Page 7 of Queen of the Hollow Hills (Eagles and Crows #3)

CHAPTER 6

I slipped from the hall and through the kitchens, grabbing one last blackberry tart as I made my way up the back stairwell. The servants bowed or curtseyed to me as I went. When I was a girl, I often used the stairwells to avoid unwanted chatter in the halls when things were too loud or too busy. The narrow hallways led to all sections of the fort, creating a maze of their own, built partially into the mountain itself. Off the hallways, narrow cracks in the cave walls disappeared into unseen caves.

A cool wind blew from within the mountain as I passed one such place at a junction in the stairwell. To my left, a crack in the rocks where the fort and mountain met was one of several natural caves we used as larders for the kitchens.

“Cartimandua,” a soft voice whispered from within.

Dim light shimmered from the small brazier that burned inside. In a shadow reflected on the wall, I saw the shape of something like a man.

My breath caught.

“Cartimandua, come. Come into the shadows,” the voice whispered.

I touched my chest where the Cailleach has placed a heart of stone.

“Come…” the voice hissed.

I turned from the stairwell and made my way into the larder. It was cool there. Baskets and wooden bins full of goods, made ready for the winter, filled the place. I passed through a narrow passage into the back of the space where the cave wall bent toward the ground and slim cracks in the rocks, too small for an adult to pass through, breathed cold air. I saw movement away from the light of the single brazier that burned at the back of the cave.

Sensing I was not alone, I paused. “I am here,” I whispered, my heart beating loudly in my chest.

“Queen of the hollow mountains, beware. In fires born amongst marble halls, darkness whispers to purple-draped madmen of the riches beyond Ocean. Do not pause to dream, crow queen. Build your nest of bone, for men’s greed knows no bounds. Around you is darkness, death, and false hearts.”

“What false hearts? Whose?”

“You must be watchful to protect what is yours— ours —queen of the misty mountains. Protect the hollow hills. Protect us all.”

“I honor you, but do not play with words. Tell me what you have foreseen so I may better stamp out the fires.”

But the one who had spoken was gone, and I was alone in the shadows again.

Death. False hearts. And purple-draped madmen.

The last I understood well. Although Corva was already establishing my network of spies, I was too ignorant of the giant beyond our shores. I needed to learn more. My Latin was passable but weak. My knowledge of the Roman gods and manners was limited. Whatever was coming, I needed to be ready.

Lifting the hem of my dress, I returned downstairs.

False hearts…

The little people of the hollow hills often riddled where clarity was needed. In this case, a false heart could be anyone. Others thought I had played my hand with the Carvetti wrongly. I told myself they did not know Venu as I did. What if I was wrong? Was he the false heart?

When I returned to the main hall, everyone had gone save the servants. I made my way down the hall until I found Kamden.

“My queen? We thought you had gone to rest,” he told me.

“I am looking for Corva.”

“I believe she went into the city. Anything I can assist you with, Queen Cartimandua?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you, Kamden. It was a perfect night. Thank you for your efforts. Ulixes would be proud of you.”

His cheeks grew red. “Thank you, my queen. That is a great compliment.”

“Well deserved,” I replied, touching his shoulder.

Leaving Kamden, I made my way to my workroom. I went to the window and looked down at the courtyard below. How could I, a foreign queen whose lands were so far away, penetrate the massive machine of Rome?

But the answer was obvious.

Rome was massive, and that was its weakness.

I would find a way.

The day the chieftains left, Cormag also departed with Aedan on his epic adventure/punishment.

“Don’t let him work you too hard,” I told Cormag, grinning at Aedan.

“Your husband lost the bet. I’m afraid you cannot help him now, Queen Cartimandua,” Aedan replied.

“You didn’t need to hang us with you,” Brodi told Cormag.

“We will endure the trials of this life together and will leave it together. Isn’t that what we have always said?” Cormag replied.

Damhan huffed. “That was before you made foolish bets and moved us all to Brigantes lands.”

“Are you complaining about being in Brigantes lands, Votadini?” I asked. “We do have you surrounded.”

“I would not dream of it,” Damhan replied, giving me a brief but playful smile.

I chuckled, bent to pat Scratch and Beef, then went to give my husband one last kiss before he left.

“Be safe,” he told me, briefly setting his hand on my stomach.

“And you,” I replied.

Cormag gave me a quick kiss then mounted, joining the others.

The Votadini and their dogs, with the exception of Fergus, who waited at my side, rode off.

Cormag whistled for the beast once, but Fergus merely wagged his tail and watched him go.

Shaking his head, Cormag turned back then rode off.

“You’re hurting his feelings,” I told the dog who gazed up at me adoringly.

Chuckling, I watched until the men were out of sight then made my way back inside. There was work to be done.

A few days after Cormag left, I woke to discover a blanket of white snow had spread across the landscape. Opening the shutters, I stood at the window. The landscape all around the fort was covered in pristine white, and the sky overhead was a shade of dark blue. The last of the brown leaves fluttered on the very tips of the limbs of the trees, threatened to be pulled away by the wind at any moment. The branches were covered in pristine snow. Everything looked new, and with it came the promise of a better year.

My stomach rolled. My hand went to my belly. “Easy, little one.”

“Little ones, ” a soft, feminine voice whispered.

“Little ones?”

There was no answer.

My brow furrowed. No one in my family had ever given birth to twins. But my husband’s lineage was not exactly ordinary. Was it possible? I closed my eyes, feeling the fresh breeze on my face and imagining two wild little boys chasing one another through the corridors with wooden swords. Or maybe twin girls, sisters like the Cailleach and Brigantia, riding bareback across the fields of Rigodonum and making Corva sweat with nerves.

The images made me smile.

Littles ones …

To rule the Brigantes after me.

Opening my eyes, I breathed slow and deep as I looked out at the pristine landscape. Winter had come once more, and now, all would be silent as my little ones grew. My thoughts drifted back to the meeting of the chieftains and Cormag’s words to Venu. Winter made angry men’s hearts grow bitter. What I didn’t know was whose heart was false.

Beware false hearts.

I closed my eyes, feeling the breeze on my face. “Thank you for your warnings, little ones of the hollow hills.”

Giving myself one more long moment of quiet, I closed the shutters and prepared for the day. Corva had been busy spending my silver. Coin had gone to Chieftain Brennan at Mydils for building. We needed new ships designed to pass to Gaul and back. This winter, we would make ready. Working in secret, the priestess had also bought me loyal men and women who would seek out a place with neighboring tribes, at roundhouses and forts, in kitchens and stables, to be my eyes and ears. Princess Alys had gone from Rigodonum very happy with the skilled orphan girl who would be her maid.

My murder of crows.

Now, to see what they would discover.

The next few weeks passed busily. I traded messengers with the other chieftains to gain their help, ensuring that the Carvetti were reasonably stocked to endure the long winter. In Rigodonum, we were prepared to settle in for the Cailleach’s cold season. When spring came again, I would renew my father’s work on the expansion of the fort.

And after a brief time away, Cormag returned looking happy and full of stories. My heart was warmed to see that the Votadini had found friendship with Chieftain Aedan.

Corva, after weeks of searching, finally returned from Mydils with the man she proposed as my tutor on all things Rome.

Standing in my workroom, I listened as the Roman, a very tall, lean, and handsome gentleman named Fabius Tiberius—or Fabius the Fabulous, as he introduced himself—stood before me, extolling his many qualities. “I have performed in all the greatest venues and am widely known as one of the finest actors in all of Rome,” he said, gesturing broadly. “My education and gift with languages surpass many senators. And I know all manner of plays with which I can pass the long winter to delight you, Queen Cartimandua. And more, I know the common tongues. And,” he added, leaning toward me as he raised his eyebrows, “all the gossip. Want to know who is bedding whom? Want to know who is plotting murder? I know it all.”

“I suspect your knowledge of such things is rather moldy, given how long you’ve been away from Rome,” I said skeptically. “And what was your crime for banishment again?”

“I must admit, I’m a bit of a scamp, great queen,” he said with a grin. “Actors. Everyone loves an actor. Let’s say I had a dalliance with the wrong senator’s wife.” Given the man’s good looks, with his curly brown hair and bright-blue eyes, which he accented with liner, I was not all that surprised.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Then why are you still alive?”

“Oh, well, the man tried to have me murdered, of course, but my beloved Claudia paid my way out of Rome. I was trying to make my way amongst the Gauls, but they have no humor for theater at all. Your Regnenses people, where this red-robed savior found me, liked that I could juggle and dance but had no interest in the finer things. I know all the greatest works. I am an educated man. I know the writings of Plato and Aristotle and have directed and performed in plays by Plautus and Terrence. Why my beloved Claudia didn’t send me home to the beautiful island of Capri, I will never know. Perhaps she knew her husband would track me there and have me murdered,” he said, then sighed dramatically. “But here I am, grateful to have finally found a court with a refined queen who has excellent taste and more than cheese curds and ale between her ears.”

I looked to Cormag, who could not hide the confusion on his features. The Roman was so far removed from the Votadini's ways that he might as well have come from the stars themselves.

“You are an actor, sir. How do I know I can trust you?” I asked.

“You hit upon an excellent point, Queen Cartimandua. I am so talented that you would not know I was deceiving you,” he replied, causing Corva to laugh. Fabius shot her an offended look, then continued. “The truth of the matter is, I am a banished man. I have nowhere to go, and my skillset is rather limited. Certainly, I could find a place amongst the Greeks, but,” he said, then shuddered, “Lord Bacchus sent me signs, which led me here. I have faith in him.”

“Lord Bacchus?”

“The god of wine and pleasure. He is my chief god, great queen.”

“Well, you will find little wine and only hard-won pleasure in Brigantes lands. We are a serious people. I am not sure you will be happy here.”

“Oh, but that is why I am needed here. Your king consort looks to need a laugh. Do you care for watching acrobatics, King Consort Cormag? I am quite adept.”

Cormag crossed his arms and scowled.

I swallowed a laugh. “Very well. We shall give it a try,” I said.

“Oh, great queen, I?—”

“As a tutor, first and foremost. And if the time comes, we’ll consider frolics.”

“Thank you, Queen Cartimandua. I promise you that you will not be sorry. May Bacchus be praised.”

I turned to Corva. “See him settled,” I said, then turned to Fabius. “I will remind you that you are not in Rome. If you get into unwanted dalliances with a Brigantes woman, you will be skinned alive and hung from the gate.”

Fabius lifted one finger, thinking a moment to protest, then smiled demurely at me. “I would not risk my position here for anything,” he reassured me with a coquettish smile.

Rolling her eyes, Corva said, “Come on,” and then led the man from the room.

I turned back to Cormag.

“He will not be tutoring me,” Cormag said.

I chuckled. “I would not ask it.”

“Can he be trusted?”

“His situation will buy his loyalty to some degree. As for his character, we will see.”

“He is quite full of character.”

“Indeed.”

Despite Fabius’s flamboyant nature, he was true to his word. He was an educated man, and as it turned out, a very good tutor.

“Very good, Queen Cartimandua,” he said, reviewing my work. We had been sitting at the table for the last several hours, Fabius refining my alphabet and sweeping the dust off what little Latin I had been taught as a girl under Bellnorix’s direction. “You remember very well.”

“My grandfather did not trust the Romans would not return to these shores. He saw I had a tutor as a girl, but the man died and was not replaced. As time passed, fear of another Caesar faded.”

“Do you fear another Caesar?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

“I fear nothing, but distrust everyone and everything.”

Fabius laughed. “Then you will rule a very long time, Queen Cartimandua. Now, let us begin with this conjugation again,” he said, pointing. When he did so, however, he rubbed his hands and then shifted in his seat, pulling his cloak tighter.

“Cold?” I asked.

“I am cold everywhere I go. I am from Capri, a sun-drenched island surrounded by blue waters and always bathed in sunlight. My blood runs thin as summer wine. All the world is cold outside of Capri.”

“I’m sorry you were not able to return home.”

“Well,” Fabius replied with a sigh. “The senator is old, drinks, overeats, and farts constantly. He will be dead soon enough, and when he is—with your leave, of course—I will go home.”

“Then I will selfishly toast his good health for one more season, at least.”

“Rascal,” Fabius scolded me, and then we again turned to our work.

Later that evening, after Fabius and I had gone our separate ways, I sought out Kamden.

“My queen?”

“Kamden, I need your help. Fabius is underdressed for a hard winter. I would see him outfitted with new boots, gloves, cloak, shirts, and trousers. A full wardrobe. Will you attend to it?”

“Of course, my queen. And may I add, we were skeptical of the man at first, but he has brought great color to the staff. We all enjoy his presence here.”

“Good. Then let’s see that he does not suffer frostbite on the Cailleach’s account,” I replied.

“I will see it done.”

“Thank you,” I replied, then headed off again, glad of my luck. A bit of coin spread through Regnenses territory and beyond to the ports at Gaul confirmed Fabius’s story. Apparently, he’d been laughed out of taverns in Gaul. He had been performing on the streets in Regnenses lands before Corva’s eyes discovered him. Nothing had disproved his story, and the man seemed genuinely grateful to have landed in Rigodonum. While I knew nothing of his half-goat god, I was eager to learn more about his people and their ways.

Because something told me that one day, it might save my life.