Daughters of Fire (67 page)

Peggy shook her head and held up her hand. In it were Viv’s car keys. ‘I saw your room was empty. I didn’t think it was very polite of you to leave without saying goodbye, Vivienne, my dear. And I didn’t think it polite of you to come here masquerading as Steve’s girlfriend, when you’re in love with another man, so the least you can do is bring us the brooch as a gift for the goddess.’

Viv stared round frantically. ‘Peggy, I’m sorry. I never said I was Steve’s girlfriend. Why would you think that?’ She glanced over her shoulder again. Any second Hugh was going to appear in the lane. She wasn’t sure who she feared more, Venutios or Peggy. ‘Where is Steve?’

‘Steve’s not here. He’s gone.’ Peggy smiled.

There was a movement in the doorway and Pat appeared out of the shadows behind her. She looked dazed and she was unsteady on her feet. ‘Viv, you’d better give it to her.’

‘I can’t! I haven’t got it!’ Viv was panic-stricken. ‘Look, Hugh is up there on the hillside! He wants it. Venutios wants it. And I couldn’t find it. Perhaps Cartimandua hid it!’ She gave a humourless laugh. ‘You’ve got to help me. Please, Peggy, give me my car keys!’ Holding out her hand, she walked upto Peggy who stared at her for a moment, then turned abruptly and went back into the farmhouse.

Viv turned desperately to Pat. ‘What’s wrong with her? What’s wrong with you? Where’s Steve?’ His car had gone.

Pat shrugged. Her eyes weren’t focussing. ‘I’m fighting it, Viv. I’m sorry. Medb is too much for me. Help me!’ She clutched at the doorpost, her words slurring, as Peggy reappeared behind her. She was carrying a shotgun. Viv stared at her in horror as she lifted it
waist high and pointed the barrel straight at her. ‘Enough. If you want to live long enough to drive that car again, you’d better do as I say. Let’s go and find Cartimandua’s brooch. I need it. Now!’

‘I can’t go any further! I’m exhausted!’ Viv stopped at last and turned to face Peggy.

Peggy lifted the gun a fraction higher. ‘As soon as you find it, we’ll go back.’ She was tight-lipped. ‘So, where is it?’ The sun was sliding towards the north-west and a haze was forming below them. A transparent, three-quarter moon hung in the sky over the distant fells. Pat, who had stumbled up the hill in their wake, subsided onto a pile of stones. Ignoring her, Viv stared at Peggy. She was so frightened she was almost incapable of speech. ‘I told you. I don’t know where it is.’

‘Ask her then. Ask Cartimandua.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Oh, I think you can!’

‘Come on, Viv,’ Pat mumbled. ‘This is not worth dying for.’ Her speech was woolly. ‘Just tell her where it is.’

‘I told you, I couldn’t find it. Perhaps someone else has picked it up!’ Viv shook her head wearily. ‘This is madness. What have you taken, Pat? What’s wrong with you? Help me!’ She was near to tears.

Pat shrugged. Her eyes were bleary. ‘Peggy means it.’

Viv shook her head in despair. ‘And Medb? She wants it as well, doesn’t she. So which one of you gets it? Or are you going to shoot it out?’

‘Let us worry about that.’ Peggy gave a cold smile. She waved the gun barrel in Pat’s direction and Pat shrank back. ‘Come on, Vivienne. If you cannot find it, then Cartimandua will. Ask her!’

‘Just go on with the story, Viv. You’ll be safe there, in the past,’ Pat whispered. ‘Do it.’

Wearily Viv put her hands to her head. ‘I can’t.’

‘You can. You must.’ Pat stood up shakily and came to sit beside
her, keeping a wary eye on Peggy. Below them the vast panorama of the countryside was silent and deserted as the sun began to sink into the haze.

‘Come on! Cartimandua has hidden the brooch. She must have. She knows Medb is Venutios’s mistress and his daemon!’ Pat was growing increasingly incoherent. ‘Go on. Close your eyes. She won’t wait forever. She’s going to kill us!’ She gestured towards Peggy.

‘Where is Steve? He’ll follow us up here if he can’t find us in the house.’

Peggy shook her head. She sat down on a rocky outcrop, the gun still pointing at Viv’s chest. ‘Steve has gone. I told you. He’s not going to rescue you if that’s what you imagine. Get on with it.’

Viv’s mouth was dry. Where could Steve have gone? She could feel a clammy sweat on her back; the rocks were still radiating heat after the long day of sunshine. She had never been so frightened; around her the dry grasses rustled gently in the wind as she closed her eyes. Pat glanced at Peggy nervously. She was resting the gun on the rocks, pointing it at Viv. Her finger was still very near the trigger. The woman’s gaze had not shifted from Viv’s face.

Viv didn’t notice. In her panic there was only one place to go. Within.

With a groan, she began to clutch her stomach.

Gruoch and Mairghread assisted at the birth. Gruoch, gentle and skilled, Mairghread resentful and angry. The Romans had gone, chasing Venutios northward, Vellocatus with them. Carta had been forced to remain behind by her condition. Until the last minute she had been there, at the head of her men, on the chariot, with Vellocatus at her side, but now at last she had acknowledged that she could go no further. Her pains had started during the night. By midday she was delivered of a small screaming daughter. She examined the child as Gruoch put her in her arms. ‘She’s perfect.’ Gruoch smiled. ‘And noisy. She’ll be as determined as her mother.’

Behind her, Mairghread directed the servants to clear away the mess. Fresh herbs were thrown on the fire and the child was blessed. ‘Will you give her a nursery name?’ Gruoch fastened sacred beads round the child’s tiny fist.

Cartimandua turned her head away. ‘Vellocatus wanted a son. A warrior to succeed us as leader of our peoples.’

‘That could not have happened, lady,’ Gruoch replied as she touched her hand gently. ‘Not without the blessing of the gods and the choice of the people. It is they who decide who will be king. Or queen.’ She smiled reproachfully.

‘Then I shall do as Artgenos advised.’ Carta handed the baby back. ‘See that she is fostered. She has my blessing.’ Turning away, she lay back on the pillows and hid her face from the light.

Viv’s eyes were full of tears. Blindly she wiped them with the back of her hand. ‘So, that’s that,’ she said. She was very pale.

‘No. No, it isn’t.’ Pat stood in front of her. It isn’t by a long chalk! Go on.’ Suddenly she was focussed, her voice angry and strong.

Peggy smiled. Medb had taken over. She could see the wispy form, the hard intense eyes concentrating on Viv’s face.

‘Not now, Pat.’ Viv leaned back on the grass and closed her eyes. ‘I’m too tired, I don’t want to go on.’

‘Now! We need to know what happened next. Did the child survive? Where did she go? What happened to the brooch?’ There was a long pause. ‘I’ll tell you what happened, shall I? Venutios sent Medb away,’ Pat went on. ‘He said he never wanted to see her again but she didn’t go far.’ She laughed suddenly. ‘Perhaps I’ll tell you about that. But for now, we want to know what happened to Carta and Vellocatus. It’s important.’ She threw herself on her knees in front of Viv and thrust her face close to Viv’s.

‘Pat,’ Peggy said quietly. ‘Be quiet. Let her talk.’ Her voice was hard.

Slowly Viv sat up. She sighed. ‘I’m not sure I can.’ Closing her eyes again, too tired to argue, she took a deep breath and listened. At once the sounds and the words and the memories so close around them flooded into her head.

‘Where is she?’ Carta was standing in the Druid’s college facing Artgenos. In the distance they could hear the sound of the students reciting, chanting over and over the day’s lesson. The old man was sitting by the fire in his comfortable wicker chair, wrapped in a thick white woollen mantle against the cold. There were cushions at his back and a flagon of mulled ale at his elbow.

‘As you instructed, she was sent away. To be brought up as a
fosterling.’ On the table near him a basket of polished rock crystals sparkled in the firelight.

‘And I want to know where.’ Carta was furious. Her strength recovered, her figure slim and taut again she was, outwardly at least, as formidable and beautiful as ever.

With a sigh he levered himself to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff. ‘She is well cared for, Carta. I have reports regularly. She is bright and alert and thriving. When she is six summers or so old, if she is as intelligent as I feel sure she is,’ he smiled wryly, ‘I will allow her into one of the Druid schools to be taught the craft. It is best she does not know who her parents are.’

For a moment Carta was too angry to speak. When at last she mastered her fury the look she gave him made even Artgenos quail. ‘How dare you!’

‘I have consulted the auguries, Carta,’ he said mildly enough. He glanced at the door where the feathered cloak he wore when consulting the gods hung on an antler bracket. ‘I have read her future. She will be no queen. Her presence here would only exacerbate the unrest in Brigantia.’ He frowned. ‘The Druids will need every talented new candidate possible, Carta. The Romans are bent on destroying us.’ He paused sadly. ‘Your allegiance with the governor of Rome is no longer tenable. And the new governor, Suetonius Paulinus is proving himself a fearsome soldier. Forget the child. She is safe and well and happy. Consider instead the gods and their needs. Ynys Môn itself, one of the most holy places in all these islands, is under threat. Paulinus is set on its destruction. I have spoken to Vellocatus. He is willing now to lead an army to cut off the legions -’

‘No!’ Carta tightened her lips. ‘I forbid it. If the gods are threatened, they will protect their own.’

‘The gods command you to fight for them, Carta. The omens are strong.’

‘There are no such omens!’ she contradicted furiously. ‘I have spoken to the goddess, my goddess. I have sacrificed to her. She brought the Romans to save us and they threw out Venutios and chased him back to Caer Lugus.’

‘And Venutios is one of the best chances we have as a people to vanquish Rome.’ He glared at her sternly. ‘It might still be possible to form an alliance with him again. You forget who you are, Cartimandua, and what you are sworn to do -’

‘No! I remember who I am. I am Queen. I am supported by the legions, an ally of the Roman Governor and I am a woman of honour.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Everything I have done, I have done for my people, Artgenos!’

‘Everything?’ He raised an eyebrow. She didn’t see the sad, quizzical smile.

‘Everything!’ She was pacing up and down the floor. ‘I shall not change my mind!’

He bit back a curse. ‘Why are you doing this? You are no longer an astute politician, Carta. You are a fool. You have lost your acumen. You have lost your brains!’

‘That is enough!’ She spoke so softly he thought for a moment he had misheard her. She turned and faced him. ‘You have gone too far, Artgenos. Leave. Leave Brigantia today. You are no longer welcome in my kingdom. You defy me. You hide my baby from me and you support my enemies. If you are so worried about the fate of the Druids on Môn, I suggest you join them. Your prayers will be more useful there than here, Artgenos. And take Culann with you. I sense he disapproves of every breath I take. Let him support the Druids at your side at their most senior college.’ She turned towards the doorway. ‘Today!’

Could he not understand? If she changed her mind now, if she swapped her alliance with Rome for one with the rebels against the Empire it would be an acknowledgement that everything she had stood for had been a lie. That her betrayal of Caradoc had been pointless. That her stance for her people had been in vain. And she would have to surrender her leadership of her people to Venutios. She would rather die.

In the distance the hills rang to the roar of a stag. Further away a second answered it, the challenge echoing into silence.

‘Peggy!’ Pat whispered. She rubbed her eyes wearily. ‘Look behind us. The weather is closing in. It will be getting dark soon.’

‘Be quiet! Listen to her!’ Peggy was very close to Viv, her eyes fixed on her face. ‘The brooch. Where is the brooch?’

Viv was speaking more and more slowly, her voice growing steadily weaker.

‘Mairghread! Bring me some wine. And something to eat. Have the Druids gone?’ She shivered violently even as Carta shivered.

‘They have, lady.’ Mairghread pursed her lips. ‘They have left Ban in charge of the college here.’

‘And you haven’t gone with them? I know you disapprove of what I’m doing. You’ve always secretly supported Venutios.’

‘I am your friend,’ Mairghread said stiffly. ‘But I have always spoken my mind, so I’ll speak now. I don’t like the manner in which you dismissed Artgenos. It was not your place to do so. It was he who had the power to take your sovereignty from you! But he has chosen to go. To leave you to your fate. I don’t like the way you grovel before the Romans but it is your decision to do so; for both reasons you need me more than ever, so I will stay.’

Carta didn’t contradict. ‘Thank you.’ She shivered. ‘Has Gruoch gone, too?’

‘No. She will head the college with Ban. Brigantia needs the prayers and sacrifice of a senior Druid and she has Artgenos’s blessing to continue here.’