Time Raiders: The Avenger

by P. C. Cast

  “I’ll bet the spirits still exist in my world,” Alex said. “I mean, it’s obvious on the tallgrass prairie, but I wonder if I came here, to what we call England, if I’d be able to touch a rowan and feel the stirring of its spirit.”

  Caradoc stared into the campfire without speaking. Then he slowly said, “I think the soul of a land can die from neglect, just as surely as the soul of a man can.”

  “That makes me really sad,” Alex said. She gazed around them at the verdant beauty of the living forest. “It’s so hard to believe this isn’t all the same, no matter what year it is, or how much time has passed.” She met his eyes. “There are still people who believe in the land. I’m sure there are. Maybe all they need is a good teacher to help them bring it alive again.”

  “What do you propose, love?”

  “Come back with me. When this is all over. When I have both medallion pieces and I’ve returned them to my time—come back with me.”

  Caradoc closed his eyes as if her words caused him physical pain. When he opened them she saw sadness and loss there. “I already know Boudica does not drive the Romans from our country. Tell me—does the queen survive the war? Does Boudica live?”

  Alex wanted to lie to him, but she couldn’t. He’d know it, and the lie would ruin the honesty and trust they’d begun to build between them. “No. Boudica doesn’t live long after the last battle.”

  “Is the war a long one?”

  “No,” she said, remembering Professor Carswell’s thorough briefing.

  “Then I cannot return to your world with you. The queen’s daughters are too young to carry the torque, and even were they older, they may have been too damaged by the Romans’ brutality to ever truly be whole enough to lead. The torque will pass to me, and I must wear it for my people, even if they are a people in bondage.”

  “What if you don’t live?” Alex said the words quickly, barely able to stand thinking them. “What if I go back to my time and find out you’re killed days or even months after the battle? If you’re going to die, couldn’t you leave then?”

  “You could know this?”

  “If your death is recorded in history, and it very well could be. There’s a lot we know about Boudica, and you are her heir. There have to be records of what happened to you.”

  “I do not know. I will have to think on it.” He paused and took her hand before he continued. “You could remain here with me. You’re already tied to this world and its goddess. You could have a place here as Andraste’s priestess, and as my wife.”

  “Your wife?”

  He lifted her hand to his lips. “Wife, soul mate, companion—you would be all those things.”

  “Wife?” she repeated, feeling slightly faint.

  He chuckled. “Love, would it be easier to simply ask you for a handfast?”

  “Handfast?” Her face felt numb and she wondered if she might be having a heart attack.

  “A handfast is a marriage vow that is observed for one year. At the end of that year, or even any time during the year, the couple can decide whether they want to continue with a true marriage, or go their separate ways, with no enmity between them.”

  “A handfast sounds less scary.” She’d never really believed she would get married. Ever. And that had been okay, before Caradoc. Now it wasn’t okay to be without him, but marriage wasn’t any less scary.

  “Then a handfast it will be!”

  Alex’s heart was hammering fast in her chest as Caradoc almost leaped up from their place beside the fire and strode over to the packs, pulling from one of them a short sword in a sheath, ornately decorated with Celtic knots that joined to create waves. She stood up nervously, not sure what she was supposed to do. When he rejoined her he began speaking in a deep voice so filled with passion and joy that his words seemed to shimmer around them.

  “I do truly desire to handfast with thee. To show my intent I present you with my blade of power.” Caradoc dropped to his knee, pulled the sword from its sheath and offered it to her, saying, “Gracious and lovely one—my heart, my love—accept my promise to thee. I pledge this sword, as I pledge my soul, ever to be in your service. Like this blade, you shall see my love be strong. Like this steel, you shall see my love be enduring. Accept it, love, for that which is mine shall also be yours.”

  Alex stared at the sword, then into Caradoc’s amber eyes. Listen to your heart…. The words swirled through her mind. Was it really that easy? She knew without a doubt what her heart was telling her. Time and distance and war and turmoil didn’t matter between them. She belonged with this man, and she belonged in this world. She’d never belonged anywhere else, and now she knew why. All hesitation and fear gone, Alex accepted his sword and spoke the words that flowed from her wildly beating heart through her soul and out to him.

  “I accept your pledge of love, just as I accept the pledge of your blade. You know what is in my heart, and I know what is in yours. I ask in Andraste’s name and by the magic of this ensouled place that I will be yours. And, Caradoc, I will stay with you here, in this world. I know beyond any doubt that this is where I belong.”

  With a glad cry, Caradoc stood. Taking Alex in his arms, he kissed her, blocking out war and time and impossibilities.

  As they watched the sun set over the trees in a fiery orange and pink blaze, Alex asked Caradoc the question that had been niggling at the back of her mind ever since she’d automatically evoked Andraste’s name during their handfast.

  “Isn’t there something I should do to formally pledge myself to Andraste—something like our handfast?”

  Caradoc spoke hesitantly, as if the words were difficult for him to say. “There is, indeed, an initiation ceremony that a priestess takes part in when she is chosen by a goddess, to show that she, in turn, accepts the path her goddess would have her follow. She is guided in it by a fellow priestess, or sometimes a druid. It should be performed in one of the sacred groves on Mona.” His amber eyes were shadowed with grief. “The Romans burned all the sacred groves to the ground. I saw the island turn to fire as I escaped. Mona is no more. The sacred groves are no more.”

  Alex twined her fingers through his. She lifted his hand, turned it over and kissed his palm and the pulse point at his wrist. Then she leaned forward and kissed his lips tenderly. She held him in her arms, caressing him gently, trying to will comfort from her hands into his body. When she finally felt him relax, she asked, “Caradoc, what is it that makes a grove sacred?”

  He tensed for a moment under her hands, but her touch seemed to soothe him, and he finally said, “A sacred grove is a place that has been touched by a god or goddess. Something special has happened there, or there are trees that have been tended lovingly by druids or priestesses. Often stones of power stand in the grove. Or perhaps it is as simple as the fact that it is a place where a god or goddess has spoken so clearly that the words were etched on the very soul of the land.”

  Alex spoke without thinking. “You mean like here.”

  She felt the jolt in his body her words caused, and he shifted so that his startled gaze met hers.

  “Here?” he said.

  Alex nodded. “Right here. It’s where you asked me to stay with you, and it’s where I finally knew, without any doubt, that with you is where I belong. I heard Andraste’s voice telling me to listen to my heart, Caradoc. Right here,” she repeated. “So doesn’t that make this grove a sacred one?”

  Tears pooled in the druid’s eyes and he let them spill unashamedly down his cheeks. “Aye, love,” he said in a broken voice. “It is a new sacred grove, named thusly by a wise young priestess.”

  “And you are a druid, right?”

  “I am, indeed,” he said.

  “Then I am asking you to guide me through my initiation ritual so that I can accept the goddess and pledge myself to Andraste,” Alex said in a rush.

  Caradoc wiped his eyes. “Now?”

  “Yes. I need to commit myself to Andraste, just like I committed myself to you today
.”

  “In order to take part in an initiation ritual, you must be prepared to travel to the Otherworld.”

  Alex felt the color drain from her face. “You mean back where I was shattered?”

  “Yes, love, but it will be different this time. You are whole. You are ready, and you have a guide.”

  Alex swallowed hard. “Well, then. Okay. I want to do this.”

  “Time passes differently there. Remember that it seemed we were in the presence of the goddess for just minutes, and almost an entire day had passed in the mortal world.”

  “Do you mean we might be gone a day or two, or are you talking months or years?”

  “A day or two is normal, usually no more than that. Are you certain you wish to do this now, love?”

  “I’m sure that most of our future is uncertain right now, so I’d like to do it, even if we’re a couple days late catching up with Boudica. She can’t engage Suetonius for at least a week, and we can’t do anything without him and the missing medallion piece. If I perform this ritual right now then I’ll be sure of the path I want to follow, no matter what happens.”

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Caradoc declared.

  Alex kissed him and thought, it’s not what might happen to me that I’m worried about….

  “Yes,” Caradoc said. “I will guide you through your pledge to Andraste. It would be my greatest honor.”

  “All right,” she said as he pulled her to her feet. “What do I do first?”

  “First, you bathe, and bare your skin,” he said with a grin.

  “Again?”

  Chapter 23

  W ith his arm around her, they walked to the stream. “This time your bath is symbolic of a type of death, as you wash one life from you and step naked into another.” Caradoc squeezed her shoulder. “What you do now has more to do with spiritual love than erotic love.”

  “All right. That makes sense.”

  They were at the bank of the stream, and Caradoc turned to her. “You’ll go in the water alone, love. Submerge yourself completely and do not pull yourself up. You must trust me to bring you out of the water, and your old life, into the new. Do you understand?”

  Alex nodded. “I’m a little nervous.”

  Caradoc smiled. “We all were. All will be well, though. You know your goddess awaits you. Think of Andraste and the connection you share with the earth.”

  Caradoc didn’t undress. He simply tied up his tunic and stepped into the stream. “When you are ready, I will be here for you and we will begin.”

  Alex undressed slowly, thinking about how she was changing from an old life, where she didn’t fit, to a new life. And that, no matter where it took her, this new path was the one she had to follow. She stood naked on the bank, not looking at Caradoc, but taking in the beauty of the darkening forest around her. It seemed right that she was doing this as the day ended. The symbolism for death and rebirth was complete.

  She stepped into the stream and didn’t flinch at the chill of the water, but she did look at Caradoc with widened eyes.

  “Sorry, love. I can’t make this easier for you. Part of birth is painful, and I must let this happen naturally for you.”

  She gave him a nervous smile and then dropped down into the water, cringing automatically at the cold. Alex drew in and released three deep, long breaths, then held a fourth and submerged herself in the stream, lying flat. She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, so let the water lift them until they floated just below the surface.

  She wanted to give in to panic, but remembered Caradoc’s advice and, holding her breath, thought about Andraste and how much her life had altered as she’d started to understand her connection with the goddess and the earth.

  It wasn’t just her life that had changed. She herself was different. The bitterness and chip-on-her-shoulder attitude she’d carried around with her since she was six years old was gone, as was the loneliness of not belonging. She truly was being born anew in this ancient world.

  Caradoc’s strong, warm hands grasped hers and pulled her out of the water and into his own cloak, which he wrapped around her. Lifting her from the stream, he dried her thoroughly, but silently. When he was finished, he said, “Now we must enter the Otherworld through its eastern gate—the gate of new beginnings. We will first confront the gatekeeper. He is an Otherworld guardian. He will challenge you. If your heart is pure, your intention true, you have no need to fear him, just answer him honestly. Do you want to continue?”

  “Yes,” Alex said firmly.

  “Very well.” Caradoc unwrapped his cloak from around her. “You must present yourself to the goddess naked, showing the purity of your intentions.”

  Alex nodded.

  “I will be beside you the whole way. Remember, Andraste has already chosen you and blessed you. You have nothing to fear.”

  “I’ll remember,” Alex said, though her lips were so cold they felt numb.

  “Then we shall go.” Caradoc walked to the eastern edge of the meadow and stood with Alex between two huge oaks that had grown so close to one another their branches were intertwined.

  “The oaks are the perfect frame for the gate to the Otherworld. Their magical properties are healing, strength and longevity. Concentrate on these two old ones who have stood entwined together for generations, and open the eastern gate to the Otherworld.”

  For a moment Alex stood there feeling lost and confused and completely inadequate, and then the air to her right shimmered and Caradoc’s mother materialized.

  Your soul knows what to do, child. Listen to it….

  “Thank you,” Alex said softly to the ghost. Caradoc’s brows lifted, but he didn’t speak. Alex stepped between the two huge trees, spread her arms and placed the flat of her hands on their trunks. “I’d like to go through the eastern gate to the Otherworld and find my goddess. Would you please help me open it?”

  Her hands began to tingle immediately and the air in front of her, which had been until then a soft even breeze, intensified until it blew around her in a mini-tornado, lifting her hair.

  The element associated with the east is air, Caradoc’s mother explained. Though you are not as tied to it as you are the earth, it has responded to your call. You may ask it to open the gate for you.

  “Air, I ask in Andraste’s name that you open the eastern gate to the Otherworld for me.”

  A huge gust buffeted Alex, blinding her with its intensity, and when she opened her eyes she saw in front of her a marble stairway that led up to a white marble door that seemed to lead only to the sky.

  “You did well. And now we face the guardian,” Caradoc said, taking her hand. They climbed the stairs and he opened the door. But before they could step through, a dark form, hooded in a cowled robe and holding a long, wicked looking sword, moved to block their entrance.

  Who comes to the gate?

  The voice alone chilled Alex’s blood, but she lifted her chin and said, “I do. I’m…” She paused. Who was she?

  If you do not know your true self, you will not be admitted to Andraste’s presence. Go away, mortal! For you are not ready to serve our goddess.

  “Oh, bullshit! I know who I am, but it’s a little more complicated for me than just being one person—like just being a guardian,” Alex said disdainfully. It totally pissed her off that this guy sounded like the last condescending, patronizing, wet-behind-the-ears lieutenant she’d had to work for and take orders from simply because she was enlisted and he was an officer. Whatever.

  The guardian drew himself up to his full height so that not only did he tower over Alex, but he was a good two feet taller than the Celtic warrior who stood at her side. Then speak your name, impertinent mortal, before I tire of your presence.

  “My name is Alexandra Patton and I am known in this world as Blonwen. Both are my names.”

  Alex could almost swear she heard the guardian sigh.

  And who speaks for you?

  “It is I, Caradoc, sw
orn to the service of Condatis, God of the Waters.”

  I know you, Druid. Are you quite certain you wish to speak for this impertinent mortal woman?

  Caradoc’s lips twitched, but his voice was sober when he answered. “Yes, I am quite certain.”

  The cowled figure turned his attention back to Alex, and in one blindingly quick motion, pressed the blade of the sword he held against the skin over her naked heart.

  You are about the enter a place of power, a place beyond imagining, where time has no meaning, where birth and death, dark and light, joy and pain, meet and make one. You are about to step between the worlds, beyond time, outside the realm of your human life. You who stand on the threshold of the Otherworld, have you the courage to make the journey? For know it is better to fall on my blade and perish than to make the attempt with fear or subterfuge in your heart!

  Alex forced herself not to tremble, and answered with the words that lifted from her heart into her mind. “I enter the Otherworld with love and honesty and trust in my heart.”

  The guardian lifted the sword and, with a mighty stroke, brought it down in an arc, embedding the point of it into the marble at Alex’s feet. Then he bowed to her and stepped aside. Then enter the Otherworld, and the presence of your goddess.

  Alex stepped into a meadow completely ringed by ancient trees. In the center was a many tiered fountain that bubbled musically.

  “This seems familiar to me,” she whispered to Caradoc. “But I don’t know how it could.”

  He took her hand. “It is Andraste’s meadow, where I came to retrieve the shattered parts of your soul. You have been here before—you just weren’t whole. Have courage.” He squeezed her hand and then let go. “I have to present you to each of the guardians of the four directions. We begin with the east, and Air. Have courage.”

  Caradoc led her straight ahead to the east edge of the meadow. “Hail, Guardian of Air, behold Alexandra Patton known as Blonwen, who will be made Priestess of Andraste!”

  The trees quivered, then their branches began to dance in a riotous wind. A beautiful woman moved forward out of the forest shadows. Alex noticed her feet did not touch the ground. Her hair was blond and so bright it almost hurt Alex’s eyes. She was wearing something wrapped around her body that had no real color or texture, but still somehow covered her. With a start of surprise, Alex realized she was literally wearing air. The woman lifted her hand, palm up, and a crystal bubble appeared on it.