Page 47 of Boudicca

Chapter XVIII

An Iceni war chariot is a thing of dangerous beauty. For our first practice session Maldwyn chose his favorite. It was decorated with the Iceni sickle moons and sheets of gold pounded flat and thin and wrapped around the front of the cart so that it glittered in the sunlight.

“We have time, so you could begin with a simpler, lighter chariot,” he said as we worked together to yoke two matched stallions into their harnesses. The pair was a striking gray; they seemed as if they’d been dipped in moonbeams. “But I have seen you take up the chariot reins on the practice field. You are ready for this challenge now, so why waste time?”

I looked up from threading the double reins through the dorsal yoke. “You’ve seen me?”

His cheeks flushed, but he replied nonchalantly, “As did most of the tribe when you and Prasutagus drilled together.”

I smiled as I knotted the reins, remembering the mock fights my husband had so loved. I’d preferred to battle him from horseback using wooden practice swords, but he was more partial to the showier light chariots. We’d used spears with their wooden ends flattened so that it was almost impossible to strike maiming blows, though I’d often emerged from our sessions bruised and sore. Once I’d drawn my husband’s blood when the flattened end had scraped across his bare bicep as we thundered past each other. My smile widened and I could almost hear his proud laughter again as he held up his injured arm and declared me fierce as Andraste.

I was going to work hard to prove his jesting words true.

When I met Maldwyn’s gaze he was smiling, too. “Thinking of the day you bested our chief?”

“I was.” My smile sobered. “I want you to teach me to best all who come against me.”

“It will be my honor, my queen.” He tossed a spear to me that I easily caught. It was not the blunt-ended practice spear with which I’d been accustomed. I raised one brow.

“Balance is what is most important when fighting from a chariot. Practice spears, with their blunted, wooden ends, have a different center of balance than a real spear,” he explained.

I nodded and hefted the weapon. “We have time, but not time to waste.”

“Yes, Queen Boudicca.”

“The practice field is ready!” shouted a young warrior who galloped up to us.

My gaze went from his excited face to Maldwyn, and the horse master again understood my unspoken question. “The warriors must have spread the word that their queen is taking to the field.”

I felt a shiver of nerves. I was used to drilling with the warriors, especially those of my guard, but this was something entirely different than simply practicing skills I had never believed I would use in battle. Now these warriors who flooded into Iceni did so because of me—because I had uttered a curse and proclaimed war against an enemy that seemed unstoppable. I wiped my sweaty hand on my riding leathers. I could not fail them. I would not fail them.

“I’m ready.” I hoped saying it would make it so.

Maldwyn handed me a long wooden shield made of oak covered in leather with cross strips of wide iron. He turned and placed a half dozen more spears in a leather holder tied to the sideboard of the carriage. Then he climbed up into the chariot and went to his knees on the ribs of the carriage, which were made of leather thongs woven together and attached to the sideboards so that they were suspended above the wooden floor. The leather weaving added a supple platform that allowed us to move more easily with the chariot as it thundered across the land. Chariot drivers were unarmed. Their only defenses were the arched sideboards and the shieldlike front of the carriage, which Maldwyn would kneel behind as he guided our team into battle.

I stepped up beside him and took a wide-legged stance, holding my shield before me in my left hand and my spear in my right.

“Ennis, Finley,hup!” Maldwyn snapped the reins and the well-trained pair moved out together. Necks bowed, they were a beautiful sight as they eagerly pulled against the traces. Maldwyn clucked and murmured to them. Their sensitive ears flicked back to catch his words while they pranced and tried to contain their desire to surge forward, ready for the excitement of battle.

As we emerged onto the practice field I was surprised to see that warriors framed it, and when they caught sight of me a mighty cheer lifted from them.“Victory! Victory!”

It should have made me more nervous, having so many Iceni watch me with such hope bright in their eyes, and perhaps it would have had not their shouts ofVictorybeen echoed by the throatykraa-kraathat came from dozens of ravens who circled over my chariot and then landed in the boughs of Grandmother Oak.

Rhan stepped from the side of the field. “Andraste gives sign!” Her voice lifted above the warriors’ cheers and the ravens’ encouragement. “The goddess of war greets Victory!” She nodded to me, her grin more of a baring of her teeth than a smile, before she moved back to rejoin the watching Iceni.

Six chariots faced us from across the field. Each of them held a warrior-sized straw target strapped to the carriages beside kneeling drivers.

“They’ll be moving?” I asked Maldwyn. The only moving target I’d ever drilled with had been Prasutagus, and then my spear had been blunted and my husband and I had used the light practice chariots that were more easily maneuvered.

Maldwyn turned his head to meet my gaze. “Yes, as will the Romans. The warriors know to begin slowly, but move they must. This is how we train for war.”

This is not play or show.The rest of what he meant remained unspoken, but I heard the truth in my mind and nodded. “Yes. I understand.”

“For these first runs, brace your shield against the front of thecarriage, here.” He guided my shield into place. As it settled in a grooved notch, I could feel my weight shifting and my balance becoming surer. “When the straw targets are replaced by living warriors, you’ll practice lifting the shield to protect you against spears and swords.”

“And that won’t be today?” I asked, only half in jest.

The corner of his lips lifted. “Not today.” He turned his attention from me back to the field. “But perhaps tomorrow. Ready yourself. You have six opponents. We will drill until you have struck each of them in one run.”