As soon as the man he was fighting went down, Caicer paused for a moment to catch his breath. The band of fighters he was leading were doing well, dealing death to many of the warriors of the Tuatha de Danaan while most of them remained on their feet. Caicer, as their champion, had already crossed swords with two of the enemy's best men, and had left them choking out their life blood on the battlefield. But he claimed no respite; even now, standing with sweat dripping from his battle-naked body. he looked out over the heads of the fighting men, searching for his opponent's best.
Then he heard a woman's voice over the grunts of men in battle, over the moans of those wounded but not yet dead. Turning his head in the direction of the sound, he almost immediately saw her, and recognized her just as quickly; Banba, one of the three queens who'd met them on their way to Tara. Standing behind the line of men, she was shouting encouragement to the warriors of the Tuatha de Danaan, urging them on.
Jumping back into the fray, Caicer ran to his right, trying to circle the mass of fighters in front of him. An enemy emerged to challenge him; he paused only long enough to wound this man, turn him away. Then he pressed on toward the queen, determined to take her out of the fight - and with her, perhaps a good portion of the enemy's fighting spirit.
He was within an easy spear-cast of her before she became aware of him. He tried not to see her ethereal beauty, tried not to look at the spectacular legs her short tunic and cloak revealed. But when she turned her enormous dark eyes on him, he could not help but stare at her achingly lovely face.
Still, Caicer was a seasoned warrior, and this woman was a queen, a leader of his enemies. After just an instant's hesitation, he hurled one of his javelins at her.
With a quickness he hardly expected, she ducked it. Seeing that she was not armed, he ran forward, yelling, his heavy spear raised to strike. She watched him closely, and when his weapon lunged forward, she was not in front of it. For an instant he didn't even see her.
Looking around wildly, he located her some fifty feet away, off to his right. Her hand was on the gold brooch at her shoulder; as he stalked toward her, she undid it, and her green cloak dropped away. With another quick movement she stripped off her tunic, leaving herself as naked as he himself was. Caicer frowned; her body had been distracting clothed, and it was much more so now. To make matters worse, she brought her hands up under her high firm breasts, touching her tiny nipples with her fingertips, bringing them up to sharp erection.
"These are the warriors you must fight now, champion," she said with a smile, cupping her breasts in her hands and walking slowly toward him.
Holding his lance at the ready, Caicer watched her come closer. Her smile and manner were relaxed, as if she was quite sure of his reaction, as if she was sure she was in no danger.
"If those are the warriors I must fight," Caicer said, "then fight them I shall!" His spear shot forward, striking her right breast just above the nipple and burying itself in her soft flesh.
As she stared down at herself, he jerked the weapon back, yanked it free. Blood came welling out, pouring over her breast and streaming down her body. Very slowly, she moved her hand toward the wound, her eyes wide open, an expression of wonder on her face.
Stepping toward her, Caicer grabbed a handful of her hair. She made no effort to resist him as he drew her close and touched her belly with the point of his bloody lance. "Did you believe that I would spare you?" he asked. "Merely because you are a woman? You are a queen, you are on the battlefield. Our women take up weapons and fight - and they die in battle, as you have seen!"
She managed a smile. "I do not expect to be spared, Caicer! Go ahead, hide your cruel iron in my body! Soon enough, warrior, soon enough, you will know what that means!" She glanced down at his lance. "So let us be done with it!" she said softly. Taking her left hand from her breast, she put both her tiny hands on his shoulders and fixed her eyes on his.
He barely glanced at them. "Yes," he replied, pulling her just a bit closer. "There is no need to wait! Here is your death, queen!" With those words he shoved hard on his spear.
Her soft and unprotected belly offered little resistance; the lance sliced through her skin, sank right in. Gasping, she tipped her head back a little and opened her mouth. Her eyes never left his face, and her fingers were digging into his skin. "Oh, warrior," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. "It is my death-wound you are giving me! Not gentle your hot spear, warrior!"
"It is right that you should get your death in this battle!" he grunted. "You are the queen!" But he paused, watching her eyes closely. She was not fighting him, she was not struggling at all. Something was wrong.
"Oh, warrior, do not stop!" she cried. "Let us finish this, let us finish this now!"
He glanced down at the lance that had already pierced her abdomen deeply, at the blood flowing from her, staining his skin and hers. Her erect nipples were almost touching his chest, and her knees had sagged forward against his legs. It was too late, he knew, to change his mind now. He pulled her tiny body even closer to his own, and she laid her head on his broad shoulder, turned her huge eyes toward his face.
Then he began to push the spear on into her, hearing and feeling the blade tear its way on through her.
"Ahhh...!" she groaned, closing her eyes tightly, biting her lip. Watching her eyes, Caicer slid the lance even deeper; her blood, so hot it felt like it was burning him, washed down over his groin and legs. She choked; her body spasmed against his, and blood surged from her mouth, scalding his chest. But Caicer pressed on, on and on until the blade ripped free from her back.
Her eyes came open; it took her a moment to focus on him. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could Caicer started pulling the spear back. Her head jerked against his restraining hand, her eyes going even wider. They were standing in a pool of blood now, and as the lance came free even more started to gush out of her.
Once the spear was clear of her body, Caicer released her hair. Very slowly, her fingers dragging down across his chest, she sank to the ground at his feet, all the while keeping her head up, her eyes on his face. Her body was coated in red.
Finally she crumpled on down, rolling onto her side and pulling her legs up tightly. Still she watched him, and when she started to speak, Caicer knelt beside her to hear her words.
"Know now, invader," she whispered, "what you've done! I am the queen, and the queen is the land; you have slain one-third of the land! Manannan said all three of us would be slain in this battle; if it happens, this island will be a wasteland!"
He stared at her. "You could have said...!"
She gave a choking laugh. "No, I wanted you to kill me! You know nothing of the ways of the land, of the Mother! When Fodla and Eriu are dead, you will need to come to us - you will have to come to terms with our people, or you cannot live here!" She gave him a triumphant smile in spite of her pain. "One way or another, we shall have won our right to remain in this land! In pain and death my sisters and I will have purchased that right!" Her voice faded; she sighed deeply, stretched her body.
"Witch!" Caicer hissed. "I myself shall make sure your plan does not succeed!" Throwing down his spear, he drew his sword from his belt. Banba, watching him, tipped her head cooperatively to one side and waited for his swing.
It didn't come. Instead, he seized her hair again and, after pulling her partially back up again, laid his sword's edge against the side of her slender neck. Then he started sliding the blade back and forth, using it like it was a saw.
Her eyes dropped closed for a moment as the sword bit in, and within seconds fresh blood was spraying out over the blade. Caicer pressed on, cutting ever deeper, and soon she was squirming and choking helplessly, her eyes snapping wide open when the blade grated against the bone, her blood gurgling out in a river.
After cutting through the vertebrae, Caicer hacked savagely at the remaining flesh until her head came free. Leaving her twitching and decapitated corpse on the battlefield, he took her head with him and rushed off to try to find the other two queens, to try to prevent the disaster she'd told him about.