The Rings of Poseidon (9 page)

When Beltane came around I was still nursing,
but that did not prevent me from taking part in the fertility
rites. Mind, I took part as much from curiosity as from a wish to
serve the Goddess again. I wanted my share of what some reckoned to
be a pleasure, seeing that my one exploit had been uncomfortable,
public and had ended with pregnancy. The chief of the priestesses
wondered at my sense of duty, but I rather think Nerfin was wiser.
She, however, said nothing.

Later that year I went again to the temple.
The ditches and banks were all dug and already some of the posts
were in place. I learned that there would be a circular building
providing living accommodation for those who tended the temple
itself, which would be an open circular centre to the residential
area. There would be just one entrance to the temple. In the
building were to be the rooms for living, working and learning, for
we already supplied priestesses to most of the bigger villages and
even more were to be trained in the future. I took my daughter Gaïn
with me for the weather was warm and the distance not great, but I
did not stay long.

The second summer after Gaïn was born, when
she was about eighteen months old, I went again to the new temple
and watched as the work progressed. The old high priestess died
about this time and her body was laid out. Before we had decided
what to do with her a local chief died too, and it was decided that
a new tomb should be built for the two of them, marking the
mid-summer sunrise line at the same time. Work on the temple
stopped while a mound of suitable size was raised over the graves.
I was impressed with arrangements when I went there for the funeral
rites. The chief was buried with a cup of mead for his journey and
his two favourite hunting axes. The body of the high priestess was
burned before the remains were interred.

There were not the workers to spare for two
projects in a single summer, so we went back to spend another
winter in the old temple at Durring and to elect a successor to the
high priestess.

The old high priestess had been more than
forty two when she died, and that itself caused us some problems.
She had been in charge so long that many of us had known no other:
many of her potential successors were themselves too old. In the
end the choice fell on Nerfin, though there were several her
senior.

During the spring Nerfin was much occupied
with the question of sacrifice. We no longer sacrificed people as a
matter of routine, but the building of a temple was not routine and
every temple demands its sacrifice. Generally it was said that a
death among those building was a sacrifice and that sufficed. Here
we had a big, new temple and no deaths. Nerfin was faced with the
decision.

We all travelled to the new temple as it
neared completion and I took Gaïn with me. She was walking and
getting into everything now, at about two and a half. I had to
watch the dark haired, rather silent child the whole time . We
camped outside but nearby and waited for mid-summer day. Grass had
grown on the hillock which marked the burial place of the old high
priestess, and a small pile of stones on its top marked the
mid-summer sunrise line. I wondered who had done that. Grass had
also grown on the bank round the temple site.

Nerfin had called a final gathering at noon
two days before mid-summer and I had no doubt she would tell us the
arrangements for a sacrifice at the dedication of the temple. I
wanted to settle Gaïn in our tent before we met but she was not
around. I looked for her in the camp which was not only soon done
but drew a blank. I was only mildly worried, because she was always
into something and this was not the first time she had been lost. I
wandered into the temple complex and saw her across the other side
watching some workmen taking out wooden poles that had been used in
the building without being incorporated into the structure. While I
watched, one of two men handling a long pole let slip his end. The
wood caught Gaïn a glancing blow on the head and she was knocked
over.

I rushed over to where she lay but she was
dead. I couldn't see any damage to her beyond a bruise on the side
of her head. Not even a cut. When I looked up I saw that Nerfin was
amongst those standing round.

"There is a strange but consistent logic in
what the Goddess has seen fit to do." she said. "Gaïn was conceived
at the start of the temple and died at its completion."

Nobody could argue with that. She gave
instruction that Gaïn was to be buried within the boundaries of the
temple itself and there was no further talk of a sacrifice.

As the Goddess willed, so it might have been,
but that did not prevent the tears when I was eventually alone.
Gaïn's death had been so quick and sudden that she could have known
nothing about it. I grieved for her as her mother, will of the
Goddess or not.

The weather that first winter in the new
temple was not cold but I have never seen it wetter, before or
since. Every day from autumn solstice to spring solstice it rained
some part of the day, usually all of it. It rained at Midwinter, so
we burned the log in the hearth and celebrated inside. The ground
in the centre of the temple drained reasonably well but it was
still sodden most of the time and we didn't even dare step on it
for fear of making it uneven when the ground eventually dried.

In March there were high winds and storms,
with rain clouds driving before the wind like sheep before wolves.
We were not unduly disturbed by the storms but some of the low
lying and coastal areas were badly hit. Some places fared so badly
that they sent to us for help, thinking that perhaps the Goddess
herself was angry with them for some reason. Nerfin decided that
she would undertake the journey in person, taking me with her.

We wore hide cloaks that had been smeared
with beeswax and animal fat to make them as weatherproof as
possible but we were still soon cold and wet. Low lying land was
either covered completely in water with trees and bushes poking up
from the stricken areas or wet and marshy with pools of water lying
everywhere. By keeping to higher ground we made reasonable
progress, but crossing rivers was sometimes an almost impossible
problem, and we had to make frequent detours as we made our way
south-west.

We arrived at a cluster of tents and lean-to
shelters with one or two boats pulled up. Below and beyond an
expanse of water marked a river estuary where a fishing village had
flourished. It transpired that the tents indicated the survivors,
but the weather prevented fishing, water prevented planting crops
and most of the animals had drowned. Unless there was a change
quickly life could be very desperate for the remainder.

Nerfin felt that drastic steps were called
for, and ruled that three sacrifices should be made to the Goddess
on the next three mornings. Lots were drawn from among the young
men who went out fishing and three more-or-less willing victims
were chosen. On the day before the sacrifice the victim was given
his choice of whatever the community could offer, then, at supper,
he was given a potion of herbs to make him sleep - a sleep from
which he did not waken!

The first chose a meal and the people went to
great trouble to provide his pleasure. The second chose music when
it was his turn and singers were found among the people. The third
young man shocked and surprised everyone by choosing me. Or rather
he chose to spend his last hours making love to me. I knew well
enough that I had grown very beautiful but I was still flattered,
though I did not admit that.

Nerfin was angry with him. She said that was
hardly what was meant by his choice in the spending of his last
hours. Still, a promise was a promise so she kept her word and as
custom demanded I went to him.

The shelter was well placed and heated by a
fire in the entrance. I went in and looked at him carefully. He was
tall, perhaps as much as five feet, and his hard, outdoor life had
made him hard and sinewy. I had already made up my mind to give him
a night to remember - though, it must be said, his memory of it
would be short indeed. Perhaps better say that I meant him to go to
his sacrifice knowing the best a woman had to offer. It seems he
had similarly made up his mind that I should enjoy my time with
him. I undressed and stood before him. He parted my legs and
worshipped at the shrine of the Goddess. When he took me it was
such sweet pleasure that I almost forgot his enjoyment and delight,
but I put that right times over before he drank the sleeping
draught that night. I was sorry to see him sacrificed, a willing
victim for the people.

Nerfin ruled that we would wait a week before
we undertook any further actions of any sort. In the event we did
not have to wait as long as that before the moon changed, the
weather broke and the wind dropped. Naturally she received (and
took) the credit and we set off back amidst rejoicing.

I was older and wiser this time, and was the
first to realise that I was with child again. I had mixed feelings.
I had grown used to having lost Gaïn and living alone in the
temple. I rather regarded the new life within me as a distraction I
could do without. On the other hand I quite enjoyed being the
centre of attention again. Of course I would do as the Goddess
willed.

I found that Gaïn's conception, birth, life
and death were regarded in some awe, consequently so was the new
life, especially as it too had been conceived in the direct service
of the Goddess. I too was looked on with some respect. Nerfin had
caught some kind of a fever as a result of her journey in adverse
weather and in spite of the better summer conditions, was still
unwell.

Again my confinement was in the depths of
winter. As I knew what to expect I was more afraid of feeling pain
this time but again I had an easy time of bearing a small but
sturdy daughter. These rooms in the new temple were much less
draughty than the old ones and, with the fire banked up and plenty
of rushes to lie on, I made myself comfortable with my daughter. At
the same time Nerfin, who had not really recovered her old self,
was very ill.

Spring came, the weather warmed, Beltane was
celebrated with enthusiasm, my daughter flourished and Nerfin
died.

The priestesses assembled to elect a new high
priestess. There were just four older women left in the temple and
they counselled against choosing one of them on account of their
age, which made much sense. There was then something of a gap. Too
many had gone to villages and settled there while the remaining
women in the temple were about my age or a little older. I was only
in my seventeenth summer, though my word carried more weight than
most and I seemed older. At my suggestion the priestesses were
summoned from the villages and word was duly sent. We waited a full
month to give them time enough to come before we met to decide.

Those who were trained in the way of the
Goddess gathered and we waited the promised month for the further
ones. When we finally met in council there were more than sixty of
us. I explained the dilemma that beset us. I'm not sure why I spoke
instead of one of the others. I was less awed than the others by
the size of the gathering, of course, but I don't see why that
should have been so. There were others my senior who did not wish
to speak to such a crowd. There was some talk but no decision. Many
of those from the villages had settled down and did not wish to
move now: some even had relationships they did not desire to break
up.

Gradually it became clear that the gathering
as a whole looked to me for leadership. I was too young to be the
high priestess. That office demanded wisdom and intelligence, which
I was not sure I possessed in sufficient degree, a certain
eloquence which I had to admit I did possess and experience, which
I was certain I did not. It would seem the gathering thought
otherwise. The other women were impressed by the life and death of
my daughter Gaïn, the events at the coast, my second daughter, Faya
and my persuasive tongue.

So it was that I came to be elected high
priestess and wear the sacred ring at no more than eighteen
summers. Why I sent the ring elsewhere ten summers ago is another
story and I have not told it before. The ring. What is a ring? A
thin hollow circle you slide onto your finger. Precious. I have
seen no other one. One of the oldest women took it from Nerfin's
body and gave it to me, saying that Nerfin had received it from the
last high priestess. Many summers passed and I often wondered about
the thinness and lightness of it. How had the craftsman worked the
stone so thin? What stone was it, hard and light like that? As the
years went by those who had known Nerfin and the old high priestess
died and I did not speak of the ring. Young women came to the
service and this ornament was forgotten.

Then one winter day a traveller came by. It
was snowing hard and blowing half a gale and he was both cold and
lost. It was only human charity to let him rest his horse and offer
him food and shelter. I entertained him at the temple as was
proper. As we sat and ate and drank he watched the ring closely and
asked endless questions about it - how I had come by it, whence it
had come and so on. It was clear that he did not believe that I
knew nothing of its history and cared less.

It was full dark and I was sleeping when I
heard the slightest noise of footsteps and woke to see a shadowy
figure take something from my table. "Who's there?" I called, and
the figure ran. I heard a door slam. I hurried to the door myself.
It was very cold but it had stopped snowing and by the light of the
rising moon I saw a trail of footprints leading to the stable. As I
stood there I saw the traveller leading out his pony. I don't know
why, but as he mounted I bent down and gathered up some snow into a
ball and threw it. As he swung up onto the pony, the snow caught
him full in the face and he slipped backwards. The pony bolted and
he bounced along behind it on the ground.