Chapter 2 #2
“Something’s happened to me, I’m not me any more.” She nodded at me, still baffled by my reaction.
“What happened last night? I came to help. There was some kind of magic in the air.”
She looked uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Magic is forbidden to all but the druids. It would not be appropriate for a daughter of my house to…” She caught my eye and swallowed.
“Yes, I was trying to help my sister. She was very grievously injured in the battle. I thought to heal her. My mother said it was a waste of time, that I should take poison with her rather than risk capture.”
A healing spell shouldn’t have had any effect on me, I thought, and from the glimpse I had caught of the injuries the night before it would have had to be incredibly strong to save her.
“Tell me exactly the spell you used,” I said. “Leave nothing out.”
She began to reel off the enchantment. It was in a very old dialect of Brittonic, old to her anyway.
It wasn’t quite a spell of healing, more a compulsion.
There was a crux in the words that I thought she might have misheard, that would change the effect to suck in life from others rather than encourage the body to heal itself.
I replayed the dim memories again. She must have pulled at my own power rather than hers, through the channel I had opened to free her sister’s soul.
“Ah,” I said when she finished. “Well, you’re very lucky. That spell would have drained the life out of you to heal her. If I hadn’t interceded you’d have healed her and died yourself.”
She froze, stealing a look at her sister. I thought I detected a flash of guilt in her expression.
Probably some sort of survivor’s remorse. I’d seen it before among humans.
“Unfortunately for me,” I continued, “I appear to have lost my own power in her curing.”
“You seem very calm,” she ventured, taking a step closer to me.
I backed away from her, turning so she could not see my face.
If I had no power I was no longer me, no longer a goddess.
I thought about my foot, my blurred vision.
The answer loomed into my mind as inescapable as death itself. I was human.
Anger flooded through my body, red-hot and resentful.
“I am not calm,” I said, turning back to face her.
“I am trying to restrain myself from murdering you. You have absolutely no idea what you’ve done, the souls that will suffer without me to guide them.
It’s bad enough that this damned rebellion has distracted me from my regular work.
I am already behind on my rounds, having been forced to spend my time on your battlefields. Now this.”
She recoiled a bit from my glare but not as much as I felt appropriate. Clod-brained mortal. I waved a hand in dismissal.
“Go, you have caused enough damage. Tend to your sister and leave me in peace. I must figure out how to undo your mess.”
My words would have banished any other human, ringing in their ears ’til their dying day, but this woman didn’t so much as flinch. My heart constricted as I heard how small and weak my voice sounded.
I sat back down on the stony ground and rested my head in my hands.
There must be a way out of this. I needed to go to Annwn and consult with the lord of the afterworld.
He might be able to restore me. How to get there, though?
It was an hour’s run from here in my old body but somehow I doubted this mortal form could cover three hundred miles that fast. I could call on a friend.
I had many old allies among the fae who would be willing to help.
None of them lived in this particular part of the island, though, and without my power I could not call them here.
I noticed that the freckled woman was bent over her sister, trying to shake her awake.
“Cati, Cati, wake up!” she called, her strong hands gripping her sister’s shoulders. She shook her again, more forcefully this time, then tried to prise her eyelids open.
“Cati, please, you’re all healed now, wake up! You have to wake up. We have to go, we can’t stay here. The Romans will be coming for us.”
“Can you be quiet, mortal? I am trying to make a plan,” I snapped at her. She looked over at me and I could see tears starting to bud in her eyes.
“Cati won’t wake up. I don’t understand. You said she was healed.” Her voice cracked in pain.
I wasn’t going to be able to concentrate if she started blubbering and making a fuss.
I sighed heavily and went over on still wobbly legs to see what the problem was.
The girl, Cati presumably, looked in perfect health.
I opened her mouth to see if there was a blockage.
Nothing. There was a very faint heartbeat, slow and weak as a kitten’s.
I took her hand and raised it above her face then dropped it, my lips thinning at the effort it took to lift it.
Her arm flopped down without even a trace of resistance.
I glanced at the freckled woman. She looked back at me, hope battling despair.
I peeled back the lids from Cati’s eyes.
She had the same grey-green irises as her sister, the shade of pine needles after the first frost. Of more interest to me was the shape of her pupils.
They were wide, blown-out black circles and did not contract at the daylight. That was not a good sign.
“Bad news, I am afraid.” I closed her eyes again and sat up. “Her body is healed but her soul has already gone. I must have dislodged it when I was trying to untangle her. She’s not going to wake up. Best thing to do is smother her. Her soul will be stuck at the gates of Annwn until her body dies.”
“What?” The freckled woman dragged her sister closer. “Don’t touch her, she looks fine.”
I shrugged and stood. “Suit yourself. You can sit here and watch her waste away if you like, but it will take months. Seems a little cruel to me but my work here is done.”
She dropped Cati and rose faster than I expected, seizing me by the front of my tunic. “You sent her soul to Annwn. Call it back, you made a mistake, call it back,” she hissed.
“Unhand me, wench. Do you know who you are assaulting?”
“Yes, yes, I know, and I do not care. Bring her back right now.”
I blinked at her, surprised at the strength with which she had grabbed me. Dormath growled and stood up.
“Now be reasonable,” I said. “Your sister, Cati, is it? She was going to die anyway. You may have slowed it a little with your spell but sooner or later it was going to start draining your life and you would have had to stop or die yourself. This has all been very upsetting, I’m sure, but you’re not the only one in the world who’s lost someone today.
The Firebrand’s whole rebellious force is lying scattered on the field just east of these woods.
I spent most of last night helping thousands who will be just as mourned. So let me go!”
“How do I get her soul back?” she asked, ignoring my words. “You said it wouldn’t have gone into Annwn yet. There must be a way to call it back before it does.”
I gave the matter some thought. A soul that had passed through the gates of Annwn could never return to their mortal body, but one who merely lingered there? It was possible, I supposed, though I had never heard of such a thing.
“Perhaps,” I said slowly, “though I could not order such a thing. My powers only extend to mortal Britain. Arawn would have to decide whether he would grant your request.”
“Arawn?”
“Lord of the Afterworld. King of Annwn,” I said, looking her up and down with all the immortal scorn I could muster. “Don’t you know anything?”
She bridled at that.
“You shouldn’t speak to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m some half-witted peasant. I’m not.”
“Really?” I asked. “You’re doing an excellent impression of one so far. Who are you, then?”
She let go of me and straightened up.
“I am Beliscena of the Iceni, daughter of Oak. This is my younger sister, Catrisca. You may call me Princess Belis, or your highness.” She sounded surer of herself here and it took a great effort not to laugh at her petty little list of titles.
“I shall do no such thing. All mortals are alike to me, and I’m not interested in whichever insignificant names you’ve come up with. Iceni, hmm? Then your mother over there was… the one they called the Firebrand herself?” I paused. “Well, no matter, I must be off.”
“Off where?” Belis asked. I moved back and brushed my tunic down.
“To Annwn, not that it is any concern of yours. I need to go and undo your mistake, regain my powers, before every lost soul on the island becomes some hideous ghoul without my guidance to send them home. I don’t do this sort of work for fun, you know, nor out of the kindness of my heart.
There are enough foul spirits lurking in Britain without human ghosts joining them. ”
Belis brightened.
“Well, that’s perfect. It seems we have a common goal. You need to go to Annwn to get your powers back. I need to rescue Cati’s soul. We should go together.”
“Absolutely not,” I said immediately. “You will slow me down. Not to mention every legionary in the south will be hunting you. It’s a truly terrible plan.
Listen to me: your sister is functionally dead.
Let her go and head north. Seek shelter in the clans of the Highlands.
The Romans will take a while to reach that far.
Your family must have allies there, or at least those who would ally with their enemy’s enemy. ”
Belis set her chin.
“I order you to assist me. I am Princess of the Iceni, you must obey me!”