Together

As they ran the warrior shouted to the young woman, "Stay on the main path and pray for nightfall. Don’t enter the forest! We don’t want to be trapped by dense undergrowth. If we can avoid capture until dusk, we can escape in the dark."

So, Gyptis ran as she had never ran before, pack bumping up and down, feet striking blow after blow on the ground. She could hear Cathbar’s heavy breathing behind her, and the baying of the Romans in the distance. She was fit, you had to be with the life that she led, but she had never had to run so fast before. After sometime her legs began to tire, so she began a vitality spell. However, there was no grove or pool that she could sense and thus draw power from so the spell fizzled and died into nothing. This country was not hers and the locations of the shrines unknown.

With lungs aching with the strain, arms pumping at her sides and now hearing nothing but the rasping of her breath and the sound of her feet on the hard soil, the young woman raced on. Twice, she nearly tripped over stones that materialized in her path and once she ducked just in time to avoid a low branch. Another spell was attempted and another spell failed. She was now on her last reserves of energy so she prayed. "O, Lugh, please save your people. Hasten the fall of night so that they may escape from their enemies."

But, although the shadows under her feet lengthened, dusk did not come.

By now the path was running close to the sea with sheer cliffs on one side and the forest, dark and unwelcoming on the other. At first the ground was relatively flat, gradually undulating up and down as the coastline rose and fell. Then, suddenly, it began a steep climb.

The sharp change in direction was too much for the young woman. As she started to struggle up the slope her feet slipped from under her and she crashed to the ground, the young warrior nearly colliding her as she did so. Then, although he must have been as exhausted as she was, he picked her up and placed her on her feet. For a moment they stood there looking at one another, the sound of their panting filling their ears. Then Gyptis turned to continue back up the slope, but the effort was too great and she collapsed by the side of the path.

"It is no use, Cathbar. I must rest. I tried some vitality spells, but they haven’t worked. I am sorry, my love, I just can’t go on."

As she sat there, he stared into her blue eyes and said, "Then I will make a stand here and fight. The omens are good, but still, say a prayer for me."

From somewhere she found the energy to stagger to her feet and fling her arms around him and whisper, "Yes, I will for the gods will keep us free." Then, she collapsed to the ground again.

By now the soldiers were so close that they could hear the sound of the boot nails striking the path. The warrior turned to face them and drew out his sword.

"There is so little magic power here that this may be my last fight. If so then I swear that they won’t take me alive. Flee whilst you can and if the gods are willing then I will rejoin you." The he bounded down the slope in the direction of the astonished Romans.