Where are we, Arden?'
'A crannog. My people like the protection of water, so we build small islands or platforms for refuge. You were too badly injured to take back to Tiranen, so we brought you here.'
'How long have I been here?'
'Three days.'
'Three days!'
'That boar gave you a beating. Have you looked at yourself?'
'No.'
'Your entire side is purple.'
Valeria nodded, beginning to remember now. 'I thought he was going to kill me. Such a vicious-' She stopped. 'And how did you see my side?'
'We had to get your bloody clothes off you.'
'We?'
'Kalin helped too.'
'Kalin!'
'He's a healer, Valeria. It's his broth that's brought you around.'
She didn't remember any broth. 'It's not right for you two to be looking.'
'We couldn't bear the stink of you.'
She was embarrassed, grateful, and resentful at her dependency. She changed the subject. 'Where's Savia?'
'Taking over Tiranen, I suppose. When she heard you'd been hurt, she told me exactly what she thought of me, which you can well imagine. I think you'll recover faster away from her, so in her boredom she's got the rest of the clan under siege. She wants to convert and reform us at the same time.'
'That sounds like Savia.' She was beginning to remember. 'And Hool?'
He looked at her gently, reaching up to touch her cheek as softly as the fox cape that had wrapped her neck on her wedding night. She shivered.
'Alive, Valeria.' So startling, that touch. Her name on his lips. He caressed her skin. 'Saved by your courage. He's in the hut next door, taking strength from your own healing. You will get well together.'
She blinked. 'Can I see him?'
The Celtic hunter was on the same kind of straw mattress she had found herself, his skin pale and his frame shrunken, as if the near passage of death had collapsed him in on himself. At first he seemed confused by his visitors in the shadows, but then he recognized the young woman and cracked a smile. 'Morrigan,' he croaked.
She knelt by him. 'It's Valeria, Hool.'
His hand reached out and grasped her forearm, the grip still surprisingly strong. 'The others told me what you did.'
'Let you get trampled, it looks like.'
He coughed a slight laugh and then lay back, still in pain. 'I owe you my life, lady. Saved by a woman! For that, I give you my spear.'
'Don't be silly-'
'I give you my spear in debt for my living. It marks you as a Celt.'
She blushed. 'I'm only a Roman.'
'Not now. You're one of us.'
Valeria shook her head. 'That will only be when you're well, Hool. When you can take your place in the hunt again. Let me help you to get better.'
'You are here. It's enough-' He was drifting off, slipping back to sleep.
'And your survival helps me.'
He lay still, breathing slowly.
She stood, shakily. 'I'm tired now, Arden.'
He took her elbow. 'Yes. Rest some more.'
Valeria was young, and impatient to heal. The next day she began to move about, appalled at her discoloration but relieved she was still alive. She dipped into the lake, the shock of cold water countering the pain of her injuries. She'd had an adventure! In time she'd be well. Then she visited Hool, checking his dressings. He too seemed to be healing, without infection, and had lost none of his good humor. These were a tough people.
The crannog's ramp could be raised like a drawbridge, and now that Valeria had strength enough to lift and lower it, Caratacus instructed she do so. As a result she felt curiously safe in her hut: the ramp up, a gap of water between herself and the shore, and herself sitting gratefully in the summer's sun. How peaceful it was here! How removed from the cares of the world, after the recent tumultuous days of fear and emotion! She liked to watch the alder as it was riffled by the wind, or study how the trees lent their green color to the water. The crannog let her stop thinking. This, she knew, was why the man had brought her there.
He wanted her to think less and feel more.
He wanted her to understand the Celts.
A day and a night went by, and then she saw someone approach again, strange and yet familiar. She touched the rough hemp of the drawbridge rope, uncertain what to do.
It was the druid, Kalin. She still feared the priesthood's reputation.
'Will you make me swim, Roman lady?' His hood was back, his smile disarming.
'Where's Arden?'
'He'll be along soon enough. I've brought you some gifts, but if you want them, you'll have to let down your little bridge.'
She stalled by teasing him. 'I thought druids could walk on water and fly through the air.'
'Alas, I get just as wet as you, lady. Don't you remember seeing me, soaked and shiny as a crow, when I came into the Great House?'
'I remember how frightening you were. So how do I know you don't want to burn me in a wicker man now, or put me in a pot, or drown me in a bog with a golden cord around my neck?'
'I'd not waste something as valuable as a golden cord, I don't have a pot, and I've never seen a wicker man. Besides, you seem to know less about the future than any of us: I don't think you're much use as a portent. The killing of that boar was a sign of some other purpose. Just what, we don't know.'
'You're healing me for this purpose?'
'I'm healing you so I can stop making the walk from Tiranen.'
'You don't have a horse?'
'I can't see what I need to see from a horse.'
'What do you need to see?'
'Fern and flower, herb and sprig. My plants for healing.'
She was far from Roman medicine, and this herbalist was as good as she was going to get. Besides, he could also check on Hool. 'Come across, then.'
Kalin's medical manner proved gentler than she expected. He had her unpin her tunic on the sunlit porch so he could briskly inspect her bruises while she clutched it around her private places to give herself dignity. He touched lightly, murmuring approval at her progress, and then turned discreetly to let her redress.
There was a raised hearthstone inside the hut, and Kalin stoked the embers, added fuel, and put water on to boil. Then he sorted through what he'd brought.
'First, a package from Savia.' He handed over a leather pouch. 'A comb, pins for your hair, some perfume. She said it will make you feel Roman.'
Valeria was delighted. 'It will make me feel human!' She held up a sweet-smelling bar that puzzled her, however. 'What's this?'
'Soap. It's an essence of animals that cleans the skin. We scent it with berry.'
'What essence?'
'Their fat.'
'Ugh!' She dropped the bar.
'It works better than Roman oils.'
'I can't imagine how.'
