Page 101 of Boudicca

My gaze went to Rhan. “Leave that to me.” I stood. “We march to the Eryri Mountains for the winter. Cadoc, send our swiftest ridersto Thetford and have them move our winter stores to meet us there immediately.”

“As you ask, so will I do,” said my shield.

“Queen Boudicca, with your leave I will send my shield to Caratacus to alert him of our approach,” said Comux.

“You have it,” I said. “We break camp now. It will be a difficult march. We must move from dawn until dark each day. This weather will chill our bones, but I agree with Comux. Tucked into the valley, we will winter safely.”

“If our supplies arrive in time,” added Addedomaros.

“That is why we are sending our swiftest riders,” I said. “Do you not have stores at your winter stronghold, Trinovantes chief?”

Addedomaros cleared his throat. “Aye, we do.”

“And they are closer than Thetford, correct?” I asked.

“Aye.”

I smiled. “Then it is a good thing the Trinovantes are known to have the swiftest horses of all the tribes.” As the members of the war council left and camp began to break, I called, “Rhan, Maldwyn, stay for a moment.” I motioned for them to join me near the fire. “I know how we can move this army to the mountains without the tribes talking of it to the Romans.” The Iceni seer and horse master turned curious gazes on me but remained silent. I drew a deep breath. I believed my thinking was sound, but when dealing with magick and the gods, one could never be sure. I locked my gaze with my dearest friend’s. “Rhan, they will be silent for you.”

Her brows lifted and I saw confusion in her dark eyes as she squinted at me, trying to figure out what I meant. Then she blinked several times and nodded slowly. “I understand, but it is not for me that they will be silent. They will be showing their love and respect for my people, who are no more.”

“Druids?” Maldwyn asked.

“Yes,” Rhan said, still not looking away from my gaze. “Adara and I could very well be the last of the Druids.”

I took her shoulders in my hands. “I do not believe you are thelast. There must be more Druids scattered among the tribes. After we force the Romans from our lands, we will find them, gather them, and rebuild Ynys Môn. We will replant the sacred oaks and a new generation of Druids will thrive there.”

“It is a lovely dream,” Rhan said softly.

“It is a dream that can be made real,” I said. “Will you do it, Rhan? Will you lead us to the mountains and use your powers to keep us secret and safe?”

“I will.”

“Harness Ennis and Finley,” I told Maldwyn. “They will lead the army with Rhan riding beside me in the chariot.”

“As you ask, so will I do.”

When he left to prepare the chariot, I ordered one of Wulffaed’s daughters to call for Briallen, who came quickly as she’d been close by at my daughters’ tent.

“Briallen, gather my guard. Have them dress in their best and be mounted. They will lead the army with me.”

“Yes, my queen!”

While the camp broke around us, Rhan and I went into my tent to prepare. We didn’t speak but took our time painting our faces and dressing our hair. I did not wear my battle uniform. Instead I chose the Beltane dress that had been my mother’s last gift to me and a thick fur cloak that had been dyed Iceni blue.

Rhan painted her face as I’d seen Derwyn do before major rituals in bold strips of white and black. As I watched her ready herself, I realized that she was now the senior-ranking Druid alive. Adara was older but gifted in healing more than in the Sight. Rhan was the new high Druid. The thought humbled me.

Rhan outlined the Ogham symbols tattooed on her face and neck in white so that their black lines seemed to glow, inky and powerful. She wore her ovate colors of greens and browns woven together. Around her slim waist she wrapped a rope of sacred mistletoe. She placed a wide necklace of bones and feathers, beads and shells, around her neck. It clacked and clanked whenever she moved. Lastly, from itsplace outside my tent, Rhan lifted the sigil that I’d taken into all three battles and carried it with us as my queen’s guard escorted us to the waiting chariots.

I drove Ennis and Finley to the head of our army. Maldwyn rode on one side of me. Cadoc and Abertha were in their familiar positions on my other side, only this time I was the only one of us driving a chariot. Behind us my guard stretched across the road, looking fierce. And after them came my people in what seemed an unending sea of tribal colors.

As we started forward, the sleet shifted to snow. Large flakes caught on our clothes as they fell lazily from a sky so low and gray it seemed if I stretched my arms up high enough I could touch it.

We passed the first farm that had not been burned to the ground, and I saw a group of people peering at us from behind a hedgerow. Rhan and I wore our hair long and unbound. The winter wind lifted it so that my thick, flame-colored mane tangled with Rhan’s smooth moonlight mass—fire and ice.

With graceful hands and rounded arms, Rhan traced patterns in the air before her, and as her dark gaze slid to look at the curious faces of the farmers, she pressed a finger against her lips and said one word that the wind picked up and carried around us.

“Silence!”