Druids by Morgan Llywelyn

Author:Morgan Llywelyn
Language: nld
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

L T ET ME UNDERSTAND this, Tarvos. You want to buy I LakutuV I turned to face him, knowing I sounded as astonished as I must have looked.

His lips tightened until his drooping moustache quivered. “I want her to live in my lodge. But she can’t just come to me, she isn’t a free person. So I’ll buy her.”

I sat down abruptly on the carved chest. “Warriors don’t keep slaves. Bondservants perhaps; never slaves.”

“Neither do druids.” The Bull faced me with his head lowered, like his namesake. I would have sworn he flared his nostrils.

My own flash of anger surprised me. “You don’t have to worry about her. Surely you know I’ll always see that she’s cared for.”

“You don’t have any need of a woman in your house, Ainvar, you ‘re never here anymore, The chief druid before you never kept a woman anyway. If Lakutu was mine I could give her her freedom, and then I could even . , . even many her,” he muttered, his face reddening.

“Marry!” I echoed stupidly.

“She would be willing.”

“How do you know?”

“She told me.”

I was past astonishment. “How could she tell you?”

“We talk.”

“But she can’t speak our language.”

“I’ve taught her some words.”

My imagination presented me with a vision of the two of diem chattering away happily to one another while I was away toiling in the service of my people.

With a pang of jealousy, I realized Tarvos had taught Lakutu what I could not.

“She’s still a sick woman,” I aigued halfheartedly.

“She’s getting much better, you just haven’t noticed. Sometimes we go for walks. I’ve taken her as far as the river, she tikes niat. Please, Ainvar. She’s nothing to you. But to me …”

I could not bear the light in his eyes. “I’ll think about it,” I promised. Then I almost ran from the lodge.

I would not be able to go to Rix before Samhain at the earliest. I must conduct the rituals ending and beginning the cycle of seasons, and I must also address Gaul’s druids at the annual convocation in the sacred grove. I wanted to remind them of the Roman threat as Menua would have done, and encourage them to think of tribal unity rather than divisiveness. Only if we stood together could we hope to resist Caesar-

“One man leads the entire army intent upon overrunning our lands,” I told them. “One man. One head. We too shall need one man, one head, rather than many leaders going in different directions. The Roman pattern is to split up tribes and then roll over the fragments. Remember the history you have learned; think on it.”

While my warning still echoed in the grove, I prepared to go to Vercingetorix.

Once more Tarvos met me at the door of my lodge. “Have you decided about Lakutu?” he asked bluntly.

“Are you going to the south with me?” I countered.

“It depends.” He stood his ground, feet braced wide.

I, who scorned appeasement, tried to make him laugh. “I ‘m a druid, not a trader, Tarvos. Must we bargain?”

He just looked at me.

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