Page 24 of Boudicca

We didn’t speak. We rode fast, eager to put distance between us and Camulodunum before darkness would force us to stop for

the night. Pushing Ennis to the edge of the powerful stallion’s strength, Maldwyn broke off from us twice and circled back

to be sure no one had recognized me and sent soldiers after us. But no one followed, and eventually even Cadoc stopped looking

over his shoulder. We focused on urging the horses on.

Tan was covered with the white froth of her effort to maintain such a pace when the Roman road took a westerly turn. Eagerly

we left Roman stone behind us and continued north through forests that became more and more familiar.

Finally Maldwyn’s voice called over the pounding of our horses’ hooves. “We must slow to cool the horses and then stop for

the night soon. It would be too easy to misstep in this darkness.”

I pulled Tan up gently from a swift canter to a trot and finally I allowed her to walk. All of the horses were exhausted and

dripped sweat. Steam rose from their sodden coats as the night went from chilly to cold. We had to move slowly through the

dense forest, and when the horses were dry enough we followed the musical sound of running water until we came to a creek.

I dismounted and rubbed Tan’s salt-stiffened coat, murmuring to her about how much I appreciated her strength and swiftness.

Then I worked beside Maldwyn and Cadoc to wipe down all six of our horses. After they drank their fill from the stream, we

tied grain masks over their muzzles and gave them the last of the feed we’d brought. Maldwyn predicted they would be asleep

almost before they finished eating, and he was right. As we built a fire and settled in for the rest of the night, the horses’

weary sighs and the sweet smell of them soothed my nerves.

I was prepared to eat stale bannock and cold jerky, but Cadoc surprised me by unwrapping a large hunk of smoked pork, a wedge of soft herb-spiced goat cheese, and an entire loaf of bread from his packs.

He smiled as he cut the pork and began to warm it over the fire. The meat sizzled and released scents that had my mouth watering.

“I felt the wind shift this afternoon and thought we’d do well with something warm in our bellies tonight.”

With a shy flourish Maldwyn brought out a large bladder, which he offered to me first. I uncapped it and sniffed—and my gaze

cut to his.

He shrugged. “And I thought we might as well drink their wine before we drive them from our lands.”

“Ha!” Cadoc laughed and clapped his big hands. “Right you are, Maldwyn.” His eyes glittered at me across the fire. “What do

you think, my queen?”

I sipped the wine. I’d had wine before, of course. When Prasutagus lived he often returned from trading or raiding with barrels

of it. This wine was red and potent, and its warmth felt good as it filled my belly.

“I think I am glad my two warriors had such excellent foresight today. This”—I lifted the bladder and with it gestured at

the pork sizzling over the fire—“is greatly appreciated.” I tossed the bladder to Cadoc, who caught it one-handed and tipped

back his head to drink deeply.

We ate and drank, and did not talk much until our bellies were full and our bodies relaxed. I sensed that the two men were

reluctant to bring up the events of the day, so I began.

“How did you get to me so quickly?”

They did not have to ask what I meant. Cadoc cleared his throat and then jerked his bearded chin in Maldwyn’s direction. “Maldwyn

and I had just met and were heading to the trees when he recognized Decianus and then saw you. We knew we had to move fast.”

I looked at Maldwyn and shook my head slightly. “But you had never seen the procurator. How did you recognize him?”

Maldwyn took a long pull from the wineskin and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He tossed the skin to Cadoc and then stared into the fire as he answered. “It was Brigantia. She sent a ray of sun to strike Decianus’s arm at the exact moment I glanced his way. It set your torque aflame. I knew then who he must be.”

“I did not intend to put us in danger. I am sorry.” I turned my gaze to the crackling fire. “I do not know what I thought

I could do. It was such a shock—so unexpected—to see him. Decianus.” My lip lifted and I sneered his name. “I was taken back

to that day and I had to do something.”

“You thought to kill Decianus,” said Cadoc. “And you would have killed him—slit his throat like the animal he is. You probably

would also have killed Paulinus, as neither man would have expected the attack.”

“But then I would have been cut down. Killed,” I said.

“No,” said Cadoc. “Not unless you fought so fiercely you forced them to kill you to contain you.”

“Which is what our queen would have done.” Pride filled Maldwyn’s voice as he turned his gaze from the fire to catch mine.

“I know how swift and strong and brave you are. Had you attacked Decianus, you would be feasting in Annwn with Andraste this

very night. And we would have joined you.”

Cadoc nodded. “Aye. Gladly.”

I sighed. “And then Addedomaros would have attempted to lead the Iceni and the Trinovantes against the Romans.”

Cadoc shrugged his wide shoulders. “Mayhap our people would have followed him, but only long enough to burn Camulodunum to

avenge you. After that they would not follow the Trinovantes chief.”

“No, they would not,” I said. “And burning Camulodunum is only the first step in what must be done.”

“Then it is good that you chose to let us guide you out of the city,” said Maldwyn. “As no one but Boudicca, queen of the

Iceni, Andraste’s Victory, can unite Iceni and Trinovantes.”

“And others as well,” added Cadoc. “We haven’t spoken of what else we learned. The Catuvellauni are well and truly weary of Rome. They have increased the taxes so that many farmers worry how they will make it through the winter. And, of course, there is the fact that farmland has been taken from the Catuvellauni and given to Roman soldiers. That has angered them even more than the taxes. Also I saw tribesmen today, slaves to the Romans, whose bodies bore the symbols of Dobunni, Atrebates, and even the western Silures tribes.”

“Rome believes if they enslave enough of us we will bow to them. Instead what they do is surround themselves with their enemies,”

I said grimly.

Maldwyn nodded. “I heard talk from soldiers at the wine stall. The Twentieth and Fourteenth legions are leaving the city.

Soon.”

“Paulinus is leading them to Ynys M?n to attack the Druids,” I said.

“We must warn Derwyn,” said Cadoc.

“The reason Derwyn was so eager to leave Tasceni after interring our elders in the Chief’s Barrow is that he’d been sent a

dream wherein the sacred oaks keened,” I said. “He has already been warned, but I will send a rider to the isle as soon as

we reach Tasceni so he knows Paulinus is on the march.”

“So Camulodunum will be left unguarded except for the old soldiers who have retired there?” asked Cadoc.

“Yes, and the centuria that attacked Tasceni.” Anger warmed my body more than the food and drink. “Paulinus suspects the Trinovantes

and our people are arming against Rome. He warned Decianus to call for the Ninth Legion to protect the city. Decianus, fool

that he is, made it clear he would only need the centuria he used in the spring to teach me a lesson .” I repeated the distasteful words.

“This is what Andraste planned all along,” said Maldwyn.

“Yes,” I said.

Cadoc stretched and yawned. “Maldwyn, take the first watch. I’ll take the second.”

“Done,” Maldwyn said.

Cadoc rolled himself into the thick pelt he’d packed as bedding, but before he slept, his gaze found mine across the fire. “I am glad we live to bring war to the Romans, but it would have been glorious to fight to the death by your side today, my queen.” His smile flashed white in the light and then he pulled the pelt over his head, yawned mightily again, and remarkably quickly his snores were echoing from within the bedroll.

I smiled at the large mound that was the old shield. “He can sleep anywhere.”

Maldwyn laughed softly. “It is a gift.” He sat closer to me than Cadoc, and as he leaned forward to feed more branches into

the fire he glanced over his shoulder. “My queen, you should sleep. I will keep watch.”

I sighed. “I don’t think I can.”

Maldwyn sat back, propping himself against a moss-covered boulder. “It was difficult for you to see Decianus.”

“It was.”

Maldwyn met my gaze. “He will never hurt you or your girls again.”

“My mind knows that, but today when I heard his voice my body believed something different. I was suddenly back there on that

horrible day.” I shivered and pulled my own pelt up around my shoulders. “And I almost allowed that fear to kill the three

of us.”

“No, my queen. It wasn’t fear that had you reaching for your sword and moving to slit that pig’s throat. It was the warrior

spirit within you. It was rage. It was confidence. It was skill. As Cadoc said, you would have killed them both. Then we would

have gladly fought to our deaths by your side, and tonight instead of drinking Roman wine and eating Roman pork, we would

be feasting with Andraste.”

As I studied his face, I saw the savage joy behind his words and I felt a rush of gratitude for this shy, patient warrior

who had spent the past many months sharpening me so that I could be the blade Andraste would wield to avenge our people.

And the last of the horror of the day fell away from me as I realized Maldwyn was right. I hadn’t been afraid when I’d moved

against Decianus. I’d been the arm of an avenging goddess.

I reached over and placed my hand on his shoulder. His savage expression warmed instantly to his familiar shy smile.

“Thank you,” I said. “For your faith.”

“Always.” Maldwyn’s smile sobered. “I will always have faith in Andraste and in you, my queen.”

A companionable silence settled over our little camp. I liked being there beside Maldwyn. We didn’t need to speak. His constancy

warmed me with the fire, and soon Cadoc’s rhythmic snores made my eyelids heavy. I worried when my eyes closed that I would

return to that day and the field and the whip, but I only dreamed that horses surrounded me, watching over me, keeping me

safe.

***

We entered Tasceni not long after midday. Our village was alive with warriors and excitement, and as I made my way from the

stables to the lodge, my people called jubilant greetings.

“Is Addedomaros still here?” I asked Briallen as my daughters rushed to hug me at the wide front doors of the lodge. I kissed

them and scratched the gangly wolves’ ears.

“Yes. As is his son.” Briallen frowned as she answered me, and I wondered what the Trinovantes chief or his son had done.

Enfys and Ceri hugged me again and then hurried out the doors, explaining that they were going fishing with their wolves.

“Leave the boars be today,” I called after them. “Briallen is needed here.”

“Oh, Mama, don’t worry so!” Ceri said before the two of them disappeared from view, their wolves galloping at their sides.

“They aren’t going far,” said Briallen.

“Good, because I need you. First, have a rider leave immediately for Ynys M?n. Tell Derwyn that Gaius Suetonius Paulinus is

marching the Fourteenth and Twentieth legions to raze the isle.”

“As you ask, so will I do, my queen.”

“Then send word to Abertha and Addedomaros that the war council is meeting. Cadoc and Maldwyn will join us shortly. Gather my guard. Have them wait close to the lodge. I will call for them.” As I spoke I moved into the lodge and went to the chest that held the rolled sheet of beaten and smoothed hide on which Addedomaros had used a stick of charcoal to draw the rough map of Camulodunum we’d memorized before our journey there.

All during the journey home my mind had whirred with strategy. I knew what must be done and how to do it. I had the map spread

out over the long central table and was adding the placement of Claudius’s temple, the colonia, the basilica with the barracks

that surrounded it, and Brigantia’s desecrated shrine to the existing marks when Addedomaros, his son, and his shield joined

me, followed closely by Rhan, Cadoc, Abertha, and Maldwyn. Briallen remained at the door, though she caught my gaze and nodded,

letting me know my guard was close by.

“How did you find the city?” Addedomaros lost no time in firing the question at me.

“Infested with Romans,” I said. “Sit.” I motioned to the table, and the warriors took seats at the benches on either side

of it while I remained standing. Wulffaed poured mead for us and I drank deeply, appreciating the sweetness of its bite more

than the cloying Roman wine I’d had too much of the night before. “The Balkerne Gate was as Addedomaros described. It is wide

enough for our chariots to enter.” I pointed to the four arches on the map and then I drew in two square lookout stations

butting up to them. “There are guards here and here.”

“Though they maintain a poor watch,” said Cadoc. “May I?”

I nodded and gave him the charcoal stick.

He made X marks at four spots along the rectangle drawn to represent the city boundary. “These gates are not wide enough to

allow chariots to enter the city, but the ditches on either side of them are too shallow to repel our cavalry, which can enter

as our warriors flood through the gates.”

Maldwyn took the charcoal stick then and blackened in the barracks, explaining what we’d discovered about the retired legionnaires

stationed there and that the two legions usually billeted in the city would soon be marching west across Britain to Ynys M?n.

“Decianus has recalled the centuria that attacked Tasceni,” I said.

“Two hundred soldiers.” Addedomaros stroked his beard. “That is still enough to block the chariots from entering. All they need do is close the Balkerne Gate. They will eventually fall, but we must move quickly. A siege would allow Paulinus time to turn back with the legions and surround us. We’d be squeezed between Camulodunum and the Fourteenth and Twentieth. Not an enviable position.”

“That will not happen,” I said. “We will have burned Camulodunum to the ground and moved on to Londinium before Paulinus can

return to engage with us.”

Adminius snorted. “Londinium?”

I met his gaze steadily. “Yes. Did you think destroying Camulodunum would be enough to force the Romans from our lands?”

“Well. No.”

“Exactly.” I turned my attention from the chief’s son and continued. “We will take Camulodunum, Londinium, and then Verulamium—one

after another—and show the Romans they cannot survive on lands held by Britons.”

“But that plan hinges on taking Camulodunum quickly,” said Mailcun. “I hear Cadoc. The city guards are lax, but no soldier

is lax enough to overlook an army of one hundred thousand attacking his city.”

Rhan, Cadoc, Maldwyn, and Abertha remained silent, confidence in their steady gazes as they watched me. My advisors and I

had often spoken of the fact that we must destroy all three of the major Roman cities to have a chance at pushing them from

our lands, so it was no surprise to them. They knew I had a plan, and their belief in me filled me with such keen joy that

my blood pounded hot through my veins.

“Briallen, tell my guard to join us,” I commanded.

With Briallen leading them, my Queen’s Guard strode into the lodge. The twenty-four warriors had been handpicked, and they

stood straight and proud, looking to me expectantly, eagerly. I got directly to the point.

As I used Addedomaros’s map to explain my battle plan, I studied the warriors. Iceni are not mindless fighters. They are wise and masters of strategy. I knew that the warriors present there in my lodge would not blindly agree to my plan. Every one of them was more experienced than I in battle. Every one of them had been raiding and fighting since before their sixteenth nameday.

I knew their response could very easily end my reign as a warrior queen before it had really begun.

When I’d finished speaking, I looked from Cadoc to Abertha to Maldwyn and finally to Rhan. Their expressions were equally

ferocious, equally expectant. Rhan nodded once, and the coiled tension within me began to loosen. Then my gaze went to Briallen,

leader of my guard.

“What say you, Briallen?”

Her smile was savage. “I say on to victory , my queen!”

“Aye!” the guard echoed as Addedomaros, his shield, and finally even petulant Adminius stomped their feet and repeated, “Victory!”

***

Addedomaros, his son, and his shield departed Tasceni directly after the war council. I would not see the Trinovantes chief

again until our armies joined in the forest west of Camulodunum.

Tasceni was teeming with warriors and the caravan carts that would follow us into battle. The Iceni do not go to war alone.

In the rear of the army would be our support system—caravans driven by family and filled with weapons, healers, tents, and

supplies, and followed by herds of livestock tended by shepherds and farmers. Our army would not sow destruction upon our

lands as we moved across it. Farms would not be looted. Farmers’ crops would not be stolen or burned. We carried with us the

means to survive and thrive. We would not destroy the land and the people we loved in our attempt to rid ourselves of Rome.

The forest surrounding Tasceni thrummed with the excitement of our people. The sounds of drums and flutes and women’s lilting voices drifted through the village with the chill wind. I visited many fires that evening and night, and met with the same reception at each. My people were prepared. My people were strong. My people believed in Victory.

I was inordinately glad when I finally was able to retire to my bedchamber. Phaedra had a steaming bath filled with herbs

waiting for me. I relaxed, listening to her gossip about how many warriors were vying for the attentions of Wulffaed’s daughters

and granddaughters. She spoke of Sunne and Mona, and how the Iceni loved that my daughters were always shadowed by their wolves.

My eyelids were heavy when she finished loosely braiding my hair for the night. As Phaedra slipped out of my chamber, Rhan

held the pelt curtain aside and sent me a questioning look.

“Come in, come in.” I yawned and added to Phaedra, “Please bring Rhan a mug of mead, too.” I climbed wearily into my bed and

motioned for Rhan to sit beside me. “I’m glad you came. I thought you would want to talk about Derwyn and Ynys M?n.”

Rhan sat beside me and waited until Phaedra had returned with our drinks and then left us alone before she spoke. “Derwyn

was forewarned that the Romans would target the isle.”

I nodded. “Yes, but it cannot be easy for you to be with me while your home is being invaded.”

Her dark eyes studied me for several long breaths before she answered. “Ynys M?n is not my home, Boudicca. My home is here.”

“I’m glad of that.”

“Derwyn and I spoke before he left. He asked me to tell you this when the time was right, and the time is now right. He said,

‘What must be will be—for us both.’”

A chill shivered across the nape of my neck. “He is going to die.”

“There will be many deaths to come,” said Rhan. “Our countrymen will die in the battles you have planned.”

I felt a shock of hurt at her words. “Do you admonish me for that?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. We each have our destiny to face.”

I sipped my mead and leaned back against the cushions Phaedra had mounded at the head of my bed. “I knew as I walked through

Camulodunum that I was seeing dead men.”

“And women,” Rhan added.

“Yes. There are countrymen and women of ours who have chosen Romans and their way of life. That will also be their choice of death.” I leaned forward, looking

into Rhan’s dark eyes. “True Britons will leave Camulodunum before our army arrives.”

Rhan nodded. “Yes. I dreamed of it.”

“Tell me,” I said.

“Last night I dreamed a white stag left Camulodunum and behind him were does and fawns and other stags, all following him

from the city to disappear into the forest.”

“Brigantia!” My hands gripped the mug as I recounted for Rhan my experience at the goddess’s desecrated shrine and what I’d

heard from the people. I did not tell her of my words to Minerva. I do not know why, only that they clogged my throat and

would not come out.

“You will fulfill Andraste’s curse. Brigantia will be there, too. I thought it was because she also wants vengeance for those,

like your mother, who are her children and who were slain by Romans,” said Rhan. “But now I know it is even more than that.

The desecration of her shrine is unforgivable. Use her fire. Make it rain the wrath of Brigantia as you bring the spear of

Andraste to Camulodunum.”

“Yes, I will.” I yawned then and placed my empty mug on the table beside my bed. “It is good to be home, even though it will

only be for five more days.”

Rhan stood to leave but I reached out and took her hand.

“Would you stay with me tonight?”

Her smile softened her face, and in the dim candlelight she looked like a girl again as she curled beside me on the bed so

that we faced one another.

“He will never hurt you or your girls again,” Rhan said quietly.

“I know, but seeing him—hearing him.” I shivered. “It is as if his shade followed me from the city and even here it shadows

me with the darkness of that day.”

“Tomorrow we will leave libations at Andraste’s shrine. The goddess will not allow his shade to haunt you,” said Rhan firmly.

“And tonight I will be here.”

“Thank you,” I whispered to her. “It is good to be home,” I said sleepily as I rested my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes. As she had when we were children whispering our dreams to each other, my friend’s hand stroked my hair. I was replete and relaxed; my breath deepened. “Rhan?” At the edge of dreams I whispered the word as a question.

“I am here. I will always be here.”

“You have seen the battle?” I don’t think I would have asked had I not been in that mystical place between awake and asleep.

Her hand did not stop stroking my hair. “Parts of it. Yes.”

“Do I die?”

“No.” She spoke the word quickly, with no hesitation.

“That is good.” And then I knew nothing more until dawn.