‘Apart perhaps from modesty?’
‘That is merely a fancy way of telling lies. Why should I deny the truth? I thought that at least was something Silures understood?’
‘You need to tell me what is going on, my lady.’
‘Do I?’ She gave him a coy look. ‘Do I really? Perhaps later.’
‘I could make you,’ he said, growing tired.
‘You could try.’ She walked her horse away from the river. ‘Had not we better move on? As we climb nearer the source of the stream there is bound to be a spot narrow enough to cross. Come along.’
‘I am not your whisperer, lady.’
‘Indeed not, Achilles can be amusing. He is also one of the finest bookkeepers in all the lands. Vindex?’
‘Yes, lady.’
‘If this fellow insults me again, will you be kind enough to kill him?’
The scout gave a broad grin. ‘Happily, lady.’
‘If he is a only little rude, just chop something off.’
‘Happy to oblige.’ He rode after Claudia Enica. Ferox stayed where he was, and after a moment Vindex turned back and leered. ‘You don’t have to come.’
Soon they were leading the animals more often than riding. Claudia Enica kept pace and showed no sign of being more tired than either of the men. They kept climbing and eventually reached a wide plateau. The stream was smaller there, chuckling along at the bottom of a gully. After a search they found a spot where it was only a few yards across, and the banks looked firm on either side. Vindex insisted on going first, and whispered in his horse’s ears before he put her at the jump. The mare sailed over, landing well. Before Ferox could offer to help, Enica took both her greys over at the same time, riding one and leading the other on a long rein. They were superb animals, smaller than Frost and Snow, a pair of matched greys given to Ferox by King Tincommius, but alike in many ways. He wished he had either of those mounts with him now, but one was lost and the other still recovering from a wound.
Ferox came last, and his gelding was not keen at all. Twice it refused, and he had to slap it hard on the rump several times. First it bucked, then it shot forward and bounded over the gap so suddenly that he almost lost his seat. The others watched with amusement.
The afternoon wore on as they began to follow the stream and go down to where they could hope to find a better path. As the sun started to set, Vindex cantered ahead to look for somewhere to camp for the night.
‘I suppose you expect to share my food,’ Enica said as she watched him vanish into a dell.
‘We have some.’ In truth they had little left, for most of the provisions were on the pack animals with the main party – or scattered in the chasm and down the flowing stream in the case of the lost pony. ‘And are used to going without. I am sure you are too. The Mother teaches hard lessons to her sons and daughters.’
‘She does.’
‘When I met Claudia Enica in Londinium I would never have imagined you now, or fighting with those warriors. She – well, you – seemed so…’ He sought for the right word, sensing that all the time she was testing him and that so far he had not done well.
‘Soft,’ she said. ‘Weak and silly.’
‘No.’ In truth that was just what he had thought. ‘But precious, like a glass vase. Beautiful and perfect, and so fragile that it must ever be wrapped in silk and kept safe.’ He felt he was getting it right. ‘I fought alongside the sons and daughters not long ago. The sons were not far into their training. The daughters were good, although not as good as you. You reminded me of the Mother.’
‘You were with her when she died.’
How did she know that? Ferox had been the only Roman in that desperate fight on the clifftop. Vindex had arrived later, and not really known who the Mother was. Ferox had never said much to anyone about the woman and her pupils. He was not quite sure why; it just felt as if their world should remain secret, a living memory of the old world of heroes, before the Romans came. ‘I was,’ he said at last. ‘We were losing. There were just too many of them and they kept coming. She knew the price of breaking her oath, but did it for her children, and it saved them.’ That was only half-true. Vindex, Longinus and the others had come to their aid and the main force of Romans was on its way. Some of them might have lasted until that help arrived. ‘She killed and died because of it.’
‘She was special, even among the long line of Mothers back to the beginning.’ Enica’s voice had a reverence Ferox had not heard before. ‘Brigita of Hibernia may be another.’ The solemn face broke into a smile. ‘You are surprised? The whispers of the Mother reach her children wherever they are. For our whole lives we are bound to her and each other.
‘Brigita was coming to the end of her time of training there when I arrived. An older one is given as a guide to the newcomer, and I was bound to her. She was…’
‘A tough bitch.’ There was enough sheer admiration in his tone for her to nod. A queen of a Hiberian tribe, Brigita had been abducted by a band of deserters from the army, the same ones who had taken Sulpicia Lepidina. Ferox led the rescue, and then watched as the queen fought alongside his men. When it was over, she turned her back on her tribe and homeland to become the new Mother.
‘She was hard on me, very hard, and so I learned well.’ She lifted up her right leg and spun so that she was sitting in the saddle as if it was a chair, facing him. The horse did not stir and her balance was perfect. ‘You don’t often swear, do you? I hear that is the way with Silures.’
‘Waste of good anger. But these days I seem to curse a lot more.’ He snorted with laughter. ‘I must be turning into more of a Roman.’
‘To live in two worlds at once.’
Ferox nodded. ‘I guess in that we are alike. You are young, though, and I know you were educated in Gaul, so how did you find the time to go north?’
‘My mother – my real mother – decided, and father did as he was told. They sent me to Lugdunum when I was eight and then later Massilia to improve my Greek and gain understanding of the philosophers.’ She shook her head. ‘Very dull old men, most of whom have never lived and will never live, but love to talk.’
‘Unlike the Brigantes.’
‘We talk, it is true. You Silures should try it sometime. It is very freeing. So I learned, and they condescended to say that I was quite bright for a little girl. So I smiled as if I was proud, and made a joke about Epicurus, but made sure to get the details of the story slightly wrong so that they could feel secure in their wisdom. Soon I was nearly fourteen and it was clear I would not be a girl for much longer. The features your friend so admires appeared overnight. Well, began to show anyway. My tutor sent word home, and my parents whisked me away less I be debauched by fellow pupils or master. As if any of those fools had a chance! Pigs and apes the lot of them, and all so very stupid. They brought me home and then sent me to the Mother, to learn and to stay chaste. A son and daughter are not permitted to lie together,’ she explained. ‘Three years on and the Mother told me that I was ready to go back. I knew it too, although I feared being made to take a husband on my return.
‘Thankfully, my parents sent me to Rome instead, to “complete my education”.’ She snorted scornfully, and the grey horse shook its head in surprise. Without shifting from her awkward, sideways posture, she cooed to the animal and it calmed. She even crossed her legs and somehow remained balanced. ‘What a place. You have been there, I know. So many people, so many temptations and vices. Thus Claudia was born. Yet I had a guide and she steered me through. What is it Caesar said, like a helmsman avoiding a reef. Though if I recall he was speaking of oratory.’
‘So I understand.’