The Rings of Poseidon (8 page)

There was silence for a moment and the wind
splattered more rain against the windows, while it drummed on the
cabin roof. "Sounds as if you were," said Steve at length.

"Too late to save the jeans from a soaking, I
mean. As to what you missed, I'd say it was an ... experience.

"Experience?"

"It was as if we all shared the same dream,"
said Gill.

"Dream?"

"I lived through what happened to the fella
who had the ring," said Steve. He watched Frank raise his eyebrows,
but he made no comment, so Steve continued, "I must have told the
story to Ali and Gill at the same time, near as I can make
out."

"So tell me his story," said Frank, more to
Alicia than Gill. "As you experienced it. We'll worry about the
'how' later, right now I'm interested in the 'what.'" At that
moment the kettle boiled and the cabin door opened as Manjy came
in.

"I'll just brew up first, then we can all
settle down to listen," said Steve as he switched off the
kettle.

Alicia told Steve's story just as he had
experienced it. "... And I suppose he died shortly after from the
spear wound. He could easily have fallen where we found the
remains," she finished, glancing at her wrist watch. It had taken
about ten minutes in the telling.

"Logical explanation," said Frank, echoing
Alicia's first reaction, "It could be for real. I mean, the detail
is in line with what we know."

"I think perhaps the ring is storing up
memories of a previous owner." Manjy chimed in, "Either that or
Steve was that person in a past life."

If Alicia heard her she ignored her, saying
to Frank, "It was very interesting but I don't know what we
experienced and I don't know how we could verify the details."

"Well now," said Frank slowly, "if there's a
hand somewhere about the entrance to the village we'll come across
it pretty soon. I guess that would be proof, at least to the three
of you anyway."

"And what would be proof to you?" Gill wanted
to know.

"Proof of what? The whole thing's pretty
incredible," added Alicia.

Frank was cautious still. "I don't know what
you experienced, I've only heard you tell me a story," he said. "I
don't know what would be proof until I know what you shared."

Manjy tried again. "If the ring was
responsible before, try it again. See whether we 'share an
experience' as Steve put it."

There was a long silence, broken by an
uncomfortable sounding Steve. "She's right. Somebody else has to
put on the ring and see what we get."

"Before you get too excited," said Frank,
"remember the ring is bronze or at least copper. The owner got it
from his father early on in the bronze age. The ring may not have
much more of a story to tell anyway."

"Still, someone's got to try, otherwise
you'll all think I'm some sort of a nut case."

"We won't," said Gill.

"Well I might think that I am myself," said
Steve.

"All right, I'll try it on," said Gill.
Before anyone could argue she picked up the ring and put pushed it
onto the third finger of her right hand.

Chapter 7

I was about five summers old when they sent
me to train as a priestess. Five or six, I don't recall now, but I
do remember it was a long journey for a child. Well, it was a long
journey for anyone. Three weeks or more it took us.

Before I undertook such a venture my mother
and father went into the circle of stones and our priestess made an
offering. Only when she was satisfied that all was well did she say
that I could go and my parents solemnly kissed me goodbye. It's so
long ago and so far away that I cannot remember what manner of folk
they were. Good, ordinary folk, I suppose. I remember them only
dimly as warm and kindly persons who provided my food, warmth and
security. I recall them less clearly as individuals and not at all
as regards their status in the village.

We set off early and at first we followed the
river valley near home uphill, crossing the river when it was no
more than a stream and went down the far side of the mountains.
That part didn't take long and we were already going down when we
camped for the first night.

There was a woman to look after me. She was a
comparative stranger, since I hadn't seen her before she arrived at
my village a week earlier, but she was a kindly person and treated
me well. She was tall with an air of confidence that was not quite
authority. I think she would be in her early twenties, but she
might have been younger - after all this time I cannot be sure and,
in any event, a child as young as I was then is a poor judge of
age. Be that as it may, I became very attached to her and insisted
on sleeping with her when we camped, not that she seemed to mind. I
think she had an escort of only two or three and another four of
our people went with us as well.

We crossed several more streams, going
steadily down all the time. We rode for a time alongside a
substantial river to our left and camped the second night on its
bank. It was a grand camp as far as a small child was concerned.
The ponies we were riding and the two pack animals were tied for
the night, then three hide covered lean-to shelters were made from
cut branches. When the shelters were built, a fire was lit and
supper was cooked. I remember noticing that Nerfin, the woman
taking care of me, didn't eat the meat, though there was plenty if
she had wanted it. It's strange that I should remember a fact like
that.

There were mostly paths, though not always.
Sometimes there was a track leading to a bigger village and
sometimes no path at all and we just seemed to follow a river.
Usually we camped near villages and the people were friendly
enough, even treating Nerfin and to a lesser extent me, with
respect. Once we were invited into a village and Nerfin and I slept
in a house, but mostly we camped and Nerfin traded with the
villagers for food.

Then we followed another river, on the right
hand this time. I had never seen one so big, but remember first
that I was a child and second that I was untravelled. There were
more villages now and more people. The land was hilly and grassy.
There were tame cattle and sheep everywhere, with guarded pens for
them at night. Though I hadn't seen any wolves on my journey, I was
old enough to know them as a threat, but too young to realise that
they weren't much of a threat in summer, provided they were left
alone.

At last we came to a group of houses, wooden
and above ground, surrounded by a circular ditch and bank, with
entrances at either end. I remember I didn't think the ditch and
the bank would do much to stop an intruder and guessed, more or
less correctly, that the bank marked a boundary as much as
anything. If I hadn't spent three weeks camping I would have been
nervous of sleeping in a house built above ground but, as it was, I
had no qualms.

There were several girls about my age, all
training to be priestesses, as well as some older girls, further
along the path of the goddess, and we all had our duties in the
house. Of course we had to keep ourselves clean and groomed - we
had to look our best for the Goddess - and we had to take turns at
keeping the house tidy. Besides that we had weaving and spinning to
do, as well as our studies of the stars and the herbs. I soon
settled into a comfortable routine, for life was even and regular
in the village. I quickly discovered that it was a temple. The
actual temple building was the largest one of the group, and there
were some twenty-five or so altogether with the various trainees
and the active priestesses and the one or two old women. There were
no men or boys living in the compound, but it was not forbidden to
speak or mix with those outside if we had any spare time.

I think I was probably a good-looking child,
small with long dark hair and an oval shaped face. It took me quite
a time to braid my hair each morning, combing it out and then
putting it in a single broad plait that hung down to my waist. I
was certainly a bright child, learning to spin and weave with some
dexterity, but also learning about life to an extent far beyond my
years. I soon understood why the priestesses must keep their
virginity for the fertility rites at Beltane each year. I don't
know whether I fully appreciated the finer points which make it an
enjoyable experience, but I certainly knew more about the basics
than I should have done and, of course, accepted it.

At Beltane, in two or three villages chosen
for that year, one of the priestesses and one of the men of that
village, chosen by ballot, mated. The prayers to the Goddess were
said over the fields and the animals. Afterwards the Beltane fires
were lit and the whole village took part in the fertility rites. At
the high temple, which was the holiest of places, one of the
younger priestesses, a virgin vowed to the Goddess, led the mating
and the fertility rites each year.

I saw little of Nerfin after the journey and
the first few weeks. The house was ruled over by an older woman and
my own particular friend, a dark-looking girl about a year older
than me, was called Eyebright after the herb because, as the name
suggests, she was a bright-eyed little thing. I don't remember her
true name after all these years: perhaps I never knew it.

I grew up in the house from a little girl to
a young woman. I would have been about twelve when the decision was
made to build a new temple. A spot was chosen in the middle of a
grassy plain about a day's ride away from the place we had used
from time out of mind. The area was farmed, I think, but there was
to be a circular ditch with the earth piled up inside, much as the
present site but bigger. There would be two entrances and a
circular temple, with a circular veranda with a circle of stones
marking the position of the sun's and moon's risings and settings
at different times of year, so that we would know exactly when
midsummer and midwinter were.

One day, just before the work started, the
old woman in charge of the house came up to me and said that the
High Priestess required my presence in the temple. When I walked
into the temple she was talking to Nerfin so I stood in silence
until she had done. She turned her attention to me, studying me
carefully. She told me at length, "You have been chosen for the
blessing at the start of work on the new temple."

I knew, of course, what this meant and was
filled with several conflicting emotions. I realised it was a great
honour that the Goddess required me for something so important but
I was also more than a little afraid. I said nothing.

"You will be prepared by Nerfin for a
ceremony next new moon." Her tone did not allow for dissent, though
I would not have argued anyway. I had only eight days to prepare
myself. Of course, looked at another way, I had only eight days to
worry about the event and my part in it.

We rode to the site just two days before the
ceremony. In the middle of the plain, in the hollow of a low hill,
was a solitary rock: flattish, about four feet wide by six feet
long by three feet high. This was to be the altar for the ceremony:
I think it was always intended that it remain in place and become
the altar of the temple itself. Certainly that's what happened
anyway.

I had a tent nearby and on the eve of the
ceremony Nerfin first made me bathe in a stream and then rubbed my
skin with herb oils to make it smell pleasing, then I combed my
long hair but let it hang loose. Nerfin painted me with the symbols
of the Goddess and led me naked and shivering with fright to the
rock. The only concession made to my comfort was a sheepskin
covering it and I had to lie on this. The rock was circled by
priestesses and other officials, to see that the offering was made
as custom demanded. I lay there and waited.

I gave myself to the Goddess and my
virgin-blood was the offering. Work could begin on the temple. I do
not know to this day who he was, but he was gentle in his taking of
me.

After the blessing ritual, work began on the
ditch and the bank and I returned to the temple with Nerfin to find
myself a fully established priestess. Of course I was still
learning - predicting eclipses and so on, the medical effects of
herbs and how to find them - but I took up regular duties in the
temple.

About six weeks after the ceremony I began
being ill: foods which I liked before now made me sick. Looking
back I cannot see how any woman could be so naive as not to see the
connection, but I was very young then and my monthly cycles had
hardly begun. So it was that I failed to recognise the life within
me and it was Nerfin that recognised my pregnancy before I did. I
think all those at the temple rejoiced with me when I did know, but
I was more glad than they when I stopped being ill!

The temple grew and so did I. The soil from
the deeper of two circular ditches was thrown up into two banks:
the higher inside the ditch, the lower outside. A second ditch was
dug inside the bank and the soil used to raise the bank itself even
further. In a single summer most of the preliminary work was done.
If I have spoken much of the temple, which I visited only once
before my confinement, and little of my pregnancy, it's because
everyone has seen plenty of pregnant women! My only claim to fame
was that I was unusually young. Once I got over my morning sickness
I was very fit and was slowed down only by my own awkward shape in
later months.

The temple was started just after the Spring
equinox, so my time came in mid-winter, just when the weather was
at its coldest. Even with fires burning in our houses, ice
sometimes formed on the washing and drinking water. We piled on
extra covers and snuggled down within the beds. I was not very big
but, fortunately, my daughter took after me and was small too. I
was young and fit, a little scared and very unknowing - I was more
scared when I knew what to expect. I spent a miserable night with
backache and stomach ache, but I did not realise that it was part
of labour. The bearing of my child was like ... well, what was it
like? Like shitting a lump of rock I suppose. I was wondering how
much longer I could put up with cold feet and legs rather than pain
and discomfort before it was done.