The Bonds of Blood (26 page)

There was a slight rustle of movement
around the circle as everyone settled in. A few breathless moments
later, a loud gong peeled through the night, bringing all to
attention.

There was a flurry of movement from the
men assembled around the altar as the female votary approached. Sky
blue robes, silky soft, fluttered in the light breeze as the five
men set off around the encircling crowd.

The men moved in such a lively gait
that Jovian could barely register what was going on. He knew that
someone passed with the gong, for he could feel it throbbing in his
chest as its deep note reverberated through the field. He also knew
the incense had passed by at the same time, for he could smell the
copal lingering heavily in the air.

His senses softened with the smell of
the sacred incense, but before he knew it, there was a tall
dark-haired man standing before him who smelled oddly like a pine
forest after a heavy rain. The man smiled at him as the wind caught
his silky robes, and he bowed to Jovian. As the man stood back
upright, Jovian saw it was the same man he noticed before, and he
instantly realized who it was. Maeven had shaved off all his hair
since the last time Jovian had seen him.

Jovian wondered how much longer
Maeven’s training would last here before he took his pilgrimage to
the temples of the Great Realms that would end at the holy city
Lytoria. There he would be tested. If he passed his test he would
train under the high votary for a year before he was able to go
forth to his holy calling.

“Wonder what they wear under their
robes?” Joya asked a scowling Angelica. “From the look of that
blond one, nothing, huh?” Angelica elbowed Joya into
silence.

Jovian quirked an eyebrow looking after
the man curiously, then shook his head and watched as the votary
took her place behind the altar.

“Today we are gathered in honor of High
Summer. It is now that we join in fellowship to honor our most Holy
Mother …” It was about now that Jovian’s mind drifted from the
ritual and he gazed around at the assembled people, all in their
best ritual garb, which looked hardly worn, like they only ever
took it out for such occasions. He felt a light breeze ripple the
legs of his birthday trousers, and he looked down to his feet.
Apparently this action was done just in time as others bowed their
head for prayer. Jovian respectfully half-closed his eyes but did
not follow the prayer, and instead worried his lip wondering how he
had gotten that dark smudge on his boots.

Damn it,
he thought with a frown.
These boots are new.
Sighing, he
lifted them up a little to inspect them more, but a firm elbow from
Angelica in his side nearly toppled him into the person beside him.
Obviously Angelica did not think inspecting his boots was very
reverent.

Jovian remained impatiently still for
the rest of the ceremony, which thankfully was much shorter than
Candalyn’s ever was. Before Jovian had much time to fall back into
contemplation, the robed men were sweeping back through the crowd
handing out unlit torches.

One of the men strode to the center of
the circle where there was a small pit into which he piled tinder
to make a small fire. The dryness of the night helped and before
long the flint and steel created a thin wisp of flame that soon
became a fair-sized fire.

Jovian took his torch from a different
man, and following everyone else, he stepped forward to light his
torch from the fire just made in the center. He turned to see a
humongous pile of wood behind the altar he had not noticed until
now. This he knew from High Summer celebrations on the plantation
was the ceremonial bonfire to honor the sun on the first day of the
summer.

As torches flared to life, cries and
cheers broke out around the crowd, and Jovian felt his blood slowly
rising with the cheering mob. Adrenalin had seized him, and he felt
his heart pounding as Angelica joined in hooting and hollering
beside him. Everyone seemed in a right fit yelling and baying at
the sky, celebrating and praising the Goddess. Some people began
jumping, waving their lit torches in the air, and still others
danced hypnotically in their spots.

For an instant Jovian felt the spirit
of the moment take hold of him as he hollered out as well, his
throat catching at the intensity of his calling. His eyes watered,
and he took several deep breaths and even more swallows to sooth
his throat before calling out again.

The whole circle seemed possessed of a
single mind as they all waved their flames high above them, calling
out and screaming like a pack of wild animals. The field echoed
with their praise, and Jovian could not remember a single
celebration as this that had ever moved him so much.

He smiled briefly at Angelica thinking
that the pile of wood before them had never been this big at home,
and he tried to imagine what the towering flames would be
like.

A gong sounded loud and clear,
contributing to the mirth. It did not sound just once, however; it
was a constant deep ripple through the circle, raising the blood
even more, and making some people go absolutely fanatic with the
energy throbbing around them.

One woman fell to her knees, pounding
at the ground with her free hand; others jumped around, making
sounds as if they were ablaze like their torches. Jovian paid them
no mind, however, for he was too wrapped up in his on jubilation.
Before long he felt Angelica’s arm twining around his, and soon
they were moving in a tight circle, whirling each other around as
they skipped and leaped through the air, waving their flames. Joya
was beside them, and occasionally they would trade places with
her.

Finally they stopped, all dizzy with
the motion. But the vertigo did not hinder their celebration; on
the contrary they felt more open to the Goddess now than they had
ever before.

Gasping for air between his now hoarse
cries, Jovian followed suit with everyone else and lodged his torch
at the stack of wood.

A deafening silence hovered over the
crowd as they waited for the fire to catch. It happened all at
once; it was not a gradual catching but instead something close to
an eruption as the fire boomed to life.

Another deafening moment of screaming
and hooting exploded as the fire towered some twenty feet into the
sky. Jovian was gasping and swallowing too hard to scream anymore,
but Angelica and Joya were among those crazed people cheering for
all they were worth, positively writhing on the spot with the
energy swelling through the night.

Jovian felt the power rush through him;
he felt the energy taking hold of him. Tears swelled in his eyes at
the absolute beauty of the night, and he watched out of the corner
of his eye as Maeven hooted and screamed, jumping so that his robes
flailed in the wind. Sparks flew and the wood popped almost as if
in time with the screaming.

Suddenly a voice screamed out, though
barely audible above the din: “I am She, the waters that quench
your thirst and the fertile earth bearing you good harvests. I am
the Moon rising high, teaching you of mysteries past and wisdoms as
yet unknown. I am the Mother that bore you into this world. The
teacher of lives past and the nurturer that gently guides your feet
on the path of the wise.”

Jovian was not sure how he had heard
it, but it seemed as though he was not the only one, for soon many
voices screamed out with him:

“SO BE IT!” They screamed it so loud it
thundered over the field. The raucous noise continued, and soon the
woman who had screamed out the passage was stumbling out of the
circle, as if drunk, to stand before the fire. Everyone fell
silent, for there was no doubt that this woman was channeling some
force that was other than human.

“I am the Divine Feminine,” she yelled,
and again it was answered with a deafening, “SO BE IT!” However,
this time, Jovian did not say anything, for he was stunned. He had
never seen anyone act so fevered from a ceremony before. His breath
caught as she held her arms up in praise to the sky and swayed
where she was as if she were a tree in a stiff wind. Her glazed
eyes were open, peering up at the sky, and as Jovian came to
himself he realized those glazed eyes belonged to
Rosalee.

The red head began to whirl on the
spot, spinning in a circle so that her blue wispy dress swirled
around her, and her bare feet beat at the ground as if she were
trying to drum out a tune. She arched her back as she spun and
started to laugh manically, drunkenly. Her crazed laughter was
answered with more shouts and cries as the group once again raised
their voices loud.

The moon had risen some time ago, and
the silver light streamed down on them. As if in answer to its
light, everyone started jumping and pointing, hooting and crying.
The energy of the place was so intense that Jovian also felt tears
leak from his eyes as he jumped with the crowd, feeling as frenzied
as Rosalee appeared still twisting in the middle of the
circle.

“Behold the beauty of my passage
through the starry sky. Rejoice in my phases, and take heart for
mine is the glory, and the love, So Be It!” Rosalee lamented as she
spotted the moon.

“SO BE IT!” Jovian screamed smiling a
stupid, almost drunk smile.

“I am the Goddess, the Creator of the
Universe, and the Guardians of the Stars. I am the Keeper of
knowledge, and the spark of life within all,” Angelica cried out,
and Jovian gave a slight pause, as did Joya, as they stared at
their sister, smiling widely and screaming once more. As with
Rosalee’s cry, Angelica’s was heard around the circle, and was
answered with a resounding:

“SO BE IT!”

“Come unto me, you whom seek
salvation,” Rosalee picked up again. “Never again will you know
hunger, never again pain. Seek me out in your Darkest Dour, and we
will prevail against Death, Pain, Confusion, and Grief.”

“SO BE IT!”

“Come to your Goddess; become one with
me again, for you and I are never separate, this is the greatest
wisdom, the Silver Law. SO BE IT.”

“SO BE IT.”

It seemed impossible to imagine the
ritual ending, but eventually it did. Angelica did not scream out
again, and a stumbling, raving Rosalee had been led away from the
dying bonfire by Grace. They gathered not far from the fire, where
the ritual feast was being brought out from town, and they all fell
upon the food ravenously.

The music began as the feast ended;
haunted singing started from the mouths of three young girls as
they walked forward toward the now weak-flamed bonfire. The
language in which they sang was very odd to Jovian, and he felt a
funny prickling run up his spine as he watched the three girls,
dressed in sky blue robes with rings of flowers in their hair,
dancing a strange, bobbing beat around the altar, one hand each
clasped at the center of the altar creating a triangle of
sorts.

“Who are they?” he asked leaning closer
to Grace who sat on the other side of Joya enjoying a full pipe and
tankard of mead with a very contented look.

“Those are the girls of the village
that have taken oaths to the Goddess. They are novices in her
sisterhood right now, studying at the temple. The Spring Equinox
will see them to Lytoria where they will be made priestesses, and
then a life of study awaits them.”

Jovian leaned back and watched the
girls suddenly start to sway as they walked, skipping a few steps
here, and bending low there to touch the ground. The dance was both
beautiful and exotic, absolutely like nothing Jovian had ever seen
before.

Mesmerized, Angelica and Joya both took
his arm as others stood, and the night passed with much dancing,
drinking, and merriment. Jovian could not remember a High Summer
ritual such as that before, and he was fairly sure he would never
know one like it ever again.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

_“J
oya?” the voice called to
her
in the haze of dreams that washed over
her.

“Amber, where are you?” Joya asked,
knowing without a doubt who the voice belonged to. “We are coming
for you, Amber. Where are you?”

In a flash of pristine white Amber’s
face appeared, smiling at Joya. The look was one filled with love
and compassion.

“I am with you now; be still.” If she
could have mustered a frown Joya would have. But Amber’s giggle
stopped her short. “I love you, Joya, and always will. You know
that right?”

Of course she knew that her sister
loved her … but the sentimental moment struck Joya with such force
that suddenly a great sadness came over her, and she felt herself
tremble. The tremble progressed to an outburst of uncontrollable
tears. Was this the last message Joya would ever hear from her
sister?

“There, there,” Amber said, and Joya
felt herself being comforted. “There is no need to cry. We will be
together again before you know it.” Amber paused, leaving a
contemplative lull between the sisters. “Dear Goddess, how much I
miss you all.” With feigned strength Amber straightened her
shoulders and held her chin up, lest she break down in front of
Joya. “For now I must go, but remember what I said—I love you. I
will see you again, Goddess bless you, Joya. Give my love to the
others and tell Jovian and Angelica that I am waiting for them.”
And as soon as she had appeared, Amber was gone. Joya woke with a
gasp, tears pouring from her eyes.