Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion (37 page)

She nodded.  “I would expect not.  My vision made it clear that I was
to embark on a most particular task, and that I should expect to experience much I did not understand.”

“Let’s talk about this vision,” I said, and waited for her to explain, but when she remained silent, I spoke again.  “Give me details.”

She looked surprised by my line of inquiry, but did not hesitate.  “The night after my warband was repulsed outside the city you call Camulodunum nearly two weeks ago, I was gifted with a vision as I slept about how I was to continue my struggle against Roman aggression.”

I glanced at Vincent, who shrugged.  He’d been a pretty pious Catholic for as long as I
’d known him, and I assumed he still was – although we didn’t talk about it much anymore – and I knew he wouldn’t necessarily rule out the idea of a “vision from God.”

I was a little more skeptical, but who was I to judge anymore?

“Go on,” I prompted.

“I was told to come here,”
she explained.  “To the Isle of Mona where I would meet a powerful man who had the ability to control the fate of the entire world.  It was shown to me that I would be made aware of him before reaching the isle, accompanied by a red light in the sky and the raining of fire.  At first, we thought your contingent of Romans were a raiding force, but when we saw the light, I ordered my warriors back.  I knew then that within your group was the man I sought, although I did not know who I was looking for specifically until just now.”

“Your
vision was so detailed?”  Vincent asked.

She turned to him and nodded.  “More so than even I have the ability to explain.  It was
because it was so that I accepted it.  It was no mere dream.  I assure you.”

Vincent turned to me.  “I don’t know, Hunter.  It’s hard
to deny this woman’s claim after everything we’ve been through, and there
is
historical precedent.  Figures like Constantine have claimed similar stories to great effect.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” I agreed.

“Who is this Constantine?”  Boudicca asked.

“Don’t worry about him,” I said with a smirk.  “He’s someone you’ll
never
have to worry about.  Trust me.”

Vincent actually allowed himself a small smile at the comment as well.

“Was there anything else in your vision?”  He asked.

She nodded.  “There was.  A voi
ce.  It was an old voice, almost ancient in my mind.  It spoke with authority but quite unlike any other voice my ears have ever heard, and while his words were completely alien, his meaning was quite clear.”

“What did it say?”  This comment was from Marcus, who sat there like someone at a personal book reading by their favorite author.

“Little.  Only that I was to protect this man,” she said, gesturing toward me, “and…” she paused, “to guide him safely to him.”

“To him?”  I asked.  “To who?”

“
Him
,” she said unhelpfully.  “The voice.”

“Who was
it?”  Vincent asked, just as interested now as Marcus was.

“I know not,” she said, “but I suspect it is someone with great power.  Great power.”

“Okay, great,” I said cheerfully, feeling everything but as I slapped my thighs and stood up.  I reached down and offered the famed warrior-queen a hand to help her up.  She took it and I could feel the immense strength and weight to her well before I even started to pull.  “We welcome you with open arms, Boudicca, but if you will excuse us, we have much to discuss.  I think we’ll camp here for the night and continue on tomorrow.”

She tilted her
head down.  “Very well, Hunter.  I believe I will seek out your fellow female warriors and speak with them.”

“Find the
tall, dark haired one,” I said.  “She’d love to speak to you.”

“I thank you.”

I watched her go for half a second before turning back to Vincent, throwing my arms out to the side at the same time.  “What the fuck is going on here, Vincent??”

He shook his head slowly as he stared at the ground.  “I h
aven’t a clue.  This story went well over my head back in Rome five years ago when you were trying to explain time travel to me, but this… this is something beyond me entirely.”

“She can’t be serious, can she?” 
Asked Archer, perplexed as well.  “Can she?”

I threw my hands in the air
again.  “She seemed serious to me!”

“What is it that confuses you all
?”  Gaius asked calmly.

“What is it that…” I started
, wildly confused.  “How about everything?  How about the idea that she was talking about communing with… a god!  Or something!”

“What is so odd about that?”  Marcus asked
this time.

I looked at him blankly.  “Don’t act like you have conversations with Mars every other Saturday or something, Marcus.  I know that you don’t.”

“Of course I do not,” he answered, humored by my comment.  “But there are many stories concerning such occurrences.  Many.  Gods have interfered in the lives of mortals for centuries, doing so on a divine whim.  Why is it so odd that one would approach this woman then?”

I rolled my eyes.  “When have you ever seen a god, Marcus?
  Really?”

“
Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t meant it does not exist,” Gaius answered for him.  “It simply means you have been lucky enough avoid such an entanglements… until now apparently.”

“That’s j
ust fucking great, Gaius,” I mumbled.  “Thanks…”

“You have to understand,” Vincent jumped in, “that where we come from, the idea of gods or supernatural beings interacting on the mortal plain of existence has grown rather unpopular
and, frankly, dated.  The stories remain, but the idea that such instances are commonplace or anything but parables has long since abandoned most cultures.”

“That does not mean they are untrue,” Gaius continued to argue.  “Even today in our more modern times, we hear fewer of these stories, but that is not to say that at one time, they were
not in fact more commonplace.”

I sighed.  “So you’re convinced a god spoke to her?”

Both he and Marcus shook their heads, but it was who Gaius continued speaking.  “I know not that it was a god who spoke with her, Hunter. I simply believe that there is more to this world than what we see.  I am surprised you are not so open to this possibility yourself after your interactions with the orb.  I would think that it alone would have been enough to sway your judgment on such matters.”

Marcus nodded in silent support of his friend before the two of them wandered away.

I pinched my nose and squeezed my eyes shut.  “I need a vacation… I really do.”

“Nobody’s argui
ng with that,” Archer replied snidely.

I lowered my hand and turned back to Vincent.  “What do you think?”

He thought for a moment before answering.  “I think it would be unwise not to learn more about her.  If anything, she speaks the language of her tribe, and while I assume she doesn’t speak the local language, it is certainly possible that one of the Druids here will speak hers.  She could be invaluable as a translator.”

“Good point,” I answered
, “but what about this ‘vision’ of hers?”

“I don’t know, Hunter, I don’t.  But I wouldn’t so easily discount it if I
were you, and I would certainly council you to seek the perspectives of as many of us as you can…
if
you can.”

He left those as his parting words and moved off to join Gaius and Marcus, l
eaving me alone with Archer.

“So what do you think?”  I asked
, not particularly interested.

“Fuck if I know, Hunter, but I will say that I think you’ve managed to alienate
the last few perspectives available to you, and that you’d better work damn hard getting your friends back.”

Archer’s own parting words echoed Vincent’s, but I decided I’d
already wasted precious seconds of my life asking for his opinion anyway, so there was no point wasting even more trying to comprehend it.

***

The woman named Boudicca didn’t speak much as she led our contingent along the western border of Anglesey the next morning.  She was a very stoic individual, and hadn’t had much to say, except to continually reassure me that she was leading us to “him” – whoever the fuck “him” was. 

Then again, while I was certainly skeptical about everything this woman had told us so far, her story was still more believable than not
.  Since meeting her, I no longer thought I understood the nature of the world so clearly.  Denying the involvement of some unknown or supernatural force accompanying us along our journey was no longer so odd a concept.  Whether that force was fate, God, gods, or… fucking magic even, was anyone’s guess, but I didn’t think anyone felt alone out here anymore.

It only fueled the questions in my mind about affecting history, changing timelines, fixing past mistakes, and working
toward better futures, but those thoughts no longer distracted me.  It felt refreshing, and I wasn’t about to fall back into that routine now, so I pushed forward toward answers instead of dwelling on the past.

We hadn’t been traveling long
this morning, but I’d quickly grown bored now that my mind was no longer as occupied as it used to be, and since my team still seemed wrapped up in their own little worlds that didn’t included me, I was left with little to do.  No one had wished me a good morning and not a one had decided to walk with me on this bitingly cold morning.

Each of them, from Helena to Archer,
walked alone or in small groups, and few spoke to even each other.  A pall of unease had encompassed our group and a lack of enthusiasm for what we were doing had taken root.  No one seemed particularly confident anymore and even though both Archer and Vincent had suggested I seek everyone’s individual council on the situation, I found it insulting that none had seemed interested in offering it, so I didn’t bother.

At least
Boudicca still seemed interested in what I was doing and where I was going, and I actually appreciated her silent companionship along the way.  She’d asked only the briefest of questions concerning the manner of our clothing and the origins of English, and had not seemed rebuffed when I told her some things were better kept secret.  She actually seemed to understand, and hadn’t pressed the point.  I was even getting used to all those muscles of hers.  She wasn’t nearly as intimidating anymore, and she did have a rather lovely face, so as traveling companions went, I could do far worse.  I was tired of Santino’s whining, Vincent’s righteous superiority, Wang’s superstitious nervousness, Helena’s judgmental attitude, and Archer in general, so I was quite happy to have her around.

But
while Boudicca wasn’t the worst traveling companion, the air was still cold, the wind blistering, and the sun morbidly obscured by heavy clouds.  We were all lucky that most of our cold-weather gear had held up well after all these years, unlike our electronic gear, and I was also lucky that I hadn’t yet broken my favorite pair of glacier glasses, which were working perfectly now atop this island that seemed more like a barren sheet of ice than anything else.

I’d just about fallen asleep from boredom mid-step when
Boudicca stopped just as she crested a small hill that had blocked our view of the landscape north of us, causing our entire contingent to halt abruptly.  Everyone shifted their attention left to right nervously, anticipating trouble, but the sight of something over the hill and off in the distance drew my attention, as did the sound of Wang whispering, “Bloody hell…”

I barely heard him because I was mesmerized by the sight before us. 
It was clearly an island just off the coast of the island we were on now, but a small one, at least relatively so.  It was so astounding a sight because its flat surface seemed to lift itself out of the water like a shallow ramp growing higher and higher as it extended northwards.  Off in the distance, the island’s western coast may have been a two hundred foot cliff to the water below.  Beyond that was a small mountain near its northern edge.  The entire island was covered in snow and blanketed with fog that curled and wisped from the edges of the cliff sides to fall into the sea, disappearing long before they reached the water.

It was a haunting
view that I couldn’t tear my eyes from.

Boudicca
pointed toward it.

“There, Hunter,” she said unwaveringly.  “That is where we must go.”

I squinted at it.  “An island off the coast of an island?”

She nodded.  “Indeed.  It is
a foreign land to me as well, but where we must go nonetheless.”

I turned to her with a distrustful look on my face.  “You got all this from your vision?”

She met my eye but didn’t say anything, not needing to because her determined expression was more than enough.

I looked back at the island.  “Does it have a name?”