Page 140 of Boudicca

A roar came from behind us. Cadoc and Abertha jumped into their chariots. Maldwyn climbed into the cart,ourcart, while Ennis and Finley snorted and stomped in anticipation. Rhan went to Tân, took her reins, and handed them to me.

“Ride fast. Ride far. Be free, my queen, my love.” She turned to Maldwyn, who took her hand and helped her into the cart beside him. Her eyes remained on mine as Rhan strapped on my helmet.

As Maldwyn clucked to Ennis and Finley and wheeled the chariot around to go with Cadoc and Abertha back into the battle, the air around them rippled, like steam lifting from a boiling cauldron. The illusion was strong. I watched myself race away. Spear lifted and ready to strike, Queen Boudicca stood straight and proud beside her horse master and lover, drawing the attention of every Roman in sight. The fighting shifted—followed them—moving away from us toward the other end of the field.

Briallen’s voice came from beside me. “Now, my queen. We have little time.”

Woodenly, I mounted Tân and dug my heels into her flanks. She shot forward, galloping past the deserted caravans. Sunne and Mona were blurs beside me. I could hear the pounding of hooves as Briallenand my daughters raced after me. We ran until the forest forced us to pull the horses down to a walk. It was too steep, too carpeted with brambles and underbrush. I began to despair of finding the little path Rhan and I had taken, and then Tân shifted to the left, climbed through a patch of sticky brambles, and came out of them onto the trail. I pulled her up and then nudged her off the path. Enfys was behind me, followed by Ceri. Briallen guarded our rear.

“Keep following this little trail,” I told Enfys. My elder daughter nodded and kneed her horse around me.

As Ceri passed she said, “You must come, Mama.”

“I will, little dove. Keep going. Follow Enfys.” Briallen reached me. “The trail takes us to a stream,” I explained. “From there a rowan arch marks the entry to Annwn.”

My warrior nodded. Her face was so expressionless it seemed made of stone. “Do not make their sacrifice be for naught,” she said.

“I will be right behind you. Stay with the girls.”

As Tân followed Briallen, I allowed myself to look back at the battlefield. Through the trees I could catch glimpses of the fight, like how lightning illuminates only slivers of the night as it strikes.

My gaze couldn’t choose a place to settle. The battlefield had gone black with gore and rust with blood, soaking what had been thick green grasses. I couldn’t make out individuals, only shapes. The sounds that drifted to us were terrible. Shrieking horses. Screaming people. Cries for the goddess. Cries for mothers. My vision blurred with tears, and then a flash of color lit the dreadful tableau.

My cloak.

The red of my horsetail helmet.

The flash of light off Maldwyn’s chariot.

The chariot seemed to freeze in time as a spear sliced into the scene, the only thing moving with normal speed. It skewered Maldwyn through his neck, knocking him backward and out of the chariot.

Time sped up again. I saw Rhan reach for the reins and then she was swallowed by the chaos.

I opened my mouth to scream my grief, but no sound came from me.

Another color flashed across my gaze—another horsetail helmet, this one dyed woad blue. Abertha! I followed that proud slash of woad as she wove through the battlefield, throwing spear after spear, trying to reach the fighting into which Rhan’s chariot had disappeared. When the spears were gone, Abertha lifted her sword and sliced the enemy surrounding her.

The enemy that slowly, methodically closed the noose of soldiers around her.

The enemy that pulled her from the chariot, trampling the proud blue until it was no more.

I looked for Cadoc’s stag-horned helmet but did not see it. Was my shield already dead?

Pain tore my spirit, opening a crevice within me. Agony flowed with the blood of my people, soaking into this land I’d loved so well and fought so hard to keep free. It poured into me, flooding my body, attempting to fill the yawning crevice. It could not. My wound was too deep. No matter if I lived one day or many, I would carry the anguish of this battle, this loss, forever.

Tân turned one of the serpentine corners in the slender path, and the forest closed around me so that I could see no more of the death of my people.

“Mama!” Ceri’s voice carried back to me. “We found the stream!”

Chapter XLIV

My girls and Briallen had halted their horses by the stream. Their wolves had already waded through it and were sniffing the ground before the rowan arch.Where Rhan and I found the dead hare.Rhan...

“Is this the entrance, my queen?” asked Briallen.

I began to nod but froze as the clanking of armor, the crackling of brush, and the voices of Roman soldiers filled the forest around us. Ceri gasped but pressed her trembling hand over her mouth. Mona padded to her horse’s side, where she stood with her ears pricked, growling at the forest.

Quickly, I kneed Tân around the girls. I pressed my finger to my lips and then motioned for them to follow me. I waded through the stream and went to the archway. Peering through it, I saw movement in the underbrush all across the steep slope above us. Thick as lice, Roman soldiers canvassed the area, moving from the top of the hill down through the forest. A woman shrieked. Soldiers laughed and shouted. There were more screams that echoed through the forest around us, more sounds of death and brutality. They were moving ever closer to us. Desperately I urged Tân to the arched trees, looking for some evidence,anysign, that this truly was an entryway to Annwn, but I saw no opalescence of the sky, no welcoming mist, and did not hear the voice of my goddess.