Page 108 of Queen of the Hollow Hills

“The chieftain and I were just asking the same. We don’t exactly?—”

“No, I mean… There is a place in Capri near the old village where we have the same symbols. Even the same small cups.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, it’s the same. The circles. The divots. I don’t remember exactly how it looked, but it was the same. We children were forbidden to go there, so naturally my brothers and I went as often as we could. The last time we got caught… My flesh remembers well. They are the same.”

“Here, as on your island?” Aedan said.

Fabius nodded. “Isn’t that odd?”

“Very, my friend.”

The wind blew hard once more, the gust making all of us sway and hurry to brace our footing. When it did so, I heard the sound of a flute on the wind. The strange sound seemed to echo from the forest beyond us. And then, I heard the soft voice of a woman singing.

“Faerie things,” Conall said with a frown. “Perhaps we should go, my queen.”

I turned to Aedan. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

He nodded, his eyes flicking to my chest once more. “Whatdoesit mean?”

I shook my head. “I truly do not know, but all I can say is that this land and myself are connected.”

“You need no mark on your chest to tell you that,” Aedan said with a chuckle.

“Indeed, a gemstone crown would have been an equally effective reminder, and far prettier.”

“Oh, trust me, that patch of white flesh is very pretty.”

“Aedan,” I said with a laugh.

Again the wind blew, and this time, I felt like it was pushing me away from the rocks toward the horses. And with it, once more, the voice. But this time, I caught the lilt of the sound. The singer’s tone was melancholy.

“Look,” Fabius said, gesturing to the forest.

Aedan and I joined him.

Following Fabius’s gaze, we looked across the field to the forest line. There, at the edge of the woods, I spotted her. Weaving between the trees was a red-haired woman. I could hear her sorrowful lament on the wind.

And then…I saw her green cloak.

“We need to go,” I said, then turned toward the horses.

Aedan and Fabius followed behind me.

“Cartimandua. What is it?” Aedan asked.

“The caoineag.”

Despite my worries,when we returned to Isurium Brigantum, there was no news from the Parisii.

Conall checked with the others for news, but came back shaking his head. “There is nothing, my queen.”

“Our crows?” I asked.

“No movement in the Parisii capital. Ruith has not called for his chieftains nor sent riders elsewhere.”

I frowned. A feeling of dread had settled in my heart and would not let go.

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