Page 67 of Boudicca

Maldwyn met my gaze. “He will never hurt you or your girls again.”

“My mind knows that, but today when I heard his voice my body believed something different. I was suddenly back there on that horrible day.” I shivered and pulled my own pelt up around my shoulders. “And I almost allowed that fear to kill the three of us.”

“No, my queen. It wasn’t fear that had you reaching for your sword and moving to slit that pig’s throat. It was the warrior spirit within you. It was rage. It was confidence. It was skill. As Cadoc said, you would have killed them both. Then we would have gladly fought to our deaths by your side, and tonight instead of drinking Roman wine and eating Roman pork, we would be feasting with Andraste.”

As I studied his face, I saw the savage joy behind his words and I felt a rush of gratitude for this shy, patient warrior who had spent the past many months sharpening me so that I could be the blade Andraste would wield to avenge our people.

And the last of the horror of the day fell away from me as I realized Maldwyn was right. I hadn’t been afraid when I’d moved against Decianus. I’d been the arm of an avenging goddess.

I reached over and placed my hand on his shoulder. His savage expression warmed instantly to his familiar shy smile.

“Thank you,” I said. “For your faith.”

“Always.” Maldwyn’s smile sobered. “I will always have faith in Andraste and in you, my queen.”

A companionable silence settled over our little camp. I liked being there beside Maldwyn. We didn’t need to speak. His constancy warmed me with the fire, and soon Cadoc’s rhythmic snores made my eyelids heavy. I worried when my eyes closed that I would return to that day and the field and the whip, but I only dreamed that horses surrounded me, watching over me, keeping me safe.

***

We entered Tasceni not long after midday. Our village was alive with warriors and excitement, and as I made my way from the stables to the lodge, my people called jubilant greetings.

“Is Addedomaros still here?” I asked Briallen as my daughters rushed to hug me at the wide front doors of the lodge. I kissed them and scratched the gangly wolves’ ears.

“Yes. As is his son.” Briallen frowned as she answered me, and I wondered what the Trinovantes chief or his son had done.

Enfys and Ceri hugged me again and then hurried out the doors, explaining that they were going fishing with their wolves.

“Leave the boars be today,” I called after them. “Briallen is needed here.”

“Oh, Mama, don’t worry so!” Ceri said before the two of them disappeared from view, their wolves galloping at their sides.

“They aren’t going far,” said Briallen.

“Good, because I need you. First, have a rider leave immediately for Ynys Môn. Tell Derwyn that Gaius Suetonius Paulinus is marching the Fourteenth and Twentieth legions to raze the isle.”

“As you ask, so will I do, my queen.”

“Then send word to Abertha and Addedomaros that the war council is meeting. Cadoc and Maldwyn will join us shortly. Gather my guard. Have them wait close to the lodge. I will call for them.” As I spoke I moved into the lodge and went to the chest that held the rolled sheet of beaten and smoothed hide on which Addedomaroshad used a stick of charcoal to draw the rough map of Camulodunum we’d memorized before our journey there.

All during the journey home my mind had whirred with strategy. I knew what must be done and how to do it. I had the map spread out over the long central table and was adding the placement of Claudius’s temple, the colonia, the basilica with the barracks that surrounded it, and Brigantia’s desecrated shrine to the existing marks when Addedomaros, his son, and his shield joined me, followed closely by Rhan, Cadoc, Abertha, and Maldwyn. Briallen remained at the door, though she caught my gaze and nodded, letting me know my guard was close by.

“How did you find the city?” Addedomaros lost no time in firing the question at me.

“Infested with Romans,” I said. “Sit.” I motioned to the table, and the warriors took seats at the benches on either side of it while I remained standing. Wulffaed poured mead for us and I drank deeply, appreciating the sweetness of its bite more than the cloying Roman wine I’d had too much of the night before. “The Balkerne Gate was as Addedomaros described. It is wide enough for our chariots to enter.” I pointed to the four arches on the map and then I drew in two square lookout stations butting up to them. “There are guards here and here.”

“Though they maintain a poor watch,” said Cadoc. “May I?”

I nodded and gave him the charcoal stick.

He made X marks at four spots along the rectangle drawn to represent the city boundary. “These gates are not wide enough to allow chariots to enter the city, but the ditches on either side of them are too shallow to repel our cavalry, which can enter as our warriors flood through the gates.”

Maldwyn took the charcoal stick then and blackened in the barracks, explaining what we’d discovered about the retired legionnaires stationed there and that the two legions usually billeted in the city would soon be marching west across Britain to Ynys Môn.

“Decianus has recalled the centuria that attacked Tasceni,” I said.

“Two hundred soldiers.” Addedomaros stroked his beard. “That is still enough to block the chariots from entering. All they need do is close the Balkerne Gate. They will eventually fall, but we must move quickly. A siege would allow Paulinus time to turn back with the legions and surround us. We’d be squeezed between Camulodunum and the Fourteenth and Twentieth. Not an enviable position.”

“That will not happen,” I said. “We will have burned Camulodunum to the ground and moved on to Londinium before Paulinus can return to engage with us.”