Page 75 of Boudicca

Cadoc lifted the long bronze war carnyx to his lips. And from the snarling boar at its end came the sound that called the Iceni to war. It rang across the land to Camulodunum’s Balkerne Gate. Over andover Cadoc blew the horn in long, eerie notes as the horses pawed and stomped and snorted impatiently.

I stared at the city, waiting. And suddenly saw hundreds of burning arrows slash the sky above Camulodunum. They flew in a beautiful arch up and up, and then as one they dipped and sped down into the city.

“Again, Cadoc,” I said.

Cadoc blew the carnyx, holding the note long so that it echoed across the empty stretch of land between Camulodunum and us. Again the sky burned with Trinovantes arrows.

“Once more, Cadoc!”

The carnyx sounded and death rained from the evening sky.

I placed the sigil in the ties Maldwyn had fashioned for it at the front of the chariot, took up my first spear, raised my shield, looked over my shoulder, lifted my gaze—and waited until the sun finally kissed the trees, blinding anyone who would be looking west from the city.

“Now, Maldwyn!”

With a savage cry, he let loose Ennis and Finley. On one side of us Cadoc’s chariot surged forward—on the other Abertha’s team pounded the ground in time with us. Behind us the mass of Iceni chariots thundered, causing the world to vibrate with their might. My blood pulsed hot and fast. I was not afraid. I did not have time for fear. I opened my mouth and shrieked the Iceni war cry. All around me my warriors did the same. From north and south of the city I heard Trinovantes’ voices joining us with their battle cry.

We were at the four arched stone entryways so soon that it shocked me. I had half a breath to worry that the iron-barred gates would slam closed, but they did not, and as we charged into the city I caught a glimpse of my Queen’s Guard cutting down the last of the Roman lookouts.

And then the first Roman soldiers were upon us. As we had prepared for this day, Maldwyn, Cadoc, and Abertha had spoken to me often of what it was like to be in a battle. They described the tunnel-vision aspect of war. They talked of the confusion and the rawbrutality that would seem endless, though it might only last moments. Most especially they drilled into me that I would not have time to think—that I must practice over and over and over so that my body would act when my mind was overwhelmed.

They had been right, but what they had not described to me was the unexpected intimacy of battle. As I took lives, it was as if I were alone with each man at the moment of his death. I saw his shock—his fear—his pain—his release.

I killed the first man almost immediately. A gray-bearded soldier rushed me from the side, surprisingly swift for his obvious age. Maldwyn saw him and swerved our chariot. My body moved automatically. I threw my spear and caught the soldier cleanly through his throat. It seemed to take a very long time for my spear to skewer him. Blood arched, shockingly bright red. His eyes fastened on me, wide with surprise as he took in my tunic, my hair, and the fact that a woman had just killed him. The light went out of his eyes as he fell and we thundered on.

Our chariots hurtled forward, reverberating deafeningly over the stone road as we raced toward the colonia and the heart of Roman Camulodunum. The city was already on fire and we had to dodge burning men and debris. We passed pockets of Trinovantes cavalry engaged with soldiers on our flanks, and as we reached the main barracks, red-cloaked warriors joined those in Iceni blue as they surrounded the surprised Romans, squeezing them into doomed circles that closed tighter and tighter.

“Cadoc! To Brigantia!” I shouted.

The old warrior, whose chariot was always beside mine, nodded and barked a command. A row of chariots broke off to follow us south to the Gosbecks District. As we’d planned, Abertha took command of the rest of the chariots and continued into the heart of the burning colonia.

We raced through the Gosbecks. Here the flames licked high into the darkening sky as there were more of our wooden roundhouses and less Roman stone. The heat pressed against my skin and I was glad for our speed. The district appeared deserted. We pounded upthe slight hill to Brigantia’s desecrated shrine, our horses’ hooves tearing great hunks of turf and dirt, which lifted behind us. Though the buildings around the hill were aflame, the shrine was untouched. The only fire on the hill was the one dedicated to Brigantia. Maldwyn pulled Ennis and Finley to a halt and I leaped from the chariot with a coiled rope in my hands. I ran to the statue and wrapped the noose of the rope around the goddess’s neck, where it rested beside my mother’s pendant. As I looked into the goddess’s face I noted that no one had washed the rust of my blood from her cheeks.

“Blessed Brigantia, now you will be free.” I touched her face gently before I stepped back.

Cadoc joined me, looping another rope around the goddess’s neck. “Your desecration is over, mighty Brigantia,” he said.

The dozen chariots that had followed us also cast their ropes around the goddess’s neck, until her face was covered. My eyes were drawn to my mother’s pendant. The ever-burning fire before the shrine caught it, lighting the flames stamped in gold so that they appeared to truly burn.

We returned to our chariots and secured the ropes. I raised my hand high. “Minerva!” I lifted my voice above the sounds of battle and the roar of devouring flames. “Return to Rome. You are not wanted here.” I dropped my hand. “Now!”

As one, our chariots surged from the shrine, pulling the statue of the goddess so that she fell forward with an enormous crash directly onto Brigantia’s flame. There was a greatwhooshas the iron receptacle that held the well of oil was pierced. We threw our ropes free and galloped down the hill as the shrine exploded in orange and gold flame.

Cadoc pulled up beside us as we paused to watch it burn. I wiped sweat and blood and grime from my forehead and met the warrior’s gaze. “And now we do the same to the Temple of Claudius.”

He bared his teeth. “Aye, my queen!”

We raced back through the burning Gosbecks and into the colonia, where the fire was spreading, but less quickly. The wide stone streets were filled with Iceni and Trinovantes cutting down pocketsof Romans as the battle moved closer and closer to the huge temple that proclaimed their dead emperor a god.

Later my warriors reported how the people who had chosen to side with Rome and remain in the city had fled to Claudius’s temple, but then, in the heart of the battle, I knew only what was before me. Maldwyn and I cut down soldier after soldier. I threw my spears again and again. We were a magnet for the Romans, who were drawn to us by our sigil and by the sight of me, a tall barbarian woman whose flame-colored hair lifted in the heat of the burning city and whose spear arm threw true. My arm did not weaken. My voice, which shrieked the Iceni war cry, did not falter.

When a pilum sliced across the outside of my bicep, I did not feel pain, only rage. I snarled at the Roman as Maldwyn wheeled our chariot around. The soldier tried to crouch behind his shield but I knocked it away with the blunt end of my spear. As we thundered past I pivoted, twirled the spear in an arc, and thrust it down between his neck and his shoulder. Blood gushed from his mouth, and his eyes widened at me before they rolled to show white and he fell forward onto his face.

And then we were at the temple. Roman soldiers attempted to set up a defensive line around the front of the huge building. They locked shields and were able to hold their line as people flooded into the temple behind them. As Maldwyn and I got closer, I saw Decianus. He was just ahead of a group of Iceni foot soldiers, fleeing toward the line of Roman shields with a group of women. Even from a distance I could see the terror on the procurator’s face. It appeared as if he were melting. Sweat poured down his wobbling cheeks and darkened his soiled white toga.

“Catus Decianus!” I roared the name.

The procurator’s head whipped around as he looked over his shoulder. His small eyes went glassy with shock as he caught sight of me. Maldwyn moved us closer.