"It's a powerful thing."
"Yes." He laughed again. "And now you'll go to kill her husband!"
Savia tugged on Valeria to pull her away, taking advantage of the noise of Galba's laughter. The women crept away to leave the conspirators to talk into the night.
"The men in your life have all betrayed and abandoned you, lady," her slave whispered angrily. "You've been married off for money and position by your father, abandoned by your husband, seduced, mocked, and now plotted against."
"Where's the Arden I knew last night?" Valeria mourned. "He's nothing but a conspirator with Galba! Men use love like a cheap coin!"
Savia sighed. "Who knows what he really wants or thinks? Did you really give him your ring?"
"Just in a cup, for a moment. Was last night false, Savia?"
"Fleeting."
"I thought my life had changed forever."
"Don't you think every young heart believes that?"
She groaned. "I don't know what I believe."
"Believe in law and duty, mistress. Because when men fail you, as they eventually must, order is all that's left."
They crept back to their chamber, Valeria tortured. What just the night before had seemed impossibly distant-Rome! — had come crashing back into her life with Galba's arrival. The man was a traitor! An enemy of her husband! An ally of her lover! And that made Arden…
She threw herself down on her bed. Where did her emotions lie?
Where did her loyalty lie?
Beware the one you trust, the seer had said in Londinium. Trust the one you beware. What did that mean? Who was who, which side was which?
She was sleepless, in an agony of indecision. Finally she slipped on her cloak and went back outside. It was late night, Galba's horse still waiting. Yet already signal fires were being lit on surrounding hills. Messengers were saddling up to ride to the four winds. Military opportunity wouldn't last long. Arden would call a gathering of the clans for a march against the Wall. A march against Rome.
Thousands would die.
Including, possibly, Marcus and Arden.
Yet the barbarian plan hinged on surprise. If she could reach Marcus before the northern tribes struck, he in turn could warn the duke. Reinforcements could be sent. Faced with the full assembly of Roman power, the Celts could do nothing but retreat.
Marcus would be saved.
Arden would be saved.
And once more she'd be with her husband. It was what she should want, shouldn't she? Surely it was where her duty lay.
Duty! How many times she had scorned that word! Now she understood its importance. In following it, she would save the two men in her life, and save Rome. Yet in following it she would put behind her the happiest moment of her life.
Why, then, was her heart like a stone after resolving to carry out this plan? Why did she feel that she, too, was being forced into some kind of treachery?
She loathed leaving Arden. She ached for his touch. Yet she must get back to the Wall before Galba and spread the alarm.
She summoned Savia.
PART THREE
XXXIII
"Valeria left you behind?"
I am surprised. Throughout this narrative Savia has been portraying herself as the lady's closest confidant and steadfast friend. It seems strange that Valeria would ride off alone. I feel some sympathy for the loneliness the slave must have felt, like a dog abandoned by its master.
"It was the only way to buy time before they started pursuit," Savia explains matter-of-factly. Having won my alliance, she is not inclined to pity herself. "She slipped out of the hill fort shortly before dawn as she had before, her months in Caledonia giving her a better notion of which way to go this time. Arden had gambled that he'd win her heart by the time she knew enough to find her way, but he hadn't reckoned with her loyalties. She had to beat Galba to Petrianis."
"So you somehow persuaded them that she was still at Tiranen?"
"I pretended that Valeria was sick after Samhain and that I was tending the woman in her room. It helped that she'd slept with Arden. The other women were hesitant about pushing their way in because she had rank and power now. I also hinted that Valeria's heart was confused because she was already married. I suggested she was trying to sort out her choices and wished to be left alone while she did it."
"This worked?"
"For a day. By then it was too late to catch her."
"Did not Arden want to see her?"
"He was busy making preparations for war. But yes, of course he came looking for her. The man was in love. It was plain in his face and in his bearing."
"A happy foolishness," I suggest.
"Well put, inspector. You know from your own experience, perhaps?"
I admit such experience only to myself, a scabbed memory of hope and pain. "I have seen it in other men." My authority is maintained by solitude, I remind myself: by never confiding weakness, by never caring too much. There's some Galba in me, I suppose. "I'm surprised he accepted your excuses."
"He was confused and hurt that she wouldn't let him in. I told him that Valeria was confused herself, an explanation men readily swallow because of their low opinion of women and exalted opinion of themselves."
I let this pass without correction.
"He was also frantic with haste. It was late in the year, not the traditional warring season, but it was also past the harvest so men could ready quickly. If the barbarians were to take advantage of Roman weakness, they had to strike before the Wall was reinforced or winter became too deep. Their plan was to attack everywhere at once to keep garrisons from reinforcing each other. Whichever chieftain broke through first would fall upon the rear of the Romans at the next assault point."
"You seem to have a grasp of strategy."
"The Celts don't command, they lead. Arden had to explain the plan to the assembly in the Great House if anyone was to follow him. It didn't really matter if word reached the Romans. The question was exactly where the attacks would come, and exactly when."
"Of course. Still, the barbarians seem to have had more cunning and organization than I assumed. Perhaps my report can lay the blame for what happened on Celtic strategy, not Roman jealousies."
She shrugs. "They are brave and smart. But as an army…"
"Disorganized?"
"Independent. Individualistic. They join together, but in his heart each warrior is his own general. They fight not for an empire but for themselves. Not for victory so much as glory. Not for land but for loot. I listened to their boasting as weapons were sharpened and shields uncovered. They each wanted to be the hero."
"Which is why Rome has beaten them again and again."
"And why they are beaten but never conquered."
I pause, pondering her point. Then: "How did they finally discover that Valeria was gone?"
"Asa was suspicious and stole in while I slept. She sounded the alarm, and men came with swords drawn, dragging me out of bed."
"You must have been terrified."
"I wept and begged." She recounts this without shame, slaves allowed honesty denied their betters. Again, I envy them.
"Did you tell them that Valeria had gone to warn Marcus?"
"I told them that she'd left without telling. I suggested she was confused about love. Arden might have believed this, but none of the others were so blind. Galba wanted to roast me until I told the truth."
"Yet you are here, unroasted." It is a little joke, and draws only a little smile.
"Arden intervened. He said that even if she'd fled to the Wall, the Romans had no time to get more troops, and that frantic vigilance against impending attack would only tire them. He said he'd pledged no harm to me and was keeping that pledge. The men grumbled, but none dared challenge him. They thought that in everything else he was sensible, but on the issue of Valeria he was insane. It had become a fact of clan life. Galba left for the Wall, and the rest speeded their preparations."