Chapter 1

Cate and Maeve ran through the underbrush beneath the great oaks, barely keeping ahead of the growling beast of a Roman soldier who had been hunting them. Cate could tell by the sounds of his crashing and cursing that he was slowing down. They always slowed down.

The Roman soldiers knew only how to destroy the Druids' precious groves, not how to manage their way through them. Killing and destroying had always been the Roman way--the antithesis of how the Druids lived.

Even as the forest parted to help them escape death at the end of the Roman's sword, Cate knew there was only one way to insure their safety.

"Keep running!" She yelled to Maeve, who ran only a few feet behind her.

"I cannot."

Cate slowed and whirled around. "You must!"

"Catie," Maeve panted. "My legs...no longer...respond to my will. You must...go on... without me."

Cate shook her head. That was the most ludicrous idea she had ever heard.

Killing was against their belief; dying at the hands of the barbaric soldiers did not sit well on Cate's young shoulders, either, but then, neither did dying at the hands of these barbarians.

"Catie, no."

Cate withdrew the small dagger her brother had given to her before he died.

"Do not look, then, Maeve." When the soldier was almost directly in front of them, a mist arose, and Cate felt Maeve yank at her arm.

"Come," Maeve ordered, and pulled Cate through the mist. "He can no longer see us."

Cate hesitated a moment before slipping the dagger back into her belt. "We allow him to

live so he can return to kill the others?"

Maeve shook her head. "We allow him to live until he missteps into a bog and allow the Goddess to take care of him." Even as Maeve spoke, the soldier roared out for someone to help him. "Come. It may not yet be too late."