Taking one last look, he began to move again. He’d counted four harpies when they’d neared the clearing, each positioned vaguely at the noon, three, six, and nine points to act as sentries. The first was left alive for Diana, but he would be nearing the second soon. It took him little time to find it, leaning against a boulder, dead asleep.
He didn’t bother to wake the thing—just leaned down, slit its throat, and continued on. He had to reach the boy, but first, he needed to take care of the two other sentries.
The ghostly sound of an owl broke the silence of the night. He crept around the perimeter toward the third and fourth sentries, careful to stay quiet but not needing the charm to help him sneak up on them. It was nothing to slit their throats from behind. He laid them gently on the ground so that their crashing bodies wouldn’t alert Paulinus.
He raced on silent feet back toward the boy and Diana’s friend, both of whom sat against trees. Quickly, quietly, he slipped his hand over the boy’s mouth and dragged him behind the trunk of the oak and out of sight of Vivienne, whom he didn’t want to startle into screaming. His hand muffled the boy’s shout and he quickly gagged him with a bit of cloth he’d brought along, suppressing a shudder at the tingling sensation he felt wherever he touched the boy’s skin.
There was something not right about touching someone else’s soul. He wrapped the Maoin straps around the boy’s wrists to hold him steady. They hadn’t been sure if regular materials could hold a soul captive, but the straps seemed to be working.
The boy couldn’t see what was abducting him and fear had him struggling harder to get away from the unknown threat. But he was small for his age and Cadan had no trouble holding on to him.
“Settle down, lad,” he whispered. “You’re no’ gettin’ away.”
He quickly tied the boy’s ankles and placed him at the roots of the towering dead oak that rose above them. They were just behind the first line of trees and couldn’t be seen by anyone inside the circle.
Paulinus hadn’t noticed his son’s disappearance yet, and Cadan glanced down to meet the boy’s frightened eyes, which were searching blindly in his general direction. He was pale and blond, with dirt marring his translucent skin. Not a full Roman. He might even be part Celt. The thought of the union between the bastard Roman general and a Celtic woman made him grimace. But that wasn’t the boy’s fault.
He almost offered words of assurance, but since the boy couldn’t see him and he didn’t know what to say, he turned back toward the circle and peered out between the trees, searching for Diana.
There. She stepped toward the harpy he’d left alive, then reached up to remove her charm. With one last glance at the boy to make sure he was gagged and secure, he removed his invisibility charm, crept up behind Vivienne and placed a hand over her mouth.
“I’m Cadan. I’ve come with Diana to save you.”
She jerked, then nodded against his hand.
“I’m going to undo the ropes around your wrists and ankles. Follow me and stay very close. And doona make a sound.” She’d need to be near him when they made their escape.
She nodded again and he unbound her wrists and feet. He reached out for her hand, shuddered at the feel of her, and helped her rise.
“Take this.” He slipped a long dagger into her hand, hoping to hell she wouldn’t have to use it.
She followed him as he stepped a few feet forward so that he would have an unobstructed shot into the clearing.
He could hear the snapping of twigs and rustling leaves as the harpy caught sight of Diana and moved toward her. His heart stuttered when the harpy grabbed hold of her, then pushed her ahead of it into the clearing. Cadan fought the urge to shoot it in the head.
He gripped the bow tighter, nearly splitting the wood before he could get himself under control. Everything is fine.
But it wasn’t. Not inside his chest. It was a battle just to keep his instincts from rising to the fore. He could shoot the demon, shoot Paulinus, and then he could get Diana out of here safely.
Nay. Only she could kill Paulinus, and it had to be her way. She’d never forgive him otherwise.
She struggled as the harpy pushed her into the clearing, putting on a good show. Paulinus looked up as the demon came to a halt twenty feet from them.
“Well, well, Ignobel, what have you here?” His voice was excited, slightly crazed, and Cadan hated the fact that he couldn’t see his expression. He could see Diana’s, though, and hers had calmed considerably.
“It is I, Paulinus.” Her voice was strong and sure. “Boudica.”
But it wasn’t Boudica. He could see Diana shining through her eyes. But Paulinus couldn’t tell that she was playing on his anger, and it was likely he didn’t care.
“Yes,” he hissed, “I’ve been waiting for you. It’s about time they caught you. Thought you could come to me on your own terms? Didn’t work so well the last time, did it?” He snapped closed the book that he had been holding and stalked around the altar toward Diana and the harpy holding her.
Cadan’s muscles tensed with the restraint it took not to throw the bow aside and charge him.
Not just to protect Boudica, but to avenge his family. It had been two thousand years since he’d looked upon the man who had ordered the destruction of his village that had resulted in their deaths. This man had changed the course of his life, both for ill and for good.
He couldn’t go back and save their lives, he couldn’t rationalize their deaths as being for a greater cause, but the disastrous results of the Roman incursion into Britain had led him to Boudica.
And in the end, even more important, to Diana.