Free The Beauty of Destruction by Gavin G. Smith Page A

‘Everything I … we sought to build has been snatched away. I am not like either of you now. I am no longer beautiful …’
    ‘What matters that?’ Britha asked. ‘That is not what we are about.’
    Tangwen barely realised that her hand had covered where the acid scar on her face had been before the drinking of Britha’s blood had healed it.
    Anharad fixed Britha with a long, hard look.
    ‘Easy enough for you to say,’ she told the dryw , who looked genuinely confused. ‘By all accounts you can still catch the eye of a rhi yourself.’ Britha opened her mouth to retort. ‘Peace, please. I have been strong enough. I do not have that many winters left. I would live them out in as much comfort as possible and see Mabon well placed. I do not think Bladud will be a tyrant, I will add my word to his with the Trinovantes but in the end it will be their choice.’
    ‘It is dangerous,’ Britha started cautiously. ‘For a woman of—’
    ‘For a woman who has seen as many winters as I have to have children?’ Anharad laughed. ‘My days of giving birth have passed long since. He has another wife in the north who has provided him with children. He may have other wives if he wishes, lovers; it makes little difference to me as long as I have primacy.’
    Something about this whole conversation bothered Tangwen. As a warrior among her people she counted as much as any other warrior. She did not like the way Bladud seemed to be the important one in the marriage. She could see that Britha looked uneasy as well.
    ‘His first wife will not like this,’ Britha said.
    Anharad shrugged. ‘By all accounts she is young, pretty and docile. Who knows? Maybe I will teach her to respect herself, but if she troubles me I know a number of recipes that are difficult to trace. I’m too old to call her out with sword and shield, I think.’
    Tangwen was appalled but Britha just smiled and looked down.
    ‘But I tell you this much.’ Anharad turned to stare into the fire. ‘I will see the Lochlannach, Bress and this Crom Dhubh dead first.’ Her spit arced into the fire and sizzled.
    Tangwen swallowed.
    Britha nodded. ‘I go to seek the Horned God,’ the dryw said.
    ‘Are you sure you can fit another child in your belly?’ Tangwen asked and both she and Anharad laughed.
    ‘You go too far, little snake!’ Britha said, unable to keep the smile from her face as she left the fire and walked into the woods.
     

    Britha lifted her robes and squatted. She did not feel the cold as she once had but the draft on her hindquarters was still an unpleasant experience. Steam rose from the snow that had settled as she made water.
    ‘So your friend would see me dead?’
    Britha actually cried out as she stood bolt upright, looking around frantically for her spear. She had left it leaning against a nearby tree. She found it and grabbed the weapon as Bress stepped into the faint moonlight that filtered through the branches.
    ‘Britha?’ Tangwen called from the fire.
    The dryw could see the warm glow of the flames through the bare wood. They were supposed to have been left alone but since Anharad was with them Britha knew that the copse of woods where they performed their pre-wedding vigil was surrounded by Brigante and Trinovantes warriors. Of course they would not be difficult for Bress to slip past.
    ‘I’m fine,’ Britha called back to Tangwen. ‘I slipped.’ She wasn’t sure why she lied. Her spear was levelled at Bress. The last time she had seen him she had run him through with the weapon. Even so, even though she had helped him kill Fachtna, even though he had denied her the rod that she needed to get back to the Ubh Blaosc, she could not deny how he made her feel.
    ‘It is not right—’ Britha began.
    ‘Really? Another lecture on how I should behave? Are you sure you are in a position to sit in judgement?’
    ‘Not on all, but even a slave is in a position to sit in judgement of you!’ Britha snapped, trying to ignore how