Page 85 of Boudicca

Rhan nodded. “How could they not be? Their mother is Queen Boudicca.” Her sharp gaze studied me. “Your spirit is better today.”

“It is.”

“Maldwyn helped with that?” she asked, though I saw in her eyes that she already knew the answer.

“He did,” I said.

“I am glad.”

“I saw Andraste last night after the battle. As I returned to camp she rode with me for a little way. Rhan, I think she was beside me during the fighting,” I said.

“I have no doubt of it. And she will be with you in the next battle and the next—one right after another.”

My heartbeat thudded in my chest. “The goddess sent you sign?”

“She did. At dawn, when I finally turned from the Roman shades as I was making my way across the field to the healer’s tents, I passed this place.” She gestured to the growing pyre not far from us. “Three hares leaped from the grasses before me. They ran there.” Rhan pointed into the southwest. “In a line—one following the other.”

“Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium.” I repeated the names of the three Roman cities I intended to destroy.

“Exactly. Andraste’s sign says she will be with you.”

I let out a long, relieved breath. I’d believed I was doing the goddess’s will, but her sign meant that I could do more than believe;I could know. And I would be certain my war council knew as well.

“There is something else,” Rhan said.

There was a strange shift to her voice. It hitched over the words and softened. “What has happened?”

“Ynys Môn is no more.”

A wave of shock and grief crested over me, and I staggered. Rhan grasped my elbow, holding me steady. “No more? How can that be? How could our gods allow it?”

Rhan shook her head slowly. “I do not understand it either. Even Andraste has remained silent. Boudicca, the sacred oaks are dead—burned and dead. It was as Derwyn said. Last night as I kept vigil with the shades, I heard the oaks keening.” Rhan shivered. “It was the most terrible sound I have ever heard.”

“Derwyn! Do you know if he is alive?”

Rhan’s hand shook as she smoothed back her sweaty hair. “Derwyn has crossed over to Annwn. Boudicca, every Druid who was on the isle is dead.”

My lips felt numb and I had to force words past them. “But what do we do now?”

“We survive. We continue. We honor our goddesses and gods as always and trust that they, too, will not die.”

Fear speared me, making me lightheaded. “Can they die?”

Her gaze went distant again as she stared past me to the city. “When they are no longer cherished, no longer worshipped, when their names are no longer spoken and libations are no longer poured and sacrifices no longer made, any god can die.”

I drew a deep breath. “Then Andraste will live forever as the Iceni will never forget her.”

Rhan’s gaze snapped back to mine and her voice sharpened. “Then you must survive to be certain of that.”

“I intend on it.” My words were confident, though my spirit quaked.

Chapter XXIX

“By the gods, yes!” Addedomaros’s fist pounded on the trestle table Wulffaed had materialized outside my tent. “Londinium and then Verulamium. Finally, the Trinovantes return to take back all that was ours.”

“But is it wise to wait four more days before we march on Londinium?” Adminius asked from his seat beside his father.

“Paulinus and the Twentieth and Fourteenth legions are at Ynys Môn,” I said. “They have just finished a battle there. Even if today they departed the isle and marched to us, we would be days gone when they arrived here, and though Londinium is larger than Camulodunum, it is because of the number of merchants rather than soldiers billeted there.”