by Jules Watson
The faint song all around Minna became a drum, beating out her heart’s life.
Chapter 49
Minna paced before the hearth in the king’s hall, her knuckles pressed to her mouth.
Finbar, Donal, Keeva and Clíona were all there, and Nessa sat in Cahir’s chair, her feet in a basin of hot water. Riona had stumbled upon them and, seeing Minna’s expression, taken her own seat.
‘Tell them what you told me,’ Minna whispered to Nessa. ‘I cannot put the words together.’
Nessa gulped, addressing Finbar. ‘After Gede left, I began to venture among the people more, because of things Minna said to me … the way she made me feel …’ Her shoulders fell. ‘I have been out both day and night, walking and listening, and taking more interest. The dun is nearly empty of fighting men, but I learned much from those left.’ Her eyes rose, large and frightened, to Finbar’s face. ‘One night I was by myself on the walls, when everyone thought I was abed.’
Minna turned away to the fire. Cahir.
Nessa rushed on. ‘I heard the captain of the defences speaking with another warrior. They didn’t know I was there. The guard made some remark about how bored he was and the captain said: “No matter. We’ll soon have leagues of new territory to divide up – you can be chief of your own fancy dun.” They laughed then, and I thought they were talking about Roman lands, after the war. But then the first added something I can’t even repeat about … Dalriadan women.’
There was a shocked silence from everyone. Minna’s eyes closed tight, her back to them. ‘Tell them what it means, Nessa.’
There was a pause. ‘I sent my man Urp among the men, and he found out … he found out … that Gede doesn’t intend to only win the Roman lands. He wants all of Alba, too. He wants Dalriada.’
A muffled expletive burst from Donal. Then Finbar’s voice came, hard as iron. ‘Gede is in the south fighting Romans. What is he talking about?’
Minna spun on her heel. ‘The only reason he agreed to the alliance was so that Cahir would help him destroy the Romans. And then she had to spit it out, ‘when it was done, turn on Cahir and betray him.’
‘No!’ Riona was aghast; Clíona and Keeva white with shock.
Donal bit off a curse as he and Finbar both came to their feet, their fury palpable.
Nessa buried her face in her hands. ‘I am so ashamed. That my own husband, and king, could plan such a crime.’
‘How will it happen?’ Finbar demanded, impatient with Nessa’s tears. ‘Where?’
‘I don’t know.’ Nessa dropped her hands in despair. ‘I only know that once he has the victory he needs over the Romans, he will find a way to turn on Cahir without implicating himself and m–murder him.’
Minna grasped for the nearest roofpost, pressing her back to it. Keeva was on her feet, holding her arm. ‘Sit down before you faint.’
‘No, no, leave me.’ She was seeing again Gede’s sardonic smile at the feast. Why hadn’t she seen him for what he was? Instead, she had been too distracted by her own new gifts – gifts that had limits, as she had not realized then. She turned and leaned her forehead against the cool wood. Gede was so tangled he was almost impossible to read, but she should have tried harder. She had failed Cahir. You have murdered him. ‘No,’ she whispered.
‘And your warriors agreed to this?’ Donal demanded of Nessa. ‘Betraying those you have fought beside breaks a sacred oath. It dishonours their swords, their shields, their very blood.’
‘I know,’ Nessa stammered. ‘And though it offends many, enough are content to receive Gede’s spoils and forget their shame.’
In the silence that ensued, Minna raised her face. ‘He cannot get away with this. I will not let him.’ Fury was bracing her now; that Gede would seek to take from her what she had so long sought.
Donal’s face was set. ‘We must get a message to Cahir at once, Finbar.’
‘If he’s taken the western part of the Wall, then there will be men stationed there who will know where he is. We could relay a message—’
‘Relay?’ Minna’s voice cut in harshly. ‘Use warriors as messengers and they are targets for attack – one goes down, and the message is lost.’
As they all stared, surprised at her vehemence, a sense of familiarity came over her. Facing down men and declaring she would make up her own mind to go into danger. Yes, Rhiann whispered to her. Listen to the past. It was me. But Minna did it now for love, and there was nothing stronger. Cahir was her anchor; she needed to be with him no matter what happened.
‘And what do you propose instead?’ Finbar asked disdainfully. He had not seen Minna in the cave in the north; he had never understood what she was or had become.
‘Have you forgotten where I was born?’ She returned his look. ‘I am Roman by blood. I’ve already travelled those lands, walked those roads. I speak Latin, and can pass as Roman or Dalriadan. Can you?’
‘Minna!’ Nessa cried, as the implications sank in.
‘Now, lady,’ Donal began, groping for the authority of his sword, which he then discovered he had left aside. ‘The idea of you undertaking this is nonsense. With a few men I can travel far more swiftly—’
‘Wait!’ Finbar stormed. ‘Donal, what are you blathering about? We will send men to Cahir, aye, but there’s no sense in you going, and damn well no sense in this girl going. She’s the king’s lennan! Do you have any idea what he would do to us?’
She placed herself in front of him. ‘A party of Dalriadan warriors is more likely to be attacked than me. If we meet any Roman soldiers then I am simply a Latin lady trying to return home – there must be many people on the roads fleeing the armies.’
‘Madness!’ Finbar raked hands through his grey hair, making it stick out. But the faces of the women told a different story. Keeva was grinning, eyes alight. Riona looked admiring, and Clíona wryly resigned. Only Nessa was appalled.
‘And there is another thing,’ Minna declared, with a last burst of inspiration. ‘I have been named by Cahir not only as his lennan but as his seer. I received visions from your gods, your ancestors who guide his kingship. Your men may need the connection between us to find him in time.’ She paused, then added softly. ‘And he will need me.’
She met Donal’s eyes as his indecision dissolved into amused horror, like a kitten had just sunk its claws into his hand.
‘This is ridiculous.’ Finbar turned on Donal. ‘Utterly foolish!’
Donal merely sighed. ‘If she says she wants to go, brother, I don’t see how we can stop her. We weren’t appointed her guards, after all.’
Minna hadn’t actually thought of that. No one guarded her any more.
Finbar crossed his arms across his barrel chest. ‘Well, she can’t go without an escort, and I do have say over that.’
Donal shrugged. ‘I will go as her escort.’
‘Ha!’ Finbar jabbed a finger at him. ‘You always wanted to join this battle. That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? Admit it!’ Donal smiled and shrugged again. Finbar glanced at Minna, eyes narrowed. ‘We need all our men to defend this dun.’
‘We won’t need many,’ Donal argued. ‘The fewer the better – then we can lay low more easily.’
‘Of course it’s far too dangerous, Minna,’ Nessa suddenly interrupted. ‘What are you thinking?’ She sniffed, dashing away tears.
Minna knelt before her. ‘You, of all people, must understand – you came all this way for me.’ She took Nessa’s hand. ‘My heart is bound to Cahir’s. I cannot sit here while he is so threatened. I will go mad.’
Nessa’s eyes searched hers, and at last her mouth softened.
‘If it were my man,’ Riona said stoutly, ‘I would go to him, too. In the old days the women went to war, didn’t they?’
‘Yes,’ Keeva put in eagerly. ‘Oh, Minna, the bards will sing of you—’
Donal stifled a squawk. ‘She’s not going to war! She’s travelling in the wake of an army. If the king thought that …’ He trailed away, speaking so glumly that
Minna smiled at him. Then her eyes came to rest on Clíona.
‘What are you looking at me for?’ the older woman sniffed. You’ll only do exactly what you want to do; I can see it in your face.’
That was the truest thing said. For the first time in Minna’s life no one could stop her. She was an entirely free woman, and as Cahir had made her so, even he could not gainsay her. She clambered to her feet and faced Donal. ‘Are you really willing to do this for Cahir, for me?’
‘I am more than willing.’ Donal’s face showed clear admiration.
‘Pah!’ Finbar sat down. ‘Let it not be on my head, then.’ But though his frown remained, he raised no more objections.
As the others dispersed, Nessa spoke Minna’s name in a soft voice, and she turned from speaking with Clíona about provisions. Dwarfed by Cahir’s chair, Nessa was limp, head down. ‘There is something else I must tell you.’
Minna sank warily to the bench beside her. Nessa’s eyes had almost disappeared into hollows, her face was so strained. ‘It’s my fault this happened.’
‘Of course it isn’t.’
‘It is!’ Nessa hissed.
Minna waited until Clíona left, and lowered her voice. ‘What are you talking about?’
Nessa’s eyes shifted to the fire, her lip quavering. ‘I have to tell you about the real history between Gede and I.’
She thought of the secrets she had sensed at the Dun of Bright Water, and felt the weight of that darkness descend between them again. ‘Tell me,’ she said.
It tumbled out. Gede once had an elder brother, called Drustan. Their warlike family seized the kingship by force at a moment of weakness, even though they were not prime candidates for the throne. They demanded Nessa as Drustan’s bride to bestow her royal blood through marriage, legitimizing his claim. This would also strengthen the claim of any son that came after him. Nessa dutifully bore the son – little Drust.
Minna’s skin began to prickle over her arms, her neck. Suddenly Nessa burst out, ‘But I did not know it would end that way!’
Her mouth went dry. ‘What would end?’
Nessa turned her head. ‘When I first came to the dun Gede would watch me, and then he began catching me alone, wooing me, kissing and touching. I never had such soft words from Drustan, only coldness, and, young fool that I was, I grew mad with desire for Gede. I thought he loved me. I didn’t know he could ever do such a thing.’
Minna’s heart beat slowly, as the darkness fell over her. Nessa curled up like a dying leaf, barely able to whisper how Drustan went away to raid over the Wall, and there died, though not from a wound.
Gede killed him, his own brother.
Then he came back north and claimed Nessa, but it was not for love after all, only for the throne, the blood.
‘Then how could you wed him?’ Minna’s words were squeezed from a tight throat.
Nessa buried her face in her hands. Gede implanted his seed in her before he went to war with his brother. When he came back, and Nessa surmised what he’d done, she got rid of the child with Darine’s herbs. Furious at being denied his own royal son, Gede said if Nessa ever told the truth of Drustan’s death he would say she had done it, freeing herself to marry him. She flung back that she would tell the truth if he did not leave her body alone. They had been living in mutual loathing ever since.
Minna’s mind was spinning. ‘But how would anyone believe you killed Drustan if he was so far away on campaign? And did no one see Gede attack his brother?’ Her mouth formed the questions, but a terrible thread was already unrolling in her heart. She grabbed Nessa’s arms, her thumbs digging into her flesh. ‘How did Gede kill him?’
Nessa swallowed a sob. ‘I’m sorry … sorry I did not tell you before.’ She closed her eyes. ‘He did it with poison.’
Weariness had no hold over Cahir.
He strode tirelessly at the head of his army, his triumph a storm in his blood. He saw more keenly in the clear air, as if all the veils of shame and disappointment had been stripped from his eyes.
It had taken some time to gather his men together after the great battle, but now they were marching with the Attacotti and their Erin brothers in one enormous flood down the west side of the central hills. Fortunately this route took him away from Gede, who had chosen the east side.
For though the two kings raised cups of victory ale together on the battlefield, and Gede smiled and spoke rousingly amid the cheers of their combined forces, his eyes when they passed over Cahir were always cold, with speculation in their depths.
Cahir was heartily glad to turn his back on the Picts and head south, for they had news that the forces of the Count of the Saxon Shore – Fullofaudes’ southern counterpart – were being recalled from their bases on the coasts.
Other battles were coming, and Cahir did not want coldness and watchfulness. He wanted to lose himself in passion and fire. He wanted to breathe freely for the first time in his life.
Chapter 50
Minna hunched miserably in the stern of the curragh which ploughed through the waves.
As the fishermen and six warriors rowed into a southwesterly wind, her belly was reliving its previous sea journey on Jared’s ship. She spent her time beneath a pile of cloaks, shivering and retching over the side.
Donal tried to point out practically that no healthy man ever died from sea-sickness, but after she cocked one bleary, vengeful eye at him he let her be. After that, only desperate thoughts of Cahir stopped Minna wanting to follow her bile down into the dark, foam-laced waves. Everything stank, from the tar of the hides to the fishy smell of ropes and sails.
Finally, on the sixth day, they sailed into a broad estuary from the open sea. It was low water, and in the morning light the inlet was a vast plain of glistening sand and mudflats, edged with marsh grass. Far away to north, east and south there rose mountains, blue and hazy in the sunshine after days of rain.
The fishermen said they must stand off for high water, for it was dangerous, with the swirls of sand sculpted into underwater sandbars and treacherous bore tides. ‘I think it’s wiser to land north of the Wall anyway, rather than row straight up to the walls of Luguvalium,’ Donal pronounced after consulting with the other warriors. ‘Two rivers join this inlet: the southern leads directly to the town; the northern just leads into the marshes behind the town. I think we should take the northern river.’
Minna sipped water, her thoughts suddenly roaming back in time to Broc. It was ludicrous to wonder if she might see him, for the frontier was hundreds of miles long. But she was closer now than she had been for so long. What was he doing? Was he involved in the great battle? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. When she thought of him, there was a blank space inside that frightened her, as if she couldn’t feel him anywhere. Her eyes on the glittering water, she held that ache in her throat, knowing the unbridgeable gulfs between them now, thinking of the boy he had been. There was a tug in her heart towards those memories. But that’s all they were, memories. And as for Cian, she pictured him far away in Gaul, or even Rome, watching silver tigers in the arena. She slowly wiped her quivering lip. She knew he was clever enough to have fled far from Alba, far from this danger. ‘Cahir’s letter said they had taken Luguvalium,’ she croaked.
‘True,’ Donal was saying, ‘but there might be remnant Roman bands close to the town still, and our boys will have their hands full with the civilians as well. I can’t take that chance with you. Nor do we know what has happened to the Carvetii nobility.’ The shadowy presence of Maeve reared up between them. Was she being held in the town? ‘No, we’ll land where it’s quiet, give Luguvalium a wide berth and circle about from the north through the empty lands to the Wall forts further east. They will have a better idea of the lay of the land.’
They beached to wait for the tide in a tiny cove on the northern shore. Watching Minna crawl on hands and knees to retch up the water, Donal said, ‘You know, lass, aside from your stirring words that day, I’m not sure I s
hould have let you come.’
She wiped her mouth and pulled her cloak around her with shaking fingers. ‘Let me? I don’t think you had a choice.’
Donal grinned. The wind stirred the tufts over his ears into a ruddy halo, and his balding pate was burned an angry red. ‘Aye, but imagine me saying that to Cahir. “Sorry, my king, but she made me do it – that bitty slip of a girl.”’ He sighed. ‘Make no mistake, he’ll have my innards roasting over a fire shortly.’
‘Donal.’ She squinted out at the sun on the mudflats. ‘It is not only men who can be brave and bold and foolhardy. It is not only men who can risk themselves. When Cahir took me as his seer, it wasn’t just a name.’ She buried her chin in her shoulder, voicing the thing that whispered to her in the dark hours, when her guilt grew into a monster. ‘If he dies, I do, too. I am bound to him.’
Behind her, Donal was silent. ‘However he bellows,’ he said quietly at last, ‘my king would do well to have you by his side. Whatever comes.’
When the estuary was covered with water once more they pushed off again. Before they left, Minna went behind the rocks and changed from her stinking tunic, stained with vomit, into a dress of blue wool from her pack. Around her neck she looped the crystal necklace Cahir had given her, and wound her hair up with bronze pins. Though her clothes were barbarian, she thought she could pass as a Roman lady without much scrutiny.
They rowed to the northern rivermouth, the banks of the inlets deserted islands of saltmarsh and bog, carpeted with moss and, in drier parts, thrift and grass. There were no sounds but the calls of the gulls and the wind scratching the leaves of the scrubby trees. The fishing huts they passed, covered with seaweed, were abandoned and smokeless. They glided past one settlement that was nothing but scattered ashes.
The silence became oppressive. The wide skies and endless snaking channels were lonely, the braying of geese swallowed by the emptiness. Then the salt-flats eventually gave way to abandoned fields, and still there was no sign of life. Minna sat in the bowels of the curragh, her knuckles white as she gripped its side. The sun was behind their heads when they at last coasted around a bend and saw a village. Clusters of half-burned houses surrounded the river, and the air was tainted with smoke.