Read Online Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson - Free Book Online Page B

almost done here. Go and warm yourselves, for soon it will be sunset, and we will extinguish all the fires.”
    Dica, who was a skinny little thing and always chilly, darted toward the fire that was burning, Roman-fashion, in a wrought-iron brazier in the center of the room, and Lysanda went after her.
    “You must tell me if they tease you too badly,” said Caillean to Gawen. “They are young, and you are the only boy their age around. Enjoy their company now, for when they have had their passage into womanhood they will not be able to run about so freely.
    “Never mind,” she added, seeing his confusion. “Why don’t you ask Riannon if any of those sweet cakes she was making for the festival were spoiled in the baking? We who have taken vows must fast, but there is no reason for you young ones to know hunger.”
    He was still young enough for that to bring a grin to his face, and as he ran off, Caillean smiled.
    Without light, the hall of the priestesses seemed huge, a cavernous expanse of chill darkness in which the humans who had gathered there could be lost. Gawen nestled closer to Caillean, who sat in the midst of them in her great chair. Through her robes he could feel the warmth of her body, and was comforted.
    “And so the Giants’ Dance was built,” said Kea, whose turn to tell a tale it was now, “and not all the powers of evil could prevent it.”
    Since sundown they had huddled in the hall, and the priestesses had told stories of wind and tree, of earth and sun, of the spirits of the dead and the deeds of the living, and of the strange beings that are neither one nor the other that haunt the waste between the worlds. Kea’s story was of the building of the great henge of stones on the windswept central plain. It lay to the east of the Summer Country. Gawen had heard of it but he had never been there. It seemed to him that the world was full of wonders he had not seen, and never would if Caillean kept him here.
    But just at this moment he was glad to stay where he was. The sound of the wind in the thatching whispered along with Kea’s voice, and at times it seemed to him he discerned a few words. The priestesses said that at this time of darkness powers walked that had no liking for humankind, and, hearing that whispering, he believed them.
    “And so the ogres did nothing?” asked Lysanda.
    “Not quite nothing,” answered Kea, and her voice held laughter. “The greatest of them, whose name on a night like this I will not speak aloud, swore he would bury the ring of stones where we worship the Mother-the one that lies to the northeast of here. One of the lines of power that run through the earth connects us, and this night the folk that live there will be lighting a fire on the central stone.”
    “But what did the ogre do?” asked Gawen finally.
    “Ah-well, I was told that he scooped up a great load of earth and bore it to the circle, but the Lady rose up and stopped him, and so he dropped the dirt in a great pile and fled. And if you do not believe me, you may go and see the hill for yourself. It is just to the west of the ring of stones. We send a priest and priestess there to lead the rites at the equinox of spring.”
    A stronger gust of wind made the walls tremble. Gawen set his hand to the beaten earth of the floor, for a moment certain that the earth itself was shaking to some ancient, heavy tread. And what of the Fairy Folk, he wondered then. What of Sianna and the Queen? Did they ride the wind, or did they keep the festival in some secret place deep underground? Since that day on the lake he had thought of them often.
    “Are we safe here?”
    Gawen was glad it was little Dica who had asked.
    “The Isle of Avalon is sacred ground,” answered Caillean. “While we serve the gods, no evil can enter here.” There was a silence, and Gawen listened as the wind whined round the rooftop and faded away.
    “How long?” whispered Dica. “How long until the light comes back?”
    “As long