“But what of ye, Owein? I canna leave ye.”
He lifted his head and looked through the trees with the eyes of an old man set in his young face. “I’ll not be here, little mama.”
“Not here? Where will ye go?”
“North to the islands beyond the mountains, where the hand of Rome will never rule. Madog once told me the stones there hold wisdom beyond a man’s imagining. He abandoned that knowing in the end, but I would seek it.” He sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I have the Sight, but ’tis not enough. I need the knowledge that will show me how best to use the gift Kernunnos has cursed me with.”
Rhiannon took his hand. It was the hand of a man, not a lad. “ ’Twill be a difficult passage,” she said.
“I know it, little mama. But I am thinking ’twill be no harder than the journey ye will make.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
They were being followed. Lucius knew it with a certainty, but when he cocked his head to listen, he heard nothing. The twilight forest was still.
Too still.
“Draw your mount off the trail,” he told Marcus.
Marcus complied, seeking shelter in a thick copse. Lucius reined in beside him and waited, sword drawn. Long seconds passed, then the underbrush rustled and a dark form streaked toward them.
“Hercules!” Marcus flung himself from his pony’s back. The dog launched itself at him and the pair crashed to the ground in a tangle of human and canine limbs.
Lucius resheathed his sword. “It would seem we’re to be saddled with that creature for eternity,” he said with a rueful smile.
Marcus beamed up at him. “See? He is a clever dog, just as Rhiannon said.”
“Yes,” a voice behind him agreed. “I had the right of it. He led me to you.”
“Rhiannon!” Marcus darted toward her, stumbling against her snow-white pony’s flank and causing the beast to shy.
Rhiannon slid from the animal’s back, keeping her reins firmly in hand, laughing as she scolded him. “Marcus! Has your brain slipped out of your head?” Hercules pranced about her legs.
Marcus grinned back at her, unrepentant. “No.”
Rhiannon gave her head an amused shake and opened her arms in the universal gesture of motherly love. Marcus went to her, wrapping his arms about her waist fiercely. Lucius dismounted and advanced more slowly, his gut churning like a river after a storm.
Rhiannon met his gaze over Marcus’s head. “Lucius?”
“Why are you here?” He had to force the words from his dry throat.
“I’ve …” She eased out of Marcus’s embrace. “I thought to come with you. If you’ll have me.”
“What of your brother?”
Rhiannon gave a sad smile. “It was he who convinced me to follow my heart.”
“And your tribe? You would leave your people without their queen?”
She shook her head, sadness showing in her eyes. “I’ve never truly been a queen. I’ve been naught but an excuse to continue the war that drains the lifeblood of my people. Whether I go or stay will make little difference. Men will still die, but at least their lives will not be lost in my name.”
“Look,” Marcus interjected suddenly. Lucius turned to see his son pointing at a place where sunlight splashed through a break in the forest to fall on a spray of red roses. Somehow seeds from a Roman garden had taken root in the wilderness.
Rhiannon touched the petals. “ ’Tis a beautiful flower that springs from these thorns.”
“It’s like the witch who ate a bad boy and birthed a fair one,” Marcus said.
“Yes,” Rhiannon replied. “Beauty may rise from pain.”
“As peace may rise from strife,” Lucius said, drawing her into his arms. “For those who are willing to embrace it.”
He brushed his cheek against Rhiannon’s hair. “It’s my dearest wish that you become my wife and Marcus’s mother.”
Marcus let out a whoop.
Rhiannon smiled and cupped Lucius’s cheek. “ ’Tis my wish as well. I love you, Lucius. Forgive me for not saying those words sooner.”
“It’s enough to hear them now,” Lucius said, his voice thick with emotion.
“Where will we go? To Rome?”
Lucius looked down the trail. “Truly I do not know. At one time I was sure I’d take up the life my father meant me to have, though I never wanted it. But now …” He drew a breath. “Now I’ve found life is too precious to waste. I intend to live each day as it comes, even if that means I don’t know what road I’ll take the next morning.”
“As long as I am by your side, it matters not what path I travel.”