by P. C. Cast
I shrugged my shoulders in a nonchalant way. “When isn’t it in my way?”
Before she could answer, a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in!” I yelled.
“My Lady.” One of my warriors stepped into the room. “ClanFintan asked me to tell you the time is now.”
“Thank you. Tell him I am coming.”
He hurried away and Alanna tied my hair loosely back. I set my coronet snugly on my head while she turned back to another wardrobe, from which she emerged carrying a long, drab, gray poncho-like cloak, complete with cowled hood.
“Oh, please. Rhiannon wore that?” Didn’t seem her style; definitely wasn’t mine, either.
“Only when she was going somewhere she didn’t want to be recognized.” Alanna helped me on with the mousy cloak. Then she stood back and surveyed her work. “You look covered.” She sounded satisfied.
“Good, let’s go.” We walked to the door and headed out to the front courtyard. I took her hand. “No matter what happens, get to the river.”
Her frightened gaze flitted to me, but before she could respond we stepped out into a mass of people.
The phalanx had been formed in the courtyard and stretched through the grassy area between the outside wall and the temple. The outermost ring was made up of centaur warriors interspersed with my humans guard. Each of them carried wicked-looking long swords in one hand, and shields in the other. The next ring was made up of men who looked determined but out of place holding various weapons—everything from claymores to daggers. They were obviously the grandfathers, fathers, brothers and sons of the women in the inner ring. My heart squeezed as I watched the women standing quietly. Between comforting babies and watching toddlers, they sent encouraging looks and confident smiles to the men surrounding them.
“Hail Epona!” ClanFintan’s strong voice greeted me, and the phalanx turned, echoing his words.
“Hail Epona!”
My husband reached my side and raised my palm to his lips. I felt very calm as I said, “I would like to bless the people before we go.”
“Of course, Beloved of Epona.” He bowed his head and graciously stepped aside. The temple grew still.
“We each have one life to live, one little gleam of time between two eternities, no second chances, no ‘I’ll go back and relive tomorrows.’” My voice carried like I was speaking into a microphone as it was enhanced by the tangible presence of my Goddess. “Life isn’t about pain or pleasure—it is about the serious business of living authentically, and the magic that can happen between moments—” I glanced at my husband and smiled “—and between souls. Today let us walk boldly and bravely into the light, because just as surely as there are beasts and demons out there, so there is goodness and love in here.” I swept my arm around me in an arch, including all of them. “Epona will be close to us on our journey. Darkness cannot cover a flame, so let us be flames!”
The people answered in a roar that was a single voice. Then ClanFintan stepped forward.
“The phalanx will move out when the Huntress gives word that we have taken our position between you and the Fomorians.” He nodded and Victoria moved to the entrance to the top of the wall, disappearing briefly, then reappearing atop the battlement. “When we are in position, the outer ring of the phalanx will lead you through the temple gates. Do not hesitate. Do not stop. Your single goal is to make it to the river. When you cross it you will be safe. Then we will follow you. May Epona go with you.”
The people nodded and turned quietly to face the temple gates.
“You must put yourself in the middle of them.” He spoke softly to me.
“I thought you were going to lead us.” I knew I had to be brave for my people, but the thought of him being surrounded by the entire Fomorian army was making my chest hurt.
“Victoria will lead you; I must stay with the other centaurs.” He pulled me into his arms and whispered, “I will join you across the river.”
“Please stay safe.” My voice shook.
His kiss was hard and fast. Then he whirled and was gone.
Alanna took my hand in hers.
“Come,” she said.
The phalanx parted, allowing us to move to the exact center where, I was pleased to see, Tarah and Kristianna stood bravely beside Carolan. He kissed his wife and greeted me.
“ClanFintan insisted I stay in the center. He said I must remain safe so that I can save him from Victoria’s needlework.”
I tried to come up with a pithy reply, but in actuality I was relieved when Victoria’s voice cut through the need for any further words.
“The centaurs have left the rear of the temple and are moving out across the grounds.” She was looking intently to the north. “The mares have been loosed.” She paused. “They are in position—ClanFintan has signaled. Begin moving out!” The ring of warriors started forward as Victoria left the wall and galloped to the front of their ranks.
The pace increased steadily as the front of the phalanx passed through the safety of the temple walls. By the time those of us in the center of the phalanx departed the temple, we were jogging.
What had started out as a foggy, rainy dawn was rapidly becoming a clear, warm morning. I was pleased to see the distinct outline of the sun above and in front of us. Please, Goddess, I prayed, let it burn off all of this fog and be a serious hot pain in the ass (or wherever) to the Fomorians. I craned my head around to the left, trying to get a glimpse of the battlefield, but between the last vestiges of the fog and the tight ring of warriors, I couldn’t see anything.
But soon I realized that didn’t matter, because I could hear. Sounds of shrieks and snarls drifted eerily over the treeless temple grounds.
“Keep moving!” Victoria shouted when the women reacted to the noise by faltering in their steady jog.
“Come on.” I took up Vic’s encouragement and called to the women surrounding me. “We’ll be fine—just keep up with the warriors.”
Then the sound of hooves thundered through the dissipating mist, and as the last of the fog lifted, the herd of terrified mares galloped into view. They milled around, white-eyed and uncertain, when they saw us.
“Do you see Epi?” I yelled above the din, trying to pick her out from the sea of moving horses.
“No!” Carolan answered.
Then my eyes widened in horror as a dark, winged shape came into view. Then another, and another. They mowed through the terrified horses, slashing and clawing. Somewhere behind me one of the girls screamed, and that piercing cry carried across the field. I could see Fomorian heads swivel in our direction, and they left off the slaughter of the horses and began their gliding run toward us.
“Forward! Move!” I shouted in my best teacher voice, and our group surged forward. Another screech drew my attention back to the battlefield, and I looked over my shoulder in time to see a centaur warrior chase down and hack the head from one of the creatures pursuing us.
“They’ve broken through the centaur ranks, but the warriors are in pursuit.” Carolan’s voice was grim.
I tried to move forward while keeping part of my attention focused on what was happening behind us. The mares were still panicked, and they milled around haphazardly. More Fomorians were coming after us, but now I could plainly see the line of centaur warriors. They were still battling the Fomorian army, and attempting to pursue single creatures as they broke through. But they couldn’t catch them all. And the dark winged shapes were gaining on us.
“Where is the damn river?” I yelled to Alanna.
“We are not yet halfway there.” Her face was white.
“Huntresses, fall out and arm your bows!” Victoria’s calm voice ordered, and five magnificent Huntresses stepped fluidly out of the phalanx, notching their crossbows as they moved. “Sight and fire at will.” The ping of loosed arrows, and the shrieks of wounded Fomorians followed her words.
“Warriors, shields up!” The ring of men and centaurs around us responded instantly, temporarily bl
ocking our view of the converging creatures.
The first creatures reached the phalanx, and our ranks responded with a violence that rippled through our group. Through breaks in the shielding men, I was able to catch glimpses of single creatures as they struck at our warriors. When a Fomorian fell, another stepped over him and assumed his place.
We kept moving forward.
I saw the familiar figure of Victoria firing off arrows quickly, each finding its deadly mark. Between loading and shooting, her attention suddenly wavered, and she met my gaze.
“Get them to the river or we will be overrun!” she shouted at me. Her face was set in stone and she was already spattered with gore. She was a silver goddess of death.
My attention was wrenched from her as a creature clawed his way through the men in front of us. Carolan pushed me aside and met it with a borrowed claymore. It seemed as if it happened in slow motion. Carolan parried the creature’s razorlike talons, and the thing grabbed the Healer’s sword arm. Ramming himself forward into the creature, Carolan shoved it off balance, and with a sweeping motion brought his sword up, then back and down, slicing through the Fomorian’s exposed neck.
Alanna covered her face with her hands, sobbing, and Tarah and Kristianna clung to each of my hands. I couldn’t take my eyes from the decapitated creature. Neither could Carolan. We stood there, paralyzed in the center of a world of chaos.
Look, Beloved. Understand what you are seeing whispered through my mind, and I blinked in shock.
“There are sores on its body!” My excited exclamation made Alanna uncover her face.
“That is it!” Carolan yelled. “That is why it was so much weaker than I expected. They have the pox.”
And then the suspended moment in time came to an end, and our group was stumbling forward again. More and more dark shapes joined fallen comrades as the warriors struggled to keep their women safe. I could see that the Fomorians were easier to kill—that the disease had obviously weakened them. But there were still simply too many of them.
With a detached sense of calm, I realized that we would not make it to the river, that we were actually still closer to the temple than to the water. Logic said we should return to the safety of Epona’s walls. But we couldn’t, at least not without more help.
Then you shall have more help. The Goddess’s words sounded clearly inside my head.
Through the confused haze of battle, I caught a flash of silver. Not the silver of Vic’s sleek hair, or the pale, dead silver of the Fomorians, but the otherworldly silver of an ethereal mare.
“Epi!” I cried as I saw her circling around our phalanx as she tried to catch a glimpse of me.
Call her, Beloved. Without conscious thought, I obeyed by lifting my fingers to my lips and splitting the air with a sharp Okie whistle.
Epi’s head jerked up in response and she galloped purposefully toward me.
I started shoving my way to her, yelling, “Let her through!” to the warriors in front of me. The phalanx parted and my mare slid to a stop in front of me, blowing hard.
Mount her, Beloved, and see how the Chosen of a Goddess triumphs.
I looked around hastily and found—not to my surprise—Alanna running to join me.
“Alanna! Help me to get up on Epi.” I turned and grabbed a fistful of shining mane.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she took my bent knee in her hands and boosted me up.
“Getting help,” I replied, finding my seat easily. “I want you to get the women and children back inside the temple grounds.”
She started to interrupt and I stopped her.
“No. Trust me—and trust my Goddess. Lead them home.”
She closed her mouth and nodded solemnly. “I trust you. Both of you.” Then she began calling the women and children to her, shouting that Epona wanted us to return to the temple. Soon she had the attention of the warriors. From the corner of my vision, I saw Alanna run to Victoria, grabbing her arm and earnestly motioning back toward the temple walls. I met Victoria’s gaze long enough to nod my agreement, then the Huntress’s voice joined Alanna’s and the phalanx began shifting direction.
I pulled my attention from Alanna and what was happening around me. Instead, I listened to my heart, or maybe, more accurately, my soul.
Look, Beloved.
My eyes scanned the horizon, squinting over the heads of bloody creatures and warriors, turning Epi in a tight circle. As the western horizon came into view, my eyes widened and my breath caught.
Woulff and McNamara come.
The human warriors! A thick line of them stretched across the western edge of the temple grounds. Still far away, the sun bounced off their shields, glinting with a teasing distant beauty. But even as my heart raced with joy, I understood that they were too far away, that they would not make it to us in time. Our group would be overrun. We were trapped between the solid safety of the temple and the liquid safety of the river.
Call them, Beloved. Only you can.
And I knew why I was there. As unbelievable and miraculous as it seemed, I was in that world at the behest of a Goddess, chosen to take the place of a selfish, spoiled woman. Ten years of leading young people had readied me for this job—the people who surrounded me belonged to me. And I to them.
And I needed no further prompting from my Goddess.
Quickly, I drew the drab robe over my head, pulling the tie from my hair with it. Burying my fingers in my wild curls, I shook them until they were electrified, framing my face like a lion’s mane.
Looking around me, I noticed a young farm boy who bravely clutched a claymore.
“Boy!” His eyes were large and round as he looked at me. “Give me your sword.”
Without hesitation he rushed to me, offering the handle of the long sword. It felt heavy and solid in my hand, and with a surprising rush of pleasure I lifted it over my head, squeezed Epi’s sides with my knees and leaned forward over her slick neck. The men around us parted in surprise as the mare sprang forward. As we broke free of the battling group I felt a sliver of hot morning sunlight touch first the shaft of the sword, and then my body, sending an electrified field of energy through me. I glanced down to see the molten fabric of my dress sparkling in the sunlight as if it had been cut from a jewel and faceted by angels for a fairy queen. I glowed with the same magic that had placed the stars in my footprints.
The ground in front of me came to a soft rise, and Epi galloped atop the small hill. Facing the distant line of human warriors, with my back to the battle, I pulled the mare to a halt. With the sword still held high above me, I pulled back hard on Epi’s mane, gripping her sides with my thighs. The mare obeyed my thoughts and reared gracefully up, trumpeting a challenge across the field.
“TO ME!” I yelled, and my voice swelled with the same Goddess-enhanced quality it had had when I called ClanFintan from the edge of the marsh. “WOULFF AND McNAMARA, COME TO ME!” I pulled on Epi again, and she responded with another amazing trumpet as she reared in the air.
Even from there, I heard the voices of the distant warriors rise as one.
“Epona! To Epona!”
Their line sprinted forward with redoubled speed. I swung my sword in a glittering arch as Epi pranced from side to side.
“TO ME, WOULFF!” The passion in my voice vibrated across the field.
Woulff’s warriors growled their battle cry in reply as their line rushed forward.
“TO ME, McNAMARA!” I could feel my hair crackling in the air around me as the cry shot from my lips.
McNamara’s battle cry joined Woulff’s, and they narrowed the distance between us in a charge that would have made the Duke proud.
Then the warriors behind me took up the cry, and I felt the renewed strength of their drive to the temple. Glancing over my shoulder, I was just in time to see a snarling Fomorian descending upon me.
“Epi!” I screamed. The mare spun around, lashing out and catching the sensitive edge of the creature’s right wing in her tee
th. She jerked her head back, ripping the membrane from the thing’s back. The creature shrieked in agony, and was off balance long enough for me to swing the heavy sword down with both hands, slicing him from the top of his shoulder to midway down his chest. Then the weight of its body tore the sword from my hands as the creature fell to the ground.
Almost instantly another creature scrambled atop his fallen companion’s body. All I could do was hold on as Epi’s teeth and hooves flashed in the morning light.
It seemed the mare battled on that small hill for time unending, but my mind knew logically that only minutes had passed before dark, winged shapes completely surrounded us.
“Leave them to me!” a familiar voice hissed. The creatures parted, allowing the blood-drenched figure of Nuada to cautiously approach our hill. “Female,” he sneered, “how kind of you to set yourself apart from the others and to wait so patiently for me.”
Epi stirred restlessly under me. As Nuada glided closer, she squealed a warning at him.
“It seems your friend is not as eager to see me.” He laughed horribly.
“Rhea!” my husband’s voice roared, and I looked up to see him in a flat run toward our hill.
Nuada saw him, too.
“Kill the mare,” he ordered as he turned to meet ClanFintan’s charge. “Quickly.”
The circle of creatures around us hissed in pleasure and began to tighten, like a closing noose. Eyes flashing, Epi spun around, keeping the creatures wary of her hooves and teeth. But our hill had become slick with blood, and I felt a sickening lurch as Epi missed her footing and fell suddenly to her knees. The movement was unexpected, and I could not stop my body’s momentum from the spin. I flew over the mare’s neck, landing hard on the wet ground. A bolt of white pain blinded me as my head snapped against the cold hilt of a sword. Blackness as suffocating as an avalanche washed over me.
* * *
There was no pleasurable DreamLand interlude. Unconsciousness was complete and overwhelming as my conscious mind retreated deep within me, where only the voice of a Goddess could awaken it.
Come, Beloved, you cannot rest yet. He needs you.