Authors: P.C. Cast
A shout of “Hail Epona!” rang to the domed ceiling. Then the room exploded into a sea of moving centaurs.
The Incarnates of the Muse were making their way toward Thalia. The blind priestess’s face was serene. She spoke in a calm voice to the women who surrounded her.
“Priestesses, our students know they are to assemble here. Keep them busy, it will help to keep them calm.” The Priestesses murmured agreement, and they began calling to the young students who had begun arriving as the centaurs were leaving.
“Mistress Thalia,” Sila addressed the Priestess, “have your students begin boiling large quantities of water, and tearing linen into strips for bandaging. I will check on the ill ones and inform them of what has happened. Then I will return here to help your students prepare for the injured.”
“Thank you, Sila.”
“Victoria!” ClanFintan called the Huntress to his side. He put his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes as he spoke. “While I am away, I entrust to you the safety of my wife.”
Vic covered his hand with her own. “Fight the battle with a clear mind, my friend. I will protect Rhea with my life.”
ClanFintan put his arm around me and led me a few paces away from the women. For a moment we just looked at each other, then he bent and his mouth covered mine. I clung to him, wanting to drown in the taste and heat of him. Reluctantly, he broke the kiss and took my face in his hands. I felt my lip tremble, and I blinked my eyes rapidly, willing the tears that were waiting there not to fall. I didn’t want to send him into battle with me blubbering like a sissy.
“Remember always, I was born to love you. You are as much a part of me as my soul. If you stay safe, a part of me will always remain safe.”
“No, it doesn’t work like that.” I knew I sounded frantic, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Nothing can happen to you—don’t tell me all that crap about if I’m safe, you’re safe. It’s bullshit unless you really
are
okay.” I put my hands over his. “Promise me you will live and come back to me. I couldn’t bear it if you did not.”
“Rhea, you—”
“Promise me!” I said with a violence that surprised even me.
“You have my promise.” He pulled me against him roughly, and I felt his lips press the top of my head. “Stay with Victoria. I will find you when it is over.” He released me, and without looking back, turned and left the room.
I heard Vic’s hooves clip sharply against the marble floor as she came to stand beside me.
“Thalia has told me of a way we can reach the roof of this temple. She says it will be tricky, but the Huntresses and I should be able to climb to it. Let us go watch from there.”
“It’s dark.” My voice sounded numbed.
“It will not be for much longer. Dawn is only a few hours away.”
I could see the other Huntresses had entered the room. I noticed they were all carrying an impressive array of crossbows and quivers filled with deadly-looking arrows. The sight of their quiet confidence broke my numbness.
“Vic, I need to change out of this dress and back into my riding clothes.”
She nodded in understanding. “We will wait here for you.”
As I hurried back to the banquet room, it was easy to tell that the scene was already more organized. The students were quietly clearing away the feast and pushing the tables to the sides of the room. Several large pots were suspended over the hearths in the walls. The Priestesses were moving among their young students, stopping here and there to speak words of calm encouragement. I saw Victoria and the five Huntresses I knew from Epona’s Temple standing in the far corner of the room. Vic made a motion for me to join them. As I moved across the room, Thalia intercepted me, handing me a long bronze tube.
“It will help you to see,” she explained.
I took the small telescope and tried to thank her, but she had already moved away and was speaking to a group of nervous young girls.
The Huntresses were standing in the arch of an exit that led to a circular stairway that wrapped its way upward.
“Come, Thalia says this leads to the roof.” Victoria began climbing the precariously small stairs first, followed by me, then the other Huntresses.
The passage was narrow. The Huntresses could stretch their arms out and touch the smooth walls on either side, which they did to help them maneuver their way up the tight spiral.
“If you trip and fall backward, you’ll squish me,” I informed Vic.
Without turning her head, she said, “Huntresses do not trip.”
“That’s a good thing,” I muttered.
I heard the Huntress directly behind me, I think her name was Elaine, snort a quick laugh at my response. Nope—they sure didn’t act nervous.
Just when I thought the spiral would never end, Victoria heaved herself through another carved doorway. I heard her hooves clatter on the roof as she moved aside so that the rest of us could emerge.
We spilled out onto a narrow passageway that wrapped around the domed roof. It was not quite a horse’s width across, which meant the Huntresses had to stand sideways and hug the wall to pass by one another. The outer wall was lined with balustrades. Between each column were large earthenware planters filled with geraniums and overflowing ivy, trailing a green waterfall of wide-leafed plants over the side of the temple.
In the murky light of predawn, Victoria surveyed the rooftop.
“This was meant to be a garden, not a place of defense.” The Huntress sounded annoyed.
“It’s a school for women, Vic, not soldiers.” I felt the need to come to the Muses’ defense. After all, this was the equivalent of Rhiannon’s university, and I sure wouldn’t want anyone making fun of the University of Illinois (go Illini!).
Vic made a disgusted noise, which was echoed by the other Huntresses.
“Spread out. Take up positions several lengths apart, all facing the west. Let me know when the armies become visible.” The Huntresses moved to obey her. I took up my own position next to her.
I peered out into the gloom and worried.
“He is a great warrior,” Vic said.
“Even great warriors bleed when they’re cut.” I sighed. “Maybe I should try and sleep so that my spirit body could go find him.”
“He would sense your presence,” she said gently. “You would distract him.”
“I hate waiting.”
Vic nodded in agreement.
We sat in silence. I strained to see or hear any sound of fighting, but the only noises came from the light breeze whispering through the ivy, and an occasional call of a lark that was greeting the new day with innocent exuberance.
The sky behind us began to lighten, and the gray lifted, but only a little. The clouds from the night before were obviously there to stay, and even a weird fog was drifting out of the marsh to hang suspended over the temple grounds. My body jerked with understanding.
“Carolan said Fomorians don’t like to move around in the daylight. But they’re attacking today because of the damn weather.”
Grimly, Victoria nodded.
To the north the mountains swam into and out of view. I raised the lens to my eye, turning the wheel in the middle of it until the misty side of the closest mountain came into focus. No creatures visible there. Yet.
I turned and looked over the deep forest. Overshadowed by clouds it looked sleepy and harmless. I continued turning, and got occasional glimpses through the fog of the verdant green of what must be the beginnings of Ufasach Marsh.
Before I could complete my circle, Victoria yelled, “There!”
I yanked the telescope from my eye to see Victoria pointing into the west at a dark smudge that spread across the western horizon. I lifted the glass back to my eye, surprised by the sudden trembling in my hands.
“Take it.” I handed it to Vic. “Look for me, my hands won’t be still.”
The Huntress took the glass and calmly put it to her eye, focusing the wheel as I had done before.
“It is the rear line of our archers,” she said as she looked.
I remembered the group of centaurs I had noticed who carried dangerous-looking longbows slung across their backs, along with quivers filled with long, pointed arrows.
“Are they good archers?” I asked.
“Except for Woulff’s men, they are the best in Partholon.”
“I wish Woulff was here, too.”
“As do I.” She kept watching. “The warriors must not have engaged the Fomorians yet. I can see the archers firing rounds, their bows pointed high into the sky.” She adjusted the focus again. “There, I can see the line of our warriors. They are waiting for the archers to finish.”
It started to drizzle as I looked intently into the west. I was able to make out the distant line of archers and the rain of arrows that flew at intervals up and out, then down, as though the clouds were belching death. Between the rounds of arrows, I saw something that glistened intermittently in front of the archers’ line.
“What is that shining?”
“Our centaurs have drawn their claymores,” she explained.
I felt a chill travel down my spine.
“They are advancing.” Her voice was emotionless and loud so that the Huntresses could hear what she was saying. Listening to her I felt an odd detachment, almost like we were watching a bizarre TV program. It was hard for me to believe my husband was part of that line of glinting swords.
“What’s happening now?”
She took the telescope from her eye and handed it to me. “The battle has begun.”
I wiped droplets of moisture from the lens before resting my elbows against the rail that ran around the top of the balustrades, which kept my hands from shaking. Then I raised the telescope to my eye and focused on the distant scene.
Through the dreary morning I could see the moving line of centaurs, several thick, as the archers parted and, brandishing their own claymores they dispersed to join the left and right flanks. I tried to focus on individual centaurs, but they were too far away. I couldn’t even see any Fomorians, just the straining, heaving backs of the centaurs as the line moved forward in some places and surged back in others.
“I can’t tell what the hell is going on.” I took my eye from the glass and handed it back to Vic.
“It could go on like this for hours.” She smiled gently at me. “The first battle you witness is always the most horrible.”
“Basically, all we can do is stand here and watch?” I asked.
“That is all we can do.”
And that is what we did. As the morning changed to midday, five young students brought us sandwiches of hard bread, meat and cheese, along with skins of sweet wine.
“Tell Thalia there is no change,” I said to one of the girls.
“She already knows, Lady Rhiannon,” she said as she left the roof.
“Thalia sees many things,” Vic said.
“She sure does.”
We chewed our food, taking turns looking through the telescope. As I finished my sandwich, the Huntress to the right of me, Cathleen, handed me the telescope so I could take my turn. I took several drinks of the sweet wine to clear my throat, and then I raised the glass to my eye, refocusing until the battlefield came into sharp view.
And I felt a sudden urge to puke up my lunch.
“Vic!” The Huntress moved quickly to my side. I handed her the telescope. “The line is moving.”
She raised the glass to her eye, looking intently. Her breath sucked in, and her body grew very still. “The centaurs have broken.” Her voice was a death knell. “These women are doomed.”
“No!” I grabbed her arm. “Fomorians cannot cross water. Being separated from the earth by flowing water causes them unbearable pain. If we can get the women across the bridge to the other side of the river, they will be safe.”
She handed me the telescope, and while I refocused it she called orders to the Huntresses.
“We must move the women across the bridge. The creatures have broken through our warriors. The only way the women will be safe is if they cross over the river. Help them get to safety. Now!”
I pressed my body against the balustrade as the Huntresses passed me to retrace their path down the treacherous stairwell, and gazed in horror through the telescope. Now I could see the winged shapes of the Fomorians as they inundated the centaur ranks. There was no longer a discernible line—instead, there was a jumble of bodies as the battle swelled toward us. I was still unable to recognize individual centaurs, but I could clearly see creatures being hacked apart by claymores, and centaurs being clawed to their knees as groups of the creatures broke off to single out and surround individual warriors. As I watched, masses of creatures were slain, only to be replaced by more and more of their fellow creatures, who used the bodies of their fallen comrades to stand upon so that they were more equal in height with the battling centaurs. Wave upon wave of claws and teeth washed over the centaurs. They had no choice but to give ground.
“Come, Rhea, we have work to do.”
“I don’t see him!”
“Rhea, he said he would find you. It does no good for you to stay here watching. But you can help us get the women to safety.”
I made myself lower the telescope and turn away from the battle scene. “Let’s get the women out of here.” I hurried from the roof with Victoria close behind me.
As we entered the banquet chamber, the fearful chatter of the girls quieted. Thalia walked silently to stand before us.
“The centaur army cannot hold the Fomorians. They will overrun the temple,” I said, surprised at how calm I sounded.
“Yes, my Goddess has already spoken thus to me. What must we do?”
“You must have all the women make their way quickly to the bridge. Fomorians cannot cross the Geal River. Once you are on the other side of the river, you will be safe.”
I looked around the room until I spotted Sila.
“Sila, get those who are ill onto pallets, the Huntresses will transport them.”
The centaur Healer nodded and cantered from the room.
“It must be now, Thalia, the army cannot have much time remaining.”
“Ladies…” Thalia’s regal voice filled the room. “Follow the Priestesses to the bridge—we must leave our temple. Take nothing with you except your lives.” Then she tilted her head to the side, and the room remained silent while she listened to an internal voice that I understood all too well. “My Goddess assures me this is not the last time we will see our beloved temple—what is lost will be regained. Now, quickly, and as we leave let us each pray fervently that the brave centaurs will join us across the river.”
The Priestesses were the first to hurry to the exit doors, each followed by an orderly group of her students. Erato took Thalia by the hand, and together they encouraged those at the rear to keep up with the others.
Thalia would have made a really good high school teacher. (But she would’ve had to take a big cut in pay.)
“You should go with them, Rhea,” Vic said.
“Where are you going?”
“To help move those who are ill.” Her fellow Huntresses were already cantering through the door Sila had used.
“I stay with you.” Before she could argue, I reminded her, “ClanFintan told me to stay with you.”
She sighed, but said, “Then come here, we can move more quickly if you are astride me.” Much like ClanFintan, Vic grabbed my upper arm and I grabbed hers, then she tossed me easily onto her sleek back. I held tightly to her shoulders as she sprinted to the exit, following her Huntresses. We skidded around corners and turned down elaborately decorated halls, following the clear echo of hooves in the otherwise silent temple. We burst through an opened door to an outside garden in time to see the back of one of the Huntresses disappearing through a door across the courtyard. She leaped across the space in several long strides.
“You are damn fast,” I yelled into her ear.
“I am Lead Huntress,” she yelled back, like that explained everything.
We caught up to the Huntresses just as I smelled a familiar odor. Vic and I wrinkled our noses.
“This must be the place,” I said as our group came to a large door.
I slid off her back, and Vic opened the door. Sila was in the middle of the room, helping patients from their beds and onto thick blanket-like pallets. She looked up as we entered.
“Those near the door are ready to be moved,” she said, then turned back to the pustule-marked teenager who was leaning heavily on her arm.
“There are more of them than I anticipated.” Victoria spoke in low tones to her centaurs. “Work quickly, Huntresses.”
“Sila!” Vic caught her attention. “We have very little time.”
Sila’s eyes widened, but the centaur Healer’s gentle voice did not betray the worry reflected in her eyes. “Listen, ladies!” The room became abruptly silent. “Those of you who are able must be transported astride the Huntresses. Stand if you think you are able to ride.” About a dozen young women rose slowly to their feet.
The Huntresses moved quickly to the standing women. I followed them, helping to lift the sick girls to the centaurs’ backs. As each Huntress turned to exit the room, a tall woman dressed in black blessed them and admonished them to hold tightly so they wouldn’t fall.
“Priestess,” I heard Sila addressing the woman when the last Huntress had left the room. “You must join the others at the river crossing.”
“I will not leave until this room is emptied,” was her dramatic reply.
She must be Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy. I wanted to roll my eyes and say, “That figures,” but I thought it’d be rude.
As I helped another teenager out of her bed, a dark-haired woman who was propped up against pillows caught my eye.
I almost called her Michelle, but caught myself in time.
“Terpsichore.” I stopped at her bedside, studying her. “You look well enough to ride, be sure to get on the next Huntress who returns.”
“My students leave first.” Her eyes were bright with fever and her face was flushed. She was obviously in the beginning stages of the disease.
“They need you with them.” I tried to reason with her, but I recognized the familiar stubborn set of her jaw. (Usually she was being stubborn about buying a $250 silk blouse when she could only afford a $40 cotton pullover, but it was the same immovable stubbornness.)
“And those who leave last will need me, too.”
“Fine.” I knew better than to waste my time arguing with her. “Just watch your butt when time gets short. You do not want to be caught by those things.” I started to walk away, and her voice stopped me.
“Rhiannon, I hear you have changed.”
“Yes, I am not like I used to be.”
“Then I truly do wish you happiness in your mating.” This time her blessing was genuine.
“Thank you.” I smiled at her, and went back to work, helping the sick girls get ready to be moved. I hoped she would show enough sense to get across the river—I didn’t want to think about what would happen to her if the creatures caught her. Except for the unnaturally bright flush of her skin, she was still breathtakingly beautiful.
I was lifting a wraith-thin girl from her bed and making her smile by telling her that she wouldn’t weigh ninety pounds soaking wet with a squirrel in her pocket, when the Huntresses slid back into the room in a clatter of hooves and began loading up for their second evacuation trip. The girl I was carrying shrieked suddenly with much more strength than I would have thought possible. I looked up to see Dougal burst through the open door.
“Get across the river now!” he shouted between ragged breaths. “The warriors are keeping them out of the temple for as long as possible, but they are close behind me.” His sides quivered, and he was spattered with blood and gore. There was an angry-looking slash across his shoulder, and another gash across his cheek was steadily seeping blood. He looked so much like his dying brother that I had to choke back tears.
Sila rushed to his side and began examining his many wounds.
The room broke into a cacophony of sound and motion until the tall Priestess, Melpomene, raised her black-robed arms, clapping her hands together in a bursting ball of sparks.
Yep, there sure as hell was magic here.
“This is what we shall do.” She spoke in an imperious tone. “Those of you who are able to ride will climb astride the Huntresses. Those of you who can walk, go down the rear pathway to the river. If you cannot make it to the bridge, conceal yourselves in the foliage near the water. The rest of us will remain here.”
“If you remain here, you will die.” I spoke with surety into the stillness of the room.
“Epona’s Chosen, you should know that we are not without defenses.” The Priestess smiled at me, and I was amazed at the transformation that occurred in her appearance. Her smile softened the harsh lines of her face, and let her underlying beauty become visible. “Wait no longer. Save yourselves. We have placed ourselves in the loving hands of our Goddesses.”
I saw that Terpsichore was walking purposefully to stand by the dark woman’s side. She looked serene and lovely and spoke in a calm, unhurried voice.
“Lady Rhiannon, did you not send word that your Goddess has revealed to you that the way to combat the pox is to isolate those who have been infected with it from other people?”
“Yes, smallpox is very contagious,” I answered quickly, not sure why she was taking time to repeat old instructions.
“So contagious that it can spread easily if an infected person mingles with those who are healthy?”
“Yes, it can be spread easily, but there needs to be contact between the ill person and the well person.”
“And are the Fomorians not humanlike?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will remain and have contact with them,” she said simply.
“No! They’ll kill you. Or worse. Anyway, even if they can get the disease—and we don’t know for sure that they can—it can be transmitted to them through the diseased waste left on these blankets.” I gestured at the mess of linens that lay abandoned around the room.
“What would creatures like that want with these soiled linens?” Her laughter was like music. “No—” her lovely face sobered “—my Goddess and I have decided. This is how it must be.”
“We have to leave now!” Dougal’s strained voice interrupted the silence that the Muse’s words evoked.
“Whatever happens to me is a small price to pay to give the creatures so
priceless
a gift.” Terpsichore’s thick-lashed eyes sparked with the irony of her words.
“What you do here will not be forgotten,” I said, awed by her sacrifice. “I give you my word.”
“I am pleased my final performance will be remembered,” she said before melting into the graceful bow of a prima ballerina.
“It will be,” I promised before shifting my attention to the rest of the room. “Let’s go!” I yelled and the room exploded back into action as sick teenagers scrambled aboard Huntresses.
Sila approached me and paused long enough to hand me a leather purselike pouch suspended on a long leather thong. I looked at her questioningly.
She spoke quietly. “Within the pouch is ointment that numbs and helps to close wounds.” She glanced across the room at Dougal. “Apply it sparingly, many may need it. And be certain you take a skinful of wine before you leave, too.” She pointed to a table filled with full leather bladders.
I nodded my understanding and slung the thong over my head so that the pouch rested snugly against my left side near my waist, and grabbed one of the wineskins and slung it over my other shoulder. Then I went back to work loading the Huntresses with sick girls.
As the last patient scrambled aboard Elaine, I looked around the room and saw that Sila was supporting four stumbling girls as they slowly made their way out the back exit of the room.
“Sila!” I shouted after her.
She turned and I heard her angelic voice from across the room. “I will go with these sick ones. If the Goddess wills, we will meet you across the river.” Without taking any more time, she and her entourage moved through the door.
“Lady Rhea, we have no more time.” Dougal held a shaking, blood-covered hand out to help me mount. All of the Huntresses except Victoria were already out the door; the fading echo of their hooves rang as they galloped down the hall.
Victoria moved quickly to my side, brushing away Dougal’s hand.
“You are in no shape to bear even her slight weight.” She grabbed my arm and tossed me to her back. As we thundered toward the exit, I craned my neck around in time to see Melpomene and Terpsichore holding hands in the middle of a circle of about half a dozen women who were too sick to move. Their heads were bowed and they looked like they were suffused with light. Then we, too, burst out into the hall.