Breth loved being here in the Sacred Grove, but he didn’t like these meetings with all the chieftains. There was no one clear leader, and that was a problem. No one could indicate it was anyone’s turn to speak, so everyone spoke at once. It was maddening.

On Breth’s right, Uradech was speaking the loudest.

“We should hear him out. They say he’s an amazing fighter and leader. He could unite us all against the invaders.”

Four other chieftains called out their agreement.

“We should!”

“Aye!”

“We’d be stronger together!”

“Let’s bring the battle to the invaders!”

On Breth’s left, Father spoke calmly to Mother, who hung on his every word, nodding in agreement.

“Our clan must remain separate and able to protect ourselves as we see fit. If we join with all the rest of the clans under one leader, how is he going to listen to each and every one of us? He can’t. And he’ll have so much power, his head will swell. He’ll become selfish, even if he didn’t start that way.“

Breth could see both points of view.

Uradech’s voice was growing heated.

“Our voices won’t matter one bit when the invaders run the lucky among us into the ground and make the rest their slaves. They already have too many of us. If we unite, we can get our people back and prevent more from being taken.”

Father’d had enough. It was evident by the set of his jaw and the clenching of his fists.

Breth looked over to Mother, beseeching her to use her calming touch and prevent Father from dividing the people even more.

But Mother gave Breth her ‘quit it’ look.

That was when Breth knew. No matter what they said at this meeting, trouble was coming.

Trying to help Father maintain his dignity as a chieftain who didn’t lose control of himself, Breth stood up to answer Uradech himself.

But that was the wrong thing to do.

Father put his hand on Breth’s shoulder and pulled him down, rising up himself.

Mother gave Breth a reproachful look that he just knew was about him cavorting with Jaelle and spurning Morna, as much as if not more than about what had just happened. She took her husband’s hand, supporting him.

Father pulled mother up to stand beside him.

All this had taken but a moment, and Uradech was still speaking.

Father butted in very forcefully, with all the authority he had in his considerable frame.

“If this sort of unification is forced on my clan, we will leave and become our own people. Each one of us is the only thing in this life. Other people are there for company and for children to further the people, but we each must have a say over our own life, or how are we alive? We are not meant to be tools for someone else to use as he sees fit. Each man and each woman is a life unto his or her own, and all of our lives must be respected always.”

Uradech plainly didn’t appreciate being interrupted, because all the while, he was yelling to be heard over Father.

“Individual personhood is not something we can consider when the invaders threaten to overrun and annihilate us! People can explore and discover and celebrate their lives in times of peace. In times of war, we all must pull together. The threat is so large that if we don’t, there won’t be any of us left to celebrate our individual lives…”

Father and Uradech weren’t the only ones yelling. Almost everyone was talking at once. Only Breth and a few others were listening.

Even if I jump up and shout for them all to be still, I don’t think they will. There must be some way…

Breth hated feeling so helpless. He was usually able to command attention, but with all these chiefs in the room no one could. So he listened. For a long time into the night, he hoped to hear something of use, but no such fortune came. There were definitely two separate camps, and it didn’t appear the two could be reconciled.

Which camp should I join?

Stupid question.

No matter what I believe, I’ll stay with Father, my strongest tie. And he does have a point. Each of us does have to live our life on our own first and foremost―

All the talking stopped and everyone’s head turned toward the path leading up from the river, where a murmur started, making its way slowly over to Breth’s side of the grove.

“Drest is coming.”

“He’s so small.”

“What kind of sword is that?”

“He’ll unite us.”

“Where did he come from?”

“He’s so brown and foreign looking.”

“Look how many fighters he has with him.”

Father’s voice boomed in a whisper next to Breth in response to the latest murmur.

“I never thought I’d see any of those never-do-wells again.”

“Me neither.”

“Nay.”

As Drest came up the path from the river, he greeted a few of the chieftains by name and shook forearms with them.

Some turned away from his greeting.

Drest moved to the natural focus spot in the sacred Grove, the place where the Druids usually stood to draw woad clay decorations on the fighters before battle. He stood there and waited while everyone else sat down again, making him not seem so small.

The sword the small brown man carried was… indescribable. Of what sort of metal had it even been made? It looked too heavy for him.

Seeing everyone staring at it, he took it out and made some unusual moves with it that not even Jaelle used — and clearly the sword was not too heavy for him. Again, what was it made of?

And then Drest smiled. It was the smile of someone who knows a secret that is giving him power.

My fighters and I are fighting the fight that you all should be fighting. We’re taking it to the Romans. If you join us and we work hard enough, we can keep the Romans out of this area. The area south of that new wall is lost, but the area north of the wall can all be one nation. For right now, you have a choice. You can choose to join with me and receive training in how we fight—“

Uradech called out.

“Will we get weapons like yours?”

Drest regarded Uradech, weighing the man.

“No. I’m sorry I cannot produce any more like it. This is the only one. But the leader of the people should be distinguishable. The people need to have a clear leader to turn to, someone who makes decisions for all, or chaos will prevail. I overheard some of your discussion and I think you know what I mean. You have a week to join me, or I will take you over by force.”

After dropping his demand in their laps, Drest turned and walked back down toward the river without any ceremony or farewell, taking all of his men and his amazing sword with him.

The murmuring and arguing started up again as soon as he was out of sight. As before, half the people wanted to unite and half of the people didn’t.

“Let’s get everyone and take them out. What are we waiting for?”

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. With our warriors and his put together, we have more than we need to push those invaders out of our land, demolish their wall, and even see to it they don’t multiply anymore.”

Breth looked over at Father to see if he was as grieved as Breth was about this division among the people.

But if he was, he wasn’t showing it.