Part 4 (1/2)
Sian did not seem to be in pain, but her strength waned with each month, and even when the moon grew full once more, it did not return. Ganeda said nothing, but there were new lines in her face. I found myself pitying the older woman, but I knew I was the last person from whom my aunt would accept sympathy.
Long before I felt ready to get up again, Dierna was bouncing to her feet to run after Becca, whose st.u.r.dy legs were already carrying her down the path.
”There are ducklings in the reed-beds!” exclaimed Dierna. ”Come with us and see!”
”I wish I could,” I told her, ”but I have promised to finish this hedge before dinner.”
”You have to work all the time!” complained Dierna. She turned, saw Becca disappearing around a corner, and dashed after her.
For a moment I stood watching as the red head caught up with the brown and the two continued down the path towards the Lake, sparkling in the afternoon sun. Then I sighed and turned back to my work once more.
When I was a little child, I had envied my older half-brothers their training as warriors. In those days, to whack away with a broken branch at some laughing guardsman had been my favourite game. They had told me tales of Boudicca, whose armies once made the Romans fear, and called me their warrior princess. But my brothers had smiled with male superiority and a.s.sured me that the disciplines they were undergoing were far too difficult for a mere girl.
Sometimes, when I remembered those days, I would wonder whether my brothers could have endured the education I was receiving now. In the three years since the ceremony that welcomed me to womanhood the training of a priestess had ruled my days. True, I still shared some work and cla.s.ses with the younger girls and the maidens who had been sent to Avalon to learn something of the old ways before going home to be married. But now I also had other training, and additional duties.
The girls who were meant to be priestesses sat with the youths being trained by the Druids to memorize endless lists of names and master the elaborate symbols and correspondences by which meaning could be enriched, or disguised. We ran races around the holy isle, for it was held that a vigorous body was necessary to support a strong mind. We were trained in correct use of the voice, and practised as a choir for the ceremonies. And with the initiated priestesses, we maidens took our turns to tend the flame on the altar that was the hearth of Avalon.
To keep watch in the temple and feed the little fire was not physically demanding. But although meditation was encouraged during the vigil, sleep was forbidden. I loved to sit alone in the round thatched hut on the Maidens' Isle, watching the leaping flame, but now, in the lazy warmth of afternoon, my need for sleep was beginning to catch up with me. I found myself swaying, and stared stupidly at the hazel twig in my hand.
Better stop before I cut off one of my fingers! I thought, blinking, and bent to set the pruning knife on the ground. The hedge was an old one, and before me, twisted branches formed a natural backrest. It felt natural to curl into it, and in another moment my eyes had closed.
My lips moved soundlessly.Shelter me for a little while, hazel sister, and I will finish tr.i.m.m.i.n.g your hair ...
I never knew whether it was some sound from below or a whisper from the hazel hedge itself that woke me. For a moment, still dazed with sleep, I could not think why my heart was thudding with alarm.
The shadows had lengthened just a little, and the afternoon was warm and still. I glimpsed Dierna's red head near the reedbeds farther along the sh.o.r.e-the girls must be watching the ducklings. Then a closer movement caught my eye. Becca was crawling along the trunk of the old oak tree that had fallen half into the water during the last storm.
I leapt to my feet. ”Becca! Stop!”
For a moment I thought the little girl had heard me, but Becca's pause was only to grab at something in the Lake. Then she was on her way again.
”Becca, stop! Hold on!” I cried as I galloped down the hill. Dierna was standing up now, but the sh.o.r.eline curved inward here and she was too far away. I saved the rest of my breath for running as I saw the toddler stand up, reach towards the water with a glad cry, and fall in.
I felt a flicker of wonder that time, which a few moments before had seemed to drag so endlessly, should now be pa.s.sing in such a swift whirl. Becca had disappeared beneath the surface. Gra.s.s and shrubs flashed past, and then I was thras.h.i.+ng through the shallows, reaching out as the little girl came up, flailing, and s.n.a.t.c.hing her into my arms.
Becca gave one hiccup, coughed up water, and then began to scream.
In moments, it seemed, we were surrounded by priestesses. I relinquished the child to the little dark Lake-woman who had been brought to Avalon to be her nurse and sighed with relief as the sound of Becca's cries faded away. But in the next moment I realized that someone was still yelling.
Dierna was crouched on the ground, whimpering as Ganeda berated her with a violence all the more shocking because her body was as rigid as stone. Only her hair, escaping from its coiled braids, jerked and trembled. I stared, half-expecting it to burst into flame.
”Do you understand me? Your sister could have drowned! And with your poor mother lying ill-do you want to kill her too, by destroying her child?”
She is worried about Sian, I told myself, but even the other priestesses looked shocked at the venom in Ganeda's tone.
Dierna shook her head, grinding her cheek into the earth in an agony of negation. Beneath the freckles her face was as white as bone.
Just as fear had moved me to save Becca, compa.s.sion compelled me into action now. A swift step brought me to Dierna's side. I bent, cradling the girl in my arms as if the a.s.sault from which I strove to protect her was physical.
”She meant no harm! She was playing-it was too much responsibility for so young a child!” I looked up at the High Priestess, beginning to tremble myself as that furious gaze fixed on me instead. I used to wonder if my dead mother had resembled her sister-I hoped that Rian had never looked the way Ganeda did now.
”She must learn discipline! She is of the sacred line of Avalon!” Ganeda exclaimed.
So am I, Aunt-so am I! I thought, but my own mouth was going dry with fear.Once I hoped that you would love me, but I don't think you even know how !
”Get away from her, before I forget to be grateful to you for saving the little one. You cannot stand between Dierna and her punishment!”
Dierna gasped and clutched at my waist. I tightened my own grip, staring up at the older woman defiantly.
”She is only eight years old! If you frighten her to death how can she understand?”
”And you are sixteen!” hissed Ganeda. ”Do you think that gives you the wisdom of the Lady of Avalon?
You should have stayed with your father in the Roman lands!”
I shook my head. I belongedhere ! But Ganeda chose to take it as submission.
”Gwenlis, take the child away!”
One of the younger priestesses stepped forwards, eyeing the High Priestess uncertainly. For a moment I resisted, then it occurred to me that the sooner Dierna was out of earshot of her grandmother's wrath, the better it would be. I gave the girl a quick hug, and thrust her into Gwenlis's arms.
”And lock her into the storage shed!” Ganeda went on.
”No!” I exclaimed, getting to my feet again. ”She will be afraid!”
”It is you who should be afraid! Do not flout my will lest I lock you up as well!”
I smiled, for I had already been through more taxing ordeals in my training.
Ganeda took a furious step towards me. ”Don't think I haven't noticed how you have been spoiling the child, interfering with my discipline, plotting to steal her affection away from me!”
”I hardly need to do that! You will earn her hatred yourself if you treat her this way!”
”You will have nothing to do with Dierna in the future, do you understand me? Or with Becca either!”
Ganeda's anger had turned suddenly cold, and for the first time I felt fear. ”Hear me all of you, and bear witness-” the High Priestess turned to fix the others with that icy gaze. ”This is the will of the Lady of Avalon!”
Even before Ganeda finished speaking, I had decided to defy her. But a stern order sent me back up the hill to finish tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the hedge, and it was not until the still hour just after dusk had fallen, when the folk of Avalon gathered for their evening meal, that I was able to open the door to the storage shed un.o.bserved.
Swiftly I slipped inside and took the s.h.i.+vering child in my arms.
”Eilan?” The little girl clutched at me, sniffling. ”It's cold here, and dark, and I think there are rats...”
”Well, then, you must talk to the Rat Spirit and ask her to keep them away,” I said bracingly.
Dierna shuddered and shook her head.
”Don't you know how? We will do it together, then, and promise her some food for her clan-”
”n.o.body has brought me any food,” whispered the girl. ”I'm hungry.”