Page 84 of Boudicca

“I’ll send help for you and libations to add to the pyre,” I said.

“Mama,” Enfys said, moving her horse closer. “When we return Ceri and I will gather the libations and bring them to the pyre.”

“Then that is how it shall be,” I said. My girls continued to fill me with pride, not just as their mother, but as their queen. “Adara, can the rest of the wounded be moved?”

“Do you want the truth or what a warrior queen would like to hear?” Adara’s words would have been disrespectful had her gaze not been so steady, so filled with grief and weariness.

“I will always want the truth,” I said.

“Four days’ rest and most will be able to be moved. Those who arethe most badly wounded either will die before then or will be strong enough to survive if they ride in our caravans,” she said.

“Then we rest four more days.” I hoped I wasn’t making the mistake of remaining in the forest too long before marching on Londinium. I believed we had time. My last report of Paulinus and his legions placed them closing on Ynys Môn. It was possible that a swift rider with fresh mounts could reach the isle from Camulodunum in five days. To march two legions the return trip would take at least twice the time, and we needed that time. We were counting on that time, as I would not desert our wounded.

“Excuse me, my queen,” a woman called from the entrance of the tent. “Adara, a warrior calls for you.”

“Go with my gratitude,” I told the old healer.

She nodded and disappeared inside the death tent. I remounted and we picked up the pace, cantering quickly past the burning city, which glowed orange even in daylight.

While it had taken longer to get from our camp to the tree line than I’d remembered, it was a much shorter distance to the site of the centuria’s end.

No one had tended to the Roman dead. I realized that was one reason why Rhan had needed to guide their shades to their eternal rest, but I couldn’t bring myself to order that their bodies be gathered and burned. Not after what they had done to my mother, my daughters, and our elders. They deserved to rot. As we approached I saw that they wouldn’t be allowed to rot. The road was crowded with huge moving shapes. We neared and the shapes took form as feasting vultures. The birds were bold. They barely moved when we halted before the stream of death. The scent was almost as terrible as the sight of the Romans. Clotted blood and entrails darkened the stones. The carrion birds had added to the damage, starting with guts and eyes and open wounds. I swallowed my gorge and turned my gaze to my daughters. I saw them share a look. Enfys nodded and together they coaxed their reluctant mounts to the very edge of the massacre. Their wolves slunk with them, growling low in their throats. Briallen followed as my guard spread out around us.

When the girls halted their horses, they were standing among the first of the bodies. They took their time, studying the rotting flesh that had been men.

Then Enfys spoke, and her young voice was strong and steady and it caused the vultures to squawk and flap their black wings restlessly.

“You did not break us!” Enfys shouted.

Ceri added, “You could not break us! And now you are dead!”

“And we are not!” Enfys finished. Then she spat down into the bodies. Ceri did the same.

I was surprised to see Briallen spit, too. My daughters turned their horses and trotted to me.

“They are dead. Now we know it,” said Enfys.

“We won’t have any more nightmares,” said Ceri.

As one, we cantered away, leaving the dead as a feast for the birds that rid our lands of rot.

When we neared where the pyre was being built, I commanded my guard to assist the warriors in preparation. Briallen returned to our forest camp with the girls, where she would help them load the libations for the burning. I broke from the group and went in search of Rhan. It wasn’t difficult to find her. She was with our dead.

The open-sided tent was filled with bodies. They spread out around the tent as well, all covered with shrouds made from cloaks. She saw me as I dismounted, wiped her hands on a cloth, and came to me.

I expected Rhan to look like Adara, weary and worn, but she almost glowed. Her skin was so pale I could see the delicate blue of the veins in her neck and chest. Her dark eyes were huge against the white of her face. Her hair was a wild mass of moonlight caught in a thick braid that went down her back and was decorated with beads and bells, so that she made music when she moved.

We said nothing. I opened my arms and Rhan stepped into my embrace. We clung to each other. She smelled of oils perfumed with rosemary and lavender, though they didn’t quite hide the putrid scent of death. When we finally parted I asked, “How are you?”

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead her gaze went distant asshe looked past me to the burning city. When she finally spoke, her voice was rough, as if she hadn’t used it in a very long time.

“I am becoming intimate with death.”

Her words sent chills along my skin. “Is that a good or a bad thing?”

“It is neither. It is a useful thing for a people at war,” she said. “The girls witnessed the dead centuria?”

“They did. They are so brave.”