Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Lucius woke with a start at dawn the morning after he lay with Sorcha. He opened his eyes to find Alina standing over him. The sun’s first rays illuminated her set mouth and the heavy frown on her brow, which marred her still-attractive face.
Lucius rolled to his feet to meet her eye to eye. It felt safer that way. “Esteemed Alina, can I help you?”
“You will help me by telling me what you said to my daughter that caused her to set out this morning before dawn to track down the Roman army.”
“What?” Fear gripped him. If she were caught! Had she lost all sense, endangering herself like that? He swallowed. “Alone?”
Alina’s fierce expression softened when she heard the surprise and horror in his voice. “No, Maonos accompanies her.”
He released the breath caught in his lungs. “Gratias deis! That is something.” He had to find her. Fast. He gestured to his bound ankles. “Free me so I may search for her.”
Alina stepped back. “If I free you, we have no trade goods should the Roman army arrive outside our walls.”
He shook his head. “Do you know me so little?”
“As much as I acknowledge we owe you our lives for your actions when we faced the Dumnone, you are the only thing that might enable my precious daughter’s return, should the Romans have her.”
“What will you do?”
“I will not panic. If they do not return by nightfall, I’ll send a search party at dawn tomorrow.” Her mouth was set in a determined line.
“Let me go with them. If the Romans have her, I will be there to bargain with them and exchange myself for her.” At last his freedom was a possibility, but it no longer filled him with expectant joy.
Alina’s blue-eyed gaze drilled into him. He met her look with his own unflinching one. Finally, she dipped her chin a little.
He wanted to punch the air in victory at her concession.
“Today, you will tend the horses with Eachann. Make sure our warriors’ mounts are ready for them to ride tomorrow.”
When Lucius reached the horse paddock just outside the fort’s walls and looked over the animals grazing there, he realized Sorcha must have ridden his horse, and Maonos one of the other cavalry horses taken from the Roman engineers.
At least if they were chased by any Roman scouts, they would have a good chance of fleeing.
Maximus was particularly fast. Not that it had helped on the day Lucius was captured.
The day plodded toward its close.
Lucius turned his head yet again toward the south, the direction from which Sorcha and Maonos must arrive. Still they didn’t come. The lump in his stomach got harder with every hour that passed.
He led another four horses through the entrance and towards the picket line at the rear of the enclosure, where they would be tied overnight, ready for saddling tomorrow.
Lucius had secured the last animal to the line when a call came from the lookout at the gate. He jogged towards the sound as fast as the hobbles on his ankles allowed.
He arrived in time to see Maonos leap off his sweating and exhausted horse. He must have galloped hell for leather for his mount to be in such a state. His right arm hung limp at his side, a bloody gash crossing his bicep.
Lucius pushed through the crowd to the youth. “Report!” Alina stepped up beside him.
Maonos, who was bent over with one hand on his leg, sucking in air, rose from his stance. “We were ambushed just after noon by three Romans. Killed two. Sorcha sent me for help. I don’t know if she is dead or captured.” Maonos looked like he might cry. He wouldn’t want that.
Lucius put his hand on the youth’s shoulder to steady him. “Where?”
“Near Dun Ru.”
“That’s almost a day’s journey away,” Alina gasped.
They had to get to Sorcha as fast as possible. There was no time to waste. “Not if we ride hard.”
“If she was captured, where would the soldier have taken her?” Alina asked Lucius.
“Back to their marching camp, most likely.” He didn’t want to think about what they might do to her.
Alina called to Agronos, the grizzled leader of the Dun Cam warriors, who stood amongst the crowd around them. “Take all your men and the hostage, Lucius. Trade him for Sorcha, if necessary.” She approached Maonos again. “Which way did you travel this morning?”
“Via the hillforts, to check they weren’t occupied.”
She turned back to the warrior. “You have your route. Stick to the high ground where there is cover. Scout beyond the valley’s end if you don’t find them on the way.
I will expect you or a messenger back by sunset tomorrow.
” She pointed at Lucius. “Keep his hands bound. I’ll free his legs so he can ride. Exchange him only for my daughter.”
“I’ll go also, Mother,” Maonos said.
Alina scanned his determined face and stepped forward to examine her son’s wound. “Let me treat and bind your wound first.”
He nodded.
“Maonos goes with you as your guide,” Alina announced to the men. She chivvied her son into the chieftain’s roundhouse.
The warriors hurried to the picket line for their mounts.
Alina bound Lucius’s wrists and unlocked his chains. “We may never meet again in this world.” She took his hand in hers. “You have served my family and my people well. I am sorry that you must leave us, and I fear Sorcha will feel your departure deeply.”
She knew! And yet, she did not condemn.
Her intelligent eyes bored into his own. “We do not always get to choose whom we love. I said these words to my daughter once, I believe she now understands them.” She offered him a sad smile.
He squeezed her fingers in acknowledgement before releasing her hand.
The dozen warriors returned on their mounts, saddlebags slung across their horses’ withers. Lucius leaped onto the horse they brought for him. Moments later, they were trotting through the fort’s entrance, then cantering toward the woods. There were just a couple of hours of daylight left.
Once within the woods, it wasn’t possible to travel at speed in the dense tree cover, but travelling along the valley trackway was too exposed. At any time Dumnone could be lurking in this contested area and seeking revenge for their recent defeat; not to mention the Roman threat.
Night was looming as they entered Dun Tren, the closest hillfort southeast of Dun Creg. They tethered their mounts and set up camp within its single rampart. The warriors gave Lucius food, but these men had not fought alongside him against the Dumnone, so there was no warmth in their words to him.
The gnawing fear in his belly and myriad alternative plans swirling in his mind made sleep intermittent.
Maonos shook him awake at dawn and untethered his ankles.
Judging from the haggard looks on the faces of the men, none of them had slept well when not taking their turn guarding the deserted fort.
They were saddling their horses when Maonos, acting as the lookout, called the alarm.
Lucius rushed up a nearby ladder to the walkway behind the southern rampart.
The warrior, Agronos, was already there.
Maonos pointed to movement in the trees to the south.
“To the ramparts, men,” the commander ordered.
He turned to Lucius. “You, stay beside me until we know whether friend or foe approaches.”
Lucius dipped his chin in agreement, all the while keeping his gaze on the distant wood. Finally, a single rider walked his mount forward from the tree line. He was dressed in a hooded cloak, but he carried an oak branch.
“He comes under the sign of truce,” Maonos said, surprise in his voice.
The rider looked familiar, even at this distance. Lucius squinted, trying to discern the man’s features, but he was too far away. His horse moved forward in a measured walk, and out of the trees emerged another horse and rider.
The second rider was a woman, her body erect in the saddle, her long fiery hair lifted by the early morning breeze.
Sorcha!
Lucius’s heart lurched. If she has been hurt…. Anger surged through his veins. He grabbed the bow propped beside Maonos.
The youth’s hand shot out to push the weapon away. “They come in peace.”
Lucius hung his head. He knew better, but the thought that this man may have harmed Sorcha put all reason and honor to flight.
Lucius turned his gaze south again. The riders halted just beyond the range of arrows or spears.
He knew that man.
Adler, his brother.
The tension in his body fell away with a huff. “I know this Roman,” he said to Maonos. “Let me talk with him.”
Maonos and Agronos exchanged a look, then Maonos nodded.
Lucius waved his arms to attract Adler’s attention to him, then cupped his hands around his mouth. “Greetings, Adler.”
Adler looked at him and nodded. “Lucius. I have a prisoner to exchange. Her life for yours.”
“Have you come alone?” If there were other Romans nearby, they could still attack the fort after the exchange.
“I’m alone.”
“Tell us what he is saying, Lucius,” Maonos said.
He translated.
“Make the exchange,” Maonos ordered.
“Agreed,” Lucius yelled to Adler.
“Sorcha will walk toward us as you and I leave the fort gates,” Maonos said.
Lucius relayed the message to his brother, who agreed.
They climbed down the ladder that led to the fort’s east-facing gate. Maonos untied his wrists.
The gate creaked open wide enough for the two of them to exit. Lucius extended his arm to Maonos and gripped the lad’s forearm. “Farewell, Maonos. You will make a strong leader of your people when you reach manhood.”
Maonos may not have fully understood all that Lucius had said, but his expression showed he understood the warm timbre of his words. “Go in peace, Lucius. You have served us well and taught us much. I hope I never face you in battle. What will you tell the Romans of us?”
Lucius clapped Maonos on the shoulder. “If asked, I will try to convince them that the swampy wastelands northwest of Dun Cam continue on the other side of the Cantuc Hills. That there is nothing there of any worth to Rome.”
Maonos gave a smile of thanks.