Chapter 4 #3
He and Sorcha’s four next youngest brothers, supported by the other warriors, would defend Mai Dun.
The druid healers would remain to provide medical support to them.
The other druids had already departed for the safety of the island of Mona, the center of druidic learning for the Celtic people.
“Our women and children will travel north to Dun Cam, led by Sorcha,” he ordered.
Sorcha recoiled, as though she had been struck. No! “Let me remain with you to join in the fight,” she pleaded.
Caileanos frowned at her interruption. “Sorcha—you, mother, and my six youngest brothers, will accompany our people to Dun Cam, then travel onward to Dun Creg, guided by Garamaros.”
The peninsular fort of Dun Creg, the home of Sorcha’s betrothed, Oglach, stood on the southern coastline of the Hafren Sea at the northwest extremity of the Durotriges lands.
Oglach had been keen to strengthen his alliance to the king of the Durotriges through marriage, which would entitle him to call on assistance when he was under threat from the neighboring Dumnone in the future.
Until recently, Sorcha had looked forward to marrying Oglach, and the status as chieftain’s wife, as well as the family it would bring her. Now, she just wanted to fight the Romans, and avenge her father’s death.
“If we are to have any chance of escape, we need to leave immediately before our hillfort is encircled by the Romans,” Garamaros counselled.
“Generations ago, Vercingetorix, the great leader of the Gauls, was encircled by Julius Caesar’s army and starved out.
When the women and children were sent from the fort to avoid starvation, the Romans showed them no mercy. ”
Sorcha gritted her teeth. It irked her that Garamaros’s tales of the Gauls’ experience long ago were being listened to by her brother and she was being sent away for her safety. He wasn’t even a Durotriges.
Caileanos scanned the people assembled before him.
His responsibilities over the last months had lined his face and, Sorcha believed, hardened his resolve to save his people.
“The women and children leave at dawn tomorrow. Take only what you need for a few days’ journey.
Leave everything else. We need the supplies here for the forthcoming siege. ”
A hubbub of anxious voices arose. Caileanos answered questions from the gathering, then sent them to spend the remainder of the day preparing.
Once the assembly had dispersed, leaving only their family, Alina spoke up. “Caileanos, I plead with you again to go to the Roman leader and offer the Durotriges’ allegiance. I fear we cannot win if we pit ourselves against the might of Rome.” Her voice was filled with anxiety.
“My father would not wish that. He gave his life to oppose the invasion of this land. We should not go against his wishes,” her brother responded.
Sorcha, who stood beside her brother, nodded in agreement. Caileanos had courage, as a true leader must. “Brother, let me stay and fight too!” she said.
Caileanos shook his head. “You must help our mother and Garamaros lead the women and children to the safety of Dun Cam. Our mother’s sister is married to Bledyos—they will accept our people into their settlement.
Then you, Mother, and our brothers must seek refuge with your betrothed. You will take your bride price.”
Sorcha’s hands fisted by her sides. No argument she used swayed Caileanos’s decision.
She’d been given the opportunity to keep her life, her freedom, and her status in the world of the Durotriges, but the feeling of being cut adrift from all she knew and loved at Mai Dun, and from half of her family, scored her heart.
When she left tomorrow, it would be the end of her time in Mai Dun. Unlike her mother and brothers, she would never return, even if the Roman army was defeated. Her life as a daughter and a sister, would be replaced by that of a wife.
* * *
At dawn, the cavalcade of women and their children, led by Alina and Garamaros, wove its way through the fort gates in a procession of wagons pulled by Celtic ponies.
Expecting not to need the ponies for chariot attacks and unable to feed them during a siege, Caileanos had ordered them taken by the refugees.
Sorcha and her youngest brothers brought up the rear.
All of the siblings were mounted, except their brother Eachann who drove Sorcha’s chariot.
By early afternoon, they approached their campsite for the night.
The journey so far had been without incident.
However, with the whole Durotriges tribe in uproar, some hillforts captured and others anxiously waiting to discover where the Roman army would appear to bring destruction, that couldn’t last.
Mai Dun was surely next. Would it be Dun Cam’s turn after that? Where would her people find refuge?
Sorcha and four of her young brothers turned south to hunt with bows and arrows for birds for their cooking pots. They stopped to water their ponies at a tree-bowered stream.
Three mounted soldiers approached from the south.
Are they tracking us? Anger burned in her gut. Was anywhere safe from the marauding Romans?
Sorcha and her brothers tethered their mounts upwind and crept closer amongst the undergrowth lining the stream they had been following. Arrows ready, they waited.
They could not let these Romans follow their people.