CHAPTER VI
Vespasian looked down into the valley of Sullis from high on a hill to its southern edge. Thickly wooded with a river meandering through it, the vale’s only sign of human habitation was a small pier on the north bank at the apex of a large dog-leg in the river’s course.
‘The river is known as the Afon Sullis,’ Yosef informed Vespasian, Magnus and Cogidubnus. ‘The ferry that operates from that pier is the only way across without getting wet.’
‘So we’ll be getting wet then,’ Vespasian observed, watching a small round boat being paddled away from the pier.
‘Yes, the river curves around behind this hill; we can swim the horses across to the northern bank out of sight of unfriendly eyes.’
‘Apart from the ferryman and his passenger I can’t see any eyes, either friendly or unfriendly,’ Magnus said, scanning the thick green canopy that covered the valley’s floor.
‘There’re plenty under there, you can count on it; and all very unfriendly. They’ll be mainly around the five sacred groves that surround each of the springs. They’re all within the curve of the river.’
Cogidubnus shielded his eyes from the low, late-afternoon sun. ‘Which one will we make for?’
‘If they still have Sabinus above the hottest one then it’s about four hundred paces from the ferry and almost exactly in the middle of the curve.’
‘I’ll have a couple of my men go and take a look once it gets dark.’ Cogidubnus turned and addressed his ten followers in their own tongue, pointing to the area of wood indicated by Yosef.
‘We should aim to be there by the eighth hour of the night.’ Yosef turned his horse and kicked it away down the hill.
Vespasian took one last look at the valley before following; it looked so peaceful and yet it was home to unspeakable horrors. And he would soon have to face them again.
‘My men should be back very soon,’ Cogidubnus said, observing the progress of the moon across the night sky.
Vespasian shivered and wrapped his cloak tighter about his shoulders; the temperature had dropped with the sun and they had not dared to risk a fire despite still being damp from crossing the river. ‘Do you think that your god has blinded the druids to our coming, Yosef?’
‘The sacrifice was accepted this morning and we had no trouble on the journey here; Miriam and the children are praying for us and that will help me raise the power that I’ll need. But only with a lot of luck will we escape detection altogether.’
‘Oh, so we do have to rely on luck, do we?’ Magnus muttered, less than impressed. ‘I thought that all this religious stuff that you’ve been going on about, the one true god and all that, meant that we had a guarantee of divine protection.’
Yosef smiled benignly in the dim moonlight. ‘God cannot always do everything that is asked of Him.’
‘Then he’s no different to any other god, is he? They seem to spend their time turning up with a little help whenever they fancy rather than when you ask them to. And if this god that you seem to be so keen on really was the only god then I’m not surprised to find him unreliable because he must be very busy.’
‘He is everywhere,’ Yosef agreed as the soft rustling of leaves heralded the arrival of Cogidubnus’ two scouts.
Cogidubnus spoke to them briefly and then dismissed them to wait with his other followers.
‘Well?’ Vespasian asked.
‘It seems that Sullis is a powerful goddess; my men said that the closer they got to her springs the more they felt her presence.’
‘But what about Sabinus, is he still there?’
‘They could see a cage suspended from a tree but they could not get close enough to see whether there was anyone in it. There were druids close by.’
‘How many?’
‘More than a dozen.’
‘Any warriors?’ Magnus asked, gripping the hilt of his sword.
‘None that could be seen; but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. If there are, though, there won’t be many as this is a religious place, not a settlement. They’re not our concern; my men will deal with them. It’s the druids and the goddess that we have to worry about.’
‘You look to the druids and leave Sullis to me,’ Yosef said, tapping the leather bag slung over his shoulder, ‘and remember, she’s not a goddess, she’s just a daemon.’
‘As far as I’m concerned there ain’t any difference,’ Magnus stated. ‘She’s a supernatural being who demands worship. Men worship her, therefore she’s a goddess. Granted, she may not be as powerful as Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Donar or Taranis but that makes sense because there is a hierarchy to the gods, just like with men. Men can’t be all equal and nor can gods. Which leaves us with the nice irony of you, Yosef, using the power of what you profess to be the one true god against a lesser goddess. I’d say your god’s claim to be the only god is a little tenuous, wouldn’t you?’
Yosef repeated his benign smile. ‘Perhaps you Gentiles attribute the word “god” too easily to forces that you don’t understand. There are supernatural beings other than Yahweh; I would not call them gods but you would. Heylel or Lucifer, for example: he has power but less power than Yahweh; you would call him a god, a lesser god like Saturn compared to Jupiter, but Lucifer is just an angel who has fallen from grace. Then there are Gabriel and Michael, they are archangels who live with Yahweh; again you would call them gods, because they’re supernatural beings.’
‘Do you worship them?’
‘No, but we honour them.’
‘Ah!’ Magnus pointed his finger at Yosef. ‘What’s the difference?’
‘When Yahweh revealed himself to the Jews he told us that we should not worship other gods, only him, because he would not give his glory to another.’
‘And yet you “honour” these archangels. You see, if he told you not to worship other gods, that implies that there are other gods, so I think you’ve got your argument the wrong way round: you Jews don’t attribute the word “god” enough. You’ve got all these gods that you just pretend are something else to keep this Yahweh happy. Whereas if you just accepted that Lucifer, Gabriel and all the rest were gods then your religion wouldn’t be much different from everybody else’s and perhaps you’d find yourselves fitting in a bit more because you wouldn’t consider yourselves so special.’
Again Yosef chuckled into his beard. ‘Magnus, my friend, I can’t argue with your logic except to say that there is no other God.’
‘And yet we’re just about to go and deal with one!’
Vespasian got to his feet. ‘I’ve had enough of this. Whether Sullis is a goddess or a daemon or an angel — whatever that is — makes no difference; we’re going to have to defeat the druids that use her power in order to rescue Sabinus and I’ve asked for the protection of my guardian god, Mars, just as Cogidubnus is protected by Taranis and Yosef has his Yahweh. Whether they’re all different or all the same but with different names is completely irrelevant to me so long as I feel the hands of a god being held over me — because having faced these druids once I know that’s what I need.’
Cogidubnus heaved himself off the ground. ‘The moon will set in an hour; we should get ourselves into position.’
Magnus held his hand out to help Yosef up. ‘Whoever’s right and whoever’s wrong there is one certainty and that is we all need gods. I’m looking forward to seeing how yours proves himself to be the one true god.’
‘You’ll never get proof, Magnus; you just have to have faith.’
Vespasian stayed close to Cogidubnus, only just visible a pace in front of him, as the two scouts led them towards the springs of Sullis. The forest thickened as they probed deeper and soon the canopy was so dense that the stars were totally obscured and the gloom was complete. The air had become thick and heavy to breathe and had an acidic tang to it that grated in his throat. Sweat had begun to trickle down his forehead and he sensed the temperature rising steadily as they closed on Sullis’ realm. A low-hanging branch brushed against his ear, startling him; he reached out to push it aside and felt it dripping with moisture.