Page 76 of Boudicca

“Through my blood and with my goddess-blessed breath, I have cursed you unto death!”I hurled the final words of my curse at him, and his florid face went the color of old milk just as his group reached theline of Roman soldiers. They did not part quickly enough. Decianus grabbed the voluptuous woman dressed in a sheer toga who was in front of him and threw her at the soldiers. She hit the shield wall and fell, her head cracking on the stone pavement. She was the woman I’d spoken to when we’d scouted Camulodunum—the one who had chosen to live, and die, like a Roman. I stared at her as Decianus stepped on her stomach and raced through the hastily parted shields.

“My queen!” Cadoc’s voice pulled my attention from the temple as Decianus ran, stumbling and falling, up the stairs and finally reached the wide doors and disappeared inside. “The city burns. We must signal to leave or risk getting trapped in the flames.”

“First push anything that will burn against the temple and into this line of Romans. Have the archers shoot arrows dipped in pitch into the debris and the roof of the temple.Thensound the carnyx.”

“We should leave, my queen,” said Maldwyn.

“In a moment. I want to see it burn first.”

Wooden tables from the nearby market were dragged to the temple. Our warriors used them as huge shields to press the line of Romans back and back and back until they were at the steps of the temple.

“Cadoc!” He turned to look at me and I pointed to the bronze head of Claudius that had rolled down the temple steps. “Take that vile thing. Drown it as a gift to Andraste.”

“Aye!”

The old soldier shouted an order at one of the charioteers, who raced in, looped a rope around Claudius’s head, and then dragged it away. Then Cadoc called another command and arrows sizzled through the air, bringing more flame and heat, and with the sound of a great exhalation the debris heaped against the temple caught fire. The Romans who had been holding the line in front of the temple were forced all the way to the wide doors, which they opened and rushed inside.

“Push the debris to the door. No one escapes. No one,” I said.

Cadoc directed the foot soldiers. Using tall, curved shields taken from the bodies of fallen Romans, they ran at the burning piles oftables and furniture, bushes and wine barrels, knocking the flaming mess up the stairs and into the entryway of the temple, clogging it with death. When the screaming began within, I turned away.

“Sound the carnyx!” I called.

Cadoc lifted the great horn and blew three times, short and swift, paused, and then blew three times again. With the other chariots, Maldwyn turned our team and we raced through the burning city, followed by the cavalry and foot soldiers. It was an inferno. I smelled my singed hair. My skin was so hot that later I found blisters on my arms. But at that moment I felt nothing except savage joy. Catus Decianus was dead.

We burst through the Balkerne gates and kept racing away from the city. The heat grew so intense that our own people would be immolated if they did not keep moving. Finally, we met the line of caravans that remained to rearm us and treat the most severely wounded. Only then did Maldwyn turn the team so that we could look back at Camulodunum. He wrapped the reins around their hook and leaped from the chariot, going to Ennis and Finley and running his hands down their legs and over their bodies, checking for wounds.

I meant to join him, but I could not look away from the blazing amber jewel the city had become. To me it seemed very little time had passed between entering the gates and leaving them, but the sky was the black of deep night. I did not see stars sprinkled above. Instead there were flames and sparks and smoke the color of the gray mist called the breath of the dragon.

The army was forming up around me, stretching in its vast numbers southwest, toward the cool forests and the caravans that waited there to welcome us. Cadoc and Abertha halted on either side of me. And then Addedomaros, his son, Adminius, and his shield, Mailcun, were with us as well.

“It is a decisive victory. The city is no more!” Addedomaros wiped gore from his face and grinned. “Let us join the caravans so that we may feast and rejoice.”

“The curse is not fulfilled,” I said.

“What?” Adminius blurted. “The city has been destroyed. Many Romans are dead.”

“The centuria that attacked Tasceni was not in Camulodunum. The curse is not fulfilled,” I repeated.

“But surely—” Addedomaros began to protest, but a scout galloped up on a horse frothing with sweat, cutting off his words.

“Queen Boudicca! The Ninth comes!” He spoke quickly as he gasped for breath. “On the Roman road north of the city.”

“The entire legion?” I asked.

He shook his head and sweat rained from his long hair. “No. Only a centuria from the Ninth.”

It was as if my body changed then, shifting from flesh to armor, turning bronze and unfeeling except to know itself a weapon.

“Gather the chariots and the cavalry. We will destroy the centuria,” I said. “Send our infantry to the caravans. We will join them afterward.”

“But we should—” Addedomaros began, and my words sliced through his.

“Not you. This is Iceni business. You, your son, and your warriors may go to the caravans. Feed and rest your men. Tend to your wounded. We leave tomorrow for Londinium.”

Addedomaros seemed as if he would say more but finally nodded and turned his horse, calling to the Trinovantes to follow him. Eagerly, Adminius galloped with his father from the field. I felt eyes on me and my gaze caught Mailcun’s. The Trinovantes shield bowed to me and pressed his fist over his heart before he followed his chief.

Chapter XXVII