Yosef took a step back and Sullis followed; she was now no more than a foot from the edge of the pool. Taking another step back, Yosef raised his cup. Sullis moved forward, still straining against the staff; her feet left the pool. The moment that Sullis glided onto the damp ground surrounding the pool Yosef dropped his staff. The hideous goddess flew at him, her voice changing to a note of triumph. Yosef flicked his cup, splashing the water into Sullis’ face; the goddess stopped as if it had not been liquid but, rather, solid rock that had hit her. The druids faltered; one or two of them wailed in despair. The possessed corpse convulsed and Yosef grabbed its shoulders, shaking it. Vespasian sensed that it was trying to retreat, to get back to the safety of the pool from which it had arisen so abominably.
‘Now for the druids!’ Yosef shouted between exhortations in his own language for the goddess to depart.
As if a spell had been broken, Cogidubnus rushed forward, his men flowing after him around the pool. Vespasian remained rooted, unwilling to move whilst Sullis remained manifest.
Yosef still had the goddess by the shoulders but her struggles were weakening. Suddenly her head fell back and her mouth opened and from it issued a wind that was more than a deep exhalation; it reminded Vespasian of the beating wings of the Phoenix as he stood beneath it over ten years before. It was a warm wind, not chill and malevolent as he would have expected to issue from Sullis, but, rather, peaceful and contented.
‘Return to God!’ Yosef cried in Greek as the wind rose up through the canopy. ‘You are free from Heylel; return to God and rest in His bosom until the End of Days.’
The limp body of the sacrificed girl fell to the muddy ground; it was completely pale and devoid of all blood. Yosef looked at it with sorrow as he placed his cup back in the bag.
Vespasian glanced at Magnus; incredulity filled their eyes; their breath no longer steamed. ‘I believe, however long I live, that that will be the most dread. .’ He trailed off, unable to articulate his terror.
Magnus nodded, vacantly. ‘That really weren’t natural.’
Cries from across the pool drew Vespasian’s attention as Cogidubnus and his men scythed into the druids who, instead of fleeing, stood wailing in despair at the loss of their goddess and accepted death; they were soon obliged and lay pierced and bloodied on the ground beneath the gently swaying cage. Vespasian shook his head, bringing his mind back to the matter in hand. ‘Help me to get Sabinus down, Magnus.’
Running around the pool, Vespasian kept well clear of its water, fearful of what other abominations it might hold. When he arrived underneath the cage Cogidubnus was already staring up at it, blood-slick sword in hand.
‘There seems to be a pulley system,’ the King informed him. ‘I’ll send up one of my men to lower it.’
It was the work of a few moments to get a man up into the tree; he soon reached the branch around which the rope was tied off. Untying the knot he began to feed the rope out.
Vespasian held his breath, watching intently the figure slumped on the floor of the descending cage. As the cage reached his eye-level the figure suddenly rolled over. Sabinus’ emaciated, bearded face peered at Vespasian in the flickering torchlight. ‘You took your time getting here, you little shit.’
It did not take Magnus long to force the lock and Vespasian helped his weakened brother out and to his feet. He was smeared in his own filth and his bones jutted through his tight, thin skin; yet despite that he managed to stand upright. He shook off Vespasian’s arms and staggered towards the water.
‘What are you doing?’ Vespasian asked as Sabinus fended off his attempts to help him.
‘I’m going to wash my arse in that pool now that it’s been cleared of goddesses.’
‘I wouldn’t go anywhere near that water — who knows what’s still lurking in there.’
‘Nothing, brother. I’ve been dangling above it for who knows how long, living in fear of the malice that emanated from it; but now it is gone and that is just a pool of hot water and I’m going to have a bath in it.’
‘I’d sooner dunk my arse in a tub of boiling oil,’ Magnus declared, looking suspiciously at the steaming, pinkish water. ‘Less chance of letting in an unwelcome visitor, if you take my meaning?’
‘Thank you, Magnus, if I ever need your opinions on hygiene I shall be sure to ask.’
Leaving Sabinus to his ablutions, Vespasian walked over to Yosef whose face was worn with fatigue.
‘She nearly got the best of me,’ Yosef said, leaning heavily on his staff.
‘How did you defeat her?’
‘I didn’t defeat her, I helped her. I released her from the spell cast by Heylel that confined her to this valley. I took water from the pool that was heated by her wrath at being trapped and I invoked God’s blessing on it. Once she was out of the pool the blessed water that I splashed on her face reconnected her to God, voiding Heylel’s curse against which she has struggled for millennia. She wanted to go and was finally free to do so. By doing Good as Yeshua preached I was stronger than the druids who just fed off Sullis’ malice; they couldn’t pull her back into the pool although they tried. I was able to hold her long enough for her to leave the body she had manifested in and return to God.’
‘Your god has proven his power but he had help from our gods; we were all praying that they would aid you. And Sullis manifest proves that they exist.’
Yosef chuckled. ‘Believe what you will; all faith is good. My God doesn’t need to prove His power.’ He patted his bag. ‘But Yeshua has. The cup I used was his; he used it to share wine with his followers on his last night. I keep it as a memento of him. His goodness seems somehow infused within it. When I asked God to bless the water, Yeshua’s face burnt in my mind and I knew that he was answering his wife’s and children’s prayers and lending me strength. This cup is a very potent vessel and has the power to do great Good.’
‘Kill every male you find down there, Maximus,’ Vespasian ordered his prefect of the camp, looking back down into the valley soon after dawn.
Maximus saluted. ‘What about the women and children, sir?’
Vespasian thought for a few moments. ‘No, we’ll spare them and sell them as slaves.’
‘And then you should set to work cutting down every tree in the valley,’ Yosef suggested. ‘If you deprive the druids of their sacred groves you’ll weaken them considerably.’
Cogidubnus nodded. ‘I agree; we should cut down every grove that we come across. We need to drive the druids away west and north; then perhaps you can start negotiating with the chieftains that still resist Rome.’
‘I would dearly love to capture a few alive,’ Sabinus said, pulling his only garment, a cloak, tighter around his naked body. ‘I’d hang them up in cages and feed them just enough to stay alive and keep them there for years. Most of all I’d like to find that bastard Alienus; think what he’d look like after five years in a cage.’
Vespasian looked apologetically at his brother. ‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible.’
‘Why? Have you killed him?’
‘No; we captured him.’
Sabinus’ face brightened. ‘Then I can hang him in a cage.’
‘I’m afraid not; I gave him his life in return for information concerning your whereabouts. I gave my word.’
‘Well, you’ll have to go back on your word; I intend to have my vengeance on that treacherous little shit.’
‘I can’t, Sabinus, I-’
‘I’m afraid that the situation has changed, sir,’ Maximus put in.
‘How? What do you mean?’
‘Before we left we found one of the men guarding him with his neck broken and stripped of his uniform. I believe that Alienus walked out of the camp in the guise of a Gallic auxiliary.’
Vespasian checked himself from shouting at his veteran officer and then, as he closed his mouth, he smiled and turned to his brother. ‘It seems that you’re in luck, Sabinus; Alienus has been very stupid. Now he’s escaped, our agreement is cancelled without me going back on my word.’