Chapter 21
The centurion moved forward, the sunshine flashing off his helmet illuminating every hair of the snow-white crest. Three soldiers appeared beside him, their shortswords drawn for battle.
“You’ve led us a merry chase,” said the centurion, taking another stride forward, his eyes fixed on Belis.
“And I see that you were not lying, if that red-headed chit there is indeed your sister. But it is over now, no more chances. The legate wanted you alive but he’ll settle for your heads.
After two escape attempts he will understand why I could not let you live.
” He smiled then, or tried to; grief and pain twisted his face until the expression was nothing more than a baring of teeth.
“I have prayed to the gods for strength to obey my orders, to deliver you alive. Now I see they have granted the prayer of my most secret heart.” He drew his sword. “Vengeance. I will cut your hearts out and lay them on the altar of Mars to give thanks to him.”
I started forward but one of the soldiers moved to meet me, grabbing my hand and pulling me back. I kicked at him, struggling in his grip, but he was a head taller than me and he held me fast. Dormath had vanished into the trees.
Belis leapt to her feet, her hand lifting the sword we had stolen.
“Mallt!” she called, looking frantically between me and her sister, still sitting on the ground behind her.
The centurion nodded to his men. “Stay where you are, these deaths belong to me. If they try to get past you, turn them back but don’t injure them.”
I could see the knuckles on his sword hand whiten and he whispered something I couldn’t quite hear. I thought it might have been a woman’s name. Then he charged.
Belis met the first blow, bringing her sword up to block his as it slashed down at her. She threw him back, turning all her weight behind the riposte. He snarled and stabbed at her again, short, quick motions that sent Belis stumbling backwards as she dodged.
I writhed in the soldier’s arms, trying to catch him off guard.
I almost got loose but he wound a fist in my hair and dragged me back.
The pain made me yelp and Belis flinched, darting a look at me.
The centurion moved in, taking advantage of the distraction and sliding his sword right under her arm.
She twisted at the last moment but hissed.
When she danced free there was blood glittering on the Roman’s sword and a slash in the fabric of her tunic.
There was a scream from behind me and I saw Dormath, fur sticky with blood, clamp his jaws around a legionary’s throat. There was a crunch and the scream broke off. Dormath growled and leapt for the second man but he was warned now and my dog had to dodge his lance and shield.
“For my family,” the centurion shouted, pressing his advantage.
Belis stumbled backwards, tripped on something and went down.
The centurion crouched on one knee, scraping his sword along hers until the blade bit into the skin of her face.
Belis howled in pain and flung him off, using his weight to pull herself up.
With another step forward she stabbed her own sword into his side.
The centurion clenched his teeth, bringing his sword back up to block her follow-up attack. Belis stepped back, blood covering the tip of her sword.
Catrisca had managed to clamber to her feet and stagger to Belis’s side. She wiped the blood from her sister’s face.
“Cati, go, run,” Belis said to her, still keeping her eyes on the circling centurion. “Take one of the horses. I’ll hold them off.”
“I’m not leaving you again, sister, I’ve spent enough time cowering from these wolves,” Cati said, drawing a long knife from her boot. “We stand together now.”
The centurion charged. Belis met his sword with hers, leaving Cati to dash under his arm with her long knife.
The sisters fought together as if they were dancing, each seeming to anticipate the other’s moves before they had made them. The centurion was driven back, pressed hard against the edge of the glade. Blood loss was beginning to slow him. The soldiers watching were shifting nervously.
“Sir,” called one of them when Cati managed another cut to his leg, “should we join you?”
“Stand by, men,” snapped the centurion, “I’ve not soldiered for thirty years to be brought down by a pair of barbarian wildcats.”
As if heartened by his own words he straightened and began a blinding series of blows, raining them down against Belis and Cati.
He drove a fist deep into the younger girl’s stomach, knocking her to the floor.
Her ankle gave a sickening crunch. She tried to get up but slid almost immediately back to the ground.
I twisted desperately against the soldier’s hands but there was nothing I could do. I watched frantically as Belis tried to fight off the centurion, standing over her sister. I would have given anything to save her, to save them both.
I collapsed, sagging back against the soldier.
He was unprepared and I almost slid from his grip.
While he was pulling me back up I made a grab for his knife, driving it up through the meat of his forearm.
He screamed and let me go. I dashed for the fighters.
The centurion was bringing his sword down, Belis had hers raised, but she wasn’t going to make it.
I saw the path his blade would take, inexorably bound towards Belis’s heart, and in that moment I found a little of my old speed.
I threw myself forward, diving down beneath the moving sword.
I gasped as I felt it pierce my chest, sliding through my ribcage and out the other side.
“No!” screamed Belis, finishing the arc of her own sword thrust in the centurion’s throat. He sagged to the floor, clutching at his neck. There was blood everywhere, his and mine, swirling in the mud, soaking the dark earth.
Belis caught me around the waist, pulling me close. I could feel the metal of the blade grating against my ribs. Strangely, it didn’t seem to hurt.
Cati grabbed her sister’s shoulder.
“Bel, the other legionaries. We have to get to the horses now!” She pulled herself up, knife in one hand, the other leaning on her sister. “Come on!”
Belis cradled my head in her hands. “Mallt, why did you do it? I could have held him off!”
I smiled, feeling the life blood bubble at my lips. “It was only a little time we had together. I would have liked to be human with you a while longer.”
Her tears dropped onto my face and her hands dug into my shoulders, willing my heart not to stop beating.
I could hear the soldiers approaching. Above us Cati clenched her fist around the knife, ready to give the last of herself to protect her sister.
I could hear Dormath snarling; the soldier who had grabbed me was now coming towards us.
I kept my eyes open, wanting to see Belis as long as I could, wrapping my hand around the hilt of the centurion’s sword.
Then I wrenched it from my chest. Blood poured out from my body, letting the last of my life go with it.
In death I felt my soul rise, detaching from the empty shell that had been my body.
I stretched wide, hugging the whole world to my chest. I had not lost my powers, I realised, they had been hidden inside me all along.
Belis’s spell had trapped me in a human body but now I was free again.
I was Mallt Y Nos, Mallt Nightshade, just as I had always been.
I felt myself sink back into my body, the wounds healing, limbs lengthening and filling with new strength, with old strength.
My eyes flickered open as my vision sharpened, bringing the scene into focus.
My ears picked up the thrumming of four human heartbeats.
I stepped out of my boots and stood proud on the floor of the glade.
I shimmered back into view, standing between the two sisters and the advancing legionaries.
I was taller now, towering over them. I called the night wind to me and on it rode my hounds, the Cwn Annwn, baying and barking at the prospect of a chase.
Dormath bounded from behind me, almost bowling my coalescing form over as he took his rightful place by my side.
The soldiers stopped short, terror blooming on their faces. I smiled at them, scenting their fear on the air.
“Run!” I hissed at them.
They did not hesitate, spinning like tops and sprinting back into the darkness. I watched them go, swallowed by the night. I watched them go and found I wished them no ill will. The dogs whined beside me but I hushed them. The Nightshade must have no quarrel with the living.
I could sense Belis behind me but found I couldn’t bear to look at her just yet.
I bent to embrace my dogs, finding a cwtch, a pat and a kind word for each of them.
Dormath pushed his way to the front of the pack and I buried my face in his fur, letting go of the last of my human grief.
When I could delay no longer, I turned. Belis was still sitting on the ground, hands stained with the blood that was all that remained of the mortal she had loved so tenderly.
Cati had crouched beside her. As I stepped forward the younger girl held out her knife to block my path.
“We want no trouble, lady,” she said, her voice trembling. I bent, batting her knife away as if it was a feather. I reached out to lift Belis’s chin up, meeting those beautiful grey-green eyes.
“So we have finally kept our promises to each other, Princess Beliscena,” I said.
“Mallt?” she said, her eyes full of wonder. “But how…”
“It seems the only thing keeping me from life was death.”
I dropped my hand and straightened up. I still had business to attend to.
I stepped over to where the centurion was lying, choking on his own blood.
I could feel the fury within him, and, beneath that, the fear and pain.
I understood that better now, carrying the memories of the human feelings with me into my immortal body.
I took his hand then laid my palm on his chest. He seemed so very small, just another man dying far from home.
“Time to let go, centurion,” I said and I sank my hand into his chest, pulling out his soul.
His body stiffened and was still. The centurion’s soul sat in the hollow of my hand, twisted and rent with months of grief. I raised it up to my lips, turning to the east.
“Go home, centurion. Your family waits for you on the banks of the Styx,” I whispered, and blew. His soul tumbled away from me, like a leaf on the wind. I watched as it lifted above the trees and was lost from my view.