“In spiritual matters, you should follow the advice of the king’s most trusted spiritual advisor,” Trystan said firmly.
Rhiannon tapped her lips with a forefinger. “Should I wait for Amren’s concurrence on what I should do with Catrin?”
“With the grave situation here, you cannot wait,” Trystan cautioned. “You must decide now. I’ll explain this to Amren. I am sure he will support whatever decision you make.”
“Thank you, Trystan,” Rhiannon said, more relieved. “Those were my exact thoughts. If you would excuse me, I must speak with Agrona and decide whether to proceed with the healing ritual for Catrin.”
34
Mother’s Betrayal
“There, she can remove demons that are infesting your mind. Be assured, my dear, she will help you recover and train you how to control your raven’s powers.”
With her mind clearing, Catrin first focused on the overhanging wooden beam, then glanced around the room. She wondered why she had been placed in her father’s bedchamber. Images of what had happened to her the last few days jumped through her mind like a pebble skipping over water. At one point Marcellus was holding her in his arms, the next she was blocking Agrona’s attempts to enter her mind, and finally she envisioned eagles blowing flames out of their beaks and igniting a firestorm on her village. Between these nightmares, she traveled to other realms in the raven’s mind—or maybe they were other worlds she imagined. Days and nights merged together. At times, she could not distinguish between the physical world and the land of dreams.
She now realized that she was in the real world. A foreboding cold swept through the room, making her shiver. She lifted her eyes and found Agrona hovering above her. The gray aura surrounding the Druidess was as terrifying as the monstrous eagles she had seen in her visions. When Agrona bared her teeth into a wolf grin, the hairs on Catrin’s neck stiffened like icicles. She twisted and squirmed to escape, but something was holding her down. Lifting her head, she observed leather straps around her legs and arms. She fiercely wiggled back and forth to loosen the restraints, but a strong hand squeezed the back of her neck, making her stop. She couldn’t see who was behind her as Agrona held a cup to her mouth. “Drink this, my love. Soon the ritual will begin.”
When the edge of the cup pressed against her lips, Catrin clamped her mouth shut.
“Stubborn girl,” Agrona snarled. “You can’t resist me forever. It is only a matter of time before you weaken and you are mine.”
The words “are mine” blasted into Catrin’s mind. She hurled her head back, fighting against the hand clawing her neck. When pincer-like fingers squeezed her nose, she gasped. A warrior she recognized as Ferrex clamped her chin between his fingers and pushed the cup’s rim hard against her gritted teeth. Metallic-tasting slime filled her mouth. Feeling as if she was drowning in blood, she sprayed the greenish solution all over Ferrex’s face.
He still held steadfast and clenched her jaw to force her mouth open. The gritty solution flooded her mouth, and she had no choice but to swallow or choke to death. When he took the goblet away, she gulped for air like a fish out of water and coughed violently. After hacking spasmodically for several moments, she finally caught her breath and spat out what was left in her mouth.
“Too late, my sweet,” Agrona sniggered. “I will drop feathers. Soon you will become a raven.”
Panic clutched Catrin’s throat when she realized the elixir was again heightening her senses and making her hallucinate. The dark-wooded walls began twirling like dancing colored balls. The creaks of a door thundered into her ears. She glanced at the doorway and winced when her mother entered, her skin multicolored.
The queen’s voice rang in Catrin’s ears. “Are you feeling better?”
Catrin wanted to run away from the loud noises attacking her ears, but she couldn’t move her legs. She opened her mouth to speak. The words stuck in her throat like scratchy wool.
Agrona’s reply to the queen blared like a battle carnyx. “There is no change. You must let me perform the cleaning ritual.”
The queen’s words echoed in Catrin’s ears. “Do what … what you must … must.”
The first obsidian-colored plume floated down in slow motion, swooping back and forth, and jabbed into Catrin’s forearm. The quill pierced a maggot into her skin. When the slimy creature began crawling into her tissue, she screamed in terror. The horrific creature then slithered into her blood vein.
Another feather dived at Catrin, and she whipped her head back and forth to avoid its assault. This time, the shaft thrust into her nose and transformed into a beak. As more feathers volleyed at her like arrows, she cried out from the pain of razor-edged plumes slicing her skin open.
Adding to Catrin’s horror was Agrona wailing, “I beseech Bel and his consort Belisama to cleanse this cursed woman of all evil things. I command all demons to leave her body.”
When Catrin gaped at her arm, she envisioned them shape-shifting into black wings. Losing grip of all reality, she shrieked with terror, “The raven is stealing my soul!” She then vaulted over a crevasse into a vortex of light to escape, but plunged deeper into the dark essence of her raven spirit.
Loud footsteps startled Catrin out of her horrific nightmare of ravens pecking away at her body, transforming her into one of them. When she opened her eyes, she turned her head toward the direction of splashing water and found her mother rinsing a cloth in a ceramic bowl. Glancing around, she recognized the king’s bedchamber, but was no longer restrained. Fuzzy-headed, she rolled on her side and asked, “What has happened to me?”
Rhiannon stepped over to the bed and kissed Catrin lightly on the forehead. “You have been in and out of a fever.”
Suddenly chilled from the rivulets of cold sweat on her chest, Catrin began shivering and her teeth clacked. “How … how long have I been in here?”
“Three days,” Rhiannon said, wiping Catrin’s forehead with the wet cloth. “You had us worried. You were hallucinating. Can you remember anything from the last few days?”
Catrin tried to remember. “I just dreamt that I changed into a raven.”
“What about before you had the fever?”
Catrin didn’t think her mother needed to know about her sexual encounter with Marcellus. Then the images of Rhan and Agrona from the Wall of Lives flashed in her mind and her chest seized with panic.
“Agrona! Where is she? You need to keep her away from me!”
Rhiannon gripped Catrin’s arm. “Why do you say that?”
Catrin stared at her mother. “Agrona is not who you think she is. She wants to control me.”
Rhiannon smiled grimly and set the washcloth aside. Disconcerted by her mother’s muted reaction, Catrin raised her voice. “Did you hear what I said? Agrona is evil. Rhan lives inside her.”
“Oh, sweet child …” Rhiannon’s eyes lingered on Catrin for a few uneasy moments. “I now understand Agrona’s fears about what is happening to you. Your mind is no longer right.”
Catrin jolted to a sitting position, her mouth flying open. “What do you mean my mind is ‘not right’? You can’t trust what she says. She is a wolf ready to pounce on us.”
Rhiannon’s jaw tensed. “Although I’ve never taken Agrona into my confidence, it is with a heavy heart I must do what she advises. She will help you overcome Apollo’s affliction.”
Catrin gave her mother a bewildered look. “Apollo’s affliction? You are not making sense. What has happened?”
“You were stricken with the falling sickness when the guards found you with Marcellus. When they returned you to the village, Agrona discovered the Apollo amulet around your neck.”
Catrin grabbed at her bare neck. “It’s gone. Did you take it from me? It was a gift from Marcellus.”
“Agrona said that Marcellus used the amulet to curse you with the falling sickness.”
“That is utter nonsense,” Catrin said. “The amulet protects me and I want it back.”
Rhiannon’s eyes glistened with swelling tears. “Why are you fighting me? For the last three days, I have watched you writhe in pain and rant about fire-breathing eagles burning our village and ravens pecking out your eyes. What am I supposed to believe?”
The taste of the bloody potion spewed into Catrin’s memory. She pushed herself off the bed to stand. The walls began to spin around her, and she staggered and bumped into a chamber pot on the floor. Images of Agrona forcing slimy solutions down her throat flushed in her mind. She looked at her mother. “Can’t you see what Agrona is doing? She drugged me. She tried to poison me. I am still dizzy from the awful tasting elixirs she forced on me.”
“That is what she did to calm you,” Rhiannon said, her voice clutched with emotion. “I can see our conversation is going nowhere. As such, I have decided to grant Agrona permission to isolate you at her lair. There, she can remove demons that are infesting your mind. Be assured, my dear, she will help you recover and train you how to control your raven’s powers.”
Catrin’s chest constricted to the point that she could hardly breathe. “No! No! You can’t make me do this. Agrona wants to control me! Why don’t you believe me? Agrona and Rhan are one and the same. She will destroy us if you don’t stop her!”
Rhiannon said with a firm voice, “It was only after Marcellus gave you the Apollo talisman that bad things began to happen. Marcellus is the enemy here.”
“You are wrong about him,” Catrin said fervently. “He did nothing wrong. He tried to help me. Agrona is the enemy. Are you so stupid that you cannot figure out she tricked you? I am perfectly sane!”
Catrin felt her mother’s sharp fingernails stab when she gripped her arm. “Marcellus blinded you to what he is. He gave you that amulet, so he could charm and seduce you. I am now speaking to you as your queen. My first priority is to protect our kingdom from any treachery you pose because of your blind loyalty to him. You have no say in my final decision. Agrona will take you away tonight.”
Incensed, Catrin shot a seething glower at her mother. “You believe me a traitor!” Feeling betrayed, Catrin yanked her arm away from her mother’s grip and stumbled against the wall. Her rage let loose and she ranted, “You can’t do this! I must stay here. You must obey Father’s charge that I guard Marcellus.”
Rhiannon’s brow creased into a deep cleft. “Not any longer. Ferrex is now charged with that duty.”
Catrin felt her chest seize. “What will you do with Marcellus?”
“The same as always. He will be our guest until your father returns.”
Breathing becoming ragged, Catrin rasped, “Will I get to see him again?”
“No. You are not to see anyone except Agrona.”
Fury flamed into Catrin and without thought, she shouted, “I refuse to go,” and slammed her mother into the stone wall.
Her mother crumpled to the floor and went limp.
Catrin froze in shock. What have I done?
When her mother did not move, she hurriedly checked her wrist.
No pulse!
She then placed two fingers on her mother’s neck.
No heart beat!
She pressed harder on her neck. A faint throb. A momentary relief. Her mother’s eyelids flicked open, her brown eyes ablaze.
Catrin jerked back. She had crossed the line of no return. There was nothing she could do to stop her mother’s iron first.
The queen staggered to her feet and pushed Catrin’s shoulders against the wall. “If you do that again, I will strap you until your back welts. If you refuse to go willingly with Agrona, I will have Ferrex tie your wrists with leather straps and cart you off like the beast you are.”
Catrin felt as if her heart was speeding toward a precipice. There was nowhere to go but jump over the cliff. She refused to acquiesce. “I will not go. You will regret putting your trust in Agrona instead of me.”
Rhiannon snapped her head back. “I think not.” She called out, “Agrona and Ferrex! Come in here now and take Catrin!”
Ferrex walked through the doorway, rapping the end of a rope on his hand, followed by Agrona, twisting a black cloth around her hand.
The Druidess sneered, “Ready, my love.”
35
Web of Deception
Catrin warily stepped around the wolf and sat at the table. She asked, “How do enemies think—hide in the shadows and lure the prey into their traps?”
Isolated and locked in Agrona’s musty hovel, Catrin waited for the Druidess to return. It had now been over a week since she had been tied-up, blindfolded, and carted to the ramshackle lair. Bitterness ate away at her like a maggot feeding on rotting tissue. She glared at the dead birds strung together and hanging from the ceiling’s log beams. On the wattle and daub walls were spiders spinning their lattice traps. Shield bugs scurried across the earthen floor only to be eaten by her raven. The only raw emotion she could feel was cathos—a fiery rage burning away to her core. Her father had sold her in marriage to the enemy. Her mother refused to believe the threat that Agrona posed.
Now she feared for her life. Exposed to the Druidess’s skullduggery, she had no possible way to escape with a guard always stationed outside. She had been forced to drink awful-tasting concoctions that racked her brain with hallucinations of fire-breathing eagles. The only respite she had from these nightmares was the dream of Marcellus descending as Apollo from the heavens to rescue her from the firestorm. She felt closer to this foreigner than her own family and also sensed imminent danger to him. She prayed to Epona that he not be harmed.
The door’s click jolted Catrin out of her foreboding thoughts. As she anticipated, Agrona walked through the doorway. When a red wolf with glowing amber eyes bounded behind the Druidess, Catrin’s stomach knotted. She had seen the mammoth creature in her nightmares.
The wolf trailed Agrona to the table near the entrance, sat on its hind legs, and intently watched as she set a copper bowl, several linen pouches, and a beeswax candle on the splintered, wood table. When Agrona turned to Catrin, her green eyes switched to the same amber color as the wolf. Catrin’s heart raced. She knew the Druidess was preparing a potion that would make her hallucinate, but what role did the wolf play in Agrona’s schemes to manipulate her?
Agrona’s lips twitched a wry smile. “Do not let my wolf concern you. Today, we must gain insight from our animal guides. What did you learn from your raven today?”
Catrin, instantly on guard that Agrona was spinning a deceptive web, answered with a cynical bite to her voice, “Nothing of worth, except the raven has a lovely appetite for bugs crawling on the floor. I did enjoy, though, the spiders spinning their webs and eating their victims.”
Agrona snickered and waved Catrin over to the table. “Even the smallest of creatures can teach you something. Today, they taught you how your enemies think.”
Catrin warily stepped around the wolf and sat at the table. She asked, “How do enemies think—hide in the shadows and lure the prey into their traps?”
Agrona lit the candle on the table and the flame illuminated woad-painted wolves loping across her forehead. “That is right. The enemy will entice you … flattery, money, power, whatever you desire. At the moment you least expect, they will snatch you up and devour you. To survive, you must think like them. That is the raven’s lesson today.”
“I disagree,” Catrin said with eyes fixed on the wolf for any untoward movement. “You can deal with enemies without losing your honor.”
Agrona mocked, “Silly girl, is that what you think? You believe you can trust Marcellus. You think of him as a lover and a friend. He blinded you to what he is—a predator.”
Catrin raised her head in ire. “He is nothing like that. He is loyal and trustworthy— not at all like the evil eidolon hiding behind your e
yes.”
“Trustworthy!” Agrona spewed with contempt. “You forget who is enemy and who is friend. Marcellus volunteered to remain as a hostage to reap information out of you. He has used every charm in his bag of tricks to win you over. He lured you to his web, so he could seduce you. I, on the other hand, am your father’s most trusted advisor. You must not delude yourself into believing that I am someone I am not.”
“How can I trust you after you tricked my mother into forcing me to stay with you?”
“That is the point!” Agrona slammed her fist on the tabletop, making Catrin flinch and the wolf’s ears pick up. “You cannot trust anyone. Can’t you see it was your mother who betrayed you, not me? That is why your father asked me to train you because he knew that only through me could you gain full powers from your raven.”
What is your game today? Catrin wondered, studying Agrona’s stone-face. “Why would Mother betray me?”
Agrona waved a hand over the burning candle. “Do you see your mother’s reflection in the flame?”
Catrin gazed at the wavering flame. “I only see mine.”
“Have you ever wondered why your sisters have such divergent features from yours?”
The shift in conversation disquieted Catrin. “My sisters look like Mother. I take after my father.”
“You must surely realize Mor and Vala take after Trystan rather than your father. Now think. Why is that?”
Without answering, Catrin stared at her reflection in the candle’s flame. Her blue-green eyes and pale features did closely resemble her father’s. She nervously looked at the Druidess, whose lips curled into a smug smile.
“You know, don’t you love?” Agrona said. “How could your father possibly seed offspring when he was in Germania fighting for the Romans? Could it be, I wonder, your mother was unfaithful?”
Though Catrin already suspected the truth, she lashed out, “You are lying! Father loves Mother —”
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