They rode their way into the middle of camp, where soldiers were now standing as a crowd of onlookers. A true mixture of men, with Oliver's own ex-slaves amongst them. Northman was standing at the front, wide-eyed, and Judas wasn't far down from him. Every man there wore an expression of shock. That shock transformed into something else when they saw the heads dangling down from the side of their saddles.
In the centre of the camp, Oliver made the first deposit. Five heads. He threw each one down singularly, and each one landed with a solid thump, a sound that by now had encapsulated the camp. Not a man made a sound. Thump, thump, thump. They didn't know what to make of it – they couldn't think of anything to say. If it was a spell, then they were thoroughly hypnotised from it. Usually, expressions of violence like this were used to intimidate the enemy. No one knew what to make of it when they were gifts from their allies.
