Boudicca by P. C. Cast

Author:P. C. Cast
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2025-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter XXVI

I woke before dawn and dressed quickly. The camp was just beginning to stir when I exited the tent to find my Queen’s Guard waiting silently in a half-moon formation. Briallen stood in the center of them, calling the warriors to attention as I emerged.

They watched me with an intensity I’d come to understand from my months of training. They were the spearhead of our attack and I knew their strike would be true. They had exchanged their distinctive Queen’s Guard blue tunics for bland brown. Swords were strapped to their backs, concealed completely by worn travel cloaks. Behind the warriors stood twenty-three of our swiftest horses. Their only tack was the slightest of saddle blankets and slim bridles.

“Remember to blend in with them. Call no attention to yourselves.” I walked along the half circle, meeting the gaze of each warrior. “Wait for the carnyx.”

“Aye, they are ready, my queen,” said Briallen.

“No queen has ever had a better guard,” I said. “You make me proud. May Andraste guide your swords.”

They mounted and, with the ominous sound of pounding hooves, disappeared into the dove-colored dawn.

“I know you wish you were going with them,” I said to the silent warrior at my side.

Briallen shook her head. “There is no honor greater than being entrusted with the lives of my queen’s bairns.”

I rested my hand on her shoulder. “I can fight today with a clear mind knowing they are under your protection.”

“I will keep them safe, my queen.” Briallen’s accent thickened with emotion. She cleared her throat and added, “I’ll be readying the bairns’ horses the now.” She bowed to me and headed to the hobble line behind our tent.

I watched her stride away and from my memory lifted a vision of her that day when she had been sliced up, beaten, and violated by Rome, yet she had clawed her way back to my side, back to my girls. Andraste, be with Briallen. There was a movement in the boughs above me, and a raven croaked and clicked before taking wing into the lightening sky.

* * *

There were no victory shouts as we broke camp and made our way to the Roman road. The army was subdued but expectant, calm and confident. Each Iceni knew his or her role in the coming battle, and each Iceni was ready.

Tribe Trinovantes met us as we reached the Roman road. Addedomaros and his many warriors were in full battle dress and they were an awe-inspiring sight. Their red cloaks waved bloody in the breeze. They’d painted themselves in scarlet and black. Each horse was dressed with white ribbons in their elaborately braided manes and tails—honoring their patron goddess, Epona.

Addedomaros, his son, and Mailcun joined me at the head of our combined armies and we marched toward Camulodunum. We made no attempt at stealth. That would have been foolish. There was no hiding an army that swelled to almost one hundred twenty thousand. I’d sent out scouts to the west, the direction from which the Fourteenth and Twentieth legions would return should Paulinus get word of our attack.

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.