* * * *
The two young women spent a great deal of that day discussing what to do for the best, and it was decided that Fern should try to talk to Wardyke about Isar and to Isar about Wardyke, and to let them meet, but at first only in her presence.
‘If you forbid him to see Isar he will do everything in his power to take the boy from you. You must be subtle. You must be cunning. You must be watchful. Isar is held to you and Karne by bonds of love and trust that nothing can break. Wardyke will accept this when he has tried and failed, but never if he is prevented from trying.’
Fern admitted to still being very much afraid of Wardyke.
‘But he has no powers as magician now,’ Kyra said.
‘I know, but I still fear him and I cannot bear to speak with him. When he came yesterday, I hid, and Karne did all the talking.’
‘I think that is unwise. Karne is anxious and impatient, and does not always consider the full implications of what he says or does. You must discuss the matter with him before Wardyke comes again and make Karne understand it is the only way to keep Isar. You cannot hide him forever.’
Fern nodded sadly.
* * * *
The work at the college was becoming more and more demanding and Kyra had little time to visit Karne and Fern again.
Her experience with the rock in the Field of the Grey Gods, combined with the remarkable advances she had made in all her studies, earned her a special meeting with the Lord Guiron.
‘I have been watching you, my child,’ he said, ‘and have decided that if you wish it you may enter now the first stage of priesthood.’
This meant she would be qualified to be a village priest and would have a ceremony of inauguration.
She gasped.
‘But my advice to you is not to leave the college at this stage, but to study for the higher grades. I think,’ he said, looking deeply into her eyes, ‘you have the capacity to enter the highest grade of all.’
One of the legendary Lords of the Sun!
She was overwhelmed.
She had dreamed and longed for this, but it had seemed so impossible.
‘I remember you had experience of ‘spirit-travelling’ long before you came to us as student. You still have much to learn as I am sure you realise, but the Lord Khu-ren tells me, and I have noticed, that you learn fast.’
Kyra blushed with pleasure and her hand went involuntarily to the faience beads about her neck.
She saw Guiron’s eyes follow the movement of her hand and smile with amusement. How much did he know?
There was an awkward silence between them for a moment, Kyra’s heart beating fast with joy at the implications of what she had just been told.
‘Your inauguration as a priest will be at noon six days from now. Prepare yourself.’
She bowed, but did not turn to go as was expected of her.
He raised an eyebrow enquiringly.
‘My Lord,’ she stammered, and stopped.
He waited patiently, a very impressive figure.
She trembled with the audacity of what she was about to ask.
‘My Lord...’ she brought out with difficulty again. ‘Is it possible ... I mean ... is there a law against the marriage of priests of the highest grades?’
She had said it, and she was scarlet!
He turned away from her and walked two or three times across the room, his face lowered and in shadow.
She was alarmed.
‘I ... am sorry...’ she muttered.
He came to stand at last before her and his face was hard and composed as she had never seen it before.
‘There is no law,’ he said, ‘but it is not the custom, nor is it advisable.’ She bowed hastily and retreated backwards from his presence.
Outside, she stood in confusion. She felt she could not face her fellow students and went for a long walk by herself.
* * * *
She followed the path from the Temple to the Ridgeway, not noticing the quiet fields on either side, the silent burial mounds, the woods and houses that stretched beyond.
Her journey was in the past, marking the moments in her life that had led her to this point, and wondering about the moments in her life that would lead her on beyond it.
So absorbed was she that his arms were about her and his lips on hers before she even knew he was there.
‘My lord!’ she gasped, and then gave up everything of past and future to the beauty of the present moment.
When they at last had drawn apart and were sitting close together on the grass, she said, ‘The Lord Guiron said it is not the custom, nor is it advisable, for priests of the highest grades to marry.’
He untied the coil of her hair and shook the golden shower of it about her shoulders, twining his fingers in it to pull her head back to kiss her lips again.
‘It is not advisable, nor is it the custom, but it is not against the law,’ he said.
‘You mean...?’
‘I mean ... take one step at a time, my love. You are entering my class as a student ... not as my wife...’
She flushed and turned away, ashamed that she had presumed so much.
‘On the day you have learned all that I have to teach and we stand equally within the inner circle of the Priesthood, I will ask you then if you wish to defy custom and ignore advisability. I will not take you as master to student, lord to awestruck girl!’
She buried her face in her knees, not wanting him to read in her eyes how much she wanted to be taken now. ‘Dignity’ and ‘equality’ were cold, hard words in the turmoil of her present feelings.
He must have felt it too because he suddenly stood up and said sharply, ‘Come. The sun is setting.’
They did not touch again, nor speak, as they walked down the gradually darkening path towards the Temple.
11
Kyra’s Inauguration
In the next few days Kyra had many formalities to attend to, and most of them in the pouring rain.
Her student friends were delighted with her success but sorry to see her move out of their immediate circle. She would now live on the other side of the Temple among the other priests who were continuing their studies, and would be cut off from her old companions in many ways.
The last but one night before the ceremony, they made an enormous bonfire in a field some distance from the college and had a wild party, all their years of serious study forgotten, and they danced and sang as they used to dance and sing in their home communities when they were still carefree children.
Someone smuggled in strong ale and at the end when the rain that had been threatening all evening started to fall really heavily, the party became a disorderly but cheerful scramble in the mud.
The dawn found many a bedraggled student fumbling his way home to the college sleeping quarters, and the classes that day were very subdued.
If the teachers knew of the event, they gave no sign. It is possible such parties were not unknown.
They had chosen the last night but one for the party because the actual night before had to be spent by Kyra alone in the Sanctuary, meditating.
Her head ached from the previous night’s revelries, but she had learned to ignore natural pain in herself and soon had it under control.
It was much more difficult to control her thoughts.
But she had not come this far without learning anything and, difficult though it was, it was not long before she was in deep meditation.
This night she must speak with spirits and listen to their guidance and advice.
* * * *
With the dawn the priests of higher rank arrived to prepare her with prayers and incantations for the day. She had special oil from an exquisite gold jar rubbed gently into her forehead, and she was dressed in a plain white robe with no decoration or ornaments. It seemed to have been woven in one piece and was beautiful in its elegance and simplicity.
They made a move to take the necklace of faience beads from her throat, but she put up her hand t
o protect it from them with such fierce determination that the priest in question drew back his hand in some alarm and looked for guidance from his fellow priests.
No words were said, but the Lord Khu-ren stepped forward and took her hand away from the necklace, lifted it slightly and dropped it down underneath the white robe so that no sign of it showed. But she knew it was still there.
He avoided looking into her eyes when he did this or giving any sign to the others that there was anything special between them, but she felt his hand as he moved the beads, and her heart quickened.
They both knew that wearing the beads on the day of inauguration was breaking with an ancient custom and they both took it as a kind of secret sign that this would not be the only custom they would break.
When it was time to leave the Sanctuary she was stunned to see how many people had gathered to watch the procession ... her procession! She wondered if Karne and Fern were there. She had sent a message by Panora, but had been too busy to visit them herself with the news. How proud and pleased they would be to see her walking in such a noble throng!
How she wished Maal could be there with all the people of her home community.
And then she felt ashamed.
The messages she had received in the night had made it clear to her that she was an instrument of the spirit realms and the God from which all things come.
Her only power came from them, her only skill was to open herself and allow their energies to work through her. She was nothing but a willing channel through which the innate life-force of the universe could be concentrated where it was needed most.
The force and meaning of this suddenly struck her as she walked the long, long avenue to the Sacred Circle.
The crowds that pressed in on every side became a blur. The tall and magnificently robed figures of the men and women of the priesthood ahead of her became strange and alien.
What were they doing with such finery?
They were not gods to be worshipped and obeyed.
They were servants of the Great spirit and were there to obey.
And then another thought struck her with the suddenness of pain.
The Lord who walked ahead of her, a cape of blue and gold sweeping over his bare shoulders to drag upon the ground behind him ... what of him?
If she had given up her selfhood, would he be taken from her too?
She had felt so sure that day upon the Ridgeway when he had talked of the time when she would stand equally with him, that she would one day be his wife.
But what if she was told by her spirit Lords that she must not join with him?
What then?
Would she obey?
The procession she had thought would be a triumph and a joy now oppressed her heart.
She kept her eyes lowered, watching her bare feet walking the cold, damp earth.
The sun shone but it had not yet dried up the moisture of the past few days.
Her old misgivings began to trouble her.
Was she fit?
Could she possibly carry the burden of being a priest?
She had enjoyed the dancing at her party.
She had enjoyed the touch of the Lord Khu-ren’s hands and lips.
She knew he suffered too. She had seen the shadows in his dark eyes. But he was stronger than her and accustomed to being a priest.
Perhaps ... and here she looked up quickly to see how far they wereaway from the entrance to the circle...
Perhaps it was not too late...
She had not spoken the words of vow yet.
She had not received the mark of power.
And then...
And then...
She remembered the girl acrobat’s words in the labyrinth when she had said she was not worthy to be a priest...
‘If you are not, then what makes you think you will be worthy to be the wife of the great Lord Khu-ren?’
And he had said: ‘I will not take you as master to student, or lord to awestruck girl.’
And the more she thought, the more she knew that their meeting and everything in her life so far had led step by step with ordered certainty to this place, this ceremony.
She must trust the overwhelming feeling that she had that there was reason in it.
The spirit Lords had let her keep her faience beads in spite of ancient custom decreeing otherwise. She would take this as a sign he and she were meant to be together.
She would go on.
She felt the power of the great circle as she had never felt it before, closing in around her as she entered it. She was exhilarated, but afraid.
There was now no going back.
* * * *
The ceremony was long and impressive.
The low drumming of the musicians, the chanting of the ancient words of initiation, the careful circling of the priests in their ceremonial robes, the occasional sips of a special and potent drink from a golden cup held by the High Priest himself, all served to make her feel less and less like Kyra and more and more like some strange and supernatural being.
She hardly felt the new robes being put upon her, the heavy pendant about her neck, the cloak of blue and gold, similar to Khu-ren’s but not as grand, and finally the circlet of jet beads that fitted around the high gold coil of hair that sat upon her head already like a crown.
When this point was reached she thought all must surely be finished, but there was one thing more.
The others retreated from her, bowing, leaving her alone with the Lord Guiron, the Lord High Priest.
‘My lady,’ he said quietly, ‘I once took something from you and promised to return it to you when you were ready for it.
‘The time has come.’
And he stepped forward and held out his hand palm upwards to her.
On it lay the stone sea urchin she had found in the great cavern.
It was hers.
She bowed her head and took it, feeling strength and confidence coursing through her as she did so.
‘Use it well,’ he said gravely. ‘You have now the mark of the priest upon you.’
He too bowed and retreated from her.
She stood alone as the sun sank and the crowds faded away.
12
Ancient Relationships
Some while later when Kyra was greatly absorbed in her new studies, she felt another call from Fern that could not be ignored.
She asked permission to be absent and went at once to the home of her brother and his family.
As before, Isar was missing.
She questioned Fern about Wardyke and whether they had followed her advice. It seemed they had and all had been going fairly well.
Wardyke was allowed to meet the boy. He had settled in the neighbouring village under Olan’s old enemy, Hawk-Eagle, and came only occasionally to visit. The visits were not pleasurable for any of them, but they passed uneventfully enough and Wardyke seemed content with the way things were.
‘And Panora?’
‘Oh, she has been a great help to me,’ Fern said warmly. ‘She always stays with Isar when Wardyke is with him. He never sees him alone even if Karne and I are not present.’
Kyra was thoughtful. This news did not comfort her.
‘How long has he been missing this time?’
‘He was not in his bed this morning. I do not know if he left in the night or in the early morning before I woke. He often goes out into the garden or down to the stream as soon as the first light comes, so I did not begin seriously to worry until he missed his midday meal. He never misses that!’
Kyra could see she was very worried.
‘I was feeling ill at ease all morning. My garden seemed to be trying to tell me something, but somehow I did not associate it with Isar.’
Kyra knew the difficulty of interpreting ‘feelings’ where there are no words to act as guidelines.
She noted this second disappearance had also occurred while Karne was far from home.
‘I have already looked at the haunt
ed mound,’ Fern said despairingly.
‘You must not worry any more now,’ Kyra said firmly. ‘I found him the last time and I will find him this time.’
She wished she felt as confident as she sounded.
She left Fern to attend to her other child and, as before, sat in the garden and tried to ‘feel’ the presence of Isar. Her mastery of this technique had developed since the early days and she slipped into meditative silence almost immediately, her inner senses scanning the surrounding landscape for any traces of Isar’s thought flow.
The impressions she was receiving were from the other side of the temple, from the Field of the Grey Gods.
They were not very definite, she could see nothing of Isar, but she kept remembering the Field of the Grey Gods and could not put it out of her mind. There was always the danger that her mind had wandered into a memory of her own or was even picking up the thought flow of someone else, but this impression was persistent and the only one she had, so she decided to act upon it.
She told Fern that she thought she had located Isar, that he was quite safe and she was not to worry.
‘I will come with you,’ Fern at once insisted.
‘No,’ Kyra was firm. ‘It is a long way and you have another child who needs you. I will bring him safely to you, but you must not worry if it is not before the sun sets. He has wandered further this time and it will take longer to bring him back.’
Fern’s eyes were full of tears as she watched Kyra leave, but she had great confidence in her and knew that if anyone could find Isar and bring him safely home, it would be Kyra.
As Kyra hurried back to the Temple, she wished she had Fern’s confidence in herself. She fingered the stone sea urchin in her carrying pouch and it seemed the strength it gave her lent her speed. She covered the ground much more swiftly than she normally would have done.
She bypassed the Temple and came along the Ridgeway from near the Sanctuary, passing the junction of the Temple path and the ridge path that meant so much to her in terms of personal happy memories, without even a glance.
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