Lady of Avalon (20 page)

Dierna’s heart bounded like poor Vitruvia’s; she blinked, for a moment seeing the girl fragile, with fine pale hair and robed as a priestess, and then again small, with auburn highlights in her dark curls, and golden bracelets curling like serpents around her arms.

Who is she?
she asked herself, and then,
Or who
was
she, and who was I, that I greet her return with such anguished joy?
For a moment then she heard a name-
“Adsartha…”

Then the girl was before her, dark eyes widening as she saw the blue robes. With a fluid grace she sank to her knees, seized the trailing corner of Dierna’s stola, and kissed it. The High Priestess looked down at that bent head, unable to stir.

“Ah, there she is, my erring child!” came Eiddin Mynoc’s voice from behind her. “Teleri, my dear, get up! What will the Lady think of you?”

She is called Teleri…
The other names and faces were banished by the living reality of the girl before her, and Dierna found that she could breathe once more.

“Indeed, my daughter, you do me honor,” she said softly, “but this is not the time or the place for you to kneel to me.”

“There will be another, then?” asked Teleri, taking Dierna’s outstretched hand and rising. Already the awe in her face was giving way to a delighted laughter.

“Is that what you wish?” asked Dierna, still holding her hand. A power too deep to be called impulse brought new words to her lips. “We will say this again in the presence of the priestesses, but I ask you now. Is it of your own free will, without force or coercion by your father or anyone, that you seek to join the holy sisterhood that dwell in Avalon?”

She knew that Erdufylla was staring at her in amazement, but since she had been made High Priestess, there had rarely been anything of which she had been so sure.

“By moon and stars and the green earth I swear it,” said Teleri eagerly.

“Then, in earnest of the greeting my sisters will give you when we return, I welcome you.” Dierna took Teleri’s face between her two hands, and kissed her on the brow.

That night Teleri lay long wakeful. When dinner was done, Eiddin Mynoc, pointing out that the priestesses had had a weary day on the road, had bidden them good night and sent his daughter to bed. With her mind Teleri knew that he was right, and that she herself ought to have noticed their fatigue. She told herself that she could talk to them on the journey back to Avalon-she would have the rest of her life to talk to priestesses. But her heart cried out in frustration at having to leave them.

Teleri had expected to be impressed by the Lady of Avalon. Everyone had heard tales of the pointed Tor that was hidden, like Faerie, by mists through which only an initiate could pass. Some thought it a legend, for when the priestesses went out into the world it was usually in disguise. But in the old royal families of the tribes the truth was known, for many of their daughters had spent a season or two upon the holy isle, and at times, when the health of the land required it, one of the priestesses would be sent to make the Great Marriage with a chieftain at the Beltane fires. What she had not expected was to respond as if the High Priestess were someone dearly loved from long ago.

She must think me a fool!
Teleri told herself, turning over yet again.
I suppose they all worship her.
In all the stories, the Lady of Avalon was an awesome figure, and it was true. Lady Dierna was like a beacon fire blazing against a midnight sky. Next to that radiance Teleri felt ghostly. Perhaps, she thought then, she was indeed the spirit of someone who had known Dierna in another lifetime.

At that, she began to laugh. Next she would be fancying herself Boudicca, or the Empress of Rome.
It is more likely,
she told herself,
I was Dierna’s serving maid!
And, still smiling, she fell asleep.

Teleri would have happily ridden out the next morning, but as her father pointed out, it was hardly hospitable to send the folk of Avalon off without even a day to recuperate from their journey, and as it happened, they needed items from the markets of Durnovaria. Teleri made herself Dierna’s shadow. The moment of astonishing intimacy which had occurred when they met was not repeated, but she found it surprisingly easy to be in the older woman’s company.

And gradually Teleri realized there was not so great a difference in their ages as she had supposed. She herself was now eighteen, but the High Priestess was only ten years older. It was responsibility and experience that made the difference between them. Erdufylla had told her that Dierna’s first child, a daughter, had been still in the womb when her mother became High Priestess at the age of twenty-three, and had been sent away for fostering before she was three. To think about Dierna’s children made Teleri feel like a child herself. And it was with a child’s anticipation that she fell asleep that night, eager for their departure the next morn.

They rode out from Durnovaria in the damp and rainy dawning, leaving the city still wrapped in sleep behind them. The High Priestess had wanted an early start, for the first stage of their journey would be long. The freedman who opened the gates had still been yawning and rubbing his eyes. Teleri wondered if he would even remember the travelers for whom he had opened them. Wrapped in their dark cloaks, the two priestesses passed like shadows, and even the men of their escort seemed to have absorbed some of their anonymity.

Teleri herself was wide awake; she had always been an early riser, and anticipation had brought her from bed well before she was called. Even the glowering skies could not dampen her spirits. She twitched at the reins to make her mare step out and listened for the first birds to greet the dawning day.

They were just coming down the slope to the river when she heard a birdcall she did not recognize. It was autumn, when many birds passed through on their way southward. Teleri looked around her, wondering if the call had been made by a kind she had not seen before. They said that the wetlands around Avalon were a haven for waterfowl. No doubt she would find many new birds there. The call came again, and her mare’s ears pricked. Teleri felt a flicker of unease and pushed back her hood to see.

Something moved among the willows. She reined her mare back and spoke to the nearest freedman, who straightened, reaching for his cudgel and looking where she had pointed. Then someone whistled, the willows shivered, and in the next moment the road filled with armed men.

“Look out!” screamed the younger of the two Druids, who rode in the lead. A spear jabbed; she saw his face change, and his pony bolted, whinnying, as he fell. Her own mare half reared as she started to pull her around; then Teleri realized that Dierna was unguarded, and reined back toward her.

The road was full of men. Spear points glinted in the early light, and she glimpsed the flare of a sword. The freedmen were laying about them with their cudgels, but those were poor weapons against sharp blades. One by one they were pulled off their horses; the air echoed to their screams. Teleri’s own mount plunged at the scent of blood. A contorted face leered up at her and she felt a callused hand close around her ankle. She slashed at the man with her riding whip and he fell away.

Dierna had dropped her reins and lifted her arms, to draw strange signs in the air. Teleri felt her own ears hum as the High Priestess began to sing; the confusion around her slowed. From beyond her came a deep-voiced shout. She turned, saw a heavy spear flying toward Dierna, and kicked her mare forward. But she was too far away. It was Erdufylla, who had not dared to leave Dierna’s side, who made the convulsive movement that put her body between the High Priestess and the spear.

Teleri saw the wicked point slam through the woman’s breast, heard her scream as she was knocked backward into Dierna’s arms. As their terrified horses reared, both women went down. Teleri lashed out with her whip again; a man swore, and her mare came to a plunging halt as he grabbed for the reins. When Teleri tried to pull back, the reins were wrenched from her hand. She fumbled beneath her cloak for her belt knife and struck at the first man who reached for her, but in another moment someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her from the saddle.

She yelled, still struggling, but a blow dazed her. When she could think again, she was lying in the woods and both her hands and feet were bound. Through the trees she saw their horses disappearing up the road. The raiders who rode them had pulled cloaks over their heads. She wondered if the gate guards would even notice that the riders had changed. But the two men who had been left to guard the prisoners had no need to hide their flaxen hair.

Pirates!
she thought grimly.
Saxons, or perhaps renegade Frisians from Belgica.
The conversations which she had considered so boring at her father’s dinner table abruptly acquired a brutal significance. Blinking back tears of rage, she turned her face away.

Dierna lay beside her. For a moment Teleri thought the High Priestess was dead; then she saw that, like herself, the older woman was bound. They would not have troubled to tie a corpse. But Dierna lay far too still. Her fair skin was pale, and Teleri could see an ugly bruise forming on her brow. In her throat a pulse was still beating, however, and ever so slowly, her breast rose and fell.

Beyond the priestess other bodies lay sprawled where they had fallen when they were dragged from the road. The young Druid was there, and the freedmen, and with a sinking heart Teleri recognized Erdufylla as well. She told herself that she should not be surprised-no one could survive such a wound. Besides herself and Dierna, of all their party only the Healer, Lewal, had survived.

Teleri whispered his name. For a moment she thought he had not heard; then his head turned.

“Did they hit her?” She nodded toward the priestess.

He shook his head. “I think one of the horses kicked her as she fell, but they wouldn’t let me examine her.”

“Will she live?” Teleri whispered more softly still.

For a moment Lewal closed his eyes. “If the gods are kind. With a blow to the head we can only wait. Even if I were free there would be little I could do except to keep her warm.”

Teleri shivered. It was not raining, but the sky was still raw and grey.

“Roll this way, and I will do the same,” she said softly. “Perhaps the heat of our bodies will help.”

“I should have thought of that…” A little light came back into his eyes. Carefully, pausing whenever one of their captors looked their way, they began to wriggle toward Dierna.

The time that followed seemed endless, but in fact scarcely two hours passed before they heard the main force of the raiders returning. Teleri remembered that it was the way of these animals to strike swiftly and then run, carrying off what booty they could, before their victims could gather enough force to resist them.

A warrior jerked Teleri to her feet and fingered the fine wool of her gown. When he began to squeeze the breast beneath, she spat at him; he laughed and let her go, saying something incomprehensible.

“I told them that you are rich and will bring a good ransom. I have learned some of their tongue so I can trade for herbs,” Lewal told Teleri.

One of the pirates bent over Dierna, clearly uncertain how to reconcile her white hands and rough traveling clothes. After a moment he shrugged and began to draw his dagger.

“No!” cried Teleri. “She is
sacerdos, opulenta.
A priestess! Very rich!” Some of these men must understand Latin. She looked desperately at Lewal.

“Gytha! Rica!”
he echoed her.

The Saxon looked disbelieving, but he put away his blade, lifted Dierna’s limp body, and heaved her over his shoulder. The men who held Teleri and Lewal shoved them along after, and in another moment all three of them were slung across the backs of stolen horses and tied.

By the time they finally came to a halt, Teleri was wishing herself as unconscious as the priestess.

The raiders’ ships had been drawn up in a secluded inlet, and they had made a temporary camp on the shore. Rude tents sheltered the perishable booty; the rest of it lay heaped near the fires. The captives were dumped beside a pile of grain sacks and then apparently forgotten as men began to build up the fires and share out the foodstuffs they had captured, especially the wine.

“If we are lucky they will forget us,” said Lewal when Teleri wondered if they would be fed, “at least until tomorrow, when they have slept off their wine.” He squirmed upright and laid the back of his hand against Dierna’s brow. She had moaned a little when she was taken off the horse, but though consciousness might be closer, the priestess had not yet opened her eyes.

Darkness fell. The camp began to assume a semblance of order as men settled beside the fires. Among the fair heads of the Saxons and Frisians were a goodly scattering of black and brown, snatches of rude Latin mixed with the gutturals of the Germanic tongues. Deserters from the Army and fugitive slaves had made common cause with the barbarians. The only requirement for acceptance here seemed to be brutality and a strong arm for an oar or a sword. The scent of roast pig made Teleri’s mouth water; she turned her face away and tried to remember how to pray.

She had fallen into an uncomfortable doze when the crunch of a footstep nearby brought her to shuddering wakefulness. She was already beginning to turn over when a kick in the ribs brought her upright, glaring. The pirate who had kicked her laughed. He was no cleaner than the others, but the gold he was wearing above his fur vest suggested that he was a chieftain among them. He grasped Teleri’s shoulders and pulled her up to face him and, when she struggled, held her hard against his chest with one arm, immobilizing her bound hands. His other hand closed in her hair. For a moment more he grinned down at her; then he set his mouth against hers.