Boudicca, page 43
My army vastly outnumbered the Roman legions. The Fourteenth and the Twentieth would each have about five to six thousand men. Logically, what was left of the Ninth would join them, equaling another five thousand or so men. It seemed that we could not lose, but I was restless. I did not like that Queen Cartimandua was the key to our plan. Often, I reminded myself that at this moment Cartimandua and I wanted the same thing—the Romans driven from Britain. After the battle was won and the Romans were gone, then Cartimandua would be an enemy to anyone who did not bow to her as queen of Britain. Until then it served her to fight beside us.
It was early afternoon on the fourth day when Maldwyn galloped to me with one of our Iceni scouts beside him. I was riding at the head of the army between Cadoc and Rhan, and we halted immediately. The scout’s horse was dark with sweat, but the warrior’s eyes were bright and his smile was eager.
“Queen Boudicca!” Still astride, the scout bowed to me. “Tribe Brigantes is in position. Queen Cartimandua’s shield reports that the Fourteenth and Twentieth legions have taken the bait and are two days’ march from the Midlands valley.”
“Did you see Cartimandua’s army?” asked Cadoc.
“I did.” The scout nodded and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “They wait to the east of the valley and will be well within sight of the legions when they arrive. When we reach the valley Deorwine said he will show us exactly where our warriors and caravans should be positioned so that all will be ready for the trap.”
“You have done well,” I told the scout. “Care for your horse and yourself.”
“Thank you, my queen.”
“All seems to be going as Cartimandua planned,” said Maldwyn.
Cadoc snorted. “It would appear so.”
“You have doubts?” asked Rhan.
“Always,” Cadoc said. “It is uncomfortable to be bait.”
I smiled at the gruff old shield I’d come to care for deeply over the past year. “I would not worry overmuch, Iceni shield. Our bait is stronger by thousands of warriors than the Romans. Two legions cannot overcome us.” Absently, I placed my hand over my abdomen. “I believe the child I carry has made you worry more than Wulffaed.”
“Oh, aye,” said Cadoc. “The babe makes me worry.”
“The babe makes us all worry,” added Maldwyn.
I frowned at them. “I will not stay out of the battle.”
“We would not ask you to,” Cadoc said hastily.
“No, of course not,” said Maldwyn. His eyes had taken on the faraway look they got whenever we spoke of the child growing within me.
“But babes cause worry—oftentimes needless worry,” said Rhan.
And then we all smiled as Enfys and Ceri galloped past us, their two grown wolves running at their horses’ sides.
“I’m going after those two,” said Cadoc. “We’re getting too close to the Romans for them to be dashing ahead of the army.”
I nodded, and Cadoc kicked his horse into a gallop, chasing after my daughters.
“I wonder how they escaped Briallen,” I said.
“I saw her not long ago.” Rhan jerked her chin back behind us and to the right. “By your leave I’ll go to her and let her know her charges are being corralled by Cadoc.”
I smiled. “You definitely have my leave.”
As Rhan galloped away, I could feel Maldwyn’s eyes on me. “I’ve been too busy with the scouts and the herd today and haven’t seen you since this morning, my queen,” said Maldwyn as he kneed his horse around so that we rode so close together that our legs almost touched. Some nights Rhan warmed my bed, others Maldwyn did—and some nights I did not care to share my bed at all. There was no jealousy between Maldwyn and Rhan. A deep friendship had developed between the two of them that brought peace and laughter as well as passion to my campfire. It was because of the two of them that I wasn’t simply content but was truly happy. “You didn’t get sick this morning.” Maldwyn’s deep voice broke into my pleasant thoughts.
I smiled at him. “No, I didn’t. It was the same with Enfys and Ceri. As my stomach swelled I stopped being sick and was filled with energy until very close to the end. It was only when I was heavy with child that I became awkward. I was grateful then for the ease with which I carry my babes. I am doubly grateful for it now, though I cannot help but long for the comforts of Tasceni.”
Maldwyn took my hand. “We will vanquish the Romans and be home long before harvest. You’ll give birth to our daughter in your lodge surrounded by your women.”
Just the thought had my shoulders relaxing. “Home . . .” I sighed happily. “It will be a wondrous thing to return to Tasceni.”
“Indeed.” His smile was slow and intimate. “You look like yourself again.” His gaze slid down my body from my breasts to my abdomen. “Well, except for some small changes.”
I laughed. “Which won’t remain small.”
“And you still believe she’ll be born near Samhain in the fall?”
Maldwyn had asked me versions of this question over and over, though I did not tire of answering. I enjoyed seeing the light in his cornflower eyes as he spoke of the babe. “Yes, though I’m not as sure as you that the child is a girl.”
Maldwyn deepened his voice and scratched his chin like an elder dispensing wisdom. “Fathers know such things.”
I laughed. “Well, Enfys and Ceri say daughters know such things, too, and they insist I carry their baby brother.”
“When they are disappointed by her birth, we shall simply have to try again for that brother for which they long.” He cleared his throat and added, “I do not say it enough, but the thought of being a father fills me with joy.” Maldwyn’s face flushed, which reminded me of our early days together.
I reached out and stroked his cheek. “You will be a wonderful father.”
His eyes trapped mine. “When you first loved me I did not think anything could make me happier, but now this.” Maldwyn paused and his gaze flicked down to the little mound under my hand. He looked away then, blinking rapidly. “This babe has completed my life.” Maldwyn met my eyes again. “You and she are my world.”
I pulled Tân up then, raising my arm and signaling for the army to halt. “Dreda!” I called to the tall Queen’s Guard member who rode not far behind me at the head of my guard.
She clucked to her horse and joined us. “Yes, my queen?”
“We’ll take a short break here before marching to tonight’s campsite,” I said.
“As you ask, so will I do.”
As Dreda began calling down the wide, thick line of warriors to halt for a break, I raised a brow and grinned at Maldwyn. “I need an escort, Horse Master.” I didn’t wait for his response but kicked Tân into a gallop and turned her toward a distant cluster of willows.
I arrived at the trees ahead of Maldwyn—something that wouldn’t have happened had he been riding Ennis. As I expected, the willows’ long, tight line framed the bank of a lazy little stream. When Maldwyn joined me I smiled at him. “Help me down?”
His eyes widened with happy surprise at my request. As a warrior queen I rarely asked for help dismounting, but my horse master was more than willing to assist me. I dropped from Tân’s back, allowing my body to slide intimately against his. When my feet touched ground I did not move away. Instead I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders and kissed him. My tongue teased his and Maldwyn responded enthusiastically, breaking our embrace only long enough to take off his travel cloak and lay it across the mossy ground under the willows. While he watched, I slowly, seductively took off my clothes. On his knees, he kissed the swell of my belly and whispered words of love to his child, and then those words were mine as I straddled him, bringing us to an intense climax so quickly that we collapsed together, sweaty, breathing hard, and laughing softly.
I was tucked against his shoulder and smiling happily when Maldwyn said, “What will you name her?”
I decided to indulge his insistence that the babe was a girl. “I shall call her Arianell.”
He propped himself up on his elbow so he could gaze down at me. “Yes. That is perfect.” His lips trailed down my neck and over my breasts to my not-so-flat stomach. Maldwyn kissed the slight mound gently and whispered, “My Arianell, my beloved.”
The babe chose that moment to flutter a kick against her father’s cheek.
His eyes met mine. They were filled with wonder. “She heard me!”
“She’ll be as wise as my mother. She has to be. She already knows her father’s voice,” I said.
He rested his cheek on my belly again and whispered more endearments to our child as my fingers combed through his soft blond hair.
It was self-indulgent that I commanded the army to wait while Maldwyn and I loved one another. I know that. But I will always remember and be grateful for that slight moment in time and how Maldwyn rested his cheek against my body, laughing whenever the babe kicked him. We talked of nothing and everything—of how life would be when we returned to Tasceni. How the royal lodge would, once again, be filled with the sounds of an infant—and how the Mother of Twenty would hover and cluck and take charge, as she had already announced that she would be remaining with her queen even after the Romans were only a bad memory. But mostly I will never forget how love and joy and hope filled Maldwyn’s blue eyes and how it seemed forever stretched before us, beckoning with the promise of new life and fulfilled dreams.
If only it had been in my power to make that moment last.
* * *
We reached the valley as the sun was high above us the next day. It was as Cartimandua had described. In this part of the Midlands the land was fertile, and many fields were cleared and the dark, fecund earth was newly planted. But it was also hilly, with creeks flowing from tree-covered slopes too steep and rocky to farm. The valley was situated green and lush between craggy, densely forested hills. There was only one easy way into the valley. It was like a mouth that opened, beckoning with the softness of the grassy stretch within. It was large—big enough to hold our warriors and the legions—and the hills that framed three sides of it were steep. The chiefs and my lead warriors and I were at the entrance to the valley when Deorwine joined us.
“Greetings, Queen Boudicca!” He bowed his head first to me. “Chiefs and warriors.” Deorwine greeted each of them, and I thought that Cartimandua had made an excellent choice in her horse master. He was intelligent and articulate. It was obvious the chiefs liked him considerably more than his queen—not that I blamed them.
“Will Queen Cartimandua join us today?” I asked.
“My queen wishes she could, but she and her guard have traveled down Watling Street to meet Paulinus and assure him you have, indeed, been lured into his trap,” said Deorwine with a grin. “But it is my honor to show you the details. Come, let me begin by guiding you to where your caravans should make camp during the battle.”
I nodded, and as a group we followed Deorwine. I was not bothered that Cartimandua wasn’t there. Her greeting us had never been part of our plan, and I did like hearing she was continuing to follow the plot we had created in a different valley just ten days before, though at that moment it seemed as if I’d left the Eryri Mountains behind so much longer ago.
I was surprised to see that the back side of the hills that framed the valley dropped steeply down and then joined rows of hillocks crisscrossed with streams. Trees, rocks, and dense brambly underbrush ruled their slopes, and as we surveyed the area my stomach tightened. It was, indeed, a trap. Any army that was caught within the valley would not be able to easily escape—the forest was too tightly packed with ancient trees and underbrush to allow chariots to pass, even if they could traverse the steep rear slopes. A cavalry wouldn’t fare much better. A few horses could pick their way through the forest, but an entire army? Absolutely not. Foot soldiers could scramble to flee, but if well-trained bowmen stood their ground and sent arrows into the woods, most of those slow-moving soldiers would be cut down.
Yes, it was a perfect place for a trap.
“And here is where your caravans will be safe to camp.” Deorwine gestured to the slope of the western hill framing the valley. “They can hug the side of the hill here. The legion will come from Watling Street in the southeast. If the caravans are tucked into this part of the slope, the hill and valley will be between them and the Romans, and the Romans will be focused on the valley where you will wait within.” His smile was open and warm. “Some of your people might want to climb the hill so they can look down and watch the destruction of the last Romans in Britain.”
“The last Romans in Britain!” Mailcun shouted. “Those words fall on my ears like rain after drought.”
“Aye!” the chiefs agreed.
“And where is your army?” I asked Deorwine.
“Ah, well, if you climb the eastern hill and look out to the southeast, you will see Watling Street. The warriors of Tribe Brigantes are camped under cover of the forest there.” Deorwine gestured as he spoke. “There we await Queen Cartimandua’s signal.”
“She still plans to ride to the valley with the Romans?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. She and her guard. Paulinus believes he knows our queen well, so when she says she prefers to watch the battle from the northern hill, he will not be surprised. Cartimandua has convinced Paulinus that she does not wish to dirty her hands in battle.” Deorwine scoffed. “He believes her because Roman women are so weak. My queen has told him that from there”—the Brigantes horse master pointed up to the northern hill—“she will signal her warriors to close the trap on you, when in truth that signal will be the end of the legions.”
“When will the Romans arrive?” asked Leofric.
“As the mouth of the valley points to the east, Paulinus will march his legions into it tomorrow as the sun rises at his back,” said Deorwine.
Cadoc grunted. “As would I. We will hear the mighty sound of legions approaching but be unable to see all of them. It is a sound tactic.”
“As is our trap, once sprung,” Deorwine said, grinning. “Queen Cartimandua has told the Romans that you are so arrogant and sure of their defeat that you will camp within the valley.”
I nodded. “Some of the caravans will have to enter the valley so it appears as if we are actually camping there.”
“Yes,” said Deorwine.
“Not many of them, though,” said Comux. The Dobunni chief was always quick to consider the families following our army. I understood. His family was still under Rome’s thumb, waiting for this battle to be won so he could free them.
“I agree,” I said. “We need only move a few wagons into the rear of the valley, where they’ll be glimpsed by the Romans. By the time the legions are within the valley and realize the caravan has been staged, it will be too late.”
“Exactly!” said Deorwine. “And now I must return to my queen. May the gods be with you tomorrow.”
“May they be with us all, and may Britain be forever free,” I said.
“Aye!” the chiefs shouted.
Chapter XLII
We spent the rest of the day preparing. We tucked the majority of the caravans into the western slope of the hill, only bringing a dozen wagons within the valley and situating them well to the rear, positioned so that they could just be seen from the entrance. Among those dozen caravans, the chiefs and I, with our lead warriors and guards, would spend the night before the battle. But we did not retreat to our campfires until after we’d walked among our warriors. Morale was high. Army camps become a living thing, with personalities and emotions. Our camp was restless and eager—a young stallion straining to race the wind. Of course there were nerves, but Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium had seasoned the bulk of our warriors. They knew what would be expected of them and were eager for dawn and another victory.
Offering bowls filled with sweets and mead dotted the camp. Bundles of dried herbs were burned and richly scented smoke drifted with the night breeze. I’d just begun wondering after Rhan when she seemed to materialize from the herb-laden smoke. I smiled and hooked my arm through hers. She smelled of the forest and of the rosemary smoke through which she’d come. We walked together slowly without speaking.
Maldwyn had already bid me good night and gone to sleep with Ennis and Finley, as he was wont to do the night before a battle. I suspected that he got little sleep but spent most of the night checking and rechecking their harnesses, the chariot, and our weapons.
As usual, Rhan knew the slant of my thoughts. “Maldwyn has gone to be with the horses already?”
“Yes. The chiefs and I are sleeping within the valley. Would you join me?”
Rhan pressed her shoulder into mine. “Always.”
We’d come to the mouth of the valley and turned within. “Enfys and Ceri are insisting on staying in the valley as well,” I said.
Rhan nodded. “It is only right that they do. I assume they will join you when you speak to the army before the battle tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’ll drive the chariot. The girls will be with me, and their wolves will run beside the chariot,” I added with a smile.
Rhan laughed softly. “You will be quite the sight. The mighty Queen Boudicca, Andraste’s Victory, her daughters, and the wolves who watch over them.”
“The warriors do love those wolves,” I said. “Not that they can actually touch them without being in danger of having their arms taken off.”
Rhan shrugged. “Briallen can touch them. You can. I can. Oh, and Maldwyn, of course, can. No one else needs to.”
“Exactly what I think.” We approached the wagons where my guard, my daughters, and my lead warriors congregated around a large central fire. Three of Wulffaed’s daughters were singing an old planting song that spoke of new life being sown. Their voices sounded like home and evoked memories of the fertile fields that surrounded Tasceni.
