Page 16 of Boudicca

The girls did as they were told. The tea and the warmth of the herbed water worked on them. Their eyes began to close and their breathing deepened as they rested more comfortably in the tub.

While the girls soaked in the healing warmth, Briallen spoke softly but urgently. “The Romans set fire to the stables. I’ll go see if any of the horses escaped. If so, I’ll catch one and ride for our warriors.”

Before I responded, I took a bucket already filled with the herb-steeped bathwater and got another fresh cloth from Mother’s sewing chest. I gestured for Briallen to join me in Arianell’s bedchamber.

“Take that ruined tunic off and sit so that I can see to your wounds.”

“I should clean your back first, my queen,” said Briallen.

“My bleeding has stopped. Yours has not. Sit,” I commanded.

Briallen sighed but shrugged out of her tattered tunic. “It shall be as you command, but I cannot sit.” She turned so that I could see the bloody sword slashes that covered her buttocks.

Kneeling beside the warrior, I began to clean her wounds. “They aren’t men. They aren’t animals. Those who did this to you—to me—to my daughters—are monsters.”

Briallen’s voice sounded ancient and incredibly tired. “They aren’t monsters. They’re just men from a people who do not value women. It could happen to any men, even our own.”

“Do you excuse them?”

Briallen snorted. “Och, no. I only explain. The Romans are rabid animals and should be culled from our land.”

I stood and gently, carefully, cleaned the lacerations that covered Briallen’s breasts and ribs. And as I tended the warrior, it was like a dam loosened within me. Words flowed, horrible and thick, almost drowning me.

“They came from the fen, but I don’t understand how. How could they have made their way through the fen in the fog? Why didn’t the sucking mud swallow them?”

Briallen moved her shoulders. “I do not know. But had they come by the main road we would have heard them and not been taken by surprise.”

“Heard them, yes. But still not been able to defend ourselves with almost all of our warriors at the spring games.” My rage—which was now always there, just waiting to boil over again—felt good. It warmed me. It burned away grief and pain and fear. “They knew the warriors would be gone. They had to have known.”

“How? Tribe Trinovantes are our allies and not in league with Rome.”

“I do not know, but I will find out.” I spread healing salve over Briallen’s wounds. “Some of these need to be sewn.”

“We don’t have time for such things, my queen. Wrap the wounds tightly. They will heal.”

“They will scar terribly,” I said.

Briallen’s feral smile showed missing teeth from where the last Roman had struck her with the hilt of his pugio. “Aye, that they will. It will be my honor to wear them.”

I nodded and wrapped the worst of her wounds tightly before taking a plain tunic from Arianell’s clothing chest and carefully helping the warrior into it.

“Now you, my queen.”

Gratefully, I slid the filthy, torn clothes from my body and kicked them into a pile with the warrior’s bloody rags. Then I stood still, breathing in small, shallow gasps as Briallen cleaned the long lacerations the whip had carved into the soft flesh of my back, and then sighed in relief as she smeared salve into them. Moving quietly and carefully, I went to my chamber and dressed in a soft linen tunic as Briallen added hot water to the girls’ bath and took the empty mugs from them.

When I rejoined Briallen, I checked on my daughters, who were drowsy and pink faced from the steamy bath. While I was dressing, the warrior had brewed us herbal tea, rich with honey, which we drank quickly. It gave me the strength to go to where I’d hidden the satchel just before the Romans had attacked. I breathed a sigh of relief when I lifted it and felt the reassuring outline of my husband’s heavy torque. I grimaced as I slid the satchel over my shoulder and its leather strap pressed against my wounded back, but I needed to keep the goddess’s gift close.

Briallen went to me and bowed stiffly. “My queen, allow me to ride to our warriors. If I leave now our warriors may catch Decianus before the river reaches the sea. We will cut him down like the rabid dog he is and send him to be judged in their Underworld.”

I spoke firmly to my warrior. “Brave Briallen, I want vengeance, too, but our people will begin returning, and some of them will be wounded. Today we need healers more than soldiers. The Druids must be within a day’s ride; they always travel with healers. My injuries are not as grave as yours. You remain here and see to my daughters. I shall go meet the Druids and ask that they send a rider south to fetch our warriors.”

Briallen began to protest, but my hand on her arm stopped her words. “You cannot help my daughters if you die on the road to the Trinovantes. I must think of our people. What is best for all of us at this moment is notto ride after a mere centuria and a tax collectorwho are already dead.”

Briallen nodded. “Aye, your curse.”

“Andraste heard me. I know it as sure as I know my own name. We will kill every one of them. First we heal. Then we will have our vengeance.”

Briallen’s shoulders slumped. “I will do as you command, my queen.”