“Go on then, the water will run south, move the trees in that direction if you can once it’s over.”
For all I knew Italy was about to gain a new forest. Better than no forest at all. Better than no trees. Better than a famine that would kill all of its people.
“Tristram!” My heart pounded. There was little left of the palace. Where once had been tile and marble, dust and bone there was now an enormous lake.
“Heather!”
I waded through the water a little. Local townspeople were looking at the mess, scratching their heads. Children splashed in the water like they’d never seen such a sight—which to be fair, they probably hadn’t.
Of Claudius and his army there was no sign.
“Tristram!” My heart raced, a tingle crawling along the back of my neck. “Tristram!”
The trees wouldn’t let me down, I had to believe that.
I called, more and more, the golden glow within me diminishing with every shout of his name.
“Tristram!”
Chapter Sixteen
Hard hands caught my stomach, squeezing me tight. A yelp escaped me before I could pull myself together.
The rough grasp pulled me around and I stared straight into the pale-blue eyes of Augustus. “What are you doing here?” My heart hammered.
“What a mess, little one.”
“Leave me, please.” A small sob escaped my mouth. I couldn’t take much more. My power had depleted all the time that I’d looked for Tristram. The golden wave I’d ridden to bring down the palace on Palatine Hill had ebbed with the waning water. And I still needed to get back to the stones and try to get back to whatever I’d left of my precious world. My heart told me I’d find things greatly changed.
And Tristram was nowhere to be seen.
“Come with me, little witch.” I bristled at him calling me a witch, but he chuckled. “Are you affronted by that nickname now, Mae?”
“Please let me go. I’ve got to get back. I need to face him again.”
Augustus’ fingers wound through mine. “Come.” He led me down the washed-out street and we wove amongst the people standing looking at the devastation I’d brought down. Seeing it now, like that, made me wonder if I was the goddess of abundance at all. Crockery and broken artefacts were strewn everywhere. Helmets and armour littered the path of the huge river. I couldn’t think about where the soldiers were.
He led me to a small cottage and opened a door small enough he needed to duck to enter. “I don’t have time for this. If you’re going to kill me, just do it now, out here in the open.” I pulled on his hand, but it was too late. I was through the door. It clicked softly, almost with a will of its own.
He laughed. “Little one, I’m not going to kill you. I’m here to help.” I peered into the gloom of the room, a stab of guilt twisting my stomach when the debris and water damage became clear.
Tristram was at a rough wooden table and I launched myself into his arms. Zafina sat next to him nursing a wound on her head. “You’re here.” I whispered into his neck.
“Augustus here, led us out of a back passage just before it caved in.” Tristram’s arms held me tight and I breathed into him. With his firm hold, my waning energy rekindled just a little.
“I was already releasing the girls, for the record.” Augustus added, pushing a plate with a bread roll in front of me. “Eat. You need to rebuild your strength. You have a long march ahead and I won’t be there to carry you this time.”
Tristram stiffened at this, but I pushed my lips into the warm skin of his neck, and he relented a little.
“Why are you helping me? Us?”
“I have friends, they talk to me.” Augustus shrugged. “Tell me when I’m needed.”
“To fight the Emperor or Rome?” I asked.
His eyes darkened a little. “No. To fight the god of war.”
I gasped, my eyes wide. “You’re a god, too?”
His eyes held mine.
“And you are born like me? You don’t know who you are?”
He shook his head. “No. That was your choice.” His gaze flitted between Tristram and I, and I found dark jet eyes watching me from under long lashes. “No. That was a choice you made, but the god of war has been searching for you.”
“Why did you hand me over to him? You came all the way to Scotland to find me, you could have left me there.” My cheeks flamed when I remembered our brief kiss. “You were horrible to me.”
He frowned at my unusual name for Caledonia and I flushed a little. “I wanted to try to remind you of who you were, but you were grieving so hard, just like you always do.”
“Who are you?”
Augustus swept me a low bow. “Healing is my thing.”
I sighed a dramatic breath, everything suddenly making so much more sense. “Oh, God, you made me heal. That’s why my grief seemed better when you were near. It wasn’t that I was forgetting, or callous.”
“No.”
“But you still handed me over to him.”
“That was a debt I owed. Now that debt has been paid.”
“So whose side are you on now?”
I couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes lingered on my face.
“Yours. I’ve always been on your side. Growth and healing go hand in hand.”
“I feel you know a lot more than you are telling me.”
Augustus’ gaze switched to Tristram and he shrugged, a kind of helpless lift of his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter now; you made a choice and we all live by it for better or worse.”
My tongue dried. I sensed a deep history between us, but now wasn’t the time to deal with it.
“Can you heal the girls? I need them strong. I’ve got to teach them what I know.”
His lips quirked. “I’m sure you do. But now isn’t the time. Leave them with me, I shall heal them, strengthen them, and then I shall guide them to you.”
“But I
