A Circle of Celebrations
Page 5
I, the voice said. I would please you. The warm touch brushed her hand again and encircled her wrist with a lover’s touch.
Vinory started, afraid. Samon was still here, and not only was he tied to this place, he was now tied to her as well! Abandoning bowl, loaf and hunger, Vinory rushed out into the sunshine.
O O O
At least the ghost didn’t follow her beyond the walls. She ran down the hill toward the fields where all the able-bodied villagers were helping to bring in the hay. The good folk greeted her gladly, offering her bread, cheese, and meat from their own breakfasts. She accepted only enough to keep her from getting lightheaded.
“Now you’re here, will you bless the coming harvest, lady?” the blacksmith said, leaning heavily on his scythe. He swept a hand around to show her a valley filled with dusty gold and dark green. Poppies of that astonishing red clustered at the edge of the cropline.
“How hard you have worked,” Vinory said, sincerely. The villagers straightened up with pride. “Of course I will give the blessing. The gods have been good to this place. It will be a bountiful year. I need a handful of each of the young produce.” Two boys ran off and came back with handfuls of grain, fruit, and tiny, perfect vegetables. Vinory exclaimed over their beauty. “Good. And now I… I need wine, salt, a small bowl, and a crust.”
There were a few odd glances exchanged, and one or two people looked up the hill at her cottage, only a few hundred yards away. Vinory was ashamed to admit she was afraid to go back for her basket, so she waited and smiled politely until somebody gathered the components of the harvest prayer for her. At least her knife was in her belt.
Beckoning the workers together, Vinory sprinkled salt in a circle around the, then advanced to the sunrise side with the wine and bread. The headman, who had witnessed many a harvest rite, came forward with a large, flat stone, which he set down at her feet. Chanting the ritual words, Vinory poured the wine into the bowl and crumbled the bread into it. She held the bowl to the sky, and let the Veil open ever so slightly.
The powers of nature were formidable, but most folk saw only the merest wisp of that influence. It was only during rituals and festivals that they had the opportunity to see what Vinory and the mage-kind saw every day. The headman and his villagers were agog as a mouth opened in the sky and drew the wine and bread up to it in a garnet stream. A beam of light issued down on Vinory and her makeshift altar. The offering was acceptable. Now she filled the bowl with the fruits of the harvest. As she continued her chat of praise and entreaty, the golden light covered the bowl. In a blinding flash, the offering was gone. The light faded into Vinory, leaving her glowing in front of the stone, ponderous with the weight of godhead. She was silent for a long time. The villagers waited respectfully until she spoke.
“The gods hear us, and they are please,” she said, feeling both god and goddess resounding in her chest and brain. “Blessed be this place and these people. The work that they do shall prosper.”
The villagers muttered, “thanksgiving,” and Vinory ended the ritual by touching the point of her knife down to the flat stone, earthing the gods’ power as a symbol of the unity of the planes. When she broke the circle, she drew a little of the godhead into herself to protect her as she walked back up the hill to the cottage. It was hers now. She had earned it. No ghost would dare to keep her from it.
O O O
The bread on the table was stale now, and her broth was gone from the bowl. The cat must have lapped it up as soon as it cooled. Vinory’s movements were abrupt as she prepared another meal to restore her after the drain of rending the Veil.
The spirit presence was immediately at her elbow, offering concern. She pushed away at it with her thoughts, trying to find some peace to think. The spirit kept trying to get her attention.
“Leave off!” she said, irritably. “You’re worse than the cat.” It drew back perceptibly, hovering near the book chest. Vinory ate her meal and took a little rest on the bed with her back propped up against the wool-stuffed pillow. The presence stayed at a distance from her, but she could still feel its regard.
“What do you want?” she demanded at last. Protected by the fragment of light, she let her consciousness open up to the presence. Immediately a sensation of need flowed over her. Vinory raised the godhead as a shield, and the presence withdrew a little. It continued to broadcast to her its feelings: pain, fear, frustration, and despair.
“You are trapped here,” she said. “That I had already guessed. But what do you want of me?”
Her soul was suddenly flying, feeling wings stretching out to either side of her, feeling the air cupped beneath them as strong as a hill. Terrified, Vinory threw up her shield and cowered behind it. The sensation stopped at once. The spirit sent contrition, and she glared in its direction.
“You wish to be free,” she said.
Beside her on the bed, another daffodil appeared, fresh and golden yellow. Vinory reached for it, but her fingers stopped halfway. She could sense the spirit’s anticipation, but she was afraid.
There were spells to free spirits of the dead who had become trapped in a place. But she did not dare to try one of them without knowing how it was Samon met his end. Could his fate drag her along with it? Neither the headman nor her neighbors had mentioned anything haunting this cottage before her arrival. She, the mageborn, must have reawakened him. Now he radiated hope towards her.
“Go away,” she said, leaving the flower untouched on the blanket. “I must think.”
Ignoring the desperation she felt at the perimeter of her consciousness, she drew up wards of protection that she wore all day.
“Oh, yes,” the blacksmith said, scooping polishing sand into a cloth for her. “Master Samon demanded the best from us, but he gave champion service. Saved my cow when she was in calf with twins. Told me his price was I owed him ironwork for a year afer that. I saved no money. He had gauged exactly how long it would take me to pay off two more bullocks. Ah, well,” he said, twisting the corners of the cloth into a knot, “fair measure’s fair, after all.”
“What about the child he left?” Vinory asked, tucking the parcel into her basket. The blacksmith put his own interpretation upon her question.
“She’s all right. Shows no sign of acting like one of the mage—like one of your good folk, lady. Just eight months old, she is. The girl was much too young when he picked her to dance the spring goddess with him, just into womanhood, but she’s turned out a good mother for all that. She’s wed to my son, now.”
O O O
Fair and foul, Vinory thought, as she lay abed that night. The spirit offered caresses and favors, but she kept him firmly at arm’s length. Every one of the folk here have a story to tell about him. He’s trustworthy. He’s not. He’s generous. He’s mean. I don’t know what to believe. And none knew how he died.
O O O
“He was kind, mistress,” the girl said.The house was small but very tidy. In a corner, a baby slept. Vinory glanced at it and noted the dark eyelashes and hair, unlike its mother, who had hair red as a fox’s fur. “He was good to me, so kind and gentlelike. The husband he got for me I have now isn’t nearly as… nice to be with. Though he tries.” She gave a helpless shrug, and a shy smile.
The girl lifted her sleeping infant for Vinory to bless. Halfway through the incantation the child woke, and watched her with eyes far too wise for its age. They reminded her of the sunflower.
O O O
Over the following days, the spirit of Samon kept up its wooing. Every time she sat down, it was at her elbow. It stood at the end of her bed at night, and attended her at table like a servitor. She began to find its constant company oppressive.
“I can never be alone with my thoughts while you’re here,” she complained to the invisible presence. It had grown stronger and more distinct as the moon waxed. Tonight the moon was nearly full. She could almost imagine she could hear Samon speak from the other side of the Veil. She shooed him away so she could think.
“I could dance the autumn and the spring with you, if you set me free,” the spirit told her that night in her dreams. Vinory felt the warm touch of a man’s body against hers, strong muscle, questing hands. She squirmed against the caresses, enjoying them. She brushed against a smooth swell of muscle, which shouted, “Yow!” Vinory’s eyes fluttered open to see the cat scooting across the floor between her and the fire, tail lashing furiously.
I’m just dreaming about the dance because I was thinking about it today, she told herself. Because I’m lonely.
When Vinory settled back to sleep, she forgot again to raise her wards. A tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed man came to her and showed her visions of the times he’d led the dance. He was graceful and slim-legged, with broad shoulders and narrow, strong hands that he used to lead his partner to and fro in the complicated patterns. Vinory felt herself tapping her feet, wishing she could join in. It looked so tempting. The man paused within arm’s reach of her. She called him by name.
“Samon?”
He turned as if to answer, stretching out a hand to her, his eyes agleam… Then she woke up, with the fitful light from a lantern in her eyes.
“Sorry to wake you, mistress,” said Tarili, the baker. “My wife’s baby’s coming. She needs you. The baby’s turned wrong.”
“I’ll come at once,” she said, groaning. Vinory roused herself, and let the dream fade from her mind as she gathered her medicines and paraphernalia. She could now feel the presence standing in the corner, disappointed.
O O O
When she returned after daybreak, exhausted, the spirit resumed its campaign to get her attention, hovering around her like a bee on a lilac bush.
“Oh, go away, Master Samon!” she groaned, half asleep already. “I’m too tired to argue with you.”
“That’s why I’m pushing you now,” he said, to her dreaming mind. “Wouldn’t you like to have someone to warm you? Winter is coming. You could have a babe of your own next summer.”
“I have a dozen babies! The villagers’ children are my responsibility. You must not tie me down.” She could see his face again, an inverted triangle of ivory, with those dark, long-lashed eyes. She was afraid even in her dreams, but tempted. Samon was very strong-willed. And handsome.
When she woke several hours later, she was refreshed, and also resolute. Samon was dead. She, Vinory, must stay alive and clear her mind. That meant banishing the spirit who continued to trouble her.
She felt panic. But knew it at once it wasn’t her own.
“If you won’t, or can’t, go on your own, then I must help you along,” Vinory said, brutally. “It’s only logical, Master Samon.”
The presence sought to get between her and the book chest, but she just walked slap through him, ignoring the psychic shock she got from the contact.
She had seen a spell for setting free a trapped spirit in one of the handsomely made volumes that Samon had scribed for himself. Vinory thumbed through the books until she came to the one she remembered. It was a harsh enchantment. The rebound of the working would be hard on her, Vinory knew, but she would be rid of this nettlesome presence who awoke all sorts of feelings in her that she had no time for. She had what components were needed at hand. The text said the working must be done on Lammas Night. After that, he would be free, and so would she. She felt lucky that she had not come after Lammas. Otherwise, it would be a whole year before she could send him away.
The spirit’s panic was stronger than ever. Then, as she watched, the very pages of the tome turned over one by one, past the banishment spell, to another text. Vinory bent her head to read.
It was almost the same as the first, ridding a place of a troublesome spirit—but by locking it again into human form. The difference between the two spells was only a single word. She looked up involuntarily, as if Samon was sitting there across from her.
“You want me to re-embody you?” she asked. Feelings of joy and hope washed over her, then retreated at once, lest she chide him again for overwhelming her consciousness.
I could do it, Vinory thought, rereading the text. But do I want to? Samon has had his life—he’s led it! But was his work done? Do I dare to make that decision, for or against? I serve Nature. But do I want so strong a man to push me out of my place just before the weather begins to turn?
Perhaps she was not as young as once she was; the thought of sleeping in cold caves and under the brush at waysides now bothered her. You’re getting soft, she told herself. You’re becoming too earthbound.
I was not earthbound enough, the presence felt at her. I lost my hold. It was too soon. Help me! It is my will.
She read the spells again, both of them, hoping for clues to what she should do. The spells lacked reference to the high gods, and took part of her as well as of the one who sought reinstatement in life. Were these evil spells? Would she imperil her soul by performing one or the other? And yet, she had to do something, or the dead mage would drive her insane with his fretting and pleading. Either banish or restore, but she must do one of them, no matter what it cost her. To harvest one must sacrifice, so the Lammas rite went. But did she want this harvest? A mage who was neither good nor evil, and yet neither dead nor alive. And yet, he was a living being, deserving of her aid.
O O O
Vinory’s sleep was troubled by Samon’s entreaties. “I will hold you in honor,” his spirit said in her dreams. He dropped to his knees before her, the dark eyes pleading. “I will give you pride of place, and let you lead in all things, if I may live. Oh, lady, let me through!”
Honor. Samon could see all her thoughts. He knew the turmoil in her mind. How could Vinory hide anything from him? But did he mean it?
“I… I don’t know if I can trust you, Master Samon,” she said at last, conscious even though her body was asleep. “I’m afraid of what admitting you back into life will mean to me. I dare not undo what the gods have done. You should go on to the Summerlands beyond the Veil.”
“Not yet! Oh, I will be kind, lady. On pain of eternal condemnation, I swear it. I will give you all honor.”
“How can I believe it?” Vinory asked. “You’ll say anything so that I will open the Door on Lammas Night and let you through instead of banishing you forever.”
“See for yourself,” he said, taking bother hands between his as he continued to kneel before her. The impishness touched his eyes, and she felt like melting. He was so very handsome. “If I lie, you can take other revenge upon me. To be mortal again has its own discomforts. It will at least be as interesting to stand with you, for fair or foul.”
She took chances; why else would she be a witch and a mage if she was not ready to face the unseen and call the unknown by its name? A challenge like that appealed to her more than any of the blandishments, but she was still uncertain.
“I will think about it,” she promised.
O O O
The candles burned as she swung open the cottage door to allow the night breeze to enter. The villagers of Twin Streams had gone off to enjoy the rest of their harvest night. Now she was left with only one task to do. The spirit of Samon waited at the perimeter of the room, full of fear and anticipation as to his coming fate, for it was tonight or never.
All the materials Vinory needed were
laid out. She lit each one of the candles in turn, praying to the gods that what she was about to do was right. The warm breeze caressed her bare skin as she chalked the circle on the floor and stood inside it. She took up the book and read aloud from it by the light of the candle in her hand. Her voice trembled through the first syllables, then grew stronger, though she felt the pull of unseen forces at the very stuff of her existence.
The golden light broke from the candles at the points of the compass and joined together to form a ring of fire which grew and grew until she was surrounded by it. And then it died away, leaving an arch at the north side of the circle. Through it she could see a shadow. It was a mature man with dark hair and eyes, and milk-pale skin. He smiled at her tentatively. She knew at once that this was Samon. She must send him away or answer his plea now. There was no more time to decide.
“I will give you all my honor, no matter what you decide,” Samon said. He looked hopeful like a puppy who did not dare to wag its tail. “May I come, or must I go?”
He held out a daffodil to her, as a token of the beginning of new things for both of them. At least, it would be an interesting life from now on, she thought. A considerate lover, so the girl had said. He would have to be, to make up for the part of her life the restoration of his life would take. Vinory smiled. For fair or foul.
“Come,” she said, and held out her hand to him.
Halloween