by Mary Mackey
She pulled her horse to a stop, sprang off, and ran to him. Arang grabbed her, picked her up off the ground, and whirled her around. He might have the body of a dancer, but his arms were the arms of a warrior. As for his heart, it was still hers.
"You took long enough," he said.
Marrah laughed and cried, thinking of Akoah and how close she had come to escaping, thinking of her own joy at the sight of Arang and the prospect of freedom, and as she cried and laughed, Arang laughed and cried with her.
Stavan as usual was more practical. "What do you have in those bags?" he demanded.
"Food, flints, some warm clothes," Arang said.
"Good work. Come, mount up. We have some hard riding to do. Those warriors won't stay blind forever, and we have to get a good start on the trackers."
Hiknak had caught one of the guard's horses, a big roan with a broad rump and a dark mane. She led it forward, and Arang climbed on. He sat comfortably, holding the reins in one hand. Marrah saw that her brother was becoming a man, and she felt his strength being added to her own.
"The Goddess help me," Arang said, "but I've come to love these beasts."
"Then let's take them back to Shara with us!" she cried, and with that they wheeled around and rode out of the camp.
They rode all night. A little before dawn, it began to snow. By mid-morning the flakes were coming down hard and fast, filling in their tracks almost as fast as they made them. The snow drifted and blew; it rose on the wind and filled the great white sky; it transformed the steppes into an endless roll of soft linen; it erased every trace of their passing. When they finally stopped to rest, Stavan built them a snow cave, and they slept together as warm as if they'd been in one of the longhouses of Xori.
That night Marrah had a dream. She was walking in the woods. Suddenly she saw a white owl sitting on a dead branch. The owl blinked; her eyes were as yellow as gold. In their dark centers Marrah saw the whole world reflected: every rock and stone, every tree, every city, every person, every animal, everything, even the tiny birds that nested in the tall grasses and the insects that lived for only a day. Realizing the owl must be the Goddess, she knelt before Her.
"Where are you going?" the owl said.
"Home, dearest Mother."
"Then go with my blessing." The owl rose into the air. In Her talons She held a feathered cape like the one Marrah had worn on her coming-of-age day. The cape was woven of feathers of every color of the rainbow — colors no one had ever seen before, colors no one had even dreamed of.
The owl let the cape fall and Marrah caught it. As she touched the feathers, she felt a great sense of joy and well-being. All the pain of her captivity vanished like melting snow, and she knew they would reach Shara safely.
"Come," the owl called. "Hurry up, Marrah; there's no time to waste. Dinner's ready and your mother's waiting for you."
The great bird spread Her wings and flew west.
Marrah wrapped herself in the feathered cape and set out after Her.
Historical Note
The Goddess-worshiping cultures of Old Europe persisted for another two thousand years. By 2500 B.C.E. the conquest of the matristic, earth-centered societies was complete, at least on the surface, but the God of the Shining Sky never triumphed entirely. Even today both currents run through European culture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARY MACKEY is the author of thirteen novels and six collections of poetry. Related through her father's family to Mark Twain, she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. In her twenties, she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. For a number of years, she has been traveling to Europe and Brazil and incorporating her experiences into her fiction and poetry
Mackey's novels, which have sold over a million copies, have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and been translated into twelve foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, and Finnish. At present, she lives in northern California with her husband Angus Wright, and is Professor Emeritus of English at California State University. To learn more about her you are invited to visit her webpage at: www.marymackey.com. She can also be found on Facebook.
BOOKS BY MARY MACKEY
The Year The Horses Came (The First Book of The Earthsong Trilogy)
The Horses at the Gate (The Second Book of The Earthsong Trilogy)
The Fires of Spring (The Third Book of The Earthsong Trilogy)
Immersion
McCarthy's List
The Last Warrior Queen
A Grand Passion
The Kindness of Strangers
Season of Shadows
The Notorious Mrs. Winston
The Widow's War
Breaking the Fever (poetry)
Sugar Zone (poetry)
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A NOTE ON THE ECOLOGY OF OLD EUROPE
MAP
PROLOGUE
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
HISTORICAL NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BOOKS BY MARY MACKEY
