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CHAPTER 20

While Corva’s push to send me to rest may have been motivated by something other than a concern about my sleep, I was glad she had done so. It was only a few hours later when there was a knock on my door.

“Queen Cartimandua?” I heard Conall call. “My queen, Priestess Môd has sent for you.”

I sat up groggily, my eyes squinting. The hour was so early. The sun had not yet risen. It took me a long moment to orient myself.

“Cartimandua?” Conall called again.

“I’m awake,” I called back to him. “I will join you in a moment. Please wake Corva.”

“Yes, my queen.”

Rising groggily, I went to the table, where I poured water into a basin. I sat for a long moment, letting my mind clear, then made ready.

I exited the bedchamber a moment before Corva. Everyone in my party looked rumpled and tired, but it mattered not. I signaled to Conall, and we went back downstairs, where a dark-robed priestess of the Cailleach waited.

“Queen Cartimandua,” the priestesses greeted me, then turned to Corva. “Priestess. My queen, we must ride at once. We track the moon and stars. Let us not delay.”

“Very well,” I said, then turned to Aedan, who was waiting.

“They have readied your horse. Shall I send a household guard as well?” Aedan asked.

“No guards,” the priestess told him. “Not even your own, my queen. That was Môd’s word.”

“But—” Conall began in protest, but the priestess lifted a hand to silence him. “The High Priestess said you would protest, sir, but my lady will not be denied. No one is permitted where we are going save our order and her majesty,” the woman replied, her expression firm. She turned to me. “My queen.”

“I understand,” I told her, then turned to Conall. “All will be well. I will return soon.”

Conall frowned. “I don’t need to tell you I don’t like it,” he said, then turned to Corva, giving her a knowing look.

She inclined her head to him.

With that, we went outside, where the horses and two other priestesses waited. No torches had been hoisted. They stood alone in the moonlight.

I mounted Branagán and then reined in beside Corva.

“I am ready,” I told her.

Corva gestured to the others who spurred their horses, making their way to the gate of the chieftain’s house. The guards there opened the door for them.

“Be safe, Cartimandua,” Aedan called, a worried expression on his face.

“You look nervous, Chieftain,” I replied.

Aedan smiled. “Never, my queen.”

“Do not let our queen’s caprice get to you, my friend,” Conall told him. “Imagine how you would worry if assigned as her guard.”

At that, Aedan chuckled.

I gave them both a smile, then tapped Branagán’s reins and set off behind the priestesses.

It was the dead of night, the full moon shining overhead. I looked up, catching sight of the three sisters.

Brigantia. Cailleach. Be with me. Be with us all. Rome rides. Protect us.

“It is merely smoke before the fire,”a gravelly voice replied.