Across Time Part 30

you got when you came here."

Jessie grinned broadly. "Thank you, Tanner. I'm glad you think so because you're good people, too. You just have to believe that no matter what anybody else says."

"Who I believe, is Ceara, and she said you might need some help getting out of here in order to-how did she put it? Get the job done?

Does that sound about right?"

Hope filled Jessie's chest. "You're here to bust me out?"

He nodded. "I'm here to help you do whatever it is that has Ceara's panties in a wad. She's been like a panther in a cage pacing back and forth. The least I can do is see if I can help you guys. You need a ride somewhere, I've got wheels."

"But my parents would kill me if they knew I left."

"Ceara told me to tell you to let her worry about them. You game to get out of here or not?"

Grabbing her jacket, Jessie raced for the door. "Let's go."

Cate felt the quiet desperation in the air as they made their way to the Chieftain. She felt it from the trees, from the animals and from the birds taking flight. The air was filled with bad energy; like the kind one feels just before lightning strikes or the earth trembles. The world knew what was coming and it was sad for it.

"Can you feel it?" Cate whispered when her horse sidled up to Maeve's.

"Aye. It is thick and pervasive. There is so very little time. The land is preparing to drink in the blood that will be spilt from here to the coast."

"They mean to take the whole of the island."

Maeve nodded. "The Romans have always believed in conquests and expansion. We are merely another bauble for Rome's collection."

"What of Eire? Shall they conquer that as well?"

Maeve shook her head. "I have seen nothing of a Roman invasion of the islands to the west, but that does not mean it is not so. And you?

Have you seen anything?"

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Cate shook her head. "Nothing of the sort. Rome does not land on the emerald isle during our lifetime."

"Let us hope that is a long life, my love."

Cate nodded. "Would that we could see that as well. You know, I will never understand how a culture so rich with artisans and philosophers could so crudely demean those they conquer. They do not understand our way of life."

"Nor do they wish to. To them, we are the barbarians, uncultured, unworthy to lead ourselves."

"But Maeve, so much of what they do is unnatural."

"Indeed."

"Can it truly be that they will be the ones to dominate the world?"

Maeve reached over and patted Cate's leg. "Perhaps you can have that answer tonight."

"Tonight? I cannot make it back to Fennel this eve."

"Nor shall you try. Lachlan and I shall put you in another deep sleep. From there, you must reach Jessie and learn what the Romans are going to do. Perhaps then, you can discover what becomes of such a people."

"It has never occurred to me to ask."

"Because you are a kind and gentle soul. You would never use Jessie or her information for personal gain. It is the reason the G.o.ddess has given you the ability to go and return from the portal. You are more than worthy."

Cate had to look away. Maeve could not be more wrong. Oh yes, preventing the Druid population from being annihilated was the original reason for sending her through, but saving Maeve's life was her primary concern. It was for personal gain, and there was no way around that. Perhaps Blodwin might know. Maybe the G.o.ddess was well-aware of her true intentions and was allowing her to proceed anyway.

They rode for quite awhile without speaking, and Cate sat astride her mount wondering about Jessie and the life she was leading so incredibly far away. Was she happy? Did she have goals and desires?

Was she loved? There were so many things Cate wanted to know about the young woman she would become, yet there was so little time to *

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devote to those matters.

She was beginning to understand the inner workings of the sight, and how the portals contributed to the strength of it. She was experiencing the eternality of the soul and seeing firsthand that it does not die, but learns its lessons and moves on to another life in another time. What lesson, Cate mused, could she learn in this life that would help her soul have a better, happier life in the next world? The Silures believed in the transmigration of souls to such a degree that it enabled them to live life more fully than so many of the other peoples the Romans had conquered. Silurian warriors, like most of the Celts, were not afraid to die, not afraid to whoop and holler and go berserk during battle because they understood that death, like life, was only temporary. This, ultimately, was what the Roman emperors had always been most afraid of. How can you rule a people who despise you if they do not, in fact, fear you as well? Roman domination resulted because people feared them, feared their slavery, their destructiveness. But the Celts felt no such fear of the Romans or anyone else. They were a proud and fearless society that felt pity for the Roman people who allowed the elite to rule them with such an iron fist. It would not be so easy to wrestle from the Celtic people their homes, their religion, their way of life.

That was going to be a very difficult fight, Cate knew. She needed no sight to know that thousands from both sides would give their lives in battle. Thus far, no one had been able to stop Rome, but that didn't keep the Druids from doing everything in their power to keep their people's culture intact. They would do everything they could to preserve the memory, traditions and rituals of a people too proud to surrender and too brave to quit.

Otherwise, what good were the Druids to their people?

Closing her eyes, Cate sighed. How odd that the fate of her kind rested on the shoulders of a young woman two thousand years away.

How much odder was it, still, that Cate believed in her.

When Jessie got to the car, she was surprised and delighted to find Ceara sitting in the pa.s.senger seat.

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"I have been worried half to death," Ceara said, taking out a handkerchief and wiping her eyes. "When I hadn't heard anything-"

"We don't have the Internet here, and the phone lines are sporadic at best. I can't get to the place-" Jessie said, cutting her eyes over to Tanner. She didn't want to sound like a complete loon in front of him.

"Tanner can be trusted, my dear. He is well-aware of what we're about."

Tanner slowed as they came to a light. "I'm just the driver today, Jess, but if you ever needed anything else-"

Jessie's mouth was hanging open. "Wait. You two are friends?"

Ceara chuckled. "Good friends, actually, though, to make Tanner's life easier, we don't generally let it get around. He has it tough enough as it is, and I-well-you know what the folks say about me."

"People have told me about your parents asking around. Your dad thinks I'm some kind of hoodlum."

"They came here to start fresh and they don't feel as if I have because of some of the choices I've made. The truth is, I don't think they'd be happy if I hung out with nuns." Jessie glanced out the window. "Where are we going, anyway?"

Tanner shook his head and tossed a quick glance over to Ceara.

"Ceara wants to go to the U of O and talk to her professor friend and I have to drop something off for my dad."

"What about my parents?"

"They've gone to pick up your brother. Do not worry about them.

What we have to do is far more important. Don't you worry, though.

The G.o.ddess is with us."

An hour and a half later, they pulled up to a large brick building in the center of town.

"I'll be back in about an hour," Tanner said, pulling into a parking s.p.a.ce. As Jessie and Ceara got out, Tanner grabbed Jessie's wrist and gently pulled her back into the car. "I just wanted you to know-for your own peace of mind-that I haven't done drugs in over a year. I'm clean and I plan on staying that way."

Jessie reached up and laid her palm on his cheek. It was bristly and *

202 *203.

rough from his unshaven face, and she realized, for the first time, what a man he really was. "Tanner, that doesn't matter to me."

"It does to me, Jess. I'd hate to think that being friends with me would cause you so much pain. I just wanted you to know. I guess-"

"That you're worth it?" Without stopping to think about it, Jessie leaned over and kissed him softly on the cheek. "I think you're wonderful. Thank you for being my friend."

A deep blush rose to his temples. "h.e.l.l, Jess, that's easy."

"The mutual admiration society needs to come to a close, kids. We have things to do." Ceara squinted at a group of young women playing hackey-sack in the quad. "Professor Rosenbaum is just the man to help us find out what we need to know as quickly as possible."

"You called him for help?" Jessie started through the parking lot.

"Of course, dear. After all, it's been a few days since you've made contact with Cate."

"Um-not quite." Jessie explained about her memory and how Cate had managed to get into her dream. The entire time she spoke, Ceara stood there, wide-eyed, nodding slowly, as if in a trance. "But I don't know what happened before Cate got in. She said something about having a hard time reaching me because I was in a dark and evil place. Does that make any sense to you?"

Ceara nodded. "Ofttimes, when the body is imprisoned or constrained, the soul's power is somewhat diminished. It is one of the phenomena of the concentration camps that psychologists spent years researching. They wanted to know why some people who appeared physically stronger than others died long before the physically weaker survivors. They have always searched for a way to measure one's emotional strength. Of course, there is no known way to gauge the strength of the human spirit, but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that once your spirit quits, your body is soon to follow regardless of how strong it is."

"What you're saying is that Cate could feel my spirit being broken?"

"Not broken. You're too strong for that. But she may have known you were not okay. Your parents' lack of trust has created a prison *

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within you. I imagine that's what Cate means. We must be moving, my dear. Professor Rosenbaum is a busy man."

"What does he do?"

"His field is ancient civilizations. I asked him to abbreviate his normal lecture about what transpired in England and Wales in sixty- one AD. I want you just to sit there and listen until he is finished and then you can ask questions."

"Gotcha."

"He is doing this as a favor to me, so please pay close attention. He abhors dull-witted people and simpletons who cannot focus."

"I'm all over it."

"Good. I have pulled tons off the Internet that should be able to fill in any information you miss today, but you need a crash course since time is of the essence."

Jessie nodded and inhaled the musky scent of the building. It was a familiar scent from somewhere in her past, and she smiled to herself, knowing it was a memory she had just experienced. She didn't know from what era or what part of the world, but it was familiar nonetheless.

The aroma of old leather books beckoned her like a magnet drawing metal slivers; it was a force she could not ignore.

"When we're done here, Ceara, would you mind if we dropped by the admissions office?"

"Of course I wouldn't mind, but whatever for?"

Jessie looked around at the dark oak doors and the bookshelves filled with knowledge she had never cared to know, and said, "Because I belong here. I'm going to apply."

Ceara clapped her hands together. "What a wonderful idea! What will you major in, my dear?"

Jessie grinned as Professor Rosenbaum's office door opened. "What else? History."

The Silures' Chieftain was a large block of a man with big barrel arms and logs for legs. His reddish hair met a beard that was beginning to streak with gray. On his left thigh he sported a scar the length of *

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Cate's forearm, and his right bicep looked as if a large animal had taken a bite out of it. He was, it was rumored, a warrior who had cheated death nearly a dozen times, and by the looks of his body, Cate believed it.

Sitting in front of a fire and a makeshift camp, the Chieftain beckoned them to come forward. "I understand you had a bit of trouble along the way. I am pleased to see you are well."

Lachlan nodded. "Fortunately for me, sir, the women were more than capable of felling the eight soldiers who had captured us."

The Chieftain laughed at this. "I do so love tales of Celtic female warriors destroying the enemy. Are these they?" The large man peered through the dark at Cate and Maeve. "Maeve, is that you? Come forward, la.s.s. Are you the tigress who saved our head priest?"

Maeve shook her head. "Cate McEwen is the one who saved us, sir."

"McEwen, ah yes, your father was a great man cut down in the prime of his life. You have your father's fighting skills then. I honor thee." The Chieftain bowed low to Cate. "You must be very brave, little one."

Cate bowed her head and backed away to allow Lachlan and Maeve to conduct this matter. "I am merely one of us trying to save as many lives as we can."

"Indeed. What say you, Lachlan?" The Chieftain motioned his man to retrieve three goblets of wine and waited for Lachlan and Maeve to have a sip before answering.

"The Silures' Druids have chosen to stand fast and fight."

The Chieftain smiled briefly. "I expected as much. Do you believe it best to fight here in the highlands or further west? There are stories that the Romans are moving northwest. I do not want to move on hearsay.