would murder his own stepsons so they could not inherit from him, and who would murder his cousin’s family to gain lands, is not a man who would help us in our hour of need. Indeed I suspect he would kill us too if he could. The gold he promised us is in a hiding place beneath the statue of Juno in the alcove. Get it, and let us be gone. I do not trust that Roman scum to give us several days’ lead. He’ll be after us by tomorrow. We’ll fool him, though. We’ll not take passage for Gaul, but Ireland. They’ll not suspect we’ve gone in that direction.”
Brenna lay quietly, absorbing his words. She prayed they would not realize she was still alive. When they had gone, she would somehow escape to warn Cailin of the carnage. She stifled a groan, almost biting through her lip with the effort. Her head hurt fearfully. She suspected she had lost a great deal of blood, but if the gods would just grant her the power to remain alive long enough to avenge Kyna and the rest of her family, she would never again ask them for anything.
Brenna smelled the smoke of the burning bed and the gauze window hangings. Heard footsteps moving away from her. Saw the two pairs of boots as the murderers went out the door, leaving it ajar in their haste. She did not move. She needed to be certain that the two men had gone.
Soon the bedchamber began to fill with thick smoke. Gasping, her lungs burning with the acrid smell, Brenna realized that she could no longer lie where she was. Slowly, painfully, her head spinning dizzily, she crawled toward the open door and out into the atrium. There was no furniture to burn here as in the other rooms. Although the atrium was filling quickly with thick, black smoke, she knew her way to the door. Nausea almost overwhelmed her, and using a pillar for balance, she retched, racked by dry spasms, but she pulled herself to her feet. With an iron will Brenna stumbled across the atrium to the main entrance of the house. Pulling on the door handle, she staggered out into the cool, damp night air and collapsed several feet from the villa.
There was no one in sight. The assailants had gone. Brenna gulped in the clean air, noisily cleansing her lungs of the foul-smelling smoke. Above her a full moon beamed down placidly on the scene of the slaughter. She had to find Cailin!
Instead, Cailin found her. She came running down the lane, her long hair flying, but seeing her grandmother on the ground, the girl stopped and knelt down.
“Grandmother! The house is on fire! What has happened? Where are Mother and Father? My brothers?” She grasped the older woman by her arms, pulling her up. Brenna groaned. “Ohh! You are hurt, Grandmother! Why is there nobody to help? Why are the slaves not back from their celebrations?”
“Come away, my child! We must get away from the villa! We are in mortal danger! Help me! Hurry!” Brenna told her.
“The family?” Cailin repeated, already knowing in her heart the answer her grandmother would give.
“Dead. All of them. Come now, and help me. We are not safe here, Cailin. You must believe me, my precious one,” Brenna said, sobbing.
“Why can’t we wait for the slaves to return? We must inform the authorities,” Cailin said desperately.
Brenna looked into her granddaughter’s face. “I have no time to explain this to you now. You must trust me if you wish to live a long life. Come now, and help me. I am weak from loss of blood, and we have a ways to go before we are safe.”
Cailin felt frightened. “Where are we going, Grandmother?”
“There is only one place we can go, my child. To the Dobunni. To your grandfather, Berikos. Only he can keep us safe from this evil.” Grasping her granddaughter’s arm, Brenna began to walk. “ ‘Tis but a few miles, although you did not know that, did you? Your whole life you have lived but a few miles from Berikos, and you did not know it.” Then Brenna fell silent, realizing that she needed her strength if she was to get them to their destination alive. Berikos must know what had happened. Then, if the gods willed it, she would die. But Berikos must know.
“I do not know the way,” Cailin whimpered. “Can you show me the way, Grandmother?”