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“Peace?” the general replied, raising an eyebrow.

I smirked. “What is peace butprelude? How long it lasts is up to the players. But one can live in that state for a very long time. And time is the master who, in the end, wins all. That, and you are very far from home, General Plautius.”

“Yes, I am,” the general replied. “I think we understand one another now, Queen Cartimandua.”

“Agreed.”

“We will see you in Camulodunum?”

I inclined my head to him.

“Then I thank you for your hospitality and ask your leave.”

“Granted.”

I returned with the general to the courtyard. A footman went to summon the others who joined us.

“Chieftain Brennan and his men will see you safely returned to the port at Mydils,” I told the general. “I wish you a safe journey across my lands, General Plautius.”

“It has been a pleasure to meet you, Queen Cartimandua,” he replied, bowing to me.

He and the others then mounted.

“Queen Cartimandua,” Legate Celerus said, bowing in his saddle to me, Narcissus and a red-faced Titus doing the same.

I inclined my head to them. “Safe travels, gentlemen.”

Brennan bowed to me, and I signaled for him to ride out.

With that, Brennan and his men led the Romans from the fort.

After they had gone, I climbed the rampart. I watched as they rode through the city, leaving the old section of Rigodonum and down the main thoroughfare through the new city section to the gate.

Corva and Fabius joined me.

Corva looked at me. “Well?”

“Now, we dance or we die.”

“That is an ominous assessment,” Fabius, who was wearing a shawl over his head, said.

“Where Rome walks, cities crumble and kingdoms fall. But not here. Not today. Not as long as I am the queen of these hollow hills.”

But even as I spoke, a cold wind blew from the north, and I heard a whisper riding on it.

“Cartimandua, harden your heart. It is not Rome you must fear.”