Chapter Nine
The second day was proving to be as relentless as the first. Aurelia couldn’t discern any route they could be following but the riders seemed to be confident in where they were heading. She was once again on the same horse as Kailen, his whip cord arms wrapped around her as he held the horse’s reigns, effectively caging her in. She felt claustrophobic in his embrace, desperation like a wild animal clawing at her throat.
She wasn’t sure what she had expected from him. Naiveté on her part had seen something in Kailen’s eyes, something human. It had tricked her into expecting some small kindness, some measure of humanity locked away inside of him. They had kept her alive so far, even going to a lot of trouble to keep her alive along the journey. Unconsciously, she had begun to nurse a small flicker of hope. Hope to get out of this alive, to see her parents and family again, to see Aquilla and finally be wed. To have children, watch them grow up happy and healthy.
But Kailen’s passing words that morning had wholeheartedly crushed it. She had been lured into thinking she could predict his behaviour, but she was wrong. So terribly wrong. She stared down at his arms around her, her own hands turning into clenched fists until the skin around her knuckles turned white. For some inexplicable reason, she felt deeply betrayed.
You naïve fool…
All she wanted in the world were freed hands and a long sharp knife. She would turn in the saddle and plunge the knife to the hilt in his chest, watch the pain and surprise sweep across his face as he died. She would perhaps live a second longer than him, his warriors dealing her swift retribution, but it would be worth it.
Wouldn't it?
Aurelia tried to concentrate on something, anything other than her own macabre thoughts. She watched as the landscape around them slowly changed from vast hills to flat fertile land that was used for farming and tiny settlements. As they trotted past farmsteads, people would peer out curiously from within their circular hut homes. When they established the riders to be their own kin, they would emerge and wave to them calling greetings and offering them food and drink for their passage. The riders accepted it gladly, joking and laughing with them like old friends.
Kailen kept them apart from the mingling groups and Aurelia caught the inquisitive looks thrown at them from the farmers and their families. Aurelia felt her cheeks heat in uncomfortable embarrassment and looked away.
Early afternoon found them at a small bubbling brook where the warriors stopped to let the horses drink their fill and the men eat their fill of the freshly baked flatbread they were given.
Aurelia climbed down off the horse with some difficulty and was about to find a relatively soft place in the grass to sit, when Kailen reached out and gripped her arm, guiding her to the water. “Wash and drink.” He commanded her as he crouched down and proceeded to cup handfuls of water and bathe his face and neck.
She watched him for a moment, his movement quick and careful, and she copied him, scooping the water up with her bound hands and sipping. The water was cool and fresh, her parched mouth greedy for the moisture. Once she was finished, she was given some of the bread and she sat down to eat it. It was… surprisingly enjoyable.
Verenus would surely have reached the fort by now and alerted her intended of her predicament. He would have his men out looking for her, gaining on them. But the Britons had a long head start on them and every hour they were closing in on their destination. Closer to her death.
She couldn’t allow that to happen. She had to do something to shorten the distance, to make her way back to them. She had to escape the warriors’ clutches and do everything in her power to get back to her own people where she was safe.
Eyes flicking around her, making sure no one was watching her, Aurelia pulled one of the hair pins from the bodice of her dress and, bending the prong at an angle, began to pick away at the threads of the rope binding her wrists.
“Judging by the material of your dress and your mannerisms, you must come from a very wealthy family.”
Aurelia jumped at the voice, almost fumbling with the hair pin as she covered it up, looking up to see Kailen lounging a few feet away from her, his eyes watching her. She felt a surge of panic at the thought that he had seen what she was doing, but he didn’t look angry.
She didn’t respond, instead opting to watch him back.
Not fazed by her silence, he continued. “I would wager you come from a prestigious family, considering the fact that you are the Roman commander’s woman.”
“Is that supposed to be a question?” She asked mildly.
“No. I’m simply taking your measure while you’re in front of me.” His eyes trailing her form before meeting her eyes.
She had no way to respond to that cryptic sentence so she kept silent.
He leant forward, eyes still watching her like a bird of prey. “And what happens to daughters of such families is that they are treated delicately. Spoiled. They are kept away from the evils of the world, from men like me, making sure nothing can hurt you. I imagine it’s the same in regards of your Commander. He wouldn’t tell you the more grisly details of his campaign.”
This line of free thinking out loud had a point to it, she thought. He was getting to it, surely.
He crouched down so he drew level with her. “Like what would happen to Roman women when caught alone in the wilderness by British men.” And sure enough, he got to it.
Aurelia sat frozen in place, unable to look away. How could he have known what she was thinking to do? There was no way…
“Catching a Roman woman who had no protection could only mean pain and humiliation for her. They will be treated like nothing more than a convenient whore whose only purpose in this life is to satisfy men’s lusts. Then once the men grow tired of her, long after she wishes for it all to end, they will kill her slowly. No swift mercy. Only blood and pain.”
Aurelia felt nauseous, unable to stop the grisly images from springing up in her mind’s eye. She choked on her own drawn breath.
“A fate I wouldn’t wish on my enemy’s woman,” he said softly as his reached out to her, palm up and open.
She was shaking when she handed over the hair pin to him, immediately drawing her hand away and wanting to wipe the residual heat from his hand off her fingers.
He kept his palm out, eyebrow raised as he waited. She scowled at him as she fished for the remaining hair pins in her bodice before slapping them down in his hand.
The intensity of his look suddenly evaporated and he smiled at her. “Fortunately for you, you’re not alone. No one would dare lay a hand on you unless I say so. Things suddenly don’t look so dire, do they?”
He didn’t wait for her reply. He stood up, rolling his shoulders in a languid shrug before walking away.
Aurelia took deep breaths, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She raised her hand to her face, brushing her hair away from her eyes the strands sticking to the wetness on her cheek.
She pulled her fingers away and realised the wetness was tears.
~
There was smoke on the horizon, a dark smudge that grew the higher as it went up in the sky. The war party had stopped on an incline, hands shielding their eyes against the sun, squinting into the distance. The mood was instantly affected, a tense trepidation washing over them.
They spoke to each other in low voices, Aurelia understanding none of it, until they obviously reached a decision and they spurred their horses towards it.
Aurelia gripped Kailen’s arm to get his attention and spoke to him (the first words since that horrible conversation at the edge of the water). “What? What is it?”
Kailen didn’t answer her and she didn’t ask again, feeling the tension grow taut with strain. She was afraid that if she spoke anymore, it would snap and violence towards her would be the consequence.
It didn’t take long for the war party to mount the crest of the incline and discover the cause of the smoke. Aurelia gasped, hands flying to her mouth as she took in the scene before her.
It was the most tragic sight she had ever seen in her whole life. It must have been like the other farmsteads they had passed earlier in the day, the biggest yet where eight to ten circular huts had once stood. But were now nothing more than smoking piles of ash and blackened wood. Smoke was still rising from the smouldering remains, the air thick with the acrid stench. The ground, where people’s feet and that of animals had worn the grass away to smooth hard packed earth was scorched to nothingness. Underneath the tang was the distinct scent of charred meat. Aurelia gagged, bile rising to her throat.
The war party were deathly silent, grim as they took in the sight before them. Aurelia couldn’t understand how they could look on it so stoically. There had been families who lived on this land, worked that land, loved that land. And these warriors, these savages, did nothing but stare…
Unless this was something they encountered on a regular basis, they were at war after all, at war with Rome and with each other.
“Which settlement is this?” Kailen asked and Aurelia thought he was asking her until she glanced sideways and saw Vaughan next to them. He had appeared silent as a shadow.
“It belonged to the Iceni tribe. From what I remember it was home to six families, all farmers. No warrior blood to speak of. They provided their tribe with smoked meat and woven clothes for trade.” Vaughan answered in a hush voice. It didn’t do any good disturbing the dead.
“So they posed no threat whatsoever.” Kailen said, voice growling as the first real sign of emotion.
“Not to any rivalling tribesman.” Vaughan agreed. “But they could have been valuable in other way to some. Information, for one.”
Aurelia was at a loss with their conversation, not knowing what information would be worth the killing of innocent men, women and children. She closed her eyes and tried to turn away but Kailen suddenly gripped her chin tightly in his calloused hand, forcing her to face the front. “Don’t close your eyes. Look at it.” He said into her ear.
She tried to pull her chin away but he held her tightly. She kept her eyes stubbornly closed.
He gave her a little shake. “Look!” He hissed. “Look at what sacrilege your people are capable of!”
Her eyes flew open at his words and she stared sightlessly before her. “You cannot know that.” She whispered. “You said it yourselves, it could have been a warring tribe.”
Kailen gave a humourless laugh, his breath feathering across her cheek. “No warrior would target defenceless farmers, it goes against everything we stand for. This carnage is the work of the Roman war machine, the systematic destruction of the enemy. No livelihood can be kept safe, no British life worthy of mercy. Rome doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”
Aurelia felt hot tears well up in her eyes before trickling down her cheeks and over the Briton’s fingers. Kailen’s hand loosened its grip on her chin, thumb grazing her tear streaked cheek before falling away entirely.
Aurelia barely noticed. She had never come into contact with this side of war. As a girl growing up, she was surrounded by decorated war veterans who loved to tell stories of wars they had fought in and won It had sounded so thrilling, so heroic.
But this.
This was the cost of Roman victory. It was one thing hearing about Roman warfare and military tactics, but it was quite another to see it in person.
She had lost all power of speech. She felt sick to her very stomach and for the first time in her life, she was ashamed of who she was. She was ashamed to be a Roman Citizen. Panic seized her, and she tore herself from his grip and leapt gracelessly from the horse, stumbling a couple of steps before she fell to her knees and was violently sick. On any other given day, she would have been mortified to have people witness such a lapse in propriety, but now she simply didn’t care.
A moment later, gentle hands pulled her hair back from her face. Taking deep breaths and sure she wasn’t going to retch again, she turned her head and was surprised to see that it was Kailen who held her hair back. Once he saw she had regained some of her composure his hands went to her shoulders and guided her up to her feet, his eyes never leaving her face.
She couldn’t meet his eyes, the unsettling feelings of before still roiling in her stomach. She was uninterested in playing any games of challenge, not not, not after what she saw.
Exhaustion settled over her like a smothering blanket and she sagged in his arms. He immediately picked her up, one arm under her legs while the other pillowed her back and set her back on the horse.
He turned back to his men. “There’s nothing we can do for the dead, their own tribe will want to see to their funeral customs in their own way.” He pointed to a short stocky dark haired warrior. “Devlin, I want you to bring the news to the Iceni of what has happened here. It’s the best we can do with the time that we have.”
The man, Devlin, nodded before he dug his heels into his horse’s flanks and they were off on their errand.
Kailen swund himself back up on his horse, arms circling her again. He gave the order to pushe on and the war party did so, putting distance between them and the ruined hollow of the farmstead. But Aurelia felt like it still gripped her as is she was still there.
Like a ghost.