A Year of Ravens by Kate Quinn

Author:Kate Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

YORATH

“Someone is coming,” my escort announced, abruptly pulling the horse to a stop.

I snapped awake from the half dreaming induced by the cart’s rhythm. And a deep chasm of dread opened under my chest. Please, not more Romans!

“Soldiers?” I asked.

“I don’t think so.”

I squinted and could see what he meant. Three riders rode the natural way, not the stiff-backed way of the Romans. Colorful and checked cloaks billowed behind them, tribal cloaks, and I released a long breath of relief. Still, I could not take any risks with my prisoner now that I knew what the gods wanted me to do with him. I glanced back to make sure the gag hadn’t loosened. He was fast asleep.

A woman rode in the center, blood-red hair streaming behind her. The Iceni queen? Not possible. I blinked several times to clear my vision. She was weirdly the queen and yet not the queen at the same time. It was only when she drew up that I understood. This had to be one of her daughters—thinner, younger, and exuding an even more feral fierceness than her mother. I hadn’t known that was possible.

“I am Sorcha, daughter of Boudica, Queen of the Iceni,” she called. “We come from our victory at Camulodunum to beseech my mother’s sister’s people to join us in our rebellion. Do you have knowledge to share about what happened in Mona? We have heard terrible rumors.”

“I am Yorath, son of Torkill, Druid Vates in training.”

Her blue eyes grew wide, and she grinned. “So the rumors aren’t true, then! Some of the sacred ones have survived!” She looked wildly around with hope lighting her eyes, as if some of the long-bearded elder priests and stoop-shouldered elder priestesses might step out from behind the trees to greet her. “How many? Where are they? How are they protected? I can send bands of warriors to guard them—”

I held up my palm to silence her. “I am the only survivor.”

She blinked several times, her forehead scrunched. “No, that cannot be,” she finally breathed.

“It is so.”

The queen’s daughter clutched her stomach and closed her eyes. By the state of her horse and her clothing—blood-spattered and shredded—I could tell that she had set off right from the battlefield. The exhaustion on the faces of her fellow riders confirmed this. Our tribes liked to celebrate victories as much as they liked the fight itself, but I sensed that this young warrior had no patience for such trivialities. That must be why she had set off when she did. Sorcha of the Iceni seemed to burn from within with a rage that would only be sated by Roman blood, not by drunken victory celebrations.

Then I remembered the violence against her and her sister that sparked the rebellion in the first place, and I understood.

The queen’s eldest daughter dismounted and circled the cart. “Who is this?” she asked. But before I could answer, she had pulled out her dirk and growled, “Roman!”

“Wait!” I called as her thin but muscular arm arced over my sacrifice’s sleeping chest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.