The Warrior's Princess

by Barbara Erskine

  There was no sign of Eigon at the villa. Drusilla looked round in concern. ‘I told her it was the first one on the road. I know I did. I explained where it was. It is exactly where I was told.’ She stood staring round in confusion. The villa lay in a slight valley only a short way off the main highway. There was no missing it, and it was obvious that it served in some way as a hospes, a stop off point for travellers. Slaves ran at once to see if they required refreshments or to hire horses and they saw one or two pedlars plying their wares around the tables which had been placed in the outhouse near the gate.

  Commios sat down. ‘She’ll be here. God will guide her to us.’ He groped in his pouch for a coin and ordered a jug of ale for the two of them. ‘We might as well reward ourselves after the fright we’ve had,’ he said with feeling.

  They sat there for a long time, but there was still no sign of Eigon as the light began to fail and one by one the other travellers disappeared, leaving them sitting alone by the darkening, windswept road.

  Rhodri burst into the house with a shout. ‘Where is Meryn?’ He found the others sitting anxiously together in the kitchen round the table. There was no sign of any police.

  Meryn hauled himself to his feet. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘The child. Eigon’s sister. She’s got Jess!’ His face was white and there was a deep scratch across his forehead where he had forced his way through some brambles. ‘She appeared up there on the hillside. Dan was there, the bastard. He threatened to kill me, but she turned up and he ran for it. Couldn’t face a small child!’ He threw himself into a chair. ‘I’m not sure he wasn’t right. She’s vicious. She’s not the sweet lost little girl we all thought. She blames her – she blames Eigon – for not going back to look for her and it is terrifying.’ He was aware of the others looking at him. Of Meryn’s thoughtful calm response. Someone pushed a glass towards him and he grabbed it and drained it. It was whisky. ‘Is it possible? Has she hidden Jess somewhere? In another place? Another dimension? Oh Jesus Christ!’ He shook his head. ‘What are we going to do?’ He looked round suddenly. ‘Where are the police? Aren’t they here?’

  ‘They are here. The whole area has been cordoned off.’ Steph sighed. ‘We’re not supposed to leave the house. They are putting up a helicopter and bringing in the mountain rescue people. I don’t think there is anything else we can do.’

  Meryn stood up. He put a gentle hand on Rhodri’s shoulder. ‘Get your breath back. I’m going to step outside for a few minutes then maybe you and I will walk back up the hill if the police don’t stop us. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.’

  Outside Meryn stood for a moment, his eyes closed, feeling the air around him, sensing the threads of anger and fear and sorrow weaving backwards and forwards all about him. He frowned. He mustn’t let his thoughts wander. Concentrate. Why hadn’t he sensed all this? Why couldn’t he feel Jess? What if Rhodri was right and she had been taken into another dimension – if that had happened he would have to go after her. He wandered towards the studio. The door was ajar. He pulled it open and walked in, standing still inside. This room was at the epicentre of what was happening. In this place, two thousand years before, a child had been viciously raped; a family had been torn apart, people had been murdered. Another child had come and seen. She had seen the body of her nurse; she had seen the bodies of her sister and her mother, defiled and bloody and when she had called to them she had found that they had gone somewhere she could never reach them. Dead or unconscious, it made no difference to the little girl. Traumatised beyond imagining she had wandered back to look for her little brother and found he too had gone. He had curled up into a tight little ball and his spirit had slipped away. She was alone.

  He realised suddenly that Rhodri was standing in the doorway watching him, saying nothing, sensing that the thoughts whirling through Meryn’s head should not be interrupted.

  ‘What was her name again, Eigon’s little sister?’ Meryn asked at last.

  ‘They called her Glads.’

  ‘Good. She needs the dignity of a name. We need to know what happened to her after she saw the massacre that took place here. Give me a few moments, Rhodri.’

  Rhodri disappeared from the doorway and Meryn heard his footsteps walking across the yard. The sound died away and he was left with an intense silence. She was listening. He smiled inwardly. This poor damaged child, had she lived to grow up or had she too succumbed on this dreadful hillside or in the godforsaken valley beneath it?

  Godforsaken. He stared down at the floor. Eigon had gone to Rome and come back, if he had understood correctly, a Christian. Perfectly possible. The men who had been given the credit for converting the British Isles to Christianity – Patrick, Columba, Augustine, had all come late to the scene. In an Empire with healthy and swift trade routes ideas had travelled as fast as the speed of the fastest horse. News of the new religion would have been here as fast as it had reached Rome itself. Maybe even sooner by western routes out of the Mediterranean. The legend of Joseph of Arimathaea following the routes of the tin trade with the young Jesus weren’t in fact totally improbable.

  He shook his head. This was not the time for academic speculation. Enough that Eigon had lived in the Rome of Nero at the time of St Peter and St Paul and had returned having met them. Fact. According to Jess.

  Where are you, Jess? He sighed.

  The footsteps in the courtyard were running this time. Rhodri appeared at the door. ‘In case you need to know, the little boy was called Togodumnus after Caratacus’s dead brother. Togo for short.’ He paused. ‘Do you still need to be alone?’

  Meryn eyed the big man. He was sensitive in a lot of ways for all his braggadocio, and it was to him that the child had spoken and revealed herself. He shook his head. ‘Have you got a torch? Show me where you saw her.’

  There was no sign of any police as they headed out of the gate. Rhodri turned off the track after about half a mile. ‘I know it was here. I remember this twisted yew tree amongst the others.’ He flashed the torch up into the curtains of spiny foliage. ‘Then I worked my way through the rhododendrons here and down towards a spring. I could hear it in the distance. Dan took off that way.’ He gestured with the torch, sending the beam shafting through the tree branches overhead.

  ‘And the police?’ Meryn paused. ‘Which way did they go?’

  Rhodri shrugged. ‘I heard a helicopter but I never saw the others.’

  ‘We’d know if they were still nearby.’ Meryn took a few steps further into the undergrowth, then he paused. He could feel it. Suddenly. A wall, ice-cold, forbidding. He glanced back at Rhodri in time to see him shiver. He looked nervous.

  ‘We’re getting close, aren’t we?’ Rhodri whispered.

  Meryn nodded. ‘Did you speak to her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I tried to be friendly. But she wasn’t having any of it. She sounded very hacked off. Accused people of abandoning her; accused Jess.’

  ‘Think of her as an abused child,’ Meryn said softly. ‘The pain and anger and sense of betrayal have never gone away. They have festered all this time, and like a child she has maybe not fully understood what happened. She doesn’t accept that her sister couldn’t come back for her.’

  ‘They looked for her. They looked for a long time. Jess told me. The whole legion turned out. She was the king’s daughter after all and they wanted as many of the family as possible to take as captives to Rome.’

  ‘So, where did she go? What happened to her?’ Meryn said thoughtfully. He looked across at Rhodri. ‘Tell me as near as you can when we reach the place you spoke to her.’

  Rhodri shrugged. ‘Somewhere round here. It all looks much the same.’

  Meryn nodded. ‘Right. So, did you call her before?’

  ‘No. She just appeared. She was standing behind Dan. I talked to her, and –’ he shrugged – ‘I think she understood me. She sort of faded away, then she came back suddenly, and this time she was vic
ious. It was personal. She was threatening. She said she had the lady.’

  ‘And did she say what she was going to do with her?’

  ‘“I’m going to make her pay for killing my brother and taking away my sister,” something like that.’

  Meryn frowned. ‘That is strange. How could Jess be to blame?’

  ‘Did she think she was someone else? Eigon?’

  ‘Call her.’ Suddenly Meryn made up his mind. ‘She knows we’re here. Call her. She has made contact with you, so let’s see if she is going to negotiate.’

  ‘Glads?’ Rhodri called. He scanned the trees and bushes round them. ‘Are you there? We want to help. To try and make this all better in some way. Will you come and talk to us?’

  They waited in silence.

  ‘Please, come and tell us how we can make it better.’ Rhodri tried again. ‘You want this endless game to end, don’t you? Let’s try and sort it, shall we?’

  Rhodri broke off as Meryn put a warning hand on his arm. He nodded in front of them. There was someone there, in the darker shade of one of the ancient oaks. Just the outline of the girl. ‘Come on, girly. Please talk to us,’ he went on more softly. ‘Let us help you.’

  Silently Meryn raised his finger to his lips. He stepped forward. ‘Greetings, lady. I am trained to walk with the gods. If I can intercede, I will do so.’

  She appeared to have moved closer. They could make out her face now, her flaxen hair, her large unhappy eyes. Behind them there was blank despair. ‘Who has been looking after you?’ Meryn went on. ‘Who was it who found you that day when your sister was taken away?’

  There was no reply.

  ‘Please, tell me,’ Meryn went on gently. ‘I want to help you.’

  ‘Ask her where Jess is,’ Rhodri murmured.

  Meryn frowned. He shook his head. ‘Will you talk to me, girly?’ He used Rhodri’s form of address for her.

  Have you come to play with me?

  They heard her voice, but her lips hadn’t moved.

  ‘Yes, we’ve come to play with you,’ Meryn said gently. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

  Where’s Eigon?

  ‘She’s looking for you. She’s been trying so hard to find you. She’s been talking to the lady, Jess. Jess has been helping her look for you.’ Meryn’s whole attention was fixed on the shadowy figure. ‘Is Jess there with you, Gwladys?’ He gave the name its Welsh intonation.

  Jess?

  Suddenly the name was all round them in the trees, echoing from hilltop to hilltop, from oak to oak across the valley.

  Jess, Jess, JESS!

  ‘God Almighty!’ Rhodri looked round, transfixed with fear.

  ‘Where is Jess?’ Meryn raised his voice now to match hers. ‘I need to see her!’ His eyes hadn’t left her face.

  Jess! Jess has come to play with me! Jess is here, in the woods with me!

  ‘I need to see her, Gwladys!’ Meryn was very stern. ‘Now.’ The wind was rising. Above them the trees were beginning to sway. The leaves were rustling in the darkness.

  ‘Where is she?’ Meryn called again. His voice was impressively loud.

  The child was fading away.

  ‘Come back. I need you to talk to me!’

  But she had gone.

  Meryn sighed. ‘I couldn’t hold her.’

  ‘Is Jess dead?’ Rhodri’s voice was bleak. ‘Is that what she meant?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Meryn gave a sigh. ‘I don’t sense that she is dead. There is so much going on here, so many different strands, so many stories.’

  ‘What about Titus?’

  ‘I haven’t sensed him nearby. Not for a while. I don’t know if he is following Dan. Somehow I doubt it. That link has been broken, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still around. If he is intent on catching up with Eigon he could well be here somewhere and he may have linked to this child’s energy.’ He shook his head. ‘We’re doing no good here, I think we should go back.’

  ‘No! We can’t leave! Not yet. We have to look for Jess. Supposing she is lying here somewhere, injured. Maybe she is lapsing in and out of consciousness.’ Rhodri was anguished.

  ‘That thought had occurred to me. That could be why she is half in this world and half not.’

  ‘That’s what you sense?’ Rhodri stared at him aghast.

  ‘I’m not sure what I sense.’ Meryn sighed. ‘I am getting such mixed signals. Someone is deliberately obscuring the picture. Someone who is trained to do it. An adept, if you like. She is fighting me, hiding what is happening.’

  ‘But you can circumvent that, surely?’

  Meryn shrugged. ‘I always thought I could. This person is powerful. Very powerful.’ He reached out with his hands, his fingers spread as though he was trying to separate the strands of stickiness in the air around them. ‘Marcia.’ He smiled. ‘Just for a second there she let down her guard and I could feel her.’ There was a long pause. He had closed his eyes. Rhodri watched anxiously.

  ‘Marcia Maximilla. She’s letting me see her now. She thinks she has nothing to fear. She is taunting me with her prowess. She is the best.’ He gave a grim smile.

  ‘She’s a Roman?’ Rhodri whispered the question in awe.

  ‘Oh yes, she’s a Roman.’ Meryn smiled. ‘What a challenge.’

  ‘And does she know where Jess is?’

  Meryn was silent for a few seconds. ‘As to that, we will have to see.’

  The wagon had dropped Eigon at a villa just off the main road as she had been led to expect, but without her realising it, they had followed a road which led south again out of Durovernum, towards Portus Lemanis. Nearby she found a mansio, set up for travellers. She waited for the best part of the day and all the following night, huddled in her cloak on one of the benches as she couldn’t afford to ask for a bed, and at last she realised that Commios and Drusilla were not going to come. Wearily she stared at the road and wondered what to do. She was fighting off waves of panic as mentally she counted the money left in her purse – hardly any. All she had was the basket, her cloak and a good stout pair of shoes. For a while her mind refused to focus at all. She couldn’t contemplate travelling on without her friends or bear to think what might be happening to them. Had they been captured? Should she go back? But what could she do against Titus? Where was he? Was he on her trail or had he temporarily lost track of her?

  Perhaps she could negotiate. Perhaps the thought of capturing her would be the lever she could use to bargain for her friends’ release. The thought reminded her of Julius and another plan that had gone wrong, in Rome, and her eyes filled with tears. Standing up at last, stiff and hungry and cold, she turned back towards Durovernum. Almost at once someone stopped to give her a lift and it was only then that she realised she was on the wrong road. Taking pity on her the Cantican farmer gave her some bread and cut her a wedge from one of the huge leaf-wrapped cheeses he had brought from the market as they made their way at last in the right direction.

  It was late afternoon when she found herself at the meeting place where Commios and Drusilla had waited for her for so long. They had long gone, but they had left a message with one of the slaves at the villa in case she ever caught them up. He recognised her at once from their description and produced a wax tablet with Commios’s scrawl. Her heart leaped with joy and relief at the news that they were still free then it plummeted again as she read it. They were going to follow their original plan and make their way westward towards Venta Silurum. Reading it she touched the wax for a moment with a fingertip. The message was signed with the mark of the fish.

  They had gone without her. There was no clue as to which road they would follow, which towns they would aim for. The slave looked at her silently, recognising the emotions which chased one another across her face. ‘They’ve abandoned you, eh?’ He gave a rueful grin.

  She nodded. ‘They must have given up hope of ever seeing me again.’

  ‘What will you do?’

  She shrugged. ‘I must follow them, but I h
ave no money.’

  He nodded at the tablet in her hand. ‘I’ve seen that fish sign before.’ He glanced up. ‘I know someone who can probably help you.’

  She looked up at him in astonishment. ‘Who is it?’

  He glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were not overheard. ‘He lives in the woods on the foot of the Downs. Not very far away. I’ll get one of the carriers to give you a lift to the milestone where people sometimes leave stuff for him. You will have to follow the trackway from there and he will find you. He’s a great man.’ He glanced round again. ‘I won’t tell anyone you were here, but you should make yourself scarce as soon as possible. Your friends said there were soldiers after you.’ They had obviously confided in this man, and they too had read the trustworthiness in his face. He saw her appraising glance and grinned. ‘Don’t worry. I have no love of the Roman army any more than you do! This man will help you. I promise.’

  Some two hours later he came to find her in the corner seat where he had suggested she wait. He had brought her a jug of ale and a pie to eat, paid for out of his own tips. ‘I’ve found someone to take you,’ he whispered. ‘Just as well as someone was here asking for you. A soldier.’ He grimaced as she looked up at him in terror. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve sent him back the other way.’ He winked. ‘Wrap your hood round your head and follow me.’

  She did as she was bid, allowing him to boost her onto the front of a heavily loaded wagon. The driver didn’t even look at her. He offered no conversation. She sat, wrapped in her cloak beside him for what seemed an enormously long time as the wagon lurched and rumbled off the well-made road and onto a trackway which almost at once headed up into the low rolling hills, covered with thick woods.

  It was getting dark when he pulled up at last. There was indeed a large milestone beside the track, but it wasn’t a Roman stone. She could see the Celtic carvings inscribed on it, and the lines of inscription up the edge which were written in the secret language of the Druids. She slid down over the axle with a smile of thanks at her driver as he pulled some bundles down and began to stack them near the stone. He gave her a slight bow and still without uttering a word pulled himself back onto the draught pole where he sat, his legs swinging. The oxen started again without command and in a frighteningly short time the wagon had lurched into motion and disappeared into the darkness of the trees, leaving her quite alone.