llassar would be happy to show any of the men you choose how the musket, which this weapon is called, works. My hope is, along with the arcuballistas and swords, you can see that it’s more than just our armies we offer in service to protecting your people. It’s the tools necessary to protect yourselves. It also works very well for hunting, in addition to defense, making it a valuable tool.”

“I see,” the elder said, turning the long musket over in his frail hands.

Cormac refrained from commenting. Given new things, they were like children celebrating their birth day, unwrapping presents. He didn’t mean that in an insulting or disingenuous way, because he’d reacted the same way the first time he’d held a rifle. It was human nature. Still, it was nice to see the old man’s aggressive attitude fade away, giving them a chance to negotiate on friendly terms. Not that he didn’t deserve the man’s attitude, Cormac thought.

“These are just some of the items we can provide to you, if we come to an agreement. A partnership. In Germania, such agreements have benefited all the tribes greatly. We enabled improved hunting and protection from raiders. In return, we secured willing allies and trade routes. We are not looking to be involved in your internal decisions or even your negotiations with others, beyond the caveat that we will not provide any materials to be used against peaceful neighbors.”

“So you do want some say in our self-determination then,” the elder asked.

“We do not deny that this agreement is not an offer of altruism, and I make no secret of our agenda. In fact, I will tell you plainly what we are asking for. In the short term, we want peace in Hispania and a secure rear area in which to operate, freeing up our men and material for fighting the Carthaginians, instead of protecting ourselves and our supply lines from a lawless region full of banditry. In the long term, we seek partners, who have access to raw materials we need and to whom we can sell our finished products. We also seek political alliances to maintain peace, once the war with the Carthaginians is finished. I will also tell you that yes, we do exert some influence — in the form of suggestions, at least — that regions should consider more formalized alliances among themselves, alliances that we can negotiate with as a whole, allowing us to more equitably deal with all the tribes in a region, instead of negotiating agreements with each, one-on-one, where accusations of favoritism or working with their enemies in common cause might arise. I will say that this is not a deciding factor in any partnership, but I hope by being open and honest with what I was sent here to achieve, we can build a new foundation of trust, getting rid of the previous unsteady one.”

He could feel Llassar looking at him, and Cormac knew this was probably not the tactic he, or another negotiator, might have taken, but Cormac had thought this over. It went beyond just rebuilding the foundation, as he’d said. It didn’t take long to look at their actions in other regions, with other groups they allied with, and work out what the Britannian plan was. It was better to admit to that openly than having someone miss that and instead thinking Britannia wanted to roll them up and bring them directly under the Empire. For people controlled their entire lives, and the lives of their parents, by an outside nation, it was obvious where their initial reaction would go, if given the chance.

“And you plan on going to the other tribes too, yes?” the elder asked, handing the musket off to the younger warrior.

“We do. One ally in a region will not create peace. We need agreements with all, or at least, most of the tribes, because we want you to be the ones to create peace. If we tried to do it ourselves, it would mean leaving men behind to enforce that control. Then we’d just be occupiers, and our entire goal of freeing ourselves to focus entirely on the Carthaginians would be moot.”

“And you plan on selling these same weapons to them as you would to us. What is to keep them from buying the weapons and then turning them against their neighbors, abandoning agreements they have with you?”

“For one, that isn’t how these weapons work. Yes, the swords and even arcuballistas, to a point, work that way. Once you have them, they can be used without input from us. But you’ve faced those weapons for a long time. Yes, the quality might be better, but they aren’t going to radically change the way you defend yourselves. But if you have the muskets, that is where the technology changes the very way conflict is resolved. And importantly, these weapons do not work on their own. They require both the weapon and the powder in these horns, called gunpowder, which is at the center of how these weapons work. To continue using these, you would have to continue buying the gunpowder from us, and if a tribe starts using our weapons against their neighbors, at least without a good reason and the agreement of the rest of Hispania, we would stop all shipments of the gunpowder.”