Page 147 of Boudicca

My gaze returned to the eastern horizon and I blinked. Wiped my eyes with my cloak and blinked again. Was it Andraste returned?

No.

It was a figure on a horse racing toward me. I realized two things at once. The horse was too large to be a garron, and it seemed familiar.

It could not be. I was delirious with pain, and as I thought it another contraction flooded me, and this time I wanted to push. I had to push.

“No!” I sobbed, fighting against the overwhelming need. “Not here!” I was struggling to stand again when the sound of the horse’s pounding hooves returned my gaze to it.

I did know the horse. I couldn’t, but I did. The big gray stallion slid to a halt just feet from where I slumped against Andraste’s rock ashis rider dropped from his back and closed the small space between us—and then I was in her embrace.

“Rhan!” My hands touched her face, her arms, her hands. She was there, and even though she had a pink scar that ran from her cheekbone down to her neck, she was alive and whole.

“My beloved! How are you—”

Another contraction took control of my body. “The babe comes.” I managed to rasp the words before I could do nothing but bear down and pant for breath.

“I’m here. I’m here.” Rhan shifted my body so that my back was pressed against the goddess’s rock for support again. She pulled up the skirts of my dress and knelt between my legs. “I can see the head! The babe’s hair is red like yours! Push, Boudicca!”

I braced myself against the rock, stared down at my best friend, my love, and pushed. In a rush of wet, the babe was born, sliding into Rhan’s hands as if they were what she had been waiting for.

“A girl! Maldwyn was right.” Rhan’s voice trembled with joy. “You and he have a daughter!”

“Arianell.” I spoke her name like a prayer as Rhan placed her on my chest. “Her name is Arianell.”

A shadow fell on us. Rhan glanced up and her face lit with wonder. “Look!”

My gaze lifted. Circling us, ravens darkened the sky, too many to count. As we watched them, Rhan took me and Arianell in her arms and held us close, and through the ravens’ calling voices I heard my goddess speak.

“In blessed Arianell my Victory lives on...”