“Perhaps,” I said slowly, “though I could not order such a thing. My powers only extend to mortal Britain. Arawn would have to decide whether he would grant your request.”
“Arawn?”
“Lord of the Afterworld. King of Annwn,” I said, looking her up and down with all the immortal scorn I could muster. “Don’t you know anything?”
She bridled at that.
“You shouldn’t speak to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m some half-witted peasant. I’m not.”
“Really?” I asked. “You’re doing an excellent impression of one so far. Who are you, then?”
She let go of me and straightened up.
“I am Beliscena of the Iceni, daughter of Oak. This is my younger sister, Catrisca. You may call me Princess Belis, or yourhighness.” She sounded surer of herself here and it took a great effort not to laugh at her petty little list of titles.
“I shall do no such thing. All mortals are alike to me, and I’m not interested in whichever insignificant names you’ve come up with. Iceni, hmm? Then your mother over there was… the one they called the Firebrand herself?” I paused. “Well, no matter, I must be off.”
“Off where?” Belis asked. I moved back and brushed my tunic down.
“To Annwn, not that it is any concern of yours. I need to go and undo your mistake, regain my powers, before every lost soul on the island becomes some hideous ghoul without my guidance to send them home. I don’t do this sort of work for fun, you know, nor out of the kindness of my heart. There are enough foul spirits lurking in Britain without human ghosts joining them.”
Belis brightened.
“Well, that’s perfect. It seems we have a common goal. You need to go to Annwn to get your powers back. I need to rescue Cati’s soul. We should go together.”
“Absolutely not,” I said immediately. “You will slow me down. Not to mention every legionary in the south will be hunting you. It’s a truly terrible plan. Listen to me: your sister is functionally dead. Let her go and head north. Seek shelter in the clans of the Highlands. The Romans will take a while to reach that far. Your family must have allies there, or at least those who would ally with their enemy’s enemy.”
Belis set her chin.
“I order you to assist me. I am Princess of the Iceni, you must obey me!”
I snorted. “Good luck with that, Princess. I might be stuck in this ridiculous human body for now but I’m under no illusions about the inherent nobility of your kind. Romans, Britons, you’re all the same to me. Mayflies fighting over dog scraps while you breed like rabbits.” I paused, having confused my metaphors. “What I mean is that you are barely a step above animals. Was that clear?”
Belis’s shoulders slumped and she glanced back at her sister. She suddenly looked very tired, as if all the fire and fury that had sustained her had guttered out.
“Please, Mallt. I cannot abandon my sister. She is the only family I have left. It is my fault she’s like this, my failure. I will risk anything to retrieve her soul.” She looked at me again.
“Besides, I won’t slow you down. I’m fast and strong and I have a little magic. I can protect us. I’ve trained as a warrior almost my entire life. You probably don’t even have any money. I have. I can buy us supplies.”
I paused at that. I had never needed money before, trading in kind with the goblin pedlars whenever our paths crossed. It was a ridiculous notion that she had. I would be very surprised if Arawn let one of his charges go. He took his work seriously and Belis would have a difficult case to make. Then again, I didn’t need her to succeed, only for her to get me to Annwn. I had no idea if the human shape I had assumed really was mortal, if it could be damaged or killed, taking me with it. The idea of dying was not frightening to me; I had spent too much of my life helping others through it to fear it now. I wasn’t done with my life, though. I wanted more, greedy as it might be for an undying goddess to say such a thing.
“Are you sure you can protect me?” I asked appraisingly. “You didn’t do a very effective job with your sister.”
Belis visibly bit back a reply, grinding her teeth. After a moment she spoke. “I don’t see anyone else offering to help you.”
“Fine,” I said. “You can come with me to Annwn. If you get me there unharmed I’ll speak to Arawn for you, though I doubt I can persuade him of anything he doesn’t want to do.”
Belis grinned.
“Really? Oh, Mallt, I promise you won’t regret this.”
“I hope that I won’t. Now, collect your things. We have a long way to go and I’d rather not linger this close to your battlefield for any longer than we have to.”
She hurried to her sister’s side.
