Page 25 of Queen of the Hollow Hills (Eagles and Crows #3)

CHAPTER 24

T he next few weeks passed in an odd silence. Not long after the chieftains left, Corva came to me.

“My queen, with your permission, I will ride west.”

“West?”

“I am still hunting an archer.”

Unconsciously, my hand went to my cheek. “Very well.”

“If you need me here…”

“No. Go. It is quiet here now.”

Corva nodded slowly, then said, “When the Dardani fell to the Carvetti, I lost everything. My family. My home. My tribe. And for a young woman often complimented on her looks, my beauty,” she said, motioning to her scarred body. “The pain was so surreal, it felt like it would never end. It did eventually quiet. Do not rush yourself to end your grieving.”

“Thank you, Corva.”

With that, she departed, and the rest of us sought our own way out of the pain.

Cormag threw himself into finishing my father’s labors to expand Rigodonum.

To try to escape, I focused on my work. My first task was to see to it that Greer and her daughter had everything they needed at their new home in the city.

“You do not have to go,” I told Greer again. “You are welcome to stay on here. You are a competent woman. There is much you can do here.”

“No, my queen. You are generous to offer, but no.” She did not say more, but I knew her thoughts. While we had reassured her time and time again that we did not hold her to blame for what happened to the princesses, she also felt the pinch of guilt—was it something she had done or failed to do that had led to their deaths? Like myself, she was riddled with unnamed emotions.

“You and Heather are welcome to return any time.”

Greer smiled sadly. “You are good to offer, my queen. And we are grateful for your help securing our new home in the city.”

“If you need anything, you must never hesitate to ask.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Queen Cartimandua.”

With that, Greer and Heather loaded into the carriage with crates and sacks of supplies and made their way from the king’s house. I watched as the mule pulled their little cart through the gate and then disappeared into the city, the gates swinging closed once more.

I stared at the closed gate.

Greer had come to help me care for my daughters. Now, they were gone. There was no need for Greer to be here any longer. In a few weeks, all signs of them had been erased from the world.

My hand drifted to my stomach, where the marks on my skin from my round belly remained. And behind it, the hollow feeling. My children were gone. I looked at the trees overhead, watching as they swayed, the green leaves fluttering.

I had heard Corva question Greer about the hours leading up to the girls’ death. The woman had not fed them anything unusual, and no strangers had come about them. There was no new staff in the kitchens or elsewhere in the fort. And no one had seen any strangers afoot. I had not been well enough to truly process what Corva had been asking, but it was plain to me now…

Corva was trying to determine if the princesses had been murdered.

They had been, but not by human hands.

The Cailleach had taken them as sacrifice.

Because of me.

Feeling eyes on me, I turned and looked up at the face of the fort, spotting Verbia in her chamber window.

She waved for me to come.

I returned to the fort and up the stairs to Verbia’s chamber on the highest level. Nettle met me at the door. I entered to find Verbia seated at her gameboard. While the game of fidchell we had started weeks ago remained unchanged, Verbia looked so thin, and her skin had an odd yellow tint.

“Verbia, are you well?” I asked her, feeling alarmed. So lost in my own grief, I had barely seen her these past weeks. Suddenly, stricken with guilt, I realized I had not paid her the attention I should have.

She waved for me to sit across from her and leaned forward to look at the playing board. After a moment, she moved one of the pieces.

I exhaled deeply and then moved a piece of my own.

My concentration then got lost in the game. Before I knew it, time had passed and Verbia and I were closing in on the end of our match.

I sat back, setting my crossed fingers under my chin, and considered.

Finally, Verbia picked up a piece and moved it.

I smirked, then leaned forward, advancing my piece and making the match-winning move.

I laughed lightly, then sat back. “Weeks in the making, and it is over like that.”

“That is the way of life, Cartimandua. It may end too soon or too late,” she said, taking my hand. “Your children are gone, and I am grieved for you. But, remember, you are queen. You are the mother to all Brigantes. They need you.”

“The Cailleach,” I whispered. “It was she who took my daughters as punishment. I denied her the blood sacrifice of two Brigantes girls. We used the Claws of the Cailleach to create magic to stop the Romans, but the Cailleach, she has punished me.”

Verbia stared at me. “Are you so certain of that? When you became queen, what charge did the Cailleach give you?” she asked, pointing to the mark on my chest.

“She bid me put the Brigantes first, before all things.”

“Then why would she punish you for doing as she demanded? You protected the Brigantes from the Romans and those Brigantes girls from death…as the Cailleach commanded.”

“But my daughters?—”

“Sometimes children die, Cartimandua. I lost five before the gods gave me Angharad. You and Cormag are young, and Brigantia is generous and healing. Do not give up hope. All trials can be won with a little patience,” she said, gesturing to the gameboard.

I smiled and leaned over and kissed her wrinkled cheek.

“Off,” she chided, waving me away. “Go on now, girl. You and that Roman of yours are both pests. Let me rest. I have been squarely defeated.”

“Never, Lady Sunshine,” I told her with a smile, kissing her again.

I bent to pet Nettle, then departed, returning downstairs to my workroom.

Was Verbia right? Had it merely been a coincidence? Children often took ill in their infancy and died, sometimes without explanation. Perhaps… Perhaps it had not been the Cailleach after all.

Oddly comforted by the thought that maybe, just maybe, I was not to blame for Regan’s and Aelith’s deaths, I slept soundly that night for the first time in weeks.

But in the morning, I woke to the news that Verbia was dead.