Page 6 of Boudicca

“I accept your offering with gratitude. Please help me on with it, child. These old hands are not as nimble as they once were.”

“Of course, Grandmother.” The crone bowed so that I could slip it over her head.

There was an enormous inrushing of air, and fog blanketed us, obscuring my sight. When it cleared, the crone was gone. In her place stood a tall woman in the prime of her life. Her beauty was as wild and untamed as the mass of her thick hair that hung past her waist. It was the black of a raven’s wing and its ends were dyed the blue of the darkest, richest Iceni woad. Her body was tattooed in the same sapphire color in impossibly intricate knots and swirls that covered her bare, muscular arms and shoulders, and even decorated one side of her neck. Within the knots there were circles of hares and ravens in flight. In one hand the woman held a spear. The other rested on the generous curve of her waist. Her cloak was the scarlet of new blood, held in place by a thick golden chain. The cloak was stitched with gold and lifted in a breeze that touched nothing else, so that I could see the embroidery created a massive shield decorated with a charging boar that covered the entire garment and glittered with a life of its own.

I knew then in whose presence I stood. This wasn’t one of the fey. It also wasn’t my mother’s patroness, Brigantia. And with that realization my body went hot and then cold. I dropped quickly to my knees, bowed my head, and pressed my hands together to stop their trembling.

“Ah, Queen Boudicca, so you do recognize me!”

Chapter III

“Yes, mighty Andraste, I do.” I was amazed that my voice was so steady but kept my head bowed and continued to clutch my numb hands together.

The goddess used the spear to tap my shoulder gently, exactly where Briallen’s spear had so recently touched me. “Rise. I am pleased that you answered my call.”

I stood as the goddess sat on an oaken throne, carved in the shape of an enormous boar. “I did not have a choice!” I blurted. “Forgive me, goddess. I mean no disrespect.”

Andraste’s laughter made the willow boughs flutter. “You always have a choice, Boudicca, and you need not ask forgiveness for speaking your mind to me. It is a good mind. A strong one, though sometimes rather stubborn, much like your husband.”

I lifted my head and met her gaze but could not speak at all.

The goddess’s expression softened. “Ah, you still mourn. You loved him well.”

I nodded and blinked hard, determined not to weep before the fierce patroness of Tribe Iceni.

“As did I—flaws and all.” Like the ravens filling the tree behind her, the goddess cocked her head and studied me. “I wonder, will you repeat his mistakes?”

“Mistakes? Prasutagus was a great chief.”

“He was,” Andraste agreed. “But even great leaders make mistakes. Our Prasutagus made one when he chosenotto heed my warnings. It is a mistake he will pay for in many lifetimes to come.”

Her harsh words made me feel dizzy with shock. “Mighty goddess, I do not understand.”

“You will. You, too, will have a choice to make. Just as you did today.”

“But youcompelledme into the forest.”

Andraste reached out and a golden goblet appeared in her hand. The heady smell of honeyed mead filled the space between us. The goddess drank deeply before replying.

“I did compel you, but you could have closed yourself to my call. Had you pulled your furs up around your ears and gone back to sleep, your destiny would be a vastly different one, and so would your people’s present and future.” Andraste drank again and then continued. “Or you could have answered my call but turned away from the crone.”

I shook my head. “No, I would not do that. It is not the way of the Iceni.”

“You might be surprised what people will do when they put their own desires first. I sent your husband omens, one and then another. Still, he chose not to hear me and instead allied himself with the enemy and gave away half of his land.”

Another jolt of shock sliced me. The goddess spoke of the treaty Prasutagus had signed with Rome, making the distant emperor, Nero, co-regent of the Iceni along with me should Prasutagus die before our eldest daughter knew eighteen years.

“But he did see your omens! The hare he loosed to show him the way ran in circles before it collapsed and died.”

Andraste nodded. “It did. And the raven?”

“It was killed by a golden eagle directly over my husband’s head after he invoked your name!”

“Indeed.”

I brushed back a lock of thick hair that had pulled free of my braid. “Prasutagus said the omens were clear. That is why he gave his oath to Rome, making the emperor co-regent with me should he die early.Which is exactly what happened!”

“Yes, Prasutagus’s heart was the weakest thing about him. But my omens did not foretell his death. And his question to me had nothing to do with his mortality. His question waswhether he should bow to Rome. Look at the omens again and tell me what you see, Queen Boudicca.”