Page 141 of Boudicca

The Romans would discover us.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and called, “Andraste! Help me! Help us!”

“This way! Someone called on one of their gods!” a Roman shouted.

I am here. Leap. I shall catch you.Andraste’s voice soothed my heatedmind as I recalled the rest of what she had said to me the last time I’d entered Annwn and called upon her.It is not the last leap of faith you will make to save yourself—to save my victory. The next time I ask it of you, do not hesitate.

I turned to look at my girls. “Follow me into Annwn. We must—”

“Mama, look!” Ceri pointed.

My gaze returned to the archway. Through it stood the white stag watching us with wise green eyes.

“We follow the stag.” I amended what I had been going to say, hope fluttering weakly within my chest, as broken as my heart. “We go silently single file.”

I guided Tân through the archway. Instantly my vision changed. It seemed we’d entered a strange tunnel. I could still hear the soldiers as they combed the hill for my people. I could even see them, though indistinctly.

Soundlessly, we rode on, slipping from shadow to shadow. Like long, elegant fingers on a dark hand, they reached for us, closed around us, and hid us as we were passed on to the next reaching shadow. The stag’s white coat was dappled with the grasping darkness. The horses labored as we climbed the steep slope, ever upward, surrounded by death.

“Over here!” The Roman soldier sounded as if he was only feet away from us. The stag halted. I pulled Tân up and turned, pressing my finger to my lips again as I looked into the pale faces of my terrified daughters. “There’s something strange there. Do you see it? Something in the shadows.”

“Yes! Probably women trying to hide from us,” said a second soldier.

“Come on out, little chick, chick, chicks,” clucked a third soldier, his voice even closer.

I could see them now. Six legionnaires, heavily armed, approaching us. With a whisper of metal, Briallen drew her sword. I reached behind me to where my own blade rested strapped to my back, but before I could draw it Sunne and Mona pushed their heads through the dark barrier within which we traveled. Side by side they faced theRomans. Their ears were flat against their heads, and pointed teeth bared, they growled deeply and threateningly.

The Romans stopped as if they’d walked into a wall.

“Romulus and Remus.” One soldier spoke the names as if they were a prayer, bowing low as he backed away.

Together Sunne and Mona advanced a step.

One soldier held up both hands, palms out. He spoke softly to the wolves. “Brothers, we see you and we leave you to sacrifice whomever you’ve marked as yours.” Each soldier continued bowing low as they backed away from the wolves and disappeared into the underbrush.

Sunne and Mona padded to us, tongues lolling.

“Good girl, Mona,” Ceri whispered to her wolf.

“Well done, Sunne, my boy,” Enfys said softly.

The stag started forward again. Silent once more, we followed. As we climbed the slope, we passed within a hand’s length of many legionnaires. None of them so much as glanced our way. Bodies were crumpled mounds among the dense underbrush and thickets of brambles. I looked to see if any of them moved.

They did not.

I looked to see if I recognized any of them.

My spirit shuddered. Wulffaed was there, in the center of a circle made of the bodies of her daughters and Phaedra. They were dead. They were all dead.

Time lost meaning. It seemed the climb would never end. Tân’s coat was dark with sweat. There was no sky or sun visible above us. All I could truly see was the stag before me, my daughters and their wolves, Briallen behind them, and the shadows cloaking us.

I’d begun to believe we might wander this slope of death eternally when Tân surged up and then over the lip of the hill. I pulled her to a halt, trying to see through the reaching shadows. The stag was still there—still ahead of me—but now he was picking his way down the slope, haunches almost touching the ground because of the steepness of the decline. The voices of soldiers had faded. There were no more screams. No more shouts. I turned and whispered to Enfys, “We made it up the hill. Keep going, but slowly. Watch the stag. Tell Ceri.”

Enfys nodded and turned to whisper to her sister. I waited until the stag paused and looked back at me before I urged Tân forward.Thank you, Rhan, for bringing Tân to me. Most horses would balk or refuse what I’ve asked of her today, but she is ever trustworthy, and because of that the other three horses follow her without fear.

My thighs ached and Tân was breathing hard when the ground finally leveled under us. The stag broke into a trot, and our horses valiantly kept pace behind him. We trotted on and on. The stag led us through several streams, halting only long enough for our horses to drink, and then he would start forward at a trot again. Wearily, we followed until we came to a stream that was wider than the others before it. All along the bank were sacred white willows moving in a breeze that did not touch us. The stag waded through the stream and then turned and watched as we did the same. This time instead of trotting on, the mighty creature dipped his heavily antlered head, and then as he lifted it his body rippled, elongated, and blazed with light.

When I’d blinked my vision clear, in the stag’s place stood a tall woman who wore a scarlet gown stitched with a silver stag across the bodice and a cloak of white deer hide over her shoulders. She tossed back her long, flame-colored hair. Antlers grew from her head. She looked steadily at me with eyes the color of emeralds.