Legacy of a Warrior Queen by Maria Herring

Author:Maria Herring [Herring, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78279-732-6
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

– 17 –

The moon of Simivisonios (Bright-time), 332 C.E. Lutetia, Parisii tribal lands, Northern Gaul

With a heavy heart, Rosmerta climbed into her saddle. The horse was still shaken after its voyage across the ocean and she had to grip it tightly with her knees to keep it from skittering away while she waited for the rest of the spear-women to mount their steeds.

It was the moon of Simivisonios, bright-time, and here in the town called Lutetia a truer name she couldn’t have picked. To her untravelled skin the sun felt much stronger here than in her homelands. Several days had passed since she last wore her cloak; now she was beginning to feel uncomfortable in her woollen dress. It was possible, she thought, that these people called their moons by another name though she had no desire to find out. But it wasn’t her discomfort in this strange land that made her heart heavy; in fact, she relished it, for it took her mind off the current situation.

“We ride until night-fall,” said Gwladus, steering her mount towards Rosmerta’s and turning it extravagantly. She was a good horse-woman, and she took great pride in demonstrating it to everyone. “The sister-slayer is many days ahead of us by now and we can’t afford to waste any time.”

“We know that he stayed here for two moons while we tracked him across the ocean and through all the lands to the north,” said Rosmerta. And no doubt they would have him by now, she thought, if Gwynfor hadn’t said they should make landfall as soon as the Gaulish coast were spotted. Had he purposely delayed their mission, or was he simply inept at reading his own runesticks? She left her thoughts as her own, however. “That would’ve closed the gap considerably. We ride, and when we need to stop and rest, we shall.”

“Pah! You would risk his causing more death upon these people? Upon these lands?”

“We don’t even know if he’s guilty of committing the crimes that have been laid upon him here. There were no witnesses.”

There was something about the single-minded ferocity of Arawn’s mother that drove Rosmerta to constantly contradict her. She didn’t know whether it was her fast-waning belief that Arawn was innocent, or simply her noble pride in being ordered about by a traitor who should be hanged and dead, but contradict her she did. It was the only satisfaction she gleaned on this tiring mission.

Because, despite there being no witnesses to the murder of the young woman the traders called Sirom, and no one to witness the burning of the house, there were many at the port who had attested to seeing Arawn leave the port when he should have been there helping to prepare captain Thrax’s ship for sail. They’d said he’d looked excited, frantic perhaps, before he ran off eastwards into the city. At the time no one had paid it any mind, for he was young and the captain was away on business. They’d all assumed he’d skived off.

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