NaNoWriMo 2005: 12015 Words

The cavelike room was small and dark, and the row of high windows and hole in the ceiling which let in some of the crescent moonlight did little to filter out the smoke from the rushlights on the walls and the incense burning before the altar. The floor of the circular room was tightly packed earth; the chamber itself lay mostly underground. High priests and priestesses lined the walls in their white robes, save for the empty arch of the doorway. Aside from the bubbling of the spring which welled up at the base of the carved stone altar to form a narrow pool around it, all was silent.

Presently, a bell rang. Three times the clear sound drifted into the chamber, and then through the smoke the outlines of two forms could be seen in the doorway. Moving without a sound in their bare feet, Celwyn led Fianna to the center of the chamber.

The young woman was thing and almost luminously pale, of an average height yet giving an impression of smallness. Bright red hair spilled unbound over her back to her waist. Her eyes were closed and she moved slowly, as one in a trance. Celwyn, the ceremonial circlet of the high priestess resting on her head, helped Fianna into a kneeling position and took a sword, intricately carved on blade and hilt with ancient and holy designs from Lord Maddeg's hands. A drumbeat started at the back of the chamber, soft and steady as the heartbeat of the earth itself. Moving to its rhythm, Celwyn traced a circle in the floor around Fianna. Then, with a curved dagger taken from the altar, she cut into the kneeling girl's right hand, only deep enough to draw blood. Fianna, scarcely wincing, held the hand over the sacred pool and allowed the red drops to fall into the water. With all of the majesty of her position, the high priestess raised her arms to the crescent of the moon seen through the open space in the ceiling.

"Mother Goddess Gwenna," Celwyn intoned, "Father Gwyddon the Bright One, Gods of the Kingdom and spirits of the earth, air, fire, and water which give us life-- hear us now. Take the voice of this your servant and speak to us. As her blood has become one with your blood, so let your voices become one voice. Tell us what you have written in the stars of our Kingdom's fate now that our Queen is gone."

She stepped back to take her place beside Lord Maddeg behind the altar. The drumbeat reached a crescendo and stopped. For several long moments, an eternity to those who waited with bated breath and every nerve trembling, silence reigned. Even Celwyn, who had witnessed the ceremony scores of times in her life, still felt a twinge of the old fear now, as always, that no answer would come-- that the Gods would remain silent, had left them, abandoned them all.

Fianna screamed.

The piercing sound cut through the quiet chamber like a cold knife blade. More than one of the Wise Ones started, but none spoke or stepped forward. Every eye was trained on Fianna, who screamed again, a cry of pain and fear and, above all, power. With one last wail, she rose to her feet, seeming suddenly larger than before, and opened green eyes that shone with an unnatural light. They were eyes that did not see the chamber, or the Wise Ones, or, indeed, anything in this world. Fianna's eyes saw through and beyond everything, into a place no one else fully knew, though they may have glimpsed it.

"The Queen--" Her voice was strong and clear as the beating drums or the ringing bell; old as time, it flowed like the rivers and the wind, it echoed like the waves, it was patient as the earth itself. Yet she struggled and gasped as she spoke, as if with pain, as if the little body of Fianna could scarcely hold the power pulsing through it. "Ah! The Queen has fallen. Dark shadows follow the King and soon consume him-- the snakes with poisoned tongues will bite, will bring him down-- see how he falls! Before the next moon comes, his love embraces him again. The Prince flees, he finds the realm of the Gods. They come! Ah, they come!" The words came faster, more urgently. "Far away a new Queen rises. The Queen Star of Peace, she finds her lost people. The girl will lead her-- the child of the Gods. The child of the Gods-- she is among us, she is here! The daughter of the God and the boy from the stars who rides the sky dragon-- the dragons come with a rain of fire if the two cannot hide us. The old magic fades, they come..." Her voice rose to a frantic scream. "Over the borders, soon they come! The old magic fails, the storm breaks, they are coming!" Fianna gave one last scream of terror and crumpled to the ground.

Celwyn exchanged a look with Talwyr and she and one or two others rushed to the unconscious girl's side and bore her from the room. The rest began a rapidly rising murmur of speculation, confusion, fear. "Who are coming?" "The Gods. It is the end of the world." "She said the King and the Prince would fall." "A new Queen? What new Queen?" "What child of the Gods? Who is it? Surely we would know if such a one was among us." "She said the Gods are coming here!"

Talwyr turned to Maddeg, who remained where he had stood throughout the ceremony, looking contemplative and increasingly angry. "And so, Lord Maddeg. It seems the end of days has been prophesied. How to you propose to explain that to your people?" The remark held an incongruous tone of gentle amusement.

"You know very well I cannot," Magged snapped. "Nor will I need to. There is nothing in these utterances but the confused ramblings of a mad girl. I will tell my people what they expect to hear."

"May I suggest," Talwyr continued as though he had not heard the malice in the high priest's voice, "that you underestimate the child? But no matter. These prophecies are easily misinterpreted, as well we all know."

"No," Maddeg practically growled, "you may not suggest. You have no authority to suggest here. This is still my Temple, Talwyr, and here my word is the God's word and is obeyed!"

Pushing his inferiors to the side, the priest strode purposefully from the low chamber.

For the first time, Talwyr looked concerned. Stroking his beard, he murmured, "Oh, dear..."

***
Pearl was dreaming about unicorns. In the dream, she wandered among the garden flowers, following the unicorn as it trotted along the paths. Every now and then it would turn back to look at her, as if to make sure she was keeping up, and each time she saw it that beautiful feeling of joy and peace she'd known in the woods came back to her. It seemed that she could nearly reach out and touch its tail when a sharp pain in her side broke the dream up.

The pain came again and again, and she opened her eyes to see the gaunt figure of Lord Maddeg leaning over her with a torch in hand, kicking her into awareness, his eyes wild. Enough of the good feeling from the unicorn remained that she was not at first at all disturbed by this but, supposing to be morning, scrambled to get to her feet and begin the day's chores. But before she was even off her knees the high priest had grabbed her arm hard enough to cause her to gasp and was dragging her through the Temple corridors and onto the main balcony overlooking the courtyard. She observed with a start that it was still nighttime, and that people packed the space below. The pleasantness of the unicorn dream was quickly giving way to a terrible fear.

"Wise Ones," Maddeg proclaimed, hushing the chattering crowd, "people of the Kingdom, hear me now! Tonight we have heard a Speaking for Queen Lilien, who rests now at eternal peace with the Gods! Tonight the Gods have Spoken to us, and we have heard the future of the Kingdom!" The crowd below now waited in an anticipatory hush. "Darkness and shadows surround the Royal House! Uncertainty now will reign! The Gods are angry with us! They demand to know that our devotion remains true! And if we prove it to be so, a new ruler will come, one led by a child of the Gods themselves! If not, we are doomed-- our magic will fail us and the Gods will come forth to claim the price we refuse them!" The voices of the crowd rose again. "But I say we shall not refuse them!" Maddeg's voice rose in pitch. "Witness me now!"

He threw Pearl to the ground in front of him and, before she could gather her wits about her, there was a truncheon in his hand. She covered her face as best she could as the blows began to fall. Maddeg spared nothing-- he clubbed and kicked at once. Usually Pearl could stand the beatings, but this-- this was something else entirely. It was worse than anything she'd ever known before, and she knew she was crying. Faintly she could hear herself begging, "Please-- stop!" But instead he wrenched her hands away from her face, pulled her toward him.

"Child of the Gods," he said so that only she and he could hear. "There is no child of the Gods in my Temple. No, not in my Temple! Thought they could fool me? Let's see how immortal you are!"

Amid her pain, Pearl wondered briefly what he was talking about. Again and again the thought rang through her head: I didn't even do anything. But she knew that here and now it didn't matter. She could see in Lord Maddeg's eyes that he was going to kill her.

She heard Lady Celwyn's voice somewhere nearby. "Let her go, Maddeg."

To Pearl it sounded like she was again saying, Everyone dies. Some sooner, some later, but everyone dies. But then, too, everyone lives. That's the gift you should treasure, young one. It's the greatest gift you will ever receive.

Talwyr, too, was speaking. "Let the child go. You have no quarrel with her. She does not know; she need never know."

You were able to touch the unicorn's horn, Talwyr had told her. Not every maiden may do that, only the most pure of heart. And, that, too is a kind of magic. I don't need to teach you that, it is already within you. That is my second lesson to you today. Inside you already have a great power...

Celwyn moved to pull Maddeg away from Pearl, but the high priest roughly shoved her away, not batting an eye at Talwyr's threatening countenance.

The peace Pearl had felt when touching the unicorn's horn came over her again, now. Talwyr had said she had a power within her; all at once she felt that it was true. She remembered all the times she had ever dreamed of running away from the Temple and wondered, for the first time, what had ever stopped her from doing it.

No, Pearl. You will not have to stay at the Temple.

Distracted by Talwyr and Celwyn, Maddeg had loosened his iron grip on her wrists.

Use your life well.

Summoning all the strength she had never dreamed until today that she might have, Pearl kicked the Wise One sharply in the shin, pulled herself free, and ran.

She ran through the corridors, the courtyard, out the gate. A few priests moved to stop her, but she dodged them easily.

She did not slow down until she reached the gardens at the base of the hill.


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